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I went from Philadelphia PA to Sandpoint Idaho via London ohio for the Cobra show. Prior to the trip I had almost everything set for the A/C system to be running. Of course I happened to be leaving just as the massive heat wave hit the east coast. So it was a little over 100 degrees with crazy humidity I decided i needed the ac asap. I needed the lines run and a charge otherwise everything was installed. I went to the place to have the lines crimped and have the system charged. Guy turned out to be a total jerk and said it would take him 4 or 5 days.......So I decided to run without A/C. After scrambling around the night before the trip and getting everything packed. I was sweating profusely. It was way too hot. Driving inside the car was at least 10-15 degrees hotter then outside temperatures, simply because I wasnt getting enough air inside.
I have the russ thompson rear windows but they dont open that well when you have kirkeys and roll bar padding. So I threw some air conditioning tubes on the roof, as horrible as they looked they provided some much needed air to the inside of the car. I packed everything up including a large bag of various tools and a floor jack. We set off the friday of the London cobra show to catch the last two days. Mark Dougherty told me for the most part spares would be relatively easy to find if I had a problem. I should however bring a FAST fuel pump and filter as they are difficult to come by. Which of course I forgot to bring. I had 3 dogs to bring and 4 people. One of which would be meeting us in Ohio on sunday night.
The 480 mile drive to London went very well. The air ducts did a fantastic job of bringing 100 degree outside air into the car and behind the seats. We drove until about 100 miles outside london where traffic came to a dead stop. I do not have a shroud on my radiator so when I'm in traffic the car gets hot pretty quickly. We sat in the traffic which was inching forward. Of course the car gets hotter and hotter and I reach my shutdown point. I pull over and let it cool for the next hour. I also removed the condensor from infront of the radiator to help with air flow. Because it still wasn't hooked up to anything. This seemed to solve the problem. I stayed at the show for 2 days until my friend arrived I picked him up at the airport and we set off. I planned on him being my co driver for the remainder of the trip. I'm not really comfortable with anybody driving the car. This friend seemed like my best bet though. He has a bit of a background with performance cars and seemed like he would take it easy. He got in my car and immediately told me he had never driven manual before....He also complained about my seats and how uncomfortable they were.
So he rode for the first tank of gas and was appointed to lead driver of the suburban. I allowed my other friend who's father has a contemporary classics kit from the mid 80's to drive for me. We drove 24 hours straight. The suburban acquiring 2 speeding tickets along the way. About 12 hours in the car began to develop a weird kind of misfire around 3000rpm it would lean and richen up at random. Eventually we made it to billings Montana. The misfire was so bad that the car would hardly run. I rolled it into a gas station and popped the hood to see what the fuel pressure regulator was indicating. I usually run 43psi and it was at about 20 jumping all around. The car would not start. We had 600 miles to go and we were stuck. Then while trying to start it over and over something went funny in the starter motor and we tried bump starting it a few times. At this point one lady asked why i had such a fancy car and didn't know how to drive it. Then getting mechanical advice from people that had a buddy with a cool car, and told me about how I did everything wrong and their buddys car could kick mines ass. It was late and I was tired so I called AAA and had it taken to the hotel. I spoke with Mark and we came to the conclusion that I needed a new fuel pump. I was kicking myself for not bringing an extra. We awoke the next morning and I went to napa to try and find something that I could use temporarily. I figured the chances of finding a FAST fuel pump was pretty slim. Napa had nothing and I got back in the tow truck and he pointed me in the direction of a shop that might have what I was looking for. We took it there and put it up on the lift. the Mechanic and I went to the local performance shop. I told the guy what i was looking for and showed him the old fuel pump. He didn't even walk 5 feet and picked a black box that said FAST on it. I couldn't believe it. We went right back popped it in and we were off. We took off right into the hottest weather we had encountered. It was 110 degrees outside....It felt like and oven. We then got into some wet weather just outside Missoula and I discovered a significant amount of water coming in the passenger side rear wheel well just behind the seat. I discovered this after listening to my passenger complain about a wet behind. We opened up a pretty significant lead over the suburban during the last 130 miles and I showed up about 50 minutes ahead of them.
The car started the journey with 800 miles on it and it now has 3500. It was loud, hot, and exhausting. BUT! I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I have the russ thompson rear windows but they dont open that well when you have kirkeys and roll bar padding. So I threw some air conditioning tubes on the roof, as horrible as they looked they provided some much needed air to the inside of the car. I packed everything up including a large bag of various tools and a floor jack. We set off the friday of the London cobra show to catch the last two days. Mark Dougherty told me for the most part spares would be relatively easy to find if I had a problem. I should however bring a FAST fuel pump and filter as they are difficult to come by. Which of course I forgot to bring. I had 3 dogs to bring and 4 people. One of which would be meeting us in Ohio on sunday night.
The 480 mile drive to London went very well. The air ducts did a fantastic job of bringing 100 degree outside air into the car and behind the seats. We drove until about 100 miles outside london where traffic came to a dead stop. I do not have a shroud on my radiator so when I'm in traffic the car gets hot pretty quickly. We sat in the traffic which was inching forward. Of course the car gets hotter and hotter and I reach my shutdown point. I pull over and let it cool for the next hour. I also removed the condensor from infront of the radiator to help with air flow. Because it still wasn't hooked up to anything. This seemed to solve the problem. I stayed at the show for 2 days until my friend arrived I picked him up at the airport and we set off. I planned on him being my co driver for the remainder of the trip. I'm not really comfortable with anybody driving the car. This friend seemed like my best bet though. He has a bit of a background with performance cars and seemed like he would take it easy. He got in my car and immediately told me he had never driven manual before....He also complained about my seats and how uncomfortable they were.
So he rode for the first tank of gas and was appointed to lead driver of the suburban. I allowed my other friend who's father has a contemporary classics kit from the mid 80's to drive for me. We drove 24 hours straight. The suburban acquiring 2 speeding tickets along the way. About 12 hours in the car began to develop a weird kind of misfire around 3000rpm it would lean and richen up at random. Eventually we made it to billings Montana. The misfire was so bad that the car would hardly run. I rolled it into a gas station and popped the hood to see what the fuel pressure regulator was indicating. I usually run 43psi and it was at about 20 jumping all around. The car would not start. We had 600 miles to go and we were stuck. Then while trying to start it over and over something went funny in the starter motor and we tried bump starting it a few times. At this point one lady asked why i had such a fancy car and didn't know how to drive it. Then getting mechanical advice from people that had a buddy with a cool car, and told me about how I did everything wrong and their buddys car could kick mines ass. It was late and I was tired so I called AAA and had it taken to the hotel. I spoke with Mark and we came to the conclusion that I needed a new fuel pump. I was kicking myself for not bringing an extra. We awoke the next morning and I went to napa to try and find something that I could use temporarily. I figured the chances of finding a FAST fuel pump was pretty slim. Napa had nothing and I got back in the tow truck and he pointed me in the direction of a shop that might have what I was looking for. We took it there and put it up on the lift. the Mechanic and I went to the local performance shop. I told the guy what i was looking for and showed him the old fuel pump. He didn't even walk 5 feet and picked a black box that said FAST on it. I couldn't believe it. We went right back popped it in and we were off. We took off right into the hottest weather we had encountered. It was 110 degrees outside....It felt like and oven. We then got into some wet weather just outside Missoula and I discovered a significant amount of water coming in the passenger side rear wheel well just behind the seat. I discovered this after listening to my passenger complain about a wet behind. We opened up a pretty significant lead over the suburban during the last 130 miles and I showed up about 50 minutes ahead of them.
The car started the journey with 800 miles on it and it now has 3500. It was loud, hot, and exhausting. BUT! I would do it again in a heartbeat.
