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[T3] 06 Invasion thoughts and trip report


Im back in Albany,
And back to the real world of work, housework and a lawn that is 3 feet tall
:)
First off, best wishes to Anne Hall for a quick and successful recovery, so
sorry to hear of your mishap, bummer that your trip has to end with a trip
to the hospital.

The trip out was the eventful part, as a 15 year old engine with over 100Kmi
on it starting having a couple things loosen up, all was fine till Omaha
when a ratty tat tatt was quickly diagnosed as a fan housing bolt that had
backed out into the fan, and the realization that there is a couple places
that loktite would have been a better choice over antiseize.  Thankfully
Russ knew exactly the process to remove the fan and housing without taking
the exaust off and within 2 hours we were off again!  Hint... an additional
dab of RTV in the bolt recesses will keep them from backing out if they
loosen up :-)
	30 miles later one of the fresh air elbows fell off and fortunately
Russ saw it and got me pulled over right away, a passing semi flattened the
original but Jim A had one with him so I was set again, after installing
them PROPERLY this time, the are CLAMPED to the rear heater boxes with the
thin clamps, and I had put them on wrong 15 years ago and when things got
disturbed the old rubber joint was not enough to hold it all together.  
	All was fine again till an intermittent miss under load for 2 days
finally left me on 3 cylinders pulling into Winnemucca NV. One of the spark
plug ends had burned the resistor out and the tell tale spark jumping
between the coil center and side terminal the night before should have told
me that there was an excessive gap to jump somewhere.  Jim had one and
again, off we went across the desert.  
	The Desert was more than my old engine was ready to take, at least
at 70MPH when it was 103 in the shade.  Ive noticed that my car runs
approximately 20F hotter at altitudes of 4-5K feet.  The gas mileage is
around 4 MPG better because of the thin air so the engine isn't working as
hard but it is running hotter, and an indicated 220F at the oil cooler
outlet resulted in heads running too hot and started the exaust valve in
losing all its clearance in around 1Kmi.  This is about 20F hotter than it
has ever run steady state.
	The rest of the trip the car ran fine and the weather was cooler.
Fortunately Jim Adney encouraged me to check my valves (which hardly ever
moved before)and I caught the sinking valve before it could have caused more
serious problems. It has sunk at least .018 by the time I reached Cincinnati
and I still have to check it again now that im home.  Im thinking I have the
same problem Jim did with an annealed valve seat, if it were a streaching
valve it probably would have broken by now.
	The invasion itself was fantastic!  Brian really put together such
an action filled event that I had to be late to dinner so that I could fit
in a quick trip to the Laundromat :)  The cruise to Crater lake and the
Redwoods were really beautiful, the park setting for the gathering was the
perfect backdrop for such a wonderful gathering of Type 3's! It was great to
see folks again and and meet new ones.  A final thanks to Martin for
bringing me that nice western sheetmetal for my 65, and for the awards. The
invasion was the highlight of my year!
	Seems I have to calculate my gas mileage now and check the valves
again, more to report tommoro. Ive washed the oil off the engine so maybe I
can see where its leaking from but it isn't leaking badly enough to be a
problem.
	Whew!  What a great time!

Keith


Top Notch Restorations
topnotch@nycap.rr.com 
71 Squareback
65 Notchback "El Baja Rojo"
65 Squareback "Eggcrate"
87 golf "Winterat"
93 RX7 "Redstur"

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