Knoxville to Santa Cruz, Road trip cross country with my 914 Options

[Ian Stott]

Is your teener engine stock? I'm curious about your temps, as that is a much hotter part of the world compared to where I live. Enjoy your trip and thanks for sharing.

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

[poorsche914]

Glad to hear your trip has been (mostly) uneventful. And I agree about Arkansas roads - some of the worst roads I have ever experienced (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[SirAndy]

And I agree about Arkansas roads - some of the worst roads I have ever experienced

Dunno about that. From my experience, Kalifornia roads are much worser ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon8.gif)

[DBCooper]

Krusty, you know KPIG? I'm impressed, I had no idea you were so well rounded!

Know it? Before it was KPIG, the guys were "Overall Radio", a sat station in the hills behind Morgan Hill/Gilroy, before that they were KHIP, "Headquake Earthquarters" in Hollister, and KFAT before that. Always too much, my brothers, always too much.

We have KPYG down here ....................

The Cap'n

OK, I didn't know you spent time up north. When I left the country it was KFAT, when I came back it was KPIG, I missed in between. I thought it was just a local treasure, happy it's gone beyond.

[JStroud]

What a great drive, and then going to a great job, and doing it in a 914....how cool is that. Your going to love the weather in Santa Cruz, lots of nice roads.
Your trip takes you through Albuquerque, there's a 914 friendly shop there if you need it....hopefully not.

I'll be doing almost the same drive but in reverse, going to Albuqurque then to Atlanta Texas, then back....but I'm waiting for better weather.

Enjoy the drive, hope all goes well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

Jeff

[BritCarJim]

Glad to hear your trip has been (mostly) uneventful. And I agree about Arkansas roads - some of the worst roads I have ever experienced (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

while i will agree, i'll say that the first time i drove across arkansas and noted from the interestate signs that just outside little rock there is a place called "toad lick park" either the roads made more sense or at least i had more sympathy for the folks who had to drive them daily. jeez.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

BritCarJim

[Mike Bellis]

I did that drive from San Francisco to Memphis in a Baja Bug with no heater in the winter.

God speed my friend...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) I guess this could be a "trial by fire". If you can't make it across the country in a Porsche, maybe you shouldn't work as a Porsche mechanic... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[hot_shoe914]

Glad to hear your trip has been (mostly) uneventful. And I agree about Arkansas roads - some of the worst roads I have ever experienced (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

while i will agree, i'll say that the first time i drove across arkansas and noted from the interestate signs that just outside little rock there is a place called "toad lick park" either the roads made more sense or at least i had more sympathy for the folks who had to drive them daily. jeez.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

BritCarJim

That would be Toad Suck Park and the Toad Suck lock and dam. A lot of fun during Toad Suck days.

[CG-914]

Thank you all!

I might have to go to San Jose first because luckily I can stay with friends of friends for 3 days so I can find a place. So if anybody knows about a room for rent please PM me... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I have two spare belts with me now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

I made it tonight to Albuquerque. Technical difficulties are non, but now we have the gas problem. Since Oklahoma the is no good gas anymore only 91 or even 90 instead of 93. It makes the car run horrible and also the cylinder head temp is going up...
The VDO Cyl #3 gauge is driving me nuts. It is very difficult to hold at 375.

So I assume there is also only 91 in Cal so I need to do something about it!:
My thought, because I never ran into something like that, is that I should change the timing? Less advanced? Any tricks how to set the timing best with one person in that small access hole and holding it at 3500 rpms, pressing the light, plus turning the dizzy?

[Mike Bellis]

Your car should run on 91 just fine. Maybe you picked up some bad gas? Put some Seafoam in the tank and see if it helps. You could try to retard just slightly. That may help too. Do it by feel, use the Force...

[SirAndy]

Your car should run on 91 just fine.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

I ran my 1.7L on 91 CA gas for years without any problems ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[VaccaRabite]

Drive in 4th to keep air flowing over the cylinders. Always keep the engine tunring at least 3K.
Reduce timing a degree at a time. Under timed can also ause higher head temps.
how are your oil temps?
good luck! Iam loving this thread.

[CG-914]

Tonight I stopped in Kingman AZ, because I did not wanted to get stucked at night in the desert if something goes wrong, because not just the weather was bad today.

The temperature was still not down, the cylinder temp was still up.
It was at 390 - 410 after considering the setting of the VDO gauge...

130 miles till CA on I-40 suddenly the oil temp gauge started to jump back and forth and settled past the red area and the cyl temp jumped up too, I pulled over and let everything cool down and the drive continued as before.

I have a stock displacement 2.0 with euro pistons set at 8.2:1, a 9550 cam, 40 Webers and a Mallory distributor set by Chris.

The engine is a fresh rebuild and was set at 27 degrees.
That of course changed a little after the different octane,
from there I set it to 32 and then 30 and after the situation back to 27

The oil temp is always below a 1/3 (factory combination gauge)

Any ideas? need help (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[VaccaRabite]

I don't know the geography.
Has your altitude changed significantly? Up or down?

If up, you may be jetted rich on the carbs. If down, you may be jetted lean.

Why did you increase timing? Moving timing forward will usually create more power but also more heat - as you learned. Are you getting pinging at all? Try 26 degrees tomorrow.

[CG-914]

I will try 26!
The carbs where set at ca 2500 feet.
Since Texas I should be around 5000 feet and flagstaff was 6500...

[Jmedeiros]

Great pictures! Hope the heat exchangers are keeping you toasty in that rainy, snow on the ground weather! Safe travels & let us know when you get here! We're trying to pull together a regular breakfast meeting on Saturday mornings here in San Jose.

[billh1963]

I admire you driving your car all that way. Your picture of the snow, rain, and slush on your windshield is a classic. Very few 914's see rain these days...let alone those kind of conditions.

I am curious how well the heater and defroster are working and how well how your electrical/charging system are keeping up with the load. If you get a chance tonight please give us an update.

[JamesM]

Couple things to think about

1. The VDO gauge varies with ambient temp, so if the climate has changed so will your reading.

2. Your engine is not going to cool as well at higher altitudes as there is less air to cool the heads with. Not much you can do about that.


When I moved from So.Cal (0 FT) to Utah(~5000 FT) I noticed freeway head temps incrase, moved back to cali for a while and they went back down again. Made me nervous as hell driving for 7 hours straight back to cali with with the heads creeping over 400 but the engine took it just fine and is still running great 10 year later.

Given that the VDO head temp gauge can be off a bit and the fact that there may not be much you can do about it, you might have to just do your best to ignore it and push on. Of the three 2L engines that I have, 2 of them push 400 on long freeway drives at altitude, have not found what makes the 3rd run cooler yet but i do not think it is tuning related as all 3 pass smog every year with the same numbers.

Recently I have found that running LOWER octane gas brings the head temps down some. Stock 2.0s run just fine on 87 around here, not sure what you can get away with at 8.2:1

[BritCarJim]

Glad to hear your trip has been (mostly) uneventful. And I agree about Arkansas roads - some of the worst roads I have ever experienced (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

while i will agree, i'll say that the first time i drove across arkansas and noted from the interestate signs that just outside little rock there is a place called "toad lick park" either the roads made more sense or at least i had more sympathy for the folks who had to drive them daily. jeez.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

BritCarJim

That would be Toad Suck Park and the Toad Suck lock and dam. A lot of fun during Toad Suck days.

hmm. "frog lick" or "toad suck," i can't imagine why i flubbed that! still not sure what all of THAT is about either way... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

either way, i'm enjoying hearing about the trek. i agree that the reported temps are frightening, i'll be interested to see if you decide there's a problem or not or what.

[montoya 73 2.0]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)