As some probably remember, I am going to start working for Canepa on Monday .
This morning I left my home to drive cross country with my 914.
Besides the alternator belt popping of the trip went great. Sadly that problem cost me some time, because I had to realign the alternator....

Tonight I already had to stop in Arkansas shortly before the border to Oklahoma even though todays destination was Oklahoma City! But tomorrow I wont miss the Arkansas roads !!!



Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Wow, what an adventure!

When you get to California, coming up 5 north, than 152 west to Gilroy,
Make sure to take Hecker Pass Rd. thru Gilroy on the way over to the coast.
The twisties and the scenery are outstanding.
Safe journey, Chris

It might be faster to head north to San Jose and go over Hwy 17 than drive along Hwy 1 through Watsonville and Santa Cruz! It depends on where you are going to end up! If you are going to Scotts Valley and it is not rush hour, you can save an hour or more! If you are stopping on the SC side of the hill it can be 50/50 depending on the time of day!

The southern rout can be a fun drive but if it is rush hour it is all a mess!

Have a great trip. My best friend worked for Bruce. He said he was a great guy and the shop is top notch. Last time I drove my tenner that type of distance I went from Gainesville Florida to Montreal. Our cars are fantastic on long trips. All the best out west!!

Good luck on the trip,

If you get ahead of schedule, getting off the freeway around Kingman, AZ and driving the portion of Route 66 that goes through Oatman is a nice Road.

Once in CA and going up I-5, State Route 198 from Coalinga over to Highway 101 is pretty fantastic too. I think it drops you on 101 between King City (to the North) and Paso Robles to the South.

Once on 101 you are only a few hours from Scotts Valley and Canepa, what a great job! Congratulations

Jonathan

Thank you for all the wishes!
So far I doubt I have time for small cool detours but I will try!

I will post more tonight

Highway 17? More like accident alley, and the traffic is frequently stop-and-go. Do the Hecker Pass thing. As you pass through the Watsonville/Freedom area, get that stereo tuned to The Pig, 107 oink 5 on your radio dial. Welcome to CA!

The Cap'n

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

I thought everyone knew the Pig. Highway 17 has traffic and 152 (Hecker Pass) has slow moving vehicles, it’s just a roll of the dice…

Well ..... John is round!

Ask Bruce if you can take one of his 959s out for cars and coffee one Sunday!
Marty

My Mom lives in Santa Cruz and as long as you are not driving Hwy 17 before 10:30am or after 3:30pm it is a quick drive! 25-35 minutes from the bridge in Los Gatos to Hwy 1 in Santa Cruz so Scotts Valley is less than that! Hwy 1 through Aptos to Hwy 17 is always backed up because Hwy 1 is under construction from Soquel Avenue to Hwy 1!!

Just saying.......

But days from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm and nights along with very early mornings is when Cal-Trans goes to work…

SCCA event down at the Marina on Sunday. Not far from SC and 15-20 minutes from Watsonville / 1.

There's a PCA autocross at the Marina airport on the 23d. There will be several 914s there. At least two yellow cars, mine and a fast one.

Catch up on the event at axaddock.com

Which is why you want to avoid known construction on Hwy 1! Hwy 17 construction is random pot hole stuff!

If you are not in a hurry the southern route IS nicer and more fun!!

Great road trip!

Sounds like you laid over in Ft. Smith or Van Buren last night.

If I'd seen in time yesterday, I'd have suggested the Days Inn in Sallisaw (cheaper) & Wild Horse Mountain BBQ for supper or grab-n-go lunch for today!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/wild-horse-mountain-bbq-sallisaw

Grab another fan/alt belt to keep with you, if you haven't already as a back-up. I always kept a spare & a set of spark plugs with me on 914 road trips.

Have fun !!!!

I've done the exact same drive, in a 914, going from Oakland CA to little Rock AR ...

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

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

Glad to hear your trip has been (mostly) uneventful. 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 ...

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.

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.

Jeff

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.



BritCarJim

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

God speed my friend...

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...

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

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...
I have two spare belts with me now

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?

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

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...

I ran my 1.7L on 91 CA gas for years without any problems ...

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.

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

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

Click to view attachment
[/quote]


lovin this shot right here

Did he make it?

i assume if he blew up, melted the heads, or wiped out into a snow drift he would have posed pictures.

I guess I could drive over to Scotts Valley and see if he showed up for work! :-)

Sleeping in San Jose, working in Scotts Valley, and then looking for his own place to stay he’s probably just busy…

Hey!
We need some closure over here!

Cornelius.....................Please pick up the white courtesy phone in the lobby.....when you get a chance.

Hi everybody, I am very sorry about the long long long ,and so on, delay!

I arrived and work is good. With driving from sunnyvale to scotts valley every day was a long commute and looking for a room and handling work I took my time for sleep and looking for more adds for places.

I found my own place finally (not dirty and ugly and too small for a good price).
Then I was fighting with comcast that they get my internet running, which as you can see now finally works.
So now I am posting again

The car is running "ok" now.
I run it at 25 degrees and it is running up to 350 on flat areas.
Up hill in the mountains it runs up to 375 and often I have to shift into 4th or even 3rd..
it has a little hesitation around 3 - 3.5 rpms
And the carbs are still not perfect

Work is great
Worked on:
68 911 race car
73 rs light yellow black stripes
73 rs black red stripes
2 959 silver (almost complete disassembly)
67 Ferrari 330 GTC dark blue
etc

Will post pics of last travel etc in a second...

The charging system worked great after I had to fix it the night before I left TN.
Still the handbrake and blinker light are flashing though

The heat was not hooked up to a coat and thick socks had to do it…

The derost worked pretty good on cold air though!

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment