Sunday, February 8, 2015

Goodguys Preparation - Morning Drive

This morning I went for a 60 mile drive on a small highway which heads out of town.  It is through the country and has some hills and twists to the road.  The drive was primarily on the highway to see if I would have any trouble or find anything which needs to be addressed before the Goodguys trip.

The drive was great with no trouble at all.  It was nice to get it on the highway and just enjoy driving it.  I drive it around town and enjoy that too but just end up beating on it more than I probably should.

I kept it around 72 mph the entire drive which placed me at around 2,200 RPM in 5th gear.  The temperature was a nice 65 outside and the engine never went above 180 degrees.  The oil pressure started off around 65 lbs. cold and dropped to 52 lbs and stayed there once it warmed up.  The engine seemed a little rich at first in the high 12:1 range but by the end of the trip it was in the low 14:1 range.

It was a little windy but otherwise it was perfect driving weather.  I'm not sure if the need to correct direction slightly every now and then was due to the wind or because I need an alignment.  I've ordered some hex tube to replace the tubing on my strut rods which was damaged during the last trip to the alignment shop.  I intend to find a better shop and get an alignment after installing the new hex tube.  It's bad but I've not had an alignment since performing the Arning drop.

My plan was to test out the Dynamat but the quarter window kept sliding down the track due to window roller which broke yesterday.  The loud drone from the exhaust seems quieter with the Dynamat.  However, the wind noise made it hard to tell how much it improved.  I also wanted to tell if I could hear the radio clearly at highway speed but with only two rear speakers, the wind noise from the quarter window killed testing that out.

Regardless, it was a nice drive on a Sunday morning.  I'll need to do it more often.


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