DeTomaso Mailing List: May 2001, Message #2

Well,
This was a week to remember!!!!

Headed out of town Tues am, missed the gang by moments 
and motored on. Bottomed out the Goose at subsonic speeds 
on our wonderful roadway.... Luckily this was the only 
occurance of this the whole week!!!  Only managed to 
slightly bend the new block shield I installed. Nothing 
major.

At about 20 miles into the trip, going with the flow, I 
get a rear mirror full of lights... red & blue....   "How 
fast were you going?"  "I don't know, just going with 
traffic to keep from getting run over!"  "Didn't you see 
me??"  "From down here, your front grill looks like a 
truck officer....your lights are way above what I can 
see!"   
"sign here....."      Later I find out that my speedo is 
actually pretty close to accurate! Only fast by about 
5MPH at rolling speeds!  Crap!  Off to $chool for this 
one....  Judges like stories, they just don't like 
stamping not guilty on the records...... "It's your 
responsibility to know how fast you are going....... with 
or without a speedo cable....."

Hook up with two other members about 10 miles down the 
road... 
catch up with the rest up in the Sierra's at a fellow 
members house for lunch! Fantastic view and meal!!!

Off we go..... uneventful but gorgeous drive into Bishop, 
CA for eve. Dinner, snooze, roll out in the morning....  
Nobody 
told me to gas up...  Thought I had 3/4 tank... but was 
parked ever so slightly downhill.... ended up with just 
over a half tank once we got down the road!!! Did some 
gorgeous passes, dry gluches, twisties....  Had me 
puckered up for more scraping, but didn't!! Phew!

Sqweeked into next stop for gas/lunch on fumes. Guess I 
was getting pretty good mileage at sub triple digit 
speeds.....   Blast into Vegas and arrive at about 1:30 
for cold beers and set up the Club Store!  Register 
later, there's beer warming up!

Party......

Next day, cleaned large bugs off of windows etc. Missed 
wife at airport, she took taxi.... communication 
problem... and one 
damned big airport with plenty of opportunities to keep 
people from finding each other....... did she go 
clockwise or counter....?

Found wife.... more beer..... more party.....

Party.... dinner..... 

Friday, get up late....too much party... and just getting 
used to the whole idea of NOT having to get up for a 
damned thing!
Eventually rolled out to the track in time to catch the 
parade laps at noon! Payed and proceeded to burn any and 
all of the tits off of my new tires, that the trip down 
hadn't done already.... Wife thought the track was a 
hoot!

Back to hotel to cool down wife..... it was hot..... did 
I mention the 
F-118's and other assorted cool crafts flying right 
overhead to an adjacent runway!!!?  Or the occasional 
Nascar car cackling into the infield tunnel of the big 
track!?

Wife has her tubines back to speed, so we hit the Hoover 
Dam for a look see. It's close. It's BIG!!!  If you have 
vertigo, it's NOT something to hangout on, at least on 
the south edge..... wow!

Back to he hotel for more cold beer!!!!  Dinner.....

Saturday- off to get car set up on Fremont Street. Where 
do I get to park?? Why in front of the only nudie club on 
the Fremont strip.... the Golden Goose!! How fitting!!!! 
Goose in front of Goose!!! HAH!!
Attend POCA meeting for chapter rep's... get handed large 
wad of raffle tickets.... surprise!  Hey! That wasn't in 
the bylaws I read......

Located wife.... fed slot machines...talked shop with 
Paul, ONLY other Goose owner that showed up with his 
car...  (His car has the amber sectioned rear lens' that 
someone was commenting about... they look nice!).....pull 
car off of Fremont street. Should have gotten gas.

Rescued more beer from warming up.....  get ready for 
dinner... sell more tickets..... buy more tickets....

Dinner is good! Did awards for track winners. Raffle 
turns out OK. Second or third ticket is mine.... bag of 
misc... but there is brake fluid.... don't have this in 
car! Good deal I tells myself.  Couple of draws later.. 
another of my tickets comes up!  However, item is a 
goodie bag of PCNC items that I already have (except for 
the cup I'm later told.....) so we turn it back in.... (I 
don't think they put that ticket back in the 
bucket.......)  Few more draws and I get another 
winner!!! Can you say beginner's luck!!!  But do I get 
the shocks that I could really use??????   
NOOOOOOOOOO......  I get ANOTHER PCNC goodie bag.......  
Turned that one back in...... put the ticket back in.... 
I need shocks.... daddy needs a new pair of shocks......

Well, no more winners for me, however, at least three 
other tickets that I sold WERE winners! Two at the table 
and one right next door!  Go figure!  Nobody one 
shocks....   But we did get a BIG floor jack! We all 
laughed and joked about this one!!!

Dinner dispersed, saved more beers, and eventually called 
it an early nite, packed bags up and schlepped everything 
but what we needed to carry in the A.M.   Got gas.  Had 
one more drink and some BS.... 

Checked out in the AM, checked oil level, OK. Ready to 
roll!  Couple of slight delays for personal items... on 
the road... but the wrong way...  OK, it was just a 
"different" way... then came the wrong way thing.... 
small tour of Vegas streets... some cursing and wild ass 
moves...back on the road...finally.  Shortlived as talk 
on the radio speaks of smoke from one of the rear 
cars..... we all pull over,  6-7 vehicles.  Stinky 
plastic smelling smoke.... like electrical..... remove 
bulkhead to see better.....AC comp. is cocked and belt is 
jambed... way hot and damaged.... cut it off.... back on 
the road in moments.....  Thanks to Anita for walking 
ahead while we were working, and pulling all the "road 
gators" off of the median!!! They could have been hell to 
play with!

Uneventful drive into Barstow, except for my fluctuating 
oil pressure! Lost it on one stretch up a hill but it 
popped back as soon as I backed off.... press on the gas, 
watch the needle drop..... coast... watch it rise!  I was 
atributing this to the 10-30 that everyone told me was 
too thin..... Have a high volume pump, so wasn't too 
worried....
Someone is running down about 1/4 left in tank, so 
executive decision is to stop in Barstow and not try to 
stretch to Four Corners. 
Pull into gas station, lift hatches, pump gas... pull 
dipstick check oil... looks good.... until I hear... "Hey 
Steve, is that leak coming from your car or was that from 
the guy ahead of you???"   "Leak???"

Look under the car and see a LARGE black puddle forming, 
oil streaming down from oil pan.....  "What's up with 
this...????"

Dust puddle with oilsoak and paper towels, push car to 
"only shade in Barstow!"  (not that bad....!)  Stream of 
oil leads right to my car now..... none on way in to gas 
station??????

Lots of discussion...... then I's remembers.... "we have 
a floor jack in the gang!" In no time at all, the assend 
of the Goose was in the air, and two white legs were 
sticking out.....  thought maybe my oil lines had 
loosened or something....nothing that simple....  found 
about a 8-9 inch crack across the oil pan, side to side, 
in what was supposed to be a stiffening "Vee".  Thru an 
ice bucket under the dripping, and tore the oil pan off. 
Gaskets were fresh just a week and a half ago, so no 
tearing or problems... pan came off nicely.  Emtied oil 
into ice bucket and another jug that had held water... 
(Thanks again Larry!!! See prev. lurker post....)  wiped 
out mess to reveal crack..... not pretty....

If only we could find a Ford fanatic, we could steal a 
small block oil pan/pickup, and be on the road in no 
time!!!  Well folks, we be in Chebby country out here... 
Plan B.

Had one bystander offer to fetch a welder ( I guess we 
were drawing a crowd....never seen a white boy stickout 
from beneath a car like that before 'round here...)... we 
never saw him again.... but thankfully a second guy 
(Greg), had a buddie that just happened to roll up in his 
396 Chevelle. Buddie Dave turns out to be a welder of 
sorts... and has brazing rod and tanks about five minutes 
away!  Off me and the pan go with Dave. A little bit 
later, there's a good layer of brass in the bottom of the 
pan.... accenting the other brass that I had put there 
previously.... did I mention that this pan was history 
before this journey started????? It just didn't know it 
yet!!!!
Back to the station.... rest of the bunch was chilling 
and having lunch. I cleaned out the large balance of the 
big chunks of hardened flux and proceeded to stuff the 
pan back in place, with Roger Sharp feeding me nuts and 
bolts as needed, plus the occasional tool. Larry forgot 
to mention the bit about the Lady and the toilet 
paper.... I didn't/couldn't see it as I was under the 
car, but heard our group just a hootin and laughing!!  
Seems that a lady had come out of the service station 
office/store/restrooms, with one mighty long piece of 
toilet paper still firmly attached to her person!!! She 
proceeds to stroll across the lot, TOTALLY unknowing, 
paper in tow, climbs into the car and slams the door on 
the paper... now the car is continuing the show by drivin 
off with toilet paper slammed in the door, streamin' 
away.....  Sounds like it was worth $10,000 to me, but no 
one had a video camera handy......!!!
 Once pan is in place, Roger reinstalled oil, I did final 
tighten on pan.... dropped car, checked level, added only 
two quarts and fired it up! Rock steady oil pressure and 
no drips! Woofed down a burger that my lovely wife had 
fetched me, inhaled a beer and a quart of water.....

I'm now thinking that this SOB (Not you Bill!!!) had 
cracked on the way out of Vegas, and due to crank case 
vacume, held the oil in the engine.....up the hill, when 
I punched it, I created a larger vacume that sucked air 
in, and with 10 qts in the system, it had enuf weight to 
hold the air at the bottom of the pan... where it got 
sucked up by the pickup!!!!  Makes some sense... as I 
can't explain it otherwise, and I had rock steady 
pressure all the way home, save for some decrease due to 
thinning at higher temps...... As the drive cooled down, 
the oil temp dropped and pressure returned.

NB: Buy 20-50 and install before next Vegas trip.  Don't 
forget new oil pan too.

Thanked Dave and Greg profusely, gave them all the beer 
money that they'd accept.... away we go!

On to four corners... or as Larry said, "four miles of 
hell" for most of our cars.....  Had one, that couldn't 
take it. Looks like the radiator cap let loose.. steamed 
all the water out, or at least as much as our "back door" 
driver would allow.   BS time... wait for things to cool 
down.....  added water to system via overflow tank... not 
happening..... eventually got the pressure tank open and 
CAREFULLY added 6-8oz of water at a time until we got it 
full and fired it up....spooged out of tank... ouch!!! 
That was hot!!!!  Burns are Ok today....  bled out 
radiator.... away she went!!!

Now walk back to my car..... starter turns motor over 
like all getout.... no fire!  EVENtually, it fires and 
away I go.... not sure what is up with that..... may have 
boiled gas out of carb?????????????????????????????  
(Tried to start car whenst I got home, after I had turned 
it off to open the garage door...same thing.  Tried it 
today cold and did not want to fire either!!!!  Had spark 
and definitely had gas! Will need to check this out... 
may have toasted "start" circuit somewhere.... sorta acts 
like when you let off on switch that then it catches and 
starts..... Normally she would fire right off, no 
hesitations......)

Down the road.... notice my fan lamp is no longer on.... 
temp is OK, so not worrying, traffic is moving fine.  
Heater fan lamp will not come on either...... hmmmmm. 
Shut switches off.  Later turn fan switch back on and fan 
lamp is OK now.  Heater lamp indicator too!  Hmmmmm 
something in common here....  (at end of trip, in garage, 
I shut the car down and the fans kept running.... 
hmmmmmm, "this is new!"  Turned off the switch and fans 
quit.  They used to shut down with the ignition 
switch.... something is short circuited here....  may all 
be related........  Prince of Darkness strikes again????)

Balance of trip up I-5 and across into the Santa Clara 
Valley is uneventful thank goodness!!!!  

Arrived home at about 9:30PM, had left at about 
8:30AMish....  Odometer shows just shy of a 1400 mile 
trip (Minus my 5mph/60 error factor.....)  Still have 
about an 1/8th tank of gas... from Buttonwillow!  Must be 
pulling 14-16mpg!!  Still have to calculate it out.....

Checked under the car this afternoon, not a drop of oil 
from the pan or the ZF and no water puddles on the 
floor!!!! WOW!!! What a concept!!!  If I can't fix any of 
the other problems, I finally fixed the leaks!

Wife had a great time!! She didn't mind the ride in the 
Goose!  Actually it's comfortable for me too! (Will have 
to fix the AC.......)  We'll do this again!!!!!

Got my list going for next year already!!!!

Time for sleep.....
Steve