Antihero's Rampage Across America!!!!

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

Darnit, this is a section of the board I never visit so I missed you coming to town (you were here during Pridefest BTW). 

Fun trivial, those Vision wheels were mine several years ago.  A buddy of mine had them in his tire shop but they didn't fit his ancient Civic so I traded him some 15" Honda Si wheels for them.  I used them on my CSP Miata driving to and from events and when I sold it two years ago they went with the car.  The guy who bought said Miata was looking to recoup some cash and resold the wheels to Robert and when Robert came by one day in the Rampage I saw them on it.  I think they looked better on the trucklet than they ever did on the roadster.

Good luck out there, it sounds like you have some decent skills for sorting out any future gremlins that pop up.

Damn, I'm sorry I missed you.

I really like those vision rims on the Rampage the seem just so......right

Antihero said:

JohnInKansas said:

Antihero, you have DM with my contact info.

I didn't get it but if you'd like to email it to me directly you can hit me up at antiheroeric83@gmail.com 

Done.

In reply to Antihero :

I'm sorry that you're getting hit with so many issues... I'm guessing if I'd driven it more I'd have encountered them myself, but with only really running it around town every so often and at the Challenge the last two years it just wasn't running enough at length for some of these gremlins to decide to rear their heads. 

I hope you're able to find a replacement valve cover gasket... when I first got the car and wasn't sure of the engine's integrity I did some searching to find a replacement head gasket and no place in town carried them... hopefully the valve cover is a bit easier to come by!

EDIT: Oh, and the Bass Pro Shop is pretty cool. Fun Fact: you almost certainly drove by, if not stopped in, the town eastsideTim's and my alma mater is located in- Rolla, MO- on your way to Springfield. 

Waitasecond... is this the pyramid Bass Pro Shop we're talking about, because neato. I drove past it during our move, and it looked amazing.

effing Wal Mart.  I've run into that issue with them on tires before.  Anymore I just bring them the wheels off the car and tell them what size tire to put on them, and not to give me any lip.  Or, you know, find an indie garage.  

Hope the valve cover gasket solves your issue.  

This was my "latest thread page" just now.  

JohnInKansas said:

Antihero said:

JohnInKansas said:

Antihero, you have DM with my contact info.

I didn't get it but if you'd like to email it to me directly you can hit me up at antiheroeric83@gmail.com 

Done.

Thank you very much!

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

I'm pretty sure we stopped for gas in Rolla actually.

According to AutoZone it'll be here tomorrow for the princly sum of 17 bucks. It gives us a day to play tourist around here, which is just fine by me, Bass Pro Shops is amazing, and the aquarium sounds great as well.

I know I'm driving much longer distances than you ever did , no worries.

volvoclearinghouse said:

effing Wal Mart.  I've run into that issue with them on tires before.  Anymore I just bring them the wheels off the car and tell them what size tire to put on them, and not to give me any lip.  Or, you know, find an indie garage.  

Hope the valve cover gasket solves your issue.  

It's dumb. I told the manager that 205 50 16 wasn't the stock size at all anyway so why did it matter if we put on 205 55 16s on it instead?

He mumbled something about corporate policy and such so I changed them in the parking lot. Used the Ginormous Slicks as place holders for a bit....wow do they ever look wide on this car lol

I mean....valve cover gasket shouldn't be that much of a problem but since tightening it slowed the leak down incredibly it's my best guess so far. Valve cover gasket isn't too hard too so we will start there

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

I may want that rampage too lol

You can order the part for pick up somewhere along your route. That's what we did when we needed an alternator on our Semi-Epic Road Trip with Powar's 6.2 Suburban from KY to ABQ and back to Chicago. 

Roni sitting at the hotel.

My mom used to say that cars had genders. Male cars wouldn't have any problems til one day they would explode spectacularly and female cars would have all sorts of little problems and want you to pay attention to them a lot. Roni is a girl.....and 80s diva girl so I named her Roni, pronounced Ronny but more 80s and girly lol

There was a wire connectivity issue that I rewrapped in tape to give it a better connection.....and it didn't work. So I pulled the tape and borrowed my wife's little hair clip thing for testing. Works perfectly, no problems what so ever. Rewrap it in tape....nothing. Just clip the hair clip over the top ....works great.

Apparently Roni wanted something pretty and refuses to run without it.

Cooter said:

You can order the part for pick up somewhere along your route. That's what we did when we needed an alternator on our Semi-Epic Road Trip with Powar's 6.2 Suburban from KY to ABQ and back to Chicago. 

There is an AutoZone within walking distance of the hotel so I had it sent there. They said it'll be there tomorrow

Mike said:

Waitasecond... is this the pyramid Bass Pro Shop we're talking about, because neato. I drove past it during our move, and it looked amazing.

I'd doesn't really look like a pyramid so probably not.

This one is almost half a million square feet and the bartender told us the end goal is Disney World of the outdoors

Since I can't believe it hasn't come up yet.

RevRico said:

Since I can't believe it hasn't come up yet.

Actually I posted it on page 3 lol

I love Archer and may be driving my wife nuts with that quote too

Antihero said:

Cooter said:

You can order the part for pick up somewhere along your route. That's what we did when we needed an alternator on our Semi-Epic Road Trip with Powar's 6.2 Suburban from KY to ABQ and back to Chicago. 

There is an AutoZone within walking distance of the hotel so I had it sent there. They said it'll be there tomorrow

Note:  There are two different styles of valve cover gasket (well three, but we won't talk about the early stamped steel ones.  Ever.) the early ones have a 4-piece gasket with rubber end pieces and cork main sections.  Getting those to seal requires complete cleanliness, RTV and luck.  The later cars (which you might have since its an 89 engine) have a 1-piece rubber gasket that is much easier to deal with.  You still have to make sure the surfaces are clean, but there's much less luck involved.

Either way, watch out for the vacuum lines and PCV parts on the back side of the valve cover, the corner bolts are 13mm and require a deep socket (after pulling the timing belt cover which is held in with 10mm nuts).  The middles are 10mm bolts.  Make sure the threaded holes in the head is clean as some have cracked the corners due to a build up of RTV.  Don't over tighten them and go around in a circle a few times to pull the valve cover down evenly.

Good luck!

pull the valve cover, if it has a groove all the way around it's a one piece and all you need to do is dab some rtv in the corners where the humps over the cam are and don't overtighten.  If it has grooves on the end and just flat surfaces on the front an back, it's a 4 piece set, toss the cork pieces and use rtv and the rubber pieces in the grooves in the humps.  I've never had a one piece leak so I'm guessing its a older style.

Good info guys, thank you.

Do either of you know the torque specs for the valve cover? Usually I just do "tight" but I want to make sure

In reply to Antihero :

"tight" lol. I know there is a torque spec but don't know what it is.  I'm guessing it's in inch pounds.  Start from the middle and work out in a clockwise pattern like you would with head bolts so you don't break the cover.

The engine is out of an '89 LeBaron, and is the 2.5L Turbo II engine- it should be the 1-piece gasket. Looking through my emails I'm not seeing that I ever got one from RA, so I have not idea just how old the gasket is.

Antihero said:

Good info guys, thank you.

 

Do either of you know the torque specs for the valve cover? Usually I just do "tight" but I want to make sure

Like 1/4" stubby ratchet snug.  So yeah, like maybe a few ft-lbs, more likely to be in in-lbs.

In reply to Antihero :

I forget whether I've ever seen an actual spec or not. I'm guessing the old repair book doesn't have it, and if it does it would be for the older original engine and not the one in there...

Antihero said:

volvoclearinghouse said:

Subscribed.  I'm a sucker for long, one-way drives.  

300 miles a day is easy.  We did Baltimore to Pheonix with an 18 month old averaging 400 a day.  We finally settled into a good pace about Day 2, which mostly meant starting early, and stopping for the day at dinnertime.  This also allowed us to relax and unwind with a few beverages before sacking out for the night.  

We never were organized enough to make reservations; mostly we just plunked down wherever we happened to land.  If you wind up in some small-ish town for dinner and ask around, they'll usually recommend good places to stay.   Sometimes that's a Super 8; and sometimes its a cool little private hotel with loads of character.  

Drink lots of water and eat light.  And take lots of pictures of each other.  

I booked thru hotels.com so all of them are free cancellation in case the trip goes differently then planned. So we aren't quite as well planned as it seems lol. I'm also staying out of spending the night in big cities, I'd rather stay in Springfield than St Louis. I think the biggest city we are staying in is Casper after Lexington

 

6 hours seems about right, I've done 8 and a half at once and it was a bit much.

I've found it can be important to measure the day's driving in time, not miles. We try to stick to a 3 hour driving time. You wake up, have breakfast, drive, stop for lunch, drive, then get to the motel, and relax before dinner. If you measure in miles, this could be a 7 hour trip. Mountains and big cities are huge time sucks. Awesome trip though! (starts talking to wife about future road trip)

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Why am I always worried about how much water is going on the carpet?