Well, the blue Corvette is back on desert sand, and has been de-salted.
What a week! Started with the usual mad thrash before leaving..Thanks
to Dale Clay for real quality help here..And an uneventful trip to the
salt. Thats where the wheels started to come off (figure of speech)
Friday: When I went to put up the driver window in the tech line, I
noticed the fuel pump quit running (brand new pump, naturally). After
tech, the Vette went up in the air and a quick diagnosis proved the pump
was probably dead. Pulled it, shook it and bits of metal fell out..not
a good thing. Saturday: To make a long story short, drove 13 hours to
Reno and back to get a new pump. Car fires up & life is good again. So,
with the aid of crew Dale Clay, Ken & Rose Bond, and wife Linda, we set
out for the start line. About 5 hours later we made it to the front. Got
the Vette aimed in the right direction, turned it loose & all was well
until about = way between the 4 & the 5, at 225 mph Thats when the
fan decided it had enough and went through the radiator. We got back to
impound with only 45 minutes to work on the car so it was down & dirty:
JB Weld and stop leak (and Brad Johnsons ice bags). Sunday: Let it set
up over night, and the hole we patched held..BUT we discovered another
large hole in the upper right hand corner with = hour to leave impound.
Ken & Rose dashed off to Wendover for more patch stuff as we left for
the start line at 7 am. We put ourselves last in line and began to pray
for delays. No such luck, everything proceeded smoothly. With 4 cars
left in line in front of us, Ken & Rose arrived with the epoxy. Slapped
it on and duct taped over the area and waited for nature to take its
course. About 20 min. later, while I suited up Dale & Ken poared in the
water and it held! With the go signal from the starter, I fired it &
floored it. I got a misting on the windshield all the way down but the
temps held, and the 222.xxx run put the Vette back in impound for record
cert. That done, we figured we had used up about all our luck good &
bad- and we decided to lay back a bit. When the fan came apart, a piece
of it got into the oil pump drive and chewed the belt up a bit but it
held too. I had a spare belt, and could have gotten another radiator
from SLC, but by then I was wasted mentally & physically. Sorry this was
so long but it proves Dahlgrens comment that if it was easy, the
freeways would be littered with 200 mph Pintos It also proves that not
only is good help hard to find, but its priceless. I couldnt have done
it without the help of Dale, Ken & Rose. Many thanks! The rest of the
week is a million more tales, but Ill save that for another post.
Ed
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