Mike,
Sorry to hear about Carly. Sounds like she's got my car, Christine's,
old radiator! In fact, I had an identical thing happen to me a month or
so after I bought Christine. I decided to take the opportunity to
upgrade to an unleaded head while I had the head off anyway.
Once she's up and running, I guarantee you won't let her boil dry again
though! I survived over two years with a leaky radiator, and never had
any problems after the first "incident", until my mechanic happened to
mention that he had a used one, less than a year old, lying around that
he'd supply me for less than half the price of a new one - and he fitted
it for free while he was doing some other work, too (otherwise I'd have
fitted it - it's really not difficult!)
Pity you couldn't even break down anywhere nice - Watford Gap is a bit
of a dump, isn't it! But it wsan't you I stopped to talk to on the M40
on Saturday.... Anyway, good luck getting Carly fixed - there's plenty
of good times ahead to wipe out the memories of the bad!
Dean
-------------------
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 07:45:31 +0100
From: Michael Hargreave Mawson <OC@46thFoot.com>
Subject: Re: Weekend travels
In article <FE00D5C74363AA4E9C0D729F801A464A0F39EA@EULON-
MSMBX01V.corp.enron.com>, Dashwood, Dean <dean.dashwood@enron.com>
writes
>All in all, an enjoyable weekend - and proof that your Spitfire can be
>relied on for long-distance journeys as long as it's looked after.
>
Dear Dean,
Very glad to hear that you had a great weekend. Here's the summary of
mine...
<snip the happy parts!>
Next stop Richmond, where I stayed until Sunday morning. I had driven
up with the speedo needle around 72 mph, the temperature gauge had never
gone higher than the middle, and when I filled up on Sunday morning, I
discovered that I had achieved 39.4 mpg.
Given that Carly had behaved so well on the journey up, I forgot all my
qualms about the ticking noise (which had disappeared), and the
fragility of old cars, and bombed back down the A1 and M1 with little
regard for my speed. After the first hour of driving, I discovered
that my speedo must be reading a little low. I had been keeping the
needle under 80 (apart for one short blast to see how fast she would go
with the top down - answer, 95mph), but averaged 82mph... One hour
later I noticed that the temperature gauge was creeping up, and then,
whoosh! - there was a wet explosion from under the bonnet, and I was
pulling in to the hard shoulder. I soon discovered that the overflow
tank for the radiator had, um, overflowed...
I waited for her to cool down, topped up the radiator, checked the oil
(which also needed a top-up), and then tried to get her started again.
She was *not* happy, but eventually she went. Clouds of white smoke
poured out of the exhaust, and I was fairly sure I'd blown a head
gasket. I nursed her along the motorway until I reached the next
services (Watford Gap), called the RAC, who turned up within ten
minutes, confirmed my diagnosis, and relayed us back to Bedford.
Carly will be back on the road by Friday (with a bit of luck), with a
brand-new head gasket, and I feel sure will be happy to do 200 miles at
speeds in excess of 80 mph for the foreseeable future.
ATB
- --
Mike
Michael Hargreave Mawson, author of "Eyewitness in the Crimea"
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