Folks,
OK, so I'm back in Chicago. Drove the TR6 from Libertyville, IL, to Dayton,
OH to Wilmington, OH to Cincinnati, OH and back to Libertyville. I tended
to keep the car at around 70 MPH but there were a couple of bursts up north
of 80. Drove the vast majority of the trip with the top down, what a great
time! The car ran great with only a couple of nagging problems and a bit of
fear over the oil pressure.
I found that the front end gets very light and bouncy anytime I go around a
turn at speed on uneven pavement, even on the interstate. Seems like new
front shocks are in order. I also find that I need a new starter solenoid.
Had to take out a wrench and smack the solenoid a few times every time I
started the car. Its done this a few times in the past over the 5 years
I've been driving the car but it picked this trip to decide to fail every
time I attempted to start the car. The people I met at the gas stations and
rest stops found it pretty humorous. I'd get in the car, turn the key
(nothing would happen), mutter mild expletives under my breath, pop the
hood, reach in with a wrench and smack the solenoid a couple of times (clank
clank clank), close the hood, hop back in the car, start it up and away I'd
go.
I stopped in Wilmington, OH. to visit an old high school friend. This guy's
a doctor now and he drives a BMW M3. We took his M3 out for a spin with me
at the wheel. This car went like stink. Seemed to go from 0-60 in a
heartbeat, back to zero in the second heartbeat and the only sound it made
was a kind of whooshing noise. Very refined car. We then switched to the
TR6 with my friend at the wheel. For all I know he's still grinning :) The
BMW may accelerate faster, stop faster, have a higher top speed, handle
better and, in general, outperform a TR6 in every way but the BMW just
doesn't have the same grin quotient. Still, the BMW was a fun car to
drive...I'll take one if somebody offers me one :)
Once down in Cinci. I pretty much just kicked back. Didn't make it to the
show on Sunday, hope it was a good show.
Also learned a few lessons worth passing on to anyone else who's never taken
a long trip in one of these cars.
1) When purchasing snacks on the way out of town with an expected high
temperature of 85-90 and a plan of driving with the top down for 4-5 hours,
chocolate bars are the wrong choice. When I got hungry, all I had was
misshapen bags of soft chocolate goo.
2) Get your hair cut before leaving on the trip. Honest to god I think by
the time I was done driving on Saturday, my hair hurt!
3) When purchasing snacks for the trip back home, cookies are also not the
best choice. Believe it or not, I bit into a cookie and the crumbs flew up
into my eyes, nearly causing me to have to pull over.
4) A bottle of water, left on the floor of the passenger side, will get hot
enough to brew tea if left there long enough.
5) This one hurt: Never, ever attempt to open the trunk of your car while
you are also in the process of fueling it. Managed to get away without
chipped paint but had to spend 15 minutes reassembling the fuel cap. Yeah,
I know, stupid thing to do but...
6) Sun screen is our friend. However, it takes 30 minutes to start working.
7) Bring lots of spare parts because if you don't you'll need them and if
you're like me and you do bring a bunch, you won't need a single one of
them.
8) If you've never taken your TR6 on a road trip...do it.
OK, now to the oil pressure issue. About 45 minutes into the trip I started
panicking because my oil pressure, while normally hovers around 75 PSI at
3000 RPM was down to 50 PSI at speed and about 10 PSI at idle. I pulled off
and phoned a couple of 6-packers to get advice. Greg Donegan advised me to
press on, saying that my gauge readings were fairly normal for an engine
with 73,000 mile on it. I drove on. By the time I'd been on the road 2
hours, the pressure was 35-40 PSI at 3000 RPM but it never fell below that.
What I found was that the longer I drove at speed, the further the pressure
would fall until it eventually stopped at 35-40 PSI. If I slowed down,
stopped at a traffic light and idled for a bit, the pressure would jump back
to 50 PSI at speed for a while before settling back to 35-40. Seems odd.
Only thing I can think of is that slowing the car to an idle for a bit would
allow the oil to cool down some, thus allowing the pressure come back up.
The other oddity is that the the oil pressure at idle never varied from 10
PSI regardless of the pressure at speed. So the difference between pressure
at idle and pressure at speed varies wildly based on how hot the car is. I
replaced all the crank bearings a couple of years ago so, they're probably
ok. Not sure if I've got a problem or not. Any input people have on my oil
pressure and whether it should worry me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again to everyone who encouraged me to take this little trip, it was
a tremendous amount of fun. I'd do it again in a second.
Phil Beckman
Libertyville, IL
73 TR6
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