trip

[cyclops@mindlink.bc.ca (cyclops)]

well, due to a temporary lack of sanity i decided to travel from vernon
british columbia across the wilds of canada to toronto and return. all in
the middle of winter and using my 86 5kcdtq.  i have read of listers who
seem to have lots of misfortune with expensive repairs, but mine has been
really easy on the wallet. during the trip i would cross three time zones
each direction. for the trip outbound i left vernon on saturday 28 feb and
arrived in toronto monday evening 2 march. i had covered 4,087 kilometers
with no car problems. after doing business in toronto and area i departed
toronto at noon on 10 march and arrived in vernon at 12:30 pm (toronto
time)on the 12 march. thats about 4000 km with a door to door time of ~48
hrs. i thought that it was pretty good for a solo driver. i did have minor
problems on the return trip though..... worst was that in -30 deg c weather
the thermostat failed and left me with no heat. i packed the rad with
cardboard and managed to keep the cabin warm. the other problem was that the
drivers side windshield washer stopped working. i think it's something to do
with the check valve but couldn't check further because of the cold. the car
had no noticeable oil use.......it's synthetic. i noticed that fuel quality
had a major effect on performance and on the return trip only used 92
octane. all engine stumbling and power loss around 300 rpm were corrected
just by using better gasoline. there were some interesting things happen on
the trip... at one spot i had to do 180 kph to avoid a nasty situation when
cars i was overtaking decided not to be passed, and there were oncoming
vehicles! i saw a herd of 10 mountain sheep, two cariboo and lots of deer.
at night the moon was so bright that i could have driven without headlights.
my head is still a bit buzzy from the trip but if there's interest i could
give a report of the 8000 km.
btw the business trip was so good that i'm moving to the toronto area.
mike
86 5kcdtq