hineas
03-25-2022, 11:36 AM
We finished the mechanical build and got the car registered back in December. We took it out for its first street drive just over a month ago.
I built the car with my brother and he lives 300 miles from my house. We built it at his house. The last 6 weeks my brother has put over 400 miles on the car, but the longest drive was about 70 miles. It was my turn to take the car so I rode the train to his house and drove the car back to my house.
Before we drove we change the oil since we were at almost 500 miles. With the car on jack stands I checked the bolts and nothing has moved and everything was tight. We were ready to drive back to my house.
There is a mountain pass between our houses and it gets to about 8,000 ft in elevation (a low pass for my area). There is no cell reception through that pass so my brother drove his BMW behind me just in case something happened.
The drive was amazing. We have the 347 with TKO-600 and 3.55 rear end. The forum convinced me to swap out the 5th gear to the 0.64. All I can say is that it was the best advice I have received on the car. 5th gear was perfect. Going 65-70 mph I was at 2100 rpm. Even the steep, long hill climbs were nothing for the car in 5th gear. It just purred going up the hills. Dropping down to 4th (or even 3rd) to pass a car was amazing and I only gently gave it throttle.
The second piece of advice from this forum convinced me to go with power steering. The steering was perfect, so thank you for changing our minds! I was amazed at how tight the steering is and how responsive it is. This car goes exactly where you point it. Also, with the increased castor the car wants to drive straight.
During the drive there was a 100 mile stretch of interstate with a speed limit of 80 mph. The wind wasn't nearly as bad as I expected at 80-85 mph. The car was stable and felt great. 5th gear ran at about 2400 and it wasn't too loud at those RPMs.
I was also pleased with the mileage. I didn't get this car to worry about mileage, but I'm happy with how well it did. Over the mountain pass driving 65-70 mph with 3,000 ft elevation gain and occasional mild spirited driving my mileage was 19.1 mpg. Driving 80-85 on the interstate my mileage was 17.7 mpg. Not too shabby for such a big engine.
The temperature ranged from mid 60s to the mid 40s. I was warm in the mid 40s with just a hoodie while driving 80 mph. The only part that was slightly cold was my left elbow. The heater and seat warmers worked amazing well and meir me warm.
We did run into one issue during the drive. The engine temp was running at 82-85 C (180-185F) during the trip, which is perfect considering it is a 180F thermostat. We stopped and gassed up. We then moved the car for a picture. After the picture the car wouldn't start and after a few long cranks it finally turned over and ran rough for 20 seconds and then calmed down. I backed the car up and there was a big puddle of coolant. We popped the hood and it was just pouring out the expansion tank. The dash gauge showed a temp of about 115 C (240 F). We then noticed the electric fan wasn't running with the engine off but the key on (it normally does if it is at temp). We checked the EFI LCD screen and the EFI coolant sensor had failed in the low position. The fan probably shut off while driving but the air flow is more than adequate at high speeds. It was just an issue for around town driving.
We reprogrammed the EFI to have the fan turn on at -30F. This turned the fan on and kept it running at all times. Our engine temps on the dash then stayed right at 80C. This was enough to get us home. The car drove perfectly after that and the temps stayed great even at slow speeds. Now I just wait a few days for the special order temp sending unit to arrive...
I am glad we had my brother drive behind me in his BMW 650i. That made dealing with the car much easier. We ended up going to store while letting the car cool down. We bought a tool kit for the car. We also bought electrical tools to keep in the car just in case we had to hard wire the fan.
All in all the 300 mile drive was enjoyable and the car was amazing to drive. I can't wait to drive it more!!!
164500
By the way, the puddle in the picture in front of our cars is not from us...
I built the car with my brother and he lives 300 miles from my house. We built it at his house. The last 6 weeks my brother has put over 400 miles on the car, but the longest drive was about 70 miles. It was my turn to take the car so I rode the train to his house and drove the car back to my house.
Before we drove we change the oil since we were at almost 500 miles. With the car on jack stands I checked the bolts and nothing has moved and everything was tight. We were ready to drive back to my house.
There is a mountain pass between our houses and it gets to about 8,000 ft in elevation (a low pass for my area). There is no cell reception through that pass so my brother drove his BMW behind me just in case something happened.
The drive was amazing. We have the 347 with TKO-600 and 3.55 rear end. The forum convinced me to swap out the 5th gear to the 0.64. All I can say is that it was the best advice I have received on the car. 5th gear was perfect. Going 65-70 mph I was at 2100 rpm. Even the steep, long hill climbs were nothing for the car in 5th gear. It just purred going up the hills. Dropping down to 4th (or even 3rd) to pass a car was amazing and I only gently gave it throttle.
The second piece of advice from this forum convinced me to go with power steering. The steering was perfect, so thank you for changing our minds! I was amazed at how tight the steering is and how responsive it is. This car goes exactly where you point it. Also, with the increased castor the car wants to drive straight.
During the drive there was a 100 mile stretch of interstate with a speed limit of 80 mph. The wind wasn't nearly as bad as I expected at 80-85 mph. The car was stable and felt great. 5th gear ran at about 2400 and it wasn't too loud at those RPMs.
I was also pleased with the mileage. I didn't get this car to worry about mileage, but I'm happy with how well it did. Over the mountain pass driving 65-70 mph with 3,000 ft elevation gain and occasional mild spirited driving my mileage was 19.1 mpg. Driving 80-85 on the interstate my mileage was 17.7 mpg. Not too shabby for such a big engine.
The temperature ranged from mid 60s to the mid 40s. I was warm in the mid 40s with just a hoodie while driving 80 mph. The only part that was slightly cold was my left elbow. The heater and seat warmers worked amazing well and meir me warm.
We did run into one issue during the drive. The engine temp was running at 82-85 C (180-185F) during the trip, which is perfect considering it is a 180F thermostat. We stopped and gassed up. We then moved the car for a picture. After the picture the car wouldn't start and after a few long cranks it finally turned over and ran rough for 20 seconds and then calmed down. I backed the car up and there was a big puddle of coolant. We popped the hood and it was just pouring out the expansion tank. The dash gauge showed a temp of about 115 C (240 F). We then noticed the electric fan wasn't running with the engine off but the key on (it normally does if it is at temp). We checked the EFI LCD screen and the EFI coolant sensor had failed in the low position. The fan probably shut off while driving but the air flow is more than adequate at high speeds. It was just an issue for around town driving.
We reprogrammed the EFI to have the fan turn on at -30F. This turned the fan on and kept it running at all times. Our engine temps on the dash then stayed right at 80C. This was enough to get us home. The car drove perfectly after that and the temps stayed great even at slow speeds. Now I just wait a few days for the special order temp sending unit to arrive...
I am glad we had my brother drive behind me in his BMW 650i. That made dealing with the car much easier. We ended up going to store while letting the car cool down. We bought a tool kit for the car. We also bought electrical tools to keep in the car just in case we had to hard wire the fan.
All in all the 300 mile drive was enjoyable and the car was amazing to drive. I can't wait to drive it more!!!
164500
By the way, the puddle in the picture in front of our cars is not from us...