Milestones don't appear without surprises.

Today, my trusty (?) Miata rolled over 250,000 miles. Regular readers will remember when I hit a fifth of a million miles. Now that I've done a full quarter mil, the miles will be racking up much more slowly. I've moved to Florida and am working about 5 miles from where I live (as opposed to 60 miles back in Illinois). This is all on the heels of an engine overhaul, which uncovered many, many more broken parts. The car made it the 1200 miles to Daytona Beach without incident, but now that I'm here -- almost as though the car knew its odometer was reaching this particular number -- a fuel injector O-ring lost its will to seal and the cooling system sprung a leak somewhere on the back of the cylinder head.

This afternoon I got a new set of O-rings (to be installed when the engine and sun both cool) and added some chemical stop leak to the cooling system. Hopefully these will take care of the problem. For now, I'm going to enjoy one of the perks of living down here: fixing my farmer tan and getting sand in my shorts.

If you know of a better way...

... to pack a Miata, I'd like to hear it.
(Surco luggage rack, Axius cargo bag, passenger seat removed.)

Leaving for Florida

Aha!

I believe I have finally found the source of all my electrical problems! This is (was!) a copper connector in the posistive lead of my Miata's trunk-mounted battery. It runs to the main fuse in the fuse box. I'm off to the store to get a new piece of cable and some heavy duty welding-grade connectors to splice in a replacement.

A brief note about the not-too-distant future.

Dear readers, (All seven of you. Hi Mom!*)

I have a bit of a personal note that may affect the future of this blog. I've been hired to write for Motorsport Marketing, publishers most notably of Grassroots Motorsports and Classic Motorsports magazines. This is a dream job for anyone who has wielded both a wrench and a pen, and I'm very fortunate to get it.

Naturally, this disturbs all my previous plans for the year. My brother-in-law recently sold his Supra, so that's one project down. All my LeMons plans are now up in the air. And a few are getting expedited, such as the Miata engine rebuild, so I can have a reliable car for the trip. I have a number of other things to deal with.

But those changes are all small potatoes compared to what I'm getting. I'm moving to Florida, home of sandy beaches and warm weather. That'll be good for the ol' Brasilian blood. I'll work with a bunch of really cool people who are passionate about what they do, put out a couple kickass magazines, bust my ass and have something to be really proud of.

So, rather than continuing to plug away at boring work inside my beige box, I'm living the dream. I never thought I'd be that guy, but here I am. Well, there I'll be. Soon enough. Whether or not I'll have the time, energy, or content to keep the blog alive is another question entirely. If this sentimental mechanic goes quiet sometime after late May, you can look for my writing in the pages of your preferred Motorsports magazine. You'll be seeing my byline there soon enough.

Keep your wounds greased and your wrenches handy.

Alan

TSM

*My mom doesn't actually read my blog.

Street sighting: Post-war Era Dodge Coupe

It's hard to believe this was a compact car at the time. This is a 1950 Dodge Wayfarer. The wicked sound is a flathead six engine running through a split manifold to two glasspacks. Very cool. That engine is mated to a three-on-the-tree manual via a fluid coupling -- like an early torque converter, without the torque multiplication. This whole thing is hotter than any metaphor I can come up with. I spotted it while exploring a state park near Sandwich, IL.

Pardon the terrible photos. Taken with a cell phone.

What follows is the owner's description, verbatim from his email, of this car's history after he bought it in 2004. I thought I'd parse it out into digestible nuggets, but I decided instead to leave all the geeky details in. Enjoy!

"It was basically all there, but with a good deal of entropy thrown in--carb in pieces (not all there) in a box, the stuck valves I mentioned, ignition scrambled (distributor inserted 180 degrees out of whack), wiring misconnected all over the place, and, of course, a good deal of rust everywhere. The left rear fender was hopeless, but I found an NOS* piece in Wisconsin."

"Gas tank contents had turned into something resembling blackstrap molasses (I eventually gave up and went with another used gas tank). Took until summer of 2008 to get things sorted out to where it would go on the road. The 4.30 rearend I mentioned came from a '55 Plymouth station wagon with overdrive. I also got the engine and transmission from it. The '55 cylinder head had a higher compression ratio (7.6 versus 7.0--some big deal!), so that went onto the Dodge engine.

"Made an adapter for the intake manifold to take a small 2-barrel unit in place of the original 1-barrel. Sent the exhaust manifold to the the guy at Kansas Kustoms, who does a beautiful job of making it into a split unit for duals (running through Smittys Glasspaks). Converted to 12 volts, with the usual GM one-wire alternator."

"The power brake and hydraulic clutch unit came from a Jeep Cherokee, Mopar disks in front installed with an adapter from Scarebird. In the rear, I put in a swaybar originally destined for a '68 Dodge Charger. The front springs were a bit 'relaxed,' so I put lowering blocks on the rear to get things in a (lower) line. Everything runs pretty well, though with the 4.30 rearend the engine is doing about 3000 rpm at 55 mph--the horsepower peak (such as it is) is at 3600, and the old-time racers generally said that the 'red line' was around 4800. I've gotten it to 4000 rpm without anything letting go, but it's probably not the best idea, since the stroke is really loooong and it only has 4 main bearings supporting the crank."

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*NOS, in the classic car world, is an abbreviation for "new old stock." This seemingly contradictory term refers to parts that are technically brand-new in that they've never been put on a car, but were originally made a long time ago. This is a distinction from new replacement parts being made today. The fashion industry calls this "dead stock."

Built-in underhood cupholders

A little-known feature designed into early Miatas encouraged drinking tasty beverages while wrenching! Eric and I were working on replacing my steering rack. After a lunch break, we discovered these handy holes just in front of the radiator. They're the perfect size for drinks from Popeye's.