Driving my Mondial 1100+ miles to FCA 2016 national meet in Ohio

Made it to Little Rock, Arkansas, which was my goal for the day.

The car ran well all day. The only problem that I had was, later in the day, the oil temp started rising. Occasionally got a little above the 3/4 mark (which on my Euro car is 120 deg C, or 248 deg F). Water temps, however, were almost solidly "right in the middle", with a slight deviation left and right.

Ambient temps have been HOT all day. Above 90 deg F all day, even approaching 100 deg F in Texas. Once I got the A/C vents adjusted correctly (with the Ron Frohock mod), I didn't have a problem with cabin cooling.

When I got to the hotel, I went over the engine, and one of the spark plug extenders was slightly loose in the head, so I re-seated it. Hopefully, that's why the oil temp was high: the engine was misfiring occasionally, causing a lean condition, causing higher temps. But why wouldn't the water temp go up as well?

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day. My exhaust is non-stock (custom design by the PO), and it's definitely loud, so I wore earplugs most of the day. The seats were surprisingly comfortable; no stiffness or back pain at all.

My gas gauge suddenly started working somewhat accurately, which was nice, although I am still calculating mileage myself. And, my speedo, which normally reads about 10mph fast, would occasionally read very accurately (I was using a GPS speedo on my iPhone).

So, overall, it was a good day. I'm worried about the oil temp, but we'll see how it does tomorrow. 11 more hours to go to Columbus.

 

Oil level was fine. And, even if it wasn't, why would slightly low oil level cause higher oil temps?

 

I'm now in Jackson, TN, eating at a Steak n Shake. Wow, that's a good burger!

(Yes, I know there are probably more interesting local restaurants around, but I want to get back on the road)

This morning, I added another bottle of Water Wetter to the coolant. (Two now total in there) The level was just slightly low, although it's always hard to tell in that dark expansion tank. And, even though the oil level has been at max the entire time, when I stopped for gas after driving a bit this morning, it read 1/2 between min and max. I added a quart of oil to get it back to max. Oil temps did seem to come down a bit; now holding pretty steady between 100 and 120 deg c.

Coolant temps have been just fine. Only moving slightly above the middle mark when I stop, and it recovers nicely. I think that extra WW helped, especially in this heat, as did increasing the volume of coolant a little bit.

So, everything is fine. The throttle pedal is still a little sticky, something that I've been fighting since I've owned the car. I'm spraying white lithium grease around the pedal base, as well as where it enters the tube under the intake manifold. Seems to help a little bit, but while the cable looks fine, I think it probably needs to be replaced. Hopefully it will make it through the trip.

 

Oh, and to answer above: my 84 Euro coupe does not have an oil cooler fan. Nor does it have two fans on the radiator, although it does have another fan on the A/C condenser up front.

It's probably doing just fine, given the extreme heat (90+ F temps).

 

The Euro QV (and, I presume, 8) cars did not come with 2 cooling fans on the radiator. It was the "tropical" option, standard for US-spec cars.

And, my understanding is that there is no oil cooling fan on the 8/QV coupes. The oil cooling fan started on the QV Cabriolet, and continued for all 3.2 and T cars, coupe or cab.

 

Made it to Bowling Green, KY, where I will go to the National Corvette Museum tomorrow morning. I've always wanted to visit there.

The car ran beautifully all day long. The speedo is now reading almost 100% accurately. Gas gauge as well, at least to 1/4 tank, where I don't want to risk any lower. Oil and water temps were just fine the entire day. And, once I got just north of Nashville, it suddenly got about 10 degrees cooler with a nice breeze, and they dropped accordingly.

I had no idea how hilly and beautiful Tennessee is! I-40 between Memphis and Nashville was really nice; dense trees as far as the eye could see, broken up by the occasional river.

And, the Mondial is like a UFO in this part of the country. Every stop draws a crowd. Most people know that it's some kind of Ferrari, but that's about it.

Will post pictures later.

 

Well, I almost made it. Right outside of Cincinnati, I stopped for lunch. Went back out to the car, and while there was power, it wouldn't start. Starter wouldn't even turn over.

I tried everything. Fuses. Relays. Cleaned and reseated the ground strap. Took off and reseated starter connections. Tried to jump start. Nothing worked.

Tow truck is on its way. Oh well.

 

Wait, hold the phone!

After basically disassembling my fusebox in the parking lot, as well as cleaning grounds, reseating starter connections, everything I could think of, I called the tow truck.

The car got loaded onto the truck. When I was getting out of the car, I decided to try to start it one last time.

The car started right up.

I guess the starter gear had gotten jammed against the flywheel, because I parked on a hill, and the motions of loading it onto the truck jarred it loose. At least that's my theory.

I settled with the tow driver, and drove straight through to Columbus. I came too far not to bring it across the finish line. Made it to the hotel with no other incident. Went right to the judges' meeting.

So, I did make it after all! I will post pictures tonight. (I know, I've been saying that...)

 

Pictures!
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At the National Corvette Museum. The Mondial got more attention than any Corvette there.
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Fusebox mod, before replacing all of the relays with the modern plastic ones.
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