Well I'm alive! The drive home...

[airtroop01]

Well... I'm writing this from my hotel room in Ft. Smith, Arkansas.

Its been an amazing trip so far.
I took a few pics and put it in the gallery.

http://www.nhtoc.com/gallery/album.php?id=217

My sister-in-law and her fiance offered to get the truck from JLP and bring it down to Maryland for me on Thursday night. I flew in on Sat. at 6am and drove from Dulles to Silver Spring, MD to get the truck and drove as much as I could to avoid the snow storm.
The snow taunted me throughout the drive, sprinkling lightly but luckily not sticking very much.

When I got to North Carolina, things changed. I encountered freezing rain. Nevertheless, I pushed on, trying to get as many miles down as I could before I got stuck. Things were going okay but, then for a large strech of I-85 cars started spinning out and lots of EMS workers were responding to various incidents littered all over the interstate. The highway patrol shut down the road and detoured everyone off which turned out to be a good time to have lunch. I made it as far as Asheville, NC in good weather and was tired and decided to call it a night.

However the snow caught up with me. In the morning, it was 12 degrees outside with a wind chill factor of -9. The drive from NC into Tennessee was a hair raising one as the ground was slushy and my windshield washer fluid froze so I couldn't see anything.

By the time I got to Nashville the truck looked like hell... was covered in at least an inch of salt and grime. I stopped to clean the truck off and snap a few pics, eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Trying to make up some time, I got pulled over by Arkansas' finest. For the first time in my life, I got a warning. He saw the California tags and mentioned that he liked the truck and commented that I have a long way to go. I'm now on the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma in Ft. Smith.

[Black N Blown]

Hey buddy sounds like an Adventure!!

Glad to hear your alive and well!!!

Stay Safe on the rest of the way...

[Dbl G]

That's the fanciest salt lick I have ever seen , where are the deer??

[Delmustator]

Your truck looks like mine now..

Good time to hit the Auto Spa and let them wash it.

-Del

[Fuzion]

WOW! This is dirty!


But, glad you made it thru NC safe! Who ya got riding with you?
The truck does look sexy, glad you dont have GY's on there anymore!

[bgstew6]

that is the dirtiest that I ahve seen a truck in a while, brings back good ol memories of when I lived in Illinois. LOL

[1jt]

So what about the power gain? and just think you get to put something better than 91 octane in your truck. Be safe

[Dbl G]

Originally posted by 1jt
So what about the power gain? and just think you get to put something better than 91 octane in your truck. Be safe

Yeah I forgot ,,didn't you go out for some extra ponies?????

[03HarleyCA]

Phil hates to drive, he is probobly getting used to the passanger seat by now LOL

Just playen

He is out there with is wife, a little bonding cross country road trip.

Glad to see you guys are ok. With the time youmaking will you make it back on Tuesday as planned?

Hood looks good!

[01harleydude]

wow man what a dirty ride.... hope you are having fun on your adventure across the USA.

[]l-l[avoksDream]

Glad you two are doing alright. Take it easy and get home safe

[Fuzion]

Airtroop, if i remember right you were the unlucky one at Kansas. Are you just now getting the truck back from that adventure?

[]l-l[avoksDream]

Originally posted by Fuzion
Airtroop, if i remember right you were the unlucky one at Kansas. Are you just now getting the truck back from that adventure?

I cant help but giggle at that question

[airtroop01]

Yup! I'm the poor sap who blew his motor at LightningFest.
To recap the saga, the motor was in and everything was running on October. I flew out there and decided that I wanted a few more mods before I took the truck back. It was finished in Dec. and since then transport companies have been screwing me around. Reason - the truck is too big. They would rather haul 2 small cars and charge $1500 each in the space that the HD would fit and only get $1800-$2000 bucks. So they play all these games to maximize the money they get and ended up not getting the truck. So, last Fri I got fed up and decided to take time off of work and get it myself.

LOL Craig - I drive much more than you do! I let Michelle drive most of the time cause she gets car sick when I do. Esp. on curvy mountain roads... I love em and that just makes her green. I'm not very patient either so, I tend to speed - hence nearly getting busted in Arkansas. Besides, that gives me an opportunity to work since I left a lot of stuff unfinished since I left so quick.

We made to Albuquerque, New Mexico last night. I'm going to try to meet up with Ryan and Highlander while I'm out here before I head back. I think we'll make it back to So. California tonight - late Tuesday night... and we'll be back in the Bay Area on Wednesday night. We're a little behind schedule from getting stuck in the weather on the first night. We never made the mileage up yet.

I did get a few extra ponies! I didn't get a chance to test the power until I got to Nashville, Tenn since the weather sucked all the way til then. I think that putting 1000 miles on the motor before I put my foot in it was quite a bit of restraint!

Its currently tuned to 555 rwhp at 15 lbs of boost. I made 540@15 lbs and 563@17 lbs of boost with a ported stock intake. With the sheetmetal intake, not sure what the dyno was at with the pulley combo that gave 17 lbs of boost but the motor fell on its face being choked off at the exhaust. But I gained 15 hp with the intake alone being changed.

I was trying to get to 600 rwhp w/o nitrous but I'll have to do something about the exhaust since its choking off the power. So, I'm not done yet. For those that think that cams hurt your drivability, I can say the Stage 1's still give you a nice burble at idle and have plenty of low end and mid range to pull you through the mountains or sit in traffic or do some high speed runs at 110 mph.

This thing loves to cruise at 80 mph. The motor even gets quieter. At idle, there's the normal cam shake... However, it is incredibly smooth when you get off idle. Johnny Lightning did a really good job at balancing this thing. As far as oil consumption, when I got to Memphis, I was 1 quart low so, that was about 1000 miles since the last time I checked before the first quart was gone. I'll check again when I fill up today.

[Dbl G]

I can see the smile from here....