James Allen, the ITV commentator for the F1 Grand Prix suggests that Formula 1 is all about heat management. Well I think my F1 training is coming along well.
The pace I stayed in last night was pretty awful but I was very tired and so it made little difference. I got up early and took the thermostat out, hoping that it was the cause of my overheating. However, a few miles down the road I knew it wasn't the solution.
Today I start to cross the Ural mountains. It started off as gentle undulations but steadily grew. Not that any of the climbs have been that big or steep but they are too much for the Imp at the moment. I am probably making jumps of about 2km before having to stop to cool down. I'm heading to a radiator shop in Perm. There I hope to flush out the radiator and the block. I do 't think this will solve anything but I have to eliminate all the possibilities.
The car is still misfiring. I put brand new plugs in this morning and all except number 3 look good. The plug in number 3 cylinder has a brownish white deposit on it. I'm not sure if this could be an HT lead or a valve. I'll investigate further when I get to the radiator shop.
The radiator shop turned out to be just an autoservice shop. The put the car on their hoist and we could see straight away that the screen that stops bugs getting into the radiator was blocked with the fluff from the dandelions. So they took it off, cleaned it and blew and then pressure washed the radiator. I asked them to take a look at the spark plugs and they diagnosed a blowing head gasket. I've never had a slowly blowing head gasket, it has always been sudden overheating and coolant in the oil. Well as far as I can see there is neither coolant in the oil born oil in the coolant. They may be right however, as the cleaning has only reduced the running temperature by a couple of degrees. I'm not sure how far I can nurse it. Its 1400km to Moscow and 2200km to HHelsinki.
After leaving Perm, I drove about 50km before stopping for a sleep in the back seat. The back seat is short but long enough for me to lay down with my legs bent up. I got an hours sleep before driving on. I have alternated between driving and sleeping through the night. The car runs at around 80°while averaging around 70km/h. So if I can drive only when it's cool, I should be able to make it to saint Petersburg. The first problem with this though, is that night are short. The sun sets around 10PM and twilight lasts until midnight. There is light in the sky again by 3AM with sunrise around 5AM. The second problem is getting sleep in the daytime so as to be fully awake at night. But at least it keeps me going.
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