I was at the Glen this past weekend for an SCCA double race weekend
and the season finally for the Volvo Historic Series. As has been the
case all season if I did not have bad luck I would have no luck at
all. I did, however, get to finish the 2nd race, although 3 laps
down. The car was over heating, and I now suspect a bad head or head
gasket - I have not had time to tear it down yet. I was getting wild
fluctuations in the temperatures. When I got on it hard, the temps
would quickly rise up to 250 deg F. , but would fall back to 190-200
when I backed off. I made 2 laps in the race on Sat. and had to come
in because the temp stayed at 250. I found a split top radiator hose.
I replaced that, and qualified in the rain on Sunday. The max temp
was 230. Went out for the race (not raining at the start) and after
5 laps it was up to 270 so I pitted. I put a gallon of water in and
went back out to finish while taking it easy. It did start raining
during the race, and I think that helped keep it cool enough to
finish. That was my only finish this year. My biggest competition in
a Volvo p1800 has had a similar year, having built his 4th motor. He
came in on the 2nd lap and was done for the day, on a new motor. We
can only hope that we got all of the bad things over this year, and
next season will be much better. Joe(B)
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