First decent drive...

[garion]

So today was the first day I've been able to take her out, after getting everything all sorted. Took her to my old place of work to show off to former co-workers and then to my current job.. I love flex hours and being between projects... All in all, around 80 miles or so..

When I left the house, it was 36 degrees F.. In Phoenix, AZ.. I'm from upstate NY, of course I had the top down!! I have a windscreen, so its not so bad.. Highly recommended, if you don't have one! I also wore jeans instead of my usual shorts (first time in a year or so).

Ease her out onto the road, through the neighborhood, no big deal... I exit the neighborhood, turn left, and poof, I need to be doing 65! Soo... Off I go.... Nice acceleration! (2.0L with 1.8L head, single plane intake, DFEV)

Its all highway to my old place... So after a few miles at 55... I bumped it to 65 for a while, getting used to it... Finally I get up to 70, occasional 75... Don't wanna push it more than that really.. But damn I love that feel and sound of the secondary opening up! I think I surprised a few people..

The visit at the old job went well, lots of comments.. They had been hearing about it for months how I was this close to getting on the road (safely), only to have something else come up..

Then its off to the new job (2 months now), in downtown Tempe... I get to drive on ASU campus pretty much, and its nice having the young ladies do cat calls at the car..

Work is a bit empty, due to the holiday and all, so I had the top of the parking garage to myself...


And a rare "from above" shot:


Left work at 4, into traffic.. Man I hate I-10.. But luckily its a holiday, so things are open.. Was able to open it up a bit getting into the left lane, getting shocked looks from the people I'm passing.. Only going 70...

Get home and all's good. A great day for my Fiat.. Here's to more!

Next up, figuring out my weird warmup issue.. Car starts right up, goes to 1500rpm, then lopes down to ~500.. Stays there for a while until I either hit the gas, or it just 'warms' up and goes to 1000rpm... Odd. My 'off the wall' guess is maybe the carb is warped somewhere when cold, and as it warms up, it seals? Don't know.

Oh... ANd the whole time on the highway, my temp was probably ~170ish.. It was definitely below 190 by a good clip... When stopped at lights, it would go up to 190, and never above..

[garion]

I also might need to fix up the brakes some, as braking at high speeds was a bit iffy. As in it would kinda seesaw side to side some? Not sure how to describe it... But I cheaped out on the pads and rotors before, so when I get a chance, I'll just put new stuff on.. I'll also do another bleed of the system..

[So Cal Mark]

your warm-up issue sounds like the choke is not opening enough once the engine starts

[johndemar]

Think the brake issue may be that the caliper slides need lubed?

[azruss]

sounds like you still have air in the brake lines.

[DieselSpider]

Possibly not enough caster on the front end to brake straight at high speed too. Keep an eye on tire wear patterns and check the torque on the front end components also.

Note that some of the bargain and NOS brake hoses/brake cylinders don't react well to synthetic brake fluid and may tend to decompose internally when exposed to synthetic making bleeding difficult and braking uneven. If the brake fluid says premium and costs over $5 a quart bottle chances are it is synthetic. I went to buy some old fashioned DOT 3 to flush the system and put it back to non-synthetic and almost bought synthetic until I noticed that while the English labeling did not say synthetic the Spanish labeling did.

I believe that Super Tech DOT3 from Walmart is one of the few that is still non-synthetic. I found out the hard way with numerous brake hose and a master cylinder failure from synthetic brake fluid which was put in a few months earlier. Had to replace all the relatively new hoses along with a one year old master cylinder and could not verify that what I was able to purchase locally was compatible with synthetic brake fluid.