Friday looked to be the perfect day for an LBC cruise from Dayton to
Bloomington. Low humidity, high of about 80, just a few clouds
floating in the sky. The MGB was running great after 150 miles on new
rings. I had retorqued the head and adjusted the valves and
everything Thursday night and the car seemed ready to go. The first
15 miles of the trip down I-75 were as uneventful as being passed by
semis while in an MG can be until we hit some construction traffic and
the B began to heat up a bit. After about a mile or two of stop and
go we headed off the superslab and onto state highway 63 and then to
highway 4 into Hamilton. It was a pleasant drive although Hamilton is
not a nice city.
After getting through Hamilton we were on highway 128, nice two lane
road that runs parallel to the Great Miami River through the nice rolling
hills of Southwest Ohio. 128 deadends into I-74, so we were back onto
interstate for about 8 miles until we crossed into Indiana and were
able to get onto highway 46, which runs parallel to I-74. In "Zen and
the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence" Pirsig says that best roads are
those that go from nowhere to nowhere and have a faster road running
parallel. This is certainly true of this section of S.R. 46.
We had been on S.R. 46 for about 3 miles when it happened. The
"incident". BLAM! GRINDGRINDGRINDGRINDGRIND! "OH *%$!" Thinking I
had run over something that was now being dragged by the crankcase as
5 quarts of Castrol's finest was quickly draining onto the road, I
pushed the clutch in and shut her down. As I coasted to the side of
the road, my mind racing half expecting to open the bonnet to see a
hole in the side of the block, I noticed steam was coming out
everywhere. By the time we stopped, I had figured out what I thought
happened; the radiator fan had become one with the radiator. It did
not take long to confirm my suspicions. :-(
I'm still not sure what caused it to happen, but one of the fins of
the fan had definetly made contact with the radiator and as it ground
out part of the radiator, it bent further so it could grind deeper
into then core releasing all the coolant from its duty. This past
spring I had installed the correct preformed bottom hose and when I
did, I went ahead and installed the metal bladed fan from from the
parts car, as the plastic fan I had been using had some chips in the
blades and the metal one looked like it would work better. Clearance
between the fan and the radiator looked a little tight, but I went
ahead with it anyway. A fatal decision as far as the radiator was
concerned.
Anyway, we are now on the side of the road in front of an old farm
house in the middle of nowhere in Indiana with a decision to make. We
are about 90 miles from Bloomington and about 70 miles from Dayton.
Do we call people ahead of us or behind us? Since I still had the old
plastic fan and I had the parts car's radiator sitting in the garage I
opted for the latter. Friday night at 7:30 is not the time to reach
someone, but after several tries I finally got in touch with my friend
and coworker John (Mark Dodd you can thank your lucky stars you live
so far north of me:-). The conversation went something like this --
Me: Hey, what you doing?
John: Nothing. Why?
Me: Got any plans tonight?
John: Why, what happened? (he knew I was taking the MG)
Me: The MG ate its radiator.
John: Where are you?
Me: Indiana.
John: Jesus.
John being the buddy that he is finally agreed to go to my house and
pick up the radiator (which is of questionable soundness) and bring it
down to us. Much to the amusement of the farmer whose phone I had used,
I went ahead and took the shredded radiator out while we were waiting for
John. About 9:45 John shows up with the parts and had a good laugh at
my expense (the first of many laughs at my expense this weekend.)
We got it all back together and were on the road by about 10:15.
We stopped a bit down the road to let my parents know we were running
late and I learned it is never why wise to say "We had an incident
with the MG" as it is much too close to saying "We had and accident
and we are both in the hospital with all our limbs severed" when you
are speaking to your Mother.
The rest of the drive was really beautiful with no traffic, billions
and billions of stars shining overhead and the MG running flawlessly.
We finally arrived around 12:15, tired and relieved. The weekend was
spent visiting with relatives, playing golf, and being abused about my
taste in automobiles. My Aunt gave my a little plastic tow truck in
case we needed it for the ride back to Dayton. Fortunately the ride
back was uneventful and the weather was beautiful which went well
witht the beautiful roads. Alison showed tremendous restraint and
calm throughout the entire expedition, so overall it was good weekend.
It was gratifying that the car ran flawlessly for the entire trip,
although it is disappointing that all my relatives think I am somewhat
out to lunch and htat the MG is an unreliable piece of junk.
The ironic thing is, this morning John mentioned that while he was
driving home he was really thinking he would like to get an old car to
work on. I laughed and told him that at about the same time I was
thinking about selling one.
Bob "The Wanker" Jones
p.s. Will, sorry I didn't get in touch with you, but we left early on
Sunday "just in case".
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