Just back from my trip up to Pennsylvania to the Inliners thing. It was a
great weekend with some fine cars & trucks, good friends and good food too.
Threatening weather kept the Saturday turnout down a bit, but they kept
rolling in till I had to leave at noon Sunday. Highlight of the meet were
tech sessions by Leo Santucci and Stovebolt's Tom Langdon. Tom introduced
his new down-sized HEI distributor (from a 2.8 V6) modified to work on the
235 or GMC inline. Also Tom showed the advantages of a Holley-Weber staged
2-barrel over the Rochester as a street carb for early inlines. For $65
rebuilt, it sure made sense to me. Leo covered the basics of increasing
horsepower and discussed the oiling system of the later inlines. Great
stuff. Good swap-meet deals, too - and some of it was actually swapped! I
sold all I came with, then re-invested most of it in a aluminum flyheel. I
might have to build a GMC street rod around this piece!
My GMC never missed a beat up and back, 1,989 miles all told. I only got it
running last weekend, after the world's most time-consuming freeze plug
replacement, and would have felt better with more time to shake it down. But
aside from a "tweety-bird" in the exhaust somewhere, all was well. Except
until I hit rain in Georgia on the return trip - the wipers (Newport
electric conversion) quit in a heavy downpour, raising my pulse rate for a
while. Seems the motor had been loosening its mounting screws for a while,
and the transmission arms popped loose, little bushings and springs going
everywhere. By my measure i.e., nothing catching fire or falling off, it
was a pretty successful trip! Here are my stats:
Average speed FL to PA: 63 MPH including gas and comfort stops
Average MPG 17
Most cops: Virginia
Worst traffic: DC beltway at rush hour Friday
Most aggressive drivers: Lexus LS450 SUV (Runner-up: any Acura with Jap
lettering on the windshield)
It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones, especially some list
members who made the trip.
Jack / Winter Park FL
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