Last year we had some rubbing issues where the rear fenders would hit the tires. There was a 1 inch hubcentric spacer between the back wheels and the axel. That was removed and a 20mm spacer put in place. The other change is the MM weight jacker rear lower control arms ( see my suspension write up on those ). Just before loading the car up, I jacked the rear suspension by about 1.5 inches. There was NO rubbing on the way down. Maybe the Eibach pro kit with progressive springs also helped. As the car was loaded, and the rear spring perches increased, the springs were more compressed. Being a progressive spring, they responeded differently. All in all, it was a great drive down. When we got to the condo in Myrtle Beach and unloaded / unpacked, I dropped the suspension to a more reasonable ride height without all the weight. Before we left, I jacked it up again before we loaded it all up. It worked perfectly.
The next thing I learned was that the idle needs some work. I have since made some changes to the Quarterhorse calibration in Binary Editor after getting home. Turns out that I had the RPM for when idle routine was entered way too low, so most likely it never used those idle functions and scalars. I also had the desired idle set too low. After some reading I learned why the ECU cannot control idle lower than the current 900 rpm. Right now at 900 RPM the ISC duty cycle is 10% which means it's not moving at all because there is too much air entering the engine through the throttle body. I'll be doing a base idle reset soon. If I can get the duty cycle for the IAC around 15% then the computer can control idle, which would be ideal!
Next is the overheating. The past few years we have left for Myrtle Beach in the middle of the night. We travel through the night and arrive early in the morning. There's very little traffic and only minimal construction to deal with. This year we didn't do that. We traveled to see family near Richmond and stayed there for two nights. It was about 7.5 hours to my cousin's house. It was 5 hours down to Myrtle Beach. We left Richmond in the morning and got to MB during the peak of the day. I quickly learned that traveling during the day also meant that the hottest part of the day, and the peak of the sun, was going to have an impact on the coolant temp. The temp was high and I needed to turn off the AC periodically to let the car cool down. This was rough when we were in traffic. If we didn't turn off the AC, the car would overheat. Fast forward to the trip back on 7/24/2016 - there was a heat wave in the northeast. During normal driving the car would run at 204 degrees F. Once we turned on the AC, the temp jumped by at least 20 degrees.
Although the AC worked well, I know that there is a leak on the hose that runs above the drivers side headers. This is the 'manifold refrigerant hose'. I also inspected the condenser - which is what cools the 134a after the compressor. It is really beat up. I think it's original to the car. The fins are so bent over that I can't imagine it will let much air though it. My thought is to replace that condenser and the manifold line, use a vac pump and make sure there's no leaks, then charge the system again. I think that will remedy the cooling problem. Hopefully!
Another school of thought is to upgrade the radiator to a bigger unit. I have a stock replacement installed in the car right now. I needed to replace the original since it was leaking. Champion makes a 3 core all aluminum radiator:
All in all, the car was really comfortable to drive. The suspension worked well, the seats are comfortable and the new Gibson MWA mufflers all but eliminated the drone at cruising speed. I really enjoyed the seat time, even if it was for 1700+ miles. By the time we take this on another road trip, I'll have that calibration dialed in even more, and the cooling issue should be resolved.
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