A few things of note from the drive......
Coolant temps - never got above ~178* while moving. The only time they climbed higher was when I was sitting in traffic. Then they got to 185* when the fan kicked on.
Oil temps - the highest I saw was 167* and that was sitting in traffic. Usually they hung around 150*
Oil Pressure - holly hell! The first time I started her up I FREAKED OUT becuase the pressure was climbing, climbing, climbing from about 70 PSI @ a fast cold idle to >110 PSI around 2500 rpm cold and 2800 RPM hot. What freaked me out though was the voltage on the sensor was being reported to the MoTeC, but was out of "range" for the AIM, so it read 0.0 PSI and the warning light went off. I had to do the first two heat cycles with the laptop open and a seperate Dial Gauge visible that was outputting the voltage for the oil pressure sender.
Idles great, runs really well even though she running WAY rich and everything seems to be bedding in nicely. Still haven't done a comp check but that'll be soon.
So I get to autobone, the car wash, and the gas station, someone comes up to me at each place to say something about the car......... something like....... "do you drift"
So anywho, I head off to Jersey and procceed to get ridiculously lost, so much that my GPS was lost.... I swear the people who built NJ said, "our state is going to suck, so lets make it impossible for people to leave"
Driving down this one main drag about 2 miles from the house where I'm supposed to be and I slam a pot hole.... thanks Jersey. Later in the evening the good friend of mine hit the SAME pothole and bent his rim. So I'm fuming made at this point becuase I'm late, just hit a pothole, and then I start to smell something......... "is that fuel or is that exhaust?" I think to myself. That smells like fuel. I pulled up to a light and the car stahled... "WTF??? she's NEVER stalhed when warm.." someone honks at me becuase the light turned green, so I
fire the car up and the low fuel pressure light comes on. "MOTHERFUCKER!!!!! FUEL LEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I punch the gas to get some momentum up to make it to the next side street which is approaching (i was on a main drag, no place to pull over) kill the engine, kill the battery, pulled down this side street and in one deft move I reached behind the passenger seat with my right hand while my left hand un dis the harness and went for the handle. I leap out of the car, pull the pin in the extinguisher, pop the hood and look at a fuel soaked engine bay with fuel spraying out of the #1 secondary injector. Not spraying ontop of the engine either mind you, but spraying in a 90* sweep from the Alt to directly on top of the turbos!
I stood there poised for about 5 minutes waiting for the fireball that never came, thank god.
So I call my buddy who thankfully wasn't too inebriated to come pick me up in his Fiances Mazda 3. Good thing they didn't take his MS6 - no towhooks. So he picks me up and we run to the HD to buy a towstrap and some line. I fashioned a bridal from the corners of the strut bar to directly infront of the intercooler so the hook doesn't scratch the front bumper. We put a pad down just in case. Now we can't close the hood though. So I tied a bolund around the hood catch, wrapped the line around the strut bar and then tied a rolling hitch to the tow strap. The thought being the load on the tow strap will keep the hood closed.
Well the rolling hitch, the knot that's not supposed to slip down a line slipped. I guess it didn't like the flat towstrap and the hood FLEW UP while moving. With enough load to break.... not pull out, but BREAK 4 of the 6 rivets that were holding the brackets for the hood struts.
Regardless, we got the hood re-tied, and finished towing it to his buddies house were we proceeded to eat and drink copius amounts of alcohol.
The next day, this morning actually, after spending 1/2 hour arguing with the guys @ U-haul that say my Cherokee can't tow the Mazda, and me saying that I've done it twice and back and forth an back and forth they finally let me take the fricken trailer. Thier trailer weighs ~300-400lbs less than the 7.. regardless, she's home now and I have an interesting phone call to make to Tim Marren tomorrow about the Marren injectors and the custom fuel rails that he built for me and why a fricken pothole and 35lbs of rail pressure is enough to jar an injector loose.
Cars, maybe I should start collecting stamps.
I must say, I LOVE my XJ. We call her The Mighty XJ. Really nothing this truck can't do.
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