A months back I made the move from Nebraska to California. I brought the IS300 out first, then enough crap to fill an apartment, and all of the basic tools I needed to work for someone else. After a few months and few “challenges” I think I’m finally ready to bring Whitey out.
The last time I drove the MR2 it was showing a few signs of having head gasket issues. Never the less the plan was to drive it. I ordered a set of ARP head studs that I planned to install before the drive as a hope that I could torque the head down to make the drive as drama free as possible.
I flew out of Ontario, CA airport on Friday after work. Saturday I hit up the local Harbor Freight for a couple of tools I had forgotten to pack, and then got to work swapping the head studs in place of the factory bolts. Everything went great until I ended up cracking the ultra rare supercharged distributor. Apparently there can be a bit of a clearance issue when studs are involved. Probably something you would never have an issue with if you do the job right to start with. Luckily the crack wasn’t structural, so I used a bit of JB Weld as a temporary fix to get me on the road.
I got a rainy start on Sunday and had a fairly uneventful drive until I got into the mountains. There I hit a bit of ice in the dark and pitched the car about 90° sideways. Sadly that wasn’t worst part of the trip. I checked into a hotel somewhere in Colorado for the night and decided to tackle the rest of the drive the next day.
8:00 AM: The Mister Two looks ready to roll, lets see how this goes.
10:00 AM: …. Scenery flying by.
1:30 PM: The first of what will be many stops with an overheating MR2. I stopped to bleed the cooling system several times over the course of the next 11 hours, but I did eventually make it back home just in time to sleep for a couple hours and then limp it to work. I can’t wait to see how bad it is this time.
