so, I'm pleased to report my jeep "beat the trip" that nearly made me throw in the towel last year.
500 miles round trip to and from Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville, CA. Last year the thing started to fight me as soon as I was climbing to Donner Pass on the 80 just outside of Reno. I had to keep pulling over on any hills as the truck was surging and dying and losing speed. Took over 8 hours to get home from what was a 5 hour drive.
Anyway, this years trip went nearly flawless. The only "issues" were that as soon as it hit Truckee CA, it began idling rough. Not like it was going to stall, but it was shaky. I also felt like at speed it was running a little "choppy" or almost buffeting, a little more raspy or rattly. nothing of concern, but as us jeepers know, we can always tell when something is even a little bit off from normal on our rigs. Again, never any weakness or feelings like it was going to stall. the other issue was the same cold start hot start nonsense where for a fraction of a second it cuts out, sometimes repeatedly. this actually happened twice while on the highway (after coasting a bit and then getting back into the pedal) and on the hot starts after fueling up on the way TO the fairgrounds. On the way home, after a rough morning start where it DID stall out in the campground, I dropped the pump squirt a few percent. It didn't do it a single time the rest of the trip and I made a point to try and replicate the issue. It seems logical that perhaps it's contributing TOO MUCH fuel at tip in for whatever reason under the starting conditions, but isnt normally an issue once the truck has been running. I'll play with this more.
As soon as I got to my house, the idle seemed to smooth back out, so, weird.
The great news is that aside from the 1 or two blips and the odd idle, the truck ran both days 5.5 hours almost non stop and was fine. I was passing folks on uphill grades with no hesitation! It had awesome power when I got down to lower elevations, I was surprised by how much less I had to get into the gas. I RARELY take it below 4000' and commonly travel from my home base of 5000' up to nearly 10,000' depending on the trip. It was fun to drive it closer to sea level and have some more guts behind the go pedal.
Not sure on fuel economy yet. I know from home to truckee I got 10mpg, which was all up hill. And I know from Truckee to Clear lake I got around 13mpg, which was all down hill. I think I did decent on the way home too, maybe in the 11 or 12 mpg range, but these aren't really improved over the carb. I have seen as much as 14mpg when I had my carb, in the right highway situations. either way, i think it was satisfactory. I just need to gas up again to get the final numbers.
anyway, good times.
