Just booked the Peppermill in Reno for next years Hot August nights, and have never taken our 66 Beaumont on a long road trip. (14 days) Anyway am looking for some advice on how to prepare the car for this trip.I would like to upgrade the cooling system, as it will likely be very hot on the drive down. everything is stock in that area now. Any sugestions on this or any other advise would be appreciated. I am not very mechanicly inclined, but will be travelling with a group of four or five other cars, and some of the other drivers have some knowledge. Am looking forward to the show, I think they only allow 5000 cars to registar but roughly 300,000 people attend. I am sure many will be curious about what a Beaumont is. Hopefully the road trip will be the best part. ..................Ted
You may want to upgrade to a good quality aluminum rad-the biggest that will fit. Electric fans might be a good idea as well. Flush the system and install a good quality antifreeze. Ensure hoses and belts are in good condition. A new thermostat might be a good idea too. There are also additives you can add to the antifreeze (Waterwetter is one that comes to mind) that is supposed to reduce coolant temps by about 10 degrees. I've never tried them so I can't vouch for their effectiveness.
A bunch of us drove down to LA from Alberta 2 years ago and we all made it without any significant problems. We all freshened up the cooling systems with new hoses, thermostats, a couple of recored original rads and I put in a new heater core. No one did anything extra to upgrade the systems. I had new tires put on my car just before we left and lost 2 wheel studs the first day. I noticed the missing lugs when I did a walk around in the morning. Second day no problems. Third day as we entered the desert on our way to Vegas the operating temperatures started to climb, so we slowed down to 65 rather than the 80 mph we were running up to that point. The air temperature was over 110 F and my 396 was running 210 at the thermostat and my buddies 454 was 230 in the block (consistent 20 degree spread between the 2 locations checked with infrared thermometer). We then got held up behind a wreck and all of our guages were pegged (over 250 F) no one blew up or had any immediate problems other than heat stroke. My engine started to burn more oil after that and seemed tired. I have replaced it for the time being, but haven't opened it up to check for damage. So all in all, with well maintained original vehicles we all 5 made it about 3,500 miles in one piece.
It was lots of fun and I would do it again.
Rick
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1967 Parisienne 2+2 1967 Grande Parisienne
1967 Laurentian 1967 Strato Chief
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