TodFitch

Might be a bit early for the wild flowers but Anza-Borrega State Park is not too far south of you, just around the Salton Sea. There are a number of good 4x4 trails there. Also, not too far way is "J Tree" Joshua Tree National Park. There are a few designated "off-highway" trails there too including one that leads up to a very nice view point out over the Imperial Valley with the Salton Sea and Mt. San Jacinto in the back ground.

I read this before watching and was surprised that duct tape appeared to have no role in the operation.

Huh? All the "predictions" I have seen are listed as probabilities over a span of time, typically something like "WW% chance of a magnitude X earthquake on the YYY fault in the next ZZ years." Having two relatives with geophysics degrees who specialized in earthquake research I am a bit surprised by that specific a prediction. Granted one of the two left the field a while back and the other officially retired last year but is still working part time. So they might not be up on all the latest, but I was pretty sure that specific predictions (exact date, etc.) about earthquakes was not possible with the current state of knowledge. I guess I'll have to call them up and ask if I've been wrong or there has been a break through....

I think a couple of new tires would be a good thing for him to invest in...

I think it was supposed to work both ways: Under "normal" conditions (engine in good shape) air is always drawn into the pan through the cap and thus through the carburetor air filter. For that you could get rid of the hose and just use the filter media in the oil filler cap. And that is what the early PCV systems did. However if the engine is worn and you are under full throttle, then may be more blow by than the PCV valve will allow back into the manifold. So the excess blow by comes up the filler tube, through the hose and sucked through the carburetor to be burned.

Never heard of "Desert Springs" in California. Is it near "Desert Hot Springs", near "Palm Springs" or is it one of several "Desert Spring" resorts located in different towns located 100s of miles apart from one another? I'm guessing you're referring to something in the Palm Springs area. That is about an hour from the "Inland Empire" area of San Bernadino and Riverside where there are a number of Golden State Region POC members. I don't see anything on the region calendar in that area but maybe one of them that frequents this forum will chime in.

word! Don't you know what a "buttefly" is? Seems like all the newer web browsers highlight misspelled words in text entry boxes. I think Rich has an older browser.

I wonder if Chrysler expected a new Ever-Dry kit to be installed each time the spark plugs were replaced. Seems like that would be about once a year for they typical car of the era with a normal service period. I would expect the rubber to last about that long but not much longer given the heat, petroleum products and ozone that are found in an engine compartment.

Actually, it is a 6. The first year of the 6 with a number of differences from the later cars especially on the cooling. The water jacket only covers the top of the cylinders, there is no water distribution tube and the thermostat is the internal bypass type. I'm running a 160F thermostat and the calibrated dash gauge settles down between 180F and 190F under high speed, hot weather conditions. For long distances, 60 to 62 MPH is my max cruising speed which I've done in 95F temperatures. I have had it up to 70 for short bursts but that is pretty scary and is over speeding the engine. You'd really want to address suspension, steering and braking system design issues if you wanted to travel above 60 MPH for any distance. Only heat related problem I've had recently is "vapor lock" when stopped or idling after running at highway speeds for a while (hour or more) with high ambient temperatures (above 90F). The factory did not put a heat shield on the fuel pump and it can get quite hot from the manifold heat once the airflow stops. My current solution is to pour a bit of drinking water on the fuel pump to get it cool enough to start pumping again. Fortunately it has only happened a couple of times. I did not have that problem before last summer but that was the first summer with ethanol in the gas. Before that we had MTBE. Seems like gas with ethanol is more volatile. Actually, thinking back on it, I believe the ambient temperatures when I had the vapor lock problem on restart were closer to 100F than 90F...

It might be that the cooling system is okay but the engine is putting out more waste heat than it should... How is the timing? Is it running lean? Are the brakes dragging? On the cooling side, was the radiator painted? If so was it with a radiator paint or something else that might be a bit of an insulator.

I think I'd rather be in California for "the Big One" than anyplace within 500 or so miles of the New Madrid fault when it goes. At least the building codes here have considered earthquakes since the 1933 Long Beach event. Not everything is built to code and the codes do need to be updated as each large earthquake shows that we don't know everything about how buildings (and soil) perform when shaken. But at least there is some effort here to account for having the ground move under a building. One reason you won't find many brick houses in California. Interesting to note that the recent earthquakes in Arkansas have happened at the same time and locations as the injection wells for disposing of waste from the hydro-cracking operations on the gas wells were operating. Co-incidence or not???

I'm pretty sure that no one in my area would show up to an antique car event in their collector car when there was any snow around. It is neat to see that there are some people that are willing to drive their cars in those conditions. The areas closest to me in the Sierra are reporting between 4 and 17 feet of snow depending on which area and whether you look at the "base" or "summit" numbers. Ski area reports usually seem to be optimistic but I'll get a first hand update this weekend where the near by hill is reporting 8 feet at its base area. My avalanche probe pole is marked in cm, but I guess I would not need to convert the numbers for you.

1933 and 1934 do not have the water distribution tube. It was introduced in 1935 with the full length water jacket. The 33 and 34 blocks are a little narrower than the 35 and up so there is a different head gasket for them too.

Actually, we don't have the ability to extract enough fuel from the reserves we already have to satisfy out demand. Period. We've used most of it up.

It is my impression that the newer versions of software from Google (Google Earth, Chrome) install auto-update components in your system that are difficult to remove. I guess that is so that they can assure that all people using their software have up to date versions. I personally dislike that and much prefer software that when starting check for a new version and then asks if you want to update. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/02/why-googles-sof/ http://www.google.com/support/installer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=100386

I've got it installed and use it from time to time on both a Linux box and my Mac (work IT has a policy against installing it on their Windows boxes so I don't have it there). Seems to be okay but Firefox and Safari are okay too. Only one that I stay away from is Internet Explorer although the latest version of that is not as bad as all the older ones. All of the newer Microsoft programs have a radical change in user interface compared with the older ones and I keep getting frustrated when I'm forced to use them. Fortunately Open Office on the Linux box seems to be able to handle all the documents I need to open.

Today's posting on the CalTrans highway information page for I-80: The Boreal Ski Area, near the summit on I-80 claims 5 to 8 feet of fresh snow from the storm system that is passing through. So far, the road I'll be on later today is open. Here is the current posting for I-5:

The vast majority of drivers in California have no experience with driving in snow so the CHP is usually very quick to implement "chain control". At least they try to keep I-80 across the Sierra Nevada moving. The situation is even worse in Southern California where they simply close I-5 over The Grapevine rather than allow chains.

Raining and 46F here now. Just watching the road and weather reports to see if I-5 over "the Grapevine" will stay open tonight... After that the question is will Kern county have enough resources to plow the road to Mt. Pinos before tomorrow morning since the snow level is supposed to be low enough that the local communities in the area will be getting between 5 and 13 inches of snow today and tonight.

Ouch! I sure hope that the car(s) that are in there are not badly damaged. Be really careful for you own safety when near that building.

Hi James, Welcome back to posting on this forum.

Google is your friend. http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=temperature+gauge+repair+ether&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Even the search function on this web site for past forum threads is your friend. On the other hand you are new to the site and maybe have not discovered the lore in all the old postings. So take a look at http://www.ply33.com/Repair/tempgauge

Those of us who work long hours in the computer business have heard rumors of "the day star" which is supposed to so bright that it blots out all other stars from the sky. So bright that the light bouncing around in the atmosphere makes the sky look blue. Hard to imagine that. I guess I should take a break during office hours and find a window or go outside to see if it exists.

I wonder where in Mississippi he found the snow to take those pictures. While I've never been in that state, I'm under the impression that snow would be an unusual weather phenomena there.

Not to change the topic too much as it looks like what you received is totally unsatisfactory regardless of this questions, and you are working on a DeSoto. But when did they start putting carpet into the front of Plymouths? At least in the 1930s it was always rubber matting in front, carpet in rear.