Hey all! Made it out to Silver City NM with only one minor issue. One of the cooloant hoses to my turbo sprung a small leak near the clamp on the turbo. It figures, I had it on and off at least a dozen times and I must have nicked it pushing it on with a screwdriver. I pulled into the shade of a car wash in Truth or Concenquences NM, and in about 45 min I had the leaking end trimmed off and reinstalled. End of problem.
The drive through Texas and New Mexico was the most difficult. The climb up the Colorado Plateau lasted almost 700 miles, uphill all the way, from sea level to an elevation of 6000 ft here in the southwest part of NM. Of course the mountain passes being much higher. The turbo boost guage was reading boost almost the whole time, in order to keep it at or near 65mph. Usually no more than 0 to 2lbs, only going higher when I really gassed it to climb a paticularly steep grade. I did find the "sweet spot" for running at highway speeds is about 4000 rmp. At that speed I'm running about 68mph, and right in the meat of the powerband torque wise. It will pull uphill on the cruise control without slowing down too much, 2/3 mph. Gas mileage is less than I expected, closer to 18mpg average for the trip, but considering it was on boost most of the time, that's not too bad, and I could run near 70 getting that. Going back to NJ should be much better, seeing that it will be downhill all the way. The Tracker used no measurable amount of oil during the 2000 mile drive, and ran like clockwork. Aside from the small coolant hose leak, all the turbo related stuff performed flawlessly so far. The manifold and all the other parts I built seem to be holding up just fine. I can't seem to find anything higher than 90/91 octane premimum out here, but it doesn't seem to be an issue, no pinging or any other sign of detonation.
I turned 100000 miles on my odometer and of course the check engine light came on, but it's a non issue. I'll find the switch later and pop it off.
I'll be here in the southern NM area for about 9 days visiting my daughter and then it's down to El Paso Texsas to pick up my wife at the airport there. Then it's up to Utah for some serious wheeling adventures.
I'll keep posting pictures and updates along the way. I ran a bit low on fuel at one point but was curious to see just how far I could go on a tank. The needle actually got below the "E" on the guage but I still had a gallon left when I filled it up. Yes, I do keep gas in the jerry can just in case!
