The season is almost upon us...

[lloyd3]

That would be Fall!  A great time to take your un-airconditioned musclecar back out of the garage (where it's been hiding from the heat). Dropped my son off at collage Wednesday, my wife leaves to help her sister and family get back to school & normal Saturday, and that leaves me completely unencumbered and largely unsupervised for the next 5-6 weeks. Gasoline has come down just a little (no accident, as there is an election looming) and I must fend for myself for a while. Guess which car I'll be taking out to the various dinner options around here (burgers, steaks, sushi, Mexican, bar-be-que)?  It's been a summer of challenges here, and blessings as well. I've lost 3-people to the grim reaper, but I've launched my child (successfully, I hope) and gotten myself in a better place mentally to face the future. The challenges will continue, of course, but I'm steeled to what I'll need to do to face what's coming. The good and the bad.

I'll be chasing mountain grouse in the hills starting September 1st (Blues!) and catching trout and grayling alongside them. I'll be planning trips to the great white north for even more of that (ruffed grouse, pheasant & walleye), I'll be outside walking the dog and prepping my home for the changing seasons, and getting in shape for chasing big game in November (deer & elk), and I'll be driving my car on the backroads here on the good days (& there will be plenty), listening to the sounds of a bigblock going up and down through the gears. I'll be another year older in January (& hopefully a little wiser). Bring it on!

[b5blue]

I hear ya! This will be the first Fall in a long time with no drastic agenda. For me in FL. the heat is the issue. 

[6pkrtse]

I drive mine all summer long. At least several times a week.  As it cools and Fall starts to settle in. I even drive it more, right up to winter. If no snow, I still drive it in the winter. I have driven it on Christmas and even New Years Day before in Michigan winters when we don't have snow.

[dreamcatcher]

I have had a few of my old cars with AC and never used it. I have to have the windows down to get the full sound! Well that and the 8 track at full volume 

[cdr]

Mine has COLD A/C

[Kern Dog]

I added A/C to mine, drove to the SoCal Spring Fling.....changed to a Borgeson steering box, then the cam went flat and the car has been idle since June. Waiting on machine shop guys sucks!

[dreamcatcher]

Well hope you get it back to running soon. To me fall is the best time to cruse. I know some of the steel is not as good these days. I have been lucky I guess and have not had cam failure so far. I have a friend who has had a very good machine shop for over 30 years. He only warranties the old engines if people run Rotela  15 40 diesel oil in them. He told me that because it is designed for diesel engines it has more additives than most car oil. Now I don't run it in mine but I know a lot of people who do. And they swear by it. I like Castrol GTX. They claim to have more zinc than the more common brands. But I don't use synthetic which most do anymore.

[Dano 1]

The NC summer heat and humidity is just barely showing signs of breaking but realistically we have a good few more weeks of serious heat. Having grown up up North I find the southern climate is about the exact inverse from the North as far as cars go - I drive the 'fun' cars way less in the summer but can reasonably drive them most/all of the winter as opposed to putting them away in October and not seeing them again until May.

A/C is on the list for me but I agree with dreamcatcher:

I have had a few of my old cars with AC and never used it. I have to have the windows down to get the full sound! Well that and the 8 track at full volume 

Driving with the windows up just isn't as fun.

[cdr]

The NC summer heat and humidity is just barely showing signs of breaking but realistically we have a good few more weeks of serious heat. Having grown up up North I find the southern climate is about the exact inverse from the North as far as cars go - I drive the 'fun' cars way less in the summer but can reasonably drive them most/all of the winter as opposed to putting them away in October and not seeing them again until May.

A/C is on the list for me but I agree with dreamcatcher:

I have had a few of my old cars with AC and never used it. I have to have the windows down to get the full sound! Well that and the 8 track at full volume 

Driving with the windows up just isn't as fun.

on this day it was over 100 deg, it was STILL fun driving https://youtu.be/6BBTd5yMvFQ

[b5blue]

Nice video! I sweated 20 years till I installed A/C. What a game changer for Florida, everywhere I went folks noticed my windows are up! 

[Kern Dog]

But I don't use synthetic which most do anymore.

Talking with Dwayne Porter, he feels that even synthetics are prone to cam failures. I am living proof of that. Here is why....
I used REDLINE synthetic with ZDDP. The label made it seem like it was a good oil but it was also a high detergent blend.
High detergent and zinc are a poor combination because as the zinc tries to cling to the moving parts, the detergent tries to clean it off.
Heck, I didn't know. I was fooled by the packaging and thought a synthetic with ZDDP would be a great choice. It was not.
Dwayne suggests "Driven" oil, formerly called "Joe Gibbs".
Oh, another thing....
Dwayne is opposed to additives. He states that the additives may conflict with the chemistry in the oil to either negate any benefit from the additives or actually make matters worse.
Buy the proper oil, use no additives, LOW detergent if any at all and no extended periods of idling.
I didn't know about the conflict of oil and additives. For years, I've poured in a bottle of Comp Cams break in supplement and I was doing fine....THEN I switched to the synthetic and within a year, the cam went bad. 10 or 11 lobes were failing, 4 were almost gone entirely.

[dreamcatcher]

Yep its kind of a crap shoot (mostly crap  ) I remember years ago when you could buy non-detergent oils. A lot has changed I guess.

[472 R/T SE]

So many know it alls for oil.

Get after it boyz.