<VV> ring job - looking ...

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

gornzilla at gmail.com wrote:

>... drove up to Sacramento the next.  About 350 miles on I-5 doing 70.
>

Only 70, and you didn't get run over?

It'd be my opinion that yes, you are probably looking at a replacement 
engine, or rebuilding yours, or having it rebuilt.

Methinks that taking an unproven 40 year old car on a 300+ mile trip up 
an 85 mph freeway through the desert without expecting a breakdown is 
rather, should I say, foolhardy?  Yes, the San Joaquin Valley is a 
desert, and as almost all irrigated deserts, when you irrigate it, it 
grows stuff.  If you were keeping up with traffic, you probably were 
doing more than 70 -- have you checked your speedometer calibration?  Or 
perhaps CHP has finally clamped down really hard on enforcement out there?

Certainly, a well maintained Corvair would be expected to complete such 
a trip, but e-Bay cars (as well as nearly any used vehicle previously 
unknown to you) are suspect, regardless of the stories and documentation 
that they come with (aka, "buyer beware"), and must be tested and proven 
by the current owner, and forty or fifty miles around town (less than an 
hours worth of driving), isn't much "proof".  I'd say you successfully 
tested the engine to the point of destruction, regardless of the intent, 
and another "used engine" will likely meet the same fate, sorry to say.

Next trip to Sacramento in an old car, stick to 55 mph on 99

mo, subject to change based on more accurate description of the issues,

Bill Strickland