Not Bad For a V7 with 299,767 Miles . . .
As Well As Another 88,000+ Being Drug Around Behind The RV.
After breakfast at our Super 8 motel this morning, we headed toward home about 8:30 or so, somewhat slowed down by the steady rain. We made a quick pit stop just outside Baton Rouge as the rain finally started to taper off.
Our next stop was at the Breaux Bridge Pilot where we got gas for $1.93, as well as a couple of Jamocha Shakes for the road at the adjacent Arby’s.
Our last stop was at the Baytown Buc-ee’s for a couple of kolaches for dinner after we got home. But that took about an hour longer than we had planned.
Coming into the Webster area they had all six southbound lanes narrowed down to ONE, due to bridge construction. So instead of getting home about 4pm, it was a little after 5.
When we pulled into our rig site this afternoon I checked the truck’s odometer and found we were at 299,767 miles. Plus of course, the 88,000+ miles it’s traveled behind our RV, where the odometer doesn’t register.
I had hoped we’d make 300,000 miles on this trip, but not quite. However we should make the 300,000 mark in a week or so.
But what really makes this remarkable is that the 4.7 liter V8 engine in our 2004 Dodge Dakota has actually been a V7 for about 6 months or so. By that I mean that one cylinder, #7 specifically, is dead.
While the rest of the cylinders have about 125 – 135# of compression, #7 has only about 25#. However it just keeps running.
Yes, it’s got a lumpy idle, kind of like I’m running a full race cam, and it sometimes smokes a little, uses some oil, and the gas mileage is down about 10%, but it just keeps running.
It will do 75 mph on the Interstates with no real problems. It just down a little on power and won’t accelerate as fast. And we had no problems with it on our recent almost 2000 mile trip.
So my thought right now is just to keep running it until it dies, and then either have the engine rebuilt, or replaced with a rebuilt one, for about $5000-$7000. Much cheaper than the $15-20,000 that even an equivalent newer, but used truck would cost me.
Of course it could just keep running as is and outlive us all.
Finishing up, when we got together with my Aunt Lenette and Aunt Virginia last Friday, Lenette mentioned that she and her husband Tom just died a couple of weeks ago, had been married for 70 years.
Gives Jan and I, now at 52+ years, something to aspire to.
Thought For The Day:
Everything happens for a reason and sometimes the reason is that you are really stupid and made a bad decision.
fas
