About 1,600 miles into a 1,700 mile trip across America, David and Andrew's 1986 Jeep Grand Wagoneer blows a hose and leaves the boys stranded in a town called Parachute.
This series is so damn good. Interesting to see someone as competent as DT freaking out about a car. Makes me feel better about getting to the stuff-throwing stage of wrenching! Thanks for bringing us along, guys!
"we had it pegged" If the gauge was showing it was getting hot why did you keep driving? Did you guys not notice? In fairness a heater core hose failed on my mom's minivan and my mom didn't notice the engine was getting hot until the dash dinged to notify her
luis545x39 what I'm saying. I was wondering why the hell he was freaking out so much, it's not like it's 40 years old and been sitting neglected for 8 of them.
Bleachanna yeah i ince vapor locked my carb on my motorcycle doing a river crossing. i thought i hydrolocked the entire engine but it was just my vacum hose going under water. it was all a matter of re routing the hose. gotta love carburetors.
Epic guys. ThNks for the video. Such harsh comments on here. The internet can be so vapid. Chill out guys. This is a great road trip and they are young and enjoying the adventure. Congrats for taking this on, something few would have done. Keep on trucking boys and let the road take you where it may.
HAHA same where I live too. People want a fortune for garbage here in Idaho too...and god forbid you insult them by telling them what they're trying to sell should have gone to the scrap yard decades ago.
William Todd oh god, right? Here in Kentucky, if it's "faur wheyl drayuve!" It immediately adds 1k to the asking price, regardless of whether it's actually working or not, lol. God forbid you bring up the rusted frame or trashed transmission..they'll run you out of the scrap yard for questioning their expert pricing system.
Dang I thought that was only an Idaho thing, must be running rampant across the country now HAHA!!! What really irked me was several years ago there was a 34 Ford truck out in a field about 20 miles away. At the time it was in very good condition, I don't know if it ran at the time or not but the body and everything was really really nice. I actually stopped and asked the owner what his plans were with it and he said it doesn't matter I'm not selling it he didn't know anything about it, it was just there when he bought the place and the previous owner just handed the paperwork over to the new owner for it. Well years went by and the truck just sat there and finally rusted to pieces...what the hell is wrong with people like that.
William Todd it's the same in KY my friend....there's an apache just ROTTING under a tree, owner refuses to sell "I'll get to it".....I've watched it go from a restorable project to a lump of rust.... :( I just don't understand people like that. :/
This is painful. Aren't you guys automotive journalists? You don't know what the brake light means? You didn't replace the hoses and belts before you left? No wonder I don't read jalop anymore.
Must be nice to be rich and take a perfectly good $800 vehicle on a 1700 mile trip and destroy it because of their total lack of mechanical knowledge. That Jeep Grand Wagoneer is like a $3k truck here in Idaho, if it runs and drives and its 4WD you can't touch it for under $3k...if it says Toyota on it, double the price, don't matter if every body panel on it is dented, scratched, or even missing, it'll cost ya $6k because its 4WD.
A full-size Jeep forum told them that a loose parking brake pedals causes the brake light to come on in those vehicle. Uh, duh it’s like that on tons of vehicle with that style of p-brake.
Not sure how fast you were goin, but 65 or 70, is about as fast as you want to go, and not for any long distances, stock they don't have the cooling capabilities. Plus they dont have an overdrive trans so at 70 mph your wound to like 3000, 3500 rpm, they were never meant to sustain that for long periods, especially going over mountain passes. They came from a time when 55 mph was the speed limit. I have an 88, with over 500,000 on it runs like a champ but I understand it's strengths and weaknesses.
Most people don't understand that exact issue with older vehicles they were built back when speed limits were 55mph, and many actually had the 55mph highlighted in some fashion or another. My 88 Ford Bronco 2 will cruise all day long at 55mph and get 25mpg while doing it with the AC on and that's with an automatic transmission, however it does have overdrive but at 55mph its running about 1700rpm...compared to the non-overdrive model at about 2,000rpm, not much difference. Totally agree though older vehicles do much better all around being ran around 55-60mph, they also get their best fuel economy in that speed range too...heck even new vehicles get better fuel economy at 55-60mph...the faster you go the faster your vehicle drinks fuel.
With the extremely high gearing offered in these things 2.72 or 3.31, you'd be pushing 80 before you'd be near 3000 rpm. I can run 70 on the interstate with mine and still be under 2500 rpm. Also, my T/A gets best economy at 80mph in 6th gear. Cruising about 1800rpm. 30+mpg. Speed and economy is no longer a direct correlation.
You'd also run a possibility of toasting the coolant temp sender as well when the temp gauge got pegged. If I was sponsored by Jalopnik and had an old af beater, aside from changing the belts/hoses/liquids/fixing any cooling problems, I'd also install an aftermarket temp gauge that would be more accurate than a 30 something year old gauge. But then again I'd always glance at the temp gauge at any given moment.
you can tell they're new to overheats. it's all good though, this is the best way to learn. the bite of the fuckin fire. I envy their courage to take what people would consider 'junk' cars and hit the highway with it. thats one of the reasons I fell in love with roadkill. keep it up guys. maybe consider getting a dedicated camera guy
I drove from Chillicothe Ohio to Denver Colorado in a 1983 Ford Cargo van with a 351 Windsor V8. We made it all the way to Aurora Colorado before the head gasket blew. The van only cost $700 when we got it 1 week before the trip. I think long drive seem to overheat the head and blow the gaskets. Kansas does suck to drive through, we stopped in Russell Kansas and it was boring as fuck!
Its time like these where your glad you carried a knife, duct tape, and a cooler of water..... If you don't, then toss a knife and a roll of good duct tape in the tool box.
I drove a PT Cruiser 500 miles with no coolant and over mountain passes I basically treated it like an air cooled vehicle and didn't care if I blew up the engine as long as I got within 100 miles of my destination so AAA can tow it. Once I got to my exit in LA, the car shut off on me and I rolled into a gas station. I got it to start again even though it didn't want to and drove it the last 2 miles.
And that is.......... why you need to check fluid levels regularly on old cars trust me. I know cause my Lexus LS 400 Burns oil and leaves coolant and it still runs beautifully.
Lucky it has cast iron heads...if it had been one of those newfangled engines with aluminum heads that Jeep wouldn't have been going any farther under its own power
Doesn't think there's any coolant in it and runs it anyway..... What a doofus. NO mechanical sympathy, but sure whines when something goes wrong. How about a AAA membership before you leave for Moab in your beater....
So, let me get this straight. They hit the road in this beater without installing new hoses and without having additional coolant on board and then, attemptED to drive it over some mountains...but only after preaching to us about having checked the cooling system to ensure it's on point. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Funny when today see coolant blowing out the hood on an older vehicle they think its a head gasket lol .. Fact is older vehicles never had head gasket issues...It want until the small 4 cyl and 6 cyl cars of the 1980's with aluminum heads and cast iron blocks..Now new 2000 and up V8's have cast iron and aluminum heads thus you get head gasket issues,as you need to change coolant every few years..Old cars people wouldnt even change it and still no head gasket issues on 1980's and older American V8's !
No just drivers who aren't idiots. Funny that thing has a full gauge cluster and the moron driver obviously never bothered to look at the gauge otherwise he would have noticed it getting hot long before there was trouble.
I thought so too, but I was told the Jeep Grand Wagoneers were only sold with the 360's. Maybe a few rare special order models but I haven't seen or heard of any. Would be nice to hear from a Jeep guru for sure though.
