The Story Continues

I fulfilled a dream of mine a few days ago and bought a 1966 Ford Mustang. Naturally I'll be writing a blog about it too. It can be found from mustang66project.blogspot.fi.

The End

Well, I'm a bit sad to say that I sold the Corvette today. I had it since fall of 2009 and had put a lot of hours into it but it was time to find something different for a change. But the "Speedy Banana" did not let go easily. Here's how my last days with the car went so I can laugh/cry to them later ;)

I got a few phone calls after putting the Corvette for sale and some visitors too. One in particular seemed interested but wished that I have the car inspected because it was due in a few months. "Sure", I said, knowing that nothing should be wrong with the car. Confident, I drove to the inspection office the same day. Everything went smooth until I was asked why the windshield wipers were not working. WTF!? I had tested them the previous day.

Broken Wiper

I immediately checked the fuse, connectors and other obvious places but could not get the wipers to work. I drove home with a failed result. Can't remember the last time I was so mad... Back home I removed the wiper motor and tried testing it straight from a battery. The damn thing just did not work. I had to inform the buyer that I'll try to find a new wiper motor as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, I was also going for a small trip right at that time but after it, I did manage to find a new motor from US-Parts. It was the last one they had so I drove there immediately to get it. After installing it, the wipers worked again. Then it was time to go for another holiday trip for a few days and then have the car inspected again.

I drove to the office, showed that the wipers work and got the accepted stamp. Phew! But the troubles were not over yet. On my way home, I noticed that the engine temperature rose when stopping for traffic lights and dropped again while driving. Soon I had to stop in a parking lot to check the engine. Immediately I noticed that the fan was not working. What now!?

Broken Fan

After letting the engine cool for two hours, I got back home and started another investigation after letting the car sit for the night. And again I informed the buyer that I need to do some tweaking. The fan worked when I fed it from the battery so I turned my gaze to the Hayden 3647 controller. Its relay worked fine, the unit got power correctly but, as I found out, the unit itself just never activated the fan. I started reading some reviews for it from Amazon.com and seems that the dozens of 1-star ratings were correct. The Made In China piece of crap could not handle the heat in the engine bay and melted after a few days or month of use.

I could not get a new controller during weekend nor did I want to afflict the new owner with such crap, so I had to think a new plan and soon. I had bought a temperature sensor earlier that was installed in the water hose with a small fitting. It was my original plan for controlling the fan but had abandoned it because the instructions said that it should be in the lower hose. I had not found a fitting large enough for it but the one I had was perfect for the upper hose. I did some investigation and finally decided that I would just buy a sensor for slightly higher temperatures and use it.

I drained some coolant, cut the upper hose and installed the fitting and sensor. Then it was time to refill the system and test it. Unfortunately the fan still did not run after the engine had warmed up. Time to dig up the multimeter again. Luckily I found the problem immediately. The fan control relay got correct signals but did not activate the fan. It had stuck after being in the car unused for two years. I had an extra relay and with it, everything worked!

So finally, today I took my last drive with the Corvette as I delivered it to the buyer. We chatted for a long time and went through the parts I sold with the car. When everything seemed to be in order, we made the paperwork and the Speedy Banana was not mine anymore.

I guess it's time to start searching for a new project now...

Fixing The Exhaust Pipe

I noticed my passenger side exhaust pipe was blowing quite badly. First meter of it was poorly made from flexible tube and the welds were terrible. Luckily the rest of the pipe was better so only the front part had to be changed.

At first I thought that I'd make the pipe myself but after crawling under the car for a while, I decided that it would be too difficult and dangerous without a lift. I called a few garages but most were on holiday. Finally I found JM Autohuolto from Järvenpää that could fix the it.

I drove the Corvette there in the morning and picked it up later. The new pipe had been build and welded together. I took a short test drive and the car sounded much better again. The nasty burble was gone as the exhaust was again flowing where it was supposed to.

Adding Stripes

I wanted to give a bit of new look for my car so I ordered some matte black 3M 1080 masking wrap from Automatrix. I decided to start small and just add some highlights for the hood bump. I began by taping some paper on the hood and marking the outline on it. After cutting it out, I used it as a template for cutting the tape.

I also painted the hood grille black so it matches the stripes.

I'm not absolutely sure if the car look better or worse with the stripes. I'll have to let the new look sink in a few days :) Luckily it is easy to peel the tapes off without damage. The 3M tape was really simple to use so changing the look is no problem.

Cabin Heat Problems

I took a longer drive with the Corvette and noticed that adding Stinger Roadkill to the cabin did not solve the heat issues in the car. It just took a bit longer for the cabin to become a sauna. So more needed to be done. I spent some time googling and many others have the same issues with C3 Corvettes. I found three different issues that I addressed:

1. Heater core isolation
2. Hood weatherstrip
3. AC and heater box sealing

Heater Core Isolation

The biggest issue was the heater core. I found that the heater feed hose should have a vacuum operated valve that cuts the water circulation when the AC temperature setting is in cold. The valve was missing so it meant that the heater was always working at full power! No wonder the cabin temperature rose...

Seems that many people have problems with the vacuum valve and have replaced it with a manual valve. As I only drive during summer, the heater is not really needed so I decided to do the same. And I can get a manual valve from the local hardware store as opposed to ordering from US. To completely isolate the heater core, I added valves to both hoses. Otherwise heat can creep up through the drain hose on long drives.

I found some nice, small ball valves, cut the hoses and installed them. It will be easy to replace them later if I decide to install an original vacuum valve. When doing this, just note that the feed hose (from the intake manifold) needs 1/2 inch nipples and the drain hose 3/4 inch.

While doing this investigation, I also realised that I need to find the vacuum hose that should feed the valve. And I found it sticking out from the firewall under other hoses and wires. It had been cut so it was causing a vacuum leak! No wonder the other vacuum operated valves in the dash did not work correctly.

Hood Weatherstrip

Another common reason for cabin heat is a perished hood weatherstrip. Mine was missing completely. I've had one for years but had not installed it yet... This allows engine heat to enter the cowl area where the fresh air intake is. This could be fixed with a little drop of glue so I got that sorted in a few minutes.

AC And Heater Box Sealing

While working under the hood, I noticed that a lot of air was flowing out of the heater/AC box. Sealing was mostly gone so nearly all of the fresh air from the blower escaped through the seams to the engine bay. I did not have the sealing kit available so I stuffed some foam in the gaps.

Results

I've taken some shorter drives with the car after these changes. Cabin temperature has dropped to much more tolerable level. It's still pretty warm but nowhere near the oven heat it was before. I also noticed that the car is much quieter now with the hood weatherstrip in place. I guess a lot of air was flowing through the gap as it was causing wind noise.

Unfortunately sealing the heater box did not fix the poor air flow in the car. Even with the blower at full power, there's hardly any air coming out of the vents. I'll need to investigate that a bit more.

Sony DSX-A50BT

I finally got fed up with the radio in my car. The USB connector did not work as the whole device shut down when I connected the memory stick. I even bought a memory card but that slot did not work either. I was worried that the problem was caused by the wiring in the car but as the radio was working normally, it did not seem likely.

The space in the car is very limited so I spent some time earlier trying to find a shallow head unit. The only one available (that I could find from Finland) was the Sony DSX-A50BT. I ordered one from Verkkokauppa.com, and it arrived in a day.

Installing the radio took about 5 minutes as everything plugged straight in. I tested the USB and Bluetooth playback and it worked perfectly. I was a bit worried that the unit did not have iPod controls but Bluetooth support could be used just as easily. Sound quality was also much better now!

On The Road Again

I took my Corvette for inspection last week. It did not pass because one of the rear brake hoses was leaking. Luckily it was only because the connecting nut had loosened when I fixed the parking brake during winter. I tightened the nut and the car passed the inspection today!

On the drive home I also tested the car on the freeway. I drove about 110kph for a few kilometers and there was no overheating problem anymore. Seems that it was caused by the wrong ignition timing.

New Tail Lights

I happened to find some pretty nice tail lights on sale in Finnshark. Mine are in horrible condition so I decided to buy them. I took a short drive today to get the lights and besides a few scratches, they were great. I also made a few other nice purchases but more about those later :) Changing the lights only took a few minutes but it really made a huge difference to the rear appearance.

Out with the old...

...and in with the new!

I've also been busy with the parts I ordered from Big City Corvette. I've installed the new side tail lights, rear window trim and driver side ducts. Installing the passenger side duct seems to require removal of some interior panels so I have not bothered yet...

Picture screaming "wash me!"

Setting Ignition Timing

Finding Top Dead Center

The ignition timing in my car has thus far been set to "seems to run" standard by ear. I've come to the conclusion that perhaps I should actually measure it before next summer. But, as always, there's a catch. The problem is the top dead center mark in the damper. I don't really trust that it is correct and even if it is, the water pump prevents seeing it at TDC.

Luckily I found an easy way to find the TDC without taking the heads off. I ordered a piston stop tool by Comp Cams from Amazon. It is quite easy to build a similar tool from an old spark plug but it is cheap so I decided to order one. Package arrived in about a week so I got to work.

To use the tool, I first needed a marker to the engine to use as reference. The power steering pump bracket was at a convenient place close to the damper so I decided to use it. I loosened one of its bolts, bended a small wire and placed it under the bolt.

Next I replaced the number one spark plug with the piston stop and very carefully turned the engine to clockwise direction by hand until the piston contacted with the tool. I added a small drop of paint to the damper where the marker was pointing. Next I turned the engine to counterclockwise until contact happened again and another small drop of paint was added. The top dead center is in the middle of the points. For me they were about 1,5 cm away from each other so I painted a longer line between the points. I bended the wire a bit so it was pointing at the line.

Finally I returned the plug to the first cylinder and removed all other tools from the engine bay so it was safe to start up.

Setting Ignition Timing

Another tool that I needed was the timing lamp. I went to Motonet where they had three different models:

• A really basic model that had no settings at all. It would just flash the light when the spark plug fired.
• Second, a bit more expensive one where you could set the wanted advance between 0 and 60 degrees.
• Third one was way more expensive but it had a lot of features: adjustable advance, a tachometer, volmeter and who knows what else.

To use the cheapest one, I would need to have the degrees marked to the damper itself. I could buy a ready made sticker or just count and draw them myself (damper diameter 8 inches * PI / 360 = 1,77mm per degree) but save some hassle, I bought the lamp with the adjustable advance. With that, I could just turn the knob until TDC marking aligned with the pointer and then read the advance from the lamp.

I began by measuring the initial timing. I removed and plugged the distributor vacuum hose and started the car. Without the vacuum advance the engine was idling (according its own tach) at only 400rpm so I tuned the carb a bit until it rose to 500rpm. When the engine had warmed up, I checked the timing and got about 38 degrees! Phew, that's what the total timing should be, not idle!

I turned the engine off to call a few friends and surf the web a bit. I thought I had done something wrong with my markings or something. After some investigation I came to the conclusion that it is possible for the engine to run with that much timing so it was time to correct it. I loosened the distributor, marked its initial position and started the car again.

I let the car settle to normal idle, measured the timing and got the same 38 degrees. I turned the distributor to clockwise until the advance showed 8 degrees. I was surprised that I only needed to turn it a few centimeters to get it correct. Engine also sounded better now.

Finally I also measured the total timing. I reconnected the distributor vacuum hose and asked my wife to help. She worked the gas pedal and kept the engine at 2000 rpm for me. There the advance was 30 degrees. What I read from the web, that should be OK.

Perhaps this was the reason why my engine started to get hot at high rpm on the highway? We'll see when driving season starts soon!

Parts Received From Big City Corvettes

Santa arrived late and brought me a note in the mail which said that the order from Big City Corvettes had arrived to customs. I jumped straight to my car and drove to the airport to get it. I had to pay over 130 euros of tax and then the box was mine.

Back at home I inspected the parts and everything seemed to be in order. The box was well packed and all used pieces were in good condition. Now I'll just have to find some time to install them. Unfortunately it has been really cold around here for the past weeks so spending time in the garage is not a pleasurable experience.

Ordering Interior Parts

I've been missing a few interior parts from my Corvette. The rear window frame and lower trim, center console side panels and horn button were the most visible items. In addition both side AC air ducts and driver side vent were missing. As the car was otherwise complete, it was time to start hunting for them. You can get reproduction versions of the interior panels but not of the ducts. So I went to eBay to get original parts.

I tried emailing some used parts sellers but never got a reply. Until I found Big City Corvettes that is. They replied quickly and had the AC parts I was looking for. Unfortunately they didn't have the interior panels in the colour I needed (Firethorn), but promised to order repro versions of them. The horn button was not available, but I really want to replace the steering wheel anyway so it was left out. I waited a couple of weeks and just received a confirmation that my order has been shipped to Finland! Now I just have to wait until the parts get here and go through customs. Oh, and pay the 24% VAT and 4,5% customs tax.

As a bonus I also ordered yellow side marker lights for my car. The red marker lights are illegal in Finland so I'll replace the rear lights with yellow ones. I've read that they should fit right in.

Quest For A Shallow Head Unit

I have been thinking about upgrading my Clatronic AR 817 head unit in the Corvette. Its sound quality was not that good and for some reason the USB port did not work correctly. While playing music from my memory stick, the head unit turned off completely at times and started playing again after a few seconds. It was really annoying and made the USB useless. At least the radio worked normally.

Now that I have the subwoofer in the car, I started thinking that a better head unit would be nice. But soon I learned the one good thing about the Clatronic: it was really shallow. Only 12 cm (4.7 inches) deep while most are between 16 and 18 cm (around 6.5 inches). I measured the car and the maximum installation depth was 16.5 cm (6.5 inches) but the wiring took at least another inch so the full size head units did not fit.

This meant that at least equipment with CD player were out the window. I did not need that anyway so I started looking for a mechless unit. But for some reason the manufacturers like to make even those the same length so they did not fit. Finally after hours of going through Kenwood, JVC, Pioneer, Alpine and Sony selections and reading many discussions I managed to find a few possibilities:
 - Sony DSX-A50BT
 - Sony DSX-A30
 - Parrot Asteroid

The Parrot seemed interesting and really small but it is not available in Finland. This leaves the Sony models. According to their descriptions they were 12 cm deep, which is perfect. They were identical except that the A50BT has Bluetooth support. A major missing feature (for me) is that they do not have iPod support but I can live with it as long as they have better quality than the Clatronic and they fit in the car. I'll have to order one soon if I can't find something better as they are already older models.

Window Motor And Interior Assembly

Passenger Window Motor

After waiting for a new passenger side window motor for ten months, I finally gave up and cancelled the order. As the only thing wrong with the old motor was a broken connector, I decided to try and fix it again. After about an hour of fiddling, I managed to solder a new connector to the old one. It felt strong enough and the motor worked when I tested it from a battery, so I decided to use it.

I had to loosen the window regulator bolts a bit to get the the motor in place and then attached the three bolts that held the motor in the door. After tightening every bolt again and attaching the wires, it was time to test the motor. I connected the ground cable back to the battery, turned the ignition on and the motor worked fine! Finally I tuned the window position according the instructions in the Chilton manual and the job was done.

Interior Assembly

After the window motor was installed, I could put the interior back in place. Bolting the seats was annoying as usual but other parts went in without problems. I think that this is the first time the passenger side door panel has been attached to the car for as long as I have had it! The interior does look much better now that it is pretty much complete.

Everything was back in the car again so I turned it around to be able to work with the driver side. The engine started fine and ran normally so I let it warm up a bit. Now the only problem was that what should I do next!?

Insulating the Corvette

While driving around with the Corvette last summer, I noticed that it got really hot after about 100 km. Especially around the legs. Well, there was hardly any insulation in the car and the engine and transmission did produce a lot of heat so perhaps I should have guessed it. The car was also pretty noisy but that was secondary compared to the temperatures in the cabin. This time I decided to do the insulation right by getting some good stuff.

My friend had used the Stinger Roadkill in his -65 Mustang and said that it was easy to install and worked well. I also went for a small test drive with him and was pretty amazed how quiet his Mustang was. Almost like a modern car. So, I bought three trunk kits that each had 1.85 square meters (20 sq. ft.) of material. Over 5.5 square meters in total. I read from some discussions that 5 to 6 square meters should be enough to cover the whole interior.

My plan was to remove the carpets and some interior pieces so I could insulate as much of the car as possible. Again the small garage worked against me so I had to work one side at a time. This time the weather was also an obstacle. When I started the work, it was about 5 to 10 degrees outside and going down. I would have to work fast before it got below freezing. As the Stinger was mostly meant for sound dampening, I planned to install two layers to the hottest areas: firewall and transmission tunnel.

I started from the driver side. I removed the seat, kick panel, carpet and the old "insulation". It was so crappy that most likely it didn't do anything... The floor that my friend built three years ago still seemed to be in good shape thanks to the rust proofing we sprayed.

Old "insulation"

Floors still good. Maybe a bit dirty.

The Stinger boxes said that no surface preparation would be needed but I still made sure to remove all dirt with some acetone. After wiping the floors, it was time to start installing. The Stinger comes in 30 cm by 61 cm sheets and should be cut to correct shape with a carpet knife but it is so soft that I even used scissors in some places. Starting from the largest level areas, I worked towards the walls and corners. After removing the backing paper and carefully placing the sheet, I used a roller to firmly attach it.

Attaching one of the first sheets

It took me a few hours but finally the floor was done. I also added some Stinger to the lower halves of the doors. The higher parts of the doors have some crash barriers so I couldn't get any insulation there.

Driver floor done.

Insulation in the door.

Next I turned the car around and removed the passenger side interior. The floors seemed good there too so I just cleaned them and started rolling.

Passenger floor.

When both floors were done, it was time to check the trunk. I still had a full box of Stinger left so I removed the carpets and old insulation and got to work. Unfortunately after a while if got too cold to work any more. I got everything else done except the wheel arches until the temperatures dropped below freezing. Then the Stinger just would not stick any more and fell off the walls. Luckily the glue hardens after install so the pieces that were done earlier are fine.

Hopefully the many layers of Stinger in the firewall make the Corvette a cooler place next summer. Unfortunately I won't feel or hear the difference until spring...

Fixing Power Windows

I've had a small problem with my power windows: the motor could not lift the window all the way up. I had to help the motor a bit with my hand. While reading the Finnshark forum, I found an explanation that this is caused by the spring in the window mechanism. It needs to be preloaded by half circle to be powerful enough for the window. The annoying bit is that to do this, you need to pretty much disassemble the whole window mechanism...

Well, all I had was time so off to work. I began from the passenger side as it was still missing the window motor. I ordered one almost eight months ago but still had not received it. First I loosened the two nuts that held the window in place and lifted it out. Getting everything else out was simple job of unscrewing a few bolts.

Preloading the spring was also pretty easy. I turned the window regulator over until I could just put the spring in place. Then loaded it by using the arm as leverage. Putting the mechanism back in the door was a bit trickier now that the spring was loaded. I handled that by putting a zip tie around the arms. Now I could put the glass back in and finally tune all the settings so it moved correctly.

The driver side was the same deal. Only this time I also put the motor in. I tested it and now the window rose all the way up without problems. So the passenger side should also work when I get the new motor.

Passenger Side Emergency Brake

I was messing around the garage tonight and decided to check the passenger side emergency brake. I jacked the Corvette and removed the caliper as before.

Everything went smoothly and I started checking the system. This time the brake mechanism itself was OK but the shoes were not that good. Most likely they had been dragging for some time and overheated. This had opened some cracks in the lining. They were still in one piece though so I decided to put everything back together and hope they would last my light use.

Finally I adjusted the shoes and put the wheel back. I didn't take the car for a test drive but the emergency brake handle was quite firm now so hopefully this problem is finally solved.

Emergency Brake Problems

Like mentioned in the previous post, my emergency brake was not working properly. Because of this the car failed its inspection and could not be driven any more. Luckily the driving season was pretty much over already so I decided to leave the fix for later. This was a month ago so I thought that now would be a good time.

As tuning just the cable or adjusting the shoes through the hole in the brake disk didn't work, I needed to see the mechanism itself. This required me to remove the brake caliper and disk. The driver side was worse according to the inspectors, so I began there.

I removed the two bolts that held the caliper in place and then hung it from the frame with zip ties. Now the disk could be just pulled off. Pretty soon I found the problem. I saw that the actuating lever had slipped off the other shoe and actually didn't spread them at all. A few minutes with a screwdriver fixed it. I couldn't find anything else wrong so I put everything back together.

Naturally I needed to tune the brake shoes and the cable again but after those took a short test drive. The brake felt much better already but perhaps I'll check the passenger side too later...

Winter Time Blues

It's been a long time since my last update as nothing major has happened with the car. Driving season is already over so it's time to start planning for winter and recollect what happened during summer.

I drove only about 500 km (310 miles) with the Corvette but found some small problems during those trips. The interior is pretty noisy, it gets quite hot inside after the engine has warmed up and the coolant temperature rises if driving over 90 km/h (55 mph) for long periods. The first two annoyances should be fixed by adding more insulation to the interior but the last one could be a bit tricky. The problem is, I'm not absolutely certain, that the engine really starts overheating because the temperature sensor is right next to the exhaust manifold. It could just be heating the sensor at higher RPMs. I think I'll just add some heat wrap over the manifold before examining the problem further.

Another problem surfaced when I took the car for annual vehicle inspection. My Corvette didn't pass because the emergency brake didn't work properly. No matter how much I tried tuning it, I could not get it to hold. In the end I gave up and decided to check the brake during winter.

Those problems should keep me entertained for a while.

Corvette Fuel Consumption

When driving to see my friend at Tampere, I also finally measured the fuel consumption of my car. I filled the tank when leaving, drove about 190km and idled a bit while measuring the exhaust gasses. This took 30 liters of fuel.

So the car drinks about 15-16 liters per 100 km. Or does about 15 miles per gallon to US readers.

Could be much worse but with 1,65 € per liter (or $7.9 per gallon) of 98 octane fuel in Finland at the moment, it's not a cheap car to drive...

Wheel Alignment, Carb Tuning And Transmission Fixing

It's been a while since I last fiddled with my Corvette so it was time to go back to business. I drove the car about 130km to Tampere to see my car mechanic friend. We had a few tasks on our list: check the wheel alignment, see if the carburetor was tuned correctly after my rebuild and open the transmission to check the shifter linkage.

The drive to Tampere went fine except for the heat. The cabin of the car got pretty hot after a while and it was quite noisy. The Corvette also didn't seem to like the highway. If driving over 100km/h (62mph), the temperature of the engine rose. Not enough to overheat but enough to limit the speed to about 90km/h (55mph)...

Carburetor tuning

We began from the carb as the car was hot after drivin it to the garage. I had rebuild my Holley 80457-S during winter so I had no idea if it was tuned correctly. We placed the probe in both exhaust pipes individually and checked the readings. Idle HC was about 100ppm on both sides and CO about 1%. This meant the engine was running pretty lean!

We loosened the idle screws and got the HC values to about 300-350ppm and CO to about 5% - 5,5%. This was much better.

Next we tested the engine at 2200 RPM. CO dropped to 1% again. I guess this means the carb needs larger main jets. This could also be the reason why the engine gets hot on the freeway as a lean mixture burns hotter.

Left exhaust reading

Right exhaust reading

Wheel Alignment

Next on the list was the wheel alignment. I drove the car on a lift and my friend set up the gear. I didn't know how to use the equipment so I just stood out of the way and looked. It took some time but finally we had the results: both front and rear alignments were within specifications! This was surprising as a lot had been done to the suspension since the last alignment: front springs had been cut, rear had been risen a bit, rear bearings had been changed etc. Oh well, I'm not complaining as this was a much easier job than expected.

Transmission Surgery

I already opened my TH-350 transmission once during winter to tighten the shifter shaft nut. This cured the missing first gear for a while until the nut loosened again. So I knew the transmission was working but the shifter was not.

We drained the oil and dropped the pan. After some examination, my friend had a revelation. Here's the old photo from winter.

It's a bit hard to see but there is a washer on the shaft. But not between the nut and the plate but between the plate and the clip that holds the shaft in place! We removed the clip, opened the nut and pulled the shaft out. Quickly we saw that with the washer in place, the plate never locked to the shaft but just rotated around. We switched the washer to the other side of the plate and put the transmission back together. Wow, even after working with the car for this long, we still find surprises like this...

Finally we decided to switch the speedo driving gear too. The only one I had found before had 10 teeth but after driving a while, I learned I would need a 8 teeth one. The speedometer was showing way too high. Changing the driven gear would not help as I would need a 24 teeth one, but the largest one for TH-350 had 22.

So we pulled the end of the transmission and removed the old, blue gear. I got the correct black one from US-Parts again but something was wrong! The gear was really loose on the transmission shaft. The old one was really tight but this new one was about 1 millimeter larger in diameter. This also meant that the clip that should hold it in place didn't work.

We had to cut the gear up a bit and push a split pin under it to hold it in place. We could only hope it would work and put the transmission back together. Unfortunately it didn't work as the speedometer didn't work at all after this... *uck!

On the return trip the engine still got hot on the freeway and cooled after a few kilometers of slower driving. I need to adress that issue later and go back to the speedo gear too...