Maiden voyage(long story)....

[Slammed70]

I would first like to say I do not admit to any crimes, or deliberatly doing anything illegal in this post....(please)enjoy

I finally drove my truck further than two blocks today.

Since I got it moving under its own power over two-two and a half months ago, all Ive done it make trips around town, never no longer than a mile. Barely even time to warm up. Well, I just got a new job since the lay off from the plant. Over 40 miles from my house. And theres no time like the present to work the kinks out on my first day I figured. Well, I pull out of my drive way and make my way to the gas station, $67.23 worth of Premium to fill it up. I grab a Vault and some breakfast and Im on my way.

On the highway I get up to about 40 and I cant hear the whining from the gear drive anymore over the exhaust. Which I didnt like, but didnt really mind either. Ill get a radio again some day....

Up to seventy now and Im cruising along a steady 2200 RPM thanks to the new tranny and the gear change. About half way there I pass a Sheriff who immediatly fires up his roof and told me he clocked me at 87 MPH, I told him theres no way that my old pick up could go that fast. Then I did my best to swindle my way out by showing him my brand new(larger)tires and my Moser box my 2:73s came in. Well my playing dumb ploy worked by telling him that it didnt even occur to me that it would throw off my speedo. I left with a warning ticket, a short story about how I NEED to update my old pick up and install a conventional seat belt, and him telling me that going 60 or so would be 70 for me. Well it must have worked because I passed another one on down the road. And nothing happened. By the way...mild 350 + 2:75/TH350(x tires too big to spin) = NO BALLS! And no balls is alot less than one ball for those of you that arent good at math.

Well my biggest fear set in when I was at the stop light a few blocks from work, and I can see faint traces of smoke coming from underhood and smell the familiar smell of oil burning. A quick glance at the guages, a quick roll down of the window with an ear for the abnormal came back with nothing out of the ordinary. So I eased her to work, with the window down still with an alert ear. I could hear a faint ticking/tapping noise ONLY when off the gas. Which dissapeered at idle or lower speeds. Exhaust leaK???

Pulling in the parking lot into the "vistitor parking only" stall led me to pop my hood to give her a quick once over, pinging/popping noises and familiar random burning smells, and my headers were RED HOT, glowing. Well I bent over to see if I could light my cigarette off it with success. A quick glace at my watch and I barely closed my hood, to leave it open to vent. Im on the guard shack about 30 yards away and could keep an eye on it.

Sitting in an air conditioned guard shack with an old, retired monotone Marine talking about how expensive the price of corn is these days lead to nothing boredom, and the comfortable office chair and cool breeze made me sleepy. After fighitng the urge to pass out for six hours with nothing going on which required my keen security skills I learned at the two hour seminar. Gave me alot of time to think about my truck and how I would like to make it to the range thise weekend.

Finally, lunch break and I could look at my truck. No drips or puddles under the truck with no visible leaks. A quick start and blip of the throttle and a small trip to Wendys who dont sell the spicey baconator anymore(bastards) and on the trip back the truck kind of cut out a bit, I blamed it on the eminse Kansas heat and shrugged it off. More of a bogging down like it was flodding than a cutting out.

Another five and a half hours of fighting the urge to sleep and I could take her back home. But not too soon, I was damn near out of gas. Went just about 40 miles and burnt almost 12 gallons of gas put a big frown on my face, thinking those gears would help me and really all they did was make my truck look like it has a vagina(I.E. No balls!)

Fill her back up and make my voyage home, this time with the windows down to listen for more itrregularities, which the ticking/tapping noise was present the whole way home during cruising speeds and would dissapear when accelorating, but was still present at idle because at stop lights/signs the idle was WAY high. 1200-1400RPM in gear and 2000+ in park. 40 miles back home and another 12 gallons of gas down later I was back in my driveway. Again with the pinging noise after shutting her down and popping the hood once again revieled glowing headers.

I pull the aircleaner to get access to my distributor to check the timing, and I noticed my choke was closed....pumping the trottle wouldnt open it, trying to open it manually wouldnt budge it. My meter showed constant 12v and the a clean ground puzzled me.

So I got to thinking, being full choke always would lead to an EXTREMYLY rich condition would would make my headers glow like they did, the bogging down, and the gas mileage....could all that be caused by the choke being closed like that? And could the have been damaging to my engine? I know I probably would have grenaded it if I had been runing lean? But rich? There was know black smoke from the exhause anywhere.

I dont know...
Any ideas?

Thanks,
Mitch-