It's been about 4 months since I started driving the El Camino and I am really happy with the way everything turned out. I just got back from a mini vacation to see family back in Ill. It was cold enough I had to run the heater most of the way up (I ran into SNOW in New Mexico) and hot enough to run the AC on the way back.
I put a little over 4000 miles on it over the last week, mostly interstate driving at 75-80 MPH and was getting around 15 MPG (it figures the gas prices started dropping a little AFTER I got back). The old 500 did great running 12-14 hours at a stretch, never over heated, always started and was really just a pleasure to drive. The only real problem was a voltage regulator in the rebuilt alternator that decided to take a dump on the trip (started over charging).
It also turns out that this is the biggest cop magnet I've built since I stopped putting V8s in Pinto’s and Vega’s 25 years ago ( of course driving up the I 35 Drug/Illegal alien corridor with AZ tags and being an old long hair didn't help :lol: ) I got stopped in Kansas and Missouri. One of the Missouri cops was kind of a car guy and was a bit confused when the registration came back to an 83 El Camino and he knew the nose was older until I explained about the clip swap. When he asked if I was a running a 350 I had the pleasure of telling him it was 507 cubic inches of Cadillac. His next comment was “Jesus how fast is this thing” …… when I told him “I don’t know” the trooper informed me that that was definitely the correct answer ( I had kept the comments of “yet” or the “speedometer only goes to 120 MPH” to myself). I really didn't mind the stops, these guys are doing their jobs and I'm glad they are.
Anyway with 6000 miles on it since January I definitely think this is a success and was worth the effort and $$.
