A few years ago, back when Oppo ran on Kinja and nothing worked. I wrote an article about a vehicle I wanted to acquire and how I was not going to let any amount of logic or reason stop me. Well that day has finally come. I am now the proud owner of a 1989 Dodge Dakota Convertible.

For those who do not know, the Dodge Dakota Convertible was part of an agreement between Dodge and the American Sunroof Company (ASC) in Michigan. ASC has worked with many manufacturers on creating convertible versions of their cars whether the cars were intended to be convertibles or not. For some reason, Dodge thought it would be a good idea to make a convertible version of their small pickup. The Dodge Dakota Convertible was produced for 3 years, 1989 - 1991. A vast majority of them were made in 1989 and 1990 with only a small handful produced in 1991 (I think it was around 8). The 1991 trucks are a fun story for another time as they share little to no similarities to the rest of the convertibles.

Enough exposition, let’s tell the story of how I came into possession of this beautiful machine. Over the past several years, I have been trying to acquire one of these vehicles. Unfortunately, the intersection of money, time, and opportunity never met up, until it did (and that’s debatable). I was cruising the social medias and this truck came across the feed. It was sitting in a barn in rural America put away by its previous owner at just under 130k miles because they had become fed up with chasing an overheating issue. The price was too good to pass up so I started researching how the cooling system worked and its problems. Now I have been researching these 1st gen Dakotas for years and knew several of the quirks and features (such as their appetite for transmissions). After a call with the seller and gathering facts, I went all in.

I proceeded to break pretty much every rule of buying a used car on the internet. I never looked at this truck outside of the pictures. I didn’t even pick it up from the seller. Heck, I never even met the seller. A very enthusiastic friend picked the truck up for me because my availability was extremely limited, and a quick pickup of the truck sweetened the deal. I pretty much went full Tyler Hoover and bought it sight unseen. When I got my first look at the truck 9 days after I had purchased it and 2 days after it had gotten home, I was ecstatic to see that it more or less matched the description. There are a couple issues I had not prepared for, but overall my projections have been pretty close to reality.

Why would I do this? Why would I dive headfirst into a hooptie rescue mission? Buying and restoring an old car has been a bucket list item for me. Sure, like everyone else I wanted to get an old Porsche or AMX, but those are pretty much unobtainable in halfway decent shape. I stumbled upon these Dakota Convertibles many years ago and think they are the perfect balance between practical workhorse and classic car charm. To top it off, these Dakota Convertibles have been slowly but steadily appreciating. Not Bring a Trailer levels, but a decent condition example could bring ~4-6k. I did fear that I would have to wait for the ideal moment in time only to be much older and have to pay much more money. I didn't want to do that. Call it being foolish and/or a fear of missing out. Instead of YOLOing in GME, I YOLO’d into a 30 year old pickup. (This reference made sense when I first drafted this post. Now it is probably outdated. Hello fellow kids!) I am fully invested in getting this truck back on the road and using it for fun as well as truck related things. It is going to be a great adventure with many mishaps along the way. I know I have probably gone in way over my head, and I can’t wait.

I know what you all are thinking, “It sure has been a while since bwp240 updated us on his Dodge Dakota Convertible. I bet it has exploded by now…” Well, it has not, so I am happy to exceed expectations.

When we last left off, I replaced the throttle position sensor to correct an issue where the truck would stall when you stopped (like a stick shift without using the clutch). With that issue remedied, I drove the truck back to my house from my friend's cul-du-sac after a couple months of work.

It was like bringing home a new pet. I brought it home, left it overnight, and woke up to find it had deposited liquids all over my floor. This was particularly concerning because outside of the small oil leak at the front of the engine I knew about (and manifested itself all over the cooling fan), there weren’t any other leaks while it sat at my friend's house.

I am guessing that the 20 mile highway drive is the furthest the truck had been driven in about 3 years; so I should not have been surprised that more leaks appeared.

Staring at the brown puddle on my concrete floor did not help me identify what fluid was seeping out of the bottom of the truck. The mix of oil, sand, grease, and dirt made it impossible to identify. I put a white paper towel down and let the fluids leak a little more. Came back to find splotches of red and brown. Transmission fluid and oil.

I crawled underneath and found that it was leaking transmission fluid out of many bolts, which seemed odd as the pan and side were pretty clean. I thought this was similar to the overheating issue, maybe the bolts were loose, nah it can’t be. I put a wrench on the bolt and it tightened with ease, sure enough the bolts were loose. I looked up the proper torque specs and tightened all the bolts.

Unfortunately, that was not the solution and transmission fluid continues to leak out. It leaves an impressive puddle, but the level on the dipstick has not decreased - it is perplexing. I believe a new transmission filter and gasket is in order.

While I was under there I noticed a decent trickle of oil coming down the rear of the engine where it meets the transmission. Oh boy, a rear main seal I am guessing! I already believe the front main seal was likely bad, so why not the rear as well.

Thankfully, it is a two part seal, which means I will not have to separate the engine and transmission to replace it. Looking around the oil pan, I noticed it too was covered. Oil was seeping out of all the gaskets. So I guess it is bottom end gaskets then - Wee! Fortunately, the top side of the engine is dry - for now.

I also noticed that I had lost quite a bit of coolant out of the external reservoir. I didn’t think this was too big of a deal as I imagine some coolant need to be circulated back into the engine's system.

Turns out I was wrong. After driving the truck around the neighborhood prepping to check the transmission fluid (needs to be idle and at temperature), I saw green fluid cascading down the front of the truck. It was a coolant-fall from the top of the radiator. So yep, the radiator is actually bad.

To make matters worse, there are no new radiators available. However, as I was inspecting, the fan blade flung some of the coolant onto my arm - and it was cold. The truck was up to temperature, so it should have been burning hot. Sure enough the inlet and outlet tubes were hot as they should be, but the fluid being shot out the top of the radiator is cold. It seems the radiator is cracked at the top where the overflow fluid enters the system. I decided not to fill the external reservoir and see what happened. The coolant leak stopped, and the truck shows no signs of overheating. It is not ideal, but I don’t drive very far from home with it yet. It is pretty much concentrated to weekly round the neighborhood cruises keeping an eagle eye on that temp gauge. So far, no issues.

So here is the suspected parts list just from this post

• Radiator
• Front Main Seal
• Rear Main Seal
• Oil Pan Gasket
• Transmission Filter and Gasket

The plan now is to consult with my network of more experienced mechanical friends to confirm my suspicions before I go hog wild tearing the bottom end apart. Even though some things are a little worse for wear, that does not stop me from having some fun..

Welcome back to the ongoing epic of restoring a 1989 Dodge Dakota convertible. Pulled from a barn and worked by human hands, this truck is now running. When we last left off, the truck was running and driving; stopping on the other hand, not so much. Pushing your foot to the floor resulted in creeping to a stop. It was unnerving, but manageable. Being prudent, brakes were ordered and we awaited their arrival.

At this point we have restored the truck to as advertised condition (minus the brakes). When I first purchased the truck, I knew that it suffered from an overheating issue. That’s what we are going to tackle today. The previous owner told me that his son was driving the truck and noticed it was running hot. Thankfully, they caught it before it overheated and burst anything. The cooling system on this truck is pretty simple. It consists of a radiator, water pump, thermostat, heater core, lines, and hoses. The previous owner stated that a new radiator was required.

Even though radiators are pretty cheap, I did not want to just start throwing parts at it (I am not made of money after all). Nope, let’s inspect the system and do some diagnosis. Popping the hood I noticed that the radiator was full and the fluid was green. I was told the water pump was replaced recently so there was nice fresh fluid in the cooling system. I also noticed the reservoir tank was empty, that’s a little strange. With those things noted, let’s verify the issue. I liked this because I get to drive the truck around. After a few minutes of driving, I noticed the temp gauge reaching past where it was supposed to be and increasing. It was not shooting up, but it was progressively getting warmer. I had the heater on full blast and was getting plenty of heat. Good news for my winter top down driving. I pulled the truck in and inspected the hoses.

Determining cooling problems is a hands on experience; however, don’t get too handsy or you might get burned (i.e. do not take the radiator cap off). Heat (and various other debris) coming through the vents verified the heater core and associated lines were functional; that’s good so I don’t have to take the dash apart (at least for that). Placing my hands on the top radiator hose and feeling the heat told me the thermostat is working. The bottom hose was warm, but cooler than the inlet which indicates the radiator appears to be functioning (perhaps clogged?). Feeling all the hoses around the water pump yielded much warmth and verification it was working.

To the best of my knowledge, the cooling system is working, but it is still overheating. Why? Now it was time to bring out the specialized tools. There were 3 more tests that needed to be done. Is the cap working? Is the cooling system pressurized? Are there combustion gases in the coolant? Thankfully, most auto parts stores have rental tools to diagnose just that.

(Editor’s note: The following occurred the next day when the engine was cool)

First test was to pressurize the system. The Dakota’s cooling system runs at 15 psi so pressuring the system to that should reveal any leaks. At 7psi a noticeable air bleed was coming from somewhere. That somewhere ended up being right at the top of the radiator hose where it connected to the radiator. “Great!” I thought, "the radiator must be cracked here and causing a loose connection." To be sure, I disconnected the hose and inspected it as well as the top of the radiator. Everything looked ship shape, there were no cracks, no nothing. Hmm, maybe the hose clamped isn’t tied down enough. After tightening it down and pressurizing the system, it held a constant 13-15 psi. That was easy. Too easy…

The pressure tester also comes with an adaptor to connect the cap. If the cap is defective, it won’t pressurize properly; thus overheating the engine. Pumped it up to 15 psi and there was no movement. The final test was the combustion gasses. This tool uses a sucker, a blue liquid which changes colors of combustion gasses are present, and a pump to sample the air in the cooling system. Starting the truck and letting it get up to operating temperature I could see that coolant was flowing through the system. Not rapidly, but moving nonetheless. Upon sampling the gases, the dye stayed blue. Good no head gasket issues.

Since the truck was up to operating temperature, I might as well see if it is still running hot. Replacing the radiator cap enabled the system to pressurize quickly, and… the temp gauge stayed at half. I was flabbergasted. Surely this whole cooling problem was not simply a loose hose. My friend said, “It sure looks like it, and don’t call me Shirley.”

And I am enjoying every minute of it…

If you have not read this post, you may not be aware that I bought a 1989 Dodge Dakota Convertible basically sight unseen. I also mentioned how I did extensive research over the common ailments, issues, and attempted to budget repairs and modifications. I am here to tell you that while you can try, you absolutely cannot plan for everything.

When I was searching for the perfect truck, I had spreadsheets detailing the pricing of the truck, parts, insurance, registration, etc. in an attempt to fully estimate how much of an investment I will be making. However, it means squat once you actually get the vehicle and find out how big of a pile it really is. This Dodge Dakota is no different. I had a friend pick up the truck because I was not able to in a timely fashion. At the price point I was getting the truck, the only instruction I gave him was to come home with it unless it was completely different from the listing (i.e. it was blue, a Ford Ranger, and recently been on fire or something). The pick up day came and my friend sent the acquisition update. The truck did match the description; however, there were a couple deviations some of which I expected and others I did not.

The first was that the truck did not start. I wasn’t particularly surprised by this. I was told the truck had been sitting for about 4 months, and I expected the battery might fail. The truck cranked, but would not start. No problem, a new battery and we should be back on the road. Sure enough the battery registered low voltage and was dead. I replaced the battery and the truck would not crank. So I have repaired the issue and made it worse. This is going well…

The second is the tires are completely shot. From the listing photos, I knew that the right rear tire was bad. It was flat and the seller stated that it leaks over a few weeks. No problem, a patch job and I can ride on them for a little bit while the bank account recovers. Not so fast my friend, the tires are dry rotted to heck and a few weeks for a leak is actually about 6 days. I can air the tire up enough to do some mechanical shakedowns, get it to the DMV so I can register it, and then drive it to the tire shop.

Thirdly, the driver's door latch did not work. I saw that the door was not latched in the photos and thought the seller just did not fully shut the door between exterior and interior shots. Nope, the driver's door did not latch, and from the damage around the door latch, it had not for a while. Ordinarily this would not be a priority, but since this truck was being stored outdoors and rain was approaching, getting the door shut became a #1 fix. Thankfully, most parts on these trucks are shared with the entire Dakota lineup from 1987 to 1996 so a trip to the local U-pull and a new latch was acquired. Replacement was fairly straightforward, and gave a very interesting look into how the latch and lock system works. It is a series of rods and switches which seems simple until you forget which one goes where and you wire the keyhole to the door latch and the handle to the lock - oops. A little swap and it now only has the factory roof leaks.

Fourthly, the brakes don’t work. Excuse me what! Yeah, that was a fun phone call. “Hey so I pressed the pedal and the brakes went to the floor, but don’t worry the seller's ATV stopped the truck.” Whelp, that’s not great. At this point I am focusing on getting it running and will address the brakes after that.

Fifthly, every orifice is filled with something. How the heck do you flush mud dauber nests out of a ventilation system? I am starting to suspect that this truck sat for a little longer than 4 months.

So when investing into a project car, plan for many more things than just what you can see. Plan for the unexpected and the blatantly stupid (like the infinite puzzles of where did that wire go and why was it cut?). There are still several more things to sort out before I can waltz to the DMV with the top down to the bewildered look of the DMV employees. Hopefully I will be able to remedy these big issues soon, and I can then dive into the less impactful parts.

In case you are new or haven't been following along, I bought a classic 1989 Dodge Dakota Convertible and have been chronicling the haphazard restoration process...

(Note: This was written in October 2021, I just have not had a chance to post it until today)

In anticipation for the upcoming winter season, and a desire to do prolonged highway driving without my tires shredding. I decided to finally put some new shoes on the Dakota. Of course, what was supposed to be a simple task, did not go as straightforward as it should have.

When I originally purchased the truck, I knew the tires were going to need attention. The sparkling white Daytona Radials looked cracked and dry rotted. As far as I know Daytonas were the factory tires, I doubt that these are truly 32 year old tires. With the truck originally unable to move on its own, I decided to put the tires off until after I got it running. Once I did get the truck running, I put it off for several more months. Eventually, I was getting sick of sliding around during normal turns in parking lots.

My goal for the tires was to get something a little meaty for general snow and offroad travel, but nothing crazy meaty for overlanding. I also did not want to get anything super expensive as these tires will most likely dry rot before reaching their wear indicators anyway. Many all-terrain tires have complaints of road noise on the highway especially. Thankfully, this did not apply to me as my truck does not have a roof and has the sound insulation of a C-130. I eventually settled on some Cooper AT’s offered by Walmart. They are basically the previous iteration of their AT3 tire kept in production exclusively for Walmart. I ended up getting a good deal at $79 per tire.

Of course this did not go as straightforward as it should have. After dealing with Walmart.com (which BTW is entirely different from the brick and mortar store) with a glitch in their store, they then informed me that my tires are not able to be delivered to the store. Thankfully, this was for my pickup truck so I didn’t really get bent out of shape about it. If I did not have a pickup truck, I would have been a bit more irritated. With the tire delivery arranged, it was now time to set an appointment. I tried calling the Walmart closest to my home only to get no response. I was already a little skeptical as I had some previous run ins with their auto techs during the shopping process. I then moved onto the second closest location who promptly told me that no appointment was needed and to come in when ready.

The tires come in, I toss them in the back of the truck and drive over. The wait was about 1.5 hours which was fine. After the tires were installed, I was called back and the following conversation ensued…

“You’re [bwp240]?”
“Yes”
“You had the Ford Windstar.”
“No?”
“Well it says on here it is a gold Ford Windstar.”
“But it is not a Ford Windstar. I brought in a Dodge Dakota, and it’s red.”
“Well, we typed your VIN in and it came back as a Ford Windstar.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Surely the state would have pointed out if the VIN was wrong when I registered it.”
(at this point the manager has come in)
Manager: “What seems to be the problem here?”
Cashier: “This person is claiming that his vehicle is not a Ford Windstar.”
Me: “It’s not, it’s a Dodge Dakota.”
Manager: “Oh yes, I noticed that when we put the system. Someone must have the same VIN. I can confirm it is the Dakota.”
Me: “Okay, fine (although that makes no sense). I just wanted to make sure I was paying for work done to my vehicle and not someone else’s.”

Since I was not promptly arrested when trying to register the truck earlier this year, I assumed that the only logical explanation is that some employee at some Walmart somewhere fat fingered a VIN for a Ford Windstar and it just so happened to match my truck. What are the odds?

Speaking of odds. A few days go by and I go out to the garage to grab some things and notice this…

OMGWTFBBQ???!!! Why has this happened?! I hope the tire did not have a failure and now I will have to deal with filing claims and the like. The spare was dry rotted and did not hold air, so it was not usable. I was able to slowly back the truck out and use my rescue compressor to fill it up. Fortunately, the tire did not leak horribly quickly. The auto center that I originally got the tire installed at was closed for the night; however, the one closest to my house was open (the one I snubbed earlier). I take the truck over and they immediately have room for me, they do a couple tests, and find that the valve stem was bad. Oh, not only was it bad, it was not replaced. Yeah, the original shop charged me for 4 valve stem replacements and only did 3. The techs ensured that all of the valve stems were replaced before sending me on my way. They were great, allowed me to be a bit more involved in the process, and made me feel a little bad about my earlier assessment of their department.

(Yes I did scrub the blue protective paint off once I ensured the tires were fixed)

On a side note, the tech asked me if there was another place for the VIN because my door plate placard had worn out.
“Yep it is under the windshield. Although I should let you know the other Walmart had it come back in their system as a Ford Windstar”
“Well this is clearly not a Ford Windstar.” beep boop beep “Yep, came back as a 1989 Dodge Dakota.”

Welcome back to another installment of getting my barn found Dodge Dakota Convertible back on the road. When we last left, the braking system was just getting finished up. Pedal feel was adequate for stopping, but a little softer and a little more travel than I wanted. I had replaced just about every piece of the braking system except for the brake booster. Since I was left with that or the irreplaceable hydraulic ABS module, I went ahead and replaced the booster and hoped for the best.

Replacing the booster was fairly straightforward. Four bolts hold the booster to the fire wall. These bolts pass through to the interior and appear right at the top of the brake pedal. After piecing together many extensions and u-joint sockets, I was able to get the booster unbolted. Next came unbolting the master cylinder. Thankfully, there was just enough flex in the brake lines to enable the master cylinder to be moved free of the booster giving it enough clearance to be extracted.

Looking at the old booster, it was clear that something had gone wrong inside as there was some fluid on the cabin side of the booster which is not supposed to be there. The rubber boot was also compromised in that it had completely separated from the housing.

One seemingly important piece that did not come with the new booster was the gasket that goes between the brake booster and the firewall. This is mainly used to keep water and other debris from the footwell. I was surprised that the new booster didn’t come with one and it appears that it cannot be bought separately. After carefully salvaging the 30 year old gasket, the new booster was installed..

Another issue that I was dealing with was the engine stalling while driving. Every time I would roll up to a stop sign or traffic light the truck would stall. This would also happen in reverse when backing into the garage. The best way to describe it is that it drove like a stick shift except I could not clutch the transmission. If I rolled up to an intersection and popped it into neutral, everything would be fine. Interestingly, the truck idled fine, but after driving even a short distance, it would begin to choke at low speeds.

Deciding that this was not a suitable way to drive, I started looking through the throttle system. The engine seemed to be running mechanically fine so my first thought was a sensor. Lucky for me a check engine light was on, so I could diagnose the problem. Unlucky for me, it is an 89 so it is OBDI. After clicking the system and counting the lights I returned with electrical faults in the throttle position sensor (TPS) and the Idle Air Control Valve (IAC) [although in reality, it is a throttle kicker]. Reading through the Chilton, testing the TPS was quite easy, I back probed the connector and found it to read 4-5V; unchanging as I adjusted the throttle.

This meant that the TPS was bad and the computer was thinking the throttle was wide open all the time. Unfortunately, I did not have the proper equipment (per the manual) to test the throttle kicker, so I decided just to replace the TPS and hope it worked (the fact that it idled properly in park made me think it most likely was working anyway). The new TPS came and after digging under the air box, the old TPS was removed and the new installed. Now for the test... Started the truck up, drove it down the road, approached the first stop sign, and it didn’t stall.

I was able to finish the drive around the block with no issues. The brakes felt good and the electronics worked well enough to signal I was turning and/or braking without catching on fire. So I climbed in and after sitting in a barn for 4 - 24 months, being trailered to my friends house, not cranking, nor starting, without turn signals, or brakes, and after 2 months of work. I drove the truck 20 miles back to my house. It is a little too early to celebrate, but it certainly feels good.

The iRacing Indy 500 has joined many other festivities as part of the month of May traditions leading up to the Indianapolis 500. It allows sim racers to experience nearly the same spectacle as what we will see over Memorial Day weekend. I am no stranger to this race, I have it circled on my calendar annually as it is one of the events I enjoy most. I know I will never be able to race in the real thing, so this is about as close as I will get. Hoisting the virtual Borg-Warner trophy is an ambition of many sim racers. I was fortunate to do so in 2015. However, the desire to win never goes away. What is better than one virtual mini-Borg in the trophy case than two.

This year was a little different as I could only compete in the fixed setup event. I prefer to race in the open set event, or the traditional race, however, real life obligations conflicted. The benefit of the fixed race is that I don’t have to create a setup. Every driver is running the same set. We were allowed to use in car adjustments to make fine handling adjustment, but the overall baseline was the same. This usually results in much closer racing and fewer disparities from 1st to 33rd. While this sounds like a great equalizer, it can also lead to more problems and over-aggression.

After a less than stellar qualifying effort, the Opposite-lock Indy car rolled to the 26th position on the grid. It actually isn’t too bad as I expected the beginning of the race to be fairly chaotic with everyone having a similar setup. The pace car pulls away and we are 1 lap from starting the greatest spectacle in sim racing. Coming off of Turn 4 we get the green flag and thunder off into the first corner.

Immediately things go wrong, a car smashes into the wall, and a few others are collected. While trying to sneak through the accident the right rear gets smacked and I am looking at the wall and cars flying at me to my right.

“<insert favorite expletive>” I thought my race ended in the south chute of Turn 1. I thought for sure the right rear suspension was damaged and we would spend the next 499.5 miles limping around the track. I spun the car back around and started catching up to the field. Everything felt pretty good. The steering seemed a little off, but otherwise it was fine. Unfortunately, due to being parked on track waiting for the field to clear we got stock behind the pace car effectively 1 lap down. I had to make the choice of pitting, fixing the damage, and remaining a lap down, or do I stay out, take the wave by to get back on the lead lap. I decided to fix the damage. The car felt okay at 80 mph, but who knows how the damage would fair at 220 mph. I didn’t learn until after the race that only the side pod got the damage; however, it was best that it was fixed and lived to fight another day. The Oppo crew did a phenomenal job fixing the damage and the car had returned to its initial state.

So here I am 480 miles left to go and already a lap off the pace. What now? I could rampage through the field and earn my lap back, but instead I decide to play it cool and hang out toward the back. The thought being that we could catch a yellow in 10 or 15 laps and use the wave by while the rest of the field pitted.

Unfortunately, the yellows did not fall my way. Either the green flag runs were too short, or they were too long and I had to stop for fuel. It was looking like a pretty ho-hum race pedaling around a lap down. On lap 54, I finally caught a break. A yellow flag came out after about a 10-15 lap green flag run which brought the lead lap cars down pit road. I stayed out, got the wave around and was back in contention.

144 laps gave us plenty of time to plot how to get to the front of this race. The setup was quite difficult to handle in traffic. It was a struggle to pass cars as the draft and loss of front downforce caused heavy understeer in the corners. This bit a lot of first time/ill prepared drivers during this race.

This race seemingly always comes down to fuel mileage so I started working out when I needed to stop. The best part is that your position in the race doesn’t really matter. As long as I was on the lead lap, and a reasonable distance behind the leaders, there was a chance.

The thinking helmets were on, the cars were zooming, and yellows were falling. The race evolved and with 60 to go, we were somehow running 8th after being sideways in 32nd on Lap 1. Our fuel strategy was on point; literally, as it was looking like it was going to be close. How close? Probably about 700ft to the good. The race to the end had begun.

The previous fuel run I was able to eek out 30 laps from the tank. It was close, I would not have been able to make it had I gone around one more time. Knowing this, I knew I needed to stretch the next tank the full 30 laps. The leader, who pitted the lap before me, was optimistic over race chat that he could make it, but knew personally he couldn’t. As the laps and fuel wound down, optimism and pessimism oscillated with each passing fuel estimate. With about 5 laps until the tank ran dry; everything changed…

It was about 33 laps left and everyone piled into the pits. The downside was that if it went green for the remainder of the race, I would not have had enough gas. Whatever, we were all in the same boat. Going back to green and the race was on. Sitting 6th, I saw the divers in front of me mixing it up knowing that laps were running out. As much as I wanted to join, I knew by doing so, I would run out of gas. Sitting restrained in the draft of the leaders was the better strategy. The leaders weaved back and forth trying to break the draft until one of them smacks the wall and litters the front stretch with car parts.

I decided to come in to top off and grab some tires. I saw earlier in the race that fresh tires seemed to have a slight advantage. Since I was 6th out of 8 cars on the lead lap, I grabbed some fresh rubber thinking there wasn’t a lot to lose. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about how restarts line up in Indycar. They do not put lapped cars behind the leaders until under 10 to go. So while I was in 6th place, I gridded around 11th with several lapped down and slower machines in front of me. A few drivers gambled and stayed out saving fuel under the yellow flag.

Back at it we go, with about 12 laps left. The fight was on. After 2 hours of driving, you had a good feel for what you have under you. I knew that fighting through traffic was going to be difficult. Some of the lapped cars were nice enough to pull out of the way, knowing that I had an opportunity for the win. Some however, were not. This ended up costing someone as another yellow came out.

It ended up being a 5 lap shootout to decide who was going to win this race. The green dropped and the fight was on. Dashing and dicing trying to get every inch I could, the setup just did not handle in traffic. I turned the in-car adjustment knobs toward oversteer until they came off, but the understeer was too much. After 12.5 more miles we cross the yard of bricks at mile 500 in 5th place.

Overall I am pleased with the result. From being sideways in the middle of the course on Lap 1 to finishing 5th, I have little to complain about. This is still one of the best events on iRacing, and I look forward to the 2022 race.

How it started...

How it's going...

Few words can describe the joy I feel getting this thing running.

(...Detailed story below...)

Welcome to Part 3 of my saga of going way over my head and buying my attainable dream car, a 1989 Dodge Dakota Convertible. Here is a brief summary of where we left off.

• It doesn’t work.

Now with that it cleared out of the way time to dive deeper. When we last left, the vehicle was marooned in my friend’s cul-du-sac, eagerly awaiting the city to tag it and threaten to tow it away. Thankfully, the city doesn’t care yet so we have dodged that bullet (pun firmly intended). The battery was replaced and now the vehicle will not crank. Time to run down the patented 5 item list of getting a car to start.

• Air - I cleaned all of the mud dauber nests out of the intake.

• Electricity - My least favorite of the systems. I turn the key and nothing happens. The system buzzes and relays click, but nothing turns over.

• Fuel - Well the gas gauge says there is no gas. If that is the problem, then I am an idiot. I also don’t hear the hum of the fuel pump either, which does not bode well.

• Spark - The plugs look recently replaced.

• Starter - See item 2.

I abhor electrical problems, especially wire tracing. Thankfully, I know an electrician that loves doing that stuff and working on cars. We spent the better part of the morning tracing the starter circuit, both the battery to the starter, and the ignition system. Battery - Check, Terminals - awful, but good enough, Starter - yup it works, Relay - yep, Ignition Key - Yes…

This will happen a lot. You will check the entire system and everything will individually work, but mating it all together yields nothing… Great…

So now it was time to check the connectors. We pulled the connector out from the starter and auto shut down relay, inspected them, then put them back together. Give it a go…

(Truck Cranks)

Holy crap it cranks! We failed to adapt the popular IT strategy of unplugging it and plugging it back in. The only reasonable conclusion is that something got shifted during transit and came loose - which in the grand scheme of things doesn’t make me feel great, but who cares, it turns over now.

However, it still does not start. The only thing we have not verified yet is fuel so let’s check that. Before breaking things in half and digging, it is paramount to make sure the engine will combust. So removing the intake and introducing some starting fluid will ensure that ripping the fuel pump assembly apart will actually be worth it. After spraying some fluid in, the truck tried to come to life. We didn’t spray enough to actually start it, but it was able to turn over enough for us to verify that fuel sending was the most likely problem.

Replacing the fuel pump in a pickup truck gives you two options. Either A) Take a bunch of brackets apart to drop the tank, or B) Break the truck in half by taking the bed off. Most of the time Option B is easier. So that’s what was done. After fiddling with what were supposed to be quick release fuel lines (they weren’t) the fuel pump assembly was removed.

*photo credit YouTube

Now it turns out that you cannot buy fuel pump assemblies for the 1989 Dodge Dakota any more. (Well you can, but it costs a significant portion of what I paid for the whole truck). So buying the fuel pump alone and wiring it into the assembly was the only reasonable option. Dodge, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the fuel pump was indestructible and would never need to be replaced. This meant removing it was unnecessarily difficult. After many minutes of pulling on corroded spade connecters, we cut them and wired in new ones. Now it works, and there might be hope to actually remove them should the pump need to be replaced in the future. Pro tip: The filter sock that comes with the pump is a pain to put on. We had to use some clever metal bending in order to get it to secure properly. With the fuel pump reassembled, and the wiring checked, it was time for the moment of truth. After several cranks, and a few sputters, it roared to life, coughing up several months of dust and mothballs. We filled the tires up and took it for a brief shakedown…

Of course with bad tires and unsure brakes, it was a low speed test just to make sure important driveline things were working properly. The transmission seemed to work fine, the 4WD appeared functional, and the brakes did not work at all. I fully stomped on the pedal, and the truck slowed to a stop like you were barely tapping the brakes. With the brakes established at “able to stop” I could not resist throwing the roof off and briefly driving around the neighborhood.

Now that the truck is running. It has been restored to “as described” in the listing. It is time to address the cooling issue that was advertised when I bought it. I was told it was the radiator, but in reality, I have no idea what it is. I will have to wait until the next time I am able to work on it to find out. Also, brakes would be nice.

Scrolling through the local FB marketplace and stumbled upon this 1989 Dodge Dakota Shelby.

*All photos from FB Marketplace

As the owner of a 1989 Dodge Dakota Convertible, the thought of pairing it with a Shelby Dakota was always an entertaining long shot. Other than it serving really no purpose other than being a collector's piece; complicated by the fact I have no place to put it leans toward me not buying it. However that's not any fun, so let's conduct a project thought experiment.

*Except this one from Bring a Trailer.

For those that do not know, the Shelby Dakota was a limited production RWD performance truck for 1989. The biggest upgrade was the stock V6 was swapped for the 5.2L V8 which produced a whopping 175 hp. 1500 units were produced in red and white.

Let's look at this particular example. It claims 79000 miles which is pretty impressive for its age. According to the listing the truck only needs a fuel pump to run, which I will assume means the engine at least turns over. That would be great as the 5.2 V8 barely fits inside the engine bay. The mechanical fan had to be removed and replaced with an electronic one when these trucks were upgraded, so I would guess there is not a whole lot of room in there. Fuel pumps on these trucks are a little more tedious as they do not make the pump assemblies anymore. You have to extract the assembly out, cut the pump, and rewire the new one in carefully. It is not the end of the world, but it is a little more difficult. Of course many unknowns lie in the engine and transmission, but fortunately, it is the widely used LA 5.2L V8 and the A500 auto transmission. What won't be nice is trying to cram your hands into the already cramped space.

If not obvious from the pictures, tires would be a must so add another couple hundred once mounted. It looks like it is missing one of the OEM rims which will be very difficult to find. Battery and brakes are unknown, but I would assume they would need some work. Mechanically, this looks on the surface to be a pretty straightforward project.

Now the bigger challenge is the bodywork. Fortunately, the body looks straight and the Shelby specific parts are all there, but the paint needs a lot of help. The good news is that reproduction decals are available so that is easy (although I don't know if I have the patience; surely not the steady hand). I imagine the process of removing the old vinyl as well as restoring the clear coat peel and color will appear on YouTube as a easy DIY with McGuire's and the power polisher, but I bet investment in a professional doing it may be a better investment of time. Lessons from my convertible tell me to be open to the latter. However, this does look like a good canvas to learn about body and paint work. The interior looks decent, but I am sure there are lots of things hiding in those vents (again from experience).

The seller is asking $4k which is not outrageous. If I had a place to put it and more free time, I would certainly entertain the opportunity for some shrewd negotiation...

No seriously, I cant!

Welcome back to another update in the saga of my 1989 Dodge Dakota Convertible. Bought basically site unseen, I have addressed the ignition/fuel system and the cooling system. Now it is time to move onto probably the system I should have prioritized, the brakes. I have not even mentioned some of the minor issues plaguing the truck including but not limited to:

• The tires are shot
• The tachometer doesn’t work
• I only have left turn signals
• The impossible to find rubber window seals are shot
• The windshield wipers don’t work.

But none of that stuff really matters because at this point if someone cuts me off I will be using them as a brake.

So what is going on? Simply put, when I press the pedal, it goes to the floor and only light brake pressure is applied. Like most things the braking system on this truck is pretty straightforward. It has discs on the front, drums in the rear, a master cylinder, and a brake booster. It allegedly has ABS only on the rears, but I cannot seem to get a straight answer on that (There is no module in the engine bay). Brake pressure usually comes from the master cylinder assisted by the booster. When I push on the pedal it makes a whooshing noise which to me indicates that the booster might have a leak; however, conventional thinking is that if the booster is bad, the brakes would be really hard to push down, especially when the vehicle is running. I am experiencing the opposite.

Now the plan was to replace the brakes all around as they are rusty and probably need attention. So since we would have to bleed the system anyways, we went to work on the front discs. Replacement was fairly straightforward with only several expletives as we fought 30 years of rust. Unfortunately, time ran short that day and we could not get the other side done. My friend wanted his garage back so I proceeded to move the truck back outside.

So like a normal person, I climb into the cab, put my foot on the brake, start the truck and shift into reverse. Immediately, the truck shot out of the garage.

While I could not have been going more than 5 mph, the brake pedal was about pushed through the floor and I might as well have gone plaid. I smashed the parking brake and came to a halt. I felt like I had rolled for miles; in reality it was about 15 feet. Time to plot how I was going to get this parked curbside. After many short motions alternating between idle and the parking brake, I got it parked. Yeah, this needs to be fixed soon.

Remember how I said there were going to be mishaps. This was another example of fixing something only to make it worse (and a bit of poor decision making by the me). Don't worry, the next day we replaced the other disc brake and bled the system restoring the brakes to what they were before. Unfortunately, we found that one of the wheel cylinders in the rear had burst and we still do not have rear brakes. While we were replacing the front brakes we found another surprise.

Uhhh…

Add it to the tab.

My Pixel 4 XL torpedoed itself during a security update. Turned out it was a known issue and Google repaired the phone at no charge (and by repair, it meant replacing almost every internal component).

Insurance was going to let me upgrade to a Pixel 7 XL for $200, but I decided it wasn't worth it. Between the lackluster upgrade in features and the risk of it also bricking after 4 years wasn't worth the hassle for me. I also could have traded it in for a free Galaxy 10S or whatever their flagship was, but I really liked my Pixel up til it died. After the repair, my 4 XL has not had any issues, but it does kinda sit in the back of my mind.

@facw The good news is it works MSFS2020. The only downside is that there are only a few planes from that game that are compatible; however, the FSE developers look like they are updating the database of planes every so often.

As far as I know all of the base MSFS2020 planes are compatible.

@jminer The good news is that there doesn't need to be a "dedicated" player base. I sometimes get the itch and play for a few days, then stop for several weeks. I just have to make sure that there is enough virtual dollars to maintain my planes.

Essentially the group would work sort of like a flying club does IRL. Anyone in the group can access planes, fuel, and repair facilities the group owns. We can also set our own jobs if it gets active enough. The group takes a cut of the job profits (I would probably set it so it would cover plane maintenance costs) and rest goes to the individual player.

@facw Yes, it works across FSX, MSFS2020, Prepar3d, and X-plane. There is a client software that you download the runs with the game. It looks like it uses the lat/lon/alt from when you initiate the flight and again when you land and engage the parking brake compared to a map database to determine where you are and if the flight is completed. It also automatically sets the fuel load. I wish it could adjust the payload weight, but since that is not uniform across planes you have to do it manually.

Details can be found in their guide: https://sites.google.com/site/fseoperationsguide/getting-started

I sometimes enjoy a relaxing flight in FSX; however, sometimes it is difficult to figure out what and where I want to fly. I am also a sucker for a good tycoon game and wondered if there was a way to combine the two.

*Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

There is a pair of standalone expansions for FSX called Air Hauler and Air Hauler 2 which look to provide a decent tycoon based expansion that is playable offline. This piqued my interest until I saw that the expansion is still about $50 each; so I kept looking.

Some internet stumbling later and I came across FSEconomy. I wrote a piece previously on FSEconomy and how it changed the way I play FSX. To recap, FSEconomy is a digital world for general aviation travel. It is free to join and works with FSX, X-plane, Prepar3d, and the new Microsoft Flight Simulator. It is impressively simple. Airports generate jobs that you fly to other airports and you get paid. Just make sure you have (or can rent) the right aircraft for the job. Eventually, you can earn enough money to buy your own plane and even your own fixed based operator. You can then expand upon the world creating a network of locations. This is of course, a gross oversimplification and you can browse their wiki to get a better idea of what FSEconomy entails.

*Image Credit: Flickr

FSEconomy specializes in general aviation. Most start out flying Cessna 172s and Piper Cubs around shuttling to small airports. Eventually, you can work your way up to Citations and King Airs. If you want to fly the big planes, you can; however, flying a Cessna Citation with 10 business passengers pays more money/mile. The economy is weighted toward recreational/general aviation aircraft types making midsize aircraft the most profitable. The real goal is for people to enjoy flying what they want to fly and give them some purpose to fly it. In the past couple years I have participated, I have been able to experience several areas I would not have even thought to fly to and many aircraft I probably would not have touched. I find the variety of planes and destinations and challenge of piecing together the equipment/route to complete a job interesting.

*Image Credit: Orbxdirect

One of the features of FSEconomy is groups. Several pilots can band together and form their own group of shared resources, jobs, and aircraft. Would anyone be interested in forming a group? I have a few resources I can put towards the group to get started.

Check out FSEconomy

Wiki

If you need addon airplanes for FSE

@ClassicDatsunDebate I would have to look back, but I think I miscalculated my fuel because I tried to run the race backwards and pitted too early. What I did not account for was how much the draft played a role with the low powered cars in both speed and fuel savings. Attrition got me a good finish in the end.

I had the rear ARB unhooked because I was struggling with snap oversteer on entry to the high speed corners (like T1 and the bus stop). The other fix that worked well was putting more rear downforce via wing angle, but the GR86 has 3 settings (low, med, high). Low was fast and loose, but relied more on suspension to handle the weight transfer. Med made the high speed corners good, but at the cost of straight-line speed (about 0.5 sec/lap). There was a surprising difference in acceleration down the long straights with the low downforce package having the advantage probably due to drag.

When I looked at the warmup session standings I knew I would need to put a low downforce setup in the car or not have much objective chance of a good finish.

@GrindIntoSecond I am not fast. My general guideline is that if my fast time is within 0.8 sec on ovals and 3 seconds on road of the top time, I am good enough to race. I won't win, but I will be competitive upper middle pack.

I used to be 2nd or 3rd tier NASCAR competing with drivers that race/d in the PEAK series. I was still not fast, but I had a lot more time to learn and refine my craft. Eventually life and priorities change. Now I work rotating shifts and am lucky to get a 30 minute NASCAR truck or 25 minute VW Jetta race in every few weeks (although if the day is right I can drive at 3AM haha). I have transitioned more to fixed or minimal setup racing because I don't have the time to fiddle. If I cannot feel comfortable in 10-15 minutes, I am not running it. The fact I was able to carve out 4-6 hours cumulatively to mash together this setup was more of a happy accident.

Eventually kids will come and priorities will change, but at the end of the day, this is a hobby. Some things are more important.

@Taylor-Martin It is subscription based, and a bit expensive, but if you focus on the car and series you like best. It is still a premium, but not too bad. I just think of the sub as the same as buying 2 games a year.

I would suggest getting a wheel over a controller, iRacing is pretty sensitive to control inputs so any finer axis controller will give you an advantage (even an old Logitech MOMO will suffice).

As far as the next event, I have no idea. A packed life as well means that sometimes it just depends on availability. I usually will find a team to run the 24 hours of Daytona next weekend, but I will be out of town.

Another racing season is upon us, and since I am too poor and untalented to be an actual race car driver, then virtual reality it is. Each year, iRacing hosts a series of special events that closely resemble their real world counterparts. This enables untalented folks like me a chance to go for motorsports glory against a slew of similarly talented folks from all over the world.

The lead off event is the iRacing Roar Before the 24, a 144 minute race that features lower powered cars. It actually is more related to the first event of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge featuring GT4 and Touring Cars (TCR) rather than the actual Roar which is a 2 hour shakedown race for the Rolex 24 cars with the full prototype and GT3 field. The iRacing event takes creative liberty adding the Toyota GR86 to the field of GT4 and TCR cars. This is what we will be running.

The Toyota GR86 is one of the newest cars on the iRacing service. As such, I really did not have much experience with the car. No matter, I was up to the challenge of setting up and racing this car. The setup strategy was fairly straightforward. Get the car as low as possible, take out the downforce, and hope for the best. It took about 4-6 hours to piece together a setup that was somewhat comfortable. It wasn’t going to be lights out fast to win, but in a long race like this, straight line speed does not necessarily triumph over handling. It took right up until race time to iron out many of the kinks. Unfortunately, this meant I got into qualifying a little late and was not able to set a lap before the session timer hit zero. This resulted in us lining up 23rd of 25 in class and 47th out of the 49 cars on the grid. Our race was a bit unique as there were no TCR cars in our split meaning it was just the slowest GR86 paired with the fastest GT4.

One of the complex challenges of road racing is do you push early to grab as many positions as possible or do you lay back in anticipation for a turn 1 pileup. Having previous attempts at the Roar end in a crash, I decided to play a balanced approach; get what I can, but not force an issue. It is very easy to ruin your endurance race early. The early part of the race was fairly tame. Keeping with the pack and picking positions up as they come. Then the GT4 field approaches…

As a lower class and thus slower car, I try to make it as easy as possible for the faster cars to get around. This plays to both our benefits as large gaps can be created/lost due to interclass traffic. At the end of the day, it is the passing car's responsibility to make sure overtakes are safe and clean. However, it became apparent to me that the power/speed differential between the GT4 cars and the GR86 was quite significant; almost too much so. I know iRacing added the GR86 because it is a included car with the base subscription, but some attention probably should have been put on the speed differentials between the cars.

I made one big mistake in the race and lost control of the car in the West Horseshoe. It was kind of interesting as it was related to the setup of the car and something I struggled with trying to create a setup for the race. Now, I am not an engineer, and really have no idea what I am doing, but my basic understanding of physics had me speculating as I never had this behavior from the car in practice. I was having difficulty balancing the suspension and the over/under steer. One of the components you can adjust is the anti-roll bar (ARB) which, as it sounds, keeps the chassis from rolling. When entering the right hander, I must have turned in a little too tight, with a little too much speed. This caused the car to lean to the left, the front (ARB) grabbed and lifted the RF off the ground. The extra speed also lifted the RR tire off the ground. This overloaded the LR and the back end started coming around. Fortunately, coming off the gas set the car back down and reaching the slowest part of the apex allowed me to catch the car without deviating too far off course, but it did cost about 4-6 seconds to the cars in front.

No matter, they binned it a couple laps later.

By now, we have crawled our way up to around 9th place. Just cruising and slowly gaining on the cars in front. The next major component of the race was the pit stop. Being a low powered sports car, the GR86 got pretty decent mileage, around 80 minutes to a tank of fuel (21.9 gal). This meant two things 1) There was only 1 pit stop so you better get it right and 2) How much gas do I put in. The computer concluded we were using 0.25 gal/min, so by math, we would need (144-80) * 0.25 = 16 gals + some reserve. During testing, I saw that you could replace all 4 tires while filling the tank; so I did so. The pit stop went without issue…

It was getting late in the race, 30 minutes to go, we were sitting in 6th place, 20 seconds behind the next car. The feet started hurting, the arms were sore, and general fatigue was setting in. The field was spread out, but there was a notable uptick in cars spun off the racing surface. I slid into 5th place as the car in front did not put enough gas in and had to make a second stop. I also noticed that the car behind me was steadily gaining on. This served as a a great distraction that resulted in me making more subtle mistakes enabling the car behind to gain about 0.5 secs/lap. Trying to mentally shake the car behind’s gains was an exercise in mental resilience, but I noticed that the 2nd place car had stopped. I don’t know what for, but they were so far in front, that they stopped and came back out a few seconds in front of me. After a lap or so, I noticed that I was gaining on them. Something must have happened where they got damaged and could not run as fast as before. There is a phenomenon in racing that affects some drivers where they run better when chasing a competitor than on their own. I am one of these drivers. I ran down and passed the car moving into 4th place while in turn gaining a couple seconds gap to the 6th place car behind.

As I put distance to 5th, I noticed something. My fuel calculation was on the money, like literally. If there happened to be an extra lap beyond 00:00:00 due to circumstance, I wasn’t going to make it. Guess I should have padded a bit more reserve. Fortunately between GT4 traffic and their own battle I gapped about 14 seconds to the cars behind. This gave some wiggle room to conserve fuel. Crossing the line to take the white flag, the computer said 1.7 laps of fuel left which was just enough to take the checkered in 4th place out of 25 in class.

Do you want to represent Oppo on iRacing? There are a bunch of Oppo paint schemes I have run over the years and can be found in the Trading Paints showroom. The car used in the Roar was just added, feel free to use and modify as you wish.

If there is any interest in forming an Oppo team to run endurance races, let me know. We can try to organize something.

@e90m3 oh no, I've been made an example of... lol