D.FYLAKTOS, my friend, I have much respect for your enthusiasm and dedication (and of course for Trusty herself) and thank you for this long thread in which so many interesting points have been raised.
I hope you will forgive me for for coming in with a few questions and tips of my own which are a little off the original ‘scoop’ topic - from an old man who has for many years been keeping the good old cars on the road for as long as possible - but here seems to be as good a place as any.
If whilst on vacation you have been watching your - expensive! - gasoline consumption, have you noticed worse-than-expected figures due to the unusual high temperatures in Greece recently?
I am mindful that Trusty is no longer a copella - not a ‘spring chicken’ anymore, rather a very elegant, more mature lady but who can still run with the best of them ‘with her skirts up’.
Some time ago you mentioned taking Trusty out on the National Highway for performance testing (with a wary eye open for the Traffic Police). This made me remember the opening of the first long National Highway in England - the M1 Motorway - and what happened next. It leads me to two important tips.
1. The ‘boy racers’ were suddenly able to drive their cars like mad on the new M1 (no speed limit back then) .... and did so ... much to their regret when they destroyed their big end bearings with excessively high revs.
Here’s the point - most drivers are unaware that the inertial load on the big end bearings increases NOT with the revs, but with the SQUARE of the revs - so going from 2000 to 6000 rpm doesn’t increase this load x3, but x9 ! ... ouch !!.
This knowlege has served me well over the years ...when I bought my Magic estate 9 years ago some bearing wear was already evident, so I have taken care NEVER to exceed 3000 rpm except in emergency - no hardship, and works a treat, she’s still going strong as ever.
2. The other thing that happened with the opening of the M1 Motorway ... one of the big oil companies staged a huge publicity stunt to promote their engine oil. They took six new production cars, drove each continuously up and down the M1 for 100,000 miles then stripped the engines and reported on the wear. I still have a copy of their glossy report somewhere, much to their glee the original machining marks were still visible on some of the cylinder bores and of course they pushed their results hard as evidence of the quality of their lubricants.
Here’s the point - the oil company was perhaps a bit disingenuous because those engines were kept running 24/7 to clock up 100,000 miles swiftly, so they never had chance to get cold. Even then, lubricants were generally very adequate, and we now understand that really severe damage is caused by corrosive condensed combustion products if an engine is switched off before it is thoroughly warmed-up, rather than by oil problems.
Accordingly, I have ever since taken care NEVER to switch off a cold engine, even when needing only to move a very short distance, but always warm up ... that also has served me well for longer than I care to think about.
That will have to be enough for now, and I look forward to raising a few smaller points more directly relevant to the original questions if I may on your return from vacation.