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Go for it! I did a couple of 6500-7000 km 3 week Scandinavian trips back when I still had my '70 144. Apart from the points closing up on me (heel wearing through, dab of grease and resetting them by eye fixed that) I didn't have any trouble. Last time I did it in that car I knew the headgasket was dodgy, so I actually had the tools and parts in the trunk to do a roadside head gasket swap if I had to. Didn't need to, although by the end of that trip it was using about a quart of coolant (by then having switched to much cheaper plain water) per 400 km. I guess doing 145 on the German autobahn, non-stop from Amersfoort (NL) via Hamburg (DE) to southern Denmark (about 5 hours driving) didn't do it much good. It was the only time I ever had that car run on after switching off the ignition. Oh well, including a leisurely stop for breakfast I still averaged about 110 kph from Amersfoort (NL) to Frederikshavn (DK). Left home around 0030, arrived at the ferry around 0900, for a distance of about 935 km. Picked up a friend in Goteborg that afternoon, and we arrived in Stockholm in the evening.
From there I drove up through Sweden and down through Finland around the Botnic Gulf, although at a more leisurely pace. Still, some of the roads up north (even "E" numbered international roads) are still oljegrus (gravel with some kind of binding agent) and great fun to do at 130+ kph. Especially cornering.
Headgasket: Make sure you have some mileage on it before leaving to be sure it really does seal well.
Distributor: Personally I would worry more about electronics than about an oldfashioned points distributor that has nothing to go wrong that can't be fixed by a new set of points (cheap and small to carry). Spare cap and rotor would also be a good idea, plus a HT wire (longest, obviously) and coil HT wire.
Take a spares kit for the carbs, especially if yours are Strombergs (float bowl valve, float, diaphragm) (SU HS6 obviously has no diaphragm to break).
Spare water pump and fanbelt are always a good idea.
Spare fluids are also a good idea: gallon of water in case of coolant leaks, quart of oil...
If the timing gear is getting on in years replacement or a spare one of those might be a good idea, too.
In Montreal look for the 700 series taxis, there's lots of them.
Bram
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