I am planning on moving in my 1994 Mazda 626 completely crosscountry, from South Carolina to California. I believe I will do it this winter. I will have the car completely loaded up with some heavy stuff, probably 300Lbs of stuff.

I'm just wondering if I can expect to overheat. I plan to drive about 3-4 hours at a time, take a stretch break, take a restroom break and perhaps a meal; and then I hit the road again. I plan to go through this cycle maybe as many as 16 hours a day. And I plan to drive as fast as 80 Mph(and hopefully stay that fast most of the way).

Am I asking too much, or should the car be fine? The car is in good mechanical shape, no problems with it- should have about 100,000 miles on it when I go for the trip.

Haha, I have asked a few other people and done a little research, and I would like to say that I highly doubt I will be driving 16 hours a day. More like 10.

Watch your oil consumption...and don't hammer on it.

Yeah, keep track of your oil and temp. I drove from Mississippi to Cali (Camp Pendleton) when I was in the Marines. Long drive. The biggest and longes stretch is when you pass San Antonio all the way to Cali. Make sure you have ALOT of water. It gets very hot because there is NO shade. Just flat desert. Be cautioned, though. When you get to Cali there are some real big monster hills. You won't be doing over 40 on these. They have 55 gallon drums of water on the side of the road for people to overheat. Try to drive as much as you can at night. 10 hours a day is good, but that leaves you 14 hours of nothing... I drove from Ms. to Cali in 2.5 days. Left Fri. afternoon and got to Cali around 7pm on Sunday. I even slept at a hotel one night with a few naps here and there. Good luck...

My 1987 626 2L, non turbo, auto, has 220k miles on it and runs like a champ. Just watch the oil level. These engines can take anything. Good luck.

I also have a 1994 Mazda 626, and It has 90,000 miles on it. Your car should be fine, dont drive like a crack-head and you car will do just fine.