633 replies to this topic

[TerrA LX]

Thanx mate.
Speaking of the new heads, they look like the pattened yella terra chamber machine work, are you thinking of cleaning up the chamber to blend the machine work to the cast area around the plug?

[76lxhatch]

They were advertised as Yella Terra, here's a close up:


I had thought about maybe doing a little blending/smoothing toward/around the plug hole but don't want to get carried away, they're not bad as is; what do you reckon? I mainly want to make sure there are no sharp corners to avoid any hot spots, and port match to the manifold.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:09 PM.

[TerrA LX]

I'm with you on the sharp edges but not enough experience on wether to blend the said area, also on close up looks like a lil could be smoother on the opposite side of the inlet.
Maybe allports or any other head job experts may lend a hand

[76lxhatch]

Well due to circumstances I decided last weekend that yesterday would be my only chance to give it a run down the drag strip this season... so I spent the week swapping diff gears back to 3.9:1, swapped the heads over (untouched) and mucked around with the carb a bit. It pulls very nicely right throughout the rev range now and has noticeably more go.

As for the time slips though, all these improvements just added up to more loss of traction! Got a couple of 100mph runs but the ETs are still stuck in the mid 14s and 60ft times around 2.4s - there is no getting off the line cleanly, it steps sideways into second and spins the wheels again into third. I tried backing off a bit at the start but there must be a bit too much lead in my right shoe

The drag racing isn't serious just a bit of fun, drive there and drive home with no changes whatsoever. If I get keen again next year I might have to find/borrow some slicks and see whether I can get a proper run out of it, might also save me some money on street tyres, they are looking a bit worse for wear!

[TerrA LX]

Sounds like a good result.

[76lxhatch]

Well I decided I'd like another bash at the drags since the mph from last time suggested it could go a bit quicker with some traction. Bought a pair of Hoosier Quick Time Pros which seem to help a lot based on the test run around the block, but unfortunately the drags were rained off so won't find out whether it makes a lot of difference until next season now...

But at least it got me on to sorting some things I'd been meaning to do! Have been working on these bits and pieces over the last month or so.

The header flanges were a bit of a mess so I cut them off and fitted up longer 2.5" collectors with decent 3 bolt flanges (they actually seal!). Also put a bung in one of them for the wideband oxygen sensor:

The wideband is awesome for tweaking the tune, even with just a basic readout going down the road its amazing how easy it is to pick what needs changing - the carb is now running better than ever, just waiting on a few more parts to get it to absolutely ideal. I've known for a while that the gearbox mount was getting a bit past it but I wasn't going to pay an arm and a leg for a Toyota part - with the exhaust off I pulled the cross member and modified it so that I can use standard Holden rubber mounts which are not only cheaper but also more solid, and reinforced the cross member so it doesn't flex so much. Of course all this meant pulling the extractors off which is a challenge in itself, but after some advice from this forum I tracked down some reduced head ARP bolts which made life a lot easier:


The other thing I have been wanting to do for a while is sort out the driveshaft uni angles, so got a couple of adjustable upper arms:

The wasn't enough clearance between the rear of the tyres and the flares to roll the diff back though, so time to modify the the flares (also to gain a bit of clearance for the slightly larger diameter slicks):

The Dirtbag method of taping and bogging over the tape to hold the shape for fibreglassing worked great, but I learned the hard way that you should bolt the flares back on to the car immediately and let them dry that way so that they don't pull out of shape! After a bit of paint, I have some clearance:

(the front edge of the flare has at least as much clearance as the back and the angle isn't as bad as it looks here, camera trick...?)

In amongst all that the alternator I knew was a bit dodgy finally bit the dust at the most inconvenient moment. Bought a 120A replacement which is much better and will allow me to run the bigger thermo fans when I get around to that.

Another thing I've wanted to do for a while is install the HQ rear Bilstein shocks I've had sitting around. This of course required building a new bracket on the diff:

What prompted me to finally get that done was I found a pair for the front too (had to pull the springs to install them, that sucked!):


Just got the shocks finished up today and took it for a drive, noticeably better than the Koni red front/Monroe GT rear combination it had previously - definitely stiffer but not harsh, it rides quite well.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:10 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Found a pair of 15x8s at a reasonable price to replace the 15x7s on the front and fill the guards out properly.

Much better! Looks more like a muscle car

Also hopefully have a rear window louvre under way... :-)

... but the steering rack needs some attention in the very near future before it sees much more driving :-( lucky I have some spares

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:10 PM.

[76lxhatch]

That looks a hundred times cooler! Matches the back now

Functional too with the wider front track - turns out the backspacing on the 7s and 8s is exactly the same, so the whole extra inch is to the outside which means the track is pushed out 1/2" per side (same tyres)

Also hopefully have a rear window louvre under way... :-)

You buy that one off trademe? Was it in Qtown? You made the right choice with the wheels

Yeah, the only other one I've seen for sale in the last 5 years came with a complete car, there aren't many around

[76lxhatch]

Got the arms from Summit:
http://www.summitrac...rts/UPI-4017-B/

Didn't work out particularly cheap but they are a reasonably nice bit of gear. I did have to trim some excess to allow full travel as I have the original style upper arm mounts on the diff (its still very close but just enough clearance)

[76lxhatch]

Got the louvre, gave it a bit of a clean up and put it on:

(car needs a bit of a clean up too!)

Reco'd steering rack awaiting tie rod ends:


Will hopefully do the lower steering column bearing when I swap the rack too

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:11 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Dummied up a retainer for the new steering column lower bearing:





Also got some new tie rod ends so the rack is ready to go in. Will paint up the bearing retainer and hopefully get it all installed tomorrow.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:11 PM.

[76lxhatch]

New lower bearing installed - was a bit more difficult to do in place than I had anticipated, but got there in the end:


and installed the steering rack:

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:11 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Heheh can't you tell what/where that is from my spectacular photo? (I'm lying on my back under the car to get that shot, the bonnet is actually open and no light coming through its that tight!)

Its the steering column lower bearing as in the previous post above, more info here:
http://www.gmh-toran...-uc-bottom-brg/

[76lxhatch]

Well took it out to the drags for its first stint with the slicks, that and a few tweaks to the tune netted over half a second improvement straight away! Best time 13.98@102, but that was with a crappy 60ft and I managed the exact same time with trap speed several mph slower so there's still something lacking behind the wheel... only got a few runs though.

Turns out the gearbox wasn't such a big fan of the slicks, second gear:

Drove it 45km home with banging noises coming from the gearbox... quite impressed really because there's no way an Aussie 4 speed would have held up that well, I know that one from experience too.

The gearbox is about the only part of the car I haven't paid some attention to so I had planned to rebuild it and put it back in, but in the end it was just too good an excuse for an upgrade. Replacement: '67 M20 Muncie

It has the standard 10 spline input and 27 spline output (same as Holden stuff) which makes life easy, and even has the speedo drive on the right side.

It also came with a Hurst Indy shifter which wasn't in too bad nick. I modified it a bit to sit lower and closer to the tail housing, as well as tuck the linkages in and down, and move the lever into the centre along with a bit of a reco for nice tight shifts. Hopefully I won't have to butcher the tunnel as much now and should be able to keep the console.



Sadly the freshly built two-piece drive shaft (forgot to mention that, done previously to stop vibration which worked a charm) which cost me an arm and a leg now needs modifying to suit the new gearbox! By my calculations it needs to be shortened about an inch and I'll be using a VR Commodore yoke which has a slightly bigger uni.


Also got a new clutch plate to suit the different input shaft (wow clutches have become expensive these days!)

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:12 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Thanks Chris

Got the engine and box etc back in yesterday, and sorted out the driveshaft, modified the cross member etc today. The box just fits without modifying the tunnel at all which is very handy - the shifter itself clears reasonably well, the top of the 1-2 shift lever is the closest point but there is clearance.







Just gotta muck around with putting everything back together and setting up the brackets on the seats and it'll be ready to go again.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:12 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Well the gearbox is awesome (after I pulled it out again to do the synchros, rebuilt yeah right!), ratios are sooo much nicer to drive. I changed the diff ratio to 3.23 (was 3.9) so I can still drive long distances without too much hassle and its pretty good all round. Can't get it off the line at the drags any more but that doesn't worry me too much.

Anyways, the courier just turned up...









17x9s all round. Now hopefully someone will buy the Cragars so I can put tyres on these! Going to run 255/40 on the front and 275/40 on the rear.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 11:13 PM.

[tsn007]

i love the wheels

any more info on them?

thanks