823 replies to this topic

[MRLXSS]

Lookin good matt!! it sure has come along way! Wishi could afford to rebuild my hatch!
Whats the go with Uc upper arms and harrop steering arms??? pro's con's and why?

The UC Uppers, as heath says, the ball joint is offset slightly, which helps with the steering geometries. Im not steering expert, but basically it helps when cornering... The wheels stay squarer and stronger through corners, as opposed to rolling inwards (Or over?) themselves.

The Harrop Steering arms were needed to clear the tie-rod from the caliper in my case. But in regards to handling, they are meant to reduce bump-steer (As the steering rack and tie-rods stay square, or something along those lines)

[76lxhatch]

Replacement upper ball joints bolt in, rather than using rivets like the factory ones

[Heath]

so is there any easy way to tell the difference between uc lowers and lh lowers? which are the better ones? I've got a box with 4 lower arms and 4 upper arms in the shed,
and i've gotta make sure the ones that are going on the car are a matching pair.

Get your calipers out and make sure the thickness is the same on all of them. If there are two thick and two thin then keep them as pairs obviously.

On the upper ones, the visual difference is obvious. On everything but UC, the balljoint is half way between the front and the rear tubular (pivot mount) bushes. On the UC, the offset needs to go towards the rear for positive caster. Any small differences in dimensions can be adjusted out in a wheel alignment. Anyway, this is Matt's thread not ours. I get the shits when people talk about all this stuff in my build threads.

[MRLXSS]

Well.... Lately things haven't been going to plan...

Little things just keep getting in the way of progress not much seems to be happening lately!!!

My mate building the engine came over last night... more hiccups... We were planning to just re-ring and bearing it... But he has measured things up and he isn't 100% confident that its going to be right... It might just go together and be fine for what i want... or it could be noisy and let go prematurely. Which would be a huge waste of the money i'd be spending now...

So, I'm getting a huge case of the 'Do it once, Do it Right'. just suck it up and have the Torry off the road for a bit longer than planned, but have the monster engine go in sooner than i expected!

What do others think? I could drop the 253 back in for the time being to have a car to cruise over the next few months... The recent steering mods are going to be huge change anyway! Hmmm... decisions...

[MRLXSS]

Yeah, thats a good point... Since the ute has gone, Im having fast car withdrawals! I need an adrenalin hit!

I could also probably sell the 253 stroker for some funds towards the new donk.

[LXCHEV]

What exactly is wrong with the new engine? What needs to be done to fix it?

If it's not too major... personally, I'd sell off your 253 to raise some funds, and just do whatever needs to be done. Who cares if the car is off the road for an extra few months....could you still catch the tail-end of this Summer for cruising?

However, if you think it will mean the car is off the road for say an extra 12 months or longer; in that case I'd consider refitting the 2-fluffy.

If you don't do it right now with this new engine of yours, and just put it back together 'as-is', you will definitely end up spending more cash, and more time long-term getting it all sorted.

[orangeLJ]

he needs it back on the road for next month! haha,

Karlie and I are flying down to visit! lol

[MRLXSS]

What exactly is wrong with the new engine? What needs to be done to fix it?

If it's not too major... personally, I'd sell off your 253 to raise some funds, and just do whatever needs to be done. Who cares if the car is off the road for an extra few months....could you still catch the tail-end of this Summer for cruising?

However, if you think it will mean the car is off the road for say an extra 12 months or longer; in that case I'd consider refitting the 2-fluffy.

If you don't do it right now with this new engine of yours, and just put it back together 'as-is', you will definitely end up spending more cash, and more time long-term getting it all sorted.

Everything is just a bit worn and Justin isn't 100% satisfied with it going together without any hassle. It might, but he isn't too keen to take the gamble.

So the $1500 odd i was going to throw at this, can go towards the 355... We have to sit down and nut out what it'll cost me, so i know what funds need to be raised. So the 290 might soon be up for sale.

In the end it was the little things that made me realise that i may be throwing money away at this one... The Cam couldnt be re-used with the stroker, the dizzy would have to be re-graphed again, the car re-dyno tuned, and all those little things that you get done with a new motor... So bugger it... I'll do it now..

What kinda power do the 355's put out? It'll be a pretty angry combo... I'll try and get some ideas of what parts we'll be buying for it during the week.

First aim Brett.... Is to be faster than LXCHEV! So i have to beat 11.7? Game on!!

[LXCHEV]

Haha... With a serious enough 355 you could run a 10 if you really wanted. You will smash my old times out of the water :(

I'm not really sure on the power of most 355's... but from seeing a few mates cars, I would estimate that a very mild (tame) 355 would produce around a solid 200 rwkW. And that's very mild. A decent, more worked 355 should make anywhere between 200 - 240 rwkW quite easily. Then if you get real serious, and want to keep going, the sky is the limit.

[Stedz_lc]

Mate of mine has just finished puttin his 355 together he is hopin for the 500-550hp on the engine dyno!
But thats a VERY VERY angry engine!

Do you have good pipes? good auto?

MMM Stroker this thing is goin to be insane matt! it
If you dont think ul finish it for summer put the 253 back in cruise it til your close then sell yours off to finish it off?

[MRLXSS]

Yeah, i don't want it to be too angry to be honest... I want it to be somewhat reliable.. I want it to last and be able to clock up some k's...

Im thinking 400-450hp would be perfect for what i want realistically! 225-250rwkw??

I'm still thinking about what to do transmission wise now... The Block is Turbo pattern, i was going to get it re-drill... But i might now look at the t350 path... Or maybe a t700 for the overdrive (And the option of 4.11's )

What do people think? Can you get the T700's to handle that kinda power reliably?

The pipes i'll be running are pacemaker tri-'s. The off the shelf ones for the EFI heads into toranas.

Mumbo, I'm being lazy and just going to go the extra cubes to get the power! Should make the power a bit easier and should last a bit longer...

[MRLXSS]

Here is a slight update...

Things have kinda stalled of late... The front end will be ready to go back in over the weekend (Not sure if i'll have the time though, thats the only problem! Thank god for daylight savings though!)

Here is a crappy pic:


Both the front convo's went flat and the bead seal went, so i have to get them to a tyre shop and have that fixed so they hold air again! Dammit! Notice the front left control arm ain't painted... long story but it doesnt look like that anymore... Have the right one and its all painted and sexy now! haha.

New Steering Column is in..

Now I have the hi-beam on the stalk and not the floor. So hopefully once its all wired up i won't have headlight issues anymore!

Also, check out the freshly trimmed dash pad! Matches the rest of the trim now.

Any I finally have a bit of a workbench!


Thanks mum and dad for the B'day Present! haha

[mr5000]

whay about looking into a trans from eagle see if you can work out a deal pretty sure they do th700s you dont wanna go 4 11s with out an overdrive will make highway cruising an expensive past time