445 replies to this topic

[Heath]

Sweet. Solid times Brett.

 

You've got the itch now... how are you going to scratch it?

 

I understand turbocharged V8's are pretty well mannered on the street.

[LXCHEV]

Cheers gents.

Heath - LOL! It's very lucky I have no disposable income these days, not when I'm supporting a family of 5. I'll just continue to see how I can improve this combo for now.

If my kids get the petrol head bug, then I anticipate lots of play time later down the track.

PS. Tiny - get back on the track mate!! It was far too long in between stints for me, never again.

Oh yeah, another thing I was looking at for interests sake - economy.

I kept track of the fuel I used on Sunday (all up around 85litres). For me it was just over 2 hours up, 2 hours back (covered around 320km) on the open road, plus the drags themselves (let's add at least another 10 - 15km). I'm not shy to sit on 100kmh even though it's pulling 3,300rpm - it's right on cam and feels good. Car returned somewhere around 25 litres per 100km. Ballpark figures.

It's not good, but I don't think it's extreme either. Would be interested to hear how that compares to others with similar setups (big cubes, stalls, carbs) etc.

[Tiny]

Hey mate!
Yeah I'm hoping to scratch that itch this year too!
Let's see how it pans out!

I haven't done a fuel economy reading for a long time but my memory of the numbers was similar. Except at the drags where I remember burning through like 30odd litres in the 21 passes the car did between SIMMO and I!

[myss427]

I got 11 liters per hundred going to Cooma and back last year (180km round trip) with my injected big block, 6 speed was the reason. 1800 revs at 100ks.

Edited by myss427, 03 March 2016 - 02:10 PM.

[LXCHEV]

That's awesome, gotta be rapt with that!

[Gump]

Nice times man. Fuels not too bad. Think of it as smiles per gallon rather than anything else

[LXCHEV]

Absolutely Mick, I'm starting to get the car out a lot more again these days.

Smiles per gallon =

[LXCHEV]

Nearly renewal time again for club rego on my old rig. Gonna be tough to fork out the 70 odd bucks!!! I don't miss full rego at all when these bills arrive!

 

Anyway, had the beast out for the annual Cup Day Swap meet a week or two ago....

 

 

My 2 eldest kids (the 2 boys) are genuinely starting to really enjoy car shows and swap meets (as long as they get to buy something). I normally allocate them 5 bucks each to grab a toy car or a book. Pretty awesome.

 

This year at the swap meet, we found an old school blower with injection hat... looked awesome. I wanted it for garage art, but didn't even bother asking for a price. It did remind me of this old dream though.....

 

 

Oh to win some money......

[Holdenbn74]

Such an awesome car bud 💪

[LXCHEV]

Man I'm slack! Nearly 2 years with no updates.

 

Not a huge amount to report, however I do have some stories to tell...

 

I decided to hit the drag strip again in early 2017, super keen to try for that personal best. For the first time ever for me, I ended up on the back of a tow truck :(

 

Anyway, part 1 of the story...

 

My first pass for the day was a total write-off.... absolutely blazed the tyres off the line and half way down the strip... for a 13.0. Didn't waste my time collecting the time slip, LOL!

 

 LXCHEV01_Drags_2017.jpg   432.13K   2 downloads

 

 LXCHEV02_Drags_2017.jpg   509.57K   4 downloads

 

 LXCHEV03_Drags_2017.jpg   316.18K   2 downloads

[LXCHEV]

I lined up again after dropping tyre pressures (just on street rubber), did my burnout, and then launched hard. Crunch!!!! Car was still driving fine, but making weird rubbing noises. I had partially broken a trailing arm mount, a rear wheel pushed forward and smacked my wheel arch and sill. Discovered much later that I also slightly twisted the slip yoke on the tailshaft.

 

I clearly wasn't driving the 2+ hours home, so a tow truck it was! Very, very average day... and a very long trip home with my tail between my legs.... not something I'm used to at all, and very embarrassing. Also a really, really huge de-motivator. I didn't touch the car for nearly a year after this.

 

 LXCHEV04_Drags_2017.jpg   812.11K   3 downloads

 

 LXCHEV05_Drags_2017.jpg   839.52K   6 downloads

[LXCHEV]

Who is this tool tailgating us? Oh, that's right - it's just the old Torrie on the back... kinda creepy!

 

 LXCHEV06_Drags_2017.jpg   684.54K   3 downloads

 

Finally back home....

 

 LXCHEV07_Drags_2017.jpg   457.43K   2 downloads

[LXCHEV]

So anyway, as mentioned above, I was really de-motivated, and the car was off the road for just shy of a year.

 

Funnily enough though - once I pulled my finger out, it was a really easy fix. First up was the tailshaft - which went through yet another rebuild, and ended up with a billet slip yoke. Whilst it was out, I had the other end freshened too. It's not bullet-proof, and I'd still like to upgrade this one day to the larger 1350 series uni's, but this should keep me out of trouble for a while...

 

 LXCHEV01_tailshaft.jpg   543.87K   4 downloads

 

 LXCHEV02_tailshaft.jpg   640.76K   2 downloads

[LXCHEV]

As for the rear-end - I had the trailing arm mount professionally repaired, and that snow-balled into a full freshen up of my rear end. I decided to head in a different direction though with the 9", so ended up building two complete rear ends over the past 6 months. The original one was bare-metalled and painted, and then carefully pieced back together with my spare 3.5 centre after a pro-reco, along with 28 spline axles, fresh studs, and all new HZ drum brakes and lines. I have since sold this to Mick (LXT333), so I'm stoked it's going to a good home and into another tough torrie.

 

This means the car is now back off the road yet again!! (After only been back for the past few months). However my brand new housing finally got completed, and I picked it up today (after ordering it prior to Christmas last year). So will get some photos of it shortly.

 

Some happy snaps of diff #1 following it's rebuild:

 

 LXCHEV_Diff_Original_01.jpg   147.73K   2 downloads

 

 LXCHEV_Diff_Original_03.jpg   130.33K   2 downloads

[LXCHEV]

Cover your eyes - how filthy they get when off the road!!!!

 

 LXCHEV_1.jpg   274.86K   2 downloads

 

This was how sad my Convo's had gone.... they came back to life nicely though:

 

 LXCHEV_2.jpg   291.06K   3 downloads

 

Who would have known - kids being helpful!!! My 8 year old bleeding brakes.... super proud moment right here!!!

 

 LXCHEV_3.jpg   304.45K   4 downloads

 

It's a family affair.... gotta love it!

 

 LXCHEV_4.jpg   234.13K   4 downloads

 

[LXCHEV]

Unbelievably good to be cruising again - got snapped at a Good Friday Appeal car show....

 

 LXCHEV_GoodFriday1.jpg   128.55K   3 downloads

 

 LXCHEV_GoodFriday2.jpg   107.1K   4 downloads

 

 LXCHEV_GoodFriday3.jpg   102.7K   4 downloads

 

Stay tuned... more updates soon.

[LXCHEV]

By the way - just having a glance back through this thread, and even after the Photobucket saga - it seems a fair whack of the photos I had originally posted there have been saved. Thank you to whoever was responsible for that effort. I've since deleted my Photobucket account, so it's nice to see my thread hasn't been completely destroyed. Still quite a few pics lost, but luckily I also used to reply heavily on an alternate server.

 

Cheers guys.

[rodomo]

Cheeky faced girl is trouble for sure!

[Tiny]

Absolutely love your update mate

Talk about the good the bad and the ugly hey....

 

She's looking amazing as always and i guess it's the joys of cars like this!!

 

Mate - I feel your pain, and i can say i know the de-motivator feeling - I'm in that boat myself right now..... 

 

Thanks for updating your post mate, Glad to see you've still got the passion!

[LXCHEV]

I do want alloy AFR’s, but to date have not been able to locate the money tree - still searching! Single income family of 5 - say no more!

For now, the old iron heads will do.

With my new diff setup, I now need to source and fit all new brakes and brake lines again, which hopefully should get done this month (I’ll be doing exactly the same HQ drum setup again). Then there’s nothing stopping me from throwing it all back together and into the car. At least I chose the right time of year to have it off the road this time (it’s freezing in Melbourne!).

I do seek that infamous 10 second pass long term - hence why i’m setting up the rear end now. It should be good for 9’s.

And I do want EFI, and a supercharger, and ........

[Redslur]

Just plant a money tree, everyone else does and seem to get away with it LOL...In fact think you can have up to 5 of the suckers...

[Heath]

I haven't been brought up to speed on this car in a while Brett! Haha. Thanks for the updates, good and bad.