132 replies to this topic

[axistr]

Been doing a fair bit of cruising lately and decided to connect the lap top up again, download and check how the self learning table was going, and my son has been driving it a bit lately so also see how he has been treating it. When I calculated the injector sizing I decided on 36lbs injectors,  looking through the fuel learn table its knocked out 14% fuel at slow engine speeds and low loads. But over half throttle at engine speeds above 3500 rpm its adding 8-10% fuel . looking further up the table at 6,250 rpm full throttle its -0.1% and the fuel pump is maxed out at 265lts per hour. Bloody hell cant get much closer than that.

 

Got to say this Holley system is bloody brilliant, and very well set up for easy adjustments and monitoring. Basically the only setting I have played around with is the cold start idle up curve. Going by the fuel usage table at 6,2050 rpm the engine is producing 535hp. I know there are guy on here with much more horse power than this but it has surpassed my expectations, it just shouldn't make this much power, and considering I specked the engine with mid range street driving in mind I'm stoked, And above all its so streetable.         

[myss427]

I wish I went the Holley, started with the Edelbrock system, useless, changed to the FAST retro-fit setup, much better, now fitting a  FAST SPORTSMAN because the retro systems is not that well suited to manuals. But they never let you know that when purchasing, anyone interested in a brand new FAST retro-fit injection system, going cheap!

[myss427]

I may know someone interested in this. What kit is it Eg: basic, master etc. And most important what sort of coin are you asking for it

 Cheers

Its the FAST 30404 Retro -Fit kit and it comes with unopened full wiring looms, wideband exhaust sensor, touchscreen display tablet, Fuel pressure sensor and temp sender. Lots of little jacks for adapting looms and sensors. Everything other than the Computer has not been opened or used all brand new, Computer has had a little amount of use as I found it was no suitable for my motor combo as it is too wild for it. I also have a spare polished Edelbrock throttle bode with IAC sensor if interested. The kit from Rocket Perf new is around $2200 - $2400, I would take $1200 for the kit and $300 for the throttle body.

[myss427]

Mine was that I have a manual and the vacuum signal gets interrupted when your changing gears and upsets the self learning side. You need a camshaft with over 112 lobe separation for fuel injection or your after issues. My car makes over 750 horsepower, but is the lobe sep and manual causing the issues, was told by the Injection guru its for auto's and I should have bought the Sportsman version where you can lock out the self learning side at idle or total.

 

Also sorry to highjack the thread!

[LS1LX]

I've had those blue ones crumble the same on a so called rebuilt front end I got in a car I bought. ubder braking the car would hook to the kerb badly. I would only use and recommend rubber bushes for the street

[cameron]

Mine was that I have a manual and the vacuum signal gets interrupted when your changing gears and upsets the self learning side. You need a camshaft with over 112 lobe separation for fuel injection or your after issues. My car makes over 750 horsepower, but is the lobe sep and manual causing the issues, was told by the Injection guru its for auto's and I should have bought the Sportsman version where you can lock out the self learning side at idle or total.

 

Also sorry to highjack the thread!

 

Its all about the low vacuum with any self learning unit. I use either the sportsman or xfi if the engine has low vacuum issues. All the Fasts units support decent hp.

 

Cameron

[axistr]

myss427 in the Holley HP E.F.I software they allow for two tuning strategies for naturally aspirated engines. I am using the speed density tuning table. Holley says in the manual the speed density tuning can be used with engines having lower than 7"hg vacuum at idle, but recommends choosing Alpha-N tuning for lower than 7" hg engines for a more stable idle and recommended for drag cars.

[axistr]

I ordered this little bugger back in May, Finally turned up yesterday so I suppose its a Christmas present. I got my original shaft cut and a GTR skyline constant velocity joint between. Just got to make a bracket for the centre bearing.

 

Its just one of the things I have been wanting to do for years but never got around to it. The vibration I have is only minor but just enough to bug me, but that's the price we have to pay when we want our cars to sit low to the ground. I am confident this will do the job.

 

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[76lxhatch]

That's exactly what finally worked for me, the CV joint gives you the freedom to sort the angles properly. Looks good, will be interested to see how you make the centre bearing mount.

[axistr]

My hatch is very enjoyable to drive but a slight vibration was noticeable on the freeways at 110kmh and noticed a slight tail shaft rattle when slowing down at slow speeds. When I restored the car and set up the driveline angles (which I thought would be ok) and didn't cut the tunnel for the Tremec TKO transmission. But when I finally finished the build the ride height just didn't right, so I dropped the rear a bit more which gave me this vibration and was noticeably worse when I through in 100lts of fuel.

 

Under full load (weight) my working angles were around 4 degrees negative on both unis. This meant the tail shaft was operating  broken back style. This makes the unis work together as opposed to one uni cancelling out the other as the angles change through 360 degrees.

 

So decided to fit a centre bearing and constant velocity joint which can work at any angle and don't speed up and slow down like uni joints when rotating.  CV Joint is from a Nissan GTR, and centre bearing is a heavy duty 35mm ID bearing, so it should be pretty much bullet proof.

 

This is my original tail shaft before removal.

 

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I measured and decided to cut the shaft and put the centre bearing in to align with the body plate reinforcement that the front seat belts mount to. I have electric VY SS commodore seats and I retained the original seat belt stork which attaches to the seat base. So this plate was unused anyway. I tapped out the seat belt holes because they were still seat belt threads and fitted 7/16 unc bolts to insure the plates would never move and help to make this area nice and ridged.

 

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I made a new mount out of 10mm flat bar and slotted the side mount bolts. The centre bearing mount plate had to be bent as it would have hit the floor. (to wide) The tunnel isn't all that big so it was a bit of a squeeze to get it all in and contend with the exhaust as well. 

 

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Fitted the shaft assembly and measured so I could make some spacers, thank Christ I have a lathe and mill. 

 

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The slots I milled in the mount bar gave me a little bit of adjustment to set the first shaft angle to the transmission angle. I set the shaft with 3/4 degree differential to ensure the unis kept working and self lubricating.

 

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Now happy with the first shaft angle I had to pull up the carpet and mount the bracket and spacers and bolt it all in then recheck the angles.

 

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I have adjustable to diff trailing arms so I was able to get a perfect angle into the diff which I set at 1 1/2 degrees differential to the rear shaft. The nine inch diffs also have the pinion off set slightly to the right which also adds to the working angles which probably made my original working angles even worse. The angle indicator makes life easy when setting up driveline angles. The CV joint is now working at 4 1/2 degrees.

 

Finally and last of all the road test, on the M4 motorway @125kmh Smooooooth as, Its always been a nice smooth car to drive and I know I am fussy which at times shits me, but the difference and refinement has taken it to a new level.      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

[purrlx]

Nice work.

[76lxhatch]

Will you be adding safety loops? (Our rules require two for a two piece driveshaft!)

[axistr]

Good question 76lxhatch, the exhaust has a balance pipe under the front shaft and the original park brake cable. I was thinking about putting one under the second shaft but I don't think its really needed. I asked the engineer who also did the tail shaft mod cut and balance, and he said the regulations didn't require a loop on the rear. Thinking about it most trucks and cars manufactured new don't have any dedicated tail shaft loops.  

[axistr]

I noticed a slight vibration in the hatch on the weekend and the steering felt a bit off. so put  it on the host and had a decent  look around. Last year I replaced the lower front control arm bushes and the only plastic ones left were the top control arms. So it was only a matter of time

 

The first plastic bushes failed on the rear diff control arms around 1,500km the sway bar bushes lasted 1,800km the lower front control arm bushes lasted 9,500km and now the top control arms lasted 12,700km so that's the most I have ever got of these  F**king crap plastic shit. I wanted to fit rubber bushes through out the car when I restored it but the local parts shop said Mckay weren't  making rubber bushes and that I only had the choice of plastic ones. That was over 12 years ago. Against my better judgement I listened to the sales person and fitted them.

 

The top control arm bushes are a real bitch to change and I wasn't in the mood to pull the K-Frame out. I persevered and got decent rubber bushes in without damaging any paintwork. The next time I even dream about fitting plastic bushes can someone please smack me in the back of my head,  jump on my toes and kick me fair in the nuts just to remind me how painful it is to eradicate these mongrel pathetic shit bushes.

 

 

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[jonesy]

 

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there is a bit more life in them. haha

[axistr]

Something I have been wanting to do to the hatch for over ten years has been a front brake upgrade. I couldnt fit anything bigger due to having 14" Dragway wheels. So I finally bit the bullet and ordered new Simmons FR17" 8 & 10, This has opened up my choices considerably. After reading and talking to many owners who have had problems fitting big brake upgrade kits I decided to make a kit. Plus I prefer and like to do everything I can myself. I'm a bit fussy and I know buying a kit and having to do mods to make them fit would really piss me off.

 

I am still running standard LX front stub axles and prefer to have the brakes front mounted. Looking through my DBA spec book I decided to go for 300mm hat rotors which suited the offset I was after. I could have gone bigger but there really isn't any need and don't want to get an over brake on the front axle. I am running A9X rear brake setup.

 

I was going to machine up some front hubs until I come across some blank hubs for $75.00 each, just wasn't worth machining them up for that price. I have a mill with an electronic CNC program so drilling the blank hubs to suit the Torana 108mm PCD was reasonably easy.

 

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After fitting new longer front studs to the new hubs for the hat style rotors I also redrilled the new discs to suit the Torana stud pattern. Blanks discs were almost double the cost and still had to be drilled so off the shelf new rotors were used and drilled to suit the Torana stud pattern. 

 

Now that I had a reference point to mount the calipers I made a cardboard templet.

 

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Its a bit of an overkill but I made the brackets from 1/2" plate. The stub axle is also 1/2" thick at the caliper mounts, there is no way that the bracket is ever going to bend or break. I made some spacers to centre the caliper over the disc. Trial fit up and checked all the clearances lock to lock then removed and painted the brackets. I also made some spare brackets at the same time for my other Torana which I will also do the brake upgrade soon. If I ever decide at some stage to change wheels I can still get 15" wheels  over the 300mm brakes. 

 

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Now the brakes are fitted to the car I can get better measurements for new brake hoses to be made tomorrow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[76lxhatch]

Didn't realise you still had the small stud pattern, have you used a bigger stud or still 7/16"? Nothing wrong with overkill on the adapters either, they're not big enough to add much weight and brakes are kind of important. Are they VE calipers?

[axistr]

Didn't realise you still had the small stud pattern, have you used a bigger stud or still 7/16"? Nothing wrong with overkill on the adapters either, they're not big enough to add much weight and brakes are kind of important. Are they VE calipers?

 

76lxhatch, the front studs are VT commodore, from memory they are 12mm x 1.5. Brake calipers are XR8  AU2,BA . I did a weigh in on the old Dragway wheels v new Simons. Interesting the Simons fronts wheels (17"x8" with 235/45 tyres) are 2kg heavier each than the Dragways, and the rear 17"x10" with 275/40 are the same weight as the old Dragways which are 14"x10" with 265/50 Yokahama tyres.

 

 

 

I got the brake hoses made to suit today, fitted and bleed, all good.

 

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Its been a few years, probably 3-4 years, bloody time fly's, since I have done a brake fluid flush on the car, so decided to flush the rear brakes at the same time. I got a little bit of fluid out and then stopped. I went to the other side and the same thing happened. I thought the master cylinder had packed it in the rear brake circuit. I got the Mrs to keep pumping and no fluid. I then went to the master cylinder and it had pressure at the outlet pipe. Back down to the rear calipers and removed the bleeder nipple but they were clear.

 

I put my hand on the flexible rear brake hoses and I could feel the hoses building pressure. It looks like the rear calipers are the problem for some reason. I got the Mrs to push the brake peddle hard but I could still spin both rear wheels, and its got a full brake peddle. ?

The rear calipers are Girlock with integrated park brake expander on the brake pad piston. A9X/ Ford system. I am running a 9" diff Its not the first time I have had problem with these stupid bloody calipers. I decided to take the hatch for a run just to check the front brake operation, only go 2km from home and the right rear brakes started riding and smoke appeared, F***K, nursed it home slammed the shed door closed,  hooked up the go karts to the ranger and went karting at our local track to calm down.

 

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It looks like I will have to remove and strip the rear calipers and see what's going on. Or second option, remove the F*****g things and toss them clear over the rear fence and work out how to fit a pair of commodore calipers without having to cut the ends off  the housing and welding on commodore caliper mounts. Anyway the good news is at least the fronts brakes are working great. It will be more fun when front and rear are working. Its possible the rears haven't been doing the job very well for some time. 

 

Bloody cars.

[axistr]

I decided to go update the rear brakes while I am at it. went to the wreckers and picked up a set of rear brakes from a 92 VP commonhore. They need reconditioning but it gives me something to mockup to insure its all going to work.

 

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The 9" diff still has the Ford disc brake flanges on the housing. I didn't want to bugger around and cut off the flanges and weld on the Holden commodore flanges, and piss around with different bearing ect, So doing a few calculations I reckon making a couple of adaptor flanges will work. 12mm thick adaptors spacers places the commodore caliper mount plate in the correct position when the disc rotor is placed on the outside of the axles as per original commodore setup. The Ford setup is a bugger as the discs are mounted on the inside of the axles and I had to remove the axles and press off the discs to machine or replace them.(prick of an idea). I  reversed sides so the brake calipers mounted in front of the axle or they would have fouled with the shocks.

 

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With the spacer fitted the caliper mounted dead centre on the disc. The park brake leavers are also in a good positions and reversing the shoes and levers from side to side will pull in the correct direction. The cable brackets only needed drilling out one of the holes and I will need to drill and tap a second hole in the backing plate to make it all work and secure.

 

 

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New wheels fitted, I have increased my track an extra 6mm per side due to the outboard position of the disc rotors which works out great. Now I will strip it out again and recondition all the parts. I also have to drill the new rotors to suit the 108mm Torana PCD stud pattern. My park brake cable has been previously modified for the original Girlock callipers so I need to track down an original cable and silver soldier on the commodore ends to suit the park brake levers. 

 

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[Ice]

They are the bomb Lenny

[Heath]

Super nice work Lenny.

[76lxhatch]

New wheels fitted

 

Wow, that changes the look!