1886 replies to this topic

[Heath]

As Rob kindly pointed out on the last page, I managed to break an engine mount from too many burnouts. Before I installed the replacement, I 'adjusted' it a little bit as per rodomo's suggestion, this is just to limit the movement in the rubber joint before the T-joint jams tight. I'm not sure if the forces & vibration will open this back up again but I won't know until I do more clutch dumps and see the results. Anyway, the idea is to avoid over-stretching the rubber joint on the 'tension' side (pass side).





This is just a photo of the adjusted exhaust with Brad's old extractors which provide much better clearance near the engine mount, bellhousing, swaybar and general ground clearance.


And this is just the swaybar bolted on

Edited by Heath, 09 September 2010 - 03:26 PM.

[greens nice]

get a small chain maybe 5 links long and bolt it to the inside and bottom engine mount bolts, it'll stop the travel and will catch it if the mount breaks.
its more painfull when su's or webers come up and smack the bonnet hehe.

[Heath]

Mick, there was just a 'tick' sound when you got on the loud pedal. That was why my bonnet is a bit dinted as well :(

Kevin, if I get some proper power I will probably just make up a proper engine mount for the tension side. But your suggestion isn't a bad idea for simplicity's sake.

[Stinga]

whats the rest of your exhaust Heath? size/muffler?

[Heath]

Yeah one of your old 173 ones broke, the driver's side one is still fine. Swaybars are the same colour as each other. MCH11N, just a pretty generic 2-1/4" single system with some semi-straight through at the arse end with a flanged turn-down. I had a full tail-pipe on it but it made it sound a bit muffled so I put the turn-down on.

[LXCHEV]

Ok Heath, time to do some measuring. We need to find out the size of the centre hole on your rims.

I just stumbled across these beauties, they are steel, push-through bullet caps. They come in 3 sizes:

Small: diameter 74mm
Medium: diameter 80mm
Large: diameter 83mm

Height is approx 115mm

$45 a set!!! CHEAP AS!! What are the chances they might fit??? If not, it shows the right style to suit your rims...







Thoughts??

Edited by LXCHEV, 24 October 2010 - 06:25 AM.

[Heath]

I think I already said this to Brett in person (clearly not here), but that style of centrecap definitely won't fit on the front of my car, as the fitment is hub-centric. And honestly, I reckon that style is a bit tacky on anything but a custom. Still looking for some cheap standard style centrecaps and I'll paint em up & make up some nice buttons for the centre of them if I get bored.

Obviously I haven't been doing much work on my cars recently (or my threads wouldn't be dead), I've still been living cars just mine haven't changed lol. TAFE has settled down & almost finished so I've found a few good jobs and have built up some finances, which have never really been a strong department for me.

This is an old 173 head I got my hands on. This was just set up on the mill to skim the rocker cover mounting surface. The head has been ported & modified in the combustion chambers now, the valve guide axes have been shifted and it's going to be fitted with bigger valves and hardened exhaust seats obviously. Will have to get some photos later on but that will be bolted on before March next year, with a lump stick.


What do you think of tinted tail lights? They are some really stuffed lenses that I did up and I reckon it looks pretty mean (would look better if the light wasn't stuffed beforehand but I didn't wanna destroy a perfectly good one for a test)



Anyway, for now I just yanked out the silver ones, filled the holes on the back and gave them a squirt with a rattle can. Shoulda got the gun out, spraying with cans is shit as on this kinda thing

Holes filled







Also spent a long long long time sanding this grill back and painting it again because lots of highway ks had chipped it real bad.


I wanna get the car looking a bit more 'finished' this summer, then I'll probably start looking for someone to sell it to.

[76lxhatch]

Tail lights came up really nice. Mine are tinted a bit and I like them

[Heath]

Yeah I think I'll darken a pair of light backing things (where the globes clip into) and see if that gets the desired effect. I don't want it to be over the top, like those black VYs you see with lights that blend in with the body. Ugh!

I only really wanna sell it so that I can build more cars. It's a fantastic car, and it has put up with many hard ks admirably. It's not like some showcar I put together and only took it out 20 times. Obviously I would be pretty emotional if it went tomorrow; I'm not 'over it', but apart from running a 15 on the strip (which I want it to do before I get rid of it), it has delivered everything I expected & more.

[MRLXSS]

Black lights definetly suit your green with blackouts better than the silver...

I heard you were selling the Torana to buy your dream car? A japenese 4 banger or something!

[greens nice]

why does your 173 head have the press in studs
wadda ya mean valve axes have been moved?

ive always wondered whether machine the rocker cover sealling surface would actually help.
and did you get my last pm?

[Heath]

Yeah it definitely does but some rocker covers don't like you taking away the height of the surface if your gasket isn't thick enough to hold the edges/border away from the cast area of the head. And oops that work was done to a few heads in the one session that day hahaha, now that you mention it, I'm not even sure what head it is but I think it's off a 186, musta got my photos mixed up. It's not one that I own anyway. How's this instead - this one is definitely going on my car

By valve axes being moved I mean the valves now sit in a slightly different place in the head lol, helps when you are installing large valves that the shrouding isn't as severe, amongst other things. That photo is pre-seat-work (like... the seats don't even line up with the guides)

I replied to the PM you sent me on the 7th. If there have been any since then, I don't think I've received them.

And Matt, at this stage my dream car is still a Torana and I've planned a fair bit of the car already hahaha. Might buy some jap crap in the meantime though

Edited by Heath, 22 November 2010 - 10:03 PM.

[greens nice]

ah ok no worries, i mustve forgot to click send
i knew what you meant just didnt think you would put that much effort in or be so sneaky!

it looks the goods, keep it up.

[Heath]

Yeah haha well I'm not that sneaky. They aren't canted or anything, just offset a bit on the mill.

[rodomo]

Pretty weird lookin kinda header plates hanging off the side of it too.

[Heath]

I've done a few things on the car in the last little while. One of those things was getting rid of the 'faildoor' - the driver's door that had obvious imperfections that stood out like dogs balls.

Fixed up the little dint and got rid of some crows feet happening on the black, and resprayed both.


Polished it the next day, waiting for it to dry for weeks seemed un-necessary. Looks fine.

The paint matched the front end awesomely but everything rear of it is slightly off, but there is no obvious transition on the other side at all. Anyway, much better than it was IMO. But you can tell I didn't pay someone $15k for my duco hahaha.

Also wanted to take the car to Winton for the Fun Day with Liam off the turbo202 forum. I'd been having a problem with the car for ages and that is that I could only really heel & toe it when I was wearing work boots, and it was still pretty awkward. Anyway I grabbed my spare accellerator pedal out from under the house, stuck it in the vice and straightened out the bends a bit (to make it closer to the brake pedal), cut a slit in it, extended it so that it was longer and sat further from the floor. Took a bit of getting used to and it's easy to go brake and accellerator at the same time now (wouldn't make a production car like that) but it works well. I could hold the brakes on hard and double clutch down through as many gears as I wanted to smoothly, heel and toeing, no dramas. I used to have to brake early, come off the brakes, quickly downshift then go back into braking. That was shit



Forgot to get a photo of it in the car, oops!

And some shots from Winton while I'm at it. BBQ-202 and WTF-202 on the front straight

WRX hunting: (seriously I don't know what was wrong with that red rex but he could not get away from me)

[Heath]

I've got a bit of video but it's nothing crash hot and it's pretty big, probably not worth trying to post. I will get an in-car camera setup for my return there, maybe with some budget data logging shit so I can measure g forces, speeds and laptimes.

It's funny looking at the photos because the car sits pretty flat, looks like I'm not even going hard hahaha.

[MRLXSS]

It's funny looking at the photos because the car sits pretty flat, looks like I'm not even going hard hahaha.

That's probably because you aren't going that fast.... It's a 202 on lpg Heath...