mad082

i think there is a thread on here about putting falcon horns on

sometimes a car with an open diff can still spin all the drive wheels. i know my falcon used to at times. other times it would only do 1 wheel. if there is little tracion (like in mud, etc) then it is easy for there to be enough friction in the diff to spin all the wheels. had 1 side been on something with more grip and the other in mud and they had all spun/driven then you would know for sure that it had a LSD. also as an open diff starts to wear out it can often start to spin both wheels more.

that video is old though, and there is a hell of a lot of tuning options out there now for the falcon.

timing works the other way. the earlier the spark the more bang you get, to an extent. the reason being that all the fuel doesn't ignite the moment the spark fires. this takes time. if you ignite the fuel at 0 degreesthe piston will already be falling away by the time the fuel starts to ignite and therefor will lose most of it's power as even though it is expanding as it fires, it is now expending at the same time as the area it has to expand in is also getting bigger. also it means the some of the fuel will be moving away from the flames and take much longer to get burntup, or possibly not get burnt at all. if you make the timing fire sooner (advance, so make the number higher) you end up increasing the pressure in the cylinder as you have more fuel getting burnt before maximum compression. and as we all know, hot air is less dense than cold air, so once it is fully compressed then you have a higer pressure and it will push the piston back down with more force. where detonation/pinging comes into this is that by having more fuel burnt, and more gases in the chamber there is more heat. and the more you compress something the hotter it gets (hence why we have intercoolers), you get higher cylinder temps and engine temps. then once the engine is on its next cycle and fresh fuel/air comes in, there is more heat being radiated out of the cylinder walls, and as the piston starts compressing the air and fuel, this extra heat can cause the fuel to ignite prior to the spark being fired (hence the term pre-ignition) or can just make the fuel burn unevenly. pre-ignition is most obvious in an older car not running fuel injection. if you drive it hard when the timing is a bit out or it is a bit lean and get the cylinder temps too high then stop and turn the car off it may continue to run. this is because when you turn the car off only the spark stops, but the carby supplies fuel based off vaccum and while the engine is turning it is creating vaccum so it continues to pump in fuel and any hot spots in the cylinders will make the fuel ignite and the car will continue to run until it cools down enough to not ignite the fuel anymore, or until you put the car in gear and stall it. the missus old datsun stanza used to do this occasionally on hot days if you drove it hard. that is my understanding of timing. may not be 100% correct, but i think it's pretty close.

ahahaha, the flamers in this thread are just as bad as the OP. no infact they are worse (except terry). h said he is only mildly boosting it up to high revs. not flooring it. 2 completely different things. also not really hooning other than making noise. and even in a 50km/h zone, he wouldn't be much over the speed limit in first. as for whether its bad or not, it wouldn't be that bad. i'd say that flooring in and boosting hard up in first to 6000rpm would be worse than light boost to 7000rpm. and i think dipping the clutch would probably be better than using using the engine to slow you down from that speed as the less time you spend at higher revs the better. however you will slow down just as quick (or maybe even quicker) with it still in gear.

the max mark is the most coolant that should be in there when hot. you will notice that there is usually a gap between the max mark and the top of the bottle. this is to allow the extra coolant from the radiator when the car is hot if it vents any out. this stops there being any chance of it overflowing when hot.

for the timing bit, yes stock timing is 15 degrees and should be set with the car in base idle mode as that locks the timing at 15 degrees. once you go out of base timing mode it is normal for the timing to alter as that is what the ecu does. it alters the timing at different rpms and loads. as for the tic tic, when you say that you spin the cas, do you mean you have it out of the cam and are spinning it by hand but still have the wires plugged in, or are you meaning when you just loosen the 3 bolts off to alter the timing it is making the noise? it could just be that CAS is at a point where the sensor and the trigger inside just happen to be lining up and when you are rotating it is triggering an injector to fire (if the ignition is turned on). or is it happening when the car is running?

ooo it's in japan. would they send if overnight?

question 1: are you on your p's and therefore have power restrictions? if yes, see above. if no, you bought the wrong car to make power from. sell it and buy a turbo version that is all. oh and for the handling side of things, get a set of coil overs

the timing that the ecu is showing isn't the same as the timing you would read if using a timing light. the ecu can alter the timing. it is normal for the timing to fluctuate like it is. if the timing stayed the same throughout the rev range then you could find the car rather different to drive as in certain parts of the rev range it would be well down on power. this is one of the reasons why modern cars make more power than the old carby cars. the ecu can alter both fuel and ignition.

have you checked the back of it to make sure the wires are even connected?

as you said, the car is still under warranty so definately take it to them to get looked at before you do anything else. saves you having to pay anything. before you do though, i would have a look to try and find exactly where the oil is coming from so you are equiped with enough info to make sure they fix it properly. it is hard to tell by the pic but it could just be that the drain bolt isn't 100% tight (that you should check yourself so it doesn't come out while you are driving to get it looked at). or it would be coming from a rear seal in the gearbox or something like that and just running to the lowest point.

as blind_elk said, check your alternator. i wouldn't be suprised if it is on it's way out. i used to have a ford festiva 1.3L back in the day and when i had 2 10" subs hooked up and turned right up i could make the car stall at idle. if i turned the sound up slowly it would develope a lumpy idle with each bat until it got to a volume where it would stall. was rather amusing.

um, i'm pretty sure the stock timing is 15 degrees, and if you are going to 13 degrees you are actually retarding the timing and you will lose power and if you get pinging from retarding the engine you have some serious engine issues, or don't know what detonation is. secondly, often detonation isn't audible over the sound of a screaming engine until you are getting a hell of a lot of it. on some cars just the sound of the injectors or noisey lifters can sound like detonation. also running the car in 1st gear to check for detonation isn't the best as in first gear the car will rev up quickly and not get as much load on it as in higher gears. the higher the load the more chance of detonation. so you would be best of checking for detonation in 4th gear, or whatever gear givs you a 1:1 ratio (for example 4 spd autos it's usually 3rd gear) also working out how to use the timing light isn't a big problem. it's a small problem for cars with coil packs and as you said, very easy to overcome.

correct me if i'm wrong, but the gold falcon still only has stock suspension where as the white 34 has aftermarket suspension, so in stock form they say the xr6t feels better, but then they go on to say that the modified 34 handles better but all they are really comparing it to is the stock suspension. not quite a fair comparison. other than that it's not bad.

must've been a pretty shitty ride, or maybe the commodore had big wheels, but i used to live up a dirt road and been in many cars up it at reasonable speed (up to 80kmh+) in both a commodore and falcon, and when the suspension was still relatively new they rode it very well. going up in a mates vn commodore with close to 300,000kms on the clock on original suspension was a different story though. even my lowered falcon wasn't too bad. with my vx commodore it was fine on the stock 15" rims, however it was a touch rougher with the 17's but still not that bad. was far worse in a 4wd hilux

i'd be worried if it didn't.....

the first thing i would do is get a multimeter and check that power is getting to the light. there is a chance it is just the light itself that is shot. often with LED lights 1 small problem can make them stop working completely. it could be as simple as a wire has come out of it's plug or something like that. as for the fuse, i have a feeling they are on the same fuse as the rest of the brake lights.

IF the head is warped the main damage is already done, but it can mean that the head gasket may let go some time in the future. really is a case of "how long is a piece of string" though.

depends on what is causing the leak. if it is in the radiator core itself then it may not get worse at all or it could let go and dump all the coolant in a matter of seconds. if it is in the head then the same applies. i have seen some pretty big holes in water galleries in the past. my aunty in law had a festiva with a hole the size of a golf ball.

just because a car is heavy doesn't mean it can't handle. for example, r35 gtr = 1700kg+. put a decent suspension package under a falcon and they will handle much better. if you are going to comment about the stock suspension on the falcon make sure you compare it to a skyline with stock suspension otherwise it isn't a fair fight. yes the stock suspension of the skyline will be better than the falcon, that is because the falcon's suspension is designed for shitty australian roads. i've been in a lowered xr6t and the ride was still very good comfort wise and it also handled very well too.

damn cheese eating surrender monkeys

oh ok. if the timing belt was done at 89,000km it doesn't really need to be done, but then it comes down to how long ago it was done. just make sure that the tensioner pulleys, etc are done at the same time. the engine oil is pretty straight foward to do. just make sure the car is warm when you do it. for the diff and gearbox oils, make sure you can loosen the filler holes before you even bother touching the drain holes. if you can't get the filler holes undone then don't drop the oil as you won't be able to fill them back up. the gearbox isn't quite so bad as you can put it in through the gearstick hole (if it is anything like the 2wd gearboxes).

you can make one up pretty cheaply

i reakon it would have to be getting up towards 100k. think about it, there is tyres, diffs, axles, brakes, chassis strengthening, fuel supply, gearbox, engine. going off what i have seen dirtgarage saying in the thread about andra banning e85 (and just pulling figures out of my pretty poor memory) the fuel system alone was getting close to 10k. drag tyres and rims, there's another few thousand. ecu and tuning would probably take another 10k. then a few thousand for a cage and harness and seats, etc. so there you would have close to 30k before you have touched the engine or drivetrain if you were paying someone to do it. engine alone would have to easily take up 20k, probably more. just look at how much it costs to get a stock engine rebuilt. that will set you back a few thousand and that is using basic parts. then you would have the turbo and all the plumbing for it on top of that. that would probably eat up another 10k pretty easily. so there you have 60k without even getting to the gearbox or diffs. also i should point out that i am guessing prices but basing them off what i think it would take to make it semi reliable (well as reliable as you can make a 9 second car). you could probably get into the 9's for less but you might only get a few passes before something lets go.