haw001

Is someone insulting my welding again! A few horns on one weld and no one let's you forget! Seriously though, there was a huge gap that I had to build up to close the gap. Filler would have been better but I figured that it wasn't the right stuff to use on the firewall. Had some trouble with the firewall, kept blowing holes mounting the sheeting.

I was craving some instant gratification after you guys left, so I cut up some perfectly good dog leashes and mounted them as interior straps for the doors. Then I got even more ambitious and mounted one of the door skins. Of course this was bound to come back and bite me on the ass, and did when I got out the router to put a nice little slit in the door panel for the dog leash handle. The router worked fine... until it bit into something and went crazy and I put a ragged gash in where I meant to have a nice neat slit. So now the slit has been converted to a dirty big hole courtesy of the hole saw use to cover up my mess!

When you say battery isolator, are you talking about the emergency kill switch? If so, you need to have one inside and outside. Just as importantly, you need to isolate more than just the battery. You need to take care of the altenator too as it will keep the engine running even if the battery is disconnected. Technically, you are supposed to also isolate the fuel pump, though I would argue that anything that has all power killed will automatically isolate the fuel pump. As to location, you can put it anywhere that is accessible by safety marshals easily and visibly from the outside. I've seen them on the bonnet, boot, and c pillar. Most of them have a cable to the internal kill switch which manually triggers the kill switch. Again I'd argue that anything that will kill the system in the most extreme scenario is valid. 2 Normally open relays placed in series on the main power loop between battery, alternator and everything else will kill the system if power is cut to the relay, and with 2 you have redundancy even if one gets damaged and is forced closed. I'm pretty sure that the rules have changed which once require the cut off to be mechanical only. Duncan has the ruling on it I believe

Angus, The topic of removing Hicas completely is well covered on the forum, but in a nutshell: 1. remove hicas on rear rack, replace with bar. 2. remove 1/2inch lines to hicas (or use them for something else) 3. remove the pump assembly on the driver side engine bay. 4. remove the rear turbine from the inside of the power steering pump and block the top rear banjo fitting with a suitable sized nut. 5. complete the fluid loop from resevoir to pump to rack back to resevoir any way you like. Be sure to include the cooling portion of the line, or better yet replace it with a cooler. 6. Can't remember for sure, but you may have to block off one of the resevoir outlets.

Duncan will no doubt post up some more pictures, but here are a few more with today's progress. It's a pity we can't reverse the working on work/working on car days ratio, or we'd be getting a lot closer to finished! Our master painter Neil was on hand today to lend his artistic talents, in hair styling! He now has a very fashionable set of red highlights and eyebrows. Duncan got the cradles all cleaned and painted and re-assembled, and I got the glory jobs of mounting the new boot lid and spoiler. The spoiler is 'gay' according to Neil, but I like it, and it is stiff as a board, so should actually work instead of just being flexible wing that does nothing but bend up and down. That being said, it could do with a bit of raising to catch a bit more free air. Next week should be the final coat of paint on the body and we have to start on the turbos to get them mounted properly. Then a whole lot of plumbing and we should be ready to drop the engine and gearbox in. Still have s***loads to do, wiring, gauges, dash, seats to name a few, but it's starting to come together and look like a car that may actually get driven in the near future. Pictures won't upload for some reason. I'll leave it to Duncan or wait and see if the problem sorts itself out. Mark

Yep, for easy engine remove and install. 4 spot welds on each support. Couple of bolts and it's back in good as new.

Yes using surge/swirl pot with standard GTR pump as lift pump and Bosch 044 (I think) as main. Still working out where it will go as the swirl pot is a tall as the fuel tank and we need to put it somewhere where it will drian back into the tank. Still trying to avoid the boot so we can avoid a rear firewall. Maybe fit it where the atessa resevoir is and seal it back up. Depends on room.

I've got a spare set of pedals out of the wreck which we can experiment on in the new car. If all goes pear shaped then we will still have the old set to use. From memory, it's not the pedals that are the problem but the brackets which are weak. Wouldn't be too hard to machine up a set of brakets. Getting the body contorted under the steering wheel with the legs up in the air is the hard part!

Yep, it's sitting at home in the back seat of the car waiting to be fitted.

Every bit of weight savings adds up to a few more big macs that we can have before a race! In terms of returns on effort, the biggest weight savings would be had from the doors and the boot, both lid and removing the floor. Even without changing the glass, the doors are very heavy as they are pillarless. Even if all you do is cut out the guts and replace the standard trim it will be a significant savings. Also, having smashed quite a few cars in my day, a roll cage is a very very very good investment. Even if you don't think you will do any damage the gains you will get in handling will be well worth it. Try lifting a GTR from one corner with a jack. You'll get a good 5-10cm of lift from one wheel without any of the others coming off the ground. They have serious chasis flex. Try the same with a caged gtr and you'll find that it lifts one side of the car almost evenly. This does an a staggering thing for the handling. Mark

It's amazing how a coat of primer makes the car look more finished. It's still a long way off, but at least it looks better. I think that we are going to go red throughout, as we have 4L of the stuff and it's mixed 1:1 with thinners so there's plenty to go around. It's surprising how much paint you use covering just the inside. At a guess, we will put back another 5-10kg in paint alone.

I've disconnected the ABS on my car more than once to see how it feels and there are no negative effects on 4wd. The 4wd computer that I borrowed from Powerplay one year at targa killed the abs while being used. It might be worthwhile getting a lend of the 4wd computer so that I can copy the chip. Mark

Enough people have done it that I'm sure we'll remove it as well. Call it weight savings or just to give us more room up in that corner. Is there any clear advantage to using the pedal box, or could it not be just as effective to modify the existing pedals to give them shorter throw/more direct action?

I saw a nice pretty cardboard box which supposedly contains a nice pretty new block belonging to Duncan while at TCH today. I'm told they don't want to be responsible for building this one, but will measure it up to make sure the crank and bock and girdle are all good. I guess it's just one more engine to put together in the ol' Kenthurst workshop. On the bright side, my head (the engine one that is) is in perfect working order (the other one I'm not too sure on). Nas and Anthony both reckon my first suspicion on the oil scraper rings is correct. Visible burnt oil on 1 and 2. Going to take the pistons over to be checked when I pick up the sump from cleaning on Friday to make sure. So should be putting it together on Saturday. Sunday's out, so probably the next weekend to put it back in. Can fit a few engine assemblies in on Saturday if your new block and crank are ready. I'll do bottom end, you bolt on all the extra bits and we can knock 2 over on Saturday. If anyone's after some head work, you've got to see the valve seat cnc machine that TCH have. It's just amazing! Computer has profiles for any block and all they have to do is drop the spindle into the valve guide and the machine does the rest. They can do a 24 valve head in about 20 minutes. Mark

dazmo, Thanks for the info. Would hate to have made a trip all the way up there and it not be worth it. Even the rotors are probably not worth it as we will be doing short stints and will be unlikely to really put enough heat in those rotors. Will have to pick rotors and pads accordingly. Mark

Could be worth it. I can get the van, but will need some drivers to come with. Have to have a serious look at what's available and decide.

Anyone want to make a trip to Qld on the weekend of the 26th? Could be dangerous. Anyone know why this stuff is being cleared? Pitty a lot of it is not usable, but look at that pallet of brake rotors! Would have to drive up with a van or similar and drive back. Tempting!

I still like the idea of chucking the intercooler radiator up the back behind the fuel cell. If we skin the underside of the rear for a little bit of ground effects, we can channel it through the radiator. Means we don't get the second hand hot air off the radiator and in front of the engine to cool the intercooler. At a guess, we should get at least and extra 5-10 degrees of cooling out of it, which is great on the long runs where heat soak becomes a factor. Have a look at the air temp on the power fc readout. It's scary how hot the air is going into the engine after you have been driving flat out for 10 mins. With the intake from the headlight and the cooling at the rear we should only get the heat from the compression in the turbos. Mark

Wow, I seem to have missed a few things for not checking this topic for a few days! Glad to have fostered a bit of high current discussion. Seriously though, I don't want to go into the price issue, wasn't really the point of the forum. I was more interested in proving that it is possible and usable, or if a total failure then at least a warning to others to wait for the technology to improve. Those who know me know that I love my GTRs. I may not treat them like I love them, but that's another story. I'm 2 weeks away from getting back on this project. Unfortunately my motor turned out to have other damage which required attention first, so I'm part way through a rebuild to be completed before finishing off the gas project. When it's all up and running I promise to post the results. To be noted, this is not going to be a top fuel dragster, but rather a road car with regular GTR power. The system is quoted to be good for 260 kw, so let's say 250kw allowing for exageration. I'm happy with that. If you wanted to go higher, it is possible, but it would require a 3rd injector bank and a second set of injectors plummed in. I would also think that the vapouriser would be a limiting factor and a second unit required. That being said, it all depends on what you want to do on lpg. This is a piggy back system which takes control of the injectors, shutting them down when on lpg and using it's own ecu to inject the lpg. There's no reason you couldn't run 2 different boost levels and manually switch to petrol when running higher boost. There is some compromise as the piggy back ecu does not control the timing, but that wouldn't be too hard to balance out, and if using a standard ecu, there's no reason you can't use the limp mode program to have 2 different timing maps. While I'm on it, check out the program that the you use to tune it. It's looks pretty good. Uses standard serial interface and you can make the cable or buy it for about 30$

The tension wires are a great idea, but I doubt they'll be necessary with the skins on. Wire is not going to give any more tension than the whole door skin unless you load them up and I don't think the doors will take any loading. Ben I think you're right about the rest of the door frame, not much weight to be saved. Will help to have something else to attach the skin to. Get rid of the window motors though, they do weigh quite a bit. Mark

I've checked out the tanks, and there's no need for twin tanks. With the main tank removed, I can fit a 80 or 90L tank, which has a 64 -72 L usable. This is acceptable as it will give nearly the same range as the original tank. There should still be plenty of room for a 10L fuel tank in the rear right hand side. I may not need to cut the spare out completely, but it will probably need some modification to fit. Probably need to cut a little out of the front of it, but may just squeak by with some manual manipulation (read 'big club hammer')!

Ben, Looks good, what are you using for handles and a release?

We did a bit over the weekend. Duncan got busy with a grinder cleaning up some rust before painting and we test fitted the big turbos. The turbos are big and don't straight fit in, but don't look as bad as they may have been. With everything gone from the left hand side of the engine bay, there is actually quite a bit of room. The real drama is the engine mount. It fouls on the turbo with standard dumps. custom dumps would make it all fit easy, but that's not in the spirit of this car (read budget), but it should be alright. What I'm going to do when cutting the old flanges and putting the new t3 flanges on is angle them upwards instead of of flat. This will push the bottom of the turbos away from the block and give more clearance. The next issue is the rear turbo intake. It could be done by going up and over like the standard GTR, but since we are not going with standard intercooler, it would be nice to have it come more straight forward. Don't know if it will be possible, may have to weld aly straight to the turbo because of the proximity to rear exhaust. We'll see. Exhaust side looks ok and the external wastegate will fit pretty easily where the ABS pump used to be.

Ok, here are some pics from the race car with the spare taken out. Still a little hard to judge fro the pics, but you can see there is ample space. [X] My Assistant Loading. Please Wait... Actual space available with exhaust and exhaust guard is 1000mm W x 600mm D x 350mm H (at mid point). Because of the slope from the wheels to the bumper, which is the invisible line that the tanks should stay inside of, you do get more Height closer to the wheels, so you could put a bigger tank close to the diff and a smaller tank towards the bumper.

I'm interested, PM me