Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Burnouts are bad kids- confirmed that we ran days 4&5 with a mostly 2wd GTR!

The boys discovered a very shagged pump & suspect the damage was done by some rather 'spirited' launches early on.

Back at work, so time for some sau

The week was going so well until Saturday morning. The only issue I had to that point was a leaking end tank on my oil cooler, which I swapped over after the prologue. I had wound the boost back on the Friday night, as Pete had engine problems on the way into Strahan, and then pulled out the next morning.

We took off from the start of Reece Dam and as soon as a grabbed 2nd gear the Alt warning light came on. I turned all the electrics off I could, and watched the battery gauge drop the whole way through the stage. I got out and checked the belt, connections, and fuse links at the end of the stage, but they were all fine. I drove another 2-300m and the car ran out of electricity.

When we were sitting on the side of the road some local photographers that I happened to know drove past, and had jumper leads. We jump started the car, and the alt magically started working again. We caught up to the field at the lunch break, and Damo had a look at the alt to try and diagnose it. But nothing could be fixed in the time we had, so we set off for the next stage Natone. I took off from natone, and the alt light came on (it had been working fine for 2-2.5 hours), I turned everything off again and made it to the end of the stage. I did all the things Damo told me not to do (sprayed brake cleaner into the alt to try and clean it). The car ran out of power just before the next stage.

We kept putting batteries in the car to get back to Strahan, and swapped the alt over. My alt was diagnosed with a faulty regulator. The new alt was less powerful (80a vs 120a), so I had to disconnect the passenger side of the heated windscreen to keep the battery charging for the next day.

I started the next day full of sand in my vagina, and decided to have a good dip on the run home. We got some pretty good times in the wet, I was pretty pleased to finish the wet Strahan stage 3rd outright only 5 secs slower than Vandenburg.

Liam and Larry deserve the result, they earnt it in the wet weather.

  • 1 month later...

Tarmac Gurus,

Would Federal RS-R or Kumho KU36 be an acceptable tyre to use for the touring class of Mountain Motorsport's 'Great Tarmac Rally'?

I've wanted to get into road rallies for a few years but don't have the budget to commit yet and it seems the touring class would be great for me to be able to have a go without having to change my car a lot.

For around $1k budget, what would be the best tyre to go for? I was looking at 235/45r17 or something similar to that size. Nitto NT01 and NT05 seem to be available for around $1k or less too, but I don't know a lot about these tyres.

Thanks fellas.

I've not done GTR, but I have done both Baw Baw and Lake Mountain touring events and in my opinion it won't make any difference what tires you run. You won't be going fast enough to worry. I did all of mine on Pirelli street tyres and they were more than adequate.

That said, how fast you go depends a lot on the pace car. You get a 'liberal' pace car and dry conditions then...

I've not done GTR, but I have done both Baw Baw and Lake Mountain touring events and in my opinion it won't make any difference what tires you run. You won't be going fast enough to worry. I did all of mine on Pirelli street tyres and they were more than adequate.

That said, how fast you go depends a lot on the pace car. You get a 'liberal' pace car and dry conditions then...

I wasn't too sure how held up you might get, was the pace even slower than a normal hills run you'd do for fun on a weekend?

Also, is the pace car just one of the touring entrants or an official from Mountain Motorsports or similar?

Cheers mate.

  • 2 months later...

Good to hear John, see you down there too.

My prep (which I though was pretty much finished) has gone kind of backwards. Current state

thc_hub.jpg

Since I need to leave 5am tomorrow I have a bit to do

The bush that needs replacing....

thc_bushes.jpg

THen an alignment in Canberra tomorrow hopefully, then head down on Thursday

Damn, nothing like pulling things apart only a few days before.

Picked up mine from my tuner today. Need to put the passenger seat back in, oil change, swap the wheels over and get it registered tomorrow. Leaving at some ridiculously early hour on Wednesday so hopefully have time to drive a few stages in the Patrol/towcar in the afternoon.

Anyone know of someone in the Mansfield/Melbourne area that could supply and help fit a nismo twin plate clutch tonight (Saturday)? Clutch started slipping after lunch today on the Targa High Country.

Please call 0422 808 999.

Any help much appreciated!

hmm well that didn't all go to plan.

simply put, the tyres were not up to the distance in those temps. this was the better front that we took off before the last stage.

thc_tyre.jpg

I took 4 Dunlop mediums and decided not to spend another $1k on 2 spares so I just grabbed some 5 year old Federals I had in case of emergency (1 in the car, one on the trailer). The tyre shop were super confident the 4 tyres would be fine. They were wrong.

I noticed the front left had delaminated on the stage after lunch on sunday so changed it for the spare, but since I only had one spare we had to roll through the next 2 stages with mismatched fronts, we lost about 20min in those 2 stages. We managed to stay ahead of 999 back to the base of Buller, Neil and Mark did a super quick change of the other front and we were able to complete the rally; even with the rooted and mismatched fronts we were only 10sec slower up Buller on the last stage than we were on day 1.

The car was awesome for the first 1 3/4 days but we lost the brakes on Sat arvo; the pedal did not work 30% of the time which made it an interesting guessing game. The boys worked most of the night changing and bleeding brakes, and then changing the master cylinder at 5am the next morning to get us back out but it did not sort the problem; it seems to have some sort of air lock in the ABS because it magically gave us more air every time we bled it; we spend the day on Sunday bleeding it after every stage. Also had a minor electrical issue which returned us to wastegate boost on an ad-hoc basis, a fuel pressure issue (which luckily was only a problem at idle) and a diff that was shaking itself apart.

Can't believe how good these cars feel when they are behaving though, it was beautiful and totally predictable.

Overall the event was excellent fun, the roads are very (too?) fast with plenty of time over 6,000rpm in top gear, although we never got to the redline in top. Some tighter stages but I enjoyed the open stuff.

Kel is an awesome navigator and didn't give a wrong call all weekend; as pretty much a rookie I was lucky to have her calling the shots. And not just good calling, also knowledge of the rules and logistics that kept us on track and got us to a medal at the end despite the car issues.

And finally a huge thanks to Neil and Mark, they worked their arses off to keep the car running and were always in the right place when we needed them. Plenty of experience with these cars mean they did everything quick, right and no fuss.

Oh and BTW well done Larry and Liam coming home 4th, it was great to compete with you guys.

And good to meet you John, shame you couldn't get a new clutch in but at least you made it through the event....hope to see you out there again soon :)

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Next, remove the upper and lower radiator hoses, both are held with a spring clamp. While you are under there, tackle the Auto Trans cooler lines.  Again both are held on with spring clamps, and as mentioned above you should cap them on the radiator side with an 8mm cap, and on the car side loop them with a length of 8mm pipe - this will stop you losing a dangerous amount of AT fluid during the rest of the job If you've been meaning to add a sender for AT trans temp, this is a great time to do it; put a sender fitting into the passenger side line as that is the inlet to the cooler/radiator.
    • Next you need to remove the intake duct (as with pretty much every job on these cars), it is a series of clips you gently remove with a flat bladed screwdriver. They do get brittle with time and can break, and I have not found a decent quality aftermarket one that fits (they are all too soft or flimsy and don't last either) but the nissan ones are a couple of bucks each (ouch).  Once the clips are off (either 8 or 10, I didn't check) you lift the intake duct out and will see the reservoirs Undo the line into the radiator side cap (some bent needle nosed piers are awesome for spring clamps) and then remove the 4x 10m nuts that hold both in place.  I didn't get these pics, but remove the line under the radiator reservoir (spring clamp again) then remove that reservoir. Then you can get at the intake reservoir, same thing, spring clamp underneath then remove it. BTW This is a great time to put in a larger (+70%) combined reservoir that AMS makes..... https://www.amsperformance.com/product/q50-q60-red-alpha-coolant-expansion-tank/ They also make an Infiniti branded and part# version if that is your thing
    • To drain the Intake Heat Exchanger, there is a crappy drain plug in front of the driver's side front tyre: You should use the largest headed phillips screwdriver you had, and in my case I needed vice grips on the hose above as the plug was tight (tighter than it needed to be, since it has an o-ring seal).  After you have a tray down and open the drain, open the intake heat exchanger reservoir cap (drivers side one) and you should get a couple of litres of coolant To get to the radiator, you need to remove the plastic engine undertray. It is held on with a series of 10mm headed bolts and some clips. For the radiator, there is another type of crappy drain (kind of like a plastic banjo bolt) and you should attach a length of hose to direct the stream of coolant per this pic (otherwise the coolant hits the rad support and goes everywhere). The drain is on the rear of the radiator on the driver's side and a bit hard to find. Put a big tray or bucket down (5l won't be enough) and slowly unscrew the fitting by hand. You only want to remove it far enough for coolant to flow, it you unscrew it right out the whole fitting and direction pipe will come off and you will get a coolant bath (yum!). Undo the radiator reservoir cap and it should empty about 8l
    • So, this shouldn't be such a mission, but there were a few tricks so I thought I'd post up a DIY for it. This was on a Q50 Red Sport but I doubt any other V37 model is very different (maybe just less steps for the intake heat exchanger hoses) I pulled the radiator out to flush it because the car was running hot at the track, but obviously the same steps apply for changing a radiator for any reason including an upgrade. If you are removing the radiator, you of course need to drain and refill, so have 5+ litres of blue coolant ready. You also need to drain the intake heat exchanger to remove the radiator so you will need a couple of litres for that as well. You will also need something to deal with the auto transmission lines, I used 2x 8mm rubber caps on the radiator side, and a short length of 8mm pipe on the car side.....unless you can block these lines quickly you will loose AT fluid and it may be enough to hurt the transmission if you don't refill it. 2 other tools that really help dealing with coolant lines and spring clamps are Bent Needle Nose pliers Hose pliers Between them they will reduce the frustration (and injury) potential by about 1000% Other than that....lets go... "First, jack up your car". Yes really, and put it safely on stands. If you are not confident doing that you need to give this job to a mechanic
    • If the forester is anything like our old 2007 GTB Liberty, I could near on run ling Long's and "rate them", as no matter what, it just hung to the road, even when abusing it in a hard launch in the wet, or throwing it at corners.
×
×
  • Create New...