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Engine and gearbox mounts, as well as a low temp thermostat.

I noticed after the Supersprints at Bathurst that I was getting a lot of movement coming through the gearstick with launches and under heavy braking even so I've decided to stiffen it all up a bit.

I plan to change the gearbox mount this weekend unless I get lazy, but has anyone changed engine mounts with the engine still in the car? How difficult of a job have I given myself? Lol.

Low temp thermostat will go in at a later date, just decided to get it with the other stuff. I plan on doing a 100k service and fitting a new radiator later in the year so will do it then.

I changed mine in the car

Pretty easy because the actual mounting bracket can be fully taken off.

Just engine crane the engine up slightly and will be good to go

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Well, what a good weekend the hill climbs were.

First of all, to give you guys some feedback in regards to the splitter, it is hard to say exactly what effect it had on the performance of the car, whilst the car did feel like the rear end was a bit lighter, I had also removed the rear seats and spare tyre which is not something I normally do, so it may have been just because of this. I can say with confidence the front of the car felt more stiff though, which I put down to the bracing/box section used to hold the front splitter on. Will report back after some more driving.

Moving on. The hill climbs were a success on the weekend. I managed to claim 3rd in my class on both days, despite knowing the car could perform better, I was just holding it back lol.

A couple of action pics I have found from the Esses hill climb on the Saturday. (I'll post some from the Mountain Straight climb when I find them).

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Also, here is the in car footage of my fastest runs for both days.

The Esses, I managed a best of 30.81 seconds, which was actually on my first run of the day lol. As you can see if it a messy run, and I could have easily cracked under the 30 second mark, however, despite my best efforts I seemed to make mistakes in every run that set me back. These things happen I guess.

And also the Mountain Straight. Here I managed a 54.06 (missing out on 2nd place by 0.03 seconds!!!). Again I made many unfortunate little mistakes and was actually slower then my previous PB. In this run, I was trying to hold 3rd gear up The Cutting, but the car didn't have quite enough grunt, which cost me the valuable 2nd place time lol. Again, these things happen, but I can't wait to go back and smash my PB next time!

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Also x2, a couple of mates and myself had been joking for a while about starting a "race team", and we finally made the decision to do it. Enter "CNTS Racing".

There will be more videos and pictures likely posted on our Facebook page so if you're keen to see some other content jump on our page and give us a like. I'll give you a hug in return ;)

https://www.facebook.com/cntsracing

Here is myself and Chris (Yeedogga) proudly standing by our trophies. We both managed 3rd in class both days for the weekend, bringing in 4 trophies total for CNTS Racing, perfect for our debut event as a team ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

So last week I did a basic all-round service on the car in preparation for the Circuit Club Wakefield Park day on Saturday.

Fresh engine and gearbox oil and filter replacement/cleaning. I decided seeing as I'm doing the oil I'd get around to refitting the oil cooler I had fitted a while ago and had to pull back off due to a leak in one of the lines. Well it looked great.

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However...... it leaked again :( . This time it had a small but significant enough leak from around the fittings on the sandwich plate. By this point I'm pretty over the failures of the cooler kit so I am looking to get something different. Anyway, this left me in a late night rush getting the cooler removed and new oil filter fitted so the car was ready to drive the 5 hour drive and race at Wakefield.

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Also, before I talk about Wakefield, my mates and I had arranged for some team stickers. As mentioned, we have started the team 'CNTS Racing', so we thought we had best advertise it!

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As you can guess, we got a few laughs, but the overall attention was positive lol.

Our drive in convoy from Dubbo to Goulburn received a few snap neck reactions followed by pointing and laughing also.

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We plan to have bigger stickers made for the sides of the Skylines, but were just running these to see how they looked and see how big we wanted to go.

P.S. If you haven't already, jump on and like our page on Facebook! www.facebook.com/cntsracing

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Anyway, so this brings us to the Circuit Club Wakefield Park day.

All was seeming great, until I got onto the track lol.

Unfortunately the cars stock cooling could not cope with the copious amounts of track abuse this time around. After the first session, which was untimed, the car was getting to extremely hot temperatures after only 1 hot lap. Essentially, the rest of the day for me consisted of exiting pit lane, attempting to warm the tyres/brakes on the entry lap, and then proceeding to complete 1 all in hot lap straight away, and hoping the car did not go into limp mode due to the over the top temperatures (happened a couple of times). If I was a more compassionate man towards my car, I should have called it quits early in the day, but I was determined to set 1 half decent time lol.

Results for the day came in with a PB of 1:10.5. Heading there I was hoping to crack into the high 1:09s, which might have been possible with more than 1 hot lap per session but who knows. I'm still happy with the time considering the circumstances.

Conclusion, the car needs new cooling sooner then I thought. It has been on the list for a little while now, but has just been pushed up the list alllllllll the way to the top.

Anyway, here are a few pics from the day.

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And here are a couple of videos.

One of my hot laps (unsure if it was my fastest but would be close to).

I may have forgotten I wasn't at a drift event at one or two points during the day lol.

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I like your determination!! Get the coolant sorted and you will be having a much better time.... Literally!

Also, you still on the stock 8kg/6kg spring combo?

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Haha yes. Hopefully with cooling sorted and being able to do more than 1 hot lap in a session I'll be able to crack into the 1:09s.

Yea, still the stock 8/6, why's that?

I found the front springs too soft and the car was dipping in the front quite a lot... I run 11kg fronts now!

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I found the front springs too soft and the car was dipping in the front quite a lot... I run 11kg fronts now!

I'll look more in to the suspension once the car can survive a few laps at a time :P

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So after running the temps up particularly high at Wakefield, I thought it best to change the coolant and fit the Nismo low temp thermostat that I had sitting in my office until I can afford to buy a larger radiator (hoping I'll have one at the end of the month).

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There was a bit of corrosion on the upper pipe so I gave it a small clean whilst I was there too.

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I also thought I'd do a compression test on the engine whilst I had the free time, and also to make sure the overheating didn't cause any issues (though I had to drive the car 4-5hrs to get home and suspected no problems I figured best to check anyway). For something that should be simple, there is so much shit covering the valley it makes it a much longer job!

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Anyway, all appeared to be fine with this being the results:

Cylinder 1 - 160

Cylinder 2 - 165

Cylinder 3 - 150

Cylinder 4 - 145

Cylinder 5 - 150

Cylinder 6 - 160

I'll be doing another oil change this week just to get rid of the oil that copped a beating at Wakefield and just to make sure the car is in top shape for the weekend as I will again be competing on behalf of the SAUNSW team at Nulon Nationals - Round 2, which is the hill climb at Bulahdelah. I'm very excited to not only be giving the Bulahdelah hill climb a go but hopefully helping the team to get some good results! Pics and vids to come!

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I'd like to see more detailed pics of what you have done underneath the front end to fit up the undertray/splitter. eg. is the OEM plastic "splash guard" still in place or deleted?

Strongly suspecting that some mod around the engine bay has upset airflow. It may be that the OEM radiator is not the culprit for your cooling issues.

Otherwise the in-car shows you're having fun with a simple enough package.

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I'd like to see more detailed pics of what you have done underneath the front end to fit up the undertray/splitter. eg. is the OEM plastic "splash guard" still in place or deleted?

Strongly suspecting that some mod around the engine bay has upset airflow. It may be that the OEM radiator is not the culprit for your cooling issues.

I currently have it removed ready to do the oil change, so when I fit it back up I will take more pictures. Highway driving temps seem to get quite up there (95-105 is normal for the car) and that was the case prior to fitting the splitter also so it's hard to say. In terms of general driving the splitter made no difference to temps, but it is possible it could be making just enough difference at the track that temps soar quickly.

Otherwise the in-car shows you're having fun with a simple enough package.

Thanks :)

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Also, my Bride rail arrived late yesterday :D

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Not the best in car pic, will take another one later. Definitely glad I ordered a Rapfix detachable boss kit now (still waiting on it's arrival) as I have to position the seat backwards and adjust the steering wheel angle up to get in/out of the car lol. Very nice fit, will take a little to get used to it though.

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