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On 5/7/2023 at 8:27 PM, Duncan said:

sorry Mark, I lied, it does get cold here. 

<scottish> just had to walk home, uphill, in the snow </scottish

 

 

>

Have you thought about putting the washing machine inside so you're not also doing the washing in the snow? 😛

  • 2 weeks later...

Just dropped the car off at Fineline to cut in the VN Group A bonnet bulge, they are going to see how it looks bolted and glued on first, then "maybe" mould it in, then back to standard height OEM engine mounts, the front Holden badge on the bonnet is also being removed and the locating holes welded up

Should be back to me in around a week

Which ever way Fineline do it it will be quality work, I've had alot of work done by them over the years on my cars and bikes, it has always been excellent work and paint match has always been spot on

Hopefully I don't hate it like the VK reverse cowl that was on before, the VK reverse cowl was too in your face, it lost the windscreen squirters, and was to boxy, the VN buldge is much more low profile and rounded which "should" suit the VX's rounded lines better, but, "failure is always an option when it comes to my good ideas"

Like this, only a bit more towards the front to keep the windscreen squirters and get clearance around the front of the blower and throttle body> 

images.jpeg-22.thumb.jpg.7135b9023807db36c0e48726cd9195a6.jpg

  • Like 1

Impulse buys away

So much for stock engine mounts, these have a larger softer bush than the Tuff Mounts, so less NVH that now, and are OEM height,.......... and are "apparently" unbreakable 

Was recommended them by a guy at work who has been running them for years

Screenshot_20230524_215532_SamsungInternet.thumb.jpg.1b526163d846265b6eab08bc1689011f.jpg

Super happy with the result

Ample clearance to use OEM height engine mounts

I just need to put the Carbuilders premium under bonnet liner on to finish the "it's stock" look....... under bonnet 🤣, and fit the new engine mounts, then off to WSID for some more fun

20230529_161956.thumb.jpg.acd0f3e844142a7144de0d0cd98b16de.jpg20230529_161949.thumb.jpg.d29eddcc8a51371d88b94a48852d9fa3.jpg20230529_144030.thumb.jpg.35ce228393b0f0f146c5ee3bc0ff153e.jpg

  • Like 3
  • 2 weeks later...

Gave it a wash and wax to clear a week or so of dust off it

All ready to drive down to Goulburn tonight to get covered in insects

I hate driving down to Goulburn at night, Kangaroos and Wombats, fair warning, get to your beds and off the roads

That actually looks pretty good Mark!

 

I'll be honest, I was curious how well it'd work on the VX bonnet!

The no badge on the front smooths it off too, but defeats the "it's stock" look a little. I guess you have to have some trade offs, right?! :P

 

I think for me, the only way you could make it look more stock, and a bit more streamline, would be to blend the bulge all the way to the end of the bonnet near the windscreen, and if it was still a little high, make the line of the windscreen edge "rise up" near it. But that's a lot of customising on a bonnet, for something that looks pretty darn good, and fits your purposes!

 

also, I'm not sure it needed a wash and a wax Mark, it was already the shiniest VX I've seen in a long time! Ha ha ha nice work on keeping her tidy, while also playing with mods!

  • Thanks 1

So, the new MACE unbreakable engine mounts are in, the engine is now back to standard height, the driveline-(read: engine/transmission/tailshafts/diff) are all nicely aligned again to the correct angles of the dangles

Everything fits nicely "under the bonnet", even with room to spare, driving back to work was a dream, no more NVH from hard poly engine mounts, and as was right in the world

Until..........I gave the beans hard

Harrop designed the blower to fit under the bonnet and have clearance everywhere, the top of the hat had heaps of space, and the rear belt drive had enough room to move up when the engine torqued, but........not when you add 10mm thermal spacers under the hat

What happened was the allen key bolts that hold the rear belt idler on, and a lip on the firewall met and had a issue with each other trying to occupy the same ground, thus war ensued as they both fought to hold the same ground, noisy screeching war, Mark got scared, backed off, and panicked 

Apon inspection it seemed all good, maybe 10mm clearance between the allen key bolts and the lip on the firewall..... until you gave it the beans hard and the engine torqued up about 11mm to introduce about 1mm of the top of the allen key bolts to the lip on the firewall

Luckily, Tyson had the correct "firewall tuning" tools on hand for me to use, a big bent 3 foot pry bar, that convinced the lip on the firewall to move a little (probably 10mm) out of the way

So after careful tuning (you cannot really see where we tuned it), we had an ample amount of "no man's land" so that the waring parties would never again meet for hand to hand combat

Testing was conducted again by giving it the beans hard from various roads speeds on the R888R's with great success 

Further testing will ensue as I'm going to try and hit WSID next Wednesday and see how it likes doing a big skid then getting stalled up on the foot brake and leaving hard on 275 Micky T drag radials on a sticky surface 

Note to self: I must rummage around the workshops at work and find a typical tuning tool to take to the drags with me, if, on the off chance, any further "tuning" is required

Winner winner chicken dinner

How fun is it modifying 🚗 

 

  • Like 5

Ground hog day

Spent "most of the day" giving the car a full detail, started by putting it on stands and cleaning the under body and inner guards, and wheels, then stripped off all the old wax, then washed and polished a few little micro scratches out, then "lovingly" applied some Meguiars Gold Class Carnauba wax, by hand, using the warmth of my hands to soften the wax then smearing it "lovingly" into the paint (probably weird, but it works so well)

After letting it cure for 1/2 an hour, enough time to clean and vacuum the interior, I buffed it off with about 10 microfibres, the paint looked excellent, I love the way wax gives that deep look to the paint

After it was all smick I stood back and bathed in all of it's heavenly glory

Then took it for a cruise, lovely day, car runs a dream, perfect.......until it started to rain on the way home

22 hours ago, The Bogan said:

Ground hog day

Spent "most of the day" giving the car a full detail, started by putting it on stands and cleaning the under body and inner guards, and wheels, then stripped off all the old wax, then washed and polished a few little micro scratches out, then "lovingly" applied some Meguiars Gold Class Carnauba wax, by hand, using the warmth of my hands to soften the wax then smearing it "lovingly" into the paint (probably weird, but it works so well)

After letting it cure for 1/2 an hour, enough time to clean and vacuum the interior, I buffed it off with about 10 microfibres, the paint looked excellent, I love the way wax gives that deep look to the paint

After it was all smick I stood back and bathed in all of it's heavenly glory

Then took it for a cruise, lovely day, car runs a dream, perfect.......until it started to rain on the way home

This is why I wash my car after it has behaved. Otherwise you wash it, want to drive it, and then drive it 500km through bugs and all sorts of crap.

(and/or just leave it dirty)

  • Like 1

@Kinkstaah

I was sent this as the table in HPtuner to look at

From your experience with HPtuner, if a tuner "tickled" this in 1st and 2nd to "lower power" a bit would it help??

Cheers

3 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

Sent what. Nothing? (I don't see the thing to see :D)

LOL, I'm an idiot

This thingie, he said you can modify stuff in HPtuners to lower power in gears/RPM via timing 

A little less power in the low to midrange of 1st and maybe 2nd won't be missed as it now just wants to overpower the tyres with anything more than around 50% throttle on street tyres and around 75% throttle on drag radials 

If I could lose a little bit of power down low on drag radials to minimise wheelspin on drag radials I believe that would help my 60ft

Also wouldn't that help with mechanical sympathy IRT low piston speed and boost??, although, whilst my boost is only at 7 psi, it pretty much makes it just off idle, hence all of the torques it makes at around 2k RPM

What's your opinion on this table thingie?

vx-torque-management.thumb.jpg.251017a59f38f1136488a22b5b90f281.jpg

Cheers

Yes you can. It removes timing given your car is setup with an Auto box (and presumably it is configured to use it) and came with it from the factory, so all of the wires match up. The car does a torque calculation in the ECU and uses it to determine whether it is going above it.

It will require tuning, so what the computer THINKS is X nm of torque actually lines up with how much torque is blowing the tyres apart. In other words, it is gonna be hard to tune this because you don't actually know what value you want in there, because your engine may think it is producing 342NM, but is actually producing 550nm, and 474 actual nm is when the tyres give way, if you catch my drift.

This will cost more than wiring in the TC system you have and work less effectively. I believe (my car is manual so...) this leverages the stock TC system in the car to change how it pulls timing to regain traction. Assuming that is all still connected and plugged in and working for your OEM car, it could be a feasible solution if you get all the data out of the logger to determine how to set this table (s) right.

  • Thanks 1
2 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

Yes you can. It removes timing given your car is setup with an Auto box (and presumably it is configured to use it) and came with it from the factory, so all of the wires match up. The car does a torque calculation in the ECU and uses it to determine whether it is going above it.

It will require tuning, so what the computer THINKS is X nm of torque actually lines up with how much torque is blowing the tyres apart. In other words, it is gonna be hard to tune this because you don't actually know what value you want in there, because your engine may think it is producing 342NM, but is actually producing 550nm, and 474 actual nm is when the tyres give way, if you catch my drift.

This will cost more than wiring in the TC system you have and work less effectively. I believe (my car is manual so...) this leverages the stock TC system in the car to change how it pulls timing to regain traction. Assuming that is all still connected and plugged in and working for your OEM car, it could be a feasible solution if you get all the data out of the logger to determine how to set this table (s) right.

I just sent Autotech a email to revisit getting the RaceTCS installed 

In the end, because of my lack of any wiring skills, and fear of burning the car down, if they cannot, or won't do the job, then I will need to revisit everything again

Wish me luck

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