The Red Green Machine

[greenMachine]

Mission accomplished

Took it for a quick test drive in a leafy Hills burb, ran to 6 in 2nd, yep, all good! Some serious grunt available, but it needs some tidying and fettling before being seriously unleashed. The magic number is around 190. Currently resting under cover in my garage.

Several boxes of leftovers/etc in the workshop, need to update my list but a visit to new grandie will take priority! You birds, just be patient, OK?!

Thanks to Petbro for the lift!

[ManiacLachy]

Us be patient? Must be torture for you!

Congrats, I bet it feels good! 190kw? There's more in there once she's settled.

[greenMachine]

Yes, that seems to be the starting point. Pretty happy right now. Needs a wheel alignment, hopefully get that tomorrow morning, then off to visit my new grandie. Otherwise it will be back to the barge for the trip! . At least feeding the barge is cheaper - $2.48/l coming home for 98 - about 30c/l dearer than 91

[ManiacLachy]

Yep, the pump hurts right now! I've got 2 turbo cars that want the good stuff. And my girlfriend's fiesta that's happy on the medium stuff, 95RON. Thankfully I don't do much commuting these days!

[greenMachine]

Got the Falcon on the hoist today, front lower BJ looking very second-hand so the RGM will be doing daily until I can get it fixed. These are in tension, and I am told can and do fail catastrophically, I don't think mine are at that stage but I don't want to find out the hard way. Tomorrow the RGM goes up and I will drain the running in oil and put in some good Castrol synthetic. Then I need to find out what the recommended oil is for gearboxes under extreme duty, I think it has a Redline in it now.

Made a return trip to Sydney over the weekend to spend some time with latest (and, so I am told, last) grandchild. No issues but that bloody button clutch is savage - real 'light switch' stuff, gets embarrassing stalling in traffic on uphill starts at the lights , that is going to take some mastering.

Certainly pulls hard through the gears, but the more I look at it the more work is needed to clean it up and get it ready for a proper power tune.

[greenMachine]

Twofer!

Hoists are great. Not only does servicing become so much easier, problems are no longer hidden. I found the rattle that was bugging me, and also the rhs diff oil seal is leaking.

Had the barge up there too, found the problem front BJ, but they are pressed out and the new ones pressed in. So that might go to a workshop to be fixed, probably get both done as the other is probably not far behind.

[Lokiel]

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/0yYYjmVQ/YodaEnvy.jpg[/img]

HMMMM - WHY IMAGE NO WORKING?

[greenMachine]

It's the thought that counts!!

[Jeo]

YodaEnvy.jpg

Correct response. Looking great GM.

[greenMachine]

Took the car for a run down to Coolamon, as detailed elsewhere here, 600 enjoyable and trouble-free kilometers!

The heat was no problem, but the aircon definitely needs fixing! While it was rock solid on the trip, cooling was not tested as on a track, so work on the sealing of the radiator airflow paths will proceed as planned, as will the bonnet vents.

Confidence continues to build!

[greenMachine]

Out driving a couple of weeks ago, and you know it - bang! Hit a biggish bump, no damage though.

Well, not quite.

I run a single fan, but because of the big radiator, and the big hollow RB front bar, the fan sits on the bar. The car must have flexed, and the shroud has broken, and the blades were fouling the broken shroud.

The shroud has been repaired, but required some butchering to reduce the scope for a repeat. Of course the best way of not having a repeat is not to hit potholes, but given the state of the roads that means not driving, so that option is out. I have one good spare fan (and several busted ones), which I am keeping in cotton wool in a padded box. I am collecting another next week, which will need one of my spare motors swapped in, so for now I am looking pretty good. I think the long term fix is to get a low profile SPAL, which I will now start looking into.

In the meantime, ECU and related matters loom ...

[greenMachine]

New toy for the toy ...

[Roadrunner]

Ohhhh nice! Are you fully replacing the oem dash cluster or sitting this in front? Does this model record odometer?

[greenMachine]

Neither actually.

It will supplant the double DIN unit in the centre console. I need to test the visibility at that angle before making the change, particularly as it is a big lump, with a chunk projecting a couple of cm from the rear.

The intention is to use it as a gauge cluster, that is display five or six round face gauges and maybe a gear indicator. It appears that each gauge can be tailored to act as a warning light if the parameters go out of range.

If that location proves impractical, I will try for the 'Entertaiment screen' location, but I think that will require catting and drilling of the dash - a last resort, or maybe a step too far. We will see.

Car is going back to Mania tomorrow for the ecu install, then I can get serious about the installation.

[greenMachine]

Alriiiight!

Link G4x pnp ecu in and tuned, 195kw at the wheels. The BAC needs replacing, as the idle just wont settle - fortunately I have a selection on hand. Also, there was a small error in correlating the WB with the tuning equipment, so it is running a little rich by the on-board WB - happy to err on the rich side!

The Powertune dash is connected and operating, but only on the default setting at the moment. I have a grandie child-minding gig for 10 days in a weeks time, that seems a good opportunity to get familiar with it. Mounting it is a whole other issue, it is larger than the double din opening, by just a little bit, but it means I can't get at any mounting screws from the front. I have some ideas, which I can now try out as I have the car and dash together at home.

The aircon is still a WIP, but we have identified that the electrical connector is disconnected, how much that has to do with the problem will be evident when a longer lead is sourced.

Unfortunately, for Reasons, the car came home on the car trailer, so I will be keen to get in it and drive it over the coming days.

Happy days are here again!!