Hiro Protagonist

Gave the hotdog and the cat a couple of good whacks with the palm of my hand, couldn't hear anything untoward, so I guess that's a good sign. Is it a bad idea to run without exhaust heat shields for a week or so? When I took the middle one off I thought I could feel fuel hardlines (could have been brakes) in the top of the tunnel, can't imagine heat would be too good for them but the exhaust has cooled down a lot by then anyway (and the cat has it's own heat shield)

Well, got a mysterious and annoying rattle at the moment, sounds very much like a thin sheet vibrating/resonating (and is revs/load dependent), comes from the front of the car when you sit inside it, but from the middle if you stick your head under the car. First check was number-plate (have taken P-plate holders off lately so thought that could be it), everything tight there so moved on. Narrowed it down to something in the vicinity of the exhaust between the cat and the hotdog, so I pulled out the centre heat shield (when I tapped it it would give off a rattling sound identical to what I could hear from inside the car) and took it for a spin, sound still existed. So that was a bit of a bummer. Could still possibly be the front heat shield around the cat, but it seemed fairly firmly bolted in and not in contact with the exhaust so that clouds my mind with doubt. Can't hurt to rip it off for a little while though, just wish I had a hoist to make it 10 times easier to work on..... If the heat-shields turn out to be a dead-end, I'm hoping that it's not something inside the exhaust itself, like a collapsed cat or baffle in the hotdog (don't think it has baffles though)

So? On your L's you are restricted enough as it is, you've most likely got a naggy over-protective parent or driving instructor looking over your shoulder, chances are it's not your car anyway, so it doesn't really matter what you drive. P's bring independence and peer pressure. Which encourages hooning. Which means that powerful cars should be restricted.

True, one of the things I love about the 7A is how much room there is, everywhere. Only thing that is a pain to reach (and is the same as 4AGEs) is the knock sensor - starter motor is hidden at the back but at least you can get to that from underneath

Of course, but for a long time the P-plate restrictions list _did't_ make sense, took them long enough to take turbo diesels and Kei cars off the list, let alone low-blow Eurobarges.

My mistake, been sticking my head in the wrong places for too long. When I think about it, the injectors would have to go after the TVIS butterflies, otherwise you'd be squirting half your fuel into a dead-end

Generally learners don't have the V8/turbo/supercharged restriction (down here they don't), most likely because there is supposed to be a responsible supervising driver in the seat next to them so they're not likely to go hooning off into the sunset. Although pretty sure some of the low-blown Mercs and turbo Saabs etc just got taken off the restricted list down here, because they're not actually that fast and still pretty damn safe in a crash.

7-rib bigport has same big-end and gudgeon-pin size as the smallports, 3-rib have the smaller ones

Injectors go into the intake manifold for a 4AGE. Only early 4AFEs had them in the head.

I think someone forgot to pay the hosting bill.. Happened a few times before, should be sorted out in a day or two

I learnt to drive in the industrial estate on Kooragang Island, where the roads are wide enough for B-doubles to do U-turns. Picked it up so quickly that I was able to drive home that day (after probably 45 minutes wheel-time), which was 15 minutes and 10km away

Nope it's not, but it does belong to a mate.

Got the perfect engine bay for you then (it's FWD though)

I had that happen to me when I was goalie in indoor soccer, the middle joint of my ring finger swelled up to about the size of a table-tennis ball, and I couldn't bend the finger for a couple of days. Couldn't bend it fully for probably 6 months after too.

I think 7-rib smallports have the oil squirters too.

Running a diff upside down will swap the rotating direction of the axles. Try rotating a pen about its long axis, and then as you do (requires a bit of co-ordination), flip it end to end. It'll then be rotating the opposite direction.

There's something inherently wrong about running a diff upside down isn't there? Like the pinion wheel won't get proper lubrication or something like that

Nah, B16 is 81mm bore, I'd be guessing stroked SR16VE, fits the high compression/86mm bore/high revs 1.6L perfectly, plus it makes decent power to begin with. Plus, using a Honda engine in a RWD application (apart from an F20C) is generally asking for trouble, because of the backwards rotation.

Nothing, not a road car at least. If you read, it says that he's stroking the engine which will naturally bump up the compression ratio (especially if the pistons don't get changed to match)

*raises hand

It's not a 1.6L stroked to 2.0L though :)

Yellow? Yeah, it's sat there for ages, belongs to someone who works at the servo I think (those garages used to be Nova Auto Innovations, and the KE used to just get parked in the street or driveway in Bryant St). Looks in pretty good nick but I don't think it's an SR, just a normal KE35/55 coupe.

You're just around the corner from me then, I'm up in Merewether on the golf-course. There aren't too many KEs running around town in good nick, most of them seem to have had hard lives and the minters are kept under lock and key so you rarely see them.

Agreed, I think people should stop using the PR cars as an inspiration, they basically run those engines till they blow (which is fairly quickly) and then just drop a fresh one in and transfer the good stuff over. Basically any car can make massive power if you treat it with a complete and utter disregard for longevity and boost the crap out of it. The impressive thing is getting that same kind of power AND reliability, without having to do a Top Fuel-style rebuild between every couple of runs.

AR = R, X = X, N0 = number, 8 = 8 So it's RX number 8