MRMOPARMAN

from what ive read, going the silvia strut/brake conversion buggers up the geometry of the front end bad enough to be not worth the hassle. thats why people have swayed away from this conversion in recent times. I'm about to start looking into a datsun 180b front strut conversion. ill keep everyone posted if something worthwhile comes of it

technically, its not a fuel either. the 2 reasons nitrous is shit hot is because 1. it breaks down and drops inlet temps 2. it has 1 part oxygen, so it does get more 'air' into the motor. as trev says.. every form of motor racing considers nitrous forced induction.

not much of a drive for me :) i live about 12mins from there so i guess i don't have much excuse not to mosey on over and have a gander. will take some pics to post up

the taxi laws arent in place because the cars the cars are unreliable. they are in place to keep the cars in a certain condition (theres only so many dodgies you can do on a car before it falls in a heap), and taxi drivers drive paticular cars because they're the cheapest to run and repair. no other reason. even hilux's have their problems. a few less, but they are no where near as good to drive as a falcon. not even the same century.

ba's got a hydraulic clutch, so no firewall bracing needed

to go 11's on any auto will cost you money. you'll find the BTR would need less money spent than alot of other autos. ive been around the ford forums for years and the majority of E series falcons into 12's/11's are running btr's or c4 conversions. which is a little beside the point, considering the OP is more than likely to keep the car stock, and you yourself said they handle stock power outputs fine. my AU ute V8 5 speed on gas (same box, but motor has less power and torque than a ba) couldnt even handle the stock motor. 5th gear bearing chewed out, taking the syncro with it, the shifter block failed, the thrust bearing shaft flogged out, and the stock clutches were shithouse. all that by 130,000km. 5 speed FTL! un flogged aswell.

dude, read the first post.. the bloke wants an XR6 NON turbo for a work car.. you'd have to be spastic to start modding a work car. so tell all the blokes running 11's and less on BTR 4 speeds that their box's fail at life, and see what response you get?

its not impossible to get an aftermarket ecu engineered. however it all comes down to 3 things. ecu choice, tune and engineer you end up using. work out which engineer your gonna use, and go through the build with them. its the only way to be sure! on the ignition front. you should be able to use either gze cas or your original dissy, depending on type of ecu. better off asking your tuner what ecu they prefer to tune, then ask them if it will run your original dissy. some ecu's don't like mitsubishi ignition systems eithout mods, but toyotas are *usually* ok. ebay manifolds people have had varying success with. some people reckon their good, some people reckon they crack. the turbo will go on, but expect it to need mods. any mods needed should be relitively easy to fix though. if you want more info, go and register with www.toymods.org.au pretty much everything toyota has been done cand covered many times there. also alot more knoledgable people there than i.

they are a good car, much better workhorse than the equivelent commodores imho. they do have a few things to watch out for: they chew out diff bearings fairly regularly window regs fail warped brakes (shit factory rotors) bonnet latch fails and takes out fuse box (series 1) cat converters fail regularly upper balljoint slop (ford introduced a tolerance to "fix" it) if you plan on towing anything more than 1 tonne. get the auto. the gearboxes ARENT that strong, 5th gear in paticular. so the autos shift slow. they are still reliable and lazy :) i don't know where everyones getting the idea they are unreliable. service them properly and they go forever.. much better auto than the commodores! you will need to learn to drive it like a truck, as mentioned before they have a very bulky pillar. use your mirrors (and adjust them properly) and you'll get used to it very quickly.

early 4 runner.. would be slow but would be cruisey to drive with a/c and p/s.. new injector pump means less to worry about off the beaten track l300 2.4L petrols are a good motor. make sure the timing belt is done, and the gearbox/clutch are ok.. heaps of storage and easy camping in this one! 60 series much nicer than a xJ4x. check for rust. fairly robust but not as strong as patrols. early pathfinder would be much nicer on the highway than the others. still capable offroad rangie a little from left field. driving wise it would be the best compromise for offroad ability and driving comfort. should have heaps of power with the p76 motor.. jut watch the electrics

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but for 2-3k in a diesel 4x4 all your going to buy is problems (unless your lucky or get mates rates). and if your going to remote pleaces in australia, the last thing you want is unreliability. old shit like xJ4X series will make you wanna shoot yourself on a long trip. so slow and rough!! try to find a MK-GQ patrol. they are MUCH nicer inside than an early cruiser, and basically missile proof. also look for a bundera / mwb cruiser, early hilux, 4 runner, pathfinder etc. its probably a bit far for you. but near me theres an mk LWB turbo diesel in reasonable nick. $2.5k. seriously cheap for what it is! don't rule out a petrol car. they are cheaper than equivilent diesels, are a fair bit nicer to drive than old diesels, and easier to repair if something goes wrong. the money you save can go towards the extra fuel it will use over the diesel. if you use your head they can easily be waterproofed too.

i don't think it will be a power figure where the ignition can't keep up, it will be a boost level / rpm where it missfires/crossfire will reveal its ugly head. but theres are millions of motors out there running single coil distributors and making 50kw per cylinder or more. you may have to upgrade coil, leads plugs, ignitor etc. depends which ecu you go for also. knock sensors are handy. not all 4a's have them. I'm not sure which do or don't. however if you go aftermarket ecu, have a decent tuner and give them the time to map the engine properly, i knock sensor should be fairly redundant. remember a motor is only as good as its tuner. but like jarrad says, 140rwkw is quite a conservative power output from a 4a. if you build it right the first time, more power is just some bolt ons and a tune away. no need to swap to another engine unless you don't like peaky motors, or are chasing a tractable 220+rwkw. that sort of power in a dirty xe7x chassis will be more than you'll ever need!

with street tyres and an easy launch to preserve diff and uni's.. ill go with a 15.2 if your feeling game, id go a 14.9.. if it survives the launch

if your only after 140kw, a gze will do everything you need, if in good nick. however you have to ask yourself, honestly, if you will be chasing more power in 6months time. a good 4a rebuild will end up a similar price to a gze front cut imho. however, since you already have a smallport bottom end ( double check to conform though) it would end up rebuilding what you have slightly cheaper than buying a gze. only disadvantage is you don't get the cas. not a problem till over 200rwkw done right. ae101 gze pistons are cheap and a renound to handle 250rwkw + a t25g would be the go, as far as 2nd hand turbos go. 140wkw would be right in its efficiency range, and have room for a bit more (170wkw approx) a gze computer would work, but be a comprimise. a comprimise you may have to make if you want the car engineerable.

would an r30 skline box do the job? there is one at pick a part campbelfield with the power steer box intact.

yeeharr.. rollaclub cruise to cammos house :fuzz:

ill probably be going down on saturday for a looksie. ill have a look around for yas.

don't you mean your 11 jarrad :dance: i too had an awesome time. ended up being a 600km+ round trip! great job organising it matt!

yay, i got ok'd by the minister of the opposition to attend!! unsure on what ill be driving at this stage

another idea i had for a possible upcoming event, was to get a group of us to get together to man a road closure at a rally.. ie the iconic historic alpine rally isnt that far off. we coluld have a big cruise to the event. maybe show off our machines. camp out the night and see some aweome race cars (should be a few rollas) and cruise home again. whats everyones thoughts on something like that?

i can't believe no ones mentioned using a slide hammer yet. if your gonna buy a tool, ya may aswell buy one that serves more than 1 purpose! i also use the grease trick. it will only work if you get a nice tightish seal on the inner race. if grease spews out, its too loose, if you can't get the tool your hitting out of the spiggot, the seal was too tight!

a cruise sounds good. maybe a coburg drive in night, or dromana? or how bouts a gokart night or paintball day? franga paintball rocks!

yeah, i don't know how to tell the difference either. since the indicators are on the bumper and parker lights, wouldnt the gaurds be the same between them?

yeah, theres a red ae82 twin cam there with both gaurds (as of last saturday)

not all E58's had LSD's, and they also had different driveshafts. so if you get one, make sure you get the driveshafts with it. they are real had to find seperate. if your playin with boxes, maybe try a 6 speed from an AE111, and put a kaaz LSD in it?