Sloth

Skidpan is at Sutton Road, going with some of the boys from NissanSilvia.com (I'll show em how it's done, hachi style!). I heard Marulan was closing down :jamie: The locals finally got it closed down cause of the noise.

Headlight problems (solved.. sort of) So last night I spent a bit of time staring at the wiring diagram for the sprinter (http://www.ae86rd.com/manuals/Diagrama_AE86_1983_eu_au.pdf) trying to work out why the lights were working. After pulling the dash out and reading over various forum posts I found that there is basically two issues that people have with the sprinter headlights. Low-beams and high-beams don't work, but high-beam flash does This is can be because the switch for the parkers/low-beams has connectivity problems. The contacts may need to be cleaned or re-connected. Low-beams don't work, but high-beams do (and high-beam indicator might be on while low-beams are on) This is can be because the dimmer switch is either broken, has dirty contacts, loose wires etc. In my case the problem is a loose wire or dirty contact at the dimmer switch. Jiggling the wires that run up under the steering column makes it work. I still have to disconnect the wires properly and completely take the dimmer switch out to clean it up. For some more information, check out some of these posts http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/s...switch-problems. http://www.toymods.org.au/forums/showthread.php?t=38314

I'm pretty weak these days, all of the time infront of a computer has made me soft. I'm up for something as long as there is ground clearance :( sprinter is a little lower, and we don't want a repeat of NVE's performance from last time :wink:

I think it's actually pretty cool. In one of the comments someone mentions the Ferrari kit, here are some pics: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/11/fun-thi...ri-360-replica/ I think if I end up rich I might have to get a stupid total conversion for my next car (maybe not the Ferrari, but something in that vein) :wink: I think it's realistically the only way I could get a Ferrari (without robbing a bank to get the 300+ they cost).

I've got a skidpan day on the second and might be heading to Melbourne in 2 weeks.

The comments about "project" and "budget" not going in the same sentance are very true. I've had a ke55 and now an AE86 and I've spent way more money than I ever thought I would on them (and I'm still going to spend more :bash:). My tip would be to not worry about changing the engine etc until you need to, run around with a shitty 4k for as long as you can. At the end of the day they are still fun little cars. At the end of the day unless you are taking it onto the track you don't need lots and lots of power, especially when you have first gotten your licence. Another sad fact is that almost everyones first car is in an accident or has some kind of problem, so be prepared for that. I had a truck drive into the side of my KE55 a month and a half after we had finished painting it, welding in new wheel arches etc.

Heading to pick up the Sprinter On Friday night after work we started the trek down to Melbourne to pick up the Sprinter. We left Canberra around 6 (I think) and for the most part the drive was uneventful. Driving the KE55 for 8 hours in a fixed back Sparco racing seat wasn't completely comfortable, and while the car has decent low end power it wasn't great for sitting at 110 in 5th gear (the diff ratio is a little off). We decided to take a dodgy back road into Melbourne and about 30-45 minutes from our destination the 7k started making some pretty bad noises. It sounded very similar to a problem I'd had in the past where the rockers were hitting the cover (which ended up with one of the rods coming lose after 100kms or so and me losing a cylinder until it was repaired). I tried loosening off the rocker cover but that didn't seem to help, so I toughed it out and made it in the end. Picking up the Sprinter Bright and early Saturday morning (well after a little bit of a sleep in) I headed down to Tayell Automotive to pick up the finished Sprinter. When I got there my mechanic wasn't there and neither was the car, but another mechanic in the shop told me he was talking it for a final drive to check everything. I had a chat with the bloke there about the car and what had been done, and he said said it all looked and sounded pretty good and was a little rocket. After a while my mechanic showed up and she sounded like a dream. It took around an hour for us to go over everything, as there had been a lot replaced. He then said to take if for a spin and see what I thought. First Drive As I was just about to head off for my first spin in the 86 my mechanic yelled out "... give it some revs! And don't be afraid to lay down some rubber!". So I took of (relatively quickly before I could even get into 3rd gear I was already doing almost 80 on the little back street. I slowed down, got a bit of a slide round the corner and proceeded to fly around the block making quite a racket. It was so much fun to drive and when I got back I was grinning from ear to ear. My mechanic stated that I hadn't really given it enough revs. After driving the car a bit more I can see what he means, as the engine loves revving nice and high (unlike my 7k which loses power just over 5000rpm). The Bill After a successful test drive we headed into the office, as we entered my mechanic said "you might wanna take a seat for this". He then began to apologize for the bill he was about to give me, ensuring me that he'd done his best to keep down costs, hadn't recorded a large portion of his hours and had even dropped his hourly rate. With all of that, the bill was still 6 pages long and was enough to make my heart stop for a second. I think I was in shock for about the next 24 hours as I didn't eat anything except a single piece of toast. That is all that I'm going to say about the bill and I'll move on.... Testing it out Latter in the day I decided to test it out a little better and see what it could do. For the first did I don't think I got it out of third gear. When really pushing it first gear easily goes to 40-50km/h with 2nd almost reaching 90. The car absolutely hammers. The tires still need to be replaced and so it can loose traction quite easy at the back. It drives like a dream and the sound as it's accelerating is simply amazing. I still haven't done anything silly with it (saving that for the skid pan in 3 weeks, if I can last that long) but I do know that at very high speeds (almost as high as the speedo goes :bash: ) it still feels great. Outstanding issues The only real problems still with the car is that the aircon doesn't work yet. The mechanic and auto-elec tracked this down to a faulty controller board behind the glovebox, so it's on my list of things to fix. The tacho also doesn't work, as it's not compatible with the new running gear, so I'll probably replace that soon. The headlights (which had been playing up in the beginning) were working when I first got them, but have now died again. When I turn them on the high beam indicator comes on though :yes:. It meant on the drive back from Melb to ACT I was using high beams. Power The power figures I qouted last week were a little off. The figures from the tune are: Max Power: 68.7 rwkw @ 6986rpm Max Torque: 343.3 nm @ 3155rpm The power is a little lower than I was hoping, but the torque is higher than I expected. The tune was done with only 91 octane in the car, so I will probably get it retested when I have better tires and 98 in there (I've been running 98 in it since I got it). What's Been Done Here is a list of some of the things that have been replaced/done: Installation of 4AFE 20v Silvertop R1148N Clutch kit s/h Flywheel Custom 2 1/4 inch exhaust Extractors Front and rear shock absorbers Fixed/replaced heater core New radiator s/h Ignition coil pack and igniter (from an early 90s Subaru) EFI fuel pump Link G4 Storm aftermarket ECU s/h FTO seats Windscreen Uni Filter sock air filters s/h thermo fans Custom spark plug leads Dyno tune Re-gas airconditioner + various parts What's next? Once my bank account has recovered I'm going to look at: New tires and wheels Sound system Steering wheel Then further down the track Bodykit Paint Interior Pics

We fitted central to mine a while ago, my tips: Do them all at once, or you might get lazy and end up with one door with no central. Make sure the wiring is clean, or else your dad might come through and "clean up" the wiring (which will cause the central to no longer work). Make sure the wiring is hidden, as people get scared when there are wires running across your floor. Find a good place to mount the controll unit. We put mine behind one of the kick panels in the front footwell, but it didn't completely fit and the panel never went on right again. Hope this helps :(

I'm getting my AE86 back tomorrow which has had the 4AC converted to a 20v 4AGE. Full drive in drive out job (including suspension, exhaust, extractors, aftermarket ECU, air con, new seats) which will end up being a lot of money... If you don't do it yourself any sort of conversion will be expensive.

I'm running a Link ECU, not exactly sure which model though.

Yeah sounds pretty awesome. Those numbers might be wrong, I won't know for certain until I see the dyno charts myself (will post them online next week). It's note a huge increase on my 7k KE55 (which put out 56rwkw), but it definatly revs harder, the 7k only went to about 5000.

I am planning to head down to Melbourne to pick up the Sprinter this weekend. Pretty much everything is done (some little things need to be done, aircon gassed etc), the car has been dyno'd and apparently runs really well. Dyno Results I briefly spoke with my mechanic over the phone today, and he just picked up the car from the dyno, he said it was running great. When I asked what power it was making he said that it peaked at 400mn of torque, which I think is a little higher than I was expecting. Apparently though it only makes about 68rwkw @ 7000 RPM. I was hoping for it to be up a bit closer to 100rwkw (as the silvertops are supposed to make 118kw from the factory and when you factor in some loss through the draintrain it comes to around 100). When I get the car back I'll be able to talk with my mechanic properly about it, look at the charts etc and decide what to do.

Awesome! Nice to see some more Hachi owners floating around. Mine is still in it's early stages, but hopefully one day it will look as clean as yours.

I've got a 7k in my 55 with a 2 inch exhaust and I've only been pulled over by the police 4 times (in 5 years) Once cause I didn't have plates on the car (before it was registered, we had just painted it and it looked overrated), we did have a permit though. Once when someone else beside me in traffic almost hit a cop... long story Another time driving with my neons on and a headlight about, although it was just a "random" breathtest (even though the cops put on their lights and sirens and went through a red light to catch me). They didn't pop the hood or anything. Another time when I got a hoon fine (wasn't doing anything serious, just came round a corner a little quick and one of the wheels slipped). He commented on the car being "loud" but couldn't be bothered doing anything aside from giving me the fine. And as you can see from my sig (and other pictures of the 55) it looks like a little hoon-mobile (with the Cobra style stripes). So in a plain cream 30 you should be fine :blush:

I can't believe they can design something that looks that bad... I don't mind cars that have a bit of a square look, but this (and also the cube) is ridiculous. It looks about as aerodynamic as a Tarago.... or a brick. Some of the photos make it look like the illegitimate love child of a 200 series and one of the new Suzuki Swifts...

100th POST! (wow that took me a very long time, I think I have to post a lot more!) Update: Unfortunately it wasn't ready in time for me to took up over the long weekend... I realised this might be a good thing as it's double demerits :S All the damage done before the attempt at the Dyno was fixed. My mechanic and the dyno guy seem to think the fan had something to do with breaking the water pump (just couldn't handle the awesome high revs of the silvertop), so that has now been replaced too. The aircon needs to be gassed and a couple of things tidied up (I don't know if the dash is in properly at the moment) but it should be going on the dyno on Tuesday and I should be able to pick it up next Friday (fingers crossed). My mechanic has been driving it around (to and from the dyno and to get parts) and said that it is awesome, coming from him (who has been involved in motorsport and working on rally cars since before I was born) I give that a fair amount of weight. After driving it the other day he said "I took it for a for a drive and ... it's awesome. It drives great, it sounds great, it feels great, it looks great... well it doesn't look great... yet". Due to my poor managing of money though it'll probably be a little while before I can sink enough money into it to start working on the paint/body. We also had a chat about rims, and I mentioned I was thinking around the 15 - 17 range. He said that in Victoria the rule of thumb for how much bigger you can go is 2inches from the original size... with the original wheels of the Sprinter being 13 that brings the maximum I'm allowed up to 15 inches. I've been trying to find where online the rules for ACT modifications are, but I haven't had too much luck. The whole process has been a little annoying with me being in a different state to where the work is being done, but next week me and the car should be back together again :D Then I'll get to start the fun process of learning how she now drives, all the rollas I've driven have had a completely different feel.

Colour looks great! There is something about the cream 30s that looks so classy. My first car was a blue ke30, only lasted for 5 months before I got the 55 on the road. It's good that you've got a plan/list of what you want to do, with the 55 we just did one thing at time and never focused on the project (it sort of worked, but having a plan would've been better). Car's are a huge money pit, and we all make financial mistakes in regards to them. Usually we learn, but we still make them because we love the cars so much :D I wasted heaps of money getting my sprinter roadworthy (which involved fixing heaps of oil leaks and I got a new clutch while I was at it) then about 3 weeks later I dropped it off at my mechanic in Melbourne and started getting a new engine. Good to see another young driver getting into Corollas :S

Broken Water Pump I spoke with my mechanic earlier in the week, just as it was about to be dyno'd (or put on the dyno) they noticed that the water pump was broken. My mechanic went in this morning (Friday) to take a look at it, and found that the timing case was cracked as well. This will set things back a little (hopefully not too much), but it means that things will be tight for me to get it back at Easter. If it can't happen by the end of next week (which is only a short week) it should happen the week after that. Hopefully everything falls into place, as I've already started making plans for it's first outing :) A skid pan day at Sutton, can't wait!

ZOMG! Hachi-Roku!!! I spoke with the owner of the white one at Marques, hadn't seen the gold one before, I guess it started the same colour as mine ;)

Spoke with my mechanic today.. It went to the dyno on Monday. They've started it, and apparently it sounds really good. My mechanic should be getting it back either tonight or tomorrow morning, and everything should be ready for me to pick it up at easter ;) Getting really excited to take it for a spin!

The bush wheel alignment was awesome! The car drives so much straighter, lol. Was a lot of fun. I think I'll have to take the 55 out and have some more fun before I get the sprinter back. Can't wait for the next cruise. Those pictures came up awesome!

Do you get bonus points for coming down sideways :D P.S. I was like 75% through uploading photos but then the stupid power went out :( You can check out what is uploaded so far at http://www.photos.tregearit.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1994 Can't wait to see sammos photos. I really wanna see me coming down the hill :D

This youtube vid about it's pretty funny "Is it any good frank?" "Nah... it's not good"

Engine Update While the car still isn't finish, things have been slowly progressing. The ECU has been ordered and is ready to be installed, the engine is in the car (and shouldn't be coming out again). The dizzy has been taken out and a coilpack system put in. Aircon has been fitted. A new radiator has been put in. The FTO seats have been fitted. Basically all I am waiting on now is the sparky to get the ECU in there and working. Haven't got the bill for it all yet, but it's going to be painful, lol. Here are some pics.

I've gotta give the 55 a quick wash in the morning :P Never got a chance to fix the brakes... so don't stand in front of it when its moving. Electrics on the sprinter are getting done next week, so hopefully it should be ready for the next cruise :(