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I actually have a massive boner for early Jimny 2-strokes. An old guy that comes into work has one, I'm trying to get put into his will so I can get my mits on it. Anyways, I have done a bit more on this thing. Don't laugh at my lack of wood working skills, I fucking hate working with wood. So I made the front guards, bit of a weird shape to try and make out of wood, mostly because of my being a tard and all. A bit of fiberglass & resin, a hint of bog, and they should come out pretty good. Then I got started on the bonnet, which is probably the most complicated shape on the thing. Added some wooden ribs, and a couple of dowels as reference marks, then put real thin MDF under them to keep the foam in, then filled the gaps up with foam, then carved the foam with a hacksaw blade and Stanley knife, then chucked a couple of layers of fiberglass over it, to give me a firm base to work with. It actually came out really close to correct, so will need very minimal amounts of filler. Next was lights. My B-I-L used OG dolphin torch reflectors/lens' on his Jeep, that he cut down to the correct size. New dolphin torches have four round LED bulbs in them, so don't look anything like a head light. The only torch I could find that was roughly the correct size, and also sort of looked like a real headlight was some budget items from Bunnings. I pulled them to bits, linished & sanded the OD of the lens down as small as I could, but so that the reflector still fit into it. I then cut the holes in the body to suit these. The front grill will hold the lights in, and also down size them to roughly the right scale size. I also found a Toyota badge that used to be on my 86 (before I got a legit one) that's pretty damn close to the correct size for this, but not sure if I will use it or not. The back lights were way easier, I found some LED lights on Ali that were the right shape and scale for this thing. They are meant to be in corners of the bumper IRL, which seems silly, as they would get smashed real easy. I added in a bit of wood roughly the same shape as the real bumper, and set them into this, so they are a bit more protected. There will be a steel bumper under them mounted to the tow bar in the future, so it should be quite a challenge for the kids to smash them. That's pretty much where I'm up to. Regards, VG. xoxox

Quick update. Been busy over the past month so this has taken a bit of a backseat. Got some stickers made for steering wheel/dash. Makes it feel a lot more finished. I’m not 100% happy with them yet but they’ll do for now also tidied up the curly cord mounting. Looks legit now. So the set of pulleys I brought back from the states didn’t fit my alternator (which turns out is from a 1zz fielder). So jeffy came to the rescue and made a bush to suit. For future reference..1445mm belt works with no PS, and underdrive alternator and water pump pulleys. This took quite some time to figure out found a wee molded hose to finish up the heater piping. Still need to 3d print an airflow thing for the dash heater ducts. Cooling system is now sealed and ready for a pressure test (pending a few extra hose clamps!) Also replaced gearbox axle seals and filled with oil for first time in 10yrs. Hope not too much damage has been done from sitting around. Bought and sold another Levin to pay for Link Storm g4x and engine wiring loom. Loom worked out great looks very hidden away. Some small mods to make but all simple enough. next up; 1. fix stripped thread in engine mount 2. replace sump with baffled version 3. remount expansion chamber 4. make headers 5. first start??

Pulled the leaking valve cover, misplaced gasket would be why it was so bad Nothing to see here. Ever get the feeling that your new parts (on the left) aren't as good as the old parts? I think I'll hang on to the old cap, even though it's a bit damaged. Might see if there is a more $$$ option on Rockauto next time I order.

If anybody is going to call @yoeddynz a cunt then I'd appreciate it if you put the word rad in front of it. His embarrassingly lame MS paint drawing dumbing it down to my level worked and I now have a proper shift pattern. Happy days.

Got some paint on them and baked it with the heater for a while Good thing I have some photos from when I took it apart 7 years ago to refer back to for what goes where. Got one side done, looks better with the pipes painted I must say. Had to stop and tidy up the work area as we have a couple of house viewings tomorrow. I don't usually tidy up until either the stage of the project is finished, or I can't find what I need.

/spam

It’s been awhile since I built a hot rod. my last one was a ford pop that was chopped 3 inches and channelled 4 inches running a 302 Cleveland. i ran it in black primer for awhile and sold it to a guy in Aussie who painted and upholstered it.

Flights booked home, sigma may or may not make the journey. Place bets now

@dmulallyjust wait until you see my knob...

FIRST START! Turns out I'd bought a rotary thinking it was a 4AGE with the idle its currently got. Huge milestone and it doesnt make any metallic noises so thats a bonus. Its basically an unopened engine thats been sitting for god knows how long in some garage in Wellsford. Now has some extra bits bolted to it an a new ECU so Im surprised it did run okay for the 10 seconds it was on. Cant post a video unfortunately/ Now onto sorting everything else I've neglected. Theres a leak on the return line fuel fitting to sort, I probably need to extend a fuel hose down inside the tank so the fuel isnt aerating as it goes back into the tank. I need to track down the sick vacuum leak. Body side wiring to do, not all the gauge cluster works atm. Clutch fork retaining clips (due to some photo found, I did this already! woohoo), some oil in the gearbox is probably wise. Carpet seems to hide a multitude of sins...

So I started on the body. Did some CAD modeling, And then started hacking into 18mm ply, Then I took the old temporary seat and floor off, and made a new seat etc. I then started screwing everything together, And where it's at now, The back corners are meant to be rounded, but that's too hard for an amateur woodworker like myself. The floor and firewall will stay on the chassis, and the rest of the body will lift off. The bonnet and front mudguards will be the hardest part to do, but I have ideas, will find out soon if they will work. Oh and I decided to make it a BJ/FJ land cruiser (maybe it should be an EJ?) because the kids cousin has a Jeep already, and because I'm forcing them to like Toyotas, because not doing so would basically be child abuse. Regards, VG.

So ages ago I got an old mobility scooter, with the intention of convert it into a mini Willy's jeep that my kids can blast around in. The donor vehicle was this beauty, in working condition but with no batts. I borrowed some old batteries from my BIL, but they were well past it, so had to invest in a good set, not sure on the range yet, but it will be decent with a couple of 50ah's in there. I then half assedly rearranged it to have a steering wheel from a ride on, and lowered the seat so the kids could drive it. I also fitted a foot pedal accelerator. It was like this for more than a year or so I guess. Then recently I decided I better actually work on making it into the jeep it was meant to be, before the kids get too old. So I did quite a bit of chassis modification to get the batteries back a bit (mainly so there's room for my feet to fit in) I also fitted new black tyres, as the old fronts were rooted. I then widened the front track 80mm to match the rear, not sure why they made the front skinnier to begin with tbh. Then I started work on repositioning the steering to one side. I used bearings and pressed steel housing I already had, and got a couple of sprockets to reduce the steering speed by half, to make it a bit easier to turn with the smaller steering wheel. The center hub slides to tension the chain. The shitty pressed steel housings didn't like having the leverage of the long steering shaft on them, and bent, so I machined up a hub to replace them, it's mint as now. I then whipped up a crappy temporary floor and seat (not finished in pic) so the kids can drive it while I build the body, which is the next mission. Regards, VG.

Made it home. Heater tap was the culprit. When I turned it to cold it stopped leaking. Fixed?

Autopilot stuff. Gave it a lot of thought and decided that the main use I have for an autopilot is keeping us vaguely on course in light winds while I go make a cup of tea or steer the boat with the engine on which is boring if you have to do it for more than 5 minutes. The fancy expensive autopilots can be trusted to probably not kill you if you go down below to get some sleep while sailing through the night across the middle of the Atlantic. They react to wind gusts better and manage rolling nasty sea states under sail without getting confused as easily. Even then, some of the long distance sailors just carry 2 or 3 of the crappy cheap ones and throw them over the side when they stop working. Since I don't plan on doing long passages - and in challenging conditions I'd rather be steering myself or have another meat bag driving....I bought a cheap crappy autopilot second hand. The big brother to the one on Nice Try - the Raymarine ST2000+ Principle of operation is simple. The built in compass keeps track of your heading. When activated, it tries to maintain that heading by extending or retracting the ram to move the tiller and turn the boat. The bigger the boat, the more force you might need to use so the gruntier the autopilot needs to be. The ST2000 has a brass recirculating ball drive for the ram rather than a plastic nut on an acme screw as found on the ST1000. It also seems to have some bigger fets driving a slightly bigger motor? Not quite an apples to apples comparison since the ST1000 I have is from 1999 and the ST2000 is from 2012. Still rips my undies how simple these things are inside. Autohelm designs it then Raytheon buys them out and milks the design for a few decades. Minimal changes in nearly 30 years of production. No limit switches or position feedback. No conformal coatings on the board, glass reinforcement in the plastic or silastic schmoo on the connectors. AvE would be disgusted. Will install it maybe next week and see how it goes.

Registered and paid. Keen to meet Ham again.

Hopefully turn it into something like this.

Reminder for myself next time I wonder why it is taking off so slowly.

Lots of finishing details taking lots of effort with this project. Stuff that's been sitting on the shelf 'finished' for a few years always needs adjustments or I need to remember how it was supposed to be installed... Final adjustments made to the gear shifter. Locked skateboard bearings in place with Loctite (they are a gentle press fit). Also replaced axle seals and got driveshafts in place. Gearbox is ready to roll once I add some oil... Polished up the headlights finally. Look great, but could be better still. Repainted mirrors in repco 'trim black'. Turned out great! Decided to paint gurney flap black as well. Not sold on it but unsure what other options would look any good? Also, its amazing to see how unlike this car looks like a factory Levin... Dropping a car 4" will do that! Pulled the front apart to do final welds on headlight frames. All comes apart in less than 30mins which is great. Wasn't stoked to need to remove radiator again though (it's a bitch of a job!) And because I hate AN fittings & braided hose.... I sourced some Continental heater hose for breathers (not rated for oil but is no pressure and has 150deg C temp rating so should be fine). Bonus that it comes in almost an exact colour match to my car. Still one more hose end to fabricate for the final breather. 2zz has an obscene amount of breather ports so why not use them all!? Less crank pressure = more power. Last night Drew popped around to do a final measure up on engine loom. Added a few things and adjusted the factory loom to suit. He also brought some goodies with him. This is probably the biggest financial piece of the puzzle left so happy to make this step. Assembling the car and touching things up for Toyotafest at Hampton this saturday. Entered show in 'under construction' category. It's bittersweet because it feels good to finally have something worth showing/sharing with people for my 10+yrs of effort, but still so much work in the finishing touches. Next year I'll be driving it!!

I've always loved Kei cars, but when my partner and I were in Japan earlier this year it was basically decided that we had to get one. So when we were able to come up with an excuse to get rid of the Leaf, we pounced. And hey it may be our new daily, but there's no reason it can't be a fun daily, right? Introducing our freshly imported 2019 Suzuki Alto Works. It's the HA36S chassis, FWD, manual transmission, and the previous owner was nice enough to kit it out with some KYB springs and shocks, an aftermarket muffler (perfect level of bubbly I3 noises), and classic-style enkei wheels (though the OEM wheels are also enkei, and I'd probably have chosen a different style, but they're growing on me). Also growing on me are the leather seat covers, front and back, which must have been made specifically because they perfectly wrap the stock recaros and rear bench. There's some stuff to do. First thing we did was give it a thorough clean, the sea journey really does a number to it, we still have to do a bit of a polish because there's some deeply ingrained gunk in there. But it came up pretty nice with a quick soak and the car's paint is immaculate. The japanese owner had some some other random stuff too, like hack apart the console for his stereo (which he then kept when he sold the car and blanked it out). I've got a new stereo to put in that should effectively hide the edges. He also put a random button in (also seen in shot) that turns on some footwell lights. Not really sure why. Also a bunch of bits of padding in the door and boot jams, I guess to stop rattles or something... clearly it works because the only significant noise in the car is the exhaust note. More frustratingly, he debadged the car. I snaffled a new boot logo from Japan, and managed to wrangle the part numbers for the awesome side decals, but they'll cost $800 to get here so will probably hit someone up locally to reproduce them. Compliance gave it new brake pads and wipers and I did the rest of the service - replaced oil and filter, new air filter, new cabin filter, replaced the coolant (old stuff was just water so happy about that), and now that I know where the fill plug is I'll replace the transmission fluid. I also have some new plugs that I'll get around to putting in. Better safe than sorry. The oil looked nice and see through and the filters were lightly used, it's a 122kkm car but has been well looked after. Tiny filter! The little thing can really go despite having a 660cc turbocharged engine. It's limited to 64kW by law but with only 690kg, decent torque and some amazing handling it can really get out of its way in a hurry - and sound great doing so. We've owned it for a week now and turn heads everywhere we go, it's funny seeing people merge in behind us to try and figure out what the hell we're driving (good luck without that works logo on the boot) or how they got chopped by a shopping trolley going up Hayward's. One of the cool things about this car being a modern enthusiast car is that it's pretty big in Japan. They've got accessories and mods flowing out of the stores over there and it's an awesome change from having to deal with the Starion or even the MX-5. The cars we worship are yesterday's news over in Japan, so it's fun to be near the cutting edge of what's hip. Plans for the future: - We've already ordered a huge wing for it ;3 - LSD - Upgraded turbo, wastegate, intercooler and intake system - Tuned ECU - Sweet stereo system - Dashcam (have installed a decent front+rear one already but didn't take pix) Napkin maths says with all of the above this thing will have a better power to weight ratio than most sports cars... but the Starion takes priority, uh, mostly... for now.

Dad's cousin married Max, who has always been our family mechanic and panel beater. He's somewhere north of 70 and a full-time menace and tinkerer. This is his Ke70 wagon that he bought off @Dudley (also a fill-time menace) and proceeded to rebuild half the body of before painting it and tidying allll the things. He got bored one day and had a 2TGEU sitting around that he'd got in exchange for putting a 4age into someone's wagon years ago. The loom had been chopped in half, and being older than fuel injection he thought it was a great idea to replace the injection with twin carbs. Yesterday my brother called me and said "Max has been talking to Pete's friend who built himself an ECU for his car and tuned it himself. He reckons you should be able to do it." Approximately 24 hours later I have all of the EFI gear from the Corolla sitting on the floor in the shed and have read half of the information on the internet about the Speeduino. I've been given a generous (for a Speediuno build) budget to work with and told to get ordering. I've printed out the 2T wiring diagram which is comical after dealing with 1UZ diagrams and am starting to make a plan. So far the shopping list (other than the ECU) includes: IAT sensor (probably a Toyota one) Map sensor (also probably a Toyota one) (so I don't have to run a vacuum line all the way to the ECU and can just run it off the AFM wiring) TPS (maybe 4age as we have a couple of motors sitting around) A wideband, probably Spartan 3 I'm leaning toward either one of these https://www.everythingfuelinjection.com/store/The-Micro-p161480124 https://kiwiefi.nz/index.php?route=product/product&path=20&product_id=54 Feel free to tell me in the discussion how far over my head I am. I've wired a 4age, a B16a, an SR20VE, a 1uz and a 3uz and used to do car alarms, so pretending I know what I'm doing.

Stopped for a burger on the way home and came across a Nissan type meet. If I’d brought my other car tonight we would have pretty much been a Toyota* meet.

Stand down osgc couriers. It’s small enough to put in an envelope for NZ Post haha

I got the viva all ready to run through final compliance and a hot Rodder friend offered me a couple of old ford Ys at the same time and I’ve always wanted to build another hot rod so had to make a decision. The vivas gone to a great home so made the sale a lot easier for me. I need to learn how to chop a roof and am excited for the challenge.

wow, massive chub forming for this. in the words of sumpson, registered like a sex offender. hey @DoBro Jesus me and markku would be very keen on enquiring if any of the wounders fleet would be available to make this a more interesting trip. you can ask Als mum for a reference on how i treat other dudes rides

I've registered, for both the event and the sigma.

I tagged everyone who voted yes. The relentless badgering of everyone else will commence shortly.

@MightyJoe @yoeddynz @smokin'joe @Chris.QCR @Hannah @Willdat? @Truenotch @Valiant @ajg193 @Sungai Sungai @DRAD1Stylez @EpochNZ @sidewaysickness @datto_610 @igor @SwayBlack @NickJ @nzstato @azzar @Mof @Leone @yetchh @giddaymate @dr.wylde The entry form is up, i beseech ye all to fill in the entry form, and pay the man. Luv you long time

So because I have a big job to finish at the moment and am under immense time pressure, I got distracted and had a fiddle in the shed after staying up late last night doing research. This is my 2TG pile. First I had a fiddle with throttle bodies and TPSs. On the left is a TVIS Redtop 4age throttle body and on the right is the 2tg one. The 4age has a potentiometer TPS vs the switch type of the 2TG The 4age inlet manifold is on the left, and the 2TG one is on the right. The bolts are the same width apart, but the 2TG ones have a smaller spacing vertically. There is also a 10mm difference in size between the two TB holes. The nerd that can't weld alloy in me has been working out how to design a bolt-on adapter plate to bolt the 4age throttle to the 2TG inlet, but the logical option is probably to make a weld-on plate that the 4age throttle bolts to. We looked into switching the TPS over, but swapping the whole throttle seems to be less fiddly and results in a bigger throttle, and bigger is better right? The next little mission was trigger wheels. We searched through the shed for old Toyota distributors and found an AE101 5AFE one and a Blacktop 4AGE one. I pulled them both apart and decided the 4AGE one on the right was a simpler setup, but will take them both to Max and see what he thinks. I've read about how ideally you want to run your trigger on the crank due to distributor slop etc, but this seems a whole lot less ugly. Hopefully, we can drop these guts into the 2TG distributor and get a cam and crank signal off it. It will be easy right? (This is what people say when they come to me for website things that don't turn out to be easy). I've found this discussion https://speeduino.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=495&start=100 that relates to a 3SGTE that seems to use the same style of trigger wheels.

I took it for a lap of the cul-de-sac, made a couple of wee adjustments. Tuned the idle a wee bit, and then rode it to work. Had to hide out at a mates workshop to escape a rain shower, but i made it. It comfortably does 55km/h on the flat. Its otherwise quite slow haha. The tires are a little larger than the originals and the rear is rubbing on the screws for the little mud flap, so I'll whip that off for the trip home and get some countersunk ones.

But then I got it out of the shed!

One the plus side I labelled the plugs On the minus side they have mostly faded. Dug out the intake piping, surprisingly well made I thought considering that I did it, but needed a good clean up Inside and out. I don't think I had roloc discs back in the day, they are good for this sort of job. Squirted some good old black zinc inside, will do the outside tomorrow then look at my silicone tube and clamp supplies. IIRC the radiator needs to go in first.

While I've got the underside of the car right in my face, I've been using the hammer to close up any gappy seams and straightening edges. Because I can. The seam at the front end of the sills were a bit squashed from jacking so I knocked and pried them back into shape. While doing that I noticed some pinholes in the flat panel that joins the bottom of the front wing to the seam on the bottom of the sill. I decided to remove that panel. It's basically an 'L' shape so real easy to make a new one.(I've made the new ones using slightly thicker metal) The drivers side sill end was quite pitted under that flat panel because debris gets stuck between them. I cut that out too, it's also flat. It was in AMAZINGLY rust free condition in there. It seemed to be evenly coated with a dark grey primer, this shell must have been dunked in a vat of this primer at the factory for it to be in there. Just for good measure I flooded it with Zinc primer. I did the passenger side too, just to check it was in even better condition. A little pitting, but no pinholes. I tried to take a photo inside but my phone didn't want to use the flash.

Technically I’m only a part time menace

The steel wheels on it are very heavy. When it did its quickest time it had some very light cragar super tricks on the front. They were popular in the 70s but the internet reckons there's not many around these days because they were prone to failure. I bought them ages ago from a guy who took them off his car because they made creaking noises when doing tight turns, they were very cheap. They weigh as much as a bag of chips and are a bit sketchy, also the tyres were right on the limit speed rating and load rating wise. Plus I had to run a 5mm spacer which I did not like. I only did 2x passes with them on and didn't like it So I've had my eye out for a second set of wheels suitable for drag racing Being an impressionable teenager in the 90s who read street machine magazine a lot I've always wanted a set of weld draglites. They don't come up often second hand, I found a set a while ago but they were not wide enough. You can still buy them new but they are pricey Picked these up today, 15x5 and 15x8. Tried them on then got the tyres off, they are very fucked. They need a polish but should tidy up well Anybody know a good polishing place in south auckland?

After much head scratching and thinking about the radiator situation I listened to Koro @sheepers and just got a radiator that fits. Using the telstar rad as a template as its the perfect size I went down a rabbit hole of radiator websites to look up dimensions, turns out the perfect fit while fitting the criteria of cooling a forced induction 2L engine is a EVO 1-3 unit but i wasnt going to drop $500 on a brand new one incase it wasnt going to fit so haggled a deal on marketplace for this Fenix unit with electric fan for $150, few bent fins to straighten and a rattle can overhaul but im not complaining for the price. Yeah it just fits but I couple of quick mods will give me as much room as im going to get without hacking the whole front of the ute to bits. Water outlets will be easy to run with a few bends and straight sections but glad to have that headache sorted. Just the loom to sort out and mount an external fuel pump somewhere then il be close to firing it up

It's not particularly difficult It is intended to be used by people modifying cars, to help them with their projects. there is a range of people with different abilities sending applications through and they all get looked at, they are not viewed as wasting anyone's time. Some are hundreds of pages long with cad drawings and FEA paperwork, and some are literally hand sketched drawings. Photos are very helpful in an application You will probably struggle to find someone to teach you how to do your particular project as it's quite different , so there isn't going to be anyone with a recipie for exactly what needs doing. Certifiers can guide you along the way but, time is money, if the certifier is willing to help design the car/mods you're wanting to do, it gets expensive quickly Time is the biggest factor when getting people to help you. It's not uncommon for me to spend 2-3 hours a day on the phone, talking to people about their projects, emailing , looking at parts etc etc. This ends up eating into the time I have to do work I can actually charge out- there has to be a balance and this is why it can be hard to find people who can help you lvvta.org.nz you can download a design approval application from there There are also infosheets on design approval https://lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_11-2012_LVVTA_Approval_Application_Guide.pdf https://lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_01-2016_LVV_Custom_Independent_Front_and_Rear_Suspension_Approval_Application_Guide.pdf

Still has the 3hp but this cover is awesome still going strong

Does it have a name? The killer Bee, The Bad Banana, Caution tape, The one man school bus, Smokachu, Yellow bellied road snake?

Sorry sun, ol mate Skinner has me sorted

After nearly three months my half shafts are done. Thankfully they fit really well and no binding with the full suspension travel. How he did it was to make a jig out of angle iron. The Imp end was a few mm smaller so he stepped the jig to compensate. Then notched a V into the ends of both and lots of welding to fill it up. He checked the balance and said they were fine. In the meantime I have installed the slave and bled it with the trusted broomstick method. On the hoist the gears shift fine and no crunching and I can even find reverse which is novel in this thing. I presently have the coolant bleeding itself and have remade the radiator mount. The bolts welded into the side for mounting it were flimsy junk so I had to come up with a new solution which seems ok but may hinder my chances of putting on an electric puller fan. I have a short list of works to finish before going to LVV but mostly bodywork and fine tuning. I'll see how it feels after the test drive which all being well should be this evening. Sadly I have to spend time sorting my C20 for the wof fails. I really need to find a new place. 3rd wof in a row I have failed on a ball joint that was fine the previous wof. The chances of three ball joints that are 60 years old failing one at a time every six months is a little disappointing for me. Especially as the replacement always feels worse to me but passes. Oh well. I have this year to get down to 2.5 wofs and I'm on a mission!

I had Lets Get Graphic re-make my side billboards in proper vinyl..much better! Accordingly the duraseal peeled off the adhesive and then they had to thinners off stubborn glue..oops. Took it for its biggest run out to rangiora MCM show.. went great until the needles wiggled and it stumbled then the Amp gauge read drain. Parked it up and left it until the trip home couple days later, it did it again but didnt hinder the journey. Few hundred metres from home it backfired and the needle came back to life and it was charging again! By the time id washed it and drove back in shed it wasnt charging again. Tore it open and spotted a broken field wire so i soldered it back on and not change. Weird. Fucked aroubd with tests and bypassing things, external reg tested ok. Left it with a customer whos a sparky, could tell he wasnt into it but said hed take a look but his test bench wasnt working. Few weeks passed so i went and grabbed it back. He did say the wire sheath looked like it was degrading and it might be earthing. Put my pick under the other field wire to tweak it into open space and there was no pull resistance..broken too. Was a bit awkward but soldered a new wire in between the broken ends and threw it back on, Amp gauge working! Then it stopped. Decided it was the centrifugal forces throwing it out and the wee bare wire patch was touching so dripped epoxy glue in/on to make a protective sheath and its been great since. Will get another Alt cause its pretty fragile and old.

As a Jeep owner I concur that letting your kids grow up with a sentimental attachment to the brand would definitely constitute a form of abuse. Theyre better off on drugs.

Getting a few loose ends of jobs tidied up before I tackle the last big job - extractors. Starting to look like a complete car. Catch can finished up. Internal baffle, tiny K&N filter from a BMW bike, drain tap in bottom so you don’t need to remove to empty!! Fits very well in the allotted space finished up radiator and swirl pot pipework (pending rubber hose) also finally finished the front bumper side ducting (radiator to come but that’s big job/non important to start the thing) Keep moving forward

Say Aaaaaah

So I finally got the engine mounted into the Imp with the freeway flyer gearbag. A lot of installing and uninstalling to see what works best where. As usually with these things it is a case of compromise and the least shit option which is to be expected. With the adapter plate and the VW being a bigger box I thought it would push the engine past the rear crossmember. Turns out that it's actually a shorter box and the engine was back towards the front by several inches. Therefore the carbs were hitting the firewall. Did not expect that one! So I had to make up a new gearbox mount bracket that pushed it rearwards 50mm. It will make the hump under the seat easier to make and possibly the linkage. New one installed here with me holding up the old one. The one issue this cause was that the output shafts on the gearbox are now further back. Annoying but seeing as there was always an angle to them it isn't that big of a deal. Except now the half shafts foul the exhaust. They had to come off and Ill have to cut a bit of length out of them. So out the pipes came and I got to chopping off the ends of the half shafts to line them up. I lined them up as best I could and scribed them for the engineer. I scribed them at full CV range with the wheel side at suspension stock level so I assume the engineer will weld it in the middle. He is a clever guy and I didn't want to tell him how to do his job so I'm interested to see what he comes up with. I took them in at lunch and he'll get around to it when he can. He promised to tack them up and I'll double check they fit ok before he finalises it.

We went to the MG club's training day on the 22nd for the Alto's first real thrashing, along with my mate in his amazing EK9. The first thing we did was promptly run into @kws's excellent street-cum-track-cum-street nuggét... There's no way you haven't seen his thread but it's here if you haven't. Much more interesting than this one. His car is much faster than mine owing to its track history, especially after he dialled up the boost. I sent it around the track but he didn't stay behind me for long. I didn't really have any plan, I just put her on the track and went for it. I've been on it a few times in the MX-5 so just kind of dusted off my knowledge with the idea I'd just have some fun, get used to the car and see where things go. Didn't set up any timing apps or anything. I had two great laps, passed a few cars which I was quite anxious about earlier in the day, I didn't want to be the guy that races ahead on the corners and holds people up on the straights On the third lap I ran into traffic but went for a pass on the final straight. Then I heard and felt something strange. I was right next to the pit exit so I took it. As soon as the car slowed down I knew something was really bad - it squealed super loud. Bystanders described it as "like a duck being beaten to death". With many eyes on me, I limped it over to the shelters and reversed into the final place it'd be running that day, and with shaky hands popped the hood and (briefly) demonstrated the noise to the accumulation of peoples. It's really interesting how little of a plan I had. Not just in terms of prep - I'd brought zero tools or anything of the sort (and came in a brand new white t-shirt) - but also how little of a clue I had of how to move forward. I probably just looked like a flounder. I knew there was probably no chance we were driving out of there and everything just sort of squished my brain at once. So I'm really glad that NZ has an incredibly wholesome car scene. Our new friends Andrew (who a co-worker has coincidentally been trying to get me to meet) and Isaac wandered over from the other side of the fence, Kws lent his tools, and Josh's mate Ian was also nearby to lend some bits, and we started diagnosing. The crank turned by hand okay, and made the noise. We disconnected the accessories and it still made the noise. We took a small sample of oil from the drain which looked OK. When briefly turning it via the starter, it clearly made a repeating weow-weow-scrape-weow-weow-scrape noise implying doom on one cylinder. Yeah, it fucked. Andrew almost immediately proved how much of an excellent human being he is and offered to drive one of us back to his box truck in Wellington, and stay with it to assist in loading the Alto, meaning he drove between Feilding and Wellington 4 times that day. Leonie went back with him in his excellent S660 (which I wasn't far off buying at one stage) and the rest of us helped push the Alto out the front gates for a late pick up. Not that it needed much of a push - a brief shove would have it moving on its own for quite a long time. I got a lift back in the EK9 when my mate was done on the track and joined up at Thomsen automotive to help unload. I really should have swapped roles with girlface and feel pretty dumb for that. The next day, the shop gave me the bad news: it's run a bearing, there is glitter magic in the oil filter. They actually have managed to find an engine in NZ but the price for them to install it is not palatable, especially with our inclination towards DIY and our new friends' excitement at helping out. Andrew once again, unprompted, suggested he use the box truck while it's empty to ferry the Alto back home. What a guy. He then also insisted that he help us remove the engine. His price is that he's going to nag me for a bigger turbo set up. Fair. So we got stuck into it the next day. The car has a couple of surprises. 1. The boost hoses are blue, the calling card of aftermarket, but otherwise all seems stock about the turbo. Given that the car didn't come with a stereo, we're thinking that the previous owner likely was running a bunch of mods and took them all off for resale. 2. A ton of the car has miscellaneous tape, padding and other stuff, presumably to help with road noise. It's a 4 year old car with 124,000kms when we bought it, the guy must have done a lot of noisy travel! While we were there we blinged out Andrew's S660 with a plate surround that we'd had on our own yellow Honda Fit back in the day, which was hanging in the garage after we switched it over to a red car and it was no longer ironic. Day 1 we got almost everything disconnected sans the drive shafts and gear cable brackets. Day 2, with much struggling, we got that final crap out of the way. Andrew's partner came by to help rein in the raw ADHD surging through the garage and organise things. Action shots. The oil looked okay, but the filter contents told the story. EK9 mate had given me an engine stand a while ago for the starion, which I hadn't yet assembled. I threw it together and it held its first babby engine We got the oil pan off and immediately we could see toast. Look at the colour difference between 2 and 3. Conrod #3's bushings were very unhappy. #2 was also bad (not pictured) with some gouging. #1 was okay. After taking the crank caps off we found TWO spun bearings v.v Also a thrust washer was dead, but not sure what died first... So what happened? We dunno the root cause, but clearly some kind of oil starvation occurred. Kws says the engine isn't known for corner-based starvation, there aren't even aftermarket baffles for it because it's such a short deep sump. User error? I don't think I did anything wild on the track but I'm also a nub. Existing issue? We don't know the history of this engine or car, but the evidence of past mods and the mileage indicate that its history is something exceptional. We'll keep tearing it down and see if we can see any smoking gun. It really sucked to have this happen but I'm trying hard to find the silver linings of this. I made some new friends. We get to play with an engine and we'll be able to put "replaced a broken engine" on our DIY CV. I also like the idea of the car rising from the ashes like a phoenix, stronger and better, by giving it a lower KM engine with a bigger turbo.... The plan? Kws is checking out part numbers and costs to get new crank and conrods etc over. We could rebuild this engine if the rest of it tears down without error, but I'm cautious about putting good parts in bad. More likely we'll import a new engine. There's also the engine that Thompsen sourced, if we want to spend more $ for a faster turnaround with a warranty. We're doing a bit more research here because apparently we want a 2019+ engine as it resolves a thrust bearing issue from earlier engines and these seem to be a fair bit more pricey online. I'm probably buying Kws' Greddy intercooler :0 I'm probably finding some way to buy a bigger turbo and ECU flash, possibly with new injectors. We'll replace service items like the clutch etc while it's out, that was a PITA!

With the adapter plate re-machined Im pretty sure it is ready to go. There were quite a few odds and ends in the kit left over that I couldn't tell what they were for so I'm hoping I either didnt need them or they were from the wrong kit. It's all torqued up now anyway so the next time I'll know it's wrong is when I test drive it. Quite a few things will need to happen before then however. Such as cutting a hole in the floor for the box, sorting a shifter, and custom made half shafts.

So there is some shit to know about the w163 platform. Firstly, they are the only Merc on a full chassis, or body on frame, aside from the G-wagen. They were originally slated to replace the G, and we're actually launched as a concept car in Jurassic Park movie (circa 1997). They are much loved by the Ruski's, most of europe, Asia the USA, and Soccer Mum's. They kind of invented the SUV category in a way. They are very safe and have many stability features and 12 airbags. Merc was broke at the time and half owned by Chrysler so the engines ended up in everything. Think Jeeps, Ssangyongs, ambulances and sprinter Vans erc. They run independent susp all around, torsion bars in front and coil over rear, yes they can be lifted both at suspension and body off frame. They have a low range transfer case with a very low crawling gear. They have exceptional departure and approach angles, still ahead of many more contemporary machines. They have a 20" fording depth factory. They have massive 4pot brakes and a very clever 4wd system in lieu of locking diffs. Basically they brake the slipping wheel which transfers the power to the non slipping wheel through the open differential...it all happens very fast and is quite effective. Toyota has only just copied this on the recent Hilux.. I suspect it's due to a patent. They were built in Alabama, Germany and Japan. The pre 2000 models are best avoided as they facelifted and fixed a lot of shit around 2000. They ran till about 2005. I'll mostly give my experiences with the 5 cylinder common rail. Sorry for few pics to accommodate my technical foibles, but there's loads of internet info, should you be so inclined. Or ask here. Some things I have had to solve myself. Cool Merc development vid... https://youtu.be/f599FIqCpSg

The mini bike corner looking choice