PedRac3r

Obviously building a new set of headers Kris? Gonna whack a megaphone on the end of the collector or something?

Good work with the lines! I opted for the easier braided line option when I did my fuel setup because I really didnt want to deal with bending lines the length of the car haha.

No thanks, not for me. The thought of lopping the plenum off this one and fabricating a new one has crossed my mind, or building a new one from scratch. But to be honest, I wouldnt know (until it was dyno'd) if it would be any better off. Need some of that Solid Works flow simulation wizardry I think.

Been pretty slack with updates. Have been busy though. Although it seems I start something, hit a bit of a road block then start something else before finishing the last, so lately I have been trying to get those unfinished bits done before starting anything else. So Im still yet to finish the rear section of the exhaust. With the new raised height of the exhaust, when the diff is at full droop, it will be sitting on the exhaust. Original plan was just to get some cheap shocks that were short enough to clear, but I may wait and get a set of coilovers for the rear. USD sucks right now though! With the exhaust manifold off, repaired and improved (hopefully), I turned my attention to the turbo. The exhaust housing had a broken stud in it, so this was the perfect oppurtunity to get that sorted. Removed the housing and set it up in the mill. Dropped a carbide endmill in the hole to remove the stud then went and tapped it for a M8 Helicoil insert... Sorted. I noticed that the internal wastegate, which had been welded shut, had started to crack a little. Probably nothing to really worry about, but I machined out the internal waste gate valve/shaft, and machined up an insert to go in the now gaping hole. I made the insert longer than it needed to be so that it protruded into the port of the housing, to remove the "trough" for the internal wastegate valve. Once I had welded the insert in, i got the die grinder out and removed the protrusion and blended it in with the port. Reassembled, ready to bolt back up. With the manifold back on the engine, I could make up some braces to support the weight of the turbo and manifold. If you can remember, I welded some tabs on the manifold for this earlier. Machined these up. 6061 Aluminium, and some bronze lined left/right hand rod ends. Front brace installed (also got a secondary cam belt tensioner from Barry Manon) I decided I needed to add an oil cooler, so I purchased a 180x350x73mm core from AdRad. They only had the 350mm wide core in 73mm thick, which is a bit overkill, atleast I know it will be more than enough. Ended up cutting the core down to 100mm, so it will fit nicely under the intercooler. I was busy at work, so I got my mate Adam from C's Garage to fold up and weld some end tanks onto the core for me, as well as the mounting bosses I had machined up. Finished product: Purchased a Grex thermostat oil cooler sandwich plate from NST. I was very limited for space, and for options mounting it, either with the ports facing to the front, or to the rear. Had to machine up a new union bolt to mount it as well, the Grex one was too short. I made a start on making the oil lines, but I need to mount the cooler to get the lines exactly right, theres some work in the front end of the chassis I want to do which is stopping me from mounting it, but more on that later. I wanted to delete the brake booster, to get a better brake feel, and as a bonus free up some space in the engine bay. Was originally going to use the standard brake master and bias valve etc. But for a couple hundred bucks I could have a Wilwood master and bias valve, so fuck it, bought that, which will get rid of all the messy brake lines on the strut tower. Machined up an adaptor plate to mate the Wilwood master to the firewall. Mounted the bias valve on there too. I dont think I'll need the in-car adjustment, just set and forget. Had to machine up a longer clevis for the brake pedal too, complete with weight reduction pockets. Just need brake lines to finish off the new master setup now. Last item on the update. Welded some -10 fittings to the valve covers to make a proper catchcan setup, then painted them with wrinkle black. Pretty happy with how these turned out. Discussion //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/48043-pedrac3rs-1985-ae85-levin-discussion/

So the front locker works good then? Haha. Love those limiter echos through the whole of Northland too.

Is it just matter of shifting the pins on the bottom of the rad, to move it away from the rad support?

Some of them may be, but I think a lot of there stock is imported from Asia or wherever. I bought one of these radiators a few years back for my Levin, ended up returning it after trying to fit it. The locating pins on the bottom were welded in the wrong location so it sat crooked (not parallel with the rad support) and was sitting hard up against the headlight panels. The radiator cap was cheap, and a cunt to get on and off also. These issues may have been fixed since then. When the USD was good, you could get a genuine Koyo radiator for less that 500 to your door.

After Taupo, the car was still in one piece and running good. But it got a few battle scars and few other issues arose that I want to sort out. After clipping the tyre in the morning it had bent the exhaust some where, along with scratching up my freshly painted fuel tank and denting some of the panels/floor under the car. Tried to tweak the exhaust back into place at the track but it no longer sat where it used to, which caused the hot muffler to melt a wider cut out in the bumper. So new exhaust was in order. Other thing that bugged me was the lack of suspension travel in the rear. So I pulled the springs out and start moving the diff through its travel to see whats what. From ride height to bumpstop is only 25mm. Bumpstops have been trimmed to as minimal as possible, the diff head hits the floor the same time bumpstops bottom out. A bit of a major cutting the floor out for clearance, so decided to put it back to how it was for now. Long term plan will be to equal length the rear arms and add some diff clearance into the floor. May add some coilovers to the rear in the mean time and raise it ever so slightly to get a touch more room. The exhaust manifold had developed a few cracks also. The cause I believe is inadequate and improper bracing. You can see on the picture below, I have 2 small braces between the collector and runner. They both cracked around either side of the weld. This is just and educated guess, but I think the cause for these cracking was that the runner would be heating up and expanding in one direction, and the collector heating up and expanding in the opposite direction, creating a bending force through each weld, combined with many heat cycles has caused the metal to fatigue and crack. The whole point of the braces was to reduce harmonics and vibrations to stop the collector shaking about between the runners. So after getting the manifold off, removing those braces and repairing the cracks I needed to come up with a better idea. I decided to do this: I used 15x3mm flat bar and welded it like so, so when the manifold heats up and wants to expand in the direction of flow, there should be enough flex in the flat bar to allow for that, but the flat bar should have enough lateral strength to stop the collector vibrating about. Thats the plan anyway. You may also notice I welded some tabs on too. These will be to brace it back to the block, to take the load of the header flange. Also added a wastegate flange brace too. I had a bent exhaust to fix now… I decided to redo the whole lot, from the down pipe flange back. I went with V-Band Flanges all around now, makes it a lot easier to remove and refit. Only problem with V-Band flanges is that they wont take a beating (or scraping) like a steel flange will, which meant I need to get the new exhaust up nice and high. So at the front it kinks to the right and up into a bit of a cavity in the floor, then maintains that height throughout the length of the exhaust, which is about 10mm below the sill. With the exhaust up nice and high I had to work out a way to keep it up there. Because I had moved it so far up, it had become quite difficult to hang the usual way with hangars. Decided to still use the hangar bush, but like this instead. It allows for a sturdy exhaust mount, which wont swing around like a normal hangar, and should give good vibration dampening. I was going to try my luck using a lock nut and sandwiching the hangar, but ultimately I may need to add some crush tubes. I currently have a solid mount at the front, so I may chop that off and do the same up front, and most likely the same on the third and final rear hangar, when I decide what I should do with the rear of the exhaust.

There is a thread at the top of this section full of good info about mufflers. I recently just gave one of these a go http://www.adrenalinr.com/productdetail.php?productID=530 and I was really impressed. I think one of these in your system, where ever you can fit it, will give you the results your looking for, and still have have that straight pipe look at the rear.

Had to search to find this. Still here! Have been keeping busy as usual... Did a Zero Class drift day at Taupo back in March. First time I had driven there in a few years. Was a good day overall. Forgot how to drive properly in the morning, couldnt get it right. Spun a few times and collected a tyre when I ran too wide once. After all that I decided I would drive it how I should have been. Managed to burn through a few tyres, was getting pretty comfortable in the car by the end of the day. Got some in car footage from the day too. Just a quick run: Next time Ill give fourth a go exiting the sweeper along with some high boost engaged haha. Discussion: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/48043-pedrac3rs-1985-ae85-levin-discussion/

Need to have 4 arc sensors for it to work with tig welding, most cheaper helmets only have 2. I also have a similar Miller helmet as above, might be the older version as Ive had it for about 4-5 years now, still working mint, great helmet. Has 4 arc sensors and can weld as low as 10 amps with tig and never have an issue.

This is cool dude! That engine is begging to have all that junk removed and some ITB's and headers fitted

Dont know if you any of you guys have seen products from these guys www.adrenalinr.com? NZ company making some top notch mufflers and resonators etc. I fabbed a 3" zorst for my Hilux, from the turbo back and side exit dumping before the rear wheel, it was fucking loud, sounded like a open headered tractor with mad turbo whistle. Anyway, put a 450mm 3" reso from AdrenalinR in it and holy shit, what a difference. It took away all the raspy tractor sounds and ended up with a nice a deep tone throughout, and I would say its now mildly louder than a factory exhaust now. Would definitely recommend you guys try them.

When is this going to be finished? I want to see it doing some jumps and shit.

So Im pretty much up to date with where the car is at right now, managed to summarize four years into a single page haha. Car has been running great with the new motor and Link G4+ Atom, could not be happier with it at this stage. Had another drift day at Meremere again in September (2014), car went well, I was struggling to get the hang of the ever changing weather, and first time back in the seat drifting with a turbo. Managed to get a couple okay runs done at the end of the day. After looking over the car after the drift day I noticed the brace for the intake manifold had lost a bolt which caused the manifold to crack through the first runner again. Decided this time I would make a good, 3 point, triangulated brace, to really support it properly. So intake manifold off, cleaned, weld prep’d the crack and welded inside and out, cleaned up the port with die grinder to keep the flow smooth. I also welded another tapped boss onto the first runner to use as my third point for the bracing. Last step was to set the intake manifold up in the mill and face the flange to ensure that its nice and flat for a good gasket seal. With the intake fitted back up, it was time to make a brace. Was also tired of the lack of rear brakes and handbrake its always had. Did some research on the rear calipers I was using, turns out they were early Corona stuff, with S13 rotors, quite an odd combination. I had some Nissan S15 rear calipers lying around for a while now so I figured Id put them to use, as they are much easier to source brake pads for. Dug up the S15 Calipers, stripped them, cleaned them and a fresh coat of high temp paint (Dulux stuff, same paint I have been using on my manifold and exhaust, holds up really well). Decided to cross drill the rear rotors too, mostly because racecar, but it may serve a purpose on the track. Had to draw up and machine some new caliper mounts to suit the S15 calipers, made from 10mm mild steel plate. Project Mu pads turned up, so started to re-assemble everything so I could get some measurements for brake lines. Was really happy with how it all turned out! Although it wasnt over yet…! Quick test run on the hoist and I noticed that the calipers were moving back and forth on their slides as the wheels spun around. Brought my DTI home from work to see where the run out was coming from. Long story short, both rear axles were slightly bent (would have always been this way since Ive owned it), one had 0.3mm run out on the bearing diameter when held between centers. Managed to straighten them and get down to 0.01-0.02mm run out, then took a light skim off the hub face to ensure a true running brake rotor and wheel. Installed some new bearings while they were apart, put them back together, new brakes back on and everything was mint! Got to test the new handbrake at Meremere again in December, it was perfect! Project Mu pads work crazy good. The rain held out. and it was a mint day at Meremere, first time I really felt comfortable in the car, and pretty stoked not to have single mechanical fault for a change!

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Not sure if I posted these wheels up before, but here they are. They're a Dunlop TE, 14x6.5j. Got them quite cheap off Trademe. They have an unsually big center in them for a 14" wheel, almost a like a 15" center with 14" shells, which I quite like because my SSR MK2's have a small center and you cant see any of the brakes behind them. Anyway, decided to widen these too. Here they are with the raw 3.5" shell from Gavin Bateman after drilling a new PCD through the lot. Had the lips and spokes polished, centers painted. Would love to have a full set of these!

Looks good dude. Good call on shifting that engine back.

Here is the fuel pump cradle, complete with a sealed electrical bulk head from MSEL. Here it is installed in the tank through the cut out I made in the floor. Makes it a lot easier to work on, means I dont have to drop the entire tank just to get to the lift pump. Added some -6 bulk head fittings. Fuel in from lift pump, surge tank overflow, fuel rail return and fuel out from the Bosch 044 pump. Had to make some 3mm thick aluminium washers as the sheet metal was too thin for the bulk head nut to do up tight. I had my mate Graeme at SMS fabrication tune me up a surge tank that I drew up for him. He's got all the gear to cut and fold sheet metal, and hes a bit of a whiz on the TIG welder when it comes to aluminium. Here it is mocked up. Brought an Aeromotive fuel regulator, mounted that on the fire wall. Made a few changes to the fuel rail to make it easier to make up the fuel lines. Decided to go with braided lines through out, although a little more expensive it was going to be easier to plumb up and make it alot simplier. With the fuel rail back on, regulator mounted and bulk heads to the surge tank fitted I started to make up the main and return fuel lines so I could get the car back on the ground. I wanted the fuel lines to hug the underneath as much as possible, but with the stainless braided being quite abrasive I was worried that it would rub on the steel causing all sorts of shit. I ended up ordering 10m of 20mm clear heat shrink to cover the fuel lines to act as an insulator. Hard to tell from the picture below, but the lines have been covered in the heat shrink. Underside and engine bay side of things were all sorted, dropped the car back on the ground and began working in the boot to finish it off. Purchased a rivnut gun to mount the tank and fuel pump as well as the block off plate. With those mounted I could make up the remaining fuel lines, so after mocking a few lines up and getting an idea of what fittings I needed to purchase, it was done! Primed up the surge tank and checked for any leaks, which there were none, so plugged the Bosch 044 pump in and checked for any leaks in that circuit, which there was, and see where the fuel pressure was set at. I had to tighten one fitting a touch more, and replace a copper washer on the fuel rail. No leaks, but the fuel pressure was still at 5 bar (what the reg was set to out of the box, atleast I know it can handle 5 bar!) so I dropped that down to 3bar. So a few weeks later it went out to Hitech Motorsport again to have the engine tuned on the Link Atom G4+. Got them to setup 2 boost maps to switch between, low boost is 9psi, and high is 16psi. Green line is high boost and pink is the low. Power curve gets a little peaky on the high boost map after 6500 compared to the low boost which holds the power right through to 7500. Could be to do with the boost dropping a 1psi or so up there, or maybe turbo inefficiency? Still plenty of power though! Probably need one of those fancy new billet comp wheel turbos to spool things up quicker. Saying that, and even though boost graph looks dull, it doesn't feel like there is any lag. You can put your foot down in any gear and it will pull hard, and the power curve definitely confirms that.

So exhaust done, I had to finish of the changes on the hot side of the I/C piping. I machined up another one of these adaptors This rotates the intercooler elbow that bolts to the compressor housing 60 degrees, so that it points to the front of the car, instead into the manifold or strut tower. Welded a boss on to said elbow, added a 90 deg hose barb for a pressure signal to the wastegate. Bolted it up to the adaptor I machined earlier and fitted it on the turbo, which meant I could finish installing all the hose joiners and clamps. Ditched all the blue joiners and went for black stuff, also went to an 3" intake pipe instead of the 2.5" I was using previously. With that done it means its pretty much all sorted, except I decided to relocate the boost control solenoid to reduce the length of the lines. Oh and because race car, I made a racing light weight race pipe for racing because race car loud race pipe tip... yeah. Basically just a 3" tip, I put a V-band on it so I can swap back to the muffler if noise became an issue (which it was) With everything back together and ready to go on the dyno again, in typical fashion, I decided to pull some more shit off it so it wasnt going haha. The AE85 fuel tank has always been a pain, from mounting the fuel pump, to the lack of baffling and the surge you get below half a tank of gas... Made the decision to finally sort this out by putting a proper surge tank setup in it. Bought a Bosch 044 and a 10 micron Aeromotive filter from NZ Performance. Always a pleasure dealing with them! So after talking with NZEFI about whether I'd be able to use the Bosch 044 on the same electrical circuit as the DW300 pump (which shares with the ignition), we came to the conclusion that I would be pushing the current draw to high, and also the fact the DW300 pump wouldnt be suitable as a lift pump I purchased a low pressure lift pump to replace the DW300. The good thing about this lift pump is that it only draws 1amp, so it drops the current draw to much more suitable level. NZEFI have been really helpful with any questions and queries Ive had since purchasing the Link G4+ Atom from them. Pulled the tank out to drop the new lift pump in, and I could see a fair amount of sediment in there, aswell as really small fragments of what looked like rust in the DW300 filter sock... Not something I want going through my new pumps or injectors! 15mins researching of how to clean a fuel tank and I found that hydrochloric acid was recommended, which was good as I had 15-20L of this. So stripped the old paint off the outside of the tank, filled the tank up with hydrochloric acid diluted with water. For anyone doing this at home, make sure you're wearing suitable protective gear, dont want to get any of this stuff on your skin or breathe in the fumes! Let the acid do its thing for a few hours, added some baking soda and let it sit for a bit then drained it, then filled it back up with water and a few cups of baking soda to further neutralise the acid. After draining that, the tank basically looked like new inside, stoked! I filled it back up again with water and some "Super Ripper" cleaner, let that soak to remove anything left behind and went through a lengthy drying process which involved pumping hot air through it with a heat gun. With inside clean I masked off the holes and removed any rust on the outside, painted it with a rust kill etch primer and then finished it in satin black. I just needed to get the lift pump in there now, but I was sick of staring at this old fuel pump cradle... Soooooo I made a new one. Machined up a few pieces and welded the lot together, added some Fragola -6 adaptors so I can run braided line from the tank to surge and vice versa. Ill leave it here for now

Oxy sensor thread is M18x1.5. Can get bungs from Chase Exhaust, Pitstop, Trademe etc. When I bought my Innovate wideband it came with the socket and bung. What G4+ ECU are you using, Storm?

Awesome work guys. You can never have a shed too big!