Avenga

5 hours ago, kiwi808 said:

My heart says rotary but the brain says V6 twin turbo.

1 hour ago, Ashkellybarr said:

V6 with twin t28’s

Yeah, I was thinking V6 twin turbo would be pretty awesome, especially next to the V8. I don’t know much about what V6’s are good for engine swaps so I’ll need to start researching it like I did with the 1UZ

39 minutes ago, CUL8R said:

Thats fair moving Richard, glad you're getting some decent use out of it over summer!

Thanks! I was really impressed with my drag times, it’s a really fun car to drive! Been doing a ton of driving over summer, just going on little road trips down to beaches or bush walks, such a nice car to drive.  Been to tons of shows in it also  

Those wheels really set it off also! So glad I waited for them! Totally worth the wait!

Thanks!! Over the moon with the awards!! And super pleased with the wheels, so worth the wait.

I am thinking of repowering the other green Avenger, and it's either between a rotary or a V6, maybe a V6 turbo.

I’m driving back up on the 3rd if you want to hitch a ride in the V8 Avenger Wagon. 

I’ll be leaving straight after the prizegiving on Sunday, I’m going to Wagnats on the next Wednesday, so I figured I should get back for work on Monday, do at least 2 days work  

Yup, it's a VH, I have a VH Charger. All the other models have round headlights.

16 hours ago, kiwiplymouth said:

Gore is the rust free valiant capital of nz,so Holdens and fords have a good chance I suppose.

I go to the MoPars in the South show each year. About 5 years ago it was hosted in Gore and it is indeed the valiant capital of NZ. I have driven through there on my other south island trips and you see them everywhere down there.

Not a bad turnout at the show itself. Weather is holding off

Anyone coming to the Westgate meet and cruise? Just chilling out at Westgate by myself 

I'd like to come, but the 11th is no good because of Wagnats.

It's a crazy few weeks coming up, this weekend it's Kumeu, and the old school jap meet, then the next weekend is 4NR nats, then the weekend after that is Leadfoot, then Wagnats!!!

On 13/01/2019 at 09:16, Speedy88 said:

New one on me. Grey import Mazda or Diahatsu?

For sale anyway, cheap! Spotted both in Te Anau

 

My dad used to have the same model of Holden Barina. One night my sister "Borrowed" the car, except she didn't know how to drive a manual, so she completely buggered the gearbox, had to ring my dad to get him to tow it home! He was super mad that she stole the car and broke it, he lied to work and said it just died on the way to work the next day

I might do Kumeu on Saturday then this on Sunday in my V8 Avenger wagon

23 minutes ago, pusherman said:

It will buff out!

Just booked my accommodation and tickets

I'll be going in the V8 Avenger wagon. If anyone wants to borrow one of my other cars (75 Avenger, or 72 Valiant Charger) then they can cruise along with me.

I'll be there in the wagon with cheap tat, oops, I mean high quality presents

On 02/12/2018 at 11:16, johnny.race said:

Hey bro, I am rapt you have been giving your car big arse trips and laps and having little to no problems. I'll echo what the others have said - you've carried out a quality build for sure. I missed reading the above threads about some of the details concerning the cert. He (your certifier) did get intouch with me to check out/verify what I had put in the Differential Work Declaration. He wanted to be confident that I had some idea of what I was talking about. Fuck, he left disappointed  Nooooo!! Hehe!! He was sweet as after we discussed a few things, but mostly after I told him I have done a heap of them and have built diffs (and do diff work) for one of the local certifyers down here - that he knows. Maybe he rang him up? I dunno. So yeah.   

Thanks for all your help with the certing process! I have been having a blast driving it since then!

@Ashkellybarr @sluggy Thanks guys. I spent freaking ages doing that engine bay and I am always stoked when everyone comments on how clean it looks. It was my first engine loom so it was a bit daunting but because I have had years of building gaming PC's and hiding all the wires on them then I treated this the same way. And I love the way the air intake turned out, that has to be the number 1 talking point every time someone sees the engine, I have never seen it done like that before, and it took me a lot of head scratching before I figured out how I could make it all work. I'm glad I did though because those trumpets look damn cool.

I have been speaking to my local rootes group parts supplier who I brought the part off, and he said that in previous batches they did have reinforcement, as did the OEM ones. This latest batch didn't and he assumed that it was a stronger grade of rubber, but no, it was shitty soft as rubber with zero reinforcement, so it was a totally inferior part that wasn't up to the task it was designed for.

My local parts guy is taking it very serious and he has pulled the rag joints from sale and he is going back to his supplier in the UK with what happened and saying, the that new batch is shit and either do it properly or he will find a different supplier.

We have already started planning the UJ conversion. We will have to get a new shaft made up and splined for the UJ's, won't be too hard to do, and if anything then it will give me piece of mind. The new rag joint that we made is reinforced so it should be okay, but I don't trust it anymore after the old one failed catastrophically and without warning.

@Thousand Dollar Supercar That was pretty much my list of must haves when I was building the car, it was too low before so I raised it up a little bit, made it quiet and picked a nice wheel tyre combo. They are pretty much the same size as the tyres on my green Avenger, the rear are the same and the fronts are slightly smaller but on this one I did the opposite to my green Avenger and went inwards instead of outwards so I don't need any bolt on guards or anything.

It's sort of crazy that this is running the same size tyres

@Toddy415 Thanks. that is the deepest dish I could get on the cast wheels. I really like it. I am running a 16mm spacer so I could go even deeper dish on the back if I go to the forged version, but they are like $1000 each wheel so I don't think it is worth it. Looks pretty bad ass as it is.

@NickJ Yes, that is the exhaust, it's further away than it looks in the photos because the steering column goes through the middle of the headers. I checked that and it's not getting too hot, the heat wrap helps. I think what it might have been is the type of rubber they used, it might have a really low glass transition point, I didn't see any signs of melting but it could have been enough to soften the rubber. With the stock Avenger, the exhaust is over on the other side of the engine, so it wouldn't normally even get warm, and they wouldn't need to put in any kind of heat resistant rubber. The rubber I made the new one out of has much better heat resistance.

Yeah, and especially because I am running much wider and stickier tires than stock, and it has the extra weight of the V8 conversion. It probably would have been fine for a standard Avenger but not for mine. And it probably wouldn't have failed while driving, because my steering is actually super light as soon as I start rolling but it is really heavy when parking. So I think all those things added towards the failure. The new rag joint that we made is heaps stronger and has reinforcement, so that would probably be okay, but because I do track days and the likes then I don't want to risk it so I will go down the path of making a custom column with 2 universals.

Thanks, Yeah. I thought they should have something to prevent total loss of steering. The old one just had nothing so I was parking the car and then just bang and the steering went totally limp. Opened the bonnet and the column had completely separated from the rack and was just laying down on the exhaust. So yeah, if that had have happened when I was driving then it would have been all over!!

My other Avenger uses a rag joint like that although it is much older, I restored that Avenger 7 years ago and I don't think I replaced the rag joint then, so it's probably 40 years old and still going strong. This one failed after only about a month, because I brought it new when I built the wagon. Done less than 4,000KM  

Hey Emma.

Good to see you got another classic. Sad to see your Avenger go. Feel free to still pop in to the Avenger forum and say hi. I have finally finished my V8 Avenger wagon.

Sorry guys, I couldn't make it this month, the steering failed in my wagon and couldn't get it back up and running in time.

A few videos from my trackday at Pukekohe.

The car went really well. I didn't push it very hard because I only just got it all up and running so I'm not used to the car yet, but it was really fun.