Avenga

I took fuel and distance notes at each fuel stop and I was getting around 12 L/100KM average. On the long motorway sections I got as low as 10.5 L/100KM but then on the windy fun stuff it went up to 14 L/100KM. Note bad considering that the best I can get out of my 1500 Avenger is 13 L/100KM on the motorway and tons more on windy stuff so I am actually saving gas by putting in a V8. There you go! Doing my part for the environment "Want to save gas? Put in a V8!" 

Auckland to Taupo 
310km
37.5l

12.1 L/100KM

Taupo to levin
288km
30.39l

10.55 L/100KM

Levin to Wellington 
108km
16.08l

14.89 L/100KM

Wellington to Nelson 
152km
21.41l

14.09 L/100KM

Nelson to Nelson 

156km
20l

12.82 L/100KM

Nelson to Nelson 
146km
18l

12.33 L/100KM

Nelson to levin
289km
35.42l

12.26 L/100KM

Levin to taihape 
143km
17.78l

12.43 L/100KM

Taihape 
265km
39l

14.72 L/100KM

 

Made it back from my road trip down to MoPars in Richmond down in the South Island.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Loaded up the boot. Tons of space for everything.

Installed a little ghetto audio setup. Just my UE Megablast cable tied in to the dash.

Went down and gave the car a good wash because it hasn't had on since I started the project

Had a little break down in Huntly

First night stay was in Taupo

The next day it was down to Wellington, then caught the ferry the next day

Went down to visit one of my Avenger friends.

Picked up a new tail light

First day of the carshow. Bonnets up, V8 Avenger vs stock 1300 Avenger

Went for a cruise out to Nelson lakes

Day 2 of the carshow. The Avengers all lined up and ready to go

I won the Furthest Travelled award for the 4th time!!

The next day I caught the ferry back to Wellington. This is leaving the South Island

The next day I spent some time in Wellington, did the Weta workshop tour then drove up to Taihape.

The day after that it was time to do the Gentle Annie Highway between Taihape and Napier. It was an awesome road. Had one little breakdown. The fuel line came off the fuel filter. Just jacked up the car and reconnected it.

At least it was a picturesque place to breakdown

Got to Napier and drove up to the top of Te Mata peak. Great views

Then drove out to Waimarama beach which was another great road

Then on the final day I drove from Napier to Auckland, which was uneventful.

Did a total of 2316 km over the 8 day trip. A total of just under 30 hours driving!! Not bad going considering I had only done less than 400 km before I left for my trip.

Going to do a track day at Pukekohe on Sunday. Hope the weather forecast improves. At the moment it says it's raining but I don't really want to track the wagon in the rain because it is a bit of a handful in the wet. I'll just take it easy if it is raining.

Talk about cutting it close. I finished everything on my list of stuff I need to finish before my road trip tonight, and I leave in the morning!!

Not much of an exciting update, just tidying up the last few things. Did some road testing over the weekend and tweaked the ECU a little bit. I found that some of the settings like the overrun/deceleration fuel cut and idle had too much of a deadzone for my application. For example the overrun fuel cut was set to cut the fuel if the TPS was below 0.7% but the problem is that because the car is so light and the engine is so powerful, you are quite often cruising around at 0.1-0.5% throttle. My TPS is really accurate and stable so I just turn all that sort of stuff way down so for the fuel cut or idle the TPS needs to be below 0.1% now. Drives like a dream now, it has such awesome throttle response with the ITB's.

Also did some tweaking with the brakes. Reconnected the booster and then wound the brake proportioning valve to the maximum reduction, which is 57% and the brakes feel really great now. Super happy with the brakes now.

In other last minute things.

Got the spare tyre fitted. Had to make little drop downs for the front because there used to be a 155 width tyre and now it is a 205. Still fits sweet in between the fuel system and exhaust.

Put on some clear protective take where the air cleaner touches the bonnet. In real life you can't see it like you can in the photo

Made a little rubber mat for the back so everything won't slide around as much on the trip. I also go on road trips with my friends and their dogs so it will be nice and easy to clean.

Made a new bonnet stay like the one on my other Avenger

And a little holder for it.

Also went to a car show in the weekend. Got really good feedback. people were pretty impressed with how well everything fits in there.

And YAY!! Road trip tomorrow. It's been an epic build and I am so stoked I got it all finished the night before I leave. Such a relief. Still more to do when I get back, like the proper wheels, but now it is time to enjoy the car!!

WOOHOO!!! FRAK YEAH!! SHE IS ALL ROAD LEGAL!!!!! I'm going away to the South Island next Wednesday so it has been a mad rush to get it finished in time. Still a little list of things that I want to finish of but it drives really nice. I took it for it's first proper drive today and it is such a fun car to drive, stupidly quick and OMG does it ever sound amazing!!

Got the cert plate back today, passed with flying colours. Here is the cert plate listing all the mods

Got it's warrant of fitness.

And registration

First night back at home 

Here is a before shot, I love how you can barely tell I put the V8 in it. Such a sleeper. The big back wheels are pretty much the only thing that gives it away, they look so cool.

Back in the garage with my other cars

Other little updates. Painted the centre caps of the temporary front wheels. Doesn't actually look too bad now that it is all murdered out.

Swapped over the front bumpers. The early Hillmans used a much smaller bumper than the late model Chrysler's. They don't bolt straight up, you need to drill a couple of holes then after that it bolts right up. You can see a good shot of the old bumper in the before photo above.

Finished mounting the brake bias valve.

 

Machined some wheel spacers for the back.

The rear sitting at it's final width.

Fills up the guard really well with no rubbing

Did some last minute rust repairs.

I'm not much of a panel beater but it came out pretty good. I will get the whole outside resprayed next year so it's only temporary.

Also did some rust repair around the back, under the bumper on both sides

Installed a brake bias valve. I have a bit too much front brakes with the willwoods.

Decided to restore the front grille. It was painted solid body colour by the previous owner, which I never liked. Originally it would have been black and silver so that is what I went with. I started off by painting the whole thing black

Then masking everything because I am going to hand paint it.

Finished hand painting the grille. Looks pretty sweet.

It back on the car

Added Dynamat to the front doors.

And the rear doors

New plug lead set.

Marked all of the old leads

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The new ones were all numbered and comes preinstalled in the plastic holder that goes over the middle so they are real easy to install.

Got the new tyres. It's getting harder and harder to find 15 inch wheels. Went for 225/50R15 Toyo Proxies4 at the back

Back tyres on the car with the temporary rims

Got the new temporary front rims. Need to paint that center cap black

Front tyres fitted. I went 195/50R15 Toyo T1R. They stopped making most of the sizes in T1R, my other Avenger has 205/50R15 and 225/50R15 T1R's but they don't make either anymore.

Front wheels on the car

Offsets are pretty good. Might go out a couple of millimeters front and back.

I raised the front with some new springs, it is sitting very high so I need to get more low. It was too low before so I am just going to keep dropping it until it looks and handles right.

Configured the shift lights on my dash. I have them set to low RPM just so I can test if I like the pattern and colour. Pretty happy with it.

So a little bit of a set back. Performance wheels over in Aussie have been giving me the run around so it doesn't look like I am going to get my proper wheels for probably another month or so, which will be well after my South Island trip and track day I have planned for October.

So I had to go for plan C, which is by some other wheels that are the same size and offset, just to get me though certing and the South Island trip etc. They might not look as good but at least they will get me to the South Island and to the track day.

I got some 15x8 steel rims for the back. They are the same offset as the Challengers that I will get eventually so I can just swap them over when I get the new rims. The front won't looks as good because I had to go for some ugly alloys to get the offset I needed.

It doesn't look too bad with the steelies but because my other Avenger has steelies then I want something different for the wagon.

The 15x8 with 225/50R15 fit really nicely under the guards. It is quite amazing that they fit under there. They are the same size as the ones on my other Avenger but I have huge flares on my other Avenger.

Built a new adjustable panhard rod so we can tweak the back end a little bit.

Big day today!! Dyno day!!!

Popped the doors back on yesterday.

Loaded up the trailer last night.

Early morning start and off to the dyno!!

Engine is all looking really sweet for the dyno runs.

Getting the car all ready for the dyno.

Even with all the dyno wires hooked up the engine bay looks tidy as.

Here is a video of a power run. My god it is loud, and not from the exhaust, it is all induction noise, sound so sweet.

Also did a run with the bonnet down to make sure the air cleaner setup with the bonnet closed doesn't suffocate the engine, pretty much no difference with the bonnet closed.

Here are some power graphs. 209 KW engine power and 277 lbft engine torque. Look at how smooth that power curve is

And the axle torque and power

After I got back from the dyno, I finished off the rest of the dynamat.

And installed the back carpets. They still fit but the front won't because of the bigger transmission tunnel.

Made a little custom startup screen for my dashboard. Looks pretty sweet.

Here is a little video, along with some of the screens I have set up, I still need to name some of the things better

Here is a shot of the startup screen

After running the engine for a while I noticed that the vacuum line was collapsing so I have replaced that.

And while I had the vacuum manifold out I figured I would take a photo of it.