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Posts posted by Thousand Dollar Supercar
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41 minutes ago, 440bbm said:
Have you tried just turning the pulley by hand to check other then the click click of the key and starter sounds?
Yeah, if Uncle Bob did start it recently after all, perhaps the engine is OK and the starter's just not working when in the car. Have you tried starting the car with the lights on? Lights dim when trying to crank engine = starter is drawing current = more likely that engine is seized.
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Oldschool projects are tougher now than they were 20 years ago, when the cars were that much newer. I could still pick up parts Alfa 33s for a few hundred bucks and drive them back to my flat - I went through three of them.
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7 hours ago, yoeddynz said:
I'll never ever get that big low grunty porsche sound from a tiny 1500 cc six cylinder engine.
Maybe. I assume the pitch of an exhaust note would be a function of pipe diameter, which should be a function of engine displacement, assuming you want to keep the gas flow speeds high for good performance... but I suppose you could still put fat pipes on a small engine to make it sound deep like a Harley... in exchange for it performing like a Harley.
2 hours ago, mjrstar said:I wonder what doing some funky slip on tip to go to two smaller diameter pipes might go for you.
Don't go for a cheap rolled tip like I used to have on my Alfa 33:
The rolled ends of the tips were in the path of the exhaust and I think they were responsible for adding a wooshy turbulent air noise.
7 hours ago, yoeddynz said:This reminds me of oldschool Nats 2016, where someone brought a 911 to the track day and swapped on a manifold like that in the pits:
I don't think I knew who those guys were, and I don't know whether I still have the original footage without music over it.
Are these the stock headers from your generation of Goldwing engine?
They don't look equal length, which might mean less of a smooth / clean straight 6 sound than you're currently getting?
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Here's what you do:
- Swap the headers left and right - they'll bolt straight up and fit perfectly without fouling the crossmember (guaranteed), and the outlets will point forward
- Run new pipes from each header to partially merge in some sort of crossover x-pipe under the engine, but offset it slightly to one side (make the blue pipe and red pipe different lengths) to vary the amount of flat 6 vs straight 6 sound
- Put mufflers under both sides of the car alongside the engine, with exhaust outlets close enough to the ends of the bumper that the fumes get swept away
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Put some chrome tips on so it looks staunch as
Alternatively, I see the classic Porsche single rear muffler was a hotdog shape / cylindrical with rounded ends, which must be for a reason.. Maybe you want to avoid large flat parallel surfaces where possible, to break up standing waves / reduce resonance / for strength? I definitely know what I'm talking about because of all the exhaust fabrication I do for a day job.
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^^ The future sure looks bright - you could cut three hours off that time in a Morris Marina.
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59 minutes ago, Sc@ Chi said:
Probably why it's a 'truck', and exempt from crash test requirements in the US.
Yes, I thought I remembered hearing something like that but couldn't find any proof. I think this is how the Cybertruck gets to exist in America, while other markets take issue with the fact it cuts through pedestrians and never needs sharpening.
https://www.jalopnik.com/1796315/nhtsa-tesla-cybertruck-test-results-pedestrian-safety/
"Because of this, the truck isn't allowed for sale in Europe, and buyers across the pond have to cover all the Cybertruck's sharp corners in rubber to pedestrian-proof the truck."-
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Fast forward six months and I've cracked the high-rpm misfire.
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transmission issue -
fuel issue (injector, pump, filter, pressure regulator) -
spark issue (plugs, leads, coil, ignition module) -
ECU issue (water damage, failing components) - crankshaft position sensor / crank angle sensor
I know I previously measured the crankshaft position sensor signal at the ECU and declared it OK, but I must have been... missing... something (har de har har
). The CPS pulses were almost too rapid for my scope to capture in much detail - they must have been deficient in some way that I couldn't see on the scope. Maybe they just had inadequate voltage at high revs. A random Barry on the internet concurs that Jag CPSs can give weird issues on the AJ6/AJ16 engines:
QuoteThese sensors do fail completely but can also partially fail and give confusing and inconsistent problems from no-start to intermittent firing.
My own feeling (without conclusive proof) is that they deteriorate over time. The Crank Position Sensor is a sensitive electronic device stuck out in front of the engine and subject to all sorts of wind, weather and engine heat cycles. Basically it is a coil and magnet - maybe the magnet gets weaker, maybe the coils start losing insulation - who knows?
You can't easily buy a new Lucas '4CS' CPS for the AJ6 engine for sensible money, so I bought one of these later versions for the revised AJ16 engine, cut the wires, swapped the plugs over and crossed my fingers.
It works.
The original sensor shall be inspected with a hammer, in retaliation for all that it has cost me in Uber rides, time off work, lost weekends, replacement parts that didn't need replacing etc.
Now back to our regularly-scheduled programme - the impossible quest to make a Jaguar XJ-S into a good car. I decided to install the rocker cover gasket I bought when I was worried that oil leaking into the spark plug wells was causing misfires. The end snapped off the cam breather hose when I tried to detach the hose from the cam cover, so I guess the hose gets to be shorter now.
Check out the mighty 24V DOHC valvetrain which gives the AJ6 the ability to rev all the way to 5750 or so..
Gasket changed. Next thing: Audio system upgrade.
Before:
- Front 5.25" component speakers in the doors running off the head unit, tweeters mounted on the A-pillars
- Rear 6x9 speakers in the rear seat storage bin areas, also running off the head unit
There was not enough bass. If I tried to fix that with EQ adjustments and the fade control (sending more sound to the larger rear speakers), it still didn't sound great and it caused distortion to kick in earlier / reduced my maximum volume.
I had previously decided there wasn't enough room in the XJ-S interior to improve on this setup, but this time I was determined.
After:
- 8" under-seat subwoofer under the front passenger seat
- Amp under the driver's seat
- Front speakers run off the amp
- Rear speakers still run off the head unit, because I need the ability to control them independently from the fronts and I had to devote the head unit's rear outputs to the sub
How did I make it fit? The XJ-S seats are so close to the floor and the bases are so saggy that there's not much height underneath them, so the new sub has to sit directly on the floorpan (carpet and foam underlay removed):
This sub was a brand new purchase, but the amp is an old beast from 2010 (Fast and Furious 4 / 5) that has been hanging around in my wardrobe since I sold my Rover SD-1. It was too long to fit under the seat lengthwise:
I was determined to use it anyway, and Nats was literally the next day so there wasn't time to find anything else. It wouldn't quite fit widthwise / transversely, even upside down. I opened it up and found that its case engaged in a bit of crotch stuffing:
Look at all that empty space in there, making the amp look so big that all your mates are impressed, even though the circuit board doesn't need that much room. What to do?
You've heard of Panaphonics, Magnetbox and Sorny:
I call this one 'Sawny'.
I literally sawed the end off the Sony amp with a hacksaw, following the dotted lines a few photos above. Now I won't be able to sell it on Facebook Marketplace to buy weed... I covered the end with a metal panel sealed with thermal paste to offset the reduced heat dissipation of the cut-down case (yeah, probably not), and hey presto, it fits under the seat, job done:
I pulled apart the car interior running all the necessary wires, and swapped in my better head unit, now with an improvised condensation deflector shield (see earlier post).
I turned it all on and discovered that the last panelbeater to remove my front door cards hadn't reconnected the RF speaker afterwards. Sorted that.
By the time I got the interior back together and convinced the car to run (I thought I'd blown something when swapping ECUs, but I'd just left the kill switch on
), it was after midnight on the first day of Nats. I couldn't wake the neighbours testing my new soundz, so I hit the highway. The radio picked a most appropriate 80s song to crank up in an XJ-S when cruising down a city motorway after midnight:
Now that I've tested the new setup over Nats, it's a big step up, except for Sawny heating my seat after a while.
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2 hours ago, shizzl said:
Yes the wingless sprint cars (6 shooters) powered by commy v6s are the hotdog class of open wheel racing.
Apparently the meeting on New Years Day is gonna feature the Six Shooter "Predator Series".
Is that one of these?
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On 26/12/2024 at 20:24, piazzanoob said:
I did it once in a honda odyssey at waikaraka park. Did the jalopy race going hard in the van and it stopped going on the last lap... Didnt quite get to roll over the line and it ended up being I snapped the camshaft right by the spocket.
Not one dent and was sad I didnt make the derby haha so if I did it again I wouldn't bother doing the jalopy race.
There was an Odyssey in the derby last night. It managed to complete both jalopy races and come close to winning the derby, but something started burning underneath it. The derby was won by what looked like the remains of a Primera.
The number of entrants in the derby was fairly low compared to what I've seen in the past - only around 25 cars. Maybe some of the entrants couldn't make the rescheduling, or there was less advertising, or it's already getting hard to find suitable cars. The racing was good though - a race leader blew an engine, there were a couple of rollovers etc, and they have a whole field of cars running the Buick V6. It sounded like a herd of cattle.
Next event is the 1st of Jan, and it includes a fireworks display.
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Back when I entered, they were not allowing '4WDs', presumably because they get too much traction even on a wet track, so they can hit too hard? A car-based 2WD SUV like the Nissan Cashcow could be OK on that basis.
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20 minutes ago, shizzl said:
I’d be keen to give a derby a rip if I can find a suitable car.
The next one's in April, so you've got time. @sentra and @peteretep have both entered in the past, as per photo in first post.
I wonder what they're going to do with derbies now that end-of-life cars will be starting to include a lot of SUVs and EVs...
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I've already done it three times.
It's more effort than you think, and assuming they're still doing jalopy racing, it kinda helps to have an engine that's running properly. I was more thinking about going along as a spectator.
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QuoteIts the last 2024 Demolition Derby time and this will have you splitting your sides with laughter as they are hell-bent on destroying each other until there is only one car moving. It will be a bumper-to-bumper race when every driver will be trying to win the title.Plus we have an action from the Shannon Engineering Modified Challenge, Six Shooters, Saloon Masters, Super Stocks and Saloons, then ending the night with a whole lot of crashing and banging that will have you in laughs as we end it with our Demolition Derby!Grab the family and friends then head to Prestige Pools Waikaraka Speedway for a night of exciting racing. You won't be disappointed!Purchase your tickets online here from Eventfinda or at the gate on the night.Food is available at the venue serving up Hot
ChipsChups, Hot Dogs, Burgers, Coffee, Hot Chocolate and much more are available to purchase on-site.Children 7 years and under are free - no ticket is required!A Gold Card Concession ticket is available for Sheepers but note ONLY at the main gate on the event day (ID required).Main gate opens at 4pm. The racing starts at 7pm
https://fb.watch/wE_wunppM-/Back in our bogan days:
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9 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said:
Not sure you'd need an O2 sensor to be confident about pushing the timing forward a bit. Plenty of engines running with slightly advanced timing to no major harm. O2 sensor would let you dial that in though.
If you want to get ambitious, I have it under good authority that 3.6l AJ6s are a set of ARP rod bolts (and presumably the appropriate regrind on the cams) away from 6500rpm
No, I was thinking that since aftermarket ECUs support O2 sensors, that would be a sensible addition for magical self-learning idle and fuel maps? I am not informed on this subject. This XJ-S is the only fuel-injected car I've ever owned.
I bet an AJ6 would feel ready to explode at 6500rpm! I hear that AJ6s have plenty of limitations that keep them from even making their quoted power, and so they have no business doing such crazy engine speeds.
3 hours ago, yoeddynz said:ITBs on an AJ6
"Fully rebuilt, balance & blueprinted engine with custom intake and Jenvey throttle bodies. Custom exhaust headers and system. Link engine management. Engine rebuild and setup carried out by Dyno Tuner Uk Ltd
351 BHP @ the Flywheel"
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1 hour ago, BiTurbo228 said:
Hum. Crank sensors on Alfa 156s like to die in a similar way to what that sounds like. Start off by working ok when cold, but losing the top end once the engine's warmed up a bit. Then the range of revs they work at progressively shrinks until they just stop working altogether.
I know crank angle sensors are one of the first things to check under 'won't start' conditions on AJ6s. No idea how much they are these days, but might be a reasonable thing to swap around anyway.
Yes, I’ve heard that the crank angle sensors on AJ6s are known for instantly and completely dying. I can’t see anything wrong with the signal from mine though. Its pulses get a bit rapid for my oscilloscope at higher rpm, but you can still see enough detail to be fairly confident it’s OK.
If I end up going with an aftermarket ECU as Bigfoot suggests, perhaps that would be a good opportunity to fit an O2 sensor and to get a bit more power via advanced timing (a common AJ6 mod was to move the crank angle sensor because the ignition timing of the factory ECU is too conservative). Lots of work and lots of learning though. Stock ECU replacement sounds easier if I can get one.
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1 minute ago, h4nd said:
oof, whassit doing / not doing?
The spark signal from the ECU to the ignition module deteriorates with engine speed and throttle angle. The engine still runs normally in normal driving, but the ignition problem seems to be creeping further down the rev range over time.
I found a small amount of water seemed to have leaked into the ECU, and maybe that has done some damage, maybe not... The reason for involving the auto electrician is that I wanted to rule out what seemed to be electrical noise on the 12V supply / from the alternator. My oscilloscope seemed to show this noise being absent at idle but increasing as I got to the engine speeds where the misfire would begin, and I thought maybe the noise could be 'confusing' the otherwise-functional ECU. I hoped the auto sparky could tell me whether the noise was normal / could test the alternator safely without blowing its regulator or something.
I told him not to hurry, as I'm back and forward from Australia for work at the moment. I haven't checked in on him lately.
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28 minutes ago, DriveBy said:
Ooh a Tesla without a personalised plate. Possibly rarer than the celica.
They all need personalised plates so the owners can tell whose is whose. Without that, the owners would all have to wander around carpark buildings blipping the 'fart' button on their Tesla app.
PFT - a 21-year-old photo of a Thunderbird negotiating a hairpin.
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14 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said:
Very brave indeed opening up some of Lucas' finest! I know the XJ40s of that era had some issues with dry solder joints in their various boards.
I opened up my dash cluster as the rev gauge wasn't working, only to be duly terrified and put it all back together again. Need to get some soldering practice on something less delicate. Oh, and discovered that the rev gauge can be 'cured' by a gentle tap on the top of the dash each time it starts, which hasn't helped motivation to get to the bottom of the issue.
My previous car was an Alfa Romeo, and the speedometer got progressively more intermittent due to a bad connection between parts of the instrument cluster. It took me years to discover that, because I had figured out a temporary solution to kick-start the speedo using a seemingly unrelated button on the dash.
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2 hours ago, kws said:
As you've seen with the "specialists" you visited, these skills are quickly fading away as it becomes more common to just "plug it in" and read codes instead.
I actually discussed with the fuel injection guys the fact that my Jag's ECU predates OBD1. It has a circular serial connector which you could presumably connect to your BBC Microcomputer, but once you loaded the Jaguar software from floppy disk, it would probably tell you nothing is wrong. My version of the Advanced Jaguar Six engine wasn't advanced enough to have an exhaust gas oxygen sensor for feedback, so its ECU presumably believes it's sending perfectly good pulses to the injectors and coil and everything is fine.
Edit: Also, when I went to the European car specialist, they said they didn't work on these cars much any more. I could hear the fear in the guy's voice when he asked if it was a V12, and I got the impression I'd have been turned away immediately if I'd answered 'yes'.
There's now only one guy left in Auckland who hates himself enough to work on classic Jags for a living, and last time I checked, he had a 3-month waiting list.
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2 hours ago, Sungai Sungai said:
came here to remark that you sir might be the perfect owner for any jaguar at this stage in its life cycle.
Let's not forget that I put the Jag into the wall AND the barrier because I'm Leadfoot Larry. It will only ever be a driver-grade example now, if it even survives my ownership at all. That makes it OK that I took it on grass skids at the last Nats.
24 minutes ago, Gee said:Not sure what the component '21' is as I can't see the prefix but it looks like it has leaked...
That's actually R121 - the prefix is under the heatsink. It might be responsible for some of the rusty stuff, so I guess I should change it too.
The way that there was a delay before the misfire would kick in at medium rpm makes it seem like the ECU is limited in the amount of power it can draw without overheating/draining/collapsing something. If it has to generate pulses too rapidly, it soon starts to drop some (one, two, miss a few, ninety-nine, one hundred!), but gentle driving is fine. I hope this is just down to a few off-the-shelf discrete components and/or dirty connections, so it's an easy fix.
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I tried taking the Jag to fuel injection specialists, and they told me the misfire wasn't caused by the fuel injection.
Next I took it to a European car specialist recommended by the fuel injection place, but they told me they couldn't replicate the fault. This was a lie, because the fault was plain as day as I drove home. It had become bad enough that I could get a mild misfire from moderate throttle at moderate rpm. If I stomped the throttle to make the auto kick down, there was no acceleration to be had, but instead you get awesome machine gun fire / spitting and popping from the exhausts.
I had been hoping to fix this by getting some bloke in, but it was increasingly looking like I'd have to do it myself.
So I hooked up an old oscilloscope to measure the +12V side of the ignition coil. I ran wires from the engine bay in through the window, so I could have the scope sitting next to me to allow me to hit the HOLD button while the car was acting up.
What did I find?
Absent sparks. Once you invoke the misfire, the coil isn't being switched consistently. Maybe it's the ignition module?
So I uncovered the ECU in the passenger footwell and jammed another oscilloscope probe into the back of an ECU plug to measure the signal going to the ignition module. Now we can compare the ignition coil behaviour to the ignition signal from the ECU.
They line up exactly, i.e. the Lucas 'Heart of Darkness' ECU is telling the car to misfire. You can see a bunch of smaller and bigger gaps in the ECU's spark signal corresponding to the coil not being switched by the ignition module.
Why would the ECU fail to fire the spark plugs (besides the whole Lucas thing)? Maybe some other input to the ECU was confusing it. So I isolated the crankshaft position sensor signal at the ECU, and plotted it together with the spark signal.
I bet you didn't know I was so technical.
Anyway, the crank position signal seems consistent, but despite that, some of the ECU's pulses to the ignition module are still missing or they are of a short duration (compare the one on the right to the one on the left).
I also compared the throttle position sensor and the airflow meter load signal against the ECU's ignition pulses. I couldn't see anything wrong with those inputs except that they seem quite noisy once the engine's working hard.
I can't remember whether the #1 signal in the screenshot above is TPS or AFM, but they both look the same and both develop those random blocks of noise, which are barely visible when the engine's not under load. The #2 signal in the screenshot is the erratic ECU ignition pulses.
So I was scratching my head when my Smell of Success fragrance bottle decided to fragrance the ECU plug (don't ask) and stall the car. This caused me to take a closer look at the ECU and discover that some of its connections were a bit corroded. I took it out of the car completely, opened it up and dared to gaze into the heart of darkness...
Com pew pew pew, com-pu, computer games..
ENHANCE!
Doh!
So my plan is to clean that up, test/replace that corroded diode, replace all of the capacitors which I can identify, put it back together and try again. If it works, another condensation deflector shield might be a good idea.
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On 10/07/2024 at 23:21, BlownCorona said:
I am however sick enough in the head to assume that i can build anything, so why not, how hard can it be to build a high end instrument?
My brother made this guitar using an existing neck:
He put the bridge too far out of position, which meant that even when the open strings were tuned to the correct pitch, the notes produced by fretting the strings would be sharp or flat (can't remember which). Also, something else was not quite right about the bridge mounting which would result in the tuning being thrown out if you used the whammy bar. Finally, the mounting of the neck to the body left a bit to be desired. His subsequent attempts have been more successful, and I think he has built a bass as well.
Good luck, this should be an interesting project.
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So I'm currently back in a Mitsubishi for the first time in over 20 years.
@fuel's wagon was facing eviction from @OSM Garage's work, so now it's hanging around my place making itself useful while my Jag is in the shop. I'm temporarily an all-Japanese-car household.
Not only is the wagon now on Evo mags, the manual conversion has been done. It's a proper Diamante 30Rse now, not a 30ARse.
It still has the stock exhaust, which is a shame because nobody can hear the V6 manual sounds.
I will be parking this car out in the elements (since it's Japanese, you can do that) and probably barely giving it enough use. It would appreciate a better home, so if you have room in your heart to adopt a Mitsubishi and become an honorary Mitsi weirdo, get in touch with @fuel.
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My car is at the injection specialists, so I’ll give it a miss.
oldschool spotted
in General Car Chat
Posted · Edited by Thousand Dollar Supercar
Spotted in Melbourne today, probably owned by a fair dinkum bogan yobbo. Badge on front wing says (edit) 4.9.