Roman

Only in first gear, as that's the only time you're out of the powerband. But there's generally an abundance of torque in first regardless. After that you're at the mercy of your gearbox ratios and how many rpms it drops between gear changes. If the problem is that at 5500rpm you've got no power, and it dips to that rpm, it's the gearbox ratios that will fix the problem not the final drive. If you shift at redline each time, it's still going to drop by the same amount of revs per gear change regardless of final drive ratio. A 4.66 helps you get out of the slump in first gear, but that's it. It moves the peaks, but it moves the troughs too. I'll put together a technical illustration later with MSpaint to explain further

If you fit something like a 4.7 ratio but your gearbox isnt able to shift any faster than it did before you have this problem: It's normally (for example) 3 seconds accellerating through 1st, 1 second gear change, 4 seconds through 2nd, 1 second gear change, 5 seconds through 3rd, 1 second gear change, 6 seconds through 4th. total time 3+1+4+1+5+1+6 = power to the ground 85% of the time. Then with a modified final drive you end up with: 2 seconds accellerating through 1st, 1 second gear change, 3 seconds through 2nd, 1 second gear change, 4 seconds through 3rd, 1 second gear change, 5 seconds through 4th. total time: 2+1+3+1+4+1+5 = power to the ground 82% of the time. Since you're spending less time putting power to the ground, if my shoddy maths is correct then in the above example it's the equivilent to losing 4.5hp across your powerband on a 150hp engine. You get the illusion of more power since it gets through each gear quicker, and feels racier, but you end up slower overall. It gets even worse if you were previously topping out your speed in the 1:1 gear (fourth) but now shifting into an overdrive gear instead which has a higher transmission loss. Race cars which have close ratio gearboxes and high final drives generally do so in conjunction with a gearbox that can smash through the gears almost instantly, and an engine redline that's much higher than a standard one. Also the top gear is generally a 1:1. As otherwise it's not worth the extra time spent chopping through the gears. It's a bit more complicated when it comes to a track with corners, but personally I dont think changing final drive ratio acheives as much as people tend to think.

Do you still have the gemini as well?

I've had a mix of problems for a while, where the engine runs good under full load, but is a total dog at cruising or idle. I've been chasing around just about everything trying to figure this out. Well, it turns out that I've had the wrong knock sensor, which has been causing the chaos! When knock happens, it makes a certain frequency vibration in the engine block. The frequency differs depending on the bore and stroke, similar to how a trumpet makes a different sound to a big tuba or something. So the problem that I had, was that I had a knock sensor from a smaller engine. It was listening out for knock on a different frequency, and not hearing it when it happened. The ECU thought everything was dandy, so was smashing in shitloads of ignition advance because it thought I was running some wizard magic fuel that appreciates 50 degrees advance in all scenarios hahaha. Today though, I managed to find a knock sensor from a gen 3 3SGE at Zebra. Got home and swapped this over, reset the ECU and disabled all changes from the fuel computer. Took it for a run, and... sweet jesus! Idle problems and low load problems instantly solved. Idle has gone back down to 10 or so degrees advance, and the idle is stable at 950-1000rpm when previously it was running 12-1300. At low load cruising it's now doing 30-35ish degrees advance instead of high 40s. I took the car for a bit of a run out to the airport and back, the average for the trip was 8.5litres per 100km. Which is a lot better than the 11/12l per 100 that it was getting before. It can now sit in 6th gear trundling along at 1600rpm or so at 50-60kph with no worries. Previously I'd have to go to 4th or 5th. Pretty happy with the economy! It's a lot quieter in the cabin when the motor is running properly too, so pretty happy all round. An unexpectedly successful fix! Taupo trackday is next weekend, and I caaaannnnnn not wait

How did it fare with the different ratio for the diff? Do these run some wizard magic imperial handspan type wheel PCD, or is it easy enough to get a second set of wheels. I'm down in Taupo next weekend I'll come say Hi if you'll be around.

Wheel size of 260mm dia means it travels 816mm per rotation 1225 rotations per km To go 30kph = 36764 wheel rotations per hour 612 wheel rotations per minute So if your engine can do a max of 3600rpm (3600 / 612) You would need a 5.88: pulley ratio between the motor and the wheel. Assuming you had the torque available in the lower rpm range to get you there.

Keen!

Yeah I didnt notice that last time I bought a set, (On MR2) but they did feel a bit squishy on the Carina until I added the camber. It's kind of like going from an old set of skate shoes where you can feel everything, to full soles again. Heh. Either way, gave them a bit more of a scrub tonight around scenic drive and the car is going sooooo good! 4 weeks till Taupo trackday, if it's dry I'll definitely smash my 2.03 Carina lap record and hopefully come close to / beat my 1:57 MR2 record on full track. I've had a moment of clarity about a few corners I've been doing wrong as well, and will bring a pyrometer to bump the camber in or out a bit on the day depending on what the tires are doing.

Lice Lice Baby?

Keep the spoiler for sure! Any idea on colour you'll go for.

UJ I bet you only ditched the booster because it didnt work after you drilled weight reduction holes in it

Yes standard rubber in the rear, apart from the panhard rod which is rose jointed both ends. Tonight I added what I will assume is 2 degrees of camber to the front, and went for a bit of a doort. Steering is back to being good with a little camber now! And it doesnt hit the gaurds at all with the wider tires. My 0-100kph time is probably half of what it was a week ago... Just a quick chirp then it's off. awesome. My shocks arent anything too fancy but my front to rear spring rates seem okay at the moment. Dont really want to go any stiffer on springs, might get some better shocks one day though. After driving it tonight I dont think a rear swaybar is required, it's handling great.

Soooo I got some T1Rs fitted yesterday, now running 205/50/15 all round instead of 195/50/15. Some may dissaprove of a 205 on a 7" rim but such is life haha. Car feels so much different! Previously had Bridgestone RE001s on front and Direzzas on the back. It has soooo much more grip now! Even without traction brackets I can hoof through 1st and 2nd without wheelspin which is great. One unexpected thing though is that turning has become a bit more sluggish and it understeers a lot more. The front/rear balance has previously been pretty good (if not on the oversteery side) with less grip. Which is why I've never fitted up the rear swaybar. But now that grip levels have increased it might be time to look into fitting it to get the balance right again. So I'll get that underway and increase front camber in 1 or 1/2 degree increments till turns nicely again. Might dump some friction modifier oil in the diff as well. Either way I'm pretty stoked to have some decent grip! Cant wait to drive it again after work today.

This is basically what I read this thread as Drive with your booster disconnected currently, and that's exactly what it will be like using your current MC without a booster. You'll probably find the pedal is way too hard. The only way to improve this is to change the ratio of fluid pushed by the MC per CM of pedal travel. (Or fit a booster haha) So you could: -fit a smaller MC (But it might reach the floor before you acheive full/desired level of braking) -Change the leverage point where the MC attaches to the pedal (Same problem as above) -Make the pedal travel longer for same amount of MC piston movement (Although you can only increase so much until impractical) Basically it seems like a big kick in the balls for not much gained, and will take some experimenting to find out what works well for you. I'd just leave it as is then go do some hoonage

OK thanks! I dont expect it to be a quarter mile champion or anything, but it's embarassing that my Toyota Echo would probably drag it off from the lights at the moment haha.

I'm hoping to acheive the opposite with traction brackets hahaha. Currently the car can only put down probably like 50-80hp before it spins the wheels in first or 2nd gear. Sounds fun but when you try to pull out of a side street into a gap in traffic and just blaze the wheels eeeevery time and dont move it gets pretty old! My lower 4 link arms are *just about* level, they currently point slightly upwards towards the diff. With traction brackets I should be able to get them pointing down towards the diff instead. Which should push the diff down into the ground on accelleration, rather than lift it up... hopefully!

Uuuuggghhhh Davy those wheels on your Carina were soooooooo good. Worth a pretty penny these days! Do you know what happened to yours in the end?

Woooooot! Car's all back together, and HOLY SHITBALLS! It drives so much differently with the LSD adjusted. Previously, you would make a suggestion along the lines of "Please, may we turn this corner" and the car would be all like "FUCK YOU BATMAN" then you're all like "NO FUCK YOU" and then it turns. where as now, the steering effort seems about half, and it turns in soo soo much better. It doesnt single wheel peel either, and the diff noise has completely vanished so great success all round! It's still got miserable traction, but I'm due a set of fresh tires. Traction brackets might be the only thing that will really help though. I've been looking at the options of either R888, Toyo Proxes T1R, Achilles 123 or Nitto NT01. It's just a toss up between whether I want faster laptimes but shittier to drive any other time, or nice to drive but overheating tires. I think for now I'll go with the T1Rs (which I've used previously and found to be awesome) and then keep an eye out for a spare set of wheels that fit before getting semis perhaps. Either way, pretty happy right now! Fred: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/21625-romans-cod-piece

Aaaahhhh yep this has all been a kick in the balls haha. About 5 weeks off the road which isnt too bad I guess. Completed: -Diff set to one way, preload reduced, clutch friction reduced -Replaced axle wheel bearings -Reran the brake hard lines so its easier to get the calipers off -Fixed the issue of the discs pinching on the axles and not sitting straight -Fixed the issue with the Pinion gear having end float instead of preload on the bearings So there was actually a fair amount to do, I guess I'm glad I pulled it out and found these things rather than have them fail somehow later on. Good news is though... Diff's on it's way back in! I've got the housing mounted on the 4 links loosely at the moment, doing it with axles and everything else off has definitely made the job a lot easier. Fingers crossed that nothing leaks/breaks/whatever, hopefully the diff now turns the car better, not noisy under decel, and hand brake should work a bit better too. Cant wait!

Sorry typo! I meant 36,000rpm at 1000kph.

Dont bother with RCAs, at that height your front roll centre is still going to be well below ground anyway. There are some camber tops from one of the KE70s or something that's got the same stud pattern as the Carina. Not AE86 though. Or, just get AE86 ones, turn them 180 degrees and redrill the holes in your strut tops.

My car does 36000rpm at 100kph with a 4.3 which sucks. On 195/5015. Youll probably have a smaller wheel circumference so maybe just keep your standard cw&p instead.

Soooo my diff has always had a bad noise under decel, from day one... After I paid money from a reputable Auckland workshop to install the LSD and set it all up many moons ago... Called them up when I got the car running (however many years later lol) but they just said "Yeah nah its sweet, will just be how its setup to be strong" Since I've had it apart though, I've tried and failed a few times to set the backlash etc since reassembling the head as above. The reason I havent been able to set it properly is that I've now found that the pinion gear had end float of 1mm or so... When it should have none and a preload on the bearings. So I take the pinion gear out to inspect it... First thing I find is that the flange nut has been bukakk'd with loctite which has gotten pretty much everywhere inside and out. Secondly, the crush tube which sets the preload for the pinion gear bearings by tightening/crushing it, had been hammered back out 'straighter' to try and reuse it. Despite the manual saying several times to never reuse one or back off the flange nut if you've gone too far. Which is most likely why there's end float, and a noisy diff from day one. It's scary to think that my utterly amateur workmanship can be better at following basic instructions than someone who's paid to do it professionally.

Just sell your LSD and get one to suit the later model AE86(?) that had the same splines. Any other suggestion is an exercise in pain which will result in the above anyway.

This is like telling someone to keep the 3AU in their AE85, but worse. If there was ever a GT version of a starlet back then, I'm sure a T series box and a 4age would be what it would have. It looks better in the engine bay, sounds better, revs better, and you dont have to build a hand grenade to get 150hp+. What's not to like!