cletus

pug 205 receiving a dohc xu9 form a 405. same capacity. 30odd horsepower more.

the jap import ones all have catalytic converters, as do 'later model' ones.

how far am I meant to go to prove this? I've still got the factory exhaust for both hah.

dont really know yet havn`t had to deal with it so far.........but i would think a pic of the original exhaust, and the fact yours is nz new (correct?) should be enough

If i change from a sohc engine to a dohc engine in the exact same family of engines, this will theoretically require a cert I'm led to believe. the engine literally bolts in with only changes to the exhaust manifold on the new engine, and some water piping. the engine looms more or less plug in from each car.

yes would need cert for changing to DOHC head. what sort of car is it?

the car had examples which both came with and without catalytic converter. as did the donor vehicle from which the engine came from.Both in my case did not have these fitted given their factory spec/year. DO i need to prove that this is the case, and pass a stringent emissions test without a cat, or do I need to fit a cat, or what is the deal?

if you can prove it then you shouldnt need one. as of may 1 any car being certed for an engine swap has to have a cat fitted IF the engine being fitted AND the car originally had one.

IE r32 skyline with RB26= needs cat.

r32 skyline with 265 chrysler 6 cyl= no cat.

valiant charger with RB26= no cat.

theres a few grey areas that i will need to find out about- theres a lot of cars of the same model that may or may not have had cats fitted from factory

also, do I need to the cert or recert the vehicle if I add a quad throttle setup instead of the factory single throttle manifold?

IN another case. I'm looking to swap an engine from single carb, to quad bike carbs. Does this require certification? I doubt the power increase, if any, will be more than 10 or 20 horsepower which is well within the no-cert tolerances, but due to changing the style of induction I am a little bemused.

no if it falls within the less than 20% increase then it wont need cert.

heres another handy thing to look at it tells you what you can do that doesnt need cert. its dated april 04 but i dont think much would have changed

http://lvvta.org.nz/CertThresholdScheduleApril04V3.pdf

If i was to cut the body off a hillman avenger leaving only the floorpan, firewall and running gear then graft it to the top half of a honda civic will it be certified as a civic or a avenger or is it classed as a scratch built ?

would probably be a scratchbuilt. and what a lovely motorcar it would be.

Im looking at installing rear seatbelts into my Mk 1 , 2 door escort. Im assuming i will need to get these certified? is there anything i need to know about specifics for installing them -or do they need to be installed by a professional to get certification?

Thanks!

yes that will need a cert, its no worries to fit them yourself, the main thing is to get them in the right place. Probably a good idea to go see your local certifier and get them to show you where to put them. The actual fitting of the belt is easy, you can buy `seatbelt doubler plates` they are basically one plate above and one below the floor, sandwiched together and riveted, then the belt bolts to that. there are a few other things like using the correct rivets, aligning the plates correctly etc, all that is in here

http://lvvta.org.nz/stdSeatbeltAnchorages.pdf

The story goes that there was some guys putting v8s in escorts in Napier trying to beat a rotary powered car and they kept crashing them, then there was a death and they tightened the rules on modifications. Dont know how true this is. Been told by more then 2 old mechanics in Napier

sounds like one of those stories you`d hear around a campfire from someone with a torch under thier chin..........

we are lucky to have a system that allows us to modify vehicles in this country.... i know sometimes it seems the rules can make modifying a car tough, but we can do pretty much anything to a vehicle, if its safe and meets the regulations. it came pretty close to not being able to do anything to a car or at least making it very difficult/expensive in the early 90`s

some questions,

When was it that cert's came about?

And a friend told me that some cars have older cert's which don't have a plate- they have a piece of paper with the changes noted and its sighted and signed by the engineer- are these still OK and accepted by WOF testers/ police if nothing has been changed since it was sighted and signed.

When did they stop doing it like that and go over to a plate?

yep as runamuck said those are declarations, that say the vehicle was modified before the cert rules came about at the start of the 90`s. they didnt actually have to meet any regulations as far as i know, so some of them are a bit dodgy.

there was another cert that was on laminated paper, for minor mods......it used to be that you had to get a cert for just a set of lowering springs, my boss used to do them at the workshop where i did my apprenticeship, i think they were about $90 for those.

hi man, just a quick question.

been thinking about doing something like this in the future.

main query i have is whats the general legalities on the bonnet and guard extensions? and externally mounted oil coolers?

dont worry about the flairs or the front/ side skirts, just the shark nose bit

the one problem i can foresee may be the fact it is difficult to see the head lights from many decent angle.

im not gonna bother if its nowhere near possible, i just thought it would be helpful to know before i cut and welded shit together

yep thats possible.....the things which will apply to this mod would be external projections http://lvvta.org.nz/stdExternalProjections.pdf

things like the bonnet edge not being sharp/having a proper folded edge, oil cooler having radised edges etc..... to prevent the vehicle acting like a cheese grater on a pedestrian who is too busy texting or fiddling with thier ipod.

also as you mentioned lighting, easiest way to check on that would be go to your friendly wof man, and ask to have a look in the WOF VIRM, that had diagrams with angles that the lights must be visible from.

or look in here http://lvvta.org.nz/stdLightingStandard.pdf

the wof manual is probably a bit easier to read.

So do i need a cert if i remove a 253 from an HQ and fit a 186 ?

i know it seems a bit dumb, but legally speaking, yes you would need a cert for that.

I have a question i hope you can help me with

i have a toyota crown Wagon, it has a solid Chassis through out, and i am wanting to go pretty low with it. At the back to get enoguth travel i am looking at doing a C notch, (not a monster notch or what ever the kids are calling them these days)

So basicly a c notch would be where i notch a section out of the existing chassis, and wled in steel on both sides etc

Something along the lines of this, but not Bolted, although I would consider drilling some holes in the side plates to do some Plug Welds also for added strength.

is this sort of Moddification legal as i have seen very very few over here, and What thicknes steel would be required? I would Figure 3mm as most chassis are not even pressed out of that

Cheers, any help would be great

Allan

yes you can notch a chassis rail, 3 or 4 mm would be fine. I use as a rule of thumb no more than 1/3rd of the rail cut out for a c notch, any more than that and you would need to do a "step" or "bridge" notch like what minitruck guys do. i have seen a few trucks from the states with a notch like you have pictured that have cracked at the notched part because there isnt enough height in the chassis rail any more. even with a small c notch the sides of the rail would need reinforcement to make the rail as strong as it was originally.

Hi Clint,

If I am making custom seat rails for my 2 door car, can I build it so that the rear seats are only accessible from one side of the car? ie have fixed rails on the drivers side and folding rails on the passenger side(I understand that suzuki jimny sj413's have this arrangement)

yes thats ok. as long as theres enough room for a person to sit behind the fixed seat.

So,

Toymota: No

Holden w/Lada: Yes

RX7 w/ Piston: Yes

You sir, are quite correct.

Are bumpstops required for custom coilover setups? Or is adequate travel & correct spring rates enough?

Cheers.

yep. bumpstops are always required

Hi Clint

Is there a set price on cert'n a vehicle just for adjustable suspension?

Also, the front struts in my vehicle have been converted to be adjustable. I brought these from a donor vehicle and didn't have them made myself. I have the low volume cert paper work and plate from the donor vehicle. Is this enough to certify these struts? Or will they need to be checked?

What checks are involved?

Hope this makes sense.

Your struts would be checked again, the old cert becomes irrelevant when its a different car. Shouldnt be an issue if they are done correctly. as for what checks are involved, its basically common sense stuff, springs captive, travel, parts compatability, how it drives, etc

we charge 450 for a cert which would basically cover everything, ( susp, wheels, seats, etc) unless its had an engine swap. then its 500-600, depending on what engine, what mods have been done to get it in.......if the owner causes headaches....

the price usually includes 1 recheck, the plate manufacture, and gst.

thats what we charge, not everyone has the same pricing.....have heard of a couple of certifiers who charge less for the initial inspection, then more to get the plate made and more if the car needs a recheck

Nope.

ive certed a couple of cars in the past that the wastegate pipe runs all the way out next to the exhaust so it exits the vehicle, but the wording in the wof manual has changed, so cant do that any more.

oh haere mai andrew.

unfortunately there is no easy answer to that one....there used to be some sort of percentage that you could change and it would be classed as a scratchbuilt. all this is being reviewed at the moment as far as i know.

if you got an uncompliable car and built a full chassis for it then it could probably could be called a scratchbuilt, going by what has been happening with other other vehicles. eg if you get a original old 32 ford body and build a new chassis for it, it becomes a scratchbuilt car

spoke to my friendly engineer gf's old man,

he's reckons its going to be relatively simple

bore out the old taper,

press in a new tapered push the other way round,

run a line of tig round the bush top and bottom

ream if necessary and send away to tauranga for an engineers report

to go with it for the cert,

this will give me 50mm lift at minimal cost,

$500 for drop spindles that give me the same lift in axle height doesn't make sense

welding to a casting or forging that is related to steering or suspension is a big no no as far as cert is concerned

plus the bonus with drop spindles is everything ends up in a better place, top arm and steering link end up on better angles, reducing camber and toe change which is what will make it drive like shit, travel is not the only thing to think of

Anybody had any good or bad experience with microtech?

Help save a bit of aucklands motor racing history

http://www.speedwayclub.co.nz/signpetition.php

Usual story, someone has bought a house near a speedway that has been there for 80 years and now wants thousands of people to suffer because racing motorcars makes noise.

are these trademe drive shaft hoops certable?

minimum size is 50x5mm so if they are that size that will be sweet. you can cut them up to fit your car better, as long as they go right round the driveshaft and are 50x5 the whole way round. also have to be mounted within 150mm of the front u-joint.

I'm looking at 'raising' the chassis rails in one of my cars. So basically, welding a rail above the current one, and then chopping the one underneath out. Of course i will make the rail above the floorpan bigger than the original and tie it into the original rail well at the bulkhead. I am doing this to gain ground clearance as the car currently has ~30mm clearance and raising the rail inside of the cabin will increase this to ~75 to 80mm. The car has unusually low chassis rails which is a pain. Will this be an issue for cert?

id get the certifier who is going to cert it involved before you start, so they know what youre up to/how you are going to do it/materials etc........

as for the tyre size, try to get a size spec sheet for your tyre from the manufacturer, if its within specs then you should be fine.

at a guess i would say it would be ok..... cant remember what a 260c front end looks like but if the hub assembly is similar size to something like e.g hq holden then it would be plenty strong enough....h series holdens have had big heavy engines jammed in them for years and i cant imagine a td42 weighing more than a big block chev

cheers for starting this thread Clint. you might find that you get asked some pretty stupid questions but i suppose its all par for the corse.

it will be very cool to have a definite answer about the sorts of things we talk about on this thread all the time, from someone who is doing this for a job.

oh, and Mark finally rang me back, he's coming over on tuesday. cheers for that.

sheepers.

no worries!

also,

http://www.lvvta.org.nz has most of the standards required when doing mods.....go down to bottom of the page and go to `technical standards` they are the rules we go by when certifying a vehicle

How much power gain before a driveshaft loop is needed?

Have a factory motor that put out about 52Bhp factory and does around 110Bhp now. thats over 100% increase in power.

rule says a "significant increase in power or torque" requires a loop.....

i guess 100% more counts as significant

thats the sort of thing that comes down to what the certifier thinks, its a bit of a judgement call

this is an awesome thread idea... keep it open please .

is there a rule for engine weight?? .

i aslo ask how you go about engine vs brakes .

kind of....the suspension/wheelstuds/hub/xmember etc all has to be strong enough to withstand the weight of a heavier engine

say if you put a iron block v8 in an escort, it would need better brakes so it stops, heavier springs to hold the weight, bigger wheel studs etc...... so in that case you could use something like a commodore or 5 stud silvia strut in the front and solve all problems at once

as far as the brake test goes= more than 50% increase in power over original, needs to do 5 stops from 100-0kph under 4.4 secs in a total time of 3 min.

less than 50% power increase, 3 stops under 4.8 sec in a total time of 2 min.

a td42 with a big turbo would sound cool, like a big truck. would be a good tow car

Hi clint,

Question regarding fitting seats from another vehicle onto OEM rails.

Passengers seat bolts straight onto the rear mounts of the rails, the fronts are out 5mm - redrilled the rail and re bolted? Is this fine?

The drivers seat however I've used 3mm plate welded onto the OEM rails, which is made to mount via bolts onto the replacements factory mounts? Is this also fine?

Many thanks,Chris

sounds ok from what you have described, hard to say 100% without seeing it.