vivaspeed

So I've run into a guard-tyre clearance problem and need to roll some steel out of the way.

Anyone got a guard roller in the Wellington area I could borrow? Pretty please...

Yes, I know I can use pipe/bar/jack handle/your mum, etc but thought I try for the proper tool as a start.

Thanks muchly

Just do what I do and leave the bungs at the bottom out.

Water in / water out. No worries.

(oh that's right, you have carpets and nice upholstery)

There is merit in that idea, but there are a lot of people (like myself and a number of people I know) who grew up doing practical/engineering tasks, playing with cars, I worked for an engineering company making agricultural machines as a student, etc. This gives a good grounding and practical abilities that transfer over.

A lot of engineers become engineers simply because they are good at maths and science and get good grades, but couldn't use their hands to build anything. Most degrees have a "practical component" but this sometimes isn't enough if they've never set foot in a workshop before.

There is a place for both in engineering.

This has gone way off topic from the OP

Re discussion about what is an engineer, I like the following from Wiki. Doesn't really matter your qualification because I know BE/ME/PhD guys that couldn't engineer their way out of a paper bag, yet also know trade qualified guys that could build a fully fuctioning spaceship.

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality, safety and cost.

Strictly speaking an engineer should be someone with a degree or higher diploma, a technician would have a NZCE/Diploma and a Fitter/Welder/Electrician/Lineman would have a trade cert IMHO but it depends on the type of work they are doing.

A lot of people get worked up about the status thing associated with being an "engineer" and don't like being confused with someone that welds/fabricates/repairs things, etc.

BTW - I'm a professional electrical engineer who looks after high voltage power systems. I don't give a shit what people call me because I'm comfortable in what I do / my status in life... it does fuck me off when people think I'm an electrician and want me to wire their house up though.

So funny you say this. My mate who I was talking about earlier was told the same thing over and over so did a lot of research. Never found any broken ones. So hes running stock ones in his rally car to see how they go. 270hp 387NM 7500RPM. Havent broken yet.

You may not realise but your mate is also my mate... stalker spec... Fatty and I have had many conversations on this very topic.

One service manual I have at home has the following specs for 1256cc

Engine - 20W/50 - 5.5 pints (3.13 litres)

Manual Gearbox - SAE 90 - 0.9 pints (0.51 litres)

And the Castrol online selector is fucked up. HC Viva (1256cc) is 20W/50, Chevette (also 1256cc) is 10W/40 Magnetec. Surely they didn't improve the old 1256cc that much between models...

Being British, whatever you do put in will shortly emerge from underneath / behind in no time at all so don't get too carried away with flash oil

Unless you've replaced seals before you put it in.

I can tell you when I get home tonight. Should have it in a manual.

20W50 up to the point where the dipstick says "Full"...

Yeah they are thin compared with 4age but similar to b16a etc. I've only heard of big ends letting go due to poor bolts.

Anyone got a pic of a bent one???

So what exactly is wrong with stock 7A rods? Seems to be scaremongering but not actually heard of anything wrong with the stock items in NA or STD boost applications.

Frost plugs are good if you ever want to use the head to run injection again because you can just knock them out and place injectors back in.

^off topic but that's why Pajero's are sold as Mitsi Shoguns in Europe.

Great progress. Bodywork is the worst bit! I like how the nose cone has become one with the car, earlier photos it looked a bit out of place but now it's fantastic.

Paint it silver, with green and red Castrol-like colours... then fit Lotus 907 engine twin cam

Oooh HB Viva Estate. Not many of them left - I want one soooo bad. I know of the LHD one in Christchurch, apparently it is ex-Canada or something where they were sold as a Chevy (or could have been continental Europe). It has a not-so-common 1600 OHC motor (like a small capacity version of the 1800/2300 slant motor) if it's the same one I know of.

Good progress on the engine swap.

When I moved my engine back I found the gearshifter fouled on the handbrake in 2nd and 4th gear. Had to take 15mm out of the handbrake lever.

Why don't you run a remote oil filter and then not have to worry about the crossmember clearance? Means you can mount it somewhere it where it won't make a mess when you change it either.

Good work.

I've seen a flywheel let go on an RX7 and it made a big mess, pierced the floorpan like a can opener, took out brakes and fuel lines along the chassis and the guy had to coast to a stop with no brakes and fuel pissing out. Made a big mess on the track too. What it did to steel makes it quite clear that soft fleshy bits attached to your person would not come out too well.

Dude got out quite shaken...

What's your personal appetite for risk (consider cost of nice steel one vs. cost of repairing car vs. loss of use of limbs). You could get a standard one and give it a gentle skim in the right places, and this was commonly done, take a little meat out of it but not radically reduce its strength/weight.

Transplant Fiat Twin cam into one?

Toyota stuff is good to see (I'm quite biased though), it's outside Nagoya in Toyota City - that's right they have their own city. They have a museum and you can book a factory tour, unfortunately they took us to the plant that made Prius, but it was still cool to see. If you don't get out of Tokyo there is a Toyota MegaWeb place at Odaiba.

Also in Yokohama there is the Nissan Engine Museum (museum full of engines only and stuff about the manufacturing process, no cars!).

Hiroshima has Mazda and you can see the museum there (IIRC it's the Rotary engine museum, or a large part of it is Rotaries) and you can also book a factory tour.

You can only buy the JR pass outside Japan. Going on a bullet train is a must.

Oh, and worthwhile going to see Super Autobacs and UpGarage.

When you pull out the rotor, be careful to keep all the mounts etc so it can bolt straight into mine.

Thanks!

Been meaning to contribute to this, loads of funny stories from my grand dad.

He was a kid in England at school just after WW1 and there were heaps of left over armaments and ammo etc around where he lived and as kids they used to grab handfuls of unused rifle rounds and biff them in the school coal pile. When the guy was stoking the fire/boiler they would fire off and go "bang, bang, bang" inside the fire. Would give the guy stoking the fire the shits but no real harm as it was a big cast boiler.

Allegedly they put something more substantial in the coal one day and when it went into the boiler it blew the door off and buggered the boiler so they had to go the rest of winter with no heating. Not sure how exaggerated the story became over time...

I reckon midday tomorrow make a call, might clear up?

Get a local source to report Mana weather... often is better up that way than around the city.

Edit: Beaver's weather map suggests not

A quick update - took it for a new WOF and flew through, apart from the seat belts - faded and worn webbing.

They had some cool hardware on them which I would have liked to keep but it was proving to be a challenge to find someone locally who could remanufacture them using the original hardware so I settled on a set of boring modern belts with nice NZS standards.

Went to change the belts and the top mounting points weren't captive nuts so had to remove half the rear upholstery to refit the new belts (arm reaching around in the cavity trying to find the mounting plate). Took the opportunity to refit the rear parcel tray and get the back seat in place (it never quite fitted right before).

End result - success!

Doesn't run well when cold, so might investigate that a little more and also I think the diff/driveline needs attention as a few runs up and down the motorway at 100kph have revealed some strange noises and vibrations, although may just be the poor little pushrod 1159cc trying to keep up! Generally goes well and is very respectable on the motorway.

Sweet, they have their own online shop http://www.seatbeltstore.com. Still doesn't let me keep the Vauxhall clasps and hardware though.

I'll just get over it and roll with modern ones.

Yeah the stitching would be a worry - half way through the windscreen going "damn, wish I could sew better...". You might find an upholsterer that could do the stitching for you with a heavy thread/industrial machine.

I wouldn't trust my sewing on a belt. Buttons regularly fall off my shirts once I've tried to stitch them back on, and my recollection of intermediate school sewing is not good (I was more interested in how the sewing machine worked than the actual joining of fabric).

I did find one place that knew of a place in Oz that could re-manufacture belts, but I imagine you'd run into issues with going to an inertia reel. My car for instance doesn't have a mounting point on the B pillar for the top piece, it's behind the driver's seat under the side window. Must be loads of info on the 'net about conversion.

I'm just going to put in modern belts for the WOF ($90 each) and sort the rest in the future.

Safety First

So having a read of my LEMV4 manual it would seem that there is only one Aux on a V4 (I thought there were two) - can be configured as boost or RPM (or idle control). It also has a really good explanation about wasted spark setup.

Also reading about ZE supercharger clutch control they are a tricky beast - operate when vacuum drops below a certain level. I thought they were RPM controlled for some reason. Must be some literature around on how to set it up with an aftermarket ECU but would suspect it could be done using manifold pressure.

The ECU engages the supercharger based on intake manifold vacuum. When the vacuum drops below 8" the supercharger clutch is engaged. The clutch stays on until the intake manifold vacuum has risen to over 10" for a period of 5 seconds. This time delay was added to avoid cycling of the clutch during shifts and momentary throttle transitions.