Full Monty

I went to change tunes last night using my xcal 3, and it hung up part way through doing the initial download of the current tune... It then came up with an error message 1034 saying to revert the car to stock if it will not start!!!! Which to my relief the car started fine, and continues to run using the base tune it had loaded at the time. I tried several times, to load either of the other 2 tunes loaded on the box, and as soon as I enter the custom tune mode, the error comes up straight away, not allowing me to proceed. Im guessing the box has a fault and needs to be reset / reflashed? Im hesitant to try and load the stock tune, before trying to load a custome tune, as I have Nizpro injectors and hiflow cat, cooler etc, so I doubt the car would even start, and I'd be stuck.. anyone experienced this? I've searched online and including this site and come up with nothing. Didn't want to bother my tuner if there was a simple reset / fix? Gav

Cape Conran, Near Orbost/Marlo is awesome, but may be booked out this time of year. Has great camping facilities, best beaches in Vic, some of the best fishing also, and some awesome sand dunes nearby, great fun for the kids.

the 12 bolts securing the exhaust manifold to the head are torqued to 27nm. I do mine to 30nm which is fine, just don't go swinging off the wrench, use a little common sense as you are tightening a metal bolt into an alloy head.

If your end goal is 310 - 320 rwkw, I reckon you're throwing your money away buying a bottom end now. A BA bottom end will handle 320rwkw on 98ron fuel - in a reputable tuners hands. Its held together for 130,000kms, which isnt allot for these motors, Ive been in a few taxi's using the same base motor, tortured day in day out in stop start traffic for over 1,000,000kms. My BA has been running 312rwkw for a couple of years, all day every day. You just need valve springs, supporting mods like good intercooler & piping, good flowing Exhaust / with HI flow cat and a good Fuel pump. Theres lots of BA's running more power than me on a std bottom end. If it does go bang, then buy a bottom end or build yours better then.

I saw an FG XR ute yesterday, with the standard front bumper, but painted to look like a Typhoon with raccoon eyes. It looked shocking, but not as bad as that! Fail!

I was advised that a simple Flush, replace filter service every 12 months for just over $100 should be plenty for me, If you absolutely flog the arse out of it, then every 6 months. In my case, I budget for it to be pulled out, looked over and replace frictions and any worn parts every 24 months.

Nizpro have done all of the tuning on my car, including tweaking the shift properties, torque reduction tag tweaking etc. Yep, Bayswater also do ZF boxes, Phil showed me an earlier ZF input shaft that had been twisted about 15 degree's without shearing. Seems the ZF's limits aren't as high as was thought earlier. They also have their inherent weaknesses. I.e flexplate bolts coming loose, clutchpacks need revision, input shafts snapping. I think both the BTR and ZF can be made to handle lots of power and torque with the right tuning, and tweaks. The BTR isn't as fragile as lots of people make out, as evident by the number of cars they setup running 350+rwkw and regular runs down the strip. Best call them for prices, as everyones boxes will have different needs depending on what needs replacing, in both my cases there was no damage and the box was functioning fine, just precautionary refresh.

ohh and the slight scorch on the band was from when I upshifted to 4th at 5,500 rpm WOT, flared up, so quickly got out of the throttle - but it was enough to scorch the band a little. That was over 6 months ago. Phil advised that he could get enough pressure to hold 4th gear without flaring at my power level, by doing some servo mods and other valve body changes to further increase line pressures.

I originally had my box setup by Phil at Bayswater Auto's 2 years ago, installing Cryo treated AU planetaries, high energy band, serrated BF spec clutch packs, no servo mods, oil pump mods or Torque Converter change. Been running 310rwkw during the past 2 years, including some advanced driver training / track days and general flogging. The box has stood up to this abuse without a problem, just added a B&M trans cooler before doing any power mods. I just decided it was time for the box to come out and be checked over by Phil, replace anything looking suspect. To my delight, everything looked great, oil colour was reported as being slightly browned,which is to be expected after 2 years of hiding, the band was slightly scorched and C1 clutchpack slightly worn. Phil Replaced the C1 clutch pack frictions & plates, new High energy bands, flushed, filled and put it back together. Very happy, Phil and Tim know their sh*t, have done all of the R&D on these BTR boxes and have many customer cars running 350rwkw+ without failures. Phil pointed out that they are confident of their work on BTR boxes holding this power level, especially if some servo mods are done to further increase line pressure / clamping force on the frictions (which I haven't done, all controlled through the edit tuning). Cant recommend these guys enough, no bullsh*t straight up guys at reasonable prices

Longshot, but does anyone happen to have a spare G.A ticket to tonights Metallica - Lamb of God show in Melbourne, I'm going again on sunday, but would love to go tonight. Got floor tickets to the 2nd Melbourne show of their first leg of the tour, I was right infront of James main (centre mic)... unreal show, great set too, they're sounding better than they have for a long long time.

I only ever use Mobil 98ron, car has alweays been tuned to this fuel. Just this week I had to do an emergency fill before dropping the car off to the trans rebuilder, no Mobil servo's within miles, so had to put Caltex Vortex 98 in it, and guess what, pinging its tits off! Luckily No damage done, and I quickly loaded my 95ron base tune, until teh tank runs dry. Couldn't believe their could be that much drop off in octane rating between the brands. Mobil must burn much cleaner from my experience.

Meshuggah Bleed, still love this song, best drumming evar!

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Presale for fanclub and ticketmaster was today at lunchtime, limited release. Monday is the official day, should still be able to get seats =)

got 2 seat tickets for tool, myer music bowl. stoked! saw them there last tour and it was amazing, gonna be ace to be that close.

iRacing makes all these before mentioned games, just that, a game. IRacing is the current king when it comes to realisim. As mentioned a little earlier it is a subscription based model, with yearly subs costing around $80 - cheaper if you re-subscribe whilst they have their discount sale on, (a few times a year). You then have to pay for individual cars, and tracks - once off. The cost does add up, but the detail and realism of physics / tyre modelling is far ahead of Rfactor and GTR2 etc making it worth it for me. Each Car is weighed, including individual components, to best replicate the weight distribution and the cars are laser scanned for modelling accuracy. The tracks are laser scanned, every single cm being reproduced as it is in real life, you feel every ripple and bump in the road surface. Tons of the worlds best drivers, from Indycar, Nascar, ex F1 drivers etc use this simulation to pound out practice laps, and compete in the seasonal leagues. If you reach the upper license / skill levels, you could find yourself gridding up to race against Jacques Villenueve, Marcos AmbroseJustin Wilson, Dale Ernhart Jnr, and the worlds best sim racer Greger Huttu. Mind you, to reach this level takes massive amounts of talent and dedication, these guys take it damn seriously. You have to start out as a Rookie, and undertake a few races in the lower formula / control class, whilst the system monitors and assesses your safety rating and skill level, once a month there is a promotion date, at which time if you fullfill the required attributes, you can be promoted to the next license level, opening up new cars to race. (any car can be purchased and used to practice offline, or on a dedicated server practice/qualy or race) but only eligible drivers may race it in sanctioned seasonal racing, this keeps the racing clean, and free of morons, intent on creating carnage, as every incident on track is recorded against your profile, affecting your rating. The servers are populated with 1000's of drivers at any one time, and the races run on the hour 24/7 with qualy and practice sessions running inbetween, making it possible to get some competitive racing in any time of the day or night. You have access to tons of information following each race, including a full editible replay video, all laps for all competitors, and there is even a judicial system for protests over unfair sportsmanship / takeouts etc. Of interest to everyone here, The Falcon FG supercar was recently released, its an absolute blast to drive, there was a setup of 4 simulator cockpits at Phillip Island for the V8 enduro, and a few of the drivers in the event jumped in to have a go, giving very favourable feedback regarding the accuracy and feel of the car, including the laptimes of the Island. Unfortunatly P.Island is the only aussie track currently available, with Oran park recently scanned, soon to be released. It would be awesome if they did Bathurst. As of last night, the Williams FW31 F1 car was released! Can't wait to get home and get into it! It's been developed in conjunction with the Williams F1 team, the iRacing development team had access to tons of data regarding the car, to make it the most realistic representation possible. I've raced in tons of sims over the years from Grand Prix Legends, through to simbins releases and Rfactor etc(also including most console racing games) and the racing in this sim is leagues ahead. Check it out if you love realism / sim based games, tons of videos on youtube.

XR Floor mats, mud spats, & boot liner

Missus Just rang earlier to say she got us 2 floor tickets for tonight's Metallica show. Already had tickets booked for the final show of the tour on the 21st of Nov. Pretty stoked, right now! rocking the Tallica list on the headphones at work this arvo. Ive been front row twice for metallica 93 black album, and St. Anger tours, f*cking amazing being up that close. I'll have to try and get upfront again. Soundwave looks ok, as Dillz said, maybee not as excited as last years, but it will be good. and a chance to see some bands I havent seen before.

I received a cheque for $200 within a week of it being sent back.

Interesting Rosie, keep us posted if the silence lasts.. Race Brakes diagnosed my LHR wheel bearing would need doing at my next service, slightest amount of wobble in it. Wondering if this has been my annoying rattle from the Left rear wheel since purchasing the car? Did you do the whole hub / upright, or just the wheel bearing hub? how muchy for parts?

This issue has been talked about for eons in here. Give Pat a call at wholesale suspensions and purchase a Super Pro, Polyurethane diff bush. Then Forget about it, it will outlive your car!

I have an AU Cryo treated planetary set in my box, they have held up for 2 years with 300rwkw. apparently the AU gearsets are actually softer, less brittle, less prone to shearing / chipping teeth. about to get my box serviced, will see what the condition is like. I have a perfect set of BA planetary gears, including drum available, if you're interested. They were taken from a near new box 10-15,000kms - at standard power, when I had my box strengthened, I replaced them as a precaution. Having said that, im not sure the AU gears are necessarily better, Im a firm believer that these boxes can be made to handle pretty big power and torque, "if tuned correctly". Allot to do with ramping rates, line pressures, shift firmness, torque reduction on shifts etc.

interesting, would you mind posting a pic of the manifold bolt / stud setup? My understanding of the problem was that the heating / cooling of the bolts causes them to stretch overtime, then they are able to vibrate loose from the harmonics of the turbo. that setup could work really well, as the second nut holding the sheilds on, acts as a locknut.

I had to bite the bullet and upgrade my box to XCAL3 last week =( My car was being serviced, and a slight ping had to be rectified in my tune, leaving me with no alternative but to cough up the dough. bullsh*t.

It re-aligns the pads, centralising them so that they aren't contacting the inside of the rotor hats.