Trent0

Some pop pop goodness that FPT just done for the ute

The falcon still lives! I bought myself a new Navara NP300 in December and have left the ute in the shed since. Last month I got the diff checked out by a nice local workshop and they found it had two bent axles, buggered bearings, rubbing of the internals and the inside of the housing as well as a few other average things. Ended up welding the tubes to the center housing too. It never felt right since I had it built in 2012. Happy to report it feels like a new car.

she's a tiny turbo! also just clocked 71,000km on the engine&turbo combo. The little P6466 holding on well

I done a near on 2000km drive from Melbourne up to Brisbane last week and the old girl averaged 10.5L/100km on 98ron sitting on 110km/h (calculated with fuel put in vs trip kms) super stoked.

precision 6466! Had mine on since Mar 2014 and 70,000km, nil issues made bang on *600rwkw* with the latest tune (935hp rated turbo though...)

Cheers mate! Those whiteline control arms are what I'm after so I can bolt them straight in!

I've looked all over their website and found no fitted kits, only bushes? I replaced the Tie Rod ends and sway bar links - all knocks gone, only squeaks remain All the ball joints were flogged in them.

So I bit the bullet and took the ute in to a nice little workshop to get some noises in the front end checked. Nice little list of jobs to do Old mate said I'd be best off buying new Upper & Lower control arms with bushes & ball joints fitted as a replacement, less time and money to do. The harder part is finding parts online with genuine ball joints and bushes. Does anyone have recommendations for a seller?

On another topic - does anyone have recommendations for a steering/suspension shop in Melbourne? So much knocking and banging, I'd say a few bushes need replacing.

I've had a set of king SSL's? the lowest kings leafs, in the rear for the past 5 years. I'm still using the factory spacers (10mm?). Not sure whether or not to stuff around with different sizes or just drop it off at a diff shop to get looked at and sorted?

I've just got a new one for it but still ahve vibrations under acceleration/load. Any suggestions? *Feels* like it's coming from the rear. Either hard acceleration or foot+brake it starts up. Cruising at 100, nadda.

Last week I ordered a new tail shaft from GJ Drivelines. It's a Pro Series - $1890 for anyone curious. Super simple to fit up - really nice looking bit of gear. After fitting, it felt good to drive around. I noticed under acceleration for 50+ I'd get some not so great vibrations. I'd noticed lately that jamming it in lower gears the gear stick would move a considerable amount (with engine torque). Turns out my gearbox mounts were shagged. I was able to replace them for $50 and only took me 20mins to do! Thinking this solved my issues, I took another test drive. No luck. I'd noticed a clunk developed in the front end over the past week as well after driving on some rough roads the weekend prior, I put it down to a flogged out bush. After having a hunch and checking the engine mounts, I'd discovered I had a missing mount nut 😕 Still trying to source something that fits.

Today's efforts

This weeks fun

Got the Ute up and running again last week. Clutch feels great, it drives beautifully (re-tuned it on 98 using PCMtec) making about 620rwhp (qld, sorry lol) The dowelled crank/flywheel, done by TBRE. Not welded, has some crazy super heavy duty loctite on the threads. You can see where the ARP head of the bolt was having a roll around. Flywheel surface is g2g, gave it a good clean before fitting the clutch. I have a photo of the pitted cam lobe to upload as well, this site won't let me though (130kb max). It was one of TBRE's originals, it was a BLANK from FORD that was made to his stage 1 specs.

I've got the engine back from TBRE. As well as the dowelling work, I got him to replace timing gear and fortunately as he was tearing down the engine found that some cam lobes laminate had perished and so he put in a new set of billet stage 1's. Bit of an unexpected bummer but good to find it early.

Yeah I should have done this a while ago. The problem was motivation and pulling everything apart again. Now my hand is forced so to speak haha.

So it turns out I had snapped a flywheel bolt. It ended up between a clutch plate and the flywheel which prevented the clutch from engaging properly. Flywheel will get a machine and I'm getting Tony Bellert to dowel the crank in hopes I never have bolt snapping problems again.

forgot to follow through haha, oops. It was loud. Probably obnoxious. I've since moved to a 4" system that sounds better. Initially done without the rear muffler. I liked it but the neighborhood didn't so I eventually put a 2nd muffler in it. Call me crazy but it sounds better and quiet.

it is unbelievable to me that the standard plastic CSC was supplied with a $3000 NPC twin plate clutch kit rated to 1000hp.

Ended up getting a bit of gear from Malwood. New billet CSC, braided res. line and a new remote bleeder. Hopefully lasts a bit longer this time without that plastic $hit.

So the slave went the other day as I was on the side of the road swapping fuel over from e85-98. I got stuck in peak hour traffic unable to use the clutch hahaha so pulled over, waited an hour and drove 200km back to the old mans where it's sitting on stands :/ Also noticed this small twist in the input shaft- tr6060

I use the 1000hp rated NPC too. it's not too bad but I don't think it's the best clutch for daily. the pick up point and how hard it bites makes hill starts skid starts,

thanks mate. haha yeaaaaah that black bonnet wasn't real popular. Once I saw it all one colour I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Replacing the front bumper meant I could have a fresh front end and that's ultimately the reason why the bonnet got painted lol. A sunroof and 5 link rear end would be nice to do next.