My baby turned 300 at last (pic heavy)

[discostig]

Tune graph is certainly on previous page, comes on to 15PSI flat from 3k rpm until about 5500 from memory. I trapped at 120.8 mph on my 11.94 run....I'm thinking the grip on the KU31's might go south much faster with more wear on them? I never got to the strip to try the Invos out sadly, bought land and now car upgrades come very slowly. Probably shouldn't have gone for invos on that note due to lasting a shorter distance hahaha. But I got caught up in the hype.

I'll just say again - I'm not saying they are crap, the fronts are wayyyyy grippier now under cornering/braking. Just taking off that I have the issues, bit puzzling...

On another topic, the car has started the rev hunting manoeuvre when it's cold and I'm cruising at low RPM...this is after having ZF serviced a few months ago now... I read one person saying it happened to them after theirs was serviced, have to get XFT to check it out! It's also said by Dillz it was a symptom of milkshake with the auto and its cooler, but no oil is in my coolant so fingers crossed it's not that...I'd be pretty devo.

Edited 20/03/12 08:39 AM by -SteveR-

[riptide]

What are you guys paying for the nittos?

[discostig]

Love the 17 inch size, was 180ea delivered to WA I think, 235/45/17.

Cornering was excellent today again, far better with the Invos on front. I can only imagine if I got this grip on the rears like everyone else seems to

[LazyBrennan]

What are you guys paying for the nittos?

I paid $210 for 245/40 r18 each.

Cornering was excellent today again, far better with the Invos on front. I can only imagine if I got this grip on the rears like everyone else seems to

Cornering with them feels fantastic. Should of got all 4 corners with Invos

[discostig]

I've had all 4, just not at the same time

[Nubbs]

I run ku31s on my car, they grip very well. they last forever aswell, ive run them down at the drags, doing pretty hard burnouts, no traction problems whatsoever. my last 2 rears I only changed because I had a bolt go through one of them, and they had 10,000 ks on them, including 2 trips to the drags, plus a fair bit of brutal treatment on the street, and they still had about 50% tread left.

been thinking of trying the Federal 595 evos, supposed to be decent aswell

[discostig]

Mundane but pertinent update on the car, mainly regarding everyone's favourite Falcon sedan accessory the diff bush

So I had rear SuperPro bushes fitted a month ago - the two forward side bushes (subframe?) in comfort "turbo" style - twisty holes, part# SPF3148AK seen here:

And of course had the demonic rear centre diff bush replaced, in the solid SuperPro style.

Well the car felt more planted in the rear when under power (old bushes were torn in multiple spots) but was still noisy, possibly clunkier than before! Eventually it was enough of a concern that I wanted to film things in motion under there to see if it was going as expected while in motion or to ID the clunks - got under the car to find this!

I was pretty devo about it as I'd just paid hundreds for the install and they are reputed to be super tough (60,000km warranty). My little old ZF equipped 300 odd rwkw car destroyed it after a month!

Pat from Wholesale Suspension sent me straight out a new one no charge (I chose the comfort spec instead, part# spf3232ak) - awesome service so kudos to Pat! He was pretty surprised at the failure as well. I planned to have our resident spanner swinging bush fanatic Luke install the replacement once he got some spare time but it was not to be in the end.

I also contacted SuperPro through their website when I found the split bush. A couple days later had an email from them asking for a pic of the damage. Sent the above pic to them and ended up with Graham the MD of Fulcrum emailing me directly. He suggested I get the new one installed by either WA Suspension or Wilkinson’s ASAP so that if it looked like a faulty part they could bill labour back to Fulcrum direct to avoid me having to be in the middle. Needless to say this was a fantastic offer from SuperPro/Fulcrum so I booked it in as soon as I could at WA Suspension and took the day off work.

Rocked up at about 20 past 8 today (Friday) and they got the job under way. I plugged in my laptop and jumped on the forums (tragic) to pass the time. Was expecting to be eating lunch there (they offered use of the microwave too ) but it only took them about 2.5 hours to get it installed! They said it was very well behaved so was able to come out without having to remove the whole rear. Not having the solid outer shell on the bush (like stock ones) helped also as they could just pop the old one out and hammer the new one in. Normally a 4 hour job minimum.

New bush installed, red grease is faster:

From what they could see there was nothing out of the ordinary aside from the split bush, which wasn't actually split all the way through like it appeared while I was under the car:

Drove the car away and it finally felt less clunky! Smoother gear changes and on/off power, especially noticeable at low speed. Not sure if that’s all down to the new bush being the comfort style or not, could be the case as it was pretty noisy from the get go with the solid style. I do have other worn bits that would contribute I’m sure – car is over 170,000km old now…

Speaking of which my DBA4000’s are travelling very nicely but due to retire soon. They were fitted when I had about 80,000km on the car according to my pic archives. While chasing an old suspension squeak this evening I took a look at the rotors and they are just about done now. Pads are newish Remsas so no probs there.

Rotors have lost about one mm each side, and according to DBA website they start with 28mm thickness and have minimum of 26. I was hoping to get my micrometer on but it ends at 25mm and can’t open wide enough anyway to get on the rotors with the lip on the edge (28mm). Here’s a pic though it’s hard to see depth in the curved slots I must admit. It was at this time I realised I had no wire brush handy :/

So that’s almost 100,000km on these babies. In the immortal words of Trent, “that’s heeeeaps sick ay!”. They have seen off a full set of Bendix GCT pads from day one, then a set of QFM-HPX. These Remsas are the third set (unless I forgot one) and are looking like they will be the victor. Very happy with the performance of the rotors. Have done a fair amount of threshold braking on them. Highway driving is a big factor of course, I also try to engine brake where reasonable (rev matching auto 3 to 2 is fun plus I like the burble of the Manta 2x2.5" system) and avoid sitting on the stop pedal while stationary to avoid cracking/warping.

Keen to grab the new DBA extra cool wiper slot style! Have seen them on cruises, think it was Murdok's FG, look mint.

Oh I also cleaned the crossover and plastics in the engine bay for pretty much the first time last month Had a rough idle so cleaned throttle body/lubed boost solenoid as usual. This requires taking off the piping anyway so gave it a spray with degreaser (outside only on crossover, paranoid about flakes of paint coming off inside and going into turbo, candidate for sandblasting) and hosed off, let sit to dry while I cleaned throttle butterfly and surrounds.

Nothing too special to look at but wayyy better than it was trust me. I don't think it's ever been degreased and hosed properly since I bought it with 37,000km!

Here's what 170 thousand looks like on the factory wheel and shifter (before and after cleaning):

Yes that last pic is after cleaning. Lots of the leather surface has worn off unfortunately. I'd have thought the shifter would last longer but I clearly rest my sweaty mitts on it too much, a downside of driving in sequential mode so much.

Have read on here recently that Armor All actually speeds up cracking of dash materials (!), so that bottle is now serving only as a "door" to hold the garage opener/chewing gum on the shelf under take off! It did leave some white spots on the dash when I let too much sit puddled on it ages ago... damn it.

Anyway update is way longer than anticipated so let's wrap this up. Headed to XFT for a checkup last week and Simon confirmed my long held suspicion that the stock valve springs are dying/dead. In his words "valve springs are f*cked" hahaha. Got a nice new dyno printout on his Mainline and gained 5rwkw it seems :

Luckily I bought some Nizpro valve springs ages ago for bugger all off the forum so those can go in. Not a DIY job though so have to budget for it. Buying property sucks $$$!

Oh I almost forgot - Simon advised some timing was being pulled twice during the run due to knock. Suggested replacing external filter (due anyway) as well as intank fuel pump which is a Walbro GSS294. Almost 2 years/70,000km old now. Might give it a go with aid of someone who knows what they are doing

Edited 03/08/12 04:05 PM by -SteveR-

[tab]

So was it the new diff bush made from love-of-pat or the clean shifter that gave the extra killerwasps?

Awesome update

[Ralph Wiggum]

Awesome update Steve. Any plans to paint the car in the near future?

[discostig]

:-P Always liked seduce on the bf's!

I definitely think the extra wasps are from the red grease.