317Rwkw - Stock Injectors - Now at 360rwkw

[Tobey]

Had some drama with the clutch about a week after it was installed, it left me stranded in Canberra.

The pressure plate had come away from the flywheel and was left with one bolt holding it on. The fywheel had also come away from the crank in much the same way.

The quoted for specs for the Pressure Plate bolts evidently weren't enough. At the end of the day it came down to it wasnt installed by myself properly. After all the drama, it would have been quicker and easier to have a pro sort it in the first place. Gentech in Canberra had it all sorted in about 3 hours. Although there was some issues with them not bleeding the clutch correctly, overall it was a decent job.

The pedal feel of the clutch seems to be much like the standard clutch now, I'm not really sure why it felt so light to begin with, but now it is back to being quite heavy.

The lighter flywheel has also made a noticeable difference in drivability, it has to be revved more to stop it from stalling and to ensure a smooth take off, otherwise it sort of jerks about. It also makes hill-starts and general manoeuvring a bit more difficult, but nothing over the top.

Overall the clutch is good, I have noticed a bit of shuddering at very slow rpm/speed when taking off occasionally, but I dont think there is any way of eliminating this with any clutch.

Bit of an update to some other work, done a bit over the last month, mainly to the suspension.

Its now running on Bilsteins all round, also found that I'm running new leaves with reverse eyes - I assume they are from Pedders like the front coils.

We did the front lower control arm bushes to get rid of it chewing the front tyres. They were pretty much shot, and were VERY soft.

This was a very tedious job as the control arms wont fit in your conventional press due to their shape, so after making up a range of different tooling, we finally got them into the arms. This is a job I would suggest leaving to a suspension place due to specialised tooling needed to get the job done. I made sure plenty of grease went onto the bushins and they are quite as.

After doing this the steering is much more sharp and precise, the dive under braking has all but gone and the body roll has also reduced.

The rear has also been done completely in Superpro bushes, this included front eye, rear eyes and saddle pads. However they are a bit noisy at the moment and need to be pulled apart to be re-greased. The NVH has dramatically increased because of these bushes and road noise is very evident compared to before.

Have also chucked on a 27mm Whiteline sway bar so help with the roll.

Overall, this has made a huge improvement to the handling.

The front tyres are now letting it down, the KU31's have a very noticeably soft sidewall and contribute a lot to roll around corners, they also arent up to the added pressure that the sway bar has put onto them. Unsure as to what I'm going to go with at the moment, probably something from the Bridgestone range or maybe the Nitto Invo's.

Also on the cards is a battery relocation to behind the seats to get rid of some of the weight on the right side as well as so far over the front axle.

A full stereo consisting of Hertz 6.5" splits, Response 4x100RMS amp and some sub that I havent decided on will also go in, but I'm struggling to find time at the moment to get all of this done, but it will eventually get done.

Last week it got a Diff fluid change over to some Penrite GO80 I think it was. This made a big difference to some of the noises it was making!

I've also purchased MGO70 to chuck in the T56, this is the only Gear oil besides mainlube that is suitable for the box. The Dex III that they are recommended to take is too thin and the noise is driving me nuts. This should be done in the next couple of weeks.

There probably wont be a lot more happening until the new year. Over the xmas break we have a 3200KM drive down to GOR and Mt Gambier, should be a great trip.

It got out to eastern creek a few weeks ago, managed 8 runs.

They ranged from 13.2 to a PB of 12.9

The MPH ranged from 115 on the slower ET's and 113 on the 12.9.

Being severely let down by the 60ft, the best being 2.19, most of them being 2.2. This will come with a bit more practice in getting off the line without slipping the clutch too much and also not bogging down. Wheel spin was non existant in most runs, only one where I had an issue during the burnout. Cant complain about the NT05's at all.

I plan to also get into a bit of track work in the new year, so I'm on the lookout for a pair of WRX seats to chuck in when doing track days as the Ford sports leather being very comfortable is pretty sh*t for going around corners and should help me keep two hands on the wheel rather than having to brace myself.

[The Godfather]

any updates on this? what times did you run champ?