Bellato

Haven't updated in a while because not much good has happened. So I got back from Europe in November to notice my car wasn't quite what I remembered. I replaced all the basic things like plugs, fuel filter etc but still wasn't right. Did some datalogging to notice boost was down to about 12.5psi from 17psi. Ended up playing around with a spare gate that a mate had and found issues with the gate, so got around on my mates gate on gate pressure for a while whilst I sent my gate away for warranty work. Once the gate was sorted and back on the car I decided to throw in a set of valve springs and put the nugget on e85. The day before I went to take the car up I had a horrible ticking noise come from the timing case, which my first thought was snapped guide. Got a lend of a mates ute and another mates trailer and took the car up to Sydney. To my relief it was just the drive belt tensioner, but then the next problem was the valve springs I got from a mate were at about 125lb seat pressure which is way beyond the 80lb I thought they were, so had to bit the bullet and fork out for a new set of springs. The car was tuned on e85 but only for me to pick it up with it again not feeling right. So spent another month playing around with gates and solenoids to no avail, so took it back up to cms on Monday and had it retuned. No idea what happened but it was down on power so jammed a bit more boost into it. Ended up with 405rwkw and 1030nm at 22psi dropping to 18psi. Doesn't quite make full boost as early as I would like but Joe told me its the gate setup, so might put 17psi of springs into it to try hold it closed a bit longer and pick up a couple hundred rpm of spool. Also the intank pump is starting to struggle and we have injector duty cycle a bit high for our liking but richened it up in the top end to stop any risk of leaning out. Either way its great to finally have the car making what I wanted after such a long time!

Car hit the rollers today (after a lot of other issues) and tuner is putting in the same amount of duty cycle as last tune (with the original faulty gate) but now we have even more problems, with 100% duty cycle it won't hold boost, its dropping back off to 14psi. So now I'm going to have to pay the tuner to take the gate off and test it and then if its the problem, figure out what to do. Haven't had the car running properly since June and starting to get over it now

Update. Gate went back on friday night with the new springs in it. Datalogging shows it holds approximately 15psi (running gate pressure). Should be 14psi but being new springs it could be that they need a heatcycle to settle, but either way will be commanding 17psi so not an issue. Car goes in for retune next weekend and will get it back a couple weeks later. WIll see how much duty cycle was in it before and how much will be in the new tune. Either way hope the problem is solved now

600rwkw zf is about $6k, tailshaft $1400 and converter $1500 so $9k or so. Around about $10kish drive in and out for glide/th400

I think you'll find Bluepowers dyno is slightly on the happy side anyway. Doesn't mean the guys don't know how to tune though. I would say fuel pump and that dump you sourced would go a long way to making another 15rwkw or so. But honestly don't waste your time going 20kw, and 20 there. I would go fuel pump, full exhaust and port and flapper mod with e85 and see 340ish. That's about the limits of the catback, turbo and cooler. To get to 400 will be a decent jump $$ wise

Yea hmmm was my thoughts aswell.. Will get it back early next week, put it on that weekend then following weekend it goes away for a retune. Will know soon as it goes on the car if its still stuffed, if it works all good then won't know if anything goes wrong until its retuned.

So just an update. Will be getting new springs and that's it, not a new gate.. Apparently turbosmart think there's nothing wrong with the gate, just the springs. Guessing I'll just have to give this a go and see what happens.. Won't get it back until the new year though. Hopefully this fixes the problem because already have to fork out for a new tune and don't want to have to do the same again in a few months time

That's true, might do a quick check on a few of them to see how they've held up. I figure sitting for a while wouldn't really be an issue but always good to check with those who know

Hey guys, Got a mate that blew his motor up about a year ago and has no plans to rebuild it any time soon so offered to give me the valve springs to put in my car, my only concern is could there be any problems with them having sat in the head without moving for the last year? I would imagine being loaded up the whole times isn't an issue as they would be normally, just not sure if the lack of movement would affect them at all? They only did about 3,000kms. Going to be making about 20psi with them (or at least that's the plan). Yes I know buying new would be safest but I have to get a retune because of some other issues and while I'm there was going to put it on e85 and need valve springs to get the most of it and can't really afford the extra $400 or so for springs at the moment.

Yea brand new, couldn't tell if it has been pulled apart or not. I think that the diaphragm never properly sealed from the start which would explain why there is too much duty cycle in the tune. Either that or its a fake gate as you said. Will be making a call at lunch tomorrow to follow it up. Realistically though I can't see me getting a replacement gate before the new year

Workshop.

Turbosmart 45mm hypergate. Gate is getting posted back to the supplier tomorrow, expecting a new gate in return as it appears to be a faulty or fake gate

Thanks for the help so far guys. Tried a new solenoid today to no avail. However, put a brand new gate on it and things changed dramatically. Running the new gate bypassing the solenoid made it run perfectly on 14psi gate pressure (I forgot to try the previous wastegate with bypassing the solenoid to see). Then hooked it up properly to the solenoid and it was making over 20psi and so pulled out, this is at about 40% throttle. My mate was thinking that the original gate might not have a 14psi spring so my tuner used the duty cycle to try get 16.5psi out of it. Pulled apart the gate and found that the outer spring doesn't match any of the outer springs Turbosmart seller so thinking potentially a fake gate or the retailer has put a different brand spring in it. The seal on the diaphragm is also not sealing correct and has crease where it has popped off in the past. The gate has also gone completely bronze (was black) and now sure if its been overheated in its current location or they all do that? So next step is to ring the retailer in the morning and find out what would be the go with warranty and go from there

Won't bypassing the solenoid just make it run gate pressure? Nope never did so I cant compare what the previous tune looked like on my data logger. The only reason I data logged at the moment is cause I raced a car I can mormally keep up with and got chopped big time, plus it barely spins first now and use to be able to roll on in 2nd and just bake tyres

I've noticed the last couple of weeks my car won't make the full 16.5psi its tuned to but only makes 13.5 when data logging it. It's a constant boost level right through the rev range, like its only making gate pressure (14psi external gate). I recently went over everything, service, plugs, fuel filter, fresh tank of fuel with injector cleaner run through, new vacuum line to the gate. I think its probably a wastegate or boost solenoid issue but without replacing them im not sure. Anyone have any ideas? My tuner is in Sydney and Im in Canberra so just trying to check everything before I go up and have them look at it Cheers

A mate ran westalkes on his supercharged ls with mid 400's and they were pretty rubbish. Nt05 and nt01 work a whole lot better. Obviously need to pay more though

If you never want to have to worry about it happening again then give these a crack http://www.driveshaftshop.com/domestic-axles/ford/ford-2008-falcon-1400hp-full-chromoly-level-5-axle-hub-kit-supercharged-v8-and-turbo-6

I bought the SU1's as my most recent set on the rears. Almost 20,000kms so far with the occasional skit, in Canberra winter they would spin in 2nd with 340rwkw but now that its warmed up 2nd hooks up pretty well.Definitely worth a try I think. I only paid $220 each for 275/30/20 if I remember right I just put a new set of ATR2 on the front. Achilles seem to have revised the design, previously it was quite narrow a tyre whereas now there is much more of a bulge to the sidewall, tread is the same so not sure how they'll go. I got 30,000 on the front with my last set and still had 50% in the middle, just had to change them for camber wear. I was going to go invos and I know they would provide better grip but for an extra $100 each and half the life I couldn't justify it. Plus my driving style isn't hard cornering so don't need that extra turn in

I've looked around but just seeing if there's anymore people out there that have used the k-mac front upper control arm brackets (ratchet style) and if you've had any problems. I currently have stock brackets fully shimmed but still have too much camber and was looking at the kmac brackets for easy adjustment rather than longer bolts in the current brackets. My main concern is being ratchet style how well do they maintain alignment. Cheers

I believe the gtw3884 can be used with factory rear housing but the housing requires machining

Koya's will by far be the easiest to clean. Because the spokes don't go to the lip on the rohana's that makes them a c*** to clean. Takes me about 20 mins to clean my vertini's because of that Koya's also custom choose offset whereas I believe rohana's are set offsets

When cold my revs go up and down about 300rpm when cruising at about 70km/h. Is that what yours was doing? Might have to give my zf another service if that's the case...

You would be changing a dual pump external surge to go the KPM yea Veva? Why the change?

If you're on facebook mate try 'club fg' or 'forced 6 community'. a lot of melbourne members on both pages who would be happy to help

380rwkw with just a cat is a bloody good effort!