SIMBAD

I did look at those as the gauge holder is a top end audio product. Though when I dug deeper researching and looking for reviews I did find a few people having issues with them not working as they should. peak recall is a nice feature but if the car lunches itself the peak recall isn’t going to stop it from happening anyway. I think the prosport ones do similar and you can adjust the high limits so the led light/chaser lights will change colour when breaching high limit from say white to amber or red. I think I still favour the sport comp(2) and pro comp ultra lights at the moment

I’d love to be able to go on the run and meet you blokes but unfortunately I am rostered on to work night shifts that weekend. Depending on what time you guys roll in I might be able to catch you for a little bit before I’ll need to take off and get ready to leave for work at 6pm

Im pretty sure that’s the difference between the sport comp and sport comp2 gauges. There’s no difference in price. Just the 2s use led illumination. I think I was leaning towards the normal sport comps as they had metric measurement for temperature and full sweep where as the 2s was in Fahrenheit. I’ll have to dig deeper again on their website using a computer rather then the phone. Website plays up a bit on the phone and won’t load. Interested on your thoughts on using water temp? Is the factory gauge not reliable? Didn’t think they’d be like the old toyotas where they’d be reading normal from cold to running temp, then up to a point when getting pushed would then, when getting hotter would just shoot up into the red once a certain temp was reached? no longer giving movement in the dial to actually know how hot was too hot before boiling out?

Fitted up the bluewire auto pilot light for the trans cooler fan. Thinking I probably should of got the black ones they have but ah well. I had intentions to mount to the icc facia but here was much quicker and easier.. maybe the override switch should be mounted underneath the pilot light but where it is now isn’t in the way plus there’s a hole now if I decide to move it. Also receive this in the mail. Found brand new un used delivered for $120.. I was thinking of just using autometer sportcomp instead of the sportcomp2 as they have led and might be too bright at night time. Though I remember seeing a thread somewhere about being able to dim them with the dash lights somewhere using a transistor and resistors so if I find that I might study up on it some more and see if it blows over the top of me or not. Will be going with vac/boost for one of them but undecided on what to use in the other spots. Oil pressure or temperature and maybe voltage to know the alternator is supplying enough for the fuel pump to be happy. Other options for gauges I’ve looked at is AEM and innovate but they are pretty expensive a don’t want a boost guage that goes to 35psi. Innovate might be better as they go to 30 iirc. I just don’t intend on running over 20 on the stock motor on 98. another I looked at is the prosport range which look nice but being so cheap for electronic gauges has me weary. Otherwise I’m open to suggestions on decent gauges that are only going to be used as quick references

From my experience none of what you mentioned will be affected, with the exception of the power steering. When driving and taking corners the car feels slightly stiffer. In fact it actually feels like you have more feel of the road and your driver input feels truer if that makes any sense. The less load it takes to spin the ancillaries make the motor feel a little more snappy and would no doubt help somewhat with fuel economy. I also found that the water feed rate though the radiator is slowed down which gave a little better heat transfer.

Cheers for your feedback mate. Appreciate it 👌🏼 If you want to pm me on details and prices of your housings that’d be sweet thanks jet

If I were you I’d just install a high flow catalytic converter. 100cpi is commonly used but I see Aeroflow have a 50cpi one now. Then I’d make a cold air intake box and use a K&n pod filter. Look at the turboside intakes and how they are made (But installed in stock location) or even Bluepower racing developments to give you an idea on how they look. (To see if you could potentially make one yourself) then lastly a powerbond under Drive kit. thise are the most common things to do on the naturally aspirated v8s with the exception of full straight through exhaust and extractors but just doing the cat will improve the exhaust flow way more then extractors and exhaust would. then lastly when you are in the position to do so is to have the car tuned to tie in all the mods together I get maximum effect

Fixed up the coolant line with 3/4id silicone hose and installed a -12an support spring to stop the kinks. Also I installed a DCI performance products “T6 therma sheild” on the oil feed line to the turbo. Finished off the oil line brackets for the trans cooler and got the fan wired up. Just waiting on a warning light to come from bluewire automotive solutions then that will be complete. double tripple checked over everything to make sure I’ve got no leaks as well as installed a new motor craft fuel filter. Cleaned the barrels in the wheels and mounted them up and dropped the car down and went for a little drive. have found that when turning right the exhaust must be slightly touching the diff cradle so I’ll have to see when I can do about that. Next thing I think I’ll tackle will be valve springs and some guages and track down a good exhaust housing to do the flapper mod on. Thinking of going crow 1808-24 and reusing the factory retainers and locks. I doubt I’ll be pushing any more than 20psi and if I were to use the crow retainers I believe they are a little thicker and will increase the valve spring pressure. Which I don’t think I’ll need for my boost levels. I think that way the followers want be so hard on the cam lobes, less stress on timing chain and guides plus I’ve also read that there’s sometimes clearance issues which I’d like to avoid with the followers and retainers? Im open to suggestions if anyone wants to help us out here. Cheers 🍻

Cheers! Definitely get a good sense of satisfaction doing it yourself that’s for sure. but once I finish this project I really need to finish off my yard so I can build my shed with a HOIST! haha It’s pretty cramped working out of the garage. Not a lot of space in there and has been frustrating going backwards and forwards to my mums place where a lot of my tools and other belongings still live

Few more follow up pics I took this morning now I’m home from work. Brings everything back up to where I am up to today I think. Also I forgot to mention that I used about 19L of trans fluid completing the flush and fill. When I dropped the oil the 3rd time it was mostly clear and probably didn’t need to completely drop it all out again. But did so anyway and did the final fill following ZFs instructions watching the temps. Also done a big flush of the cooling system with demin water. I brought home 80L of it from work. Cooler with lines attached better picks of lines attached to the zf bit closer to the thermo switch and change to hard line. Spacers for Intercooler oil feed line filter mounting. Might revisit this again in the future and rub it down some with scotchbrite and round off the corners or maybe paint. turbo side intake and I almost forgot about the new water pump. When I topped up the coolant I noticed a leak started from the back side of the pump where the hard pipe connects sealing with a o-ring. I must have disturbed it somehow along the way and just decided to stick a new pump in as again I didn’t know the state it was in. So now I know it’s new job for this weekend is to install brackets for the hard lines to the oil cooler, wire up the fan and fix up the coolant line under the intake manifold where I deleted the oil cooler. The hose I bent back up has a kink that I want to fix up. it hasn’t stopped the flow but I’m not happy leaving it like that. Dump the demin water again and top back up with more demin water and coolant concentrate. Need to do a shopping list on fittings etc for the fuel system. Fpr1200 or maybe the gfb drop in. -6 supply and return lines. What fuel pump(s) to go with. And also what valve springs to go for. Also going to need to revisit the oil catch can. Been looking at the 3L Aeroflow one but it’s physical size is quite tall so may mount where the old milkshake maker was. Then deal with a big long line going back to the intake. More thought processing will be going on in that area. Also need to work or what to do for gauges as well. Thinking autometer sport comp but also been looking at the AEM line up with thoughts of maybe learning to road tune myself then touch up on the dyno further down the track. So there is still quite a fair bit for me to do and plenty of overtime shift I’ll have to say yes to.. sigh

Another thing that was on the much needed to do list was service diff oil and the ZF. I didn’t know when the diff was last done so took the opportunity to do that while it was still on the ground. Final fitting up of the exhaust pic. My ZF had a plastic pan on it so ordered the bmw steel one with new filter, gasket, bolts and mechatronic sleeve. Mine wasn’t leaking but thought it was necessary to do anyways. Also went the gulf western route. As much as I’d love to use the lifeguard 6. That stuff is pretty bloody expensive considering I was also wanting to do a full flush as Pete (mums partner) had never serviced the gearbox when he owned the car for something like 9 years. Also ordered a external oil cooler, hardline, Teflon braid hose and associated fittings to get the job done for a bit more added piece of mind. Dropped old oil out and ripped out the milkshake maker. Was pretty bloody dark! derale atomic cool made some brackets out of aluminium flat bar and whipped out the nursert gun again to go into a hole that was already in the chassis. blocks of wood and cable ties was my tube straightener lol Bent up the 1/2” hard lines and fitted the -8an fittings. Fitted up the trans fittings with the -8an 200 hose and fittings as well as the fan thermo switch.

Next up is the drive line. Diff bushes were in desperate need of attention when I first bought the car so it was well over due. I had been putting it off for so long obvious reasons.. measure the diff outrigger for diff alignment. Bushes: out with the old. In with the new. while I was mucking around under the car I swapped the cat back exhaust section for the xforce “3.5” The hangers on the exhaust were modified to fit into a e series so had to chop them off and dummy fit and reeled back on. Didn’t remember to get pics of that but managed one of the exhaust tip. The dump tip was drilled each side and was bolted on. So I cleaned that up and welded it on properly. You might be able to see in the above pic where the exhaust(s) are laying next to the GT-P with all the soot around the muffler. I had also cut the flange off the standard cat and welded a 3.5” flange and reducer on to the 3” section of the standard dump/cat pipe. I left did it this way for the moment leaving the 4” dump and high flow cat until I’m ready to get the car tuned. As I’m still going to need to do the flap mod, some manifold porting, fuel system and valve springs. Timing set and oil pump will also need doing but I think I’ll need to get the tune done first anyway because of the turbo change. Will just have to baby it around off boost until then.

Also fitted up a temporary oil catch can to try and keep the Intercooler clean for the time being. Also used the same mother in trimming down the 4” silicone joiner for the turbo side Intake. Bashed in one of these after sticking it in the freezer and just used some push lock hose and couple fittings. I will be coming back to this later with weld on fittings before tuning as I don’t really like how they reduce the breather bore size.

Next up I thought I’d get onto the next bit and fit up the Jonny tig kit. off with the front bar and start seeing what’s what. removed all the stock pipework and eyeballed how much of the lip needed cutting out of the bar. Installed a couple nutserts bent up the aircon gas line Whallah! Was a little gap here but have since put a spacer in to bolt down better. Haven’t got a picture on my phone just now to show what I did exactly. Will fix up today. Started on the cold side pipes, battery relocation and welded the BOV v band flange. Used some more nutserts for the battery tray. Had a little argument with the 3” 90’ to throttle body. Also had to trim it a little. I found using the hose clamp around the silicone joiner tightened slightly to use as a guide and straight edge for the Stanley knife blade made cutting it easy and neat. Then onto the hot side

That ol chest nut.. This little screen may not look like it was plugged solid. But I couldn’t blow air through it.

Yeah I tried two different sets of ratchet spanners. 1/4” drives with knuckle and extensions and and a while host of ways. I can’t remember what was the best now. either way, bracket didn’t make its way back on. So should be a breeze for next time it comes off

A few weeks had gone by and finally found some time to start hooking in. Everything going smoothly until I encountered a support bracket under the turbo.. was a fair bit of cursing trying to get the bolt out. I swear I spent more time on that one bolt than the whole turbo removal. Probably would of made it easier if I removed the engine mount to get past that top. Makeshift work bench then to work out where to put this nipple felt a bit wrong taking to my new turbo with a drill. drilled and tapped 1/4npt Looking at this gave me a idea that maybe it might be worth while attacking it with a die grinder at a later date when I can look into doing the flap mod. Banged it all back in there because needing to get the car back on the road. while I was underneath the car installing the new oil feed line I heard a little mumble from my little helper saying something about writing. A few moments later I thought I better pop back up after registering what I heard him saying...

Anyways, continuing from last night. After pondering on options and searching high and low for answers. A msg or post from longboost on Facebook stated they will better any price I can find on Garrett turbos plus a host off most of the popular brands people use. I stumbled across a gen 2 gtx3582r supercore for $2199 from Intunes website. I showed craig from longboost a screen shot of the advertised price and he bettered it. But once postage was factored in (~$60) it came in at $2200 anyway. Which I think was still pretty well priced delivered by someone reputable. I spoke to the Mrs some more and laid out a few options for her and she came to the party. Her ideas was it’s better to install a new turbo rather than getting something second hand. Admittedly I didn’t show her a standard Gt3582 cartridge or supercore and she didn’t pick up on the GT and GTX difference. But I told her it’s upgraded internally so won’t have anymore bearing problems 👀. invoice was emailed and she fixed up the bill for me 😬 So she knew about this package coming! My daughter got sent home from daycare the day before with temperature so she got to spend the day with me the next day when after 4 days of freight from qld to southern rural nsw I got a knock on the door. She was happy to help unpack and inspect the package 😁 she got upset when I packed it back up to put away so I think that means she approves. While waiting during the week for the freight I had been tagging the Mrs in memes found on Facebook or Instagram stating “I bought her rings, So she bought me a turbo” so she wanted to take photos of rings and turbo together. Have her some kicks out of it lol

I did think of that also but figured I would still need to tune the car to use it?

Now back at work and on full duties, spent a few months getting back on top of all the bills I thought next up I should look at the oil feed line to the turbo. So went ahead and bought the kit from Aeroflow which I thought was a nice bit of kit. I liked that it uses the 200 series Teflon braid lines. Stainless fittings and no crimp fits and a decent size filter. Also came across what I though was a decent surge tank this time. Brand new and delivered for $250 from Albury from a guy that was going to fit it to his r34. Surge tank info: Also during this time I thought I’d buy a new bov to go with the new Intercooler kit. Went with a turbosmart raceport genV from longboost who have me what I thought was a great price delivered for $350. Probably overkill but meh. I like the way it looked. Then a DAY before I received the oil feed line kit in the mail the turbo started to make a god awful screeching noise at certain engine loads 😑 figured the screeching was from the impeller coming into contact with the compressor housing.. When I bought the car off my mums partner he had the core replaced with a genuine Garrett core around 15k ago (almost 2 years from the little driving he was doing in it) Now this left me in a bit of a debacle. What do I do about the turbo? Send it to get repaired? Buy something else? High mount manifold and new Borg Warner? Bigger turbo? Find a second hand replacement? Chinese turbo? How do I get this one past the Mrs? Fark. more to come.

Been a while since I’ve updated my thread. Not a lot has happened. But here it goes: I’ll start with the ceramic coating. It is holding up exceptionally well. Washing is a breeze just using carpro reset. Stuff smells sweet and cleans the car fantastically. The duragloss does just as good a job but since carpro states that their formula is suited for for their coatings durability etc etc (no surprises there for their marketing) but thought I’d try using it and have found it to be a awesome product. I’ve bought another bottle to use so I don’t run out. Now going back to early December I pulled the trigger on a Intercooler kit. Got sick of trying to find something decent second hand that wasn’t too far away that I could go and pick up and pay with cash I got stuck at looking at Jonny Tigs intercoolers. Went the whole hog and got the turboside and battery relo. But this is where things made me go quiet for quite some time. I managed to snap my distal biceps tendon on my dominant arm at work. Didn’t know it at the time but this lump turned out to be the tendon.. took about 3 weeks to get a proper diagnosis (holiday period) as the initial diagnosis was multiple tears picked up by a ultrasound machine. Went back to doctors with further complaints that my arm just didn’t feel right. After a appointment with another specialist I got ordered to go have a CT scan. results came in the next day while I was back at work being ordered to go in through emergency to have it repaired ASAP as it’s already been longer than they were happy with to do the reattachment surgery and didn’t want to have me being stuffed around any longer with waiting times that could be involved with workers comp. Bicep retracting up my arm: Bolted back together: That whole adventure kept me off work for almost 3 months and on salary continuance which left me with no spare money. Mortgage/bills/daycare costs/living expenses had the back account jammed in a corner with mike Tyson’s prime time left hook going to town on it. Anyways, during that time I received a pretty nice package. The Mrs wasn’t aware of the purchase and was less than pleased. But she got over it (I think). Kids thought it was great though! 😁

WHAT. A. BUILD. THREAD! 🙌🏼 Just finished reading it all and am left in awe! The detail you’ve put into the car and this thread is simply outstanding. Keen to see your finished product and a video of your beast leaving a set of 11s 😬 Inspiring stuff mate. 👌🏼👌🏼

Haven’t been online for a while and just thought I’d check into this thread to see if it was your car I just seen on motives Youtube channel coverage on racewars. I now have confirmation lol. Great stuff! 👌🏼👌🏼

Some comparison pics: and some water beads on the bonnet looked cool the way the sun was shining on the car:

Finally got around to getting much needed window tinting done. Stoked with how it turned out!