Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

Not a lot to add at the moment, but hopefully when school is back on I can have a few days of interruption free time to do a bit more involved jobs on the car like the exhaust tweaks, get the auto out and sell it on, rear brakes, got all the stuff except the bleed nipples and pads (still waiting on pads to deliver, ordered some 6 months ago).

But I did manage to get a cat sorted for the exhaust, flanges welded on by my old work mates in Bendigo. The plan is to grid off the flange and 2-1/4 section off the y pipe and rejig it to 2-1/2 with the primary goal of dropping the y pipe by 10mm while retaining the current position from the cat back. There is little clearance on the 2-1 collector on the y pipe to one spot on the floor, a 10mm more will do nicely!

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The other thing I got done is I had a PS rack input housing modded for more header clearance. There is usually only 8-10mm of clearance and always witness marks from that one cap head screw that the pacemakers always hit under high loads and/or saggy mounts. This mod of recessing the screw down 4mm and then using a low profile cap head gains another 2mm, so there is at least 5-6mm extra gained. So overall there should be about a min of 15mm which I am much more happy with. I think this is a mod worth doing on all cars going forward.

There's a pic of the other side that doesn't need clearance as a comparison to the clearanced side.

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[OZ38]

The Power Steering Rack housing sitting on the V6 T5 Input Shaft cover reminded me to ask, have you heard from the shop making the steel V6 T5 covers for you yet ?

Cheers Deek

[vlad01]

Not yet, I believe they only went back on 20th and I think they said another 2 weeks from when they get back, so I assume the end of this month.

Speaking about input shafts, my one only "good" shaft I have has a lot of pitting in the spigot end from sitting around with the previous owner that I've cleaned out but I am worried it might eat into the spigot bush with time, so I am thinking that since the VR is probably going to end up gutted this year, maybe I should just take the plunge and raid that out of the VR and have a perfectly built T5 since this will be my daily for god knows how many years or decades. That T5 was reco'd from a donor car with 190k that was all factory. Not random T5 conversions bits sitting in someones yard, car was still in rego when I bought it.

Might change the rad over too from the VR one which is a custom PWR one I designed and had them make, solves the issues of the cheap plastic hose fittings having basically no barb and the hoses coming off when driving, also the wonky rad cap neck that often leaks due to them literally being wonky and out of shape out of the box, so the top cap seal can't seat properly. My rads all fixed those issues.

[vlad01]

Started working on the Y pipe. I found that with the ball/cup coupling up front that I could easily adjust the angle of the Y pipe and get the floor clearance I wanted, but to do that, I need to redo the end piece and flange as mentioned.

So I am in the process of that now. Carefully ate away at the well to preserve the collector as much as I could. But the way Pacemaker make them though, they appear to grind the end in what looks like some machine akin to a giant pencil sharpener to prep the collector to slip into what they call cone over collector design. So I docked the end off near/on the weld and with the help of my mechanic and his exhaust hydraulic tool station he stretched out the bit of 2.5 and with a few tricks managed to get a bit of a taper from the same machine.

Then I went to the press and slowly massaged it into a oval since that was the exit shape of the collector. Very pleased how it turned out from an idea I felt was lofty at best, but hear we are!

Some minor tidy up and massaging to get it spot on, but it's 90% there and swivels enough that I reckon it will allow the drop I need and also upgrades to the 2.5 from the 2.25 that it was. After I get that welded, and then sort the header clearance for the primary mini flange around the clutch fork cover by grinding a little off the flange itself and mill the bell housing brace to add clearance there too, a linish to help remove some of the heavier rust and smooth out the pitting, it's off to HPC. These headers have done less Ks and half the age of the red cars ones, and the diff in deterioration between plain and HPC is astounding, none for the HPC while these are getting pretty rusty inside and out now and they have seen barely any use, they were brand new!

I am mainly doing it for thermal management as that makes a huge reduction in IR emission, but the deterioration is something I want to slow down after now seeing what a massive improvement HPC makes for the life of the headers.

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[vlad01]

Rest of the pics.

Pretty snug fit, but like I mentioned, I can tweak it a bit more and tidy it up with a drill flappy sanding attachment and a file. Some work with a panel hammer and dollies will get the shape a bit better. The collector is oval but not completely symmetrical.

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[vlad01]

Took a few goes and careful trimming, adjusting and filing but ended up with a good result! Just needs the final welding to be done and I'll put it all aside for HPC coating not too far in the future.

Got that min 20mm clearance at the tightest spot was more like 8mm when I started I reckon. Interestingly, the shitbox was already at 20mm but the pacemakers on that looks to have the y pipe assembled more logically, but that one predates 2009, I bought it used that year with no known history, so likely much older than that.

I had the exact same issue with the one on the VR from 2014, same mod was needed back then. No such issue on the shitbox. So I guess pacemaker jigged them a bit off from that time onward it would seem.

Brake pads are in the post, ordered them in July or there abouts, so timed well with all the rear end brake bits I bought a few weeks ago from Hoppers stoppers.

Since I have the exhaust mostly removed, I feel like the next step is the auto removal. Anyone interested in buying it? Fully built and beefed up for 700 ~ 800hp iirc.

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[vlad01]

Exhaust is all welded up, took the guy like 30 sec to do that. Just makes be realise even more that welding was never going to be a thing for me. I quit at the right time before I wasted anymore time, money and frustration.

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Also wire wheeled the cat welds and gave it a spray of exhaust paint, just to hold back the rust.

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I started on draining the auto, rather than making a huge mess and then trying to get a new gasket, especially that this one has the deep pan upgrade that holds another 4L, I bought some PVC hose for about 4 bucks from the local hardware, I should have measured what size though, as I guessed on the safe side to make sure it fits down the dipstick tube, but I could have gone at least another size up.

It took 12 hours to siphon out! 8L worth.

But at least there wasn't anything I needed to do other than change out the container every few hours, minimal effort, but get a bigger hose if you are in a hurry. But now when I go to drop the auto out, the necessary removal of the dipstick tube isn't going to result in a fountain of many L of ATF suddenly appearing!

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[vlad01]

While I was tinkering getting the auto drained, I also drained the PS as the pump had been leaking since I got the car.

I had the thought, hmmm should I replace the high pressure hose while I am at it? Since we had one burst sideways on the shitbox years ago, it sprayed the header with a jet of ATF every time you tuned the wheel, nearly setting the car alight, not sure how it didn't.

So that is ingrained into my brain as a potential bad safety issue if the hoses are too old.

But being low K, I thought, maybe not? Should be ok?

Well... after pulling the PS pump apart and seeing these O rings were brittle like dried up cheese, I knew the whole lot was heat affected so likely a matter of time before a hose leaks or bursts!

Luckily I stocked up on a few new ones years ago, so I got a supply. I think they were near impossible to get at the time, and when the opportunity came up for someone having stock of a bunch of these hoses, I bought like 3 I think. Pulled one out of storage and have it aside for when the rack comes out for the rebuild and modded housing swap.

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Cleaned the whole pump up and inspected everything, it all looked pretty decent and I recall it was a good pump, no shudder on steering. Cam ring confirmed it was a good unit with low wear. Fluid was dark and stinky (heat/oxidation) but no metallic look, actually first time I have seen PS used fluid free of a metallic look which is a good sign it's not too far gone.

All new genuine seals/o rings. Primer, and VHT.

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Also my pads finally arrived too, I can't recall if I mentioned that Hopper's stoppers supplied me with all the hoses and rebuild parts for the rear or not, but I got all the stuff to at least do the rear brakes completely. I have stock of the handbrake shoes that work good on the shelf, so might as well use them and clear the shelves as much as I can.

Funny thing is that Forza have started selling in Aus again via a dedicated Aus ebay store and now stock most of the pads I wanted previously, it's always the way! But they still don't stock front VT ones, GSL/Brakes Direct also never had them in stock either, but they did list the VT ones, but in the 2 years of keeping an eye out for them, not once were they ever stocked. Seems strange as VT upgrade is the most common for these cars and it seems odd to sell such performance pads for stock brakes, and not the common upgrade, not to mention the fact there are a ton VT-VY still out there relatively speaking.

But next time I suppose I can ask them if VT are ever on the list to be made and stocked, they do the full set for stock VB-VS calipers though.

They have been by far the best pads I've used all round. I got these Intima pads for the reason they are said to be very similar, but they use a different compound compared to the Forza ones. So I really hope they are not worse in any deal breaking way. Green fade is what I now know is the name for what nearly all other brands I used had very bad, DBA ones were permanent and I couldn't re-bed them, so I think the compound just degraded for too much heat too fast. The Forza pads do not have green fade and do not appear to have any issues with not following a bed in procedure. The Intima must follow a bed in which is very specific when I read the instructions and what the disk should look like after that is successful.

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[vlad01]

Few more updates. Been busy on the cars and had some real progress for a change.

Pedals are finished. Pulled the column out to install them.

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Pulled the console out and eventually the auto floor plate and shifter.

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Over the next week the auto came out, headers too and bunch of other stuff. Rack out makes the headers so much easier to work with, totally worth the effort.

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[vlad01]

Started checking over the headers and the Y pipe fitment with a mock t5 in there, just empty cases so it was light and easy to fit up.

Y pipe is pretty damn good. Miles of room around the gearbox and the cross member, it literally touches the cross member on the VR and the floor. So these fit awesome so far.

I am looking into forming counter dies or moulds for sections of the header and maybe the driver side of the Y pipe to press flat spots into the pipes for extra clearance.

My idea was resin and sand, but a test piece showed that it was far too weak, so I am going to try roof/brick mortar, with and without sand inside the pipe, I assume with sand will be better, but I have got about 4 test pieces of pipe to play with before committing to the real thing.

The idea of the die is a counter to the press, so that the flattening is selective and doesn't bend the pipe overall or flatten it out or both sides, I only want one spot to have a neat clearance flat.


There are 3 spots I have in mind. One just above the rear large adjusting nut on the rack, the small separate runner that is next to the chassis rail, and possibly the Y pipe driver side next to a support rail, it doesn't touch on any of my other cars with the same headers, but it's awfully close looking at it.

The previous two spots are actually the widest on these out of all the other cars I have, but they always hit there under hard driving, only just though, by a mm or two.

So I plan to press them in by 5mm.


The last mod is to have the flange deleted on that detachable runner. The flange has negative clearance with the clutch fork cover, where as on the other cars, they are only 1-3mm away, on the shitbox it just touches and burns the plastic a little.

So with the rack removed, I found that it's a breeze to install the header assembled with that detachable pipe, so the detachment is not actually needed. And since Pacemaker say in the installation to remove the rack, the flange is actually moot, even with it detracted and the rack in place, you still can't get the other main bit in, so either way, the flange is useless. So having it remove and the pipe welded together.

That way the fork cover has good room and easily removed/installed in situ. No burning either! so it will be a nice win to make that mod.

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I also started to strip out the drive line and bits I want to keep from the VR to prepare the car for sale as a roller.

The shitbox needs a new exhaust, it's falling apart and also a new tailshaft as it's unis are starting to ping on decel/accel changes. But I will need to have this one changed back to factory phasing and a re-balance. In another thread I mentioned that I found the likely cause of the VR and the red VP to get a violet shaking when driving in certain acceleration and hill and turning combos to be a result of zero phase angle.

So a good opportunity to re-phase it back, if the shaking doesn't occur, then I 100% know it was the zero phase that causes it.

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