VIP GT-BBB

[muzza]

That's epic clutch life Ben, amazing. Looking for an upgrade clutch or just stick with stock for no 2?

I don't take crap from Golfs, any Golf, especially R's, and from a standstill have had a e92/3 M3 neck and neck inS# across an 6 lane intersection - he had to concede as his lane ended. Not sure if it was manual or dsg or whether he could drive it properly....made me anyway.

But I do like their nice exhaust pop on upshifts, need to see if Matt can engineer a little of that into a tune for us Libertarians. IIRC he has mentioned in the past it just requires a bit of fuel injected to ignite in the pipe past the turbo? Not sure.

[bigBADbenny]

Yeah this was a similar concession to lane end scenario, I'm guessing the R driver decided quite late to have a go, trying to get past once on the little straightaway before the merge lane.

I'm a throttle blipper for rev matching and the tune definitely coughs and pops when blipped, more so in S#.
I have to learn to do it on upshifts...

I have Gambits old exedy HD clutch & lightened flywheel, to go in pending refurb/balance from a local clutch specialist.
It was water blasted to remove rust (long story lol) so it may require a new friction disc.
Or just send the lot to Jim Berry for sorting

[muzza]

Yeah, mines an auto so I can't get that throttle blip and snap the throttle shut ( never mind that the pedal and throttle plate are not directly connected except by wire and who know s what the computer is deciding during gear changes..)

I can hear the fuel cut on overrun and during gear changes but mainly when up the revs.

Something to ponder for the future I guess.

Be interesting to see how much difference a lighted FW makes to the engine responsiveness and or evenness. I had a 265 hemi with one years ago and it was sweet.

[bigBADbenny]

I'd love to use a fluidamper to offset the lightened FW but $$$...

[bigBADbenny]

The confidence is awe inspiring, when the chips are down, they're there, keeping shit real.

Yeah I'm loving using google maps to document all my fave bits of local twistery

[alex]

I had the pleasure of being driven around in the BBB wagon. Originally I was going to swing past Benny's place to feel what the shockworks coilovers felt like, but Ben ended up driving out to Mount Waverley and we spent about 2 hours talking about how awesome wagons are and driving around trying to find some shitty pavement to test out Ben's suspension.

I have to say I was pretty pleased with the shockworks, they are by far the best coilovers I've ever felt. You get all the advantage of sticking flat to the road and a sharper than normal turn in, but they handle crap roads and speedbumps without breaking your back or bum. They are a little stiffer than stock billies, so I'll probably do some other mods before I jump into shockworks (my car is very daily driven, and my house has minumum 3 speed bumps in every direction to get to the main road) but when I look at upgrading suspension they are work every dollar.

Ben's exhaust is probably what caught my attention most though. I'm currently running a full 3 inch TBE with a muffler a 100 cell cat and a resonator, but with stock mufflers. I'm enjoying the stealthy note (as quiet as stock) but wouldn't mind a nicer note when im giving it a push (I tend to putter around most of the time below 3 grand). So I am currently hunting down a set of the wrx widebody quad tip mufflers to see how they sound. Ben's car is just the perfect amount of quiet at idle but nice note when being pushed, not too loud, but enough to get noticed, I'll be interested to see how my exhaust sounds with the wrx tips.

Also very impressed with Ben's stock gps unit showing his bssm connection, as well as being able to check for timing degrees right there on the screen! Also very tempted to get my hands on a pair of the prefacelift seats, they snuggle in just a little bit nicer than the postacelift...

Anyway, thanks Ben for traveling out and showing me what's probably the cleanest wagon over 200,000kms!

[bigBADbenny]

Nice one!!!
When I drove at the humps at 40, there was no pre braking used to launch the car over them smoothly so it was a worse case scenario.
You can take the seats as soon as I fix my postFL drivers seat, it's got a loose lower support.
Let's get onto those muffler mods ASAP

Don't hesitate to request another test drive in the Collingwood area.

[KelvinTaylor88]

Props to you Ben for always being so kind to lend forum members a hand!
Just got Shockworks installed myself and starting to gather some impressions: Alex you're always welcome to have a ride/drive in my inferior sedan if you wish!

[bigBADbenny]

Cheers! Hardly!
Mines probably one of the stockest modded Libs out there.
I'm such a tightarse I refuse to get workshops to to my mods, to the point that I'll do a Cert 3 light auto for weekly hoist access

Then I have to have every base covered before doing any mods at all.
Kinda frustrating when budget is always an issue.
Meaning I'm at Stage 1.258, not 2.5.
The mods are there, just gotta man up, complete the shopping list and get cracking.

Anyhow, this weekend the Baur got a series2 extended engine bay seal, neatens it up a teeny bit, next week it's getting a new Coolant Temp Sensor from Run Auto, a new dizzy cap n rotor, and I dug up another AFM to try out.
Why? It still has a slight miss/ too rich on idle, the CTS is the main suspect, as the old one tested ever so slightly out of range.

The Libs right rear head breather was fixed, just using a joiner and 2" of heater hose and a coupla clamps, the fix should be more reliable in the long term than a new hose IMHO.

Turns out I overfilled the gearbox so I'll have to siphon around 200ml of Syntrax out

[bigBADbenny]

Well its been an absolutely crazy year so far and it keeps getting weirder.
First the good news, there's plenty, thankfully.
Welding school is going great, you know this when your stick welds look a bit like tig or mig
I had no idea that was even possible: bonus!
I'm nearly there with this 3 run hori corner weld thing, still slighly changing my angle over the travel which is undesirable...

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But due to studying I got myself a job to pay the mortgage and bills and as a storeman packing orders I start at 3 or 4am and knock off around 12pm most days, have a shower and get changed to go to school. Meaning I'm absloutely feeling flogged most of the time
I need to defer the Cert3 light auto as the contact hours are daytime only, meaning 6 months at this job and to finish welding. Go hard!
Then I'll find a nighttime job and knock out Auto next summer, 6months, 7 days a week Or thats the plan.
Really want that cert3, it means I can charge to work on cars for starters, or get paid to.

Since I cant rebuild an engine at school for some strange reason (mainly theyve been burnt by too many dickheads, plus it actually beyond the scope of cert3 ) I finally got permission to do so at the Neilzeds, the old school engine rebuilder/head reco guy in my street.
For me this is a major coup as it wasnt possible to do anywhere else either.
Awesome beacuse Neil Jinnette has 48 years experience in the game which is worth far more than my 4 years of web research and 10 or so of reading car mags
Awesome because Neil is letting me do by far the bulk of the spanner twisting, tho occasionally he can't keep himself from a challenge like the usual stuck gam gear bolt...
And I can smash out an hour or so before going to school.
I seem to be paying him in beer!
May just be able to knock out an apprenticeship with him before he retires in a few years!!!

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The engine in question is an apparently blown HG MY08 EJ255 from Dazz's auto wagon, so far so good, heads are off everything looks fairly normal for a 150K subie donk.
There was a little collection of metal in the sump, let just say I hope that was there from original break in, as it was entrapped in a wee cone of gunk on the bottom of the pan.
Its not the first time such a thing has been found in an otherwise OK engine...

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Anyhow I left it there last friday as a bare block on my stand, and we get down to the nitty gritty next week when the bores, pistons and bearings are finally revealed.

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Heads still on here so the next thing that came out was the cams, journals looked well nice ftw...

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Neilzeds Alladins cave, full of huge ex Repco lathes and mills . He's got so many old school toys inc a National non computer TIG the size of a filing cabinet Neil started at Repco as an 18yo in '67 when they more or less had a campus in town that took up two sides of a block or two (iirc) Bourke St. They had their own school, medical facilities, workshops etc, the workers were taken care of so they never wanted for anything.

In other good news the Baur is running much smoother after I swapped the MAF for a better, less f'd with item probably from a 320i...
Idle is still high at around 1200 rpm but it gets rough and rich if dropped below that to say 900.
So I would suspect an inlet mani leak, which I will have to get around to smoke testing (I say that a lot lol) and I may attack that when I refurb the speedo which need to have the service light batteries changed out - soon.

[bigBADbenny]

Now for the bad news, but really its just material frustration/violation, I still have my health, family, home and (most of) my sanity right?

Its like my car is some sort of magnet for theives these days or I'm being targeted as I mentioned on FB.
Bye bye BtSsm and the Samsung Android host I spent literally months programming and rooting

Luckily they neglected to grab my Tactrix in the boot net and the HD clutch in the boot.
If YOU're reading this: its all gone, gone to a secure off-site facility, well out of your reach and all portable mods have been de-modded!

Help yourself to the umbrellas, airline spew bags (bad driver joke) and tictacs!!!
Needless to say its now very empty AND booby trapped with all sorts of Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg devices like workboots on pendulums etc.

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Anyway research reveals all door handles are intercompatible pre and post notwithstanding considerations to L/R and the drivers having a lock, natch.
Thank goodness I don't need the generousity of others to know that, just the ability to use opposedforces, google, google site specific searches, pagezipper and my damn brain: whats left of it.

However let me know if you have one, specifically http://opposedforces.com/parts/info/61021AG000VW/ as Yahoo.jp does not, apart from a white one and I'm not quite ready to go panda on the car just yet.
Also if you count locksmith as one of your USP's let me know if a n00b can change out the tumblers in a blade barrel, this could be done on pre 2000's cars.

That kinda thing can be difficult to google. Anyhow I'm getting up in 7 hours at 3.30am so thats it for now JK


...

[bigBADbenny]

What's the scope of the rebuild, you ask?
The amount of oil being consumed these days is a PITA.
It's well over Subarus generous iirc 500ml/1000ks.
Pointless not to do something about it, since it's otherwise such an enjoyable drive, eg goes well, handles well, comfortable, engaging, practical etc.
It's a handsome rig too and when clean, eg for 5minutes every week non car types overlook the considerable patina, and regard it as "new". Seriously.

Well VIPGTBBB is coming up for its 250k TB service, so it's a good opportunity to bash in a reco short & heads and add some other necessities like bits already collected along the way: Exedy HD clutch, STi Torsen FLSD and all my juicy "stage 2" mods in the pile inc. AVO380, PW TMIC, ID1000, ELH etc.

Plan is to let this setup run at 15psi to produce a nice reliable 180-200atw on 98 with a metric FK-Ton of headroom.
We'll do it all DIY at Neil's using the most basic service parts known to Neil and spend up on required parts eg pistons and possibly uprated valve springs.
Because my power goals are so modest the decks won't be closed this time around, but if new pistons are required, well those just might be Manley destroker pistons on stock rods with an STi double drilled 75mm crank.

Those bits I'll have to buy plus some fuel system bits and the master gasket kit (no name probably lol) and TB kit.
Everything else is in the stash already. This will piss off many purists who want OEM or better but I also trust a guy with all that experience who needs to make markup on competitive rebuilds day in day out.

Once we're done Ill get my original block CD'd and go from there for something scarier, with a low mount etc

...

[peadya100]

Oh man that sucks about the break in!!
Sounds like a very targeted attack. Could very well be the inside job you joked about.

Love the sound of the engine build. If you're only chasing 180-200 is there any need in building the engine? A new short block and head recondition will be cheaper and to factory tolerances.

[bigBADbenny]

True, and you may remember the thread I started ages ago where we all weighed in on the best light reco/rebuild formula for our cars. The definitive all round solution was promoted and indeed implemented by Owen, who installed a newish JDM STi Foz ej257 short on his existing setup which produces around 270atw, total cost to the Everyman circa $6k drive in and out... Best of all worlds, and amazing with a great tune by Revzone iirc.

[bigBADbenny]

But my budget is way less, thus it's going to be new rings and bearings at the absolute minimum, and that's subject to next weeks tear down. We just don't know at this stage, but given the wee oil pool in the throttle body, and the shrapnel in the sump (just shrapnel mind you not any glitter), and the propensity for cylinder 3 fuel starvation etc etc, one might expect damaged rings, ringlands, scored bores etc.
So I'd have simply pulled the pistons leaving the block unsplit, Neil's advice is to split it to inspect the bearings before reassembly as we don't know the actual history of the engine as regards tune etc. As I remember Dàzz bought the car and almost immediately had to replace the long motor due to HG issues, but there's no snot in the block even if the gaskets were showing signs of leakage in the usual spots...