76er Swallowtail build

[Oneofthegreats]

The wheels were a very last minute decision.

There Porsche 944 16 x 6 ET55 with Hankook 195/45R16 on H&R 25mm adapter's. The combined offset is 30mm. Perfect.
Big shout out has to go to Milan & Michelle from TCCA Motorsport's for getting the adapter's from Germany in such short notice & in 4-5day's!!! Unbelievable effort.

I had a pair of 8's wide but couldn't stuff them under the guard's that low. I also have a 7" wide rim, but haven't tried that one yet. It doe's look good though, as it has some dish to it.

The rear guard's were already rolled from year's ago, but I had to cut the front guard lip's & flares flush.

It was a mad rush at the end. The wiper's were painted at 6.30pm on Thursday night!!!

Cheer's Jame's. The V3's are stuffed under there. The sunvisor. Well that's an untold story, as there very hard to find & can be pricey!

I wanted to do something alitle different in my own style. I know the yank's & other's have used these rim's but none of them had a very clean simple look about them.

[Oneofthegreats]

And one more with Tims mk5

[Oneofthegreats]

Just a quick update on the car's progress.

I still haven't washed it since I got back from the Nat's trip & have been using it for daily driving activities since, driving 200km round trip each day for work.

I've reset the coilover compression & rebound setting's from the race setting's used for the Nat's trip & it's now much nicer to drive. It still take's a big bump to upset it & scrub the rear tyres.

I've also refitted the TS Passat steering wheel. I like this much better.

-It's blown a heater tap on the Monday night I arrived home - replaced
-Repaired the fuel supply hose, Earl's fitting & new banjo fitting, refitted the fuel filter & bracket.
-Heater core last week - now replaced along with a pair of new heater hoses
-It's had the throttle jam open (luckily only at cruising speed!) & sticking shut after wide open throttle back off. I removed the throttle body, cleaned up the venturi's with some very fine emery only to find the butterfly's had worked there way loose over a period of 12 year's & the primary return spring had lost it's tension.
Reset the butterfly's, retensioned the return spring's & it's all good now.

So all in all it's been pretty well behaved & not much has gone wrong.

It also look's like a pig sty too! Only on the outside.

Exhaust is been modified next weekend with the longest hotdog resonator I can fit in the tunnel & also a straight through rear muffler to liven up the bottom end, which is how it used to be in the silver beater.

[Oneofthegreats]

A couple of pics 3 week's on from the Nat's & not being washed.

Only thing that's changed is the TS Passat steering wheel & being filthy! It also had a full beer split in it last week, so it smell's alittle boozy now.

It's also living in the same spot it was for over a year. The Garden!







I"ve re-designed my ratcheting auto shifter & the part's are being made at the moment.
I should have them next week, & once my Falcon ute is sold, I can make some headway on building the transmission.

[Oneofthegreats]

No, bogan hoons do burnouts in their 308 WB ute. Or 5l statesman/commodore. Or ford equivalent etc.

Careful Preen.

I used to own a HJ bogan burnout ute & I reckon 90%+ of the car's one here wouldn't come anyway near any of it's performance & reliability. Fuel ecomony maybe, but fun factor. No f#%king way! I wish I still had it.

Anyway. I thought I'd post these pic's out of interest to just to prove that the ol 76er is no show car & is used actually as a everyday car.

Just got back from a bit of rally, bush bashing in it. Bloody slippery on the old dirt road's at the moment. Lucky I was leading, otherwise it would be really badly covered in mud & road spray!
Rain has turned all the road's down here into a slush pit.

Sorry for the phone photo's. Don't really do it any justice, or may be they do! Doesn't look half as bad.









Still haven't washed it, but it's on the card's over the weekend.

[thestu]

best!!!

[Oneofthegreats]

Well, the old girl's engine finally gave in to over a decade of pain, abuse & punishment, but I still got one last road trip out of it.

The engine had travelled approx 370-390K of torture.
The engine wasn't even a day old from being rebuilt & I was out drag racing it.

Km travelled - 1300+km
Fuel consumption - don't know
Everage speed - ???? I know I sat on around 4000rpm the whole trip with an average of around 3500rpm.
Trip's cost - don't care
Sight's seen - Plenty

Would I do it again - Hell yeh, if I get another engine!!

I made the trip upto Wagga for my GF's RAAF Graduation & it was a blast! Sorry, but I'm not posting up pics of the grad.

I started the trip off with a bit of hestitation about the engine's health, due to using alot of water & the old Powerade bottle starting to fill up.
I gave the breather bottle a good cleanout, checked & topped up all the level's & I was off.

First fuel stop I took some liquid's & the car took about 2 litres of water. Not looking good, but the breather bottle was empty. Good enough for me.

I decided to go the back way to wagga just out of Holbrook. Big mistake. The road's were rough as gut's. The car took an absolute beating & so did my back. I'm very suprised the KW's didn't give up, as it was that bad. It was also going on dark & the roo's started to come out & I was in full nasty mode.
Then Josh decided he would ring me & wanted to have a chat. I definately had my hand's full.
To give you an idea, I was grasping the wheel with both hand's tight.

Got to wagga, no problem's, took on another 2L of water's, alittle vapour's in the bottle.

Cruised around the sight's having alook around. Never been to wagga so it was pretty nice to see somewhere new.

Stayed in a awesome hotel, massive room's, big bath room, cheap & the owner's were really friendly & welcoming. Will definately stay there again. if I'm back in town.
I had to replace the heater tap again, at the hotel in the morning, due to a leak & bypass the whole heating system. I found it leaking when I started the car up in the morning. The car was also starting to get hard to start???

Decided I'd go the normal way home & go down the Olympic Hwy, but stupid me was to concerned with the phone, I missed the turnoff!!!!

I ended up in Narrandera!!! You idiot. So I thought I'd make the most of it & see some country side. I came down through Jerilderie, onto Conargo, Deniliquin, Echuca, Bendigo, Castlemaine & then I got lost again & ended up on the Calder Hwy. By this point I didn't even care about the right way home & thought of it more as an adventure.

I took on some more fuel in Denni & rechecked the fluid's. It was bad to say the least. It took nearly the whole watering can, 0.5L of oil & the breather bottle was now full! The car was also very hard to start, which I think could be caused by a lack of compression, as I could turn the engine by hand!

I thought, bugger it. Me & this old engine have been to hell, broken the devil's leg's & returned. I had complete condifence that I would make it home - just!

I had to top up the coolant (now pure water!) in Gisbourne, which it took another whole watering can & the breather bottle was now a milkshake.

I had to refill in Melton, as it was also starting to use a bit more fuel, due to extreme blow by. The breather bottle was now over flowing & the milkshake was splattered under the car.

From there on in, it was a straight forward drive home, apart from the sickening smell of the breather bottle!

Funilly enough, the car never over heated once, even when there was nothing in the expansion tank & it could still outrun a Gen3 from a standing start. I think the cold country air & 4k rpm was keeping it alive the whole time & was pumping what ever little amount of coolant around fast enough to heat up & cool down.
It stilled pulled like a train, right up to when I pulled in the drive way.

I'll post up some pic's of the breather bottle content's soon & also a report on the condition of the engine. If I get time tomorrow, I'll do a compression test & when some free time comes up, I'll strip the engine & take some pic's.

Anyway, roadtrip pics. I'm not the best at aking pictures, but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

Also note the car still hasn't been washed.

Hume Hwy



More Hume Hwy. Amazing how different the scenery can be.



Whoops!!!



Cruise control, the easy way.







Over looking Wagga Wagga.







Toy car in the scrub!

[Oneofthegreats]

If you ever need a cheap place to stay, you can alway's stay in some old horse stable!!!!!



Not much out here, that's for sure.



Had to get a picture out the front of Conargo Pub.



And the same for Denni!

[Oneofthegreats]

A couple of my favorites.

Note: I had to leave the car running for most of the shot's, just in case I couldn't restart the bastard!!

[Oneofthegreats]

Well I pulled the motor & done a quick autopsy on it.

Compression Check & leakdown check's were carried out.

Compression Check

Cyl.1 - 185 psi
Cyl.2 - 185 psi
Cyl.3 - 210 psi, filled with coolant though
Cyl.4 - 170 psi

Leakdown check
Cyl.1 - 40%, Inlet valve leaking
Cyl.2 - 30%, ring's leaking
Cyl.3 - 34%, head gasket leaking
Cyl.4 - 70%, exhaust valve leaking

I've been in a pretty laid back & lazy mood, so I was in no great hurry to get the the engine out. I also done some work to the Audi, just in case I have to start driving it again.

Engine was pulled out & as it now stand's everything has been swapped over onto a stock "GX" engine incl the Autotech HD Valve Spring's. I decided to refit the Autotech 270 cam & the MK2 5Spd for everyday use. At least with the 270 I can cruise along smoothly in 5th at 50kph. There's no way in hell you could do that with the TT276! It would buck like a bastard!

It won't be anywhere near as fast as the original old girl's engine, but it shouldl be a nice cruiser & once I re-adjust the CO%, it shouldn't be half bad on fuel either. I reckon it should make around the 105-110hp with the other bolt-on mod's.

Breather bottle content's tell the story, along with the massive buildup of gunk in No.3 inlet port right up the intake manifold.











Sorry Josh. I had to show the milkshake maker!



This is one of the reason's I like K-Jet so much. It's such a clean burning engine & also keep's the inlet track very clean, apart from the mishap in No.3

You can also see the burnt coolant crystal's in No.3 exhaust port!