W0rd up

[mikuni]

Oi, all you Mrs Funt'maRunts should rock that oldschool meet in wellies damn it. I know I've posted in on here somewhere (actually, I think) but it looks like theres gunna actually be a few people there.

Would be mean anyway, X-air weekend 9th-11th feb, take friday off for the convoy down.

[77vette]

Hmmmm hardcore want dairy, its badass. Buy the business for like 40g's and then you get the lease on the building which includes the shop downstairs and a house on top. Right at the end of krd/start of gt north. Its got two secure carparks. Living bit includes 3 bedrooms so can rent out a couple(they are untenanted at the moment). Couple who have it now reckons that the shop covers all the expences of the business and house. But they dont even open at all on weekends or after 5.30. And they arn't renting out any rooms.


Cosmo! havn't picked it up yet because the guy didn't want me to take it without doing the change of ownership. Kind of considering not geting it now.... needs the engine fixed/replaced and im not sure if i can be f**ked with it. Still its only $180. Might be hard to find an engine tho and im fully not going to consider a rotary conversion $$$$. Hmmmm hard decision!

In other news, apparently nobody in auckland widens wheels!!! everyone has refered me to elite wheels and they're in christchuch! Bogan lady at work is gona ring up a few of her stockcar mates and suss something out. She reckons back in the day she and her mates used to do it all the time. In the same way that brad got his ones done i think. Might just find me a cool engineer/welder and get him to weld a couple of sections in. Elite wheels will remain my last resort because they still havn't replyed to my emails!

As for the wellington meet. My mate and his gf are keen to go down for x-air(as am I) so i will probably be down for it!

[gordo]

77vette said:

In other news, apparently nobody in auckland widens wheels!!! everyone has refered me to elite wheels and they're in christchuch! Bogan lady at work is gona ring up a few of her stockcar mates and suss something out. She reckons back in the day she and her mates used to do it all the time. In the same way that brad got his ones done i think. Might just find me a cool engineer/welder and get him to weld a couple of sections in. Elite wheels will remain my last resort because they still havn't replyed to my emails!

As for the wellington meet. My mate and his gf are keen to go down for x-air(as am I) so i will probably be down for it!

If you're determined to do it your self - or get a TRUSTED mate to do it, you should be able to get the inserts made by

Leonard Products Ltd
65 Leonard Rd
Penrose
Auckland
Phone number: 0-9-579 3554

We use them for forming a lot of the rolled sections for our plant. Not sure what they'd cost but may be your best bet. Remember, it's the well that is welded so you'll need to cut it there - preferably with a lathe for an accurate, square cut and easy weld. The centre'll also have to be welded to the rim.
For it to be legal, you may need to get an engineers report - come to think on it, have you tried the vehicle certifying people, as they may know some places that'd do a good, safe and legal job.

Slightly different way to go - some years back, you could purchase wide, one piece steel rims that could be fitted with your own centres. Could be a way of having a safe wheel with rostyle centre?

Nearest I can find after a quick search is this company
www.wellerwheels.co.uk/
They may be prepared to sell you the bare rims - could be worth a try.

[mikuni]

Yeah, what he said. This company sells them. www.twlnz.co.nz/home

But gordo, they only do 13's in up to 7", which isn't wide enough.

As far as welding the welded bit, yeah.. thats the right way to go but it doesn't look that cool. They do a few techniques to make it look better such as turning the centre around and widening the rear section of the wheel. If you really want to widen them I'll stop by your house and show you the ins and outs, because there are a couple things to look out for. I'm going to whangarei this weekend.

[mikuni]

Why don't more people on dairy's? That sounds like a wicked investiment. I don't really see how you could loose money on it either. You could even sell a few little extras on the side, if you know what I mean. Perhaps indian dudes are actually mega brainy. The other awesome thing about owning a dairy is that you get a gilmores card so you can buy all your food etc at nearly cost price and you can get other stuff cheaper from suppliers and supermarkets.

Fuk I really need a new motor aye. Someone give me some money. In the next couple of days I'm going to go to the bank to try and get a mega loan. An x20xev loan ;D

[zep]

if you're going to get a loan you should jsut go the full distance and get enough to score one of theose UK xe's

[mikuni]

Well thats what I was thinking but when that last car came up for sale with the xe I was kind of gutted that I wasn't doing an ecotec motor. To be honest I think the xe's have been so thrashed and every aspect has been modified on them so the limit has been found. The ecotec has a more efficient head design, which many belive to be better. In reality it may not be, but I'd rather play around with the underdog anyway. In many cases it almost seems asthough people use the xe purely because everyone uses the xe. Not because its that much better than the ecotec. Internally the engine components are interchangable so strength isn't an issue and ancillery parts are far cheaper to source for the ecotec than the xe because they are so much more common. Plus I like the symetrical look of the ecotec aswell.

haha so you can see I have thought about it alot and the xev is the engine I want lol

[zep]

Oh no, I'm not saying you shouldn't go the Ecotec, just saying that that company in UK makes freaking bangin XEs, you know those 200hp ones

But yea, ecotec should be awesome, and in a chevette the power to weight will be mean enough, even with minimal engine mods.

[mikuni]

Oh I see what ya saying. Yeah hardout! Those engines are awesome. Expensive as anything though. Fuk UK mods. I'm gunna do it NZ style. Standard engine sucking on R1's should make around 180hp. With a filthy cam grind, raised compression with a good rebuild with dished pistons and reseated valves etc (and a few other things) I'll be looking at 200hp+ I reckon. Pretty good power to weight in an 800kg car. Plus I'm looking at more than 6k just doing it on the cheap so I don't want to buy 4k worth of motor.

[zep]

Where are you getting the pistons from? You should take your head and nuts to Franklin Cams in Pukekohe, the dudes therea re so on to it. They'll sort you out with something awesome.

[gordo]

mikuni said:

Well thats what I was thinking but when that last car came up for sale with the xe I was kind of gutted that I wasn't doing an ecotec motor. To be honest I think the xe's have been so thrashed and every aspect has been modified on them so the limit has been found. The ecotec has a more efficient head design, which many belive to be better. In reality it may not be, but I'd rather play around with the underdog anyway. In many cases it almost seems asthough people use the xe purely because everyone uses the xe. Not because its that much better than the ecotec. Internally the engine components are interchangable so strength isn't an issue and ancillery parts are far cheaper to source for the ecotec than the xe because they are so much more common. Plus I like the symetrical look of the ecotec aswell.

haha so you can see I have thought about it alot and the xev is the engine I want lol

if it suits, go for it - BUT it is an inferior design, cast Vs forged pistons, pressed rather than floating gudgeons (AKA piston/wrist pins), weaker con' rods, smaller valves which are closer to the edge of the combustion chamber - shrouding, water jackets are different, heavier flywheel, different crankshaft etc.
Generally, for similar spec' modifications the Ecotec will be around 20hp down and will need a lot more replaced if you're going to be leaning on it hard.
With upgraded rod' bolts, the XE is good for the occasional 8k rpm run on an otherwise stock bottom end - limiter on mine is set for 7750 rpm with recommended red line 7k5 rpm.
Same engine as fitted in my Cally is red lined at about 6k8 rpm, not sure how accurate it is as the limiter seems to kick in at around 6k5 rpm - indicated 155kph in third, so it makes a great overtaking gear.

Incidentally, last w/end, 4 hours down and 4 back to Taupo (for the A1GP) with some running around and traffic jams was done on less than one tank of petrol (49 litres) - just over 40 mpg overall.

[mikuni]

gordo said:

if it suits, go for it - BUT it is an inferior design, cast Vs forged pistons, pressed rather than floating gudgeons (AKA piston/wrist pins), weaker con' rods, smaller valves which are closer to the edge of the combustion chamber - shrouding, water jackets are different, heavier flywheel, different crankshaft etc.
Generally, for similar spec' modifications the Ecotec will be around 20hp down and will need a lot more replaced if you're going to be leaning on it hard.
With upgraded rod' bolts, the XE is good for the occasional 8k rpm run on an otherwise stock bottom end - limiter on mine is set for 7750 rpm with recommended red line 7k5 rpm.
Same engine as fitted in my Cally is red lined at about 6k8 rpm, not sure how accurate it is as the limiter seems to kick in at around 6k5 rpm - indicated 155kph in third, so it makes a great overtaking gear.

Incidentally, last w/end, 4 hours down and 4 back to Taupo (for the A1GP) with some running around and traffic jams was done on less than one tank of petrol (49 litres) - just over 40 mpg overall.

Thats pretty good fuel mileage. I can't wait to see that in a chevette! I'd say it won't even use any petrol..

From what I have seen even the XE engines with 'forged pistons' aren't super strong. The guys overseas uprate them, so I won't be loosing too much. Also, I'm looking into using a singlecam bottom end, as the xev isn't able to be rwd mounted. Do you have any info on this conversion at all, as I'm unsure of the type of pistons the singlecam used? I know you need to use the oilflow restrictor from the twincam. If it turns out to be different I may just import some strong bottom end internals to begin with to put them into a singlecam block and then go from there.

As far as head design I realise the coscast engines are superior, but there is more to it than smaller valves. The XE actually has a relatively restrictive valve design. The xev has narrower valve stems allowing better flow and a more effecient head. Granted power won't be as easy to extract due to the narrower intake/exhaust valve angle and smaller valves, but I still believe it is available.

However, If you believe I'm barking up the wrong tree I appreciate you telling me so! haha

Zep, I have actually used franklin before. Do they do headwork up there or just cams? I was impressed with them. They grinded a cam for me to a riduclous spec. Something like 296/306 in my old honda (yes thats right, I actually had a honda). But don't worry, it was a dirty little single cam beast that had twin side draft crabs bolted on. After we put the cam on it seemed to be starving abit, as I think it needed even larger carbs and abit more head work to properly benifit from the crazy cam. It revved right off the 9000rpm clock with ease and kept going (I believe past 10k) and this was on a standard head and bottom end. I do like the honda motors, I don't know why I'm going euro. Actually.. I do know why ;D

[zep]

Yeah, they do headwork too. I was there on friday and had a good chat to the owner (I think) and I'm gonna take my head down sometime this week... probably friday again, and they are gonna check if the porting is all good and whether or not I ca get some more or bigger valves, etc...

If my handbrake cable comes today, it will be in tongiht and there should be a roll cage coming within the next week or so

[mikuni]

Things are doing. Are you getting the cage from that guy on trademe or someone up there?

Do you know how the pricing is for headwork up there? I may go there aye. I'm pretty sure all the headshops in hamilton use them for cams!

[zep]

I'm not sure on the headwork pricing... probably not the cheapest but I would imagine their work is tops. If all goes to plan I'm gonna bet my cage done at Performance Metalworks, if not then Fraser Cars.