Monster Falcon Turbos!
Just to give you some ideas regarding the EF Ford
Falcon that you have recently bought... If you go to www.fordforums.com.au you will
find two 300+kW Falcons with no bottom-end work. One of them has 380kW (running
22 psi on C16 with a hot camshaft) and runs 11.2 at 123 mph. The other has
350rwkW and runs a 10.17 at 132 mph (it has a mild port job, a hot camshaft and
a GT35/40).
If you have the time, the thread on the first car
can be found at www.fordforums.com.au.
I don’t think you will end up doing anything that wild, but at least you will
know what they are capable of.
Ben Powell
Australia
Temperature Probing
Regarding the Jaycar LCD temp probe article
LCD Temp Display!...
I'm looking to set up something like this with
either the aforementioned probe or with my multimeter and K-type thermocouple.
What I want to know is if a metal probe is mounted in a brass compression gland,
will the probe be reading the temperatures of the manifold itself? The gland
seemed to be threaded into the manifold, which will get warm with under-bonnet
residual heat from other engine components.
Is there any sure way of mounting something like
this so that the metal probe is not touching anything but the incoming air?
Steve Rand
Australia
The compression gland shouldn’t have any effect
on measured temperature because the temperature sensing element is in the tip of
the probe. It’s important that the tip projects sufficiently out of
the compression gland.
200SX Gearbox Replacement
I saw the request for detail on a good replacement
gearbox for a 200SX from Daniel Rose in "Story Suggestion" – Response. It is true that these
wonderful and highly fancied gearboxes are tragically very fragile. What is
commonplace is to source an R33 GTS25t gearbox and fit that. You can find
further detail on www.skylinesaustralia.com using
the search feature. The R33 ‘box is strong, in reasonably good supply and is a
common upgrade in high powered R32s and VL Commodores running the hybrid RB30
block with an RB25 or RB26 head. Best of luck with the new gearbox.
Geoff Williams
Australia
Bavarian Battle
In the article Multi Throttles
it is stated that the
E30 BMW 2.3-litre four at 147kW is the most powerful atmo engine to come out of
Bavaria. I would like to remind the editor of the 3.0-litre four cylinders found
in the Porsche 944S2 and Porsche 968 with 155kW and 176kW, respectively. I do
not however dispute that it may be the highest specific output production engine
of its class from Germany.
Patrick Mason
USA
Important Fuel Pump Fact
One more point should probably be mentioned at the
end of the article
Engine Management for Turbo Conversions -Part Two...
If the fuel pump is upgraded, the fuel pressure
regulator may also need changing if it is not able to return enough fuel to the
tank to keep pressure regulated at idle. The rail pressure will rise and thus
the vehicle will run rich at idle and in low injector duty cycle portions of the
rev range. This is not realistically possible to tune around because the rail
pressure is dictated by the voltage on the fuel pump (which dictates how much it
flows up to the rail). If the battery voltage changes (ie headlights on/off,
stereo on, electric fans on), then so does the rail pressure. I've spoken with a
tuner who had this exact problem.
Russell Hocken
New Zealand
Looking Forward to...
No doubt you have already thought about it, but
for a long time I've meant to write and ask if you have plans to start using
video clips on AutoSpeed? Seems an obvious step and an easy way to provide
something that the print mags simply can't. I know there would be a fair bit of
extra work involved and it may be hard to get to a suitable standard but I think
for some stories, the odd small video clip would be invaluable in explaining
some things. Would be great to see some of the cars you drive in action too!
I’m looking forward to your reviews of the new
Commodores/Statesman/HSVs too. It’ll be interesting to see if they really are
the leap ahead that other media are talking about. What strikes me as odd
though, is that apparently most things I have read put the VE and BA/F neck and
neck... And they carry on how much better the VE is than VZ... So what was going
on beforehand? The BA should have been slaughtering VZ in reviews!!! Another
good example of the kind of journalism Julian has often talked about being out
there.
John Masson
Australia
We're considering adding video snippets to certain types of articles. We have some VE Commodores booked for review.
What Happened to...?
Re Last of the LS400s... What ever happened to
'Mr SB' and the 735i replacement I wonder?
Matt King
Australia
Julian replies: Mr SB, the first model LS400 we
owned, was sold and replaced by a 1985 BMW 735i. The 735i was replaced by an
NHW10 Prius. Now, as you can see, we've sold the 1998 LS400 and replaced it with
a Honda Insight. So, from two V8 powered LS400s to a four cylinder hybrid and a
three cylinder hybrid!
4WS Effect
In your articles about non-linear (variable ratio)
steering systems – such as The New Breed of Controls - Part 1
- you neglect to mention the effect four wheel steering has over the effective
steering ratio (ie steering angle versus turning arc). By steering the rear
wheels in the same direction as the front wheels, my 4WS Honda Prelude (equipped
with a purely mechanical 4WS system) is relaxing to drive at high speed, due to
a low effective steering ratio. But turning the steering wheel progressively
further appears to have the same effect as quickening the steering ratio, as the
rear wheels transition from same-phase to opposite-phase steering. Later models
control the rear wheels electronically and I believe there is potential for
these systems to be modified to give varying ratios at different steering wheel
angles and speeds. Perhaps you could explore this issue in a future article?
Michael Bloxham
New Zealand
Good point but, unfortunately, we don’t have a
4WS car to experiment with.
Jaycar Kit Interface
I have just built and fitted the Jaycar kit for
the electronic boost control and I tell you what, it works perfect! What I’d
like to know is instead of making adjustments to the controller or any of the
kits for that matter through the digital hand controller, is it possible to plug
the cable into a laptop instead and have a program that simulates the hand
controller functions (ie replace the hand controller with a PC). If you were
smart enough at programming you could even view the map it creates on the
PC.
Jason Parker
Australia
|