MozzMann

Funny thing I did last week that really spun a couple of people out , Think Axis in Silver with all the trimmings. I put a Merc Star on the Grill and scored some Wheel roundels and covered the Nissan badge on the tailgate, and pulled into a Merc dealer on the outskirts of Sydney while I was up there. Geezus I had them scratching their heads. Talk about funny

Now your just showing off Matt. I do that too ie stop the lens down to extend the exposure time and soften the water with little movement beautiful effect .

Not necessarily , but that's how I build my systems , and why I separate the OS from everything else and make images of the OS , That system would likely run OK for rFactor and Game stock car but I think you would need a high end graphics card for serious gaming simply due to the complexity of the graphics texturing but more so because the computing power is done by a GPU Graphics Processor Unit freeing up a LOT of CPU cycle time to run the mathematical calculations needed. Suck it and see would be my advice as many games have a trial, to test your machine's capability.

Built with a budget but I suspect you might struggle with higher end Racing simulations such as Assetto Corsa and Project Cars unfortunately. What Graphics Card ?? I know that there is on board graphics but that is for the Office for good gaming experience you have no choice but to invest in a good PCIe Graphics card. Some AMD Chips run pretty hot and for the cost of it I'd have gone to something like a Corsair H80 or H100 Liquid Cooling, draw cool Air into the case near the floor and channel this through the case to ventilate it and remove as much heat as possible by air flow, IMHO there is no substitute for Airflow The HDD you have selected is adequate for your needs but a relatively slow one at that even though it is SATA 3, and your only using one HDD ??? IMHO you should be using no less than 3 HDD's or more for general programs etc and an SSD for the OS . Basic layout might be something like that listed below 1 OS should be on a 60Gb/120Gb SSD and ONLY the OS This requires installing the OS and then editing the registry externally in Safe Mode so the default location of your User folder and the default location for your Program Files is on other drive's and NOT C:\ . 2 All other programs are installed something as follows D;\ For your User Folder and Documents E;\ For general Programs and Applications F:\ Being a 500Gb 10,000 rpm Gaming drive so you have some decent speed of I/O . G:\ Being a 500Gb 10,000 rpm Gaming drive so you have some decent speed of I/O. H:\ A Caddy for removable Large HDD used for creating Images or Backup's of you installations. ( The reason behind divorcing the OS from everything else is 1 it is faster and 2 it greatly protects your installed programs from loss of data should your OS fail and eventually it will. So if you back up your C:\ ie your OS regularly to an internal caddy removable backup drive the heart of your system can be protected with minimal loss of Data ) HDD Caddy fitted to the system and you insert a backup drive and image your C:\ and D:\ Storage and backup space is cheap, What OS ? 32 or 64 Bit you didn't say and IMHO I'd not install Windows 8 for gaming. it is NOT flexible enough to allow custom installations and designed primarily as a Multimedia platform.

Good point fellas , pressure bleeding between the cylinder's at a point where it doesn't impinge on the water ports. bit hard to say until the head is off of course.

The seals are likely the cause of the smoke with oil ingress into the inlet . Is the inside of the inlet piping and manifold oily ? The turbo's can indirectly be responsible for the low compression due to high cylinder pressures in certain cylinder's wearing some rings more than other's but you have relatively even pressures except for 4 and 5 which leads me to think that you may have some excessive wear in those cylinders compared to the other's . You could possibly get away with a new set of rings and a hone, BUT you need to strip the motor to do that so you may as well go the next oversize pistons as long as the motor hasn't been bored over size already. If it has you might need to check the maximum allowed oversize for that engine. New Pistons & rings to start with and if you are stripping the motor I'd be checking Rod and Main bearings for eccentricity and size and if needed rebuild the whole thing. Preventative maintenance I'm afraid.

OK as a retired Welder Fabricator IMHO stay Well away from ANY CIG welding units!! They were good once but are crap these days (Smaller home mechanic models at least) The GIG consumables such as Welding and Brazing rods are OK but the Units themselves are not worth having unless they are better than 20-25 years old or more. The Uni-Mig units I have a lot of respect for, they are reliable and get the job done. Even for the Hobbiest WIA (Welding Industries of Australia) make good units although modern ones are likely better electronic current control using switch mode transformer's which is why modern welder's are by and large significantly more compact and lighter. I have an older CIG TransARC 250 that is over 35 years old. A WIA 185 Mig, and a recent purchase for alloy work a UniMig 245 SMAW/TIG that I can even use to power my MIG Traveler head in my humble workshop. So at the end of the day it comes down to , 1 Budget 2 Usage 3 Ability Bang for buck Uni-Mig are hard to beat http://www.bocworldofwelding.com.au/media/pdf/file/library/WOWLibrary-GMAW-FCAW-MCAW%20Welding.pdf useful info

Via Steam is probably the best choice , because if your PC screws up you can rebuild your installations easily , Teamspeak is available with the SAU room mentioned elsewhere in these gameing threads .

I drop in there often but have never seen anyone ??

Very tidy !!

Yeah Matt was mucking about with under exposing and stopping things down to gain DOF and sharpness. 1 The Cyclamen was shot against some Black Card with natural window light and a diffuser to the image left plus silver card on the table to bounce light up and Flash above and to the right, I was trying to push the almost semi transparent look of the petals and I was just experimenting with Light and that was the result. 2 Again Stopped down to try to show up the layering in the cloud and the rays through the bank behind. 3 Setting Sun at Thredbo in Summer silhouetted the trees on the ridge. I didn't know how this was going to turn out as I metered on the bright cloud area and the rest is what you see. 4 Very long range telephoto shot from across Lake Jindabyne looking up the Thredbo Valley. See below I love the anonymity of silhouettes. Thanks for the comments too Matt

If the copper tracks your referring are the ones across the bottom of the screen and up each side that is a Windscreen de-ice system or frost heater if you will run from the switch on the left in the cluster in front of your right knee depending on the year. Mine is a 2002 Axis but the Wife's 2003 does not have this feature, The Radio antennae is a diversity type on the rear Right and Left window in the Cargo area as has been said.

I was rummaging around in some of my digital files and came up with these ,

Just got a call from my parts guy and the Stabilus Struts are available but they are ex Germany and are quoted as $165 per unit, ouch so I'll be visiting the Re-Gas fellas in Canberra for sure,.

My floor hatch is OK but getting lazy so yes I agree I will likely do the lot at once

Just as an add-on to this discussion , Strut Re-Gas has a number of centres arounf Australia and they quoted me $33 a side to re-gas my wifes NM35 Axis.

Custom instrumentation will not get you a defect, Not in NSW at least as long as the gauges are accurate and work your good to go

You can MIG Alloy if you preheat it and use the right shielding gas, but if you take it to a good welding shop and have them TIG it and you will likely save in the long run.

Hey speaking of interior Lighting is there a brightness control for the Instrument cluster ? Other than the Auto Dim for the Dash, Radio etc as it dims with the headlights which is a pain as I run my lights on during the day (Anyone who travels to the High country during Winter will understand why ) .

Teamspeak a Voice client that allows you to communicate with other racer's on line on many server's as many league's require it

Narva wedge bulbs , done

They are redesigned and modified specifically to suit a particular Sim and are easily added as long as you understand the directory structure and follow the Info Text file. I can get on TS if you like to give you a hand with rFactor, GSC, Assetto still learning what makes PC tick .

DRM's old school and bloody fun to boot, PC has really got the behaviour sorted I think

Light oil on the piston tops and crank it over then light grease applied to the exposed bore in a similar way you might grease a baking pan and cover the top of the bores with a plastic sheet over the top of something like cotton T Shirts sprayed with WD-40 or similar water dispersant. Big Plastic bag over the lot like Dale

An image of the light bulb and the 3 pin spade fitting might help, is it a single or multi bulb ?