klutched

Thats good to hear! I'm still yet to finish the back as I didn't want to be standing/sitting on it while I was doing the roof. Once that's back in then I'll finish the back seat area and put that all back in then move onto the front doors and floor. Hopefully kills a lot of the noise and heat coming into the cab so it's bearable for the kids in the back. Edit: trimmed the roof liner this morning, didnt come out too bad. Will see how it looks once ive got it all back in.

Thanks mate! Went and picked up some faux suede yesterday from Spotlight $15/m and some spray adhesive and ripped out the headliner and trims. Did one of the rear cards yesterday but I thought I might hold up and borrow my mum's sewing machine and put some lebo stitching in them 🤣 So on hold until Friday and then go through the process of what needles I need and also thread. Thinking red thread to stand out a little and match the car. Removed the old fabric from the roofliner this morning and got stuck into it. It came up OK, very hard to get all the creases around the sunroof controls as the fabric doesnt have much stretch to it. Shouldnt be able to see much of it once its up but I still know theyre there... Also decided to go to town on the sunvisors as well. Peeled the skin off the first one and laid it out to see what I thought would work. Doesn't look the best but I need to hand sew it up so hopefully it doesn't turn out too bad. While the headliner was drying I did the sound deadening and underlay. Prick of a job trying to get it in with all the sunroof brackets running everywhere. Struggled to get it in and looking nice then I realised that I had to take the sunroof out so I could cover the sunroof shade........ So then proceeded to pull the sunroof out and tried to tidy up the underlay, not that anyone will see it 🤣 Was fkn hot sitting in the back of the car doing the deadening and pulling the sunroof out.. my pants were completely saturated and was puddles of sweat pooling on the back seats... Pulled the old fabric off the sunroof shade and cut a new piece out to go on it. There is a black cloth material that's on the top that has perished and gone brittle, so I'll need to find something UV resistant and cover it. Will get around to covering the sunroof shade in the next couple of days and hopefully get it back in before I go back to work... Will see how I go.

Well going off how long its taking to build my car, I'll be taking bookings for 2026 with completion by 2030 🤣

Got the boot floor in and drilled to bolt the surge tank and bought some longer bolts to bolt it down but they are still too short 🤦‍♂️ Also need to redo my surge tank hardlines as its now sitting up higher than before and also want to reroute 90⁰ up off the bulkhead fittings and hug the boot interior to maximise my boot space so I can try and fit a pram in there. Popped the new 525s in, need to pop into work to grab a couple of lugs and I can close it up and install when I get longer bolts then finish wiring it back up. Sound deadening finally arrived. Started putting some in on friday night. Got a little bit done but still a lot more to go. Need to pull the roofliner out and do under that and also going to put some new fabric over it. Need to have a look and see if i can put underlay under the seat as well to help with exhaust heat back there. Then work my way through the rest of the cabin. Hopefully get it all done on my week off before I start back on the 2nd.

Got the box in the yesterday all fits up nicely now. This arvo I had a few hours and got the started bolted up as well as the gearbox to engine braces and tapped the sump so I could bolt up the exhaust heatshield. Few bits and pieces to bolt on under the car and then I'll drop it back down and start doing stuff in the bay. Need to work out a solution to get my sway bar spaced down to fit it around my sump so I'll start bolting all the brackets and mounts back up. Also picked up some glue this morning and got stuck into carpeting the boot floor... Made a mess everywhere but it didnt turn out too bad. Still waiting for my sound deadening to arrive. Aramex are the most useless couriers. Don't think I've had one good experience with them.... Don't want to start wiring and getting the interior back together yet until that's all done.

Been slowly chipping away at it when I've got time. Tried to get the box in with the converter but worked out that the flexplate isn't the correct thickness and the converter pulls out off the pump too much (about 8mm). The flexplate for some reason was setup to use the secondary holes on the converter which had a press in nut to bolt to. I worked with Adamat performance the guys who manufacture the kits and they revised the design and made it suit the factory converter holes and milled up a new one for me and is currently on its way over. Can see the differences between the two compared to the orignal design which is in the post above. Once that's here the box can go in for good. I dummy'd it back up to get tailshaft length and is currently with Hardy Spicer to sort that out. Unfortunately won't get it back until late Jan Have been working in the boot lately getting it all a bit nicer and useable. Painted it with sound deadener and cut out a new boot floor from 18mm MDF so I can put a pram or my tool bag in the back. Have marine carpet coming to stick onto that and then also cut a piece to cover the battery. Once ive stuck the carpet in and all cleaned up ill pop the fuel system back in. Need to order 2 new Walbro 525s to replace the 3x 460s. Should be enough fuel for the new setup and run a bit cooler as well having more volume in the surge tank and less heat. Have also ordered some sound deadener to put under the carpet. That should be here next week and I'll start putting it down on the floor, doors and roof. Hoping all this effort will make it a nice streeter with ability to daily if I want to.

During the week I tacked on my lower timing cover extension and gave it a lick of paint. New rubber washer and upper timing cover bolt kit arrived so I popped the front assembly on. Had a few hours on the car today. Picked up a new turbo oil feed fitting and hose clamps for the hypertune silicone hose as well as a 3" donut and 3-3.5" reducer so I can mate up to the existing cooler piping. Got the balancer on and torqued up. Popped the viscous fan on and installed the alternator belt. Pulled the motor off the stand and bolted the adapter and flex plate up. Did a check over to make sure nothing crucial was missing and dropped her into the bay 🙌🙌 Still have a fair bit to do on her. Ill try and get some time this week and put her on the stands and get the box in with wiring so I can heatshrink the rubber grommet in place. While it's up I'll do whatever else I can that's easier from underneath. Need to have a look at fitting the front swaybar up as well. Had an issue fitting it with the lowered motor and big ASR sump. I think I'll have to get some custom sway bar spacers made up. Need to get some more brake cleaner so I can start cleaning out all the lines/hoses and start plumbing it all back up. Need to get my injectors serviced this week as well, which should allow me to finish the cold side.

Slowly getting there. Got the cams dialled in last week and covers back on. Picked up a brand new Gen 2 6870 yesterday that I couldn't resist for the price. Has a ceramic coated 1.0 T4 twin scroll rear which will be too small so I'll try and source a 1.32. Started getting the shifter drop box made up, came up half decent without a panbrake. Will get it welded up when I get the new turbo hot side welded up. Opened the boot yesterday and forgot about the mess I left in there 🤣 I'll need to have a decent crack at cleaning it up and then spray it all black and put it back together with a new ply floor to make it nicer/more useable. Have ordered a new lower timing cover and bolts/rubber washers. Once all that is here I can put it all together and get it in the car!

Yes mate

Got some more done yesterday arvo. Powered the TCU up and noticed the shifter wasnt on. Checked the pinout and rectified a couple of things and got it all working. The vid shows me scrolling through the map switch can see all the codes on the bottom of the screen as well. Didnt have the mechatronics unit plugged into the valvebody, so I was getting open circuit valve codes. Plugged it in and only code was code 33 which is no can comms. Went ahead and filled the board and popped the cover on and got it ready for assembly. So hopefully this arvo I'll get the valvebody back into the box and have it ready to go. Put some more bits and pieces on the motor. Need to pull the covers and dial the cams in to kelford recommended specs and then she can be popped into the bay. Whats everyones thoughts on a PTE6870 vs a Garrett G40-1150? 20231018_150439.mp4

Thanks mate. Yeah its a Gates T291

Have been flat out with work, family and renos lately and slack in the skyline department. All this stuff is from a few months back now. Finally got stock on the printer I wanted. Wasn't long until I whipped up a custom logo and tested it out. I finished the harness bar a couple little bits and pieces. Really happy with how its come up. Finally picked up my motor and started cracking on it. Gave the intake a clean up and polish. Ordered a new hypertune 4-1 coolant pipe which will make things easier. Only stupid thing is that they made it a 1.5" hose instead of a factory 34mm... would have been great to be able to pop a coolant temp sensor 34-34mm thing in there, but oh well. This afternoon me and the son went out and pulled the gearbox and dummy block out to make way for the new donk. Hopefully have some time in the coming weeks to start making some decent progress. Other than that renos have been kicking along, got the tiles done while we were up at Fraser which came up mint. Now that the new front door is in he can finish off the remainder there, and also jack the old tiles in the toilet up and put new ones down and I can finish painting the walls and new skirting.

Slowly chipping away while I had some spare time in between other jobs. Popped the Domiworks oil adapter onto the box and changed the trans mount bolts to slightly shorter ones. Need to get some -8 hardline and I can start making up the cooler lines. Will be challenging to keep it away from the dump but will do my best and probably have to run some heat tubing on it as well and possibly make up a shield. Pulled the stock rear ARB out and put in the new whiteline ARB. Theres a lot of adjustment on the link so im not sure what sort of height im meant to set it at. Set it on the softest setting (furtherest hole away from mount) but the link is on a big angle which doesn't look good.. anyone have any insight on it?

Yeah it wasn't too bad. Was about 21m² $1650incl. I've been thinking about doing the shed as well but gonna wait until everything else it done before i decide I think you could just epoxy over it and seal it again. If not would be a full grind down and redo. Definitely worth the extra money to get someone to do it. If you do a shit job yourself youre gonna call em to come do it again anyway 🤣

Not sure what product it is, got someone to do it for me. Thanks mate, which course did you get? Definitely worth the money, I did the pro course but I'd like to do the club level one too so I can improve my non twisted harnesses.

Bit more progress happening on the wiring now. Need to order some more heatshrink so I can keep going. Laid up the trans harness first. 23 wires total, 5 filler wires. Started on the shifter, LCD and mode switch today and got most of that done and terminated. Just need that shrink to finish it off and terminate back on the TCU. Home reno - got the garage epoxy coated on Tuesday and laundry cabinetry installed on Wednesday. Kitchen goes in next Tuesday and hopefully benchtops wont be too far off.

Finally some progress on the old girl! New trans mount came today. Got the block sat in and dummy fitted it all up together. Fit up perfectly! Not sure if you would need to do any tunnel mods on a factory tunnel but i did some light molesting to fit the glide in. Can now start wiring and plumbing it all up when I get some time. Also ordered a whiteline sway bar kit while theyre on sale. Should have that this week and pop them in as well.

Not much happening lately on the old girl, looking a bit sad sitting in the shed covered in dust. Need to push her out and give her a bit of love when I've got some time. I did install the output shaft, and got final design for the trans mount. Have heard back from HPR that they are finished being machined and should be sent out sometime early this month! Still haven't got head or bottom end back yet either... should hopefully be sometime this month as well. Apart from that I've been flat out between work and renos. Built a nice little cupboard, finished our garage which is now the laundry as well. We are extending our kitchen into where the laundry used to be. Cabinetry is due end of this month, so hopefully get all that done and tiled throughout before number 2 baby comes at the end of Feb! Missus decided she wanted a puppy, because a toddler and new born won't be hard enough 🤣🤣 Gonna turn into @Dose Pipe Sutututu thread of home renos soon 🤣

Pulled the mecatronics apart and opened it up to reveal the stock TCU. Cut all the wires off and got the PCB in and soldered up. Failed the first attempted and dragged some solder across a couple of pads. Had to desolder it all and mess around as I had one pad pulling to ground as well. Eventually got there in the end. Mate has printed the new designed mount up to test the bolt pattern. Will try mount it up tomorrow and see how it goes and make necessary mods if needed then will print out a proper bracket to test fit up once ive got the block and box in.

Did a little bit of work this arvo. Got the TCU mounted up. Only place I could put it as it's pretty big. Need to start putting the interior back together and set everything in place so I can find the best place to punch through the tunnel with the harness. Pulled the box apart as well, valvebody out. Need to pull the mekatronics out and mod it for the TCU.

Regarding 70 vs 75 availability, the 70's aren't really available in a BMW RWD config over here and for 75's they are only out of a couple of newer model bmw's. If youre going AWD they are everywhere and very cheap. Would probably be worth developing a RWD conversion for one of those boxes purely for ease of finding a new one if you were to blow it up and possibly still cheaper depending on how much the conversion would cost.

Picked the box up yesterday arvo and had a quick look. The 8hp75 is different to the 70 in a few ways (that matter). Box is about 20mm longer, rear mount is different pattern, and the oil cooler adapter is also different. Will be working with HPR to try and fix these for the R33 kit and I assume for other 75 kits as well. Will hopefully get stuck into it this weekend, pull the pan off and make sure the new billet one fits and also pull the mekatronics out to modify for TCU.

Go back a few pages and there's some pics of HPR stuff. Yeah lol, I did go an expensive setrab cooler and spal fan/shroud combo

Bmw shifter $345.50 HPR $3504.33 Cooler $732.31 TCU $2430+$328.51 Gearbox $3650 Remember import duty and shit on everything from overseas. HPR stuff included adapter/flexplate bolts, output shaft, mekatronics board and cover, billet AN adapter, HPR crossmember and mount. I also got the billet sump thrown in as well.

Hope my missus doesn't follow 🤣 So far just shy of 11k 🙈 for all parts required to bolt it in. Wiring harness will probably cost me $300 in materials, need some fittings hose and fire sleeve for trans cooler, sort out a new tailshaft as well probably another $1000 and then just mounting the shifter and finishing the drop box which wont cost much. Probably looking at 13k total