The Bogan

LOL, yeah, it's a hit or miss kinda thing

If the mec is 10 minutes away I would just put some engine and radiator flush through it for the drive to the mec, then get them to change every oil and fluid I would pull the plugs for the first turnover to build some oil pressure, after sitting around for 12 months there isn't going to be much oil in it, apart from the sump. Wait, it a boxer, LOL, bugger pulling the plugs, does it have the "flooded" engine thingie where if you hold your foot flat on the accelerator it doesn't start, if so do that a few times.

And?????

Whatcha do IRT the "deep end"? Tell me tell me tell me As for keeping the old mufflers, yeah nah, there in the bin already As for the resonators, the old guy said he could fit them, but suggested that I really dont need them to kill drone, he said my rear muffler would be adequate, he said if I wanted them I could come back later and he would chuck them in He was right, coming home on the M5 sitting on 100kph with the windows up you couldn't really tell much of a difference between now and before with the full exhaust BUT, when you mash the loud pedal to the firewall, well, that is a totally different story, no drone, just loud V8 noises. My take is, it sounds really deep and rumbling, but legal (ish) when I'm gentle on the throttle, so as long as I'm exercising my eyeball muscles I should be golden Hard free reving is all growls, pops and bangs, LOL, so much so that when I reved the bejesus out of it, it made me giggle and reminded me of days gone by of old v8's reving in the pits Meh, my years of experience with JDM and basically ever other car and motorbike that I've played with over the last 40 years is you are going to pay if you want to play But running it at stock height with stock wheels, plus I tend to not drive like a idiot, and I'm a old white guy, should help as well to not draw heat

Thermal stuff is holding up really well In other news: I tried a rear muffler delete on my pacemaker twin 2.5" a while ago, whilst is sounded good the drone at 100 kph was too much to live with so the rear box went back on So, a couple of months later, I'm sitting out the front of an exhaust shop waiting for my turn The 2 center mufflers are getting cut out and some small resonators are going in I have heard this setup on a mates LS VT and it worked well, louder than mine, but not canary yellow loud..........maybe....... In other other news: I'm waiting on a quote to get my 4l60e built, I'm giving the car a fairly hard time and the old 4l60e gearbox is the weakest link, this should help stopping it becoming a box full of neutrals when it is shifting at WOT on drag radials

FYP

One of the boys at work has discovered this, his mint AMG 55 has cost him a bomb to maintain Bloody nice cars though, they need to be the real AMG though, made in Germany, not the AMG badged cars that are made in India or Africa that only have AMG wheels and dodgey build quality In saying that, owning an AMG would be cheaper than owning a GTR, and you could park the AMG and it would most likely still be there when you return, the GTR, not so much. In saying this I've been looking at older AMG Mercs and 80's Jaguars as weekend cruisers for me and the Mrs

A great man once said: "If you cannot afford 2 GTR Skylines, you cannot afford to buy 1"

After a casual drive to get some fuel I got the Ebay infra-red temp gauge out Car was idling away for about 3 minutes after the drive With some quick point and shoot....... There is a difference of between 30-35 ° at the header i.e. when the header right at the flange is around 130°, 25mm away where the stuff is hard against the header it is 95-100° My trans cooler was 45° on the cold side and 65° on the hot side Front of head was at 90° Coolant was 65° Power steering reservoir was way up at 85° (fark 🤯), next mod might be a real PS cooler Ebay, here I come

Catch can is working well, the intake tract is oil free, there was actually fark all oil in the can though, I'm sure the reason for this is I'm not thrashing it enough Talking about thrashing, I finally put the last coat of paint on my 15 x 7 chasers, started with alot of prep and 2 coats of zinc gal, then satin black on the back side, front is silver gal......yeap.......left over paint from building a car port Pity every local supplier of MT Street S/S 235/ 60 16 are out of stock till February 21, still, plenty of time for this awesome paint job to cure......

Yeah mate https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/254058558038 Ties https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/113924313761 I reckon you can get it heaps cheaper but I am a impatient consumer and typically just hit "buy now" when I find something I like

I put them on to initially hold it in place, now that it has cured I might take them off. In truth the extra ties don't really stand out anyway. Welding stuff, yeah nah, the whole point of this was to get a noticeable result as easily as possible. If I was going to do anymore than what I have done I would pull the headers out, get them coated and then, most likely use the same stuff again, or wrap them, but that ain't happening, LOL.

I should stop yelling

Also added that aluminium composite sheet before After

Fitting heat sheilding- part 1 Ok, so the stuff arrived As usual the ebay description was not quite correct, there are no tabs on the material at all. So, I just stabbed stainless steel cable ties through which has worked a treat. As for the sheet size and fixing it to the headers. The "kit" consisted of 2 sheets of about 25" x 20" Issue: using 1 full sheet wasn't really going to work for each header due to the limited access in the engine bay Fix: I measured up both sides and worked out where I had access, turned out cutting the sheet in half 25" x 10" worked a treat When fitting I pulled the coils for more access but left the leads connected to the plugs to form the stuff around lots of ties later Since the pics it has been cured (yeah, pretty smokey) and has seemed to form fit a little better. For coverage as of now is from the primaries just past the first collectors Part 2: next time the car is on stands, sometime this week probably, will involve using the remaining sheet, cut in half, and placed over the top of the secondaries to keep the heat from them radiating into the firewall and foot well, well, for 25" anyways In the end the difference in radiant heat is very noticeable to my uncalibrated hand, yeap, I though fark it and proceeded to touch the headers after the drive to cure the stuff, yes it was hot, but, no burns or melted skin, which was nice In other news: I noticed your sound deadening, nice, I got some of that "car builder" thick underbonnet soft foam stuff and cut to suit the frame, I am just waiting on a new OEM style underbonnet sound proofing to turn up to neaten it up and add a little more sound proofing Groovy

Send linky please

Honestly mate, I would rather get one of these to play with> https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/mazda/mx-5/se-badge/nb-series-4-series/manual-transmission My google search keeps gravitating back to MX5's And it would cost much less than boosting the old Dunnydoore

The car is currently extremely reliable, if I want to fix that issue, I could boost it I did look at giving it a bit more "poke", but the additional torque would require a built gearbox, amongst other things, and questionable reliability, so, I though that the amount of money spent on boosting a old commodore could be spent elsewhere On what, I haven't worked out yet

Cheers, I just grabbed 2 sheets

This stuff? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Aluminium-Composite-Panel-WHITE-BLACK-600-x-400-mm-Building-Signage-Trailer/172785939441?hash=item283ad833f1:g:41MAAOSwblZZJjTD

Nope, purely from boredom and best practice OEM has a heat sheild, this doesn't, I've typically had some form of thermal protection on any and all modified exhaust manifolds to quell radiant heat My next mod, for no other reason than I think it is best practice, will be to create some form of ducting from my front bar to the radiator, currently air can just drop down under the radiator. As I've added a trans cooler to the stack I feel it would be a worthwhile project

I'm kinda hoping that it l9ng enough across the top to push some down under the plugs and leads Well that is what it looks like in my head, I'm hoping to not "cut to fit", but that is always an option Just like putting it in the bin after getting the shits with it is always an option I am quietly confident that is won't come to the "bin option" though I did try to fab up some of that aluminium sheet stuff(pictured), but that did go in the bin, with the headers installed it was a right PITA to form it up, and the best I could do with the headers fitted looked like a dogs breakfasr, but, if the headers were off, the aluminium sheet stuff would be my No.1 choice, even over wrap EHS_Parent.webp

Like a blanket, it has some "clips" sewn onto the corners, you just need some stainless zip ties to secure it, not sure if the "kit" comes with the zip ties or some form of strap I'll post up some picks when it arrives

Compulsive shopper........I said I would never wrap exhaust headers, ever again, but did then swore I would never again, and then did, the absolute pain in the arse wrapping headers is may have finally sunk in. I've never used this Thermo-Tec blanket stuff personally but I've seen it used and it seems to work a treat, and holds up well Not as groovy looking as wrap, but, wrap is the devil to install, this is easy to install, it and should knock out enough under bonnet temps to be worth the $135 it cost

Yeah, only old commodore owner do that because the oversized tyre cannot make a commodore handle any worse than it does originally.