FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

Seems like I am! They aren't crap but they aren't preferred. I'd probably be more happy running a PicAXE.
Plus I could of got a better one. But the reason for the $30 one is the amount of inputs and outputs. But the main reason for the arduino was the onboard lcd and buttons. So I could impliment cycling through a menu.
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

So today I got the front bumper on the car. (Needs more adjusting.) Got strut brace installed! Thanks Destinationboy! Looks great after a bit of metal polish!
Painted my bonnet so that should be ready to go back on the car tomorrow. Made something up to hold the side indicator in as my little spring clip was missing. Primered the rear bumper. And also finally took out that massive crease in the rear quarter panel. It's now back to the way it should be and now I'm just adjusting and beating where the rear tail light sits into that curve. Other than that almost done? Once I'm done I'll also seam weld everything cause I've had to cut some lines into the body to get everything back out!
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destinationtoby
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by destinationtoby »

:lol: no worries matey
Because nothing is faster than a p plater in a commodore.....
except maybe a p plater on a unicorn
FTOcrazy273 wrote: Destinationtoby probably has one of THE best FTO's on the forum I never get tired of looking at his pics! Good work mate!
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

Image

Almost done hnnnggggggggggg. She's going in for a wheel alignment Saturday. Man I'm so happy.
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

Well its been a long time since the last update. Its been two and a bit years since the last update so will try to cover the load of things done.

Most of my time has been spent helping other people out with their FTO's because I didn't have money to really do much being a full time engineering student at uni. Ended up spending a lot of time helping out Shiggz with his twin turbo build and lots of other stuff which was good. Ive finally graduated and I work now so I can spend much more time finally getting the car to where i want it to be (Although this engine is gonna be swapped into a GPVR rolling shell that Ive got).

Lets talk about the car! Since the last update the paint really started fading bad, I'm not gonna bother uploading photos cause it just looks shocking. Ive recently pulled off all the panels on the front end and got a proper spray gun and proper paint and did it properly. Was definitely not worth using a rattle can to try and paint the body. Also I cant be bothered repairing this shell, it has so much damage to it hence the rolling shell.

The engine. Its been around 80000km since the replacement engine has gone into this chassis putting the motor at 160000km (pretty much all freeway driving). Since maybe a few months after (3-5?) it went in, it really started dropping off in power and would only really give me full power on random occasions. It normally really likes to run rich and make crackles pops and bangs (I honestly would like the power back and not the noise) . To this date that problem still hasn't been solved and the engine is much more worse for wear. To try and remedy this i tried replacing mostly everything on the engine bar stripping it down so over the last 80000km its had new spark plugs every 30000km, oil/filter changes every 5000-10000km, new coil-packs and leads, new battery (4 times...), grounding kits, air filters, fuel filters, new fuel pump, new fuel pressure regulator, new PCV valve, new vacuum lines everywhere, replaced charcoal canister, new seals everywhere so no oil leaks, new gaskets on the throttle body and intake manifold, ported intake manifold (just cause), new temperature sensors, new thermostat, new radiator cap and the list goes on. Looking at the Haltech standalone and looking at logs I can never see anything indicative of what could be causing the issue. Ive pulled spark plugs loads of time and they look perfect. Maybe its tune related? I went to try and get it re-tuned multiple times but always ran into issues I've had to fix so never got a full proper tune done.

A few issues that need to be sorted now: Timing on the rear bank has skipped a tooth recently, tappets are loud as always (classic FTO's), the new cams had a gouge on one of the lobes from an unknown source (had to de-burr the edges and make it smooth), I think injectors are also needing a change, wiring to the fuel pump probably needs upgrading, o2 sensor definitely needs replacing, high flow cat-converter is probably clogged, and its around time to do the head-gaskets and timing belt all over again! So its potentially just gonna get forged instead ready for the turbo that'll be slapped on this year.

On a plus side the engine has been super reliable this whole time and i never had a breakdown because of it. I honestly love that about this engine.

I have however had to rebuild the gearbox, replace lots of the suspension bits and do the brakes a few times because i ruined them at track days so often.

However I love this car and do intend to keep one forever.... call me crazy....

More updates will be posted more regularly.
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by Rob Furniss »

I'd sort the timing first, you may find that it sorts out the fuelling issue - i'd hope so.
Sounds like you have a fair bit of work on with the car, there's always something!

Oh and congrats on your uni graduation.
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

Yeah I'll definitely be getting it sorted soon. Next paycheck I'll order the stuff then strip it down on a weekend. Hopefully it sorts out the fuel issue. Not sure that it'll fix the random power issue but hopefully it's a start. Once I've done all that stuff I'll head down with Shiggz for a drag night.
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

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So my car comes with the factory HID ballasts and very recently one would flicker and go out while I was driving. So instead of swapping some generic HID kit in (not really a fan of that Chinese stuff) I decided to fix this ballast. So basically I pulled it apart and replaced all the capacitors and IGBT's. While doing this I found one of the buses had an over voltage situation and had snapped. So I just repaired it by making a long string of solder between joints.

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Which fixed it and haven't had a problem since. While the headlight housings were out I replaced the OEM bulbs that had been in there since 1997 (still working) with some Osram 66240CBI bulbs and my god the light output is amazing now! They're so white and the range is much better!

That's all for this update.
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

Another thing I've done recently is play around with adding a three point strut brace to my FTO (why? Cause I can). One day some guy was throwing away an Evo 6 factory strut brace so I picked that up for free.

Now from investigation the firewall location I chose the metal is actually quite thin so eventually I'll have to have a look at reinforcing the area. Currently I just lightly bent a flat piece of stainless steel cut to size and placed on the wiper arm side to hopefully disperse the force across the firewall area as I'm not a fan of all the force being on the bolt.

I also had to clearance the top of the intake manifold as a little tab just nicks the strut bar. Other than that it bolts straight up.

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I'll eventually replace it with an evo 6 Cusco brace with brake master stopper.
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spetz
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by spetz »

Evos have some sort of plate that these connect to behind the firewall.
Much like the one you would've devised I suspect
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by bjk »

Man, that's a fair whack of stuff to find an issue. :lol:
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by Vectose »

Sounds like a typical RPW car. :lol:
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

@Spetz Yeah I feel like thats something that they would do. Id just like to tie it more into the stronger weld points of the car, I'm also cautious of trying not to crack points on the firewall.

@BJK Yeah tell me about it, I get so hopeful then boom! doesn't work and it cuts me deep

@Vecdose If I could go back in time, I honestly would of just done the work myself. Its just that I was away for intern work for 5 days at a time.
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

So one of things that I really don't like about my FTO is the size of the brakes. Don't worry I will be going to Evo Brembo brakes this year (they've been sitting in my shed waiting to go on). So I'm not new to driving on a track and I previously raced in Formula Vee for a year or two, so I know how to use my brakes but I use them quite aggressively.

So after my last track day near the end of last year I had some serious vibrations from the rear brakes so I needed to change that out.

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I had some serious uneven pad usage going on which was great. However I wasn't too surprised as the old pads used to be EBC greens (They got two track days and about 20000km daily driving on them). This time I upgraded to EBC reds to see if they would last longer with some new RDA dimpled and slotted rotors...

However after the bedding in procedure and around 5000km of very light daily driving I started getting stress/crack marks on the brake rotor so the next time i wanted to go on track I didn't pass inspections :evil: .

Image

Now before anyone goes chiming in you just need good pad, fluids and rotors. I've got all that, I've got new brake lines, fully refurbished calipers front and back, new expensive Dot 4 fluid replaced regularly and had new brake pads and rotors and even followed the bedding in procedure. However with only 5000km of driving the rotors shouldnt be showing stress.

To be fair on the street the brakes are really good but for track days they just aren't up to the task and I don't like relying on them (This is because on our track at Barbagello before the main straight is a steep downhill straight with around a 140-150km/h average speed, its quite common for people with bad brakes to not have enough left because they've broken too late hit the sand-trap and destroyed their car in the barricades). Hence I'll be upgrading to Evo Brembos front and back so expect that shortly.
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

Something that I've also needed to address was a nice crack in the extractors I got (hurricane/RPW/whatever) right in the douche! it looked like it was due to rust however so I'd really recommend anyone who has got some, get them powder coated or get them coated in protective UHF enamel. So I re-welded the crack and repainted the whole thing

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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

Another thing I had to replace recently was my heater core. Pretty easy job there is a good guide for it online, I did mine without removing the whole dash. Just removing the center console and glovebox. I got it from Demisterman in the UK and I couldn't recommend it enough came with seals and everything! the quality looks great! I also gave the AC component a good clean cause it was dirty as hell

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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

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Yeah so I mentioned in my other post about sh*tty paint. Well my quarter panels really weren't doing well (faded, rust showing up cause I didn't use an etching primer where I sanded through to metal last time) so I took the time during Christmas to pull the them off and the front bumper and do it right. I spent so long on preparation this time and buying the correct spray painting equipment ($1000 worth). I've got photos of everything being primer'd and prepped but I know no one wants to see that. So here is just a photo of the finished product.

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I could have done better I think but it just takes time to learn how to do things. The paint on this job has been really good but I find that it chips quite easily so I assume I did something wrong with the clear coat and did lay it on enough or I didn't cure it right so it didn't get hard enough. Oh well ill try again sometime soon.
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by silverGPX »

Hey man had you tried adjusting the TPS?
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by Vectose »

Haltech has TPS calibration.
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FTODreams
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Re: FTODreams Not So Dreamy Car! Project Moneyhole!

Post by FTODreams »

Yeah TPS has been fully calibrated. I've done all the simple stuff on the haltech and made sure it all works.
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