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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnndddd ... it's back!

Drove it 270kms home this afternoon. Took it for a quick spin for a test drive in a quiet part of the burbs there, pretty happy with how it pulls, 190kw on the wastegate, with a running-in tune. Wheel alignment in the morning, then back to Sydney to visit the new grandie. Lots of tidying up to do before it gets a serious power tune, but at least it is mobile, driveable and has a decent future in front of it. Bit noisy, more so than the IHI, but that is fixable.

Lokiel, you were right about the heat shielding, but wrong pipe! The air con pipes have gone, I am concerned about the heater hoses, I may try to massage the heater bypass pipe to move the hose further away.

Still waiting on confirmation of my L2S licence renewal, paid my money but they say 'under review' - for a week! C'mon guys, just tick the box!

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Twofer!

Hoists are great. Not only does servicing become so much easier for an old fart, problems are no longer hidden. I found the rattle that was bugging me, and also the rhs diff oil seal is leaking. I probably damaged it when I fixed the popped tripod, it had to removed and replaced.

Had the barge up there too, found the problem front BJ, but they are pressed out and the new ones pressed in. So that might go to a workshop to be fixed, probably get both done as the other is probably not far behind.

Oh damn. This is a bummer, but that's a neat trick. Gotta make one of these before your patent arrives!


It's awesome that you have the car back now! Post an update when you get a chance!

Thanks. It only shows differences, but unlikely all bent the same. Just keep measuring to find the deepest if there is more variability, I stopped straight away because a 6mm difference (and the knocking) was enough to trigger the rebuild, didn't really matter if there was lower or higher differences in there.

Yeah, things are happening, but keeping my powder dry for the moment. Hope to be ready for some updates after Chrissy and NY, lot happening here outside the car(s). I can say it is a rocketship, 190rwkw in running in tune.

So, the Autronic is out, the Link G4x pnp is in. A Powertune dash is wired in. The Link tune is 195rwkw peak. There is more in there, but I am investigating a gearbox rebuild with mods to handle more torques, as a prerequisite for going higher.

This thing is a beast, I seriously need to get it track ready before I lose my license ...

Mania installed a button clutch, which I was and am cranky about. It is a light-switch, lacked consistent pedal and feel - starting off at uphill lights was 50% big revs/slippage, 50% bunnyhops and stalls.. Quelle embarrassment!

When they did the tune I asked them to look at the clutch slave, new fluid and a bleed, but they said that was all good, how about we replace the m/c? That was the problem evidently, as the clutch is still brutal, but consistent in feel and pedal. Makes driving the car enjoyable, not having to think about every gear change and concentrate on it trying to get it right.

Worklist now looks like

Give yourself some time with the clutch. It will never be as easy as an organic clutch, but you do adjust. I find I can do ok so long as my heel is firmly on the ground.

Thanks, I am much happier with it now, 75% of my problem was the m/c playing up and that is now gone. I have put a few kms on it since, and find it much easier to launch cleanly.

Thanks for that tip, I'll pay attention to what my heel is doing, and try that approach.

Can you please post some thoughts on the Autronic vs the Link G4x pnp?
ie. Why you swapped (I'm assuming it was tuner-related or a deficiency of the Autronic) and thoughts on the tuning software.

That's a good question. The answer is a bit 'it's complicated'.

First up, my local tuner quit the game, he was a gun on them, and I couldn't find another one locally. I used Mania to tune it after the rebuild, but relying on a tuner 3 hours away was not part of my game plan. At that time I decided to move to something new. Subsequently, late in the process I found that someone who tuned my first Haltech (E8!) in the racecar had set up near me, and did Autronics, but by then I was pretty committed to a change. He also does Links, so I was covered either way.

I looked at Haltech, they still have issues with the alternator and would need a patch harness so costly, but the upside was capability and availability of tuners. Link pnp, was attractive price-wise, capable as the Haltech (maybe more so), and can be tuned locally, hit the trifecta. Mania did the tune with the install, but I can have it updated here.

As far as I was concerned, there was no functional issue with the SM4 Autronic. There was a problem with communicating with the AiM SoloDL2, but that was an AiM problem. There was/is a bug in the aircon, but that seems to be an aircon issue, not ecu (the Link hasn't fixed it, not that I was expecting it to). I think the tuning may be a little different in how it is structured, but as far as I can tell it is pretty sophisticated and capable. Only drawback I can see is that it communicates by serial, no CAN. For tuning that is no issue, but hooking up dashes etc that can complicate things.

If you want an ecu to run the car, the Autronic will do it standing on its head. It ran mine without any work-arounds or the like.

OTOH, if you want to integrate with a CAN-only dash and a PDM (or any CAN-only devices), it may not be the right choice.

I am not a DIY tuner, so I am not well placed to comment on its suiability for that type of user. I have been told the software is more akin to how a trained mechanic approaches the tuning task, but I am not one of those either!! Only comment I will make is that given the number of professional tuners who won't do MS tunes, someone familiar with MS might, repeat might, find them quite different and consequently more 'difficult'. But that is speculation on my part.