Ok….Td42’s….fantatistic engine…as my first diesel engine…I love it, after tuning its got decent power, good economy, and as we all know will last until we all use flying cars to get around in.

Saying this….servicing…every 5000kays!!, NOT COOL!…  2 Filters and 8 litres of oil every 5000km really starts to add up!  After thinking about it, I couldnt see how the big rigs would put up with dropping oil so often.  So i did a bit of research and found a thing called a bypass oil filter.   The idea being that it doesnt force all the oil through the filters before getting to the gallerys like the standard stuff, but steals a tiny flow and ’scrubs’ the oil a bit at a time.

There seems to be some really good benefits in this.

1.  Seeing that the bypass filter doesnt imped oil flow,  it can clean the oil sooo much better (something like less than 1 micron filtration)

2.  Can increase oil life substantially, like 2 - 4 times. So 20,000 kays between changes for a Td42…MUCH BETTER!

3.  On the Frantz kit the filters are really only dunny rolls!! So very cheap to replace.

Anyways, ive just emailed Frantz for some pricing and details.  But so far its looking very promising.

Will post again when I get more details.

Well, after stuffing around Friday night, and Sat morning, I now have the arms fitted to my ute. I had to cut away some of the reinforcing that I had done to the diff for the bracing on the passenger side to fit. Im going to call Superior when i get a chance and see if i can weld these plates inplace, so I dont have to worry about any weaknesses.

You are supplied 3 Nuts and Bolts for the passenger side drop arm (The short one) I would of like to of seen new bolts included for the other side too, plus nuts for the chassis end…But there ya go. One thing that im a bit worried about is the length of the bolts, they seem maybe 2 - 3 mm to short, as the bolts doent ‘quite’ come through the nuts by a thread or so… Im going to talk to Superior about this too, and see if i have made any errors. If not, im going to go down to the local bolt shop and purchase longer versions.

Anyway, after fitting I jumped straight in and went for a quick drive around the block, on the highway, and then offroad. The first thing I noticed was how much smoother the ute drove. Just less harsh. Steering way waaay better, but im assuming thats because I finally have the right castor correction. Highway driving was the same, smoother and well mannered. I did notice ’slightly’ more body roll, but nothing to be concerned about.

Now…offroad, On friday afternoon, I went for a drive before i fitted the arms, and found a little spot where without the lockers ingauged, the ute would flex out, and id stop. I thought this would be a great spot to test the new arms, as in theory once the arms where in the ute would have enough flex to still have traction. I marked where i stopped with some sticks etc, and then took some photos.

On Sat morning after I had fitted the arms, I went back to the same place and tried again. But….I stopped still….what tha?? I had progressed further than on Friday afternoon, but only by about 6 inches, not really what I was hoping for. I started taking photos, and then noticed that now the limited factor was that my front shocks had maxed out.

If you look closely at the two photos above, you will seen in the bottom one that the ’skinny’ bit of the shock is showing…basicly meaning its reached its maximum travel.

Soo…. I didnt have the tools with me to drop that shock, but will get some longer shocks asap and test again. My bet is that it will increase travel dramaticly. So far im very happy with these arms.

More photos of the testing etc HERE

I took delivery of my new front radius arms for the ute today.  Its been a fair wait, but im pretty sure it was worth it!

Ill try and get time to put them in on the weekend, and see how they go.

More pix HERE

Well, I went and purchased a dual batterty kit for the new car today, after doing a bit of research, I decided on the ‘IBS’ kit from TJM.

I went with this kit because, althought its a fair bit more expensive than a standard dual battery system, it gives me 2 voltage gauges, a charge meter and the battery ‘link’ buttons all in a single package.

The install was pretty easy, and it all seems to be working A - OK. Very happy to far..

Just a quick note to let you know the differences in power ive experienced from my new GU.

When i got the 3″ exhaust done, I didnt really notice a ‘huge’ difference in power, the boost came on a bit quicker, and thats about it…It ‘does’ sounds HEAPS better thou… More like a Mack truck now, whistle and all.

The big power increase came from having Matt from QDAD work his magic on it. At this stage, the boost was not raised at all, just pure tuning. And the difference is amazing, its basicly gone from having to change down to 4th on hills, to blasting up them in 5th. Fuel economy has improved to boot! Once I get some 100% accurate figures i will post them, but for reference, its gone from about 15 to 13 / 100 kms

Well, I finally got around to ordering myself a set of those Flexy arms I was talking about a while ago.

Heres some more pics of them, once they arrive, I will try and get some before and after shots to show you all.

Well, i got my HID lights installed on Sunday, WOW….im very impressed with them so far. About the only real hiccup that i would suggest you watch out for is that the bulbs that i got were a fair bit longer at the back of the lense, so they hit the light housing and stopped the lense being screwed back in. Ill post a couple pics so you know what i mean.

Heres the difference between a normal halogen 100W bulb and a 55w HID

Heres the hole i had to drill into the back of the housing for the bulb to fit.

I then just plugged the hole with the plastic cup that came with the kit, glue it in and painted it black.

Theres some more pics of the install, etc HERE

I also finally was able to get a high mount overhaul kit off a mate of mine on the weekend. This will enable me now to repalce all the bushes, seals and bearings in the winch.

Well, theres been a ton of talk about the cheap HID kits from ebay latley, so i thought i would get myself a set and see how they go.

I picked them up last night, and my first impressions are pretty darn good. I got the H1 6000K 55watt set.

They are very well packed, and the ballasts seem to be of a good enough quality, i quickly set one up of a car battery last night, and DAM are they bright.

EDIT: Just incase your wondering, these bulbs will be retrofitted to a set of Hella Rallye 2000 Spotties.

More Photos HERE also

Well, on the weekend….

The ute got a xmas present of..

a Yuri modified power steering pump (50% more pressure)
a Mr Sheet Metal Braced Gu front from a 2006 Gu with 11000 kays on it!
New bushes throughout the frontend.
a BIG Steering box from the same GU patrol.
new Superior Engineering 4140 drag link
new Superior Engineering 4140 tierod
new fan belts

Im pretty happy with how it turned out considering it was a 1 man effort, everything lined up and installed pretty well… All the seals etc on the diff didnt need renewing which made life much easier. All the bearings were good.

i ‘did’ have to cut 3mm off each end of the Gu size drag link i got to get a proper right hand full lock for some reason. But that was easy enough.

So the only real thing left now is that im going to get some steel braided PS hoses made up for the extra high pressure, just to make sure i dont have any issues in the future.

that..and to take it offroad and give it the thrashing of its life, hehehe

Pictures coming soon!