R31 Ti

[lysdexia]

thought i'd stick some pics up of my daily. have had it since october last year. bought it off a mate, was dead standard, super tidy, and only had 170,000kms on it

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/Ti/Dscn4974.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/Ti/Dscn4987.jpg

i put a nardi copy in it, painted the lettering on the tyres white, put a sun visor on it, and stuck some venetians in the rear screen

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs005.snc6/165559_10150347702675207_840390206_16055426_464075 9_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/223032_10150564735370207_840390206_17999238_614891 8_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/226037_10150564735320207_840390206_17999237_483365 8_n.jpg

then i stuck in some S13 stub axles and hubs, R33 GTS twin pots, s13 tie rod ends (with adaptors to suit the 31 rack ends), s13 HSD coilovers (thanks Joe!), whiteline swaybars, and a noltec adjustable panhard rod. heights were all fucked when i put them in at first, drove it around for a week or so looking like this;

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/282493_10150719948490207_840390206_19553969_628499 6_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/284495_10150719950080207_840390206_19553995_443398 3_n.jpg

then i levelled it out, pulled the guard liners out and pulled the mudflaps off

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/Ti/IMG_0262small.jpg

it'll stay as it is for a while now, til my other 31 is running. once it is, i have a turbo setup and a manual conversion to stick into this one.

[DCEVO]

Looks very clean interior is schmick

[Risk10k]

Needs more rusted boot and raised front.

[Jumanji]

Love 31's nice one.

[ForgedV6]

I love white writing on tyres. Looks tough! Great find mate.

Get rid of the twin pee shooters.

[DISTRBD]

Needs rb20det n manual convo :P

[lysdexia]

Manual yes, RB20 no.

[Torquen]

Manual yes, RB20 no.

QFT.

[magic1]

bart likes this

[Mad_Aussie]

Needs it's window frames painted white.

Looks great dude, much love for the sun visor!

[rat]

Those seats!!! So inviting!!

[Passage GT]

looks super clean dude, very nice.

[Kerelm]

yeeeeeeeeeeahhh buddy.

[caibs]

so good as it is!!!

[Smoked]

nice. big fan of these

[lysdexia]

threw my other wheels on this yesterday

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/316292_10150760686030207_840390206_20066383_442863 2_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/315454_10150760687385207_840390206_20066388_262164 2_n.jpg

[caibs]

i reckon the stockies with white lettering looked heeaps better

[Risk10k]

Do the lettering on those, will looked bombed. Looks really clean Ian, swapsies?

[Mad_Aussie]

+1 for lettering on the 17's, those are great looking wheels on 31's... The car looks great man, makes me want another 31 :)

[lysdexia]

17s have different tyres front to rear, would look funny if i did the lettering white lol

[lysdexia]

nothing new to add to this, i just took a few photos though

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6095/6324774349_23f10b703c_b.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6035/6325527776_b838f23425_b.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6091/6324775107_90ba85b29a_b.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6095/6325528512_5874607c40_b.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6096/6324777505_1cbb09e709_b.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6092/6324777995_bf7c9c6ca8_b.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6237/6325531390_4ca051e7bd_b.jpg

has an exhaust leak at the manifold at the moment, will fix that soon by making it turbo

[monk_13]

I vote stockies go back on it, followed by a monster engine. Would make an awesome sleeper.

[1JZVL]

Stock wheels were freakin awesome :)

[Torquen]

Stock wheels look shit. Much better as it stands now :)

[lysdexia]

forgot i had this thread, guess i should update!

back in March some absolute pingpingpingping of a person threw a chunk of limestone at it, thankfully it only hit the boot and not the rear screen/venetian blind

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/432035_10151346813810207_840390206_22820964_675651 909_n.jpg

got some custom plates in June.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/217c75b8.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/ddb28caa.jpg

pulled the dent out a bit around then too

start of july i did some turbo moves. VLT manifold, highflow VL turbo (basic t3/4 deal but with a t04 comp cover, spaced 10mm off the manifold), GTR injectors, china billet fuel rail, tomei reg, nistune, cooler, 3" dump back exhaust. also deleted all the coolant lines out of the plenum while it was apart. cooler piping was made up of 2 old piping setups i had lying around, hence it looks like something niggers would build.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/932028ce.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/a8582612.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/f82318dc.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/0426a8f7.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/42df1e5c.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/aa474a1d.jpg

once i got it running right we loaded a tune into it i got from matt from nistune, and killed the auto doing 2nd gear one legger roll ons about 20 minutes later. it copped a 5 speed box, reco veem shaft with bigger unis, brand new clutch master cylinder, exedy h/d clutch, and an 8 ball gear knob from the pool table at the pub.

i also washed it and took some instadouche photos of it

http://distilleryimage7.instagram.com/a930d9f0eab011e18c261231381b5c32_7.jpg
http://distilleryimage4.instagram.com/ce9a7520eab011e18bc012313804ac71_7.jpg

after all that, i drove it 8000kms. i wrote up a story on another forum, i will copy and paste..

[lysdexia]

So I just got home from a pretty massive adventure. I drove from Bunbury WA to Goulburn NSW for the Skyline Nationals, then back home again. Did the majority of the trip on my own.

The plan was as follows:

Bunbury -> Balladonia
Balladonia -> Ceduna
Ceduna -> Adelaide
Adelaide -> Wagga
Wagga -> Goulburn

then the reverse to get home. Of course, it didn't go to plan. The following is copy-pasted from another forum.

Warning, I am writing a novel here.

I got to SA today, am in Ceduna at the moment. I stayed in Balladonia last night, no phone reception there.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/546472_10152060973860207_1907863213_n.jpg

So day 1 went to shit. I made it all of 145km from home before the car broke the first time. why it couldn't do that over the 400km i did in the week previously i don't know. basically, to fit the GTR injectors in the car i used a cheap ebay o-ring rail rather than use the stock rail with hose tails and stuff. thing is, when you buy an 11mm rb30 ebay rail, it's actually a 14mm rail with oversize o rings. long story short, it spat an o-ring off an injector and i had to stop on the side of the road, pull the rail off, and re-seat all the injector o-rings.

then i got to wagin (~200km from home) and it had done it again. probably due to not taking enough care the first time though really.

so i fixed it again and i was off. I made it til just before Esperance, then noticed the fuel gauge dropping a little faster than normal. I stopped for fuel and to suss it out 20km past Esperance, at Gibson. Popped the bonnet, couldn't see any leaking injectors, but then i noticed that the fitting at the end of the rail was leaking. it was an o-ring seal fitting with a 3/4" straight thread on one end sealing into the rail, with a -6 on the other side. the o-ring was all crooked and pushed out and to put it bluntly, fucked.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/199798_10152061762230207_754713534_n.jpg

some nice bloke asked what was wrong as he rolled through on his way home, i explained it to him, and he went home to see if he had any o-rings. then another bloke rolled up in a truck. i asked him if he had an o-ring kit. he said no, but i might have an o-ring. he opened the back and pulled out a fucken drawer full of steel fittings. got an o ring from him that kind of fit, and old mate came back with another one for me too. neither fixed it. the thing would just squash them and fuck them when doing it up. i ended up giving in and calling it a night, thankfully where i stopped was a hotel/motel. so i got a room, had some beers and a steak burger, and went to bed.

722km / 9ish hours

random day 1 pics
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/251442_10152061128345207_1306989_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/377213_10152061456270207_223953037_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/393413_10152061556080207_210616667_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402810_10152061563890207_1564138357_n.jpg


so on day 2 i got up, had a coffee, and started fucking with the car again. i tried the o-ring i got off the fitting truck bloke again, with a cocktonne of oil for lube this time, and it seemed to do up flat-ish. it held pressure for about 10 seconds before it blew out an injector o-ring. to cut a long story short, i ripped the top half of the manifold off, pulled the rail out, re-seated and re-lubed all the injectors, and refitted the rail. after about 5 goes it sealed all the injectors. at which point it blew the o-ring out of the fitting.

needless to say, i yelled at it.

then i rang the wreckers in Esperance to see if they had any RB30 parts. I was in luck, he had a VL in the yard with a complete engine. I caught a $60 taxi to the wreckers (via 2 ATMs cause the first one was out of order) and went and yanked out the stock rail, injectors and bottom seals from this VL. $100 later and i was on mhy way. I then carried the rail and my ~50kg toolbox half a km to Repco and bought a metre of fuel hose (which turned out to be carb hose, but it's ok), a bunch of clamps and some external circlip pliers. a $48 taxi back out to Gibson later, and i got stuck into stripping the new rail, unclipping all the clamps off the NA injectors, and refitting my GTR injectors to all this. I decided that rather than cut up the new hose i bought (which i hadn't even looked at yet) i'd re-use the hose from the return off the shit rail as it was the right length to get the 6 hosetails from. It was only when i made the return from the rail to the reg that I realise they'd given me non-EFI hose (It's done 1400km now with no probs though). By 1:30 PM i had a running car again with no leaks. I had a beer at the bar in celebration, said thanks to the guys at Gibson and got moving again.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/574446_10152064058685207_146875471_n.jpg

4 hours later i was in Balladonia. At some point along the way I decided I was going to throw the china fuel rail into the southern ocean at a picturesque location. I fueled the car up, got a room for the night, and went and sat at the bar. There was this cool German girl working the bar there. while i sat there eating my dinner (the blandest looking yet best tasting chicken parmy i have ever had!) i heard her have the same conversation with 5 different people. every one of them asked where she was from, where she was going, etc. so i decided to ask her if she was sick of telling people where she was from yet, and suddenly i had a new friend. i sat there and chatted to her while drinking 6 cans, and went to bed by 9:00. Balladonia has no phone reception so there was fuck all else to do.

389km / ~3.5 hours


day 3 (today) i got up at 6am WA time, got my shit together, and got out of Balladonia by 7am, with a destination of Ceduna. Immediately after Balladonia is the 90 mile straight. I wanted to put an M1 300 sticker on the sign. I was like 100m from it doing 110kmh when i realised that it was the sign i was after. i got on the brakes hard, stopped, and instantly freaked the fuck out because smoke came from my engine bay. Then i realised it was from the brakes. Sticker went on sign, photo was taken, and i was off again.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/s720x720/281858_10152069044620207_707332652_n.jpg

For anyone that was wondering, 150km at 110kmh with zero corners and hardly any undulation is MIND NUMBINGLY BORING. I literally yelled WOO A CORNER when it ended.

I stopped for fuel at Cocklebiddy, and rolled on through to Eucla. before Eucla is Madura, which was an absolute spinout. I had been on this straight flat bit of road for hours then all of a sudden there was this steep sweeping downhill right hand bend that just comes out of nowhere. There's a cliff on either side of you, and looking off to the right (south, where it drops away) you can just see a massively vast flat plain. It was truely breathtaking, half because of how cool it was and half because it really does just come out of nowhere! From there to Eucla you have the mountains on your left hand side. A little while later I got to Eucla, and I GOT PHONE RECEPTION AGAIN!! I was so happy. Coming into Eucla is basically the reverse of Madura, there's a sweeping uphill left hander back to the top of the hills. I pulled into Eucla and had a delicious BLT sandwich, checked facebook, sent some texts, called Gavin, all that rad shit that you kinda take for granted. Then i got back on the road. 13km later I was in SA.

I realised at about this point that somewhere around here was going to be an awesome place to throw my fuel rail into the ocean. 130km from Eucla I found the perfect spot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE-ZhTAFSHk

then i just kept driving. The next stop I had planned was the nullarbor roadhouse, which is roughly 200km from Eucla. I got there, and it was a Mobil, so they had no 98 (i haven't had to put 95 in once yet) so i grabbed a redbull and a water and kept moving. I still had enough fuel to easily get me to Nundroo. Nundroo only had a Liberty servo, and didn't even have 95, let alone 98. I probably had enough to _just_ roll into Ceduna, but i decided that now would be a good time to throw 20L of fuel from a jerry can in. That got me to Ceduna way easy. Filled up at the BP when i rolled in, then went to the Ceduna Foreshore Hotel/Motel and here I am :). by this time it was around about 6:00 SA time / 4:30 WA time.

1067km / 9.5 hours

TO BE CONTINED

(i have more photos but they won't upload because of a gypsy curse)

[lysdexia]

Day 4 was Ceduna to Adelaide. About 800km. Pretty uneventful for the most part. As i rolled through Kimba, which is the half way
point from coast to coast, i went past the Big Galah and 3 Inches of Blood - Deadly Sinners came on. That was a pretty rad moment.
I stopped at Iron knob for a piss.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/7CA4C0C2-FC8E-45C5-9E4F-6EDEFE16F29C-1463-0000020E01059045.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/4E771B0B-2C93-48B0-ABA4-0268A5546E2E-1463-0000020E09BDBC2B.jpg

and these signs made me laugh

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/lysdexia/EA3F3056-D8DD-4A25-BDAC-678B3579F6BB-1463-0000020E1315FD83.jpg

For the last 10 or so kms of the Eyre highway i got stuck behind an un-passable oversized truck. it had a full on mine site dump
truck on it. wish i got a photo.

so i rolled on into adelaide. once i got into the stop start traffic i noticed that the smoke from (what i thought was my) valve
stem seals had got a fair bit worse. wasn't massively phased by it at this stage, cause it only did it after rolling in gear with
no throttle, and after idling for a minute or so. got to Gavin's by about 5pm, and we had a couple of beers and started loading
the car up. We decided to get up at 3:30am to leave at 4:00. Because we were a day behind thanks to my fuel rail, Adelaide to
Goulburn had to be done in one hit.

Day 5, we got up at 3:30 and left at 4:00 exactly as planned. Being the worst morning person ever, I have no idea how that was
succesful. Gavin drove the first leg. It was pitch black when we left, but by the time the sun was up we were almost in Victoria.

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/253002_10152070339015207_1089836182_n.jpg

We filled the car up at Mildura and smoked out the servo with my sweet-assed oil smoke. Then we were back on the road. Crossed
the bridge over the river and suddenly we were in NSW. From there we drove for a bit and we reached the Hay plains. Jesus those
are boring, probably worse than the nullarbor. So we took some selfies.

http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/581434_10152070760320207_946444224_n.jpg
http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396551_4289729597122_1105250545_n.jpg

this happened at some point

http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/376626_10152070623030207_1906500802_n.jpg

We got to just out of Nerandera and swapped seats again. We decided at about this stage that when we got to Wagga Wagga we'd hit
up Bursons and get some thick oil and some stop smoke, and do an oil and filter change to try and stop it from smoking so much.
Joel (boostin31) was more than happy for us to come in and use his workshop for that. Rad bloke. We also took some more selfies.

http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/255440_10152070955315207_226348601_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/381351_4290013084209_30076633_n.jpg

Slowing down into Wagga we also noticed that t he car had developed a funny noise from the driveline somewhere. You couldn't feel
it through the car at all, it was just a noise. So we decided we'd have a look at that on Joel's hoist too. So we rolled up to
Bursons and got what we needed, then smoked out the whole street as we left. Got to Joel's and he was busy with another car, so we
got to have a bit of a break, and had a beer while we waited. Ended up doing the oil change on the ground while Joel was still on
the hoist, and then eventually get the car in the end to suss out the noise. As soon as i was underneath it i noticed the oil
dripping out of the rear housing of the turbo, where the wastegate sandwich plate meets the exhaust housing. So it wasn't valve
stem seals at all, the rear oil seal on the turbo was leaking. I decided that was both good, cause i didn't need to pull the head
off to fix it, but also bad, because it also meant the turbo could blow at any time.

We went over the car and noticed the panhard rod adjuster nuts had worked loose, and the rod was wobbling making a noise that
sounded just like the one we could hear. So we tightened that up, and we were off again. For about 100m til we noticed the noise
was well and truely still there. Turned around, put the car back on the hoist and went over everything again. Eventually we
worked out that while the tailshaft had no play in it at all, when rotating it you could hear a slight sound from the centre
bearing. The shaft felt fine though, so we decided to just keep moving.

So it was my time to drive again. Got to the end of the Sturt highway, gassed it onto the Hume, and halfway down the onramp the
car just went PUHH and the engine died. At the time i thought it sounded like a popped cooler pipe, but it was odd because it
wouldn't restart, and rolling in gear with the ignition on i still had no tacho at all. The car stopped before we made it to
anywhere with an emergency lane, so i had to just pull to the side and turn the hazards on. it was well and truely night time by
this stage. So we got the torches out, popped the bonnet, and went over everything. no popped piping, nothing had come off. I
checked (read, unplugged and plugged back in) the CAS plug, went over everything else, and then decided to try and start the car again.

It fired up straight away.

So we got back in and cautiously started the rest of the trip to Goulburn. The engine was flawless the rest of the way there. The
tailshaft however, was not. We babied it to a car wash and i gave it a bath in the freezing cold.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/540121_4291220314389_1406260599_n.jpg

By the time we rolled up to the motel, the vibration coming from under the car was unnerving to say the least, and it sounded like
the world was going to end. couple that with the smoke billowing out of the exhaust, and you can imagine how amazing our entrance
was. But who the fuck cares, WE MADE IT!

[lysdexia]

So day 6 was the show and shine. Babied the car down to the middle of Goulburn, smoked the place out, and parked it up for the day.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8035/7985578199_7817b857ca_b.jpg

wandered around and took some photos, which you can see here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67866065@N06/with/7985565573/#photo_7985565573

then sat in the pub for the arvo. good times. babied the car back to the motel, and by that stage we had decided that the
tailshaft had reached the undrivable stage, and something would need to be done about it. Mainyard had a shaft at home in
Gundagai, and had a trailer. So we decided that on Monday morning he would trailer Dan's car back to Sydney, then stop on the way
back through and get mine, and we'd take it back to his house, put his tail shaft in, and we'd be good to go. Sounded like a rad
idea to me. Then we got drunk.

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/309272_10152074789470207_219716653_n.jpg


Then on the 7th day he rested. The car stayed parked up all day, and Gavin and I got a lift to Wakefield Park with Mikey in Nev.
I went out in Brinn's passenger seat on the parade lap and snapped a few cool pics.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8439/7985496315_eb280afc7d_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8170/7985503802_1bbf4462a0_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8297/7985500844_079bb20839_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8314/7985489945_7cb8b043d4_b.jpg

i spent the rest of the day wandering around snapping photos and talking shit. good times. Then that night was the presentation
dinner. I got pretty drunk, helped heckle Adrian, got given a Liqui Moly pack just for being there, and generally had an awesome
night.

http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/529971_4700517229591_1531848598_n.jpg

good times.


So Day 8 was tailshaft day. Some time the night before Tim had decided it might be an idea to see if we could find a centre
bearing in Goulburn, and just repair my tailshaft. Before I was even out of bed, Tim had come back with a centre bearing kit.

After packing the car up and getting the fuck out of the hotel rooms, we drove to the end of the street (a bigassed cul de sac) and got to work.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8297/7987275908_cdb24aef8e_b.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/399586_4302114826745_2117720586_n.jpg

Tim got under there and yanked the shaft out in no time flat. Upon pulling it apart, we discovered pretty quickly that the bolts
that hold the CV together were all quite loose. When we got it split, there was zero grease in it. High quality reco there
obviously. Tim then went abou trying to get the old centre bearing off the shaft. He built this excellent Gundagai spec work
bench.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8437/7987276178_8d6ba9dcbd_b.jpg

but alas, it wasn't to be. So he called up the repco workshop and asked if he could use the press. He was back half an hour and I
had a new centre bearing on my tailshaft. So we put it back together, greased the fuck out of the CV and made sure it was tight,
put it in the car, and we were back on the road again.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8438/7987275414_4f7874171f_b.jpg

by this stage it was lunch time so we went to get mcdonalds. then we were off. we hit the Hume highway and headed back towards
Wagga. Having lost half a day, we decided that we would make Hay our destination for the night.

http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396414_10152077813010207_1237169795_n.jpg

We got to about 50km out of Hay as it got dark. Gavin was driving by this stage. The windscreen was covered in bugs and my
squirters don't work yay! about 35km out all of a sudden the car developed a huge missfire, and the tacho started jumping around
across a ~2000rpm band on the gauge. The car was losing speed slowly but surely, but while it was still moving there was no way in
hell we were stopping on the side of the road, especially so close to town! We got down to about 60kmh, about 20km out of town by
now, and we started to fear the worse. Then all of a sudden the revs started ramping up, and the turbo started compressor surging
like hell. Somehow we built up boost and got the car back up to speed. Gavin just held it flat and it got us all the way into
town at about $1.40, missing hard and compressor surging the whole time. A couple of massive rev-backfire-clutchdumps and we made
it to the motel. It was dark and there were people there so we ust turned it off and parked it up. Had a quick look under the
bonnet, nothing untoward there. Checked the CAS plug again, bonnet down, pub.

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/393526_10152078071505207_1149137618_n.jpg

i beat Gav a bunch of times at pool

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/576968_10152078101190207_1085691823_n.jpg

then we went back to the motel and got some sleep.

[lysdexia]

So, Day 9.

We got up in the morning and had a look at the car. It fired up first turn of the key. Asshole of a thing.

So Gavin took it for a few laps of Hay to get it warm and see if it would play up again, while i got all my shit together and got ready to go. He did about 6 laps of the town and the car didn't skip a beat, so I jumped in for one more lap, just to have a bit of a look around. Car was still flawless so we decided that we were just going to have to chance it and hope it got us back to Adelaide. So off we went. A few hundred km later we were in Mildura and the car hadn't skipped a beat, aside from the speedo deciding to drop out every now and then. I'm not surprised or phased by this, i'm pretty sure the speedo sender is from my first 31, and it didn't work at all in that car lol.

Swapped seats at Mildura and kept driving. Got to the SA/VIC border, stuck some stickers to some signs

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http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8035/7987274666_21a2396331_b.jpg

And headed back into Adelaide. Car was flawless, but we decided to stop in at Gavin's work and get a new CAS plug for just in case i needed to swap it out. Would have grabbed a CAS if they had any stock, but no dice. Got back to Gavin's, took his spare CAS's, then Leigh bought over 2 more. So I was set.


Day 10, Adelaide to Ceduna.

Non-event of a day actually. Seeing as though adelaide doesn't have a proper road system it took ages to get past the city. Eventually I did, smoked out a cop car in a huge way as i left a servo, and i was away.

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Got to Ceduna, bought a couple of blocks of West End to take home with me, and settled into my room. Went down and got a beer and some dinner. Food was pretty shit, so i had another beer instead. Then went back up to my room and sat on the internets. Went back down for a couple more beers, discovered for the last 2 that i could quite easily just take them up to my room. Good times. I went to go to bed and realised there were no less than 7 pillows on the bed. I deemed this excessive. So I did the only thing any normal perso would do, and built a small to medium sized pillow fort.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8438/7985486960_ee65ca27e9_b.jpg

As you can probably tell, I had definitely had a few beers by this stage. So I went to bed.


Day 11 was Ceduna to Balladonia.

So I decided that the last thing i wanted was to be stuck on the side of the road across the Nullarbor with a blown turbo. While it had held up fine thus far, I still didn't trust that it was going to get me home. I figured though, that if it blew i could block off the oil feed, loop the water lines and pull the cooler pipe off to run the car NA. I had nothing to block the oil feed with though, so i hit up the Sprint Auto Parts store before leaving Ceduna. All i needed was a 12x1.25mm sump plug and i was set. Of course, they didn't have one. So I had to chance it.

From previous experience I knew that 1 tank of fuel was not quite enough to get me to Eucla. So 77km out of Ceduna i stopped at Penong and filled the tank again. A massive 8 litres lol. But it made the difference. So i then hightailed it out of there. I stopped at Kimba this time to get a photo of the incredibly fucking frightening Big Galah.

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Then i hightailed it across the Nullarbor toward Eucla. When i got to the quarantine guy at the border he was really interested in the car, so I had a bit of a chat with him, then rolled the next 12km into Eucla. Fuel gauge was on the bottom of the E line by here, couldn't have timed it better. Filled the car, had some lunch, smoked the servo out, and I was off again. Down the Eucla pass, up the Madura pass, stopped at Cocklebiddy for fuel, then hit the 90 Mile Straight. Was much more boring the second time around, and there was heaps less traffic so I wasn't doing as much overtaking and shit. Finally got into Balladonia.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8313/7987272728_371502bc7e_b.jpg

I had noticed by this stage, that i had completely lost the rear exhaust mount. Being back in my home state, I figured I should probably fix it so as to not get a defect. But I decided that was a job for the next morning. So I had a shower, got some dinner, had a couple of beers, and went back to my room to watch a movie then go to bed.


Day 12. Balladonia to Home.

By this stage I was so keen to get home it wasn't funny. I decided that I would go North from Norseman, up to Coolgardie, and down Great Eastern Highway all the way into Perth. Then I could just get onto the freeway and head home to Bunbury.

So that's what I did. I got to Coolgardie and needed fuel. They only had 95. First time on the entire trip that I had to put something other than 98 in the car. They didn't have any octane booster. And it hated me for it. Pinged it's ring off if i loaded it up. So I just cruised it. By the time I got to Merredin I was down to half a tank, so I stopped at the BP, Filled it back up with 98 and threw in a bottle of octane booster there. It was happy again. By this stage i was about 260km from Perth, and loving it.

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Coming into Perth, I had to go down down Greenmount Hill. For anyone not from WA, it's a 10% incline for quite a few km. And it's an 80 zone. I rolled down it with no throttle for most of the way, not really thinking about the consequences. I got to the bottom and stopped at the traffic lights, and quite literally smoked out a whole suburb. People had no idea what was going on, the cars behind me overtook me after the lights and yelled. But hey, there was fuck all I could do about it, and i just wanted to get home. I ended up with a bike cop behind be 2 sets of lights down, so i backstreeted it a bit from there. I had to stop into suburbia to drop some things off to Steve's brother for him.

By the time I got to Tonkin Highway I had managed to hit peak hour. lots of smoke and impatience later, and I had made it to Roe Highway. And by the time i got to the end where it joins the freeway, it was a carpark. There was a cop on a bike in the emergency lane, had someone pulled over. I smoked him out in a huge way as i rolled past. He looked at me pretty intently for a second, then went on with what he was doing. I crawled with the traffic for the next km or so, unable to really do anything, and he rolled up the emergency lane, straight past me, and pulled over someone else. needless to say, i was thankful and confused. and i managed to get him with the smoke again when i passed him again. But I got on the freeway, and suddenly I was only 143km from home. I was so happy.

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an uneventful hour and a bit later, I was home. I made it. over 8000km in 12 days. the car needs a massive birthday, but it got me there.

i'm still in disbelief :)

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[DCEVO]

Give that 31 one hell of a hug dude she needs it

[lysdexia]

old matey's parked up at the moment

have swapped a stock VL turbo onto it, and will be giving it a timing belt and tensioner, water pump, thermostat, CAS, CAS Plug, engine mounts, box mounts and a wash over the weekend.


he did me proud :)

[wormbo2]

Just read your whole story man, that's an EPIC trip. Well done, I tip my hat to you for the commitment and fearlessness and faith in the ol' 31!

Thumbs up!

[Stef]

awesome effort mate!! seems a bit of luck went your way with the car, good work!!

[DISTRBD]

Do it again in 2 yrs time with the 31 coupe :P

[lysdexia]

putting it on the train, fuck driving it hahaha

[[FL0SSIN]]

Awesome write up man, sounded like a fun trip, well done!

[Frenchy]

Really enjoyed that read man. Thanks for taking the time to post it :)

[DrKarl]

You have balls - good on you.

[Pav]

Great write up man, I really enjoyed reading it!

[Passage GT]

great read dude, sounds like an epic trip, i would have been fucked with some of those mechanical issues

[lysdexia]

i'd be lying if i said i wasn't just fucken lucky with some of them!

[DISTRBD]

i'd be lying if i said i wasn't just fucken lucky with some of them!


Unlucky with that piece of shit VEEM recon tailshaft :/

[lysdexia]

fuck knows how long ago that was done though man, it's all good now anyways!

[Turbo2.6L]

Awesome read, well done on the trip & the story writing!!

[-Luke-]

Awesome read thanks for sharing it! :D



(I also have a shaft reco'd by veem fall apart at the cv bolts so it must be a standard operation for them!)

[RUSSGT]

Awesome read!

[coucheee]

Awesome story, and top effort to sit down and write that whole story, made my night