Zeddophile

No reason why they won't. Probably more expensive to buy two sets of than bike throttles from the states though - I think I paid just over $200 a set of 4, and mine are 42mm. Do your research first though, many many different bore sizes in bike throttles.

Gold is metal?

what makes it a parts car? Just full of rust?

Generally speaking, a lot of cars the headbolts/studs aren't a close fit in the head anyway, so as long as there are decent dowels in place, and the head nut gets good clamping forces on the head, it shouldn't be a huge issue IMO. If you wanted you could get some sleeves made up to sit inside the holes in the head to bring the diameter down to the smaller studs....

I would have thought its normally a case of parking next to the porch? The Porsches though, are probably just jealous

One day I will make it to see that in person - its supposed to be an awesome weekend. The question is, do I go there first, and then do the 75 experience at the Nordschliefe, or the other way round

Good job! Nice to see someone else using bike parts on their engine. I did the same thing although using EFI throttles off a GSX-R 750 (42mm keihin), and I know exactly what you mean about how well made they are. Puts all the aftermarket throttle bodies to shame when you look at them closely... Out of idle curiosity, how are the blackbird ones held together? On the GSX-R efi ones, each throttle is a seperate casting, and they are held together by 3 through bolts. The linkage between each has a spring and screw arrangement which allows each body to be individually balanced....

see my post on page 2 for my experiences on that.

Now there's a bloody good idea! Got enough room in your carry on luggage for a bloke with his snowboard?

Oh good, its not just me!

I think I'll join you in that.... would love to have a bike, but the other idiots on the road are a strong deterrent. Having a mate die on one with his wife at the start of the year reinforced that.... He'd been riding for 40 years, but still got cleaned up mid corner by someone else on a bike coming the other way on the wrong side of the road.... Thankfully he died instantly, rather than suffering. The other guy, however, will likely never get out of his wheelchair again, and to be honest personally I think that is quite fitting. And yes, I know, the same can happen in a car, but my view is that in a car you are more visible for a start, and in circumstances where for example someone merges into you or pulls out in front, you don't end up going straight under/over their vehicle. The metal shell of a car with seatbelts provides for much improved odds over leather, fibreglass and skyhooks. They're awesome machines in terms of power and acceleration, and given roads completely free of traffic, I'd have one, with only my own stupidity to bring me unstuck. Throw the general public's inability to drive to conditions or look out the window of their car into the mix, and its a case of forget about it. Having been overtaken on a blind corner on the wrong side of the road at 100km/h on more than one occasion, I doubt that the increase is solely due to scooter riders.... I suspect its a case of more people buying bikes and being absolute morons on them.... And as for more idiots dieing in cars than on bikes - how many bikes are registered in Australia versus cars? And of those bikes, how many are in everyday use, and how many are weekend/sunny day toys? Not trying to start something, just genuinely wondering whether the percentage of bike deaths against bikes on the road is higher or lower than percentage of car deaths against cars on the road, or if anyone has ever actually worked it out in that way....

Awesome. Just.... awesome.

Just an additional to this.... With the ITBs on my alfa V6, I was running little motorbike pods on the end of the throttles until I built the airboxes which I had in mind from the start. When I finally built the airboxes, and ran the inlet through a pipe welded into the inner guard which ends up in large Unifilter foam elements behind the headlights, I noticed about a 15 degree drop in intake temperatures in the ECU, which brought it to about 3 degrees over ambient temperature. Not to mention once it does heat up in traffic etc, it cools straight back down once on the move at 80km/h, and within probably 2 minutes is back to normal temp, where before it would only drop a couple of degrees from the heat it built up. The two filters I have in it are not ducted to in any way, they simply suck air from the space behind the headlights, which is essentially sealed from the engine bay and the wheel well. The only point air can enter from is just behind the front spoiler, and its at 90 degrees to the direction of airflow, and is a little higher than the lowest point of the spoiler. I'm sure with a small scoop hanging down into the airflow I could bring the intake temps down a couple of degrees further, possibly 1 or 2 below ambient with wind chill factor, but I'd then be ramming road spray etc directly into the filters.... So yes, getting your filter out of the engine bay and sealed off from it best as possible is definitely worth it, and makes a huge difference. Seems like Galderdi has already done this, and unfortunately I don't forsee a huge improvement in intake temps resulting from adding a duct to it. Can easily be checked if you want to prove the point, install a temp probe inside the intake, being sure it can't get overly heat soaked by the piping around it, then dummy up some cardboard ducting around it and see how much the temp drops. In this case I'd guess its only a couple of degrees above ambient as it is now, so there will be minimal gains... Ram effect however, is a different story... If you can seal your filter off in such a way that the only entrance is being force fed by the airflow at speed, the engine doesn't have to suck anywhere near as hard to pull the air through the intake, and at some revs with enough ram effect may actually not need to suck it at all. This is where a manifold pressure guage comes in handy. At wide open throttle, you should see atmospheric pressure between the throttle body and valves (the same pressure you will see before you start the engine). If you are seeing a few kpa less than atmospheric pressure, your intake is too restrictive. The air being drawn into the cylinder by the piston going down is actually holding the piston up to an effect, and this will lose power. If however at WOT you get a couple of kpa over atmospheric pressure, you have a very good intake (likely with a good duct ramming air in).

No point. The intercooler works on a turbo because the turbo itself induces heat into the intake air as a byproduct of increasing its pressure, as well as from the housings themselves. On a naturally aspirated car, all you'll do is give yourself a stupidly long intake tract, the bends in which will restrict flow. I'll have to dig up the site I was on the other week, as it had some staggering figures on how much straight pipe one mandrel bend was equivalent to. The intercooler will also pose a restriction due to its internal design. Even on turbo cars, adding an intercooler where one wasn't before tends to give a pressure drop. The equivalent of intercooling on an NA car is to feed in an efficient cold air duct which rams in air from the front of the car to the air filter.

Er... I'd have to disagree here, and say definitely discount gas welding unless you have 10 or 20 years of experience at it. Some people can do brilliant work with the right torch, but they are seriously gifted - you aren't going to be able to just pick up an oxy set and make beautiful repairs on a body panel, although you might make some pretty lacework patterns trying.

What, only 1"? Its not just a Toyota, its a Rav4! *Where's my 32mm gone..... why didn't I buy that spanner set that went up to 2.5 inch at the truckstop...* In all seriousness, welcome aboard, and good luck with the search.... Sounds like your target car falls into the same category as mine (minus the RB conversion).... fairly cheap and shabby, something to take up space in the garage for years while everything comes together....

Yup. See this thread for more info: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1986.0.html

Sorry to go mildly offtopic here, but another possibility if you currently have electronic ignition is to use the output signal from the module to the coil as the rpm input into the ECU, then drive the coil itself from another module (perhaps built into the ECU, perhaps external). That's how my Rangie is running, as I couldn't get a signal straight off the reluctor in the dizzy, so just took the output wire from the module to the ECU instead, and used an ignitor inside the ECU to drive the coil itself. Obviously there is a little bit more to it, like locking the advance mechanism in the dizzy (which you need to do anyway if controlling spark!), and I think from memory I had to feed 12v through a resistor into the module output, but the point was it can be done that way if needed, rather than installing a trigger wheel + sensor... /end hijack!

What is the intended route from that starting point? Head up the Eastern and then out on Maroondah Hwy? As Maroondah hwy goes nearly past my door, so if I manage to get time to join in, I'd just pick the convoy up along the way....

couple others....

What the hell is with the white..... thing? It looks like the Michelin man.......

Must be a pet name....

Yep. A mate of mine has a completely standard Peugeot 206 GTI (2004 model), and a cop tried to defect him for: Worn out brakes - he tested this by pushing the brake pedal. The car had new pads and discs all round, and stops on a dime. Gear lever throw being too short - ? Rear of the car being lower than the front - measured by eye looking at the wheelarches, which as on most cars, is cut lower over the back wheels than the front. Having headrests on the rear seat - ? And one or two other things equally as stupid which I can't remember. Fortunately, my mate is a mechanic by trade, and happened to have the folder of VSI standards in the car at the time, which is the technical reference for roadworthy inspectors. Still cost him an hour of rooting around for this ridiculous exercise though, and if he'd been Joe Public, he would have ended up with a yellow sticker for having the car exactly as it left the factory. I wonder how many smoky rusted out old Sigmas went past in the time he was sitting there.....

Agreed. That is woeful... Though I like the fact that it has independent rear suspension and a hydraulic clutch, not to mention ball bearings in the gearbox - not often you see those items on a Zed.

I'd say this is a very good starting point.... I used to find that when the front tyres dropped 2 or 3 psi in my Alfa, the steering effort felt like it was almost doubled. Make sure you've got about 34-36 psi in the tyres and you should find the steering much lighter, and also getting the alignment checked could be worthwhile if it still feels stupidly heavy after that. Will always be a bit heavy at parking speeds though, as you no doubt know from your torana.