pretty as a picture!

The Sunshine Coast is a seriously beautiful part of Oz . . . in fact when people say "Oh I think such and such is the place to live" I say "So you haven't been to the Sunshine Coast then?"

Took this up the Hunchy Road on the way to Montville after getting the lifters and cam repaired.

Broken valve train

It's been a while since anything was posted here, yet the story of the Austang rolls on . . .

Some time ago late last year, the engine gave a little burp in traffic and then started with the metallic clicking sounds. Oh dear! Quickly getting off the road it first sounded terrible, and then got a little better. So I opted to baby it to the mechanic.

Checked out and found no comp in number 7. Turned out to be a broken valve spring in the Edelbrock Head.

Contacted the Engine Factory and was told it was out of warranty . . . but they did send me a new valve spring, push rod and roller rockers. Pretty good response from them all things considered. The rollers were of a different brand but we just fitted the springs in and new push rod.

About a fortnight later more drama, while idling in the driveway, there appeared a really bad metallic noise with lots of ugly click-clack valve-train noise. Towed the car to the mechanic who discovered upon pulling off the inlet manifold . . . one of the lifters had destroyed itself. Further investigation found that two other lifters had released the pin holding the cam roller and one in fact had popped out and jammed the lifter in the bore, making it hard to remove.

The cam was of course, totally stuffed.

Another communication with the Engine Factory and they were all gob-smacked. Told me the lifters are all Elgin brand and American not asian knock offs. Said they are made in one of three US factories and each brand simply boxes them up and resells. He said that this was the first of this thing ever happening . . . Needless to say I was pissed!

He was right about the roller lifters, the replacements I bought were Federal Mogul brand and looked identical to the old ones, in fact there was so little wear on the originals, you had to be careful not to confuse them with the newbies.

Bruce at The Engine Factory asked to have the lifters sent so they can analyse . . . in the meantime he noticed the brand of the lifters were a brand they used for a while but stopped using, going back to Comps. So he sent over a new set of Comp Roller Rockers, kind of a consolation prize I guess. Once again, they seemed very concerned and this replace rollers was very much unexpected, but gratefully accepted.

So after $2500 the Austang was repaired with a new Lunati roller cam, but much milder than the original (which never really worked well with the auto trans).

She really flies!

A recent landmark birthday saw me flying a P51 (actually a Commonwealth Aircraft Company variant) at Caboolture. What a total buzz and a childhood dream accomplishment!

The Mustang with wings is a hotrod of the skies, with the superb inverted V12 Merlin Rolls Royce crackling us across the wild blue in real style. Wing overs with high G pull outs, shooting up the airfield, man o man it was mind blowing.

Afterwards the guys let me park my 'stang with it to snap out some photos. I did this once before at an airshow about ten years ago. The Austang has undergone massive changes since then so it was interesting to compare the two pics.

Steering straight

The Austang uses an Australian power rack and pinion steering set up. I have not really expanded on the stuff I wrote earlier, now that we have tweaked and poked it, I suppose this is as good a time as any to give a report.

The ad in "Street Machine" said the rack would end bump steer. When we put it in place, that claim was clearly a bit of an inexactitude! The Racecraft guys had to reinforce the mount and alter the height of the forward mounting point to ensure equal movement and tracking over bumps.

But don't think I am bagging the unit! It has worked flawlessly and is a high quality piece of kit, worthy of any street machine.

We had challenges with the unis and the angle of the steering column, which caused the steering to bind slightly at 12 o'clock. The guys at RRS were very helpful in this regard and offered advice which enabled us to fix the problems.

Now George has sorted the freeplay in the collapsible steering column, the whole thing steers very well.

Looking back at the challenge I can offer this advice to anyone contemplating the addition of a power rack and pinion set up.

Firstly get an engineer to do it! Although you might have a mechanical aptitude and a good tool shed, this is serious work that needs first class mechanical work.

Secondly the instructions about the angle between the steering column and the unis appears to be absolutely critical for good operation. This info was sadly lacking in the instructions of my unit and perhaps it is something the guys at RRS should address. Make sure you discuss it with the people selling you the unit before you buy. If you can't get this right, you will not be happy.

Finally, the power steering is very light and means you have to be careful at speed with the unit installed. Not a big issue, just that if you (like me) are used to driving the car with manual steering, a serious adjustment to your concentration and style is required, while you get used to the effortless power set up.

Now I am used to the steering and the set up is finally correct, the judgement comes down that the RRS rack was a good choice.

Mustang Dreaming

Went for a ride down via Sandgate and shot some pics . . .