Yesterday I picked up a my new van, after looking for over 6 months I finally found one that fitted my budget and needs. Its a 2010 VW TDi400 132kw 6spd manual Transporter. The TDi400 Twin Turbo Diesel engine makes it one of the most powerful Vans on the market and it already comes with the full windows, rear seats, tow bar and cruise control that I wanted. With 2.5ton towing capacity it came at the perfect time to tow the Hilux around the country. I am so happy I held out and searched until I found the one. I will be sure to keep you updated on the transformation to make it look a bit more “me” …

Wheres all the updates you ask? Well I havnt stopped lately, all the behind the scenes jobs have been taking up my time. Having the Hilux mechanically finished I took some time to concentrate on everything associated with driving it, one of the most important things is the trailer, no trailer no track time!

Above is the new inner guards to my enclosed trailer, being a Sprintcar trailer it wasnt built with wide cars in mind, so I cut the old ones out and made these new alloy ones up. Now I can fit the ute in the trailer without having to swap to space saver front rims.

You may have worked out that life revolved around building the Hilux and it still does but every now and then I like to dream about this car being finished. It can be registered in 2014 and considering thats only 7 months away and 2013 is going to be a crazy year I am trying to spend every spare moment planning the finish of it.

My friend Martyn finished the throttle adapters sometime ago and I dont think I have posted them, the headers are also finished and a limited production of 5 will be completed in the coming weeks.

The headers actually end at the factory position and meet up to the exhaust, there will be the option of using a factory flange or leaving it blank like this one.

The throttle adapters will also be availiable soon, after a lot of wasted time trying to blend manifolds together and die grind them out Martyn stepped in and got fancy writing a 5th axis milling program to produce them from billet aluminium. Absolutely everything we do is produced in Australia from the finest materials.

The throttles are not the ones I will be using, these are 52mm and the adapters are made to be used with 48mm throttles, an argument could go on for days about the right throttle size for an SR20, from the people I have spoken to in Japan with decades of experiance the right size is pretty close to 48mm. This head has been ported and flowed with great results (on the flow bench) and uses oversize valves, Tomei solid lifters, Tomei upgraded valve springs and Tomei pro cams (the largest they produce).

I was going to rush the bottom end by using a stock DE and this Nismo 0.5mm Gasket I picked up Japan, but I may hold off and do the following. Pull the DE I have down, fit new bearings, rods and high comp pistons to produce around 12.5:1 comp. The reason I want to do this is I get a little nervous about piston to valve clearance, the high comp pistons have valve pockets cut into them that allow a large margin for error and also produce the compression im after.

Well I was not happy with the old inlet, so I made another, take a look.

This was the old one, it was good but made working down near the alternator a real pain in the ass.

Using 0.8mm sheetmetal I fabbed up this new intake, it has a nice tab off the side and screws up into the radiator support with an M8 bolt. Whats it advantages? Cleaner air, easier to work on and much more user friendly.

It looks a bit menacing without the front end on.

But when the front end is all fitted it sits right at home in the bumper.

Theres more than enough clean air out here.

You may think that because the Hilux is running the build would be coming to an end….. Not so!

There are so many little jobs to still complete, one of them was mounting the front bumper.

This is the 4th generation bumper mount, like most things I have learnt what to do after completing what I have done, this means starting from scratch and skipping things up a level.

This time I wanted to use Ball-lok pins, these pins are commonly used on drag cars for wheelie bars, rear wings and anything else that needs removing or adjusting trackside.

It means I can remove the bumper with no tools and its a sturdy and strong fit up.

I love using tube to mount things, it is incredibly easy to use once you get some confidence with it, I use a lot of 16x1mm ERW Bright tube bent using a plumbers “pipe bender” (pipe is measured internally, tube is measured externally)

I simply use an angle grinder to notch and cut it, you could make some incredibly strong structures that are also very light, cheap and look amazing out of this stuff.

With the front bar mounted you can see the points in which it mounts. I wanted to secure it in two directions for a neat fitup.

This entire front end section is removed by only 4 bolts, Intercooler pipes are quick release, oil cooler hoses are quick release, its a pretty complex front end now.

I wouldnt mind getting the front bumper remade from FRP, I have a HOT ROAD vent I could fit in it aswell, adding some year 2000 style to it?

With the front structure off the chassis I will show you another thing I have been working on.

Oh but before I do these blanking plugs for the radiator inlet are a must if you have a thermostat, with the thermostat closed it still leaks a small amount of coolant and can take days to leak out, wanting to keep things clean its a good idea to blank it after the hose is removed.

That thing I have been working on is the intake, its generation 4 now and uses a 3.5″ to 3″ 90 degree bend off the turbo, down to a 0.8mm sheetmetal 3″ to oval to 90 degree oval bend. I made this out of a 1.5″ bend that was leftover, I sliced it in half, bent some 0.8mm panel steel and tigged it all together. Now i have to make it come back out to 3″ round and kick it on an angle for a normal pod filter to attach.

I carried the front end over from the bench and fitted it up onto the hilux, the top rose joint mounts have a pin that retains them so I dont need screws to have it hanging, all these little things make my life easier and make it a one man job, very important when your a 1 man band.

You can see where that air filter oval is poking out, I will make a sheetmetal tab to mount ot to the tube and then continue the sheetmetal work to finish it off tonight.

Its another step closer, I have to wait for my widened front guards that I made to be moulded and a panel made from FRP before I go much further with the front end, my bonnet is also being made out of a single layer FRP mould, then its time to mount some bonnet pins, stick the front windscreen in and the body will be done.

I have been trying to plan the first drive lately aswell, my friend is filming this for me and we want to do it properly with a proper production for you guys at home, for this we need 4 hours at a track in private and so far the cheapest hire is $4000, I simply cant afford that and I am extremely unhappy about having to wait. I am going to try and work every avenue I can before I give up on the idea. The longer I wait the further the final finished date will be, the powdercoater is ready to go as soon as the first drive is done so the plan goes like this.

Drive it

Pull it down to a chassis

Send all hot parts to Hi Octane Coatings

Send chassis, front and rear structure to powdercoaters for clear podercoating

Paint cabin, guards, bonnet, refit windcreens and finish bodywork.

Refit everything, loctite and tighten to final specs.

Debut it at an event in 2013…………………….

Maybe next year i will have a rest!

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Quick snap of the new alternator pulley that I turned up, the larger one wasn’t charging till 4000rpm, this one will charge on idle!

Things feel different now, I mean it’s been a long road to get to this point but now the Hilux is running it just does not feel like it used too.

It’s taken on a whole new personality, it’s gone from stationary artwork to being a real car with a future destined for a hard life on track. I no longer worry too much about making sure everything is “perfect” and just concentrate on it working.

But I am so glad I took those extra steps to make sure it was easy to work on. This front clip is a dream to remove, dry brake oil fittings are as the name suggests “dry break” meaning no spill, all the bolt holes have locating pins so its truely a one man job.

I took it all off to remake the air intake, alternator pully and fix up a few minor issues with the steering. Turns out (no pun intended) that the uni joint on the steering shaft is bottoming slightly on the shafts extra length so i will remove it and cut it down.

These are the third generation knuckles I have made for this, and considering it hasn’t done any KM’s thats not a bad effort, its all about adjusting the ackerman to suit the chassis. I think these will be a good start.

I talked to the Daniel at ColourTech powdercoaters about clear powdercoating the chassis immediately after the first drive so all I have to do now is prove it all works, have some fun and then spend a night stripping it all back down to a bare chassis, polish it up and send it to the very cable fellas at ColourTech Geelong.

As I settle back into a normal lifestyle it gives me a chance to reflect on the last two weeks. If you had trouble following the massive amount of progress then let me give you a quick run down.

I worked day and night in the days leading up to Andre and Bens arrival, having my jobs all finished off took priority over sleep and I went to extreme lengths to make sure I wouldn’t let the guys down with wasted time doing jobs that should have already been done.

After picking Ben and Andre up from the airport Andre wasted no time at all getting into his role, I honestly didnt know what to expect, I knew Andre did some pretty amazing work but what he completed in the time he was here in Aus gave me a new understanding of what some people are capable of.

He worked tirelessly day and night to complete both the chassis and engine loom and did it to the best of his ability. You just cant appreciate the time, effort and thought that goes into wiring of this caliber, perfect concentric twists give the loom an amazing amount of strength and flexibility and making sure every wire was in perfect synchronization with each other was something I had never witnessed before.

Once the chassis was wired he learnt and programmed the Racepak Smartwire to do all that I needed it to. In no time the motor cranked, the headlights worked, the indicators flashed and the fuel pump was able to be switched on.

As Andre was doing his thing I was also busy, from feeding these guys to routing wires to welding on earths to picking up parts it all had to run smoothly. Ben was also a great help, he was the one that made sure you guys at home had an insight into what happens behind the scenes, Ben was the brains behind the webinair and the one who kept everyone up to date.

It seems like a massive blur but that moment when it fired into life I will remember for a very long time, I will admit that it lifted a lot of weight off my shoulders, its a massive milestone for the build and the greatest achievement I have had in the last 2 years of the build.

That very next day we were off to the dyno and I have to give a massive shout out to Aarron and Craig at DTM Transmissions, to be able to use a dyno and not be rushed gave Andre a chance to teach me and get the best out of the tune.

After a rushed trip to Melbourne for a new alternator it was making near 300RWKW and producing that perfect SR20 torque curve. The straps were released off the dyno and it was a signal that Andre and Bens work here was done. Once the ute was back in the shed we all breathed a sigh of relief.

I want to send the biggest thank you to Ben and Andre from HP Academy in NZ, you have taught me so much in the last 2 weeks and given me something that i will spend my lifetime appreciating.

Thanks to Aarron and Craig from DTM transmissions for the use of the dyno, without your help things would not have ran as smoothly as we would have liked and with such a tight schedule you made our lives a lot easier and that made the biggest difference over the last week.

Thanks to my girlfriend Celia for all the work she put in behind the scenes

Thanks to all those that lent a helping hand and a massive thanks to all those that followed us and tuned into the webinair, your questions, support and interest puts a lot of meaning into the effort Ben Andre and Myself went to.

Check out all the videos throughout the last two weeks.

What a massive rollercoaster the last month has been, with the Hilux running, Andre and Ben back on the plane to NZ I went to Formula Drift for a bit of a relaxing weekend. Yes I wish I was driving but there’s plenty of time for that later on. Here is a few images I snapped from Sundays action.