180SX – Taking it to the limit!

The last 3 days have been pretty crazy, Saturday started out as the usual saturday morning drift day, leaving home at 5:30 i knew that it was going to be a busy weekend followed with a busy week. My plan went like this….

Compete in the final of the Victorian Championship on Saturday

Get a good sleep Saturday night

Compete in Drift Attack on Sunday

Get a good sleep Sunday night

Spend Monday prepping the car for QLD Short track and Matsuri

Spend Tuesday night packing up and getting ready fot the drive

Leave on Wednesday morning to complete the 24 hour journey all the way to Brisbane

Well things didnt really turn out like that…..

Saturday went well before it rained, i had a blast driving the car on the different layout as you can see

Click me for incar VIDEO

Then Sunday morning on the third lap of the day it was disaster…..

The headgasket was obviously blown because when the rad cap was off the coolant was like a raging spa bath.

I towed the car home and didnt waste any time pulling apart the motor.

It was aparent what had happened as soon as removed the head, the gasket wasnt blown but the head had lifted enough to run a direct passage of gasses straight into the water galleries.

With only 1 day to get everything machined and back together it was a nervouse sunday night, Monday could be a disaster or a triumph.

Oh and my front TE37 dosnt look to good either …… eeeeek….

The first port of call was to get the head machined, my crew member Shieldsy rang his friend at Nth Geelong Engine Re conditioners and he had it finished in 2 hours, i was blown away, i loose faith in a lot of local businesses sometimes, but these guys just made my week, i cant thank you fellas enough.

Now i needed a gasket, i ran a Cometic 1.0mm gasket previously and Dr Drift who tunes my car was able to supply a 1.2mm gasket, it will do. In another astonishingly kind human gesture Justin Power drove all the way from his house in Melbourne to Dr Drifts workshop, picked up the gasket then drove to my place dropped it off and returned home. Thats like a 200km round trip all for nothing….. Justin i owe you big time mate and i cant thank you enough.

After running round town all day picking up all the little bits and pieces 4pm came around and it was time to reassemble everything.

This is where another hand was kindly given, Shieldsy and Todd came over to help out, we made quick work of everything and Todds knowledge in engine building made it all too easy. We refitted everything in a couple of hours and i couldnt have done it without these two. Thanks guys.

The cams dropped in and the timing was all set, i made a little marker plate that indicated where the gears were to sit so i can do this over and over again if we need.

By 10pm the 180SX was alive again, everything was sealed up and the coolant bled, i cant thank everyone involved enough and i am so happy that now my journey up to QLD can begin.

Thanks to

Justin Power
Todd Fletcher
Greg Shields
Nth Geelong engine re-co’s
Dr Drift
Celia for putting up with it all
My family

QLD here we come

9 Comments
  1. Awesome Work Mate. Huge Fan 🙂

    Reply
  2. Glad to see your still making it to QLD! Awesome Turn around on the fix too

    Reply
  3. Good Luck at QLD! Always nice knowing more and more people that will back you up in case things dont go as planned.

    Reply
  4. Nice work mate, having friends like that is priceless…

    P.S

    Looks like you have another hose reel with that TE37 !!!

    Reply
  5. OUCH!

    What did you hit???

    Good to see you didn’t lose the motivation to head up here.

    Reply
  6. Enjoy Queensland and stay safe on the roads!

    Reply
  7. Hard work get’s it done every time!

    Reply

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