They are good pics. It's the last thing some road-kill sees!

You have done well Ben. Specially with the price of it all.

im already at $1200 and i still need ECU flashed, Radiator, More Wiring, AU T5 bellhousing + XG T5 + fuel pump and lines to suit.

And i thought i was doing well with my budget.

Great work on the conversion Ben done so neatly wish I still had my dohc black Eb would have made cool photos black Eb ghia sedan n wagon dohc'd wait till you tune it and extractors with gas injection it will hall a**! You might go 13s my Eb did 14.4 on 32 degree night with slipping auto!
The time n effort payed off!

You are probably doing well for the West coast, there is about 5 million people in under 200km radius for Ben, about 4 million within 100km.

BA DOHC 42 - Conversion plus two weeks

It would seem I spoke too soon.

This week has seen a couple of coolant system issues, beginning with this pipe.



Yep, it had to be the one at the back of the engine. The hose actually slid off the metal pipe. I will be adding a second hose clamp along with some goop to help it stick in place.

Then over the last 3 days I have been having to add 3 litres of water every day. I could not locate a leak anywhere. And yes, I did check the sump, but all is good.

Tonight after coming home from Liverpool I had to get something out of the front of the car, and put my hand down on the passenger floor, only to find it is very, very wet.

Ahhhhhhhhh - I hate pulling the heater box out!!!!!!!

I believe the heater core has failed. This is annoying as I deliberately didn't touch the heater pipes connected to the heater core while doing the engine conversion. This is NOT going to be easy at all. It would have been much, much easier to do while the engine bay was empty.

I will bypass the heater core as a temporary measure while I source a replacement. I will check out the one in the white EL and consider buying a new replacement too.

At least I have now found the source of the coolant vanishing, and by bypassing the heater core, I will be able to establish there are no other leaks.

Re the power steering pump, I have picked up a replacement from McArthur Parts for $45 and a 3 month warranty. I will fit this in the morning.

Cheers
BenJ

Thats good news. i fly home tomorrow so picking up a few things. AU Bell + nackered gearbox. $150.. good XG T5.. $400 that comes with a free car im giving to my mate as i got no need for it.
Wiring out of a BA thats mine for a carton.... and fuel pump sorted that i dunno cost of untill i msg him when i get home..

so $1200 + this weeks splash of cash = about $600.. maybe $650 ? == total of 1850. and still gotta get ecu flashed and few other bits.. still its a cheep conversion. if i can get it done for $2500 i'll be laughing.

Bugger about the heater core, but at least you found it before you cooked the engine due to coolant loss! My heater core is currently bypassed as I think it was rusted or cracked & leaking. It's a pain of a job to remove it, as it involves de-gassing the a/c as well.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Heater Core + Thermo Fans + Power Steering Pump + Idle Speed + LPG Economy

Heater Core

I successfully bypassed the heater core, and am no longer loosing water.

I will source a new replacement core in a couple of weeks. The dash out part of the swap is not a problem. The part I intensely dislike is getting at the heater box bolts behind the engine and BBM area.

Thankfully, spring is here and the mornings shouldn't be too cold. LOL.

Thermo Fans

I am pleased to say the thermo fans are now operating off the BA PCM.

I used an EF thermo fan relay block and re-pinned it to suit the BA setup, which is much the same as an EL. The fans come on low speed at 170f and high speed at 190f. I can adjust these temps using the XCal3.

Power Steering Pump

I fitted the replacement power steering pump and the annoying whine is gone. Yay!!

I still want to get a custom power steering high pressure hose made up, but as I now need a heater core it will have to wait a bit longer than I planned.

Idle Speed

I plugged in the XCal3 today to see if I could enable the cruise control in the PCM, and found it is not an option, but I did discover I can adjust the idle speed.

In an effort to reduce the possibility of the engine stalling while running on LPG I have raised the idle from 500rpm to 750rpm. I will see how this goes over the next few days during my daily commute.

Oh, and the redline is set at 6200rpm. My NL tacho only goes up to 6000rpm LOL.

LPG Economy

While it is still early days, I was able to calculate that with mostly city driving I got an extra 90+ kms out of my LPG tank with the DOHC.

The wade 1673 cammed EL engine averaged around the 320km range and after subtracting the driving I did on petrol, I got over 410kms this time. This is very promising and will provide more feedback. For instance, I put 40L of LPG in on Thursday and have done 250kms so far.

Cheers
BenJ

Check this guy out for a heater core.
http://speedyairspares.com.au/index.php?p=home
His prices are pretty good and his service is great. I got my aircon compressor for the Mav off him with some other bits and am more then happy with the product and service.
As much as its forking out more coin , you might as well do the air con condensor at the same time. Then its just one lot of regassing and if you put it all in new you should get another 20 years out of it before it worries you again.

Wow, that's a big gain in economy. I'm impressed!

In regards to idle speed, is it currently having issues on LPG when idling at 500rpm?

Cheers

ToranaGuy

It will idle at 500rpm on LPG, but when driving along in stop start traffic and you suddenly need to stop and put your foot on the clutch, 2 out of 5 times it will stall.

My theory is that the idle is too low so it doesn't catch it in time to keep it idling.

This is probably something I can tune out on the LPG side, but still have to learn how.

Cheers
BenJ

Need to add the A/C comp to that - renew the shaft seal, etc.
I've had pretty ordinary service from him TBH - make sure he has stuff in stock before buying, can take ages if he has to order. He does have some good prices on major components. For seals, gaskets, etc, try these guys www.polarbearinc.com much cheaper, and delivery is quicker .

Hi Ben

You might want to consider this type of hose clamp. Much better clampimg.


Regards

Steve

That's the smallest super-clamp I've ever seen!

So then, where do I acquire such a marvellous device?

Cheers
BenJ