Haha yeah because it definitely won't float!

Life is great here, despite the fact it's 39 degrees today.  I've lurked one of those Japanese car spotting groups in Adelaide and so far haven't seen a single GTO (haven't seen one driving round either).  Weather's generally mint, people are generally cool and there are some awesome roads I want to try out with a real car.

Here's the ship, it's going to Sydney first for some reason then should be in Adelaide next week.  It only left Tauranga on Saturday.

So the ship has finally arrived in Adelaide, via Sydney and Melbourne.  It's being unloaded and now the import agents are starting to ask for things like a detailed list of every car part, because they can't be imported as personal effects (thank you for that information at this late hour!) and certificates galore for the air conditioning system, even though it's empty.  We're getting there...

Yeah the weathers great over there. Did the houseboat trip up the Murray a few years ago. I found one thing that stuck out a bit about Adelaide city was it's full of gays. They're everywhere. What is it the gay capital of Aussie? Each to their own of course, it's just something that I found very noticeable.
I'm told sports cars like GTOs and the like are very expensive over there. Lost count of all the holes in the ground that I saw on the flight over. Are they digging the whole country up or what.  

That's why Gazza moved there.



For the weather 

Hmmm that's an interesting observation, can't say I've noticed that myself.  Maybe it was Mardi Gras time when you were here or something?  Are you sure you're not confusing hipsters with homosexuals?  They look the same.    Besides, Sydney is definitely the capital of ...that kind of carry on.

I actually moved here for all those holes in the ground.  True story.

Are they all still sitting outside down the bottom of main street smoking from those big smoking pipes? Not sure what they're called, Turkish pipes I think. I just had to ask some of them for a try. All types of different aromas, peppermint, orange, or some really harsh eastern stuff. I suppose the pc police have done away with them by now like they do here.   
It was interesting to watch all the old done up Chev and Ford V8s driving around on Friday and Saturday nights, and that most of the drivers were females. Something that you wouldn't see here. 

I haven't seen the Shisha bar yet, might still be a thing.

A few weeks ago we were outside having a few brews and we heard these two v8s rock up out the front of the house.  One of them starts revving its tits off, I jumped up and ducked round the corner just in time for the clutch drop, the loud bang and the diff oil all over the road.  They had to get out and push it while I pointed and laughed.  It's Australia Day tomorrow so I'm expecting more of the same.

Enjoy the warm weather, we're not having a summer this year. Well not so far anyway. 

Curious, how much did it cost to ship a car and to have it road legal there in Australia in total?

Ashton wrote:

Curious, how much did it cost to ship a car and to have it road legal there in Australia in total?

Mine's a bit OTT because I filled a 20ft container with parts and stuff as well, the whole container with the car in it was a bit under $8k to send over.  The customs, duty, GST etc here was $2k so total cost was around 10 grand, which is frightening.
If you're just shipping a car there is a drive-on-drive-off service on a different ship that's around $3500 for the shipping so that would be probably $6k total.
All these prices are for Hawkes Bay to Adelaide, so something like Auckland to Sydney/Melbourne would be a bit cheaper.

I picked it up the other day and got a special permit to drive it up to work, where I will be storing it until I can afford to register it.  I missed driving this car so much!

Good to see it's arrived safely

Got the day off for my busted neck so I put it to good use getting the car inspected.  I had heard horror stories about the ID inspectors (police outfit that checks imports for stolen parts etc) are buttholes and will pull you up on anything ...like a mismatched engine number for example.  Got there and the dude picked up on my accent and basically wanted to chat about GTOs and Super Rugby for 10 minutes, passed the inspection no worries

Now I wait a week or so for some letter to arrive so that I can then go and get the roadworthy inspection done and get it registered.  Progress!!

Now to repair the bit between the steering wheel and the seat so that I can actually drive the thing without screaming in agony.

You should get more than just a few looks when you drive it around the streets. I don't think there's that many of them over there. Maybe you'll bump into that guy that owns half a dozen of them. I'm not sure what part of Aussie he's in. 

He's in Atherton I think, near Cairns.  Unfortunately that's a couple of thousand km away. 

Gazza wrote:

He's in Atherton I think, near Cairns.  Unfortunately that's a couple of thousand km away. 

Yeah that's a bit far away from you. I forget just how big the place is. That reminds me of a street sign that I came upon one day, when I was in some small town next to the Murray river. Just an ordinary sign at first glance. It was a street sign pointing out to what looked like a dead end street to no where. It had the name of the next town on it followed by the distance to it... Something like 4500 ks. Just a sign, and a bit of tar seal road that just headed off into the desert as far as the eye could see. I should have taken a picture of it.  

Bugger that. I can only drive a few hundred kms in one sitting before I feel like a zombie. 

It's 3,800 km to Cairns via the back roads.  I just found this out because the annual "Shitbox Rally" was last weekend and went from Adelaide to Cairns.  I wish I had known about it earlier, it sounds like a lot of fun.  Cars have to be less than $1000, and I think about 16 of them didn't make it to the finish line.  Sounds like a right larf!

Finally got around to taking the Mivec engine out of storage and working on it.  I've got the valves in, hoping to get the heads mounted on the block this afternoon and get started on assembling the insides of those heads.  I have almost no memory of how those cam trays etc go back together so it could be fun.

Ugh....have fun

I've still got an assembled Mivec engine here if you need some pics or ideas on what goes where. 

Thanks man, I might have another one coming available over the xmas break too.  My brother is looking for a new car to replace the trusty old 30M that I sold to him when I left for Oz.  Now I know for a fact that that engine is a minter, despite being around the 230,000km mark.  Unless somebody makes me an offer I can't refuse I'll pull it out and chuck it on a pallet to ship to myself when the funds become available

I got the heads on and torqued the bolts up as per the spec sheet that came with the gaskets (handy).  Then I got hung up on the cam trays.  Those little rockers aren't moving as freely as I think they should and judging by the state of the oil/cake in the heads blocking every orifice, I reckon they're blocked.  Which means that Mivec can't engage (?).  I'm not actually using those cams since they were pitted, I'm using the ones I got from ravensierra and he gave me the cam trays as well so I'll pull those out and see if they're any better.

I think I know how it all goes together now, with the exception of that solenoid thing.  But I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it.  For now the long block is wrapped up in plastic again, waiting for me to get back from my christmas holidays.

I am slowly working away on this new engine, just ordered a new oil pump because I can't find the old one in the storage unit.

One thing I will need to tackle soon is the cam timing, as the taller heads will affect it.  I'm not 100% sure how I'll make the belt fit yet but aside from that I'll have to address the timing being slightly off due to that length issue.  I've been thinking about doing it properly, getting adjustable sprockets and degreeing the cams.  Does anyone have the specifications for the Mivec cams?  Not much point without that data.

Yes I've got all the data for the mivec cams...it's all documented somewhere, just a case of finding it.


Try the mivec forum?


It's all a bit confusing due to being solid roller cams. That means a very gentle opening and closing ramp which means a small error in lash adjustment makes a big error in opening and closing point.

Or maybe it's on one of my tech threads on here?



You need to find the centreline which is half way between opening and closing points.
NOT peak lift because peak lift and centreline are at different places.

Use a dial gauge, you'll get the most accurate opening and closing point at about 0.5 mm valve lift, centreline is half way between the two.


For the small lobes, the intake centreline is about 110 deg BTDC, ex centreline is about 107.5 deg ATDC.
You can't use adjustable sprockets unless you want to make your own because they don't exist.