New D22 owner

[SJM683]

Very little to report on the big girl. Added 150g of gas to the air con, brought her down to 5 degrees from 8 in the vents - such a big difference!
Have done a few trips through Nundle state forest, everything works well together.
Cheers.

 

[SJM683]

Finally re-packed the front wheel bearings - appears they had never been done before! (135,000km). Bearings were ok. The T2 slotted rotors I ordered were too small - 280mm I think?, so I threw in the bendix 4wd pads and left the brakes alone for now. Also thinking a tune will be nice in the near future.

 

[SJM683]

Had the big girl dyno checked and made a solid 80kw at the wheels. Stock with EGR delete and turbo back 3” only. They suspect it’s a little high due to leaking injectors, so I’ll have those checked this week and replaced if required. Steinbauer module may go on this week and dyno tuned also.

 

[SJM683]

Added some Kenwood 6.5” splits to the front, with the tweeters angle mounted on top of the door trims. The rear speakers I added were kenwood 6.5” 2-ways. All ties in nicely with the subs and I’m more than happy.

 

[SJM683]

Injectors and rocker cover replaced today. Engine is much smoother and I don’t seem to be smoking out the street any more

 

[SJM683]

Been a while, have a few minor updates!

*Scored a free ARB canopy, needs some work but is fitted and is waterproof! Even the right colour under the White House paint which is slowly coming off LOL
*Have a reverse camera ready to fit and wire in.
*Fitted a turbosmart boost valve and set it to 18psi, that made a huge difference to response, as well as better fuel economy believe it or not! Getting under 11L/100km still - towing a camping trailer and the tray full! 9.2-9.8L/100 around town and I drive it harder than I should most of the time.
*Swapped my Kings LED driving lights for a pair of ARB extreme halogens. I must prefer the distance and less glare over the cheaper Kings ones.

Cheers, Steve.

 

[SJM683]

So, did a bit of 4x4 stuff a week ago and then camped last weekend. I love this ute! Added a new Kenwood media unit as I was sick of the Sony playing up with CarPlay.
Have ordered a heavy duty clutch, front diff auto lokka, lifted front upper control arms. A Jamie Knoble flashed ECM will be coming soon.
Kapsen tyres still holding on so nothing new there yet

 

[Horatius]

Great stuff mate. Was going to ask if you're in lockdown too, the amount of tinkering you've done lol. Though you've been out camping, which I guess answers that question. Great to see your getting it how you want it, and most important, using it how you want!

 

[SJM683]

Camping resulted in a week’s lockdown

Got the boost gauge in today, and new intercooler hoses while I had that off double checking the injector numbers before I ordered the ECM!

Clutch and upper control arms in the shed ready to go, along with some recovery tracks finally.
Lokka should be here this week.

 

[Horatius]

Lokka makes a big difference. Got to be careful though, can get you places you normally wouldn't go, and sometimes to places you shouldn't go! lol.

 

[SJM683]

I’ll keep that in mind

Added sound deadening to the rear wall today around the subs. Big difference!

 

[SJM683]

Fitted the reflashed ECM a week ago. Driving like a doodle, I still got 10L/100km. Then towed my caravan home (may need to post about that!) and got 14L/100km - not bad!
Feels so good, really has some pull now!

Got the black hawk front upper control arms in followed by a wheel alignment today. All back in spec! Feels good.
Added some black led chaser side indicators.
Replaced my air filter housing seal too.

 

[SJM683]

So my step-dad gave me his caravan, as he’s used it once in the 2 years he’s owned it…
It’s a 1965 3 berth classic, but is registered, has new brakes and tyres, new back window, new microwave.
Not suited to a lifted modern 4x4 though - refer pic

 

[Old.Tony]

So my step-dad gave me his caravan, as he’s used it once in the 2 years he’s owned it…
It’s a 1965 3 berth classic, but is registered, has new brakes and tyres, new back window, new microwave.
Not suited to a lifted modern 4x4 though - refer pic

That caravan would suffer drastically when exiting some driveways. We have a "normal" height caravan (well, it's 50mm higher now that I've changed its springs) and it was scraping the ground as we exited a fuel station in Nyngan.

You could try inverting your tow hitch, but if that doesn't get it low enough, you can get adjustable hitches like this one:

https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/sca-sca-adjustable-tow-hitch-16-position/607654.html
which should solve the problem. Just remember it's there when you want to go off-road, it'd be best to leave it with the caravan!

 

[SJM683]

That caravan would suffer drastically when exiting some driveways. We have a "normal" height caravan (well, it's 50mm higher now that I've changed its springs) and it was scraping the ground as we exited a fuel station in Nyngan.

You could try inverting your tow hitch, but if that doesn't get it low enough, you can get adjustable hitches like this one:

https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/sca-sca-adjustable-tow-hitch-16-position/607654.html
which should solve the problem. Just remember it's there when you want to go off-road, it'd be best to leave it with the caravan!

Legit picked up that hitch today

 

[Old.Tony]

Legit picked up that hitch today

Awesome! So where's the first trip?

We're working at Challenge Bathurst at Mt Panorama so we'll be heading up there not this coming week, the one after. So glad this lockdown business is over!

 

[SJM683]

Oh true?? I’m a Gulgong boy, caravan came from there a week ago!
Small world.
I need to clean mouse poo out of it - hopefully first trip in the next three weeks when I have the kids free next!!

 

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you can bolt axle underneath leaf springs gives you 3 to 4 inches extra height. may need to modify the holding plate or reverse direction of leaf retainer bolt you can guy leaf spring air bags from "trucksprings.com" good price not sure how freight cost is now days its 3 years since i bought stuff off them, for smells and stains i use bleach some times fairly strong solution, test some out on a patch first to make sure you dont bleach colour out

 

[Old.Tony]

^ On the specific topic of changing leaf springs from spring-under-axle to spring-over-axle ... our New Age caravan is spring-under-axle and after the fish plate snapped about 20km north of Nyngan, I contacted the chassis manufacturer (Preston Engineering, Vic) and asked about switching to spring-over-axle. They advised that there was no technical reason why it couldn't happen except that they wouldn't give me the information in writing and thus my insurance would be voided if anything happened. That wasn't the worst from them in this episode, they also wouldn't assist in any way with even information about the springs themselves.

In the end, I replaced the 6-leaf spring pack on all four wheels with a 7-leaf spring pack from ISP in Islington (still as spring-under-axle). These guys also provided high-tensile U-bolts instead of the "normal" ones typically used. I enquired about shackle bolts and they also provided greasable ones (even for the centre roller-rocker). This gave my caravan about a 50mm lift.

No, I haven't been back to that servo in Nyngan yet ... but who knows, we might go there this Christmas!

 

[SJM683]

Thank you both, yes I was going to look into moving the axle under the leafs, plus some larger wheels and tyres.
Bleach might be the go, she really needs a good clean again