"CRATE" the GQ

[Crate]

Nice build mate. Looking very good. Can I see some pics of the cage and the side rails please. Did you buy it with the cage and Engineers? Is it CCDA approved? Looking to maybe do a non approved cage in mine as I will never race.

Looking to do the side bars front and back in the coming months.

Yes mate its CCDA approved, here are some pics for you, if you want any other details just ask.

[Crate]

Hey mate.

Did you design the 3 link yourself?

Can you throw up some pics up of the way the links mount to the chassis please?

Ben no I didn't design the three link, I bought the car with it in already. The front links are all rear trailing arm bushes at the diff end and rose joints at the chassis end, with a swivel point in the link, a standard panhard is also used. The two lower links go basically from the radius arm mounts at the chassis end (see pics) to fabricated mounts on the back of the diff. The upper link goes almost parrallel to the drive shaft on the inside of the chassis to the top of the pumpkin.

[Crate]

A bit on the steering, when I got it there was a very very dodgy backyard highsteer on that was crazily welded and way to high for the lift in it (I suspect it had 5-7" lift in it at some stage)



I then replaced this with MQ knuckles that I drilled out and machined up reverse taper bushes to fit the tie rod in to give me a sort of "mid steer", and it now looks like this:

[Ben-e-boy]

Are you going to move the panhard at all. That and the draglink are at very different angles, it is a prime candidate for bad bump steer

[Crate]

Yeah Ben I have been thinking about it, bump steer is noticeable but not bad so haven't bothered yet. It is actually better than it looks, the bend in the panhard makes it look worse.

[grahamap]

What did you do in the engine rebuild? Just put new rings std or bore out etc

[Crate]

Well the engine re-build was a bit of a mission I ended up doing it 1.5 times!

Engine was mild/hot to start with, fairly big cam and 40 thou oversize flattop pistons, the main issue being the shitty air filter/dual snorkel system it came with didn't filter out much dust at all and that had chewed out the rings, leaving me with low compression and lots of oil burning!

First time around it got a full rebuild:
I payed someone to:
- Check and hone out the block (stayed at 40thou oversize), install the cam bearings and put new pistons on the conrod. (they also measured all the bearing sizes for me)
- Valve's and valve seats re-done

Then I put it all together myself including a new much milder cam for some more low down torque. Here was my mistake, I followed the Holden workshop manual to the letter, but un-known to me the rear main seal is a absolute bitch to get right! So all went back in and was working great, but my rear main started pissing out oil :-( I drove it for a bit like this but then gave up and pulled it out again to fix that.

So if you want to install and rear main seal in a 304-308, this is how to do it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSQWlnvAIbI

Also on a side not, a complete V8 fits in the boot of a 97 corolla sedan.

[Crate]

Now the second time it was out, I had a bit more time available so I fixed up a few other things also:

- Handmade new extractors with a better routing with higher clearance
- Made new captive engine mounts out of rear trailing arm bushes
- Scored a ceramic coated intake manifold off a mate
- General engine bay tidy up and re-paint
- Lots of wiring tidying!

[threedogs]

great looking build , may I suggest bung holes in the floor wells for your style of driving,

[Crate]

haha thanks threedogs, way ahead of you though! All welded up :-)