The quiet achiever...

So the dump pipe was upgraded, the air filter too. The spool up noise had become more apparent and the car had a bit more of a wail to it and you could hear the induction as you got into it... But, at idle and cruise it was as quiet as the day it came off the showroom floor. Which was a genuine surprise for people or my mates when it blew past them.

Time for some sound! Dean from Totally Exhausted hooked it up with a 200 cell catalytic converter from Metal Matrix Cat and removed the rear muffler... The look on my face must have been worth a good laugh! They fired it up for me to hear it and by God if it didn't sound fantastic to me! I have always liked the 'tin' like sound of a nice Gen3 with whatever mods it needed to make that nice high pitch idle at the front and a grumble at the back. I had wondered for some time what it was that did it and now I have that sound and am so glad! The system - now complete (for me at least) is simply opened up. High flow systems is an easy way to explain it, dump and cat, straight through muffler and removed rear muffler. Tinny at the front, notey at the back and as I have been told - 'AGRO' when your into it! At a guess - being plumb back, the screamer noise simply comes out the back as the only muffler I now have is a straight through centre... Whatever the case, I am not the only one to enjoy the sound of it and that at the end of the day is a bonus to me. Others like my car too, and that's exactly what I am working towards.

... And for now the look is standard. The factory tip still sits at the tail end finishing the look nicely - I have come around to liking that tip, I would have been the first to say: 'GET RID OF IT!' when I first got the car but due to a lack of funds at the time I kept it and quite glad I did now. The hardest part for me is controlling the urge to change things on it but keep to a theme. I am after all more in to Imports than these BIG Aussie cruisers but I'm 6'3"... I just don't fit in an Import! So this is my fun. It's just that the styling cues from imports can be done to these vehicles and have a nice look still - I have seen a few with 'Cannon' mufflers and I quite like the look and sound they produce, but at this point in time I have stuck to the standard look (as i must be careful not to stray to far from what it is... otherwise I will end up with Japanese things on it and that is about as logical as a Japanese man in an ANZAC Day march) and in the process been called a 'Street Sleeper' - got plenty of go, not obnoxiously loud, standard to see etc... Anyone would think the car hadn't been touched... Except you can now hear a nice 'burble'.

GRAUNCH!!! - No Drive...?

A short, inexpensive drive for lunch out of town was to be the most expensive short drive for lunch out of town I had ever encountered.

Coming through a round-a-bout on the way home - (Not doing a qualifying lap for the Australian G.P. or anything!) It seemed that the standard C.V. joint had had enough. - (Although at that time, an R.A.C.V. Truck driver with some experience on the tools and I had both gathered the differential had failed as it is a common thing with these vehicles and that drive would enter the differential but not leave it.) Only to be proven wrong once the differential was removed and the new differential had been purchased!

So after a number of phone calls and discussions with both local mechanics and a Melbourne based BMW race company - Meridian Motorsports, I came to the conclusion that the differential in my XR would no longer be a standard run of the mill item that would simply require replacement at a later stage anyway. I had chosen to run a KAAZ 2-way Limited Slip Differential - An item that is basically an active type clutch operated locking differential that locks both the left and right drive wheels under acceleration AND deceleration... Although a Race item, a good decision for a vehicle that I was working towards - power and daily driven constant use. It uses clutch operation to provide slip at low throttle openings (although the slip of the clutch discs does emit a 'thud' noise which being the independent rear suspended car that it is, basically amplifies the noise through the cabin like a drum as the diff casing is mounted to the cabin's underside.) Un-welcomed by most and can get on your nerves at times but a necessary evil in my mind as I do not wish to remove the rear suspension system too frequently. This slip is something that neither a 'Spool', 'Mini Spool' or a welded setup allows which gives the owner extended tire life as the tires are not constantly being punished through U-turns and tight turns alike. Although it loses none of the locking action that the others have under hard acceleration and deceleration and is manufactured and basically torture tested before you receive the item as this is a complete diff center replacement.

As opposed to a Full Spool:

A Mini Spool:

Or a Welded diff:

While the center was being replaced by the guru's of Wodonga Automatic Transmissions I had packaged up and sent them a set of diff gear replacements. The factory provides the XR with a ratio of 3.45:1 which gives a good balance of acceleration, cruise and fuel consumption. I chose to replace mine with a 3.9:1 ratio to provide me with a hint more acceleration but not as exaggerated as the 4.11:1 which is the common replacement amongst Ford's and Holden's. This after all is my daily driving car and is a comfortable Grand Tourer so RPM's need to be kept respectable to keep me out of every fuel station I see but still get the car up and going a touch more responsively than the next XR.

But the issue was not to be the differential... A constant velocity joint had been the cause of this initial GRAUNCH that had prematurely ended my drive. So the lads of Twin City C.V. Joint got me a set of Heavy Duty C.V.'s and shafts to keep my drive more peaceful and less GRAUNCHey while in the meantime the guys of Wodonga Automatic Transmissions replaced my mount bush in the rear suspension system to save removal and replacement at a later date. This, like my other bushings to be replaced was a Nolathane item - a superior replacement to the factory item.