640 replies to this topic

[Rockoz]

Saw something like that once many years ago.

Was caused by heads being shaved and the manifold not be shaved to match the new face location.

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[76lxhatch]

Layer on the head side stayed largely in place, but still didn't bond to the surface at all.

[Shiney005]

What brand were they?

[76lxhatch]

What brand were they?

"Tong Hong" - yes they are cheap and nasty (well, not that cheap) but hard to find anything else in stock these days. What could go wrong, eh? To be honest I think the material would probably be OK in an application where it isn't exposed to oil.

[Shiney005]

Fel Pro and Permaseal still make them for Holden V8. I have always used the better brands as I had a leaky set waaay back in the late 1980's. My hatch was running a bit weird and I couldn't find the problem until I sprayed some Aerostart along the sides of the manifold and the idle revs increased.

[FLY_LX]

I had Tong Hong noodles the other night. (sorry)

Edited by FLY_LX, 18 September 2024 - 05:30 PM.

[76lxhatch]

I had Tong Hong noodles the other night. (sorry)

Ah, that explains it...

[76lxhatch]

Brake master cylinder was weeping out the rear seal again. Feels like I only just rebuilt it, but turns out that was 10 years and over 100,000kms ago.

 

I wanted to keep the master cylinder with stainless sleeve and custom stepped bore, although I'm starting to wonder if I should have just spent the time and money on updating to something more modern. Anyway getting seals was a bit of a pain last time, this time I couldn't find the right primary seal for the larger 1-1/8" piston. I did find a different seal with a slightly smaller internal diameter that would work with a different piston... here's one. 6061 main body with stainless sleeve pressed on the end where the retainer goes, copying the original because it seemed like a good idea.

 

Also made up some pieces to sandwich the shim material to machine a new one in the right diameter to a tidy finish (plus a spare just in case).

 

New seals, that was easy.

 

I'd already sleeved the old pushrod (at top of photo) to improve the seal where it was undersized and marked up by vice grips or some such. Decided I may as well make a nice new one. It's a bit shorter which allowed some margin for error with machining the new piston - would have been a throwaway if the threaded hole inside had broken through to the pushrod hole.

 

As soon as I got all that together and took it for a test drive, the starter motor solenoid decided to stick on. The Odyssey battery kept it cranking flat out while I ran around trying to disconnect it, letting ALL the smoke out - thought I was going to need the fire extinguisher! Confirmed that it was actually the starter at fault after second-guessing my wiring and the ECU, replaced with another one I had earmarked for a different project. 2.2kW and gear reduction

[SmacT]

Nice lathe work as usual. Scary stuff, on the starter - smoke is never good, unless it's from the rear rubber. Glad you sorted it!

[76lxhatch]

In March this year I drove down to the Caroline Bay Rock and Hop in Timaru. First time I've attended as this is roughly an 8-hour drive each way (depending on traffic and road works) but thoroughly enjoyed it. They also held a "cruise" on the Levels raceway which was a bit of fun, although hard to keep up with those supercharged late-model Mustangs and Camaros on the straight.

 

Had a minor issue on the way there, big rock in the middle of the road which couldn't be avoided - didn't bother the 4WD in front of me but lifted the Torana off the suspension! Couldn't see any significant damage at the time but turns out it hit the gearbox right on the joint between main case and tail housing. This was enough to create a minor deformation in the mating surface and because the TKO has tight tolerances and doesn't use gaskets that in turn caused a leak. I also had some carbon-lined synchros and brass fork pads waiting on the shelf to try out, with a few days off work I finally got around to removing the box earlier this week.

 

You can just see the darker half-circle area which was pushed out in the main housing, at the bottom just left of centre (already stoned flat in this photo):

 

Unsurprisingly the plastic fork pads had seen better days, in particular the third gear edges were completely gone. Almost like someone has been a bit rough on the shifts, surely not?! Funnily enough third gear exhibited the least problems, although fourth was starting to clunk a bit so maybe the opposite side suffers first.

 

However this had started wearing into the shift fork too; the new brass pads would have gone on but I wasn't confident in them staying put. The pads are supposed to be flat, that circular groove from the synchro hub doesn't belong:

 

Cleaned it thoroughly and added material with some careful tig welding (please ignore the horrendous mess in the background):

 

Then spent far too long setting it up for machining:

 

Much better, the new shift pads won't go anywhere now:

 

Spent many hours getting it back into the car, it's been so reliable for so long that I haven't needed to take anything apart and have forgotten how the jigsaw goes together! The twin plate clutch was also stubborn for some reason, it took quite some effort to get it to slide into the second hub despite having slid out just fine.

 

The reduction in 3-4 throw is immediately obvious (funny that). I've been taking it easy on the shifts to let the synchros bed in a little but it certainly seems better in general. There's no obvious damage to the original all-brass synchros but the friction-lined ones have a better chance of grabbing the heavy gears (this is why T5s and T56s have nice shifts). The brass pads also give a nice direct feel and no leaks so far.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 28 December 2025 - 07:37 AM.

[Shiney005]

So you can go to a GL-5 oil now?

[76lxhatch]

I did some research on oil but couldn't find anything definitive. Found some mentions that the friction (carbon) lined synchros are fine with the Redline MTL which is what I was running before, so have stuck with that. A T5 or T56 runs ATF to suit the friction linings which use the same material as an auto trans clutch, so that was the other option. I don't think I'd go with a basic GL-5 as that is more designed for the brass synchros. The TKO has pretty tight tolerances so is fine with a fairly thin oil.

[axistr]

I used ATF in my TKO never had any issues. My TKX & T56 magnum boxes also run ATF. However I have use 15w40 engine oil in most manual transmissions with brass syncrows. Also works great in Aussie 4 speeds. I have been using engine oil in large truck transmissions with engine torque output over 2,000 lbs for the past thirty five years. You don't need thick oils in manual transmissions that was just how things were done back in the early days.  

[76lxhatch]

Good to know the ATF is definitely an option. Redline MTL seems fine so far.

[Shiney005]

 I don't think I'd go with a basic GL-5 as that is more designed for the brass synchros. The TKO has pretty tight tolerances so is fine with a fairly thin oil.

 

I thought GL-4 was for brass and GL-5 was for fibre???  Anyway, if you are running Redline you are all good. I run it in everything and it works great.

[76lxhatch]

GL-5 is just a standard gear oil, includes GL-4 spec. What you don't want is hypoid diff oil, that will damage yellow metal.

 

edit: a lot of the oils we're talking about meet/exceed the GL-5 spec too, but its commonly used to reference generic 75-90 gear oil these days

Edited by 76lxhatch, 29 December 2025 - 02:31 PM.