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  The major car manufacturers all agree that changing your oil every 3000  miles(5000 km) is a thing of the past and state that even every 5000 miles(8000 km)may be too often. Ford Motor Co recently announced it’s intention to increase the recommended oil change interval from 5000 to 7500 miles(12,000 km) on it’s 2007 and future models. Citing higher quality oil standards and new engine designs for the change.

  Some manufacturers have stopped making recomendations for oil change intervals, instead they are relying on sensors that measure oil temperature extremes and engine revolutions over time to calculate oil life and tell the drivers when an oil change is required.

  Peter Lord, executive director of General Motors service operations says “We are absolutely confident of the technology. We back it with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty now, so there is no doubt in our mind that this technology works.”

  After the very public and far reaching issues that Toyota had with certain engines having a oil sludge problem, in 2004 they cut the recommended oil change intervals back from 7,500 miles to 5000 miles. Company spokesman Bill Kwong stated the change was made in part because the vehicles were being driven under severe stop-start and short trip conditions causing the oil to deteriorate faster.

  Kwong also said that Toyota had an oil sludge problem on less than 1 percent of it’s 1997-2002 models, which he said was caused by owners driving more than 7,500 miles between oil changes.

  I must have bought one of the one percent of vehicles affected, a 1997 2.2 litre Camry. The car had a full Toyota service history and had travelled 113,000 km when I bought it. I had reason to remove the rocker cover to replace the gasket not long ago and what a shock I got. The camshafts where bearly visible in all the sludge! Since finding this the car gets an oil and filter change every 5000 km with an engine flush added a day or so beforehand. Makes you wonder whether the oil that Toyota was using was compatible with the engine? Just a thought.

  For the full story on these changes click here.

  I’d like to share with you the other love of my life. Of course my beautiful wife and three fantastic children are first on the list, but the list also includes this ‘84 VK Commodore. I am planning on spending some serious dollars on this car one day, so I’m writing this post for two reasons. First to score points with the Minister for War and Finance (hope the flattery works!) and second to share with you something that has been a picture in my head for so many years and is now slowly (read very slowly!) taking shape. I know it’s only a Commondore and they are dime-a-dozen over here but I have wanted one of these since I first saw Peter Brock punting the VK Group A race car around Bathurst in ‘84. Yeah I was only eleven but even then I knew I wanted one. I thought of buying a genuine road going VK Group A but I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t want to modify it to suit my tastes and you just don’t do that to a genuine Group A! So instead I started off with the base model Executive and went from there.

  I started off spending $100 on the white dunger you see in the above pic. It had reasonably straight body for it’s age (sounds like the wife!), was fitted with power steering and air conditioning and had a fuel injected six in it. The first to go was the engine, I advertised it and got $1100 for the motor and box! So now the car owed me -$1000! Didn’t stay that way for long though. I spent the $1000 plus a bit more on buying a 308 short motor that had just been rebuilt with a 355 cubic inch stroker crank, 60 thou oversize Flat top Hypatec pistons, a camshaft with lobes that Samantha Fox would be proud of!, ACL race series bearings and a True Roller timing chain kit. I had a set of Black 308 heads that have recieved new valves, double valve springs and mild porting, perfect for the job. I fitted the standard inlet manifold and standard fuel and oil pumps in a rush to get the engine fired up and have since taken the heads and manifold off again, deciding on fitting a Edelbrock Performer manifold and taking the ports out a little further. Carby was a 600cfm Holley which will be replaced with a 750cfm once I get back into it. I added a Gilmer belt drive, more for the noise they make than anything else! On the exhaust side it runs Genie Tri-Y extractors into a 2&3/4 inch single system with one Turbo muffler. I had flanges fitted to the extractors for days at the drag strip if it ever gets there! A Holley blue fuel pump and 1/2 inch fuel lines will be added when finances allow.

  I decided on running a Tri-Matic Auto transmission. My reason for this is that I have the magical figure of 300 rear wheel horsepower in my mind and I believe the Tri-Matic takes a lot less horsepower to drive than the Turbo 350/400/700 transmissions. The slushbox has been fitted with a full-manual, reverse shift pattern kit and runs a 3200rpm stall convertor to suit the camshaft. Out back is a LSD 10 bolt disc brake diff with all trailing arm and swaybar bushes replaced with Nolathane bushes.

  The bodywork and paint was by far the biggest hurdle I had to overcome. The only experience I’ve had is doing ‘jam’ jobs to pretty cars up, I’ve never tried to straighten out and paint a car to this standard. It was a very steep learning curve and to be honest I’m very happy with the results. The engine bay was done first. I removed the battery tray and welded up a lot of holes, including where the A/C goes through the firewall as I think A/C makes the engine bay look untidy. The power steering stays though, ever tried doing fish-tails up the road without it! Just kidding I’m just lazy and enjoy P/Steering. The colour I chose is Formula Blue which is a colour of the genuine Group A’s. I used two-pack paint for the first time and the shine you get straight off the gun is great. No more painfull buffing! The rest of the body is standard except for the badges being removed and hours upon hours spent hammering, filling and sanding. The door jambs and inside the boot area are done in body colour and the battery now resides in the boot. I have a set of Calais wheels on it at the moment but I don’t think they will be staying. My first choice would be a set of genuine Aero wheels but they are a bit out of my price range right now. With super low King Springs and Pedders struts/shocks it should look the goods and go around corners fairly well. I have a Group 3 rear wing fitted to the boot and plan on fitting a Group A front bar extension when I can get hold of one. I am yet to start on the interior and don’t really know what I want there, maybe just a re-trimmed Calais interior will do the job.

  So there you have it, if I was to have a mistress that is what she’d look like! You could probably compare the two as they both cost loads of money and probably cause as many fights as each other! Once I get it all together it will be off to the dyno to see what else I’ll have to do to reach that magical 300 rw/hp figure. Fingers crossed we won’t be too far off the mark.

Take care and be safe on the roads.

Craig.

The correct way to adjust handbrake with what I refer to as ‘Type 1′discs is to loosen the cable adjuster off and adjust the handbrake shoes themselves. To do this you first need to remove the brake caliper bracket to be able to remove the brake disc. In our example (VK Commodore) it had two 17mm bolts securing it to the axle housing. The cable adjuster should be easy to find, just follow the handbrake cable along the floor of the car and it should be easily seen. In our example the adjuster has two 13mm bolts locked together requiring two open end spanners. Once the disc is removed you will see two brake shoes, fixed at the top with a knurled adjuster at the bottom.

Sorry for the poor picture, the old girl hasn’t seen the road for a while! The adjuster is just visible between the two brake pads. Turning the knurled nut by levering with a screwdriver will move the shoes in or out. What your aiming to have is the shoes just touching the inside of the disc rotor. Adjust the shoes until you can refit the disc and turning by hand you can hear the shoes rubbing against the disc. You should still be able to turn the disc easily by hand as having the shoes too tight will cause binding once they heat up.

  Once you are satisfied you have both sides adjusted correctly refit the brakes, making sure everything is tight. Refit the wheels and then using the cable adjuster, tighten until the handbrake lever comes up around 6 or 7 clicks (don’t push the button in and listen for clicks). If the cable adjuster has two nuts make sure to lock the two together. Final step is to check that both rear wheels are turning freely without binding. Once this is done time to shred some tyres, I mean time to road test!

Take care and be safe on the roads.

Craig