Seems we’re not the only ones who feel this way.

God has a response to this, He laughs, and has a message for the haters. It’s not what we might expect though.

The last line says, ‘blessed are all who take refuge in Him’. The image of restriction is countered by a picture of refuge.

Lord, may I stop fighting, and find there safety instead.

A 60k tow home saw me crashing into my bed at 2.30am with a mammoth job ahead of me.

Thanks to Kevin at Penrith Specialised Clutch for providing me a modified TRD pressure plate and sprung ceramic/metallic button friction plate at such short notice.

The engine was out over the weekend, however, I’d forgotten to order a rear main seal, so everything was delayed.

However, after about 18 hours the job was complete.

I have used a fully synthetic Penrite oil and Redline Lightweight Shockproof gearbox oil (not cheap!) and am so far exceptionally happy with the result.

Starting the car the first time, had a huge scare when clutch was depressed, a grinding/chewing/whirring noise.. after sheer terror gripped me, a friend suggested that perhaps the forks were collecting the friction plate. I recalled the last vestige of the previous owner’s mechanic’s debacle of a maintenance job.

A horrendously modified clutch master pushrod to pedal fork adapter.. forcing the clutch further than it was originally designed to go. 5 minutes later with a spare original I had obtained in light of this a while back, noise gone and everything’s operating beautifully!

…like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season….

For someone who is perpetually driven, I realise this is an incredibly freeing statement. “In its season”.

We’ll have fruitful seasons, and, we might have seasons where we produce seemingly little fruit. Times of frustration and futility.

So don’t despair if you feel a little thin on the branches. A season isn’t to be rejected. It may be you’re surviving a winter to bloom come summer.

Seasons.

Seems the previous mechanic had broken the fuel line and/or rounded off the flare nut under the filter – and thought a good solution would be just to slide some hose over the pipe and hose clamp the heck out of it.

So, I finally took it all apart, bought a flaring kit, got the whole assembly down next to the firewall, bought $80ish of fittings and hoses, attached it to the $60ish filter and spent $30 on some 3mm aluminium sheeting to make a new bracket up.

It’s all sitting pretty tight now, about 2cm higher than it was before, but very tight, and no leaks.

Real relief to have that done.

Busted up naked end to the fuel pressure line

New filter, braided line and fittings

Old filter with hose and clamps

New filter test fitting - haven't put the bracket on yet or turned it around etc

Has a great growl now and doesn’t resonate really at all, so pretty happy with the result.

Going to show how effective a flowing exhaust is, this simple replacement of the stock (collapsing) muffler and rear section has resulted in about 12% reduction in the boost controller’s duty cycle and about a 35-40% reduction in the gain setting (Gizzmo EBCMS II) for the same boost (I aim for around 15.5psi)