sr2

Great photo's, didn't make it because of the rain (my raincoat leaks). Next month?

LOL, at 47 you're not supposed to agree with me!

As a 59 years old I take offense to that remark! (Most of the over 40's who turn up have beer-guts and mullets!)

Considering I live only 5 minutes’ drive away in Milford I've got no excuse not to turn up for a look. (Sadly only in Mrs sr2's modern 'Mazdabator'). Until now I've never been brave enough to throw aside any concerns I have re personal safety and actually meet a group of psychotic Oldschool members en-masse. (I did however meet SOHC and it only confirmed my worst suspicions). Look out for a stunningly handsome old bald prick, wearing plastic sandals with socks, a raincoat with the bottoms cut out of the pockets dribbling out of the corner of his mouth because there's a girl's school next door to Smales Farm! (If I'm being pursued by two gentlemen wearing white dust coats carrying a strait jacket I've never seen them before in my life). Cheers, Simon (sr2)

Snap! (Talk about great minds thinking alike). Look what I just bought... //oldschool.co.nz/uploads/monthly_04_2016/post-18053-0-00564200-1461127480.jpg

Not a lot of progress to report (still waiting on the new exhaust valves) but as hinted at previously I managed to score these for $455 on Trademe... Yes I know I've got the Webers but at that price we just couldn't resist!

The difference with a dual choke carb is the single point of injection. I ran a X2 twin carb setup for a while (see my project thread) until moving on to a single DCD Weber, the difference was like night and day. The engine ran smoother, produced better power and drank a lot less gas. I've recently bought a triple set of 40mm DCOE's to have a play with, it's going to take a bit of work to set them up but will be interesting to see how they perform. I've had experience some years ago with triple DCOE's on a 280Z Nissan motor, they worked well but were thirsty to say the least! Fitting the 12 port head and injection off a VK Commodore is a very cheap EFI solution, they just look so bloody ugly!

Re the OP; I absolutely love your 1 tonner! Unquestionably the best Aussie workhorse ever made and the icing on the cake has to be it's part of your family history. I've shared a love-hate relationship with Red Holden 6's for a number of decades and from my own experience would suggest the following. Grab the pointless distributor/coil/lead combination of a blue/black six, it's a bolt on solution that simply works. I love your classic twin carb setup but I'm picking it's from a HD?186 X2? Bottom line is it will perform worse than the standard carb. I'd go for an aftermarket manifold (plenty around 2nd hand) with a falcon 32/36 DCD Weber. It's a very common conversion that delivers improved power and economy. Steer clear of Holly's, I've run both 2 and 4 barrel setups and they've always been unreliable, gas guzzling units! A set of extractors will make a huge difference, just make sure it's a 6 into 2 into one with 123 and 456 being in the 1st group. What can I say, great project.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression the HZ one tonner had the HZ RTS front suspension?

Jeeze mate, sounds like you're joining Flyingbrick in the O/S conservative party? Some of us just don't want to live in a predictable pastel coloured world where everybody meekly obeys the rules without question them.

I'm keen on keeping the original block in the car with everything under the bonnet looking as it did in the early 80's. Running the 3.3 Blue counterbalanced crank will bring the capacity of the X2 186 up to 202, (i.e. from 3.0 to 3.3).

How 'f****d up' is your remote booster? If you can provide a little more info (photo's etc.) I can probably talk you through an appropriate fix or substitution far better than those in the links you've provided.

LOL; I appreciate your concerns re my financial solvency but the issue with Mrs sr2 is not with expenditure it is with the far more (potentially) explosive issue of where to store my burgeoning spare parts collection! (Believe me I support far more expensive hobbies than just my passion for refurbishing old cars). Re the valve issue; the guides are already oversize, I'll probably bite the bullet and replace them with standard to solve the problem.

I have to confess to making the fatal mistake of sharing a few reminiscent Wild Turkeys with Rigamortice in the man cave whilst surfing Trademe. Look what we bought……. It’s a standard 3.3 (far too flash and “modern” to be called 202) 12 port Blue motor out of an early VH Commodore. Rigamortice will love the solid state HD ignition and I won’t have to adjust the **** points every few months! Even better when I dropped its knickers and flipped it over I discovered this. With some girls you sometimes just get lucky ……. A virgin spec 3 ¼ inch counterbalance crank complete with the legendary Starfire con rods. (The legend was that when Holden chopped 2 cylinders of the Red 6 to make the Starfire 4 it was so out of balance they had to fit it with stronger Starfire rods to stop it throwing a leg out of bed when given the proverbial ‘jandal’). I’ll need to grind the mains down to accept the smaller 186 journals and some machining will be required to convert the rear seal from rope to neoprene. I’ll have to possibly relieve the block & sump for clearance and I’ll obviously need to fit the lower deck height 202 pistons but Rigamortice will love the extra stroke, cubes and counterweights. Compared to the steel 186 X2 crank (top) the difference is obvious. We also bought something else (all Rigamortice’ s fault) but I’m not letting on in case the lovely Mrs sr2 has discovered this thread..

Have to agree with you there mate, the cynic in me wonders if it may be much ado about nothing?

LOL; in 20 plus years of motor racing I've always managed to avoided being a racecar owner. Rule number one has and always will be 'go racing on someone else's money'! On a lighter note yes I'm looking and all new guides and possibly hardened seat inserts - the jury is still out on the latter.

Cheers for that mate, still tears me undies - I'm old enough to know better. On a brighter note; the weather is clearing and it's a long weekend - may just have to take the boat out and catch a few Hauraki Gulf Snappers!

I've been in touch with YT, the alloy Holden 6 heads they make are all 12 ports (Blue or Black mtr) and the valves are different. Big issue is the 5 thou oversize stems, I may have to just bite the bullet and replace all the exhaust guides to bring them back to standard, it would give me a lot more options. I'm still kicking myself for not turning the motor over more frequently!

This thread on Retro Rides is a must read for a little panel work inspiration and a lot of information. http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/70135 This guys skill with basic hand tools is very impressive!

Finally the fun part, time to breathe a little life into Rigamortice’ s much used and abused 186 X2 Holden 6….. A little TLC with the rattle gun and Motor came to bits easily…….. As expected the tired old girl will need a full rebuild but sadly some of the exhaust valves on Rigamortice’s Classic Vintage Yella Terra head had corroded stems from where they had been left open in one position for too long. My fault entirely, I should have been turning the motor over on a more regular basis. (Shame I can’t buy another one for $85!). I contacted Yella Terra and they haven’t made these valves for decades, to further complicate things the valve stems are already 5 thou oversize. Any help on tracking down replacement valves would be appreciated.

Wow, I just discovered this thread. Why am I reminded of the parable of "The Emperor's New Clothes". To me it sounds like something is badly broken and simply needs to be fixed?

Thanks guys, I'll check the Armstrong catalogue and Triumph out. (The bolt was bent when I dropped the diff out, if it was hitting something it would have failed some 200,000 km and 30 years ago).

As stated earlier I’d ditched the original rear lever action shocks and replaced them with a somewhat over engineered set of angle iron brackets to convert to telescopic shocks. (All the better for performing Rigamortice’s legendry “one wheeler peelers”!)…. On closer inspection when removed, the brackets were very rusty; steadfastly resisting the temptation to fabricate a new set I gave them a few days in the phosphoric acid bath (this is supposed to be a restoration project after all). With all the rust removed they looked not only serviceable but had a cool interesting grainy texture to them, a bit of rust proofing and they’ll live again….. The only challenge now is to identify the shocks. Fitted during the 70’s I’m simply at a loss to remember where they came from, (both Rigamortice and I are living proof that if you can remember the 70’s you weren’t there!). We now offer up a free, slightly sat on chocolate fish to anyone who can identify them or suggest a suitable replacement. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49843-sr2%E2%80%99s-1947-vauxhall-%E2%80%9Crigamortice%E2%80%9D-discussion-thread/

Wow! Why does new parts/assembly time always make us grownups still feel like a kid at Xmas?