Kimjon

I emailed nzta when my impala was listed at 6 cylinder engine size, but was a V8. I took a photo of the chassis tag which had a "x" in it, which denotes factory V8 in Chevrolet's chassis code, as well as the details on how to decode the chassis numbers and they emailed back saying all done! Easy as that.

Let's call this stage 1. A starting point, has to start with ummmm...well....with something??? and this is that something. I've been building this car in my head for about 5 years now. It was going to be based on the piss-ute (that's why I brought it), but I soon lost the love for that vehicle after all that happened and everything about it brought me negative feelings towards it. This is a fresh start, with what I think is a sexier younger looking model, hopefully with more end game potential for me to make something really cool out of it. Stage 2 in the making...though it'll be sometime before anything actually happens.

Piss-ute is now gone...long live the new king!

The SS sold last night for 4.8K. Someone got a pretty sweet deal, as 3 to 4K will fix all the issues and then they will have a rock solid ute with nothing to worry about for another 200,000km. Beats paying 12k for one with 250,000km on the clock, which is on the brink of needing 3 to 4k spent on it in the very near future. Basically works out at 8k versus 16k...half price. But for me, I just want to move on and this was my way out of it. Now time to start thinking through all those ideas i have and making shit happen.

Fault code was a red hearing. Pending code that went away. I'm still learning this OBD11 stuff...rookie mistake. I have the cam sensor and it can go with the ute if new owner wants it. I've already listed it on trademe today, time to move forwards with life.

It's not difficult fixing those issues that pop up. I've just lost the love for this ute. It's like been stuck in a bad relationship and all you want to do is get the fuck away from it. The ute brings me no joy in my life, unlike other projects cars I've worked on like my Series 1 RX7, or the time I put a 350chev with a 6/71 supercharger into a VK commodore, LT1 in a VN commodore, 1964 Impala...they were fun to do, in fact I'd burn the candle at both ends just to work on them. The ute has become meh...

Sort of, but still have all those sensors that are still required for the ecu to run the motor, crank angle, detonation, camshaft position, oil pressure, coil firing order, etc etc...all still required to run even a basic carburetor set up. . Honestly I've got to a point where I'm just over it. Going to sell the SS and get rid of it. I've been throwing money at it all the time to just keep it going. I think its because I'm the unlucky one to own it as it clocks over to the amount of k's where shit all goes bad at once. Hopefully the next guy who buys it enters with a better starting point than me, a more honest description of what's wrong, a much cheaper price and more enthusiasm to finish it. Going on trademe today...

Use a test light on battery positive and check earth. Could be bad earth.

Yeah, got that one wrong

Oh, you're right...just googled it. Not sure how I got that so wrong.

It is. But ls doesn't make it cool.

That's the only advantage the VN commodore had, was weight...or lack of. It was only a touch over 1300kg all up. My ss ute weighs 2200kg... I'm picking the extra weight is all shit that keeps you alive in an accident, so maybe not a bad thing. But kills power to weight ratio. The new build, or more me thinking out loud at the moment, involves a sbc into a newish commodore. With a few twists to make it interesting. I'm adding up the numbers at the moment and it's not looking to bad. Just hard to justify removing what's considered a better motor to put in old technology. But yeah...

Cars are for dicks! Well my mate flea who is a very talented mechanic/engineer always says this, and I'm beginning to agree with him now. I ran this process as per Holdens workshop procedure: I've gotta admit, it did recalibrate the idle and all looked promising for a short while. After all this is a big leap into a new world for me...technology. okay, its (OBD11) 30 year old technology, but I've only ever fixed motors with carburetors, not injectors...so it's new to me. Any electronic work was always happily palmed off to auto electricians in the past. However I'm trying to learn all aspects of cars these days so jumped in the deep end. On its first test drive it throws up a check engine light (again) after only 5 minutes use!!! Balls!!! Scanned it, fucking cam sensor is now dead! So that's just about every sensor replacement you can do on an ls1 now. Fuck old new cars and their shitty electronics. I'm starting to like the idea of that 173 and trimatic?

Now we're talking. Like the train of thought and where that's going. However having just spent more hours than I'd care to admit groveling around underneath the SS changing every fucking sensor the LS1 has to offer, after scanning it to find what DTC's where causing the check engine light to come on (pretty much everything), I'm hoping today it runs like it should for the first time I've had it.

My lt1 with a 6 speed manual drove like a V8 super car. Loved that motor, and with some extractors and a mafless tune...it hauled arse. Smoked any stock ls1 Commodores. A+++....Would definitely trade again Your hilux sounds like fun, maybe there's some unlocked potential yet to be unleashed? At minimum, it should do epic skids?