Starfire!

Hello? *blows off cobwebs*

this project has been on hold for quite a while haha.
since the last time i updated i have expanded my parts collection by a small fraction acquiring a td05h turbo, a megasquirt ecu, vl fuel pump and a few other small bits and bobs.
i got my camshaft ground to turbo specs by a guy down in palmerston north. 

currently still expanding my parts collection but not having much luck finding some things, like a strut brace and alloy cam gears haha :/

once i get rid of the vl and get a half decent daily i'll be able to put some much needed love into the vk. anyone looking for a vl project? haha

Looking ahead im going to go with the vt master/vs booster, wanting to go for a brake disc rear end and upgrade the front suspension, was wondering if vn front arms would bolt onto the vk subframe then i could just get an entire front suspension minus subframe from a vn/vp, if it doesnt push the front track out too far in relation to the rear. which also with the vn front suspension would mean mounting bigger better brakes would be a lot easier has anyone done this?

my door cards need some love(replacing)
and my drivers seat is beyond repair

going to stick with the standard 5 speed haha see how far she goes 

List of shit i need:
intercooler for the zututu
new radiator
electric fans
550cc injectors
alloy cam gear
suspension stuff
cerulean blue drivers seat
cerulean blue door cards
4 pot front callipers

link to discussion -> //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47620-starfire-vk-commodore-with-starfire-power/

anyways, its been awhile, as a really good friend of mine recently passed away due to a life long battle with Cystic Fibrosis... i havent really been doing much, just collecting parts and what not, a few weeks ago inoticed my boot was turning into a swimming pool, i suspected it to be a stuffed seal, so i went to urethane around the channelling... lifted up the seal and noticed a slighty rusty colour, lifted more up and noticed a bit more rust, took the seal off and i witnessed horror, not too bad but she has cancer

been collecting parts, new water pump, gasket kits, fuel pressure reg which i get on friday, got my camshaft ground to turbo specs , mock up of the basic intake side of things with what i have thus far- blank fuel rail still to be modified, intake manifold before cutting hence 6 ports, throttle body)

also scored a letterbox grille!!!!! just has a bit of chipping of the paint so im gunna bog it up and respray it...

that shall be all for now!!!!

discussion is over there somewhere-------->//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47620-starfire-vk-commodore-with-starfire-power/

lets start shit off!!!

ok i decided to save $250 and port the head myself...

*before* standard head... large lumps at top of port

*after* large lumps removed...all i really wanted to do atm... at the reconditioners getting valve work done

next step was convertint the 6cyl manifold to a 4 cyl, which involved spending 15 minutes with a hacksaw of tiresome labor, alot of swearing and then pissing around trying to find a alloy cutoff disc at engineering shops in my lunchtime which failed... so the next day i spent 45mins straight cutting the fucking thing off buuuut i got there in the end now its down at Regals getting a plate welded to the gaping hole...

aaaaaand found a vk in at pickapart... also a vl the vk had mint seats but we had nowhere to put them... only went for a couple of sensors for the EFI... we went back the following week and the seats were faded... Cerulean interior is expensive as shit too... i am in need of a drivers seat and door card the rest is pretty mint unless anyone/ upholster reckons they could fix it??

Front callipers from a VN commodore with FE2 suspension. (Same as VL turbo/VN V8) with VL turbo/VN V8 rotors

And 1 in master should be beyond adaquet for the mighty turbo Starfire power

Could also possibly got to VT master with VR?VS? Plastic booster if you really feel like it. Supposedly its a step up brake performance wise again.

(I'm going to that master/booster combo eventually)

Edit: more info here --->http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showthread.php?t=134762

Double edit: VN diff is about 20mm wider each side than your rear end. VL is like 10mm each side.

Best option in my opinion would be either VL diff and then swap VN disc backing plates ect on to it.

(FYI 6 cylinder axles will slot into your diff)

Come to think of it, I've got a disc rear end from one of those early girl Commodores [VH] kicking round my house I'm pretty sure...

Where are you located? I'm in Auckland.

You can have for say $100?

Pic here---->https://m.flickr.com/photos/64951439@N03/16125913060/

yea bro i'll eventually go to the 1 inch master... theres a mint wilwood 1 inch on  tm atm for like 70 start price

I have an alloy time gear from a blue 202. wonder if they are different? I have never looked into it. If you want it, its yours....just pay postage

chur bro how much would postage be to tauranga? send me a pm and i'll get in touch with ya

oh sweet bro... is it open or lsd?... that could be a go is the stud pattern 5x120 also? aaaaaand finally will it bolt up without modification?

im currently needing advice on upgrading the front suspension and brakes... looking at a vn diff for rear disc brakes but unsure of front, anyone know some cheap ways of upgrading?

link to discussion-> //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47620-starfire-vk-commodore-with-starfire-power/

soooooo carrying on from the last post i resprayed the oil pump and covers from this horrid blue

to a more suitable blue

then after painting these i had an proper look over the camshaft and i noticed that there were a few damaged teeth over the oilpump/dizzy drive gear and the lobes are quite worn... which in turn may make it hard to apply a turbo grind to :/

i recieved the EFI manifold just need to cut the end two ports off and get a plate welded over, also went to pick-a-part to scavenge a throttle body...and picked one up from a 3.8 v6.

next steps are to drill the fuel rail/ get some dummy injectors and start porting the head

cheers mate! the mighty starfire will dominate!!

i am after a few things ie: alloy camgear/ camshaft- not sure if my one is usable for grinding :/

sweet dude ill have to get back to you on that one, gotta pay for my "rebuild" to start off with

link to discussion(fire hate here!) //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47620-starfire-vk-commodore-with-starfire-power/#entry1488532

Ok so today at lunch i went for a wander to Regals to see what sort of price range we were looking at and i was stumped, for all new 186 rings, and bearings, cylinder rebore, head and block surface grind, valve reseating, crank polish and balance and a general clean down (i know im missing somethings) it was priced up at $1000 i was expecting a lot more so that made the rest of my day , he also may have a 202 EFI manifold that has been sitting around for yonks that hes willing to let go for a box of beerzies.

Anyways with the covers and what not i have lest at work i decided to give them a little love, cleaned down and a going over with a "holden blue" paint, the cap was an extremely close match to the engine colour,

then i sprayed it on and it turned out more like this colour (forgot to take a pic :/)

Anyways BeachHop is coming up and i wanna take the Commy along but with the paint the way it is atm i need to start polishing her to go from this

to this (might be hard to see i took it late, and the bloody cat has been walking over it with muddy paws

anyways she isnt looking matte and colour-shift she has a shiny gloss toll blue look, only had time to polish the hood and front gaurds... the next couple of days are going to consist of polishing for a half acceptable standard to take along to beach hop

Disuss Here, //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47620-starfire-vk-commodore-with-starfire-power/#entry1488532

****Picture less post***

so a couple of months ago i scored a 186 engine from a guy at work just for the pistons, 186-starfire same stroke bigger bore, my uncle found a vk starfire at pick-a-part in TGA, i was amazed, so we went there and bought the engine and box, also picked up a letterbox grille , so i stripped the 186 for the pistons and stripped the starfire, cleaned the 30 years of sludge and grime from the outside and inside, send the block to Regal automotive to be bore'd out for the bigger pistons (should bump the displacement to around 2020cc), the crankshaft to be balanced and polished, new bearings and rings, and the head to be ported.

I dont have many photos on hand atm as when i took them the quality was right up :/

Anyways i did a quick bit of research on turbo starfires and couple had been built, one using a 202 EFI manifold cut down to fit, so i guess this shall be my next steps

i might just see if ii can steal that engine for a couple of months till i sort mine out

he was saying the exhaust manifold had to be angled to keep the intake atomized rather than your typical extractor styled manifolds

my uncle made one back in his day which was suck through, h put 202 pistons in and made a custom manifold, kept the old varajet and bolted a massive turbo on it, im not sure if you could dose a suck through setup though, ill have to go around and get some pics for ya if ya want 

haha yea bro i was trying to suss out a blow through setup, but the prices are TOO DAMN HIGH, i did a little research and found one that had a 202 EFI manifold which had be shortened and had a sc14 supercharger, now i guess im in a market for a 202 EFI manifold,  see one on trade me but its a complete 202 :/ might ask the part guys at work or something, need to find the measurements between the ports of the 202 vs the starfire!!! ohwell i guess it will keep me busy

this means no crappy varajet carb or having to fork out mega bucks for a annular carb kit , oh and dont worry it will be turboed and it will dose like a mofo!!!

Muncie what sort of turbo is it?, i can get my hands on a TD05 from a mate but unsure of the condition -he says its mint but he lives in ChCh, also what sort of a price would you be looking at?

Hey mate, I would of but a few months ago I found a vk with starfire at pickapart which I grabbed the engine and box , need to update my thread haha it got abit late lastnight...

Thanks anyway

So now shes sitting on 18s in the front and 13s in the rear (it looked pretty bogan) anyway i decided on tackling the rear stud conversion head first and ordered in some 2nd hand vk 6cyl rear axles and new wheel bearings, cheapest option apart from putting a better diff in. What a commotion that turned out to be, it was the week before my 21st and and wanted to get her back up and running with all 4 rims, i changed the rear axles out and fit the new ones, the RH side was 15mm from bolting up, next day i rang around to see if someone could shorten my axle no one could until nextweek, raddaraddaradda, ask one of the older guys at work and he suggested to whip the grinder out with a 1mm cutting disc and go at it, i dint trust myself enough to do it so i took it to BROWNE Enginneering, Andy was awesome to handle it he cut 15mm off and slotted the splines out just enough for clearance, all is well put everything back in go to put the standard drums back on and the stud patterns wrong on the FRIDAY!!!, run it into Gamman engineering and they sort it all out friday night the rear wheels went on and she looked stunning apart from being as high as 4wd..

after this me and my partner went on a holiday down south, we planned out going from Tauranga to Bluff then back up, in the Commy, we made it to the rimutakas in wellington, under 2 weeks worth of provisions and driving extremely slow uphill around windy corners the ass end started graunching, we had no where to take it in to get sorted so we braved it along to Kaikoura where i had a quick look, the left rear lower trailing arm front bush had just een replaced but had shifted and the trailing arm was sitting hard against the mount, we took it in to Blackwells in christchurch the next day, all they could do was tack it in place, other than that she made it to bluff and back

She sat for around two years as she wasn't efficient enough for driving 70 kms each day... she was parked up in the carport for arround a year and a bit untill we got access to the shed then she was moved to the cosy confines of her new home,  i started contemplating what to do whether to put a 304 in it or a 202... or something totally different, My uncle got a hold of me and was talking to me about just building the starfire engine up and turboing it, this got me really interested and i decided to jump on that idea as it was very different and uncommon, i started looking for a spare engine and had barely any luck.

in the mean time i scored two 19" VE SSV rims for her which i was stoked about, went to trial fit them and the stud pattern was totally out of whack, the rims pattern was 5x120 whereas the hubs stud pattern was 5x108 so she sat on stands for a while until i decided what to do next.

I was able to get my hands on a new set of rims, either a 19" set of koya deep dished 5 spoke chrome rims or a set of 18" VE SS rims, i went with the 18s and havent regretted it, did some research and found that the center bore of the VE rims were smaller than earlier model commodores, so i took them to a engineering shop and got them bored out, fitted 245/45/18s to them.

So in the meantime i was still looking for a engine and a way to fit some rims, i figured changing the front hubs and brakes would fix the front up so went about my way doing that. When i went to put the front rims on the wheels barely fit on the studs as the tyre hit the shock, so i ended putting 225/30/18s on the front. 

so pleased with the outcome

Around three years ago i purchased my first project car

1984 VK Commodore 

1.9l Starfire Manual

The interior was average and paint was pretty shoddy but i picked her up for $1800 so i wasnt expecting much, so the journey begun with bringing the dirty old 4banger up to Tauranga she was NZ new and on 13s with all the hubcaps   

The guy we bought it off had resprayed it Toll blue from the factory silver and hadn't cut/polished it.

Anyways i had no idea what i wanted to do to it, so i started using it as a daily, she developed a bit of a missfire so i cleaned and re-kitted the crappy varajet carby. After this me and my partner moved out of our flat and back to the in-laws spare house... 

The vacuum hose for the brake booster had split so i had barely any braking assistance while driving back... NOT FUN AT ALL