Shakotom's 1984 VK Commodore

[Shakotom]

LInk to discussion thread:

http://oldschool.co....ms-84-vk-mayte/

This is my 1984 VK Commodore,

Meet Lana,

Shes a four cylinder Commodore. and ill run you through what ive done to her so far

I purchased her stock standard on the original 13inch steel wheels!

but pretty much the day i got her home i threw on a set of 13x7 Cheviot Hotwires with 205/60 and 215/60R13 tyres

My dad and i are members of Manukau Rod and Custom club and not long after i bought her they had a gymkhana coming up at 'Full Throttle' and i wanted to have a go but i though id simply fix the oil leaks first.... And we all know that where that leads...

i decided itd be easier to work on out of the car...

So oily..

i installed a new hanger bearing on the driveshaft as the old one was perished

and got a new clutch

dissassembled the motor for new gaskets through out and just a general tidyup

and the gearbox... which went from this...

to this...

then i decided the motor looked too good to go back in the dirty bay

and thats when i missed the gymkhana... :]

to cut a long story short this was the result...

so i drove her around for a while until she got fed up and wanted some attention with so she ate a distrubutior drive gear.

so i replaced that

Then her hydraulic tappets werent holding pressure. So i replaced those

And went to a Gymkhaha!

AAAANNNNDDDDD broke a gearbox the next day on the way to work

So i replaced that.

and then scored some EH Holden hubcaps from a swapmeet and a sunvisor

Greg Murphy came into my work so i got a photo with him and Lana

And he autographed her dash

I made a front lip and added an external cooler... BOSOZUKU LIFE

decided the cooler was tacky and that RAKE was way cooler...

then went on a road trip on the standard wheels with my girlfriend

got these from a swapmeet. ( I see a trend here?)

and got these made

[Shakotom]

I got new brake parts and the things i needed to swap from 5x108 to 5x120 to fit my new wheels

rebuilt the front brakes

scored a set of genuine interceptor centercaps of an ex police car

prepped and Painted my wheels black as i couldnt decide on a colour just yet

Got tyres mounted on my wheels.

And took a some final photos of Lana on her original wheels

And hotwires

and that was that. I removed all the four cylinder brakes and axles

And installed my new parts

and swapped 6 cylinder axles into the standard 4 cylinder diff allowing me to keep the original diff ratio

And got puuuurrrrpleeee wheel nuts

i love the contrast with the black wheels and grey centers

And this is my new wheels on the car

they are 15x10s on the rear with 225/60R15s and 15X8.5s on the front with 205/60R15s

I had to roll the guards as they would eat the rear tyres in and out of driveways and with people in the back

[Shakotom]

I washed her to go to the New Zealand Performance Car magazine Park Up at Meremere dragstrip

And some photos from there...

[Shakotom]

Also i had a small electrical issue in the engine bay just before christmas causing most of the wiring to turn into smoke. So ive replaced it with a second hand loom for now and just got it running a few days ago. And I got this photo of my first drive for 2k13 of Lana for the year that I put on Instagram featured on SpeedHunters in there #FeatureThis post on my 19th birthday! BEST DAY EVER!! :}

Awyeah... Follow me on Instagram? @shakotom

Thanks!!

[Shakotom]

Went to Kumeu yesterday and tried to blend in amongst the classics...

Awyeah, I swapped the front guards to a white pair i bought and i pinstriped them, and made a roof rack to carry my bmx.

[Shakotom]

Photo from Kumeu taken by GARDRB. Thanks for the shot

[Shakotom]

And as there has been much saying that this needs lows. I agree it does. and I have another evolution of her planned that may assist in getting lows

but first i have to get this on the road first to drive while thats in the works haha

So im busy as at the moment. Gotta finish my semi rebuild of the motor, sort the gearbox out make new linkages, get a basic interior sorted. and check/rebuild brakes and run new pipes and check over suspension components. Just enough to get it reliable and warranted to daily while i work on the VK.

Should i make a build thread for the ute too?

Oh and anyone out there have a bench seat for a HZ they wanna sell on the cheap?

[Shakotom]

So i got sidetracked from working on the ute as i got a secondhand pair of rear lowering springs and standard station wagon rear shocks



so with that got to work to remove the standard rear springs and shocks
I originally had tried installing the lowering springs but they were far from captive at full extension with sedan shocks so i took a gamble and pulled the rear shocks from the wagon and found they were much shorter than the sedans and could work on a sedan



this shows the difference between the lowering springs and wagon shocks (left) compared to standard springs and sedan shocks (right).



The wagon diffs use a different mounting point for the shocks than sedans do which are different diameters hence the small insert in the sedan shocks (right) compared to the wagons (left)



So i pressed out the insert from the sedan shocks using a vice, an 8mm socket and a 34mm socket (old sockets rule!)



giving this little insert which i then pressed back into the wagon rear shocks



then i installed the springs and shocks.The wagon shocks being much shorter keep the springs captive

and ended up with this..



its actually not reverse raked... the sills sit level to the ground.



and clearance is tight.



I love this shot from of my drive way




Ive only done the rear for now. Hence the massive difference in the guard gap front to rear. I want the front to match the way the rears sits with the rear guards. so thats the next mission

But for now im rolling round like this.
It rubs a fair bit over bumps and round corners and i cant carry passengers in the rear or too much in the boot as the guards will sit on the tyres so more of a pull for the guards are in order after i put on my adjustable panhard rod.


First lowered vechile! okay... Partially lowered vechile

[Shakotom]

I lowered the front approximately 50mm which makes it look a little better. I still want more lows in the future though.

I went and took some photos of Lana the Commodore so heres a few

[Shakotom]

I went to Night Speed Drag Wars last night and thought Id have a go.

I started with a first run down the quartermile of 23.007s @ 95.2Km/h and improved that to a best of 21.484s @ 102.39Km/h. But I got knocked out first round of the DYO racing as I dialled in a 21.2 and ran a 21.594s @101.82Km/h.

on another note also i scored a super badass APEXI muffler....

[Guest Shakotom]

So i found out the police do not like the poke and stretch on my rear tyres... so shes sitting in the garage at the moment until i decide what to do about dem wheels WHICH IS GAY!!

[Shakotom]

So i haven't  really done much on this lately, I got pulled over a while back and ticketed for 'operating a vechile not up to warrantable standards' In other words my rear tyres stuck out the guards excessively. So i got ticketed and told to fix it. So pretty much its been sitting in the garage since the start of april whilst i decided what to do. I had a set of 14x7 and 14x8 hotwires that Id bought for the kingswood and some good 195/70r14s on some crappy steel wheels so i gave the hotwires a quick clean and got tyres mounted and threw them on for the mean time. 
Since then ive also had to pull the interior out as my carpets were soaked from all the rain we have been having lately to find a bit of rust in the drivers and passengers footwells which is average and needs fixing.
And well now those good tyres arent all that good anymore....

 

 

 

Starfire powered tyre slaying!

 

http://oldschool.co....ms-84-vk-mayte/

[Shakotom]

on a side note i recently aqquired some 15x7 hdt momo star reps for dirt cheap and they had worn tyres on them so i proceded to wear them out.
 

Was thinking about running them but they would need like 50mm spacers behind them to sit close to the guards which is lame but they do look period as which is awsome
and i got bored (seems to be quite a dangerous thing to happen to me) and took all the springs out for a laugh
 

 
Oh i haven't done much else to it.. Ive acquired most of the parts for the next stage of it but need to get the current project out of the garage before i can start with that.
So for now the starfire gets hell 

[Shakotom]

so i got  some other wheels but im not entirely convinced on then due to fact they would need massive spaces to fill out the guards and not being very wide, they are 15x7 HDT momo star look alikes, As found on the HDT VL director but in a 16in 

 

Just got a fresh wof though and paid registration so time to get out there and waste some gas 

[Shakotom]

Spot the difference  

 

(its not the fact the whole things got alot crappier. Dont bare metal something, polish it and clear it with cheap paint....)

 

 

 

Put your answers here ://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/36140-shakotoms-84-vk-mayte/page-3

[Shakotom]

That is the infamous Starfire, and it was time for it to say goodbye.

When i originally purchased this car it was never ment to be a project, It was ment to be something cool to daily and I originally thought that being a little 4 cylinder it would be relatively economical. That thought lasted for a while, untill i really started to get into cars and by then id become to attached to this to part ways with it. The thought of doing an engine swap had been floating around for a while but i never could quite decide what to put in its place. until i happened to come across a VL wagon for dirt cheap. which I promptly acquired and stored in my backyard for about a year.

Until labour weekend when I decided that I was ready to pull out the starfire and replace it with the RB30 out of the VL with the intentions of completing the swap over labour weekend. Those were famous last words.

I pulled the starfire, and front suspension out and replaced it with the VL subframe

Fitted my new clutch parts to the RB30

Mated the gearbox to it and dropped it back into the hole

>

That was probably the easiest part of this whole exersize. I originally thought VK and VL commodores were relatively similar but nope. I had intended on using the VK non powersteer rack but the mating holes on the subframe of the VL are closer together so Ive had to use the VL powersteer rack. that ment i had to swap the steering column intermediate shaft out for the VL one. Ive also had to swap the pedal box over to the VL one for the hydraulic master cylinder as VKs are cable clutch. And VK/VL fuel tanks are different to take the intank pump/ fuel return

Gave that a quick clean and paint before fitting

I also gave the V8 LSD diff i had purchased a while back a clean and a paint while i was at it. This diff has supposedly been freshly rebuilt and never fitted to a vechile since. When i took the casing off to have a look in it, it still had the paint marks from assembly on the pinion and ring gears.

I swapped that in but decided for now i wouldnt fit the disc brake conversion to it due to having just replaced all the components on the drum brakes on the old diff so i ungraded the diff back to drums for now

Ive also gutted the interior and swapped the VL loom over for now just as i couldnt be bothered wiring the car up from scratch.

Ive also mounted the high pressure fuel pump and filter, swapped fuel lines in and semi sorted out a majority of the wiring. I was intending on getting this started last weekend so i put some 98 in it, filled the diff,gearbox and engine with Fuchs oils, fitted a battery and went to start it only to find that it will turn over sweet, but doesnt get power to the ECU or fuel pump. Which was a dissappointment as I flew to melbourne for a couple of days for work on monday and I wanted it running before then.

Time to get out the multimeter, wiring diagrams and start checking things

[Shakotom]

Too many photos on one page. I need a second one!
anyway...

Tell me how Nissan motors dont belong in Holdens 

 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/36140-shakotoms-84-vk-mayte/

[Shakotom]

I'll just leave this here

 

 

Stay tuned

[Shakotom]

So last update said that I tried to start it and it wasnt getting power to the fuel pump, after some poking around with the multimeter I found it wasnt getting power to the ECU. There ended up being a break in the wire between the igniton switch and the ECU power feed which I repaired, aswell as a dodgy fuse that wasnt blown but just not being a fuse and carrying electricity. I connected the battery, turned the key and the ECU flashed and the fuel pump started pumping! It started as soon as I turned the key. Which i was stoked on but that lasted about 30 seconds till it started coughing and spluttering. It was misfiring on cylinder one . I thought it may have just been a spark issue so I fitted a new distributor cap, rotor, ht leads to it and still no change, After pulling the spark plugs and inspecting them to find no fault I decided to put the brand new plugs I had fitted to the motor from my donor car (that ive used the wiring from in this car) trying to fix the misfire back then into this supposedly good motor. On removal from the other motor i found that the spark plug which was removed from cyl#1 was still brand new where as all the rest had signs of combustion so the old motor must've been missing on #1 aswell. This quickly bought me to realise the only thing the motors had in common that may cause this was the wiring loom. found out it waqsnt getting an injector pulse to #1 injector. Engine looms were swapped and new plugs fitted and the misfire dissappeared!

 

 

The next issue was high beam wouldnt work. to cut a long story short, the common dodgy VL fuse box melted high beam fuse holder turned out to be the issue, I cut it out and put a new fuse holder in and yay all lights work!

 

and another difference between a VK and a VL is the lower radiator support and due to the design of the VKs, the VL radiator doesnt fit due to the positon of the lower outlet. So i fitted a V8 VK radiator into it and got some universal hoses and a joiner and created this monstrosity of a set up to solve the issue of the v8 radiators outlet being on the wrong side. I also purchased 2x10" electric fans and mounted them on to the radiator. The fans are currently just wired in on a manual switch, but ideally i would like some form of thermosatically controlled on off mechanism for them with the ability for a manual override

 

[Shakotom]

The interior of this was the next mission. Ive used the factory VL gauges and made up some mounts and trimmed some stuff in places to make it fit. I think it almost looks factory ish. Im currently trying to mount the warning lights next to the instrument panel which you can sort of see in the photo below (there just sort of stuffed in the gap currently) but the wires need extending. and I need to make up a switch for the wipers and the rear window demist. The improvement between the backlighting of the VL over the VKs instruments is phenomenal!

 

 

 

 

excuse the fuse box on the floor in the passengers side, that will be tucked up under the dash out of sight soon

 

I picked up a maximum attack sticker an 4&rotor nats and some cool Mooneyes door lock poppers at Kumeu

 

 

 

Also fitted and aerial for my non-existent stereo 

(thinking about it as I write this makes it seem really stupid now.)

 

 

And to be like all you cool JDM kids out there I now have an ADM (straya domestic market) kit

yurrrrr