Daves new school holden shambles. The Blue whale is back!

[jakesae101]

On 22/08/2025 at 17:49, Muncie said:

Chipping away at things for when i get car running again, new engine is just waiting on a few things to be bolted on and its ready to swing in.

Decided to stick with the HSV red on calipers these are the rear i filed off all the casting marks then hit the faces with sander so paint is nice and shiny hopefully it stays that way I used engine enamel and baked it on so it should.

The rears are normally just cast and nothing special looking so now they mimic the front.

Fronts next.

Interesting fact they are bog standard commodore rear calipers they just use a slider bracket that puts them further out for the larger hsv rotors.

[zach_munce]

Found these seem to be simalar to dads but for normal rotors theyre cheap enough to justify might have to get em

[jakesae101]

If you find the ssz or the thunder brakes they are same thickness but a 320mm rotor on the front but use a vented rear rotor the same size as factory so heaps of people fit the rear vented rotors as an upgrade 

[Muncie]

Last caliper done been sick as and to be honest broke as well.....

So after been laid up for a week i ventured into the garage for an hour and just got this knocked out the last cailper so the full are ready to go on now.

The to do list before drag day.......

• Remove old engine
• Swap over flexplate and harmonic balancer off old engine to new one so I have same balance characteristics, have found ARP flexplate bolts as im aiming for 400 plus horsepower now and apparently stocks ones aren't the best.
• Fit wiring loom to engine either in or out of car.
• Fit new engine 
• Fit the big brakes 
• Fit new springs (i cut fronts before drag day) and lower back more 
• Resolve any exhaust issues redoing suspension causes.
• Get a wof
• Fit the turbo and turn it up!

If i get time I'll also throw a Hi stall in trans as well.

Its actually not that bad I could knock over the non engine stuff In a weekend.

Will it be at drag day maybe...... maybe not racing.

 

[Muncie]

Looked at how much effort removing the loom would be today, lets just say yeah thats was an adventure i have no desire starting. the underside of this engine had bugger all wires hidden so just unbolted the clips and fed it all out and zip tied to respective sides of engine bay.

Found my drivers knock sensor and oil pressure switch wires had fused into been one from exhaust heat, so thats a small job and found a easy way of re routing them so it won't happen again.

Ancillaries are all off now aircon pump pushed off and over to side so stays connected and power steering pump out completely.

Its just sitting on mounts and gearbox I may just try yanking it in one piece trans aswell so there's a little less time under car and need to support the transmission while engine is out.

[Muncie]

Shit weather, so no work done and my son has broken his arm too and I like doing this stuff with him so might just wait a bit.

In other news I have rebuilt my app it now spits out clean easily edited binary files that allow quick adjustments of fuel and ignition timing, 2 step that will hopefully work triggered via the cruise control switch that resets once car sees >1kph the 2 step is linked to the spark cut which was a bit hit and miss when i had it working previously but this is now my code that is untested as yet.

Im now working on an auto tune function that you feed a log after a run and it applies corrections to values in the tables in a safe manner it will need a few passes to reach optimum figures but should do it safely, this of course is a bigger project I'll develop alongside the car and hopefully offer as a Windows Application if it works as I'd like it to.

Ive got so many hours tied up in this now...... 

 

[tortron]

Get him to do the programming. A little one handed typing never hurt anyone 

[Muncie]

@tortron i think visual studio was developed as a torture method for nerds, my first full day of it i felt worse than getting punched around a boxing ring its hard on the brain.

Plenty of ChatGPT explain how this works etc has kept the project moving.

I still dont really know what im doing but getting results so some of it must be getting stuck in folds of my brain.

[Muncie]

Ooh, smoking gun without pulling heads off old engine this may be it.

[Muncie]

This engine could easily come back 100mm too, it won't be any time soon but if go full effort track monster ever would be one first mods 

[Muncie]

Well its out.... thanks for the loan of your hoist @shizzl post Mortem done broke a ring land and 3 head studs had failed on drivers bank the pot with the folded over spark plug looks fine.

Discovered the drivers side knock sensor wiring had melted into the oil sensor wiring so chances are it was pinging its tits off and the sensor was grounded out so piston gave up on life. Bores are mint though so block might get another life if the crank survived i think there's more carnage down there though.

[Muncie]

If anyone was wondering about 18psi is the limit for a stock Ecotec they definitely dont like 20........ or they might if the knock sensors work haha.

Im not gutted at all ive thoroughly enjoyed building this.

Big question is do I stop here and drop torque converter in for a high stall? You know while im in there. (Dangerous project creep risk)

[Muncie]

Passengers head off bores and pistons look happy as apart from one piston sitting above the deck..... and some glitter in sump.

 

[RUNAMUCK]

15 hours ago, Muncie said:

Well its out.... thanks for the loan of your hoist @shizzl post Mortem done broke a ring land and 3 head studs had failed on drivers bank the pot with the folded over spark plug looks fine.

Discovered the drivers side knock sensor wiring had melted into the oil sensor wiring so chances are it was pinging its tits off and the sensor was grounded out so piston gave up on life. Bores are mint though so block might get another life if the crank survived i think there's more carnage down there though.

This is possibly ring gap related. 

You may have found the boost limit where the ring ends butt together 

[Muncie]

They have high silicon pistons so are bit brittle as well (Hypereutectic), hard to say what happened first the rings butting together or the detonation blowing them to bits it was definitely detonating, I heard it but was to late damage was done.

Tune was a bit on aggressive side but was happy at 8 psi boost controller is bloody touchy was aiming for 12 I well and truly overshot and maxed out my big airflow meter so 20 plus psi was probably what it saw.

New engine is a supercharged bottom end so bigger rods to start and slightly less compression so should be much more solid also has about $400 worth of ARP hardware in top end and ported heads so should just be better all round.

 

[Muncie]

Torque converter is booked in for a clean out and stall mods to help wake it up a bit sooner.

Reminds me I need to pull core out of turbo and see if any piston has hit the exhaust wheel

[Muncie]

Torque converter is off for modification for Hi Stall hopefully have back by end of week and i can get new engine off stand and joined up to transmission ready to swing in maybe over weekend. From there bit of exhaust revision and NA Mode while I run some less expensive oil through this engine to run in and flush out any shit from sitting in my garage for 5 years.

Everything has been cleaned that went on but im sure there will be gasket bits maybe sealant floating around so I'll run some mineral oil then dump it after a tank of petrol.

Then down the road for a WOF should zip through not many ks since last year.

Looking forward to trying my tuning app to dial in the timing fuel and experimenting with 2 step against the hi stall im betting it'll get out of its own way much harder than before! If funds allow will do a ratio change in diff as well.

13's hopefully with ease maybe a 12 at drag day.

[Muncie]

Oooooh converter is back,never driven a car with a hi stall so unsure what to expect as long as it's not too aggressive sure I'll love it.

Dude at shop asked me a whole pile of information to set it up and has turbo buick vn or up so should know his stuff.

All I want is to dampen down the dead spot from foot to floor from a stop and on boost 1500rpm-2500 range.

Of course I've buggered my Rotator Cuff in my shoulder so im going to need to call in troops to get this slung in hole.

[Muncie]

Got a bit carried away....

Engine is now in and sitting on 2 of 3 mounts, got dark so called it a day while I could still see where  all the tools are.

[Muncie]

Well alot of things are hooked back up wiring repaired and plugged back in where it needs to be.

Bugger me im knackered lucky I had help @zach_munce

Also check out the billet catch can bracket zach made