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Daves new school holden shambles


Muncie

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So thought I'd start a thread as after selling my triumph to zebradude i needed a tow bar..... and something to accommodate the holden transplant i kept from it enter the $1499 vx commodore with the cracked head 1$ reserve on trademe. Upon arriving to collect i was met by a morbidly obese women who promptly showed me to my prize informing me it wouldn't get me home (like fuck it wont i thought) i filled the dry overflow bottle which immediately emptied itself onto the grass and topped up the radiator. I had a rummage around the back of this car and found a empty coke bottle filled it with water jammed it amongst things in the engine bay and put the overflow hose in it and set off in the dark from middle of nowhere bay. No dramas at all 9 months later and several radiator flushes later and 1 plastic overflow tank calling this the best car ive owned. Bonus score just realized it is also packing king springs and some form of lovely shocks after wondering why it handled so damned well. Enter vx commodore number 2 was looking for mags and spotted this on Facebook it was on for 2 grand i got the guys number and forgot about it for 3 weeks come into a bit of cash decided i wonder...... yup still had it arranged to look mags were gone when i got there but damn the leather upholstery was mint and all the electrical goodies worked for a calais. Fuck it was grubby though popped the bonnet an spotted the blower an contained my excitement just long enough to get it for $1800 straight to wash world got all the grime off to reveal quite severe stone chips everywhere, looks nice in rain at least. Just gave it a full birthday today fluids oil coolant and celebrated with some sneaky rain snakys. So now comes the hard choice do i cull the plain v6 and keep its suspension for the calais or drop my v8 in the lumina add race seats and hit the track? Keeping the calais as a daily or up the boost and race that. Spoiled for choice at moment will get some photos up soon.

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Unless the bent 8 is damn good the less front weight V6 is the choice for handling and could make a bit of decent power. Downside I see is the extra weight the Calais comes with. Swap rear setup and nice front shocks and maybe an upsize swaybar. Is the V8 sway bigger?

 

Nice score x 2 :)

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Gave the calais a full on service today much to the rounded off over tightened sump plugs disgust. Seriously so much more grunt very surprised how noticeable the basics perked it up. Measured 4.8 litres of oil into it and after 20 or so ks checked it oil is invisible on the dipstick and rocker covers are spotless inside.

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So this week has been all about tidying up the calais. After steam cleaning i found a lot of new gaskets clearly visible on the engine so at the very least the heads have been off, following on i jacked it up to check it out underneath the only thing i noticed out of the ordinary was a weeping trans cooler hose heading to a Huge cooler a slight tweek on hose clamp and no more leaks. The tyres were toast all round so ive been on the hunt for some new wheels I'd noticed Auto66 in Hamilton a car dealership has mainly late model holdens fitted with new wheels, was pretty sure they must have a few sets of factory wheels laying around Was i wrong! They had 2 full shipping containers of them and a stack just outside in the yard. So $600 later i had a 18" set off a 2012 commodore loaded in my backseat added bonus they had the correct profile and size new tyres for my vx. I had to reem out the hubs a few mm was straight forward and they are on and look nice and stock 

 

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Next plan is to sell my red car and order a 12psi pulley kit im tossing up buying a air to air incooler plate which slips under the blower and allows the use of a conventional front mount intercooler they arent cheap though. I talked to a guy in nz who has played with one in great detail running a water to air intercooler that goes under the blower he ended ditching it and going water alcohol injection getting huge gains. Im on the fence now alcohol is easy and effective and if you run out the holden ecu is clever enough to kill the timing back enough to stop detonation preventing damage.

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  • 3 months later...

Thread dredge!

I sold off the red car and have set to work on turning the wick up a bit on the super 6,

within the limits of what my wof man approves of.

Ive opened up the back end of the exhaust system by getting rid of the feeble twin into single pipework, it still is twin into single but has gone to bigger pipe with no rear muffler its slightly louder (surprisingly not alot) and doesn't drag its muffler out of driveways.

Secondly, ive upgraded the front brakes to curve slotted Brembo rotors and police spec pads, I also threw in a trademe "performance" memcal supposed to give 195kw its given the old girl a fair bit of a boost supposed to be a HSV XU6 tune. The thing im most pleased with is how much crisper the trans shifts and the power mode actually makes it perform better now instead of just shifting later.

Next planned thing is more boost 10psi is about the limit to where these motors stop making gains and just make noise and hot air without an intercooler, with one however the sky or head gaskets is the limit.

If anyone has a old extra injector controller or water alcohol injector system let me know.

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  • 6 months later...

Progress has been slow on this but i have been doing stuff latest being a full twin 2.5 inch exhaust and a spoiler i got for 10 bucks so i can see where the ass end is backing into garage. 

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Exhaust has woken it up immensely i haven't bothered upping the boost yet  because the old exhaust would of killed any gains. Car owes me less than 3k and is properly fast and stops real well sounds meaty for a v6 too dominant sound is blower whine no sign of any moo.

Scored the exhaust for a box of waikato draught because someone had run over the rear muffler took a bit of effort to fix but a brand new Remus exhaust would be worth a fair bit surely.

Bring on Night Speed Drag Wars!!

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Took this for a drive to Auckland for dinner at Silvia Park parked under lights went to leave...... cue big block exhaust sounds some asshole had tried to nick my exhaust tips and dislodged the rear muffler. Was sitting on ground under car easy fix but a noisy trip home.

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  • 7 months later...

Went for a 8 psi pulley setup its modular so i can swap them round as i see fit yes 8 psi is fuck all but stock is 4-5 psi so with the supporting stuff like the exhaust and tune already done it should round it off nicely and make it whine like my mrs when i dont put the rubbish out.

 will try find a cheap long block to rebuild with good pistons rods and a cam while i scratch my head about how to intercool it without blowing 3 grand on a kit from Aussie.  

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8psi pulley is on and this thing thinks its a 4age now! It actually winds out right past 5000 rpm instead of just going flat at 4500 its sketchy as in the wet with traction control off so...

I Did the adult thing and parked it up till the rain stops before i make a dick of myself and put it thru a fence.

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So a squirt of methanol or E85 i reckon would be lovely. Will it wreck the teflon in my supercharger?

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I dont know bugger all but just wiki'd the blown 3.8 and it mentioned something about using epoxy instead of teflon ( more efficient?) that was for the previous engine to the VX though ( usa only models listed). 

pretty sweet cheap fun. 

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8 hours ago, RUNAMUCK said:

Is it teflon on the eatons?

My m62 has a black coating on the rotors.  It looks very similar to the coating that HPC put on the skirts of my pistons. 

What diameter was that stock pulley in the finish?

Old pulley was 92 mm in end (roughly) took fair old swing on the hub puller to shift it too.

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