Bens bogan revival

[f100_dreamin]

Having sold my last VL to fund taking the Belair to the next level, I had told myself that once the Belair was done I would get another first gen Commy as there was lots of things I wanted to take the Royale too but sold it before I had a chance. 

 

While I had actually been looking for a VK, noting of any worth was out there, it was all over priced rusty shitboxes, or it sold before I had a chance to look at it. And then I thought to myself, my old mate Jimmy has a nice VL Calais that's gathering dust, maybe I'll see if he is interested in selling it, turns out he was, and he was happy to sell it to me at a very good price. 

it's genuine V8 Calais, 150km on the clock, one previous owner (before my mate) who had had it for 18 years and was a mechanic who did a fair bit of work to it. 

It's got:

ACL flat top pistons

Crane "group a" camshaft

1.6 ratio roller rockers

Double row timing chain with adjustable sprockets

Big valve cylinder heads 

Port matched manifolds

Brock VK SS Electronic dizzy

Rebuilt Rochester four barrrel carb 

Holley fuel pump an reg

PAcemaker headers with 2.5" exhaust, 

backed up by a built Trimatic with extra clutches, a shift kit and 2400rpm torque converter. 

Hardest part is that I have to wait until the 16th to pick it up.

[chasinthemirage]

Giz! Looks great man, can't go past a two tone VL!

[f100_dreamin]

Cheers @chasinthemirage am planning on having it at the drag day, you should come along and we can have a bit of a grudge race haha 

[Shakotom]

What's the diff like?

[f100_dreamin]

@Shakotom open at this point. Most of the info I can find states that being a genuine V8 that it should be a 28 spline. So will pull an axle and see. If it is then I can use any LSD centre from VL through to VT series one. But not holding my breath knowing my luck it will just be a 25 spline 

[chasinthemirage]

I won't be able to afford to bring my car up to the drag day but I'm hoping to come up as a volunteer so I'll see you there!

[Threeonthetree]

Good work Son, get back to those Bogan roots.

I went to school with a lad who had a very tidy VL Calais with 308 and Trimatic. Even had the lush maroon interior.
I'm pretty sure I asked to buy it off him almost every week but I still think about that car every time I see another and wonder where it is now and in what sort of condition.

[M Night Shamalayan]

this is excellent filth

[f100_dreamin]

Haha I don't think there is any escaping the bogan here. 

 

this is is a previous dyno plot, from when it was running a Holley 650 double pumper, not sure of the reason to go back to the Rochester, and would be interesting to see what difference it made to the power. But 181hp, and 1218nm torque (which is around 395nm when devided by the diff ratio of 3.08, I think that's how it works anyway haha)  

[f100_dreamin]

Well today I got back from Taupo and collecting the car. 

Drove beautifully very happy with it! 

 

 

 

[f100_dreamin]

There are a few things that need attention, both front top strut mounts are buggered, 

 

Also it has these weird things fitted to the brake lines if you look to the top of the picture you will see the blue cylinder, there is two of these T'eed into the brake lines, but there is no output from these to anywhere 

[f100_dreamin]

So far the list of jobs to do is:

- remove weird brake things, 

- tidy engine bay

- replace strut tops

- fit superlow springs

- attempt to get the master window switch and windows working better. 

- take centre muffler out (leaving only the rear muffler) 

-steamclean under side of vehicle and was to out where all the oil leaks are coming from

 

[f100_dreamin]

So had a couple of issues with this old bogan. Firstly I took it to work so I could steamclean the underside of the car, when I went to bring it into the workshop I realised that the fuel inlet fitting on the carb was leaking and it couldn't be tightened as it had been overtightened and had stripped the thread. Managed to use a fuel resistant epoxy resin to fix that. Did all the bits and pieces I wanted to, attempted to drive home and failed. It seems some of the thread filings had managed to jam the float open and i ended up with all the petrol coming out of the top of the carb. Ended up getting towed home.

 

pulled the carb off and unblocked the float, however pulling the carb off highlighted more issues. The front bolts were loose (because they have been overtightened) and the rear nuts were only finger tight, 

 

am currently fixing that next.......

[f100_dreamin]

So what a major that turned out to be, so both front bolt holes in the inlet manifold were stripped. Ended up having to drill and tap them to M10, originally they are 5/16th (basically an M8) this meant that I had to then drill out the bolt holes in the carb so I could get an M10 bolt through the carb body. This thing doesn't have a choke either so the choke plates were just free to do what they wanted. So I've cabletied them fully open. Makes cold start a pig but I'll survive with it. 

Its running again, but then I left it idleing and it fouled up the plugs and stopped running. Cleaned the plugs and tweaked the idle mixture. Realistically i need to find someone with a 4 gas analyser so I can have a proper play. But who the frick has one of them nowadays haha. 

 

My old work has one and an old dyno, so may book it in with them and get it tickled up by them 

 

anyway here's a video for your patience 

 

[f100_dreamin]

Unfortunately the manifold was so flogged out that a helicoil wasn't an option (we have a bunch of them in my workshop) 

I was calling it a major as I had tried a few different things to fix this, I originally made some M9 studs to do the job but once I cut the thread even they pulled out as the holes were so flogged. 

 

Will probably take it to my old work as the owner is a old Barry who knows carbs, and has a collection of first gen commys. So will be right up his alley 

[Testament]

20 hours ago, nzed said:

Any old barry that sorta knows a bit about carb tuning can prob get it running terribly but insist it's perfect and that's just how they are mate your dreaming if you think you can get it better using electronic mumbo jumbo

 

[f100_dreamin]

So haven’t done too much to this, just trying to sort out the oil leaks. 

One of the previous owners had fitted an oil cooler, however the fittings in the adapter were leaking, the hoses were worn  and were starting to perish. So for now the easiest option was to remove it. Which I did. 

Next issue was the rocker covers were leaking, so off they came, 

 

now the rocker cover were in fairly poor condition, so I sent them off to my mate to be tarted up. 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

i should have these on next week, and will get an air filter to match,  once this is done it will allow me to see if/where any more leaks are, I’m also contemplating on getting a new standard oil pump as I’m not sure the high volume is necessary, and I would rather not have it drain the sump and pump all the oil to the heads,

one of of the other things I have done is try to lower the car and replace the blown out upper strut mounts, I was given a set of springs that my mate thought was superlows, Turns out the fronts are lows and the tears are superlows, 

unfortunately this meant that the front only dropped about 10mm lower than the FE2 springs that were originally fitted, so out they came again and so did the grinder, took one coil off, this got the front to match the rear,  which left the car sitting here:

better but not low enough, one of my apprentices @loganvlt has bought some coil overs for his VLT so I’m going to grab his old struts/springs as his car sit much better than mine. 

One issue I have is the trimatic is a bit weird, if I select “L” it goes into first but feels really restricted/governed, if you move into “2” then it feels like the restriction releases and the car takes off, and when it reaches the correct point it changes into second, it’s also a bit slow to engage from Park/neutral into gear. So I’m gonna pull the back of the trans off and check the valves in the governer to see if there are any that are stuck, I’ll give it a service as well and see where I end up. Long term I would like to run a T56 so don’t want to spend too much time and money on the trimatic. 

[dr.wylde]

Swooon! this is nice! 
I know my shizz around the Quaddie and 308 setup. I tuned my 308 in my Statesman including installing an electric choke on the quaddie
happy to give a few pointers if you want.

cheers

[f100_dreamin]

@dr.wylde Cheers man, any info or pointers you can give would be appreciated, this is apparently a rebuilt quaddie but I’m not sure it’s been done the best. I went to set the idle mixture the other day, (using the theory of seating the idle mixture screws, wind them both out 2.5 turns. Start the car, wind the left one in until the idle startes to drop, then wind it out until the idle drops again counting the turns, then Winding it back in half the turns. Then repeat for the r/h circuit) but it pretty much wound all the way out and didn’t effect the idle at all,

I would like to get it running as good as possible for now as with Xmas coming up fast and doing a few things to the Belair before beach hop, spending money on this is on hold until after beach hop, otherwise I’d have a nice edelbrock manifold and quickfuel carb on the way already haha. 

[dr.wylde]

Ok then! here we go. I'll do my best to explain this and hopefully it makes sense.

I'm going to assume that the carb and Ignition system are in good working order and the quaddie is Jetted up correctly for your setup

I set my mixture screws out 3.5 turns. My car wouldnt start on any less, Start engine, warm her up, Next get out your timing gun, Yep thats right set your base timing this is important in order get the right mixture at Idle. Advance your timing giving the odd blip of the throttle until the engine response is sharp and crisp ( for me this was at 12* BTDC , Depending on how modded your engine is this could be more like 14-16* BTDC.) also make sure your vac advance is disconnected

Now... Get a vacuum gauge and connect it into an available vac port.

start with enrichening one screw at a time, the vac gauge should react and read higher as you give it more juice. the engine speed will naturally increase you may need to wind the idle screw back abit to maintain your idle speed! when the vacuum gauge stops responding to more fuel dial it back slightly and move to the next mixture screw. once completed plug in your vacuum advance. your idle speed may go up a little . once again wind your idle spped screw back again to compensate . Idle speed should be around  650-800 rpm.

 

Now your base timing and Idle mix are set.

back to timing. being that you may have advanced your base timing to 12-16* or maybe even beyond depending on your level of 308 awesomeness. the Toatal timing is going to be too far advanced. What I did before I started the whole tune up is I set my Crank pulley to TDC :made a mark , Then I wound the Engine back 10* (anti clockwise) on the timing marks and made another mark at zero I countinued to do this until My mark was at 34* BTC . Most (not all) Modified pre VN headed Holdens. Like to be all in @32-34 Before TDC @ 3000rpm.

anyways base time and mixture is now set so keep your timing light with you rev your motor up to 3000rpm check your timing @3000rpm  if your are beyond the Magical 34 mark (eg if your firing at 40* BTDC)  pull the dizzy and set the centrifugal advance stops earlier or better yet get a pro to set them or a dyno run they will pinpoint where the ignition timing makes the most power.

I hope this helps mate Holler out if you need anymore advice. I'm not a pro but this is what I did and It worked for me!

Also get an electronic choke setup off ebay. best investment out. on the right hand side of the carb is where the Choke/Fast idle adjustment screw is located wind this in when cold to desired choke RPM .

now go do a sick skid in your 308 
STRAYA CUNT!