Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

Yeah the stock tank is plenty big enough for a 6, 500-850Km is not out of the ordinary for a healthy V6.


I think the tank is the only non serviceable major part I have come across on these cars so it's not bad really. In terms out how these cars were designed it was excellent compared to other makes out there.

The only other annoyance is the heater core, can't be removed as a whole with the dash and HVAC in place and at least VN and VP they are all defective from factory, design flaw in the core construction. It can be replaced correctly but is a shit ton of work to do.

[oldn64]

Yeah the stock tank is plenty big enough for a 6, 500-850Km is not out of the ordinary for a healthy V6.


I think the tank is the only non serviceable major part I have come across on these cars so it's not bad really. In terms out how these cars were designed it was excellent compared to other makes out there.

The only other annoyance is the heater core, can't be removed as a whole with the dash and HVAC in place and at least VN and VP they are all defective from factory, design flaw in the core construction. It can be replaced correctly but is a shit ton of work to do.

Totally agree, same issues here heater core in VQ. I have not yet pulled the dash out but need to to replace the cluster and a few other items after my fire...grrrrr dont ask it is that last time i get anyone to work on my car.

The fuel tanks are made the way they are for the rear end accident issues. It is the reason the tanks got moved for the VE is that USofA did not want another car of ours with tanks at the back. Hence they are now under the rear seat.

The bonus of the tanks up to the VT is they are actually metal. from then on plastic fantastic I have increased my EH tank to almost double (they are stupidly small) and all my commodores (except the vl belina) are v8's so I dont have too much to reference when talking v6. the 60Lt is not big enough for a v8 that is for sure. It is one of the mods planned for the statesman, but I will be creating enough room for a gas cylinder too so it will end up with approx 50Lt petrol tank and 65Lt usable lpg tank, all hidden away and looking factory.

Cheers
oldn64

[vlad01]

Some more progress.



Wheel fixed by Neway, did a great job. Lip repaired and paint matched so good it's really hard to tell apart. $150 !! that was all it cost

Temporary exhaust mounts, just to stop them flapping in the wind.

Now the car is a roller and not just containing roller lifters. Yeah that was bad.

Have some minor issues with the rear sway bar contatiing the diff cover, just scrapes by nicking the paint on the bar, even after I orientated the mounts to get the most space. So adding another item to the laser cutting to eventually get done, that is a bunch of SS spacer plates for the bar to diff mount which will be a nice neat way to fix the issue.

I am not surprised to be honest, the factory bar barely had a couple of mm so being hand made and thicker all the possible variation could well end up like this. If it was me I would of designed the aftermarket bar to have the hoop under the diff to be larger for more clearance, but you know, aftermarket

Also, 0 room for the guards to tyre clearance on the rear. On a hard bottom out of the rear bump stops it will just contact the tyre where it flattens off on the sidewall but only just. I very much doubt it will happen as the car although lowered isn't much lower than stock and actually higher than my genuine original FE2 VP S. And the fact I need to bottom out both sides at the same time for it to happen being live axle, only one side means that wheel will be leaning in and clear. So should be ok but damn it's a tight fit!

[vlad01]

Finally got around to finishing off the cruise control optical cut out module which I had half done 2-3? years ago. So all of the board was populated and tested. Now I have coated it all in clear urethane (Selly's urethane bond) a product that no longer exists I had half a tube that was still ok from 2014.

Only I stuffed up the drill holes in the jiffy box so I need to get another, only couple bucks for OCD sakes.

I built a half NOS/used cluster switch block. The NOS one had electric antenna controls but no cruise control. So I had an ok used one with those parts and swapped over the necessary parts to make the NOS one have that. By using the NOS switch I had eliminated the weak point, the aged brittle plastic so I know the new one will be problem free.

That done and I also dug out of of my good used black column surround trims. So how I have all matching vacationer spec black driver interface trim. Steering wheel, cluster surround, and column. The late VP exec had the same trimming except those mentioned and the fabric insert. Just a bit of a custom vacationer inspired subtle touch

I got the parcel shelf sorted today. Just need to finish the brake light by screwing it in.

I had to replace the brake light socket and cable as the old one was broken and for some reason had bullet type connectors inline after the socket?? no idea why.

[oldn64]

Nice job there Vlad, where the hell did you find the HSV rims? They look amazing. I had a guy in Nagambie who did similar work, but i have lost touch with him. How good are Neway and where are they. I need a 8" rim widened to 9" it is a big job.

Cheers
oldn64

[vlad01]

Fluked the rims on ebay for $450 NOS in boxes with caps and decals. Was listed weird by ebay that when searching for NOS VP/VN stuff they didn't come up even though all those keywords were in the title, ebay is a bit like facebook these days, the algorithms are all fucked up and only shows results based on what it thinks you should be buying and not what you search. I searched genuine something or other specific part I was searching and found them that way, basically these came up as an irrelevant result. Still got nothing on gumtree, they should just scrap that site.

Neway are excellent, most of the other wheel repairers in Melbourne apparently send jobs to them. They are in Heidelberg.

[vlad01]

So I got impatient on the exhaust mount and just hacked off my one instead of getting one off a car at a wrecker to do all the measurements.


So first thing was to cut as much of the bits in the way to get access to the spot welds.

Next was to remove metal down to the bottom of the first layer on the weld. I had a spot weld drill bit but I don't like them much as the point on them needs to go almost through the next layer to even break through the weld. So I use it to go part way and got a $35 dremel kit.... what a waste of money lol, nothing in the kit works, just shite and might as well go in the bin. I used the bits from the kit in a drill worked better but even they were terrible.

Later I found I had a carbide burr that was flat on the end like an end mill, didn't want to use the die grinder as they are super aggressive for this kind of work and would of damaged more than done good, plus the metal shards are really bad! so I put the burr in the drill and in 3 sec it machined away 95% of the metal lol. Wish I had though of that before, it's like the ultimate spot weld drill bit.

That's a pretty good result! Will tidy it up ones I have my adapter plates and can drill the holes in the proper location, give it a bit of primer and paint too.

So I measured everything up and designed my mounting plates.

There is 3.

Top slides in above the existing body mount and will have 3 M5 threads, a anchor plate basically.

2nd (middle) plate is a self locating spacer to allow the lower section to be centered and clear the body next to the mount.

bottom 3rd plate has locator slots as well and the 3 x M5 holes are to be counter sunk from bottom and the 2 outer M6 to be counter sunk from top which is the mount screws for the HQ style mount.

I might print this out to scale and just double check everything, but all measurements on the PC check out.


I also sorted the diff/sway bar mount spacer plates too while I was at it, not show here but already done.
So I will have have quite a few parts to laser cut all from the 4mm 304 stainless and the setup will be much more cost effective.

[vlad01]

Gave the tank a wash, was dusty as from sitting on the floor for 2 almost 3? years.

Sorted out the filler neck and purge/vapor hoses. Ready to go in.

Went in like nothing. Love it when it all works.

No more stinky leaky lines and petrol pissing out when I fill it up.

Ran out of the Gates barricade hose for the sender side of the fuel system, like 50mm short so another 1m I ordered just before. Also all the laser cutting has been put in the queue so should get all the bits end of this/early next week.

[oldn64]

You will not know yourself Vlad.

Pretty and functional, got to love that.

Cheers
oldn64

[vlad01]

Got the speakers in.

Side vents in.

Door seals in.

Refined the MACE CAI as in the pic bellow. Rubber edging on lid and intake pipe and some minor filing/sanding to get the best shape on various bits.

Cavity wax in battery tray seams and underneath seam edges

Battery in

ECU in.

Uploaded a basic starting tune.

Finished fuel hoses on the tank.

Got some fuel.

Tested electrical.

Calibrated WB

Calibrated TPS min WOT voltage to suit the wider range of the 70mm TB.

Primed the oil system. Oil light goes out after half to one ref of the engine and holds over 30 sec before the light comes back on. Good tolerances!

And then this happen


[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6pPhWesjU[/youtube]


Only had 2 small issues, fan stopped working (see the 104c in the video), did work when I sent a command to test it before starting it but I found the terminal in the relay block vibrated out, the tang on the terminal was bend the opposite way and must of all but pushed out when installing the relays.

The other was leaking radiator cap, turns out being a trident one not a CPC one like I wanted it didn't want to go the last bit as it was really tight on the tabs, I had to put half my body weight to get it over the tabs to turn the last bit and then it was ok.

Apart from that the engine is happy. Did a el cheap stethoscope on the engine with a hose and the only sound I could hear was the injectors when probing the fuel rails, the rest of the engine it is as quite as a mouse in there.


It is really difficult to get to idle. Idles ok at low temps and at full warm (with a bit of work it did) warm/hot restart is a no go. It dies after 10-15 sec and AFRs look ok though it is hard to tell being all jumpy with the tail pipes sucking air (wasn't long enough)

Hot restart seems impossible. Just cranks and sputters here any there, tried from 10% to 200% incremental adjustments in cranking fuel with no change except at 200% it doesn't fire at all. Cold star seemed to be ok though. So perhaps it's just way out but all the tables were accurately calculated for the new injectors and it did fire up ok on the very first try.

I also tried warm restart IAC, from 65 to 150 as It does start with the throttle open without fail. idle steps were around 40 ish when at full temp. At the 150 step mark it still made no difference. It acts like there isn't enough air, cranking has some black smoke and even does with almost no cranking pulses.

Same sort of behaviour as HQ's COME manifold when we found out the IAC port was blocked off. Hmmm I should check the IAC probably, though the stall saver does work.

Idle timing has been adjusted to what seems to be most stable with stable and decent vac. Idle speed is 950 atm, it won't idle below that with stalling. Stall saver for now is 600 and only just catches it but works 7/10 times I reckon.


I got some logs of the hard start and random stall which I will post tomorrow.

Got a very basic log to get some VE dialed in, above idle it is extremely lean. I had to increase the injector rate 20% and almost out of VE as is, will probably run out again as it hasn't been dialed in yet and almost off the scale lean above idle. Idle area is ok now after the 20% extra injector rate, not perfect but well ball parked so that is a start.

Probably will need some help with the start and idle areas as I have little experience with large cams and idle. This is way more challenging than G's race engine tune wise. His was already ball park out of the gate, this is a mess lol