VZ LS Racecar build

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hsv08
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VZ LS Racecar build

Post by hsv08 »

So thought id post a small on going build thread.

Purchased a dirty old VZ V6 with a LS1 conversion from a guy in Auckland who never got it running afterwards ( wouldn't accelerate and intermittent start. It was a mess, broken windscreen, mismatched wheels, homejob paint... and that was just on face value. Once i got her back home to Palmerston north, I realized there was more wrong than anticipated! However a few pics
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After she got back it was time to go over it. Found threaded wheel studs, a cracked front subframe, a binding handbrake shoe.... So took it in my stride and decided to strip out all the interior ( which was probably the nicest thing about it)

Wasn't until I started to strip out the dash, did i find the original v6 vin tag had been cut out and removed, and the V8 donor cars tags (de registered) attempted to be put in place, looked like they had to hard of a job, so glued the original V6 tag over the Dodgy placed V8 tag under screen..... Great..... Have to have a chat to VTNZ now..
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Anyhow, out came the rest of the interior
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I stripped most of the harder sound deadening out with a hammer and dry ice, managed to pull 5kgs out, easier than pulling it off the steerer!!
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hsv08
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by hsv08 »

I jumped on the Net and Facebook and started piecing together other parts of the build.

Managed to find a Xforce header set and 3" twin exhaust off a friend travelling from Hamilton to our yearly hotrod swap meet here in Fielding. Offered him a couple $600nzd for the set, not bad considering he purchased the whole lot from a seller at the swap meet for $250 an hour earlier, but freed up some room in his BA falcon for the 2 blokes in the back, 4 sets of tyres and rims, couple boxes of beersies a suitcase, golf clubs and 2 x 4age intake manifolds... Lucky they had a basket Tec screwed to the roof!!

Managed to track down a T56 conversion out of town, paid a bit more than i wanted, however was the only one i could find, came with a few clutches and a rip shifter too.... still hurts my wallet when i think of it though
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Because the panels were a bit rough, and bumper was torn, i found a guy selling a dereg VZ V6 for $450 that had been rusting away in a paddock for god knows how long, however it did have clubsport rep bumpers in fibreglass ( Ex SV66 kit which is just some fancy kit one of the on sellers here started putting on standard commodores and flicking them off for a few more k) so i could use those. The bonus was, the engine still ran....
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So took it back to my newly leased "workshop" so the wife didnt know what things i had brought...
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Made a couple enquires and found a local engineer who also raced at Manfeild raceway, and was highly recommended. So i sent the car away to Nick at SAFengineering in Palmy who got onto building my cage. I did buy a "basic" cage kit from Racecraft engineering. This arrived to Nick and he got onto fitting it and making his subtle changes, one thing was the side intrusion bars. A couple weeks later i popped over to have a look.
My original seats i was going to run were Jamex, however, were to high for the car with cage in, so i went and brought a brand-new Racetech RT1000 and got Nick to make up some custom brackets. Was starting to come along nicely. Once all done, it was picked up and brought back to the workshop
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hsv08
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by hsv08 »

Whilst at the workshop, i started ripping out as much weight as possible, drilled all the spot welds out of the rear seat butt cushion thing and pulled that out, managed to cut out a heap of steel from doors, remove glass ( to be netted for front and polycarbonate for rears and back windscreen ) door started at 26kg, everything removed it was 16kg. Still have aluminum door cards to add, but that weights next to nothing. So rear doors weight about 22kg and get down to 12kg. So an easy 40kg reduction there
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I Put a post up on RCIS FB page that i was after a set of Evo 7-9 Brembo brakes, two weeks later, after a failed auction on yahoo.jp somebody got a hold of me and had some. So purchased a Fronts and Rears from a Evo 9 for around $800, I later got some brackets made up to bolt them up to car (Copy of my racing buddy who runs the same on his VX)
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In the meantime, I stripped the white VZ parts car i brought, and pulled the motor which was a good runner. I then came across a silver VZ wagon, that had been in for a service and 100km later, jumped a tooth and dropped a chain. I thought "Hey i have a spare motor here, ill just re-motor it".
And just like that, again without my wifes permission i went and purchased this Wagon to transplant the engine into and sell to pay for more racecar parts..... So i thought...
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Once i did the swap, it was actually quite useful, so i started using it more often, and decided to sell one of my other run abouts instead!

Over Xmas, Me and the wife planned to head away to the family bach for a week or so in the coromandel, i was instructed that i couldn't work while we were away ( I have a bad habit of booking up jobs in different towns when we are suppose to be on holiday haha) Or detour on the way up to purchase car parts. as this was already a 5.5 hour drive.

Anyhow, We got up there and had planned to have our friends from Auckland come stay for a few days, I had also seen some new adjustable suspension on facebook that was also in Auckland. So i sneakly asked our friends if they wouldnt mind bringing me down and important package that i had been aiming to pick up for weeks, and of course, they agreed, So i Brought the suspension and got the guy to drop it to them Haha. I knew my wife was going to kill me, but the way i see it, Its easier to ask for forgiveness then it is for perimission... Or so my other racing friends told me....
So down she brought my box in the back of her Suzuki Swift. Not a big car at all!
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Well came time to strip the car for paint and a bit of fabrication work, so motor pulled out.
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hsv08
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by hsv08 »

Decided to get rid of the fuel tank and run a external fuel cell and surge tank.
So cut the entire spare wheel well out and made some braces to bolt the tank and surge to aswell as bolt the new aluminum replacement floor.

At the same time i decided to cut the rear divider panel out between passenger compartment and boot. Move it back a foot or so to keep the suspension inside the cockpit, makes adjusting the shocks a bit easier. New divider wall bent up ( made a sheet metal bender to help with all the bending i had to do with the left over 3mm angle i used for bracing)
Almost done, just ordering fittings and pumps this week.
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hsv08
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by hsv08 »

I ended up cutting the rear screen as it was going to be to difficult to try screw them divider panel to the windscreen panel, and to rivet the sheet metal but join capping.
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Ive also welded up and repurposed a bracket ( which was an original bracket that straddled the trans tunnel) and mounted that to the tunnel, used the existing holes in those brackets to fix the handbrake bolts into, worked pretty well actually! But we will see once its all plumbed up, i may alter that yet.
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I had sent my entire wiring loom to one of my customers Drew at Custom Wiring Solutions who made it standalone for me, made up new FBW wiring, Fan wiring etc. Must be half the weight now! He really does some fantastic work! He also added an IAC plug and pinned it to ECU, aswell as made up another plug for the electronic throttle body so i can swap between cable and electronic, when the time comes. All i need to do to the factory P59 ECU is reflash a complete pontiac GTO tune file and we can run cable on the P59. Its generally what we do for our Jetboat customers who have VZ ECUs but want to run cable to keep water from getting on the pedal.
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And with that, we are pretty much up to date so far!
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Gareth
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by Gareth »

Great read, thanks for posting :thumbup:

I'll be following this build with great interest
According to chemistry, alcohol is a solution...
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Holden202T
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by Holden202T »

yeah man looking good!

much improved from where you started with it!
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hsv08
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by hsv08 »

Thanks guys. Been a bit busy during the last week. But hopefully more progress this weekend!
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hsv08
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by hsv08 »

Been a bit slack with working on racecar lately as i have too many projects on the go, One being a Dyno im building also, so may need to start another thread haha.

Any how, Needed to fabricate up some brake adapters to fit the Brembo Evo 7 Front brakes to the VZ hubs.

CAD designed up something then 3D printed to test, after V2, have a working prototype to send away for cutting and milling.
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Holden202T
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Re: VZ LS Racecar build

Post by Holden202T »

nice job!
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