VR Ute

[brindo]

So I have started a bit of a project on a VR ute. Picked it up a while back and it was pretty rough but luckily it didn’t pick it up cheap as I hate a bargain.
Owner was adamant it was a HSV cause it had a HSV badge on the dash. But you can buy those badges on ebay.
Also had HSV wheels, but you can buy those on ebay.
Anyway the VIN doesn’t match up with anything on the HSV register, so it’s not a HSV anything, but at some stage someone put a bit of work into this ute and had some pride in it, and then at some stage someone has not looked after it very well. I originally thought this ute would just need a quick freshen up and it would allow me to take my time collecting parts to rebuild the one tonner engine and eventually take it off the road for an engine rebuild.
Like everything else it seems, I was wrong. The deeper I looked at it, the worst this ute got.

Wiring was a mess and the MAP sensor hose was eaten through by mice – how it was running I know not but it was running quite well. But the mice seemed to have made a home in the cab with a few of them deciding the best place to die was in the air cond unit. Washed it down because it was leaking from every orifice. Water pump, intake manifold and timing cover were leaking coolant and the radiator was split – which are all easy fixes. Front and rear mains were leaking oil too - not so easy. So out came the engine and then I found more things wrong and it just got worse. So the new plan became to rebuild this ute back to being something tidy for my eldest daughters first car. Something practical, reliable, easy to drive and being a 2 seater less chance of a car full of peer pressure to do something stupid. She does have a healthy interest in cars, but don’t mistake this with being a father/daughter project when she has a choice of the PS5 or venturing outside to spend time in the shed. It concerns deeply me though how she seems to know far too much about Lexus LFAs, Skylines and Supras so an Aussie vehicle will hopefully knock that nonsense out of her and get her back on track. Goal was to have it ready for the start of her L Plates but that is not going to happen now.

But more than likely if she is sensible enough, there’s no reason it won’t last her for years to come. Youngest daughter can get her Ls in the ute too, but she is under the assumption I am buying her a Tesla as her first car.

I’ve been reluctant to post up this project mainly due the embarrassing state of it - and for how stupid I was to buy it in the first place - but one of the great things about this forum is reading about other peoples projects. You get to learn a lot and get some good ideas - not that anyone will be learning anything from this project. On the flip side, you don’t really know what everyone has got happening behind the scenes. I know amongst my circle there are blokes who have lost children, wives, siblings, parents, homes, jobs or have been just dealt a pretty ordinary set of cards in life. And taking time out to work on an interest like a vehicle has helped them retain their sanity. So I appreciate the time forum members take to post up what they have been doing with their projects. And you look forward to the updates whenever they happen. Technical contributions to this forum is something that I am clearly not very good at and I have always been dealt a good hand. I have certainly taken more away from this forum than I have given and I have always been very fortunate.

To be honest, the things I am finding wrong with this ute aren’t doing me any physical harm apart from hurting the wallet, and it has done me some good to get stuck into fixing them. Just the further I looked, the more I scratch my head at what I find. Luckily I have access to a wrecked VS wagon for a few parts.

I wasn’t smart enough to get any photos of it before I started stripping it. But on the plus side, this ute is an S Pack, factory 5.0 litre, original engine, factory T5 manual. The T5 looks like it has been rebuilt at some stage and the LSD is tight. Even though it’s a manual, it was all set up for cruise control except for the module. It had all the wiring, holes drilled, and even had the clutch pedal switch which looks homemade. The clutch looks reasonably new too. And that’s probably the extent of all the good things about this ute.

I haven’t made a great deal of progress but this is where I am up to.
There must have been a master cylinder leak as the engine bay paint was a pretty ordinary around there along with some corrosion on the front brake lines which I wasn’t comfortable with. So I have taken the engine bay back to bare metal and resprayed it in the factory colour. It’s actually come up pretty good considering I can’t paint. The chassis rails have been resprayed in Raptor as they look ugly, but also wanted to protect that area from any more brake fluid or battery acid attacks. I have seen a few other cars with the inner guards and underbody coated with black Raptor lining and recon they look pretty good - thought I’d do the same. I want to keep it close to looking factory or how the factory would have intended with just a few subtle changes. But I still have a long long way to go.

Anyway this is how it currently sits.
Amazing how many holes are in the inner guards when you count them up. I guess they all have a purpose.

Painting.JPG (114.85 KiB) Viewed 4744 times

I have since given the underside a coating of sound deadener.

I recon something has gone through the engine fan blades at some stage so I bought a new BF Falcon fan and fitted this to a new genuine style radiator with alloy core/plastic tanks. Made a bracket to relocate the coil to the strut tower, which will also mount a catch can.
The wiring was such a disaster I swapped the whole main wiring harness for something that wasn’t butchered and in better condition, and tidied up all the wiring remaining. Scotch locks seemed to be everywhere I looked, and there was some dodgy repairs to the electric window wiring so this is all now gone, along with the typical aftermarket stereo install with the plugs cut off and twist the wires together trick. For some reason it had an earth lead going to the extractors so will get rid of that, and upgrade the power supply for the engine fan. Had those blue H4s in the headlights and for some reason a set of blue H1s jammed in the high beams. These will go back to something sensible. And not blue.

I used that Car Builders cloth tape on the main harness. While not authentic, it certainly looks good. But with the main harness now being from a VS Commodore, will need to make a patch lead to go to the engine harness where it connects up near the battery. Also learnt a bit about BCMs and found I needed to swap in the VS wagon BCM as the VR BCMs have a different pin-out. Oddly this ute had a mid-Level one fitted already – possibly for the power windows??? Who knows the history of this thing.

Been testing that all the electrics work with a battery charger and so far so good with the exception of one cluster light for the high beam.
Charcoal canister must have been optional so have raided one from the VS and will mount this up under the front bar.

And I have zero experience with MAP based tunes so will reaching out on the forum for something close when the time comes. I already had an NVRAM loaded with 12P - long story a mate wanted to convert his VR from a V6 to a V8 and wanted to go carby – so will mod the ECU for this.

All the front and rear suspension has been rebuilt with new rubber bushes. I found it had the strut tops replaced at some stage and the domed washers put in the wrong way. Springs will all stay at a sensible FE2 height. They might look good lowered but certainly are no good for comfort. There is also a theory that riding on the bump stops causes the ripples you see in the sides of some of these utes - I think that has some credibility to it.

Another thing I found wrong was the VT front caliper conversion, with the hoses too short and running the VT discs with the larger centre on VR hubs. So installed new non-ABS VT hubs and I already had a set of new correct length hoses and good nick slotted rotors so will run these. Being a V8 already has the 1” master cylinder so pedal feel should be fine. I wanted to replace the front steel brake lines so bought some cheap pipe benders and some brake tubing and nuts. Tried making bubble flares with the flaring tool at work, but wasn’t happy with how they turned out. So bought one of these ebay flare tools and it comes out 1000% better. Quite impressed with how they turn out. The bender I bought doesn’t quite get the tight radius, but it does the job.

New lines made up for the front and they look OK. Put a joiner in behind where the engine block would sit just to make it easier on myself.

Underbody.JPG (167.98 KiB) Viewed 4744 times

I still have to get some new bump stops as the old ones had been cut back and a set of tubular upper control arms. I have also braced the lower control arms in preparation for some huge horsepower.
Another interesting thing about this ute is that is has an exhaust hanger on the right hand side so looks to be set up for a dual exhaust. The hanger looks factory with the same bad factory welding but I didn’t think any VRs came out with dual exhausts, let alone the utes until the VS series???
It had a dodgy 2 ½” single exhaust on it when I got it. Am yet to decide between a 3” single or a dual 2 ½” exhaust into a 3” tailpipe.

I’ve made up some stainless tie down points and recessed a small storage box into the LH tray infill panel - ideally would have liked the jack fitted in it to get it out of the cab, but it’s not to be.
Pulled the fuel tank and found the usual return line coming off the swirl pot. Zero chance of my hands getting in there so thanks to a bit of motivation from VK3800 and his long range fuel tank, I threw caution to the wind and have cut the tank in half then extended it by around 340mm. It should hold around 90 litres now. Will make up a couple of extra brackets to support it but will use the factory clamps to mount it back in. I’ve pressure tested it at 3psi and no leaks, and then sealed the welded joints with a strap soldered over the top. I also gave it a coat of KBS tank sealer to be doubly sure.
The centre front tank mount will need to be shortened by about 10mm to allow the tank to sit in square again. But am wondering now if I shouldn’t have tried to fit a VU-VY ute tank instead and have the better fuel pump/swirl pot inside. Maybe they don’t fit or everyone would be doing it. Have ordered a stock Delphi fuel pump to finish it off and run new submersible lines back to the swirl pot.

Fuel Tank.JPG (110.08 KiB) Viewed 4744 times

Another one of the many things I found wrong was the engine mounts. Must have been a Friday arvo job welding these up at GMH as one of them was cracked – you can see this originating from a mounting hole but let the photos of the welds tell the story.
Hopefully there’s no confusion over the before photos and after I have fixed it.

Engine Mounts.JPG (94.52 KiB) Viewed 4744 times

Engine is stripped down. Not sure how the starter motor ever engaged properly as it only had generic bolts in it, not the dowel bolts to line it up. Anyway it was but will buy a set of the proper bolts. And the third bolt in the side of the block was snapped off - it came out almost a little too easily.
Found a max of 0.002” wear in the bores – probably could have got away with a hone It was a bit sludgy inside, but everything looked pretty good really. No surprises but stock crank and cam. Bit too much corrosion in the manifold and timing cover so these will go to scrap. Welsh plugs were all intact surprisingly. And all the end bolts on the manifold were toast as well so will get a new set. My plan for the engine is to just build something similar to the HSV 215 strokers only a bit heathier. Not trying to be controversial but from what I see is there’s a lot of stroker engines built, and they all seem to have forged pistons, aftermarket rods, huge cams and big heads, yet they all make disappointing figures on the dyno, guzzle petrol and are temperamental to drive. To me it doesn’t make any sense spending hundreds of money on aftermarket parts to handle some insane horsepower only to churn out 180 rear wheel killerwasps. So I will bypass all that and just settle for the disappointing dyno figures but have something that can be a daily driver. If it makes anywhere remotely close to 180kw at the tyres I will be happy with that. It won’t need 4 bolt mains or a crank girdle or head studs. It won’t be built to handle 8000 rpm or win drag races or burn-out comps. But the end result I want is to be able to put this thing in 5th gear, set the cruise button, and not notice any hills. Something that can be driven anywhere and has the bonnet closed more than it is open. And right or wrong will retain the banana oven/manifold, more than likely an acid ported one to see how good or bad it really is. I still have the heavily ported one that needs a home so this could be as good a place as any. But whatever power it makes will be enough. Turning a Holden 304 into a stroker is not a cheap exercise, but if you can find a decent piston you can reuse what are perfectly good conrods and save some unnecessary spend.

For the rest of the ute, I’ll be stripping back the all paint back to bare metal and will be paying someone who knows what they are doing to knock out the minor dents and respray it in the factory colour. If I had a go myself I know I would be forever disappointed.
Anyway that’s about it. I know there’s thousands of stroker Commodore utes out there and they’re all kind of the same and it can get boring. I would much rather read about a turbocharged Valiant or an injected Leyland P76 for something different, but will update this one as I make progress. Hope to make a start on the engine soon.

[Gareth]

What a great write up

Thanks for taking the time to share, i'll be following with great interest

[brindo]

Thanks Gareth. I should give a special mention to my helper in the shed. She relies heavily on her looks and is pretty much useless except in the rare situation there’s an emergency requiring a tennis ball at your feet.
Her only real job as she sees it is to prevent Star Track driver making any deliveries of car parts to my house – pretty much a 100% success rate so far.

Dawg.JPG (77 KiB) Viewed 4721 times

[vlad01]

Very awesome build! Been waiting for someone to do a good one at this level for a while, hasn't been many restro-mod builds since covid.

Do you have any more pics of the catch can bracket and how it looks installed on the tower? I was thinking along the same path for my VP to run dual catch cans potentially and a place to put a vac pump would be nice too! I hate drilling or modding the body and any way I can make an OEM looking bolt on bracket solution to mods is always my aim.

Also, love to see pics on the fuel tank repair and what not. I realize this is probably what I need to do since Rare spares fuel tanks for VN-VS don't have a functional swirl pot, not sure how they approved that design when they spent all that money tooling up

I had seen a few people manage to replace the hose and clamps inside the tank via the sender hole with the right tools but they never shared the details.

[brindo]

I hate drilling holes too and on a VR VS there’s 6 bolts on the strut tower to choose from to mount a bracket. VN VP you only have the 3 bolts don’t you?
All I did was just trace out a bit of paper to match the strut top then cut it out of a piece of 2mm flat sheet. It just sits on the nuts to space it off the paint, then another couple of stainless nuts on top to secure it.
But to be honest if I didn’t have to mount the coil there, would have mounted the catch can either on the radiator shroud or under the front bar – maybe near the vacuum ball. While I wouldn’t do it on this ute, an electric crankcase evacuation pump would be brilliant if such a thing existed – there’s very little room in these V8 engine bays as it is – but a vacuum pump would be ideal.
The catch can itself is quite small and is just held on with a hose clamp. I do intend to make a stainless drain tube for the catch can with the intent of increasing the volume of oil it can hold.

Coil Bracket.JPG (63.87 KiB) Viewed 3697 times

With the fuel tanks, I think the ute shares the same top as a sedan but the bottom half is different. I have no idea how anyone gets their hands in through the sender hole. Cutting the tank in half allowed me to pull the swirl pot out. Because it has the vapour lines that go across to the other side of the tank, I remade these out of scrap stainless and extended them to across the tank. You can see these in the photo below. With the KBS Tank sealer, you just tip the paint in and turn the tank over every 10 minutes or so. The paint is still wet in this photo. But once you're done, you tip out the excess, and I used that to paint the outside of the tank.
The other option I considered was just making a 30 litre auxiliary tank that would sit next to the existing tank for extra fuel capacity and just solder in a couple of 1” ports in the tank to connect the two together with flexible hoses. And then for the return line repair, I would just cut a 3” hole above the swirl pot and get access through that. Then fill the hole back in with a flat piece of 1mm sheet and solder it back on rather than welding. I used a tinning paste on the straps that I soldered over the welds on this VR ute tank, and it works really well. Once you get the metal clean, just paint it on, heat it up and add a bit more solder and it does the job for you.

fuel_tank.JPG (83.77 KiB) Viewed 3697 times

[vlad01]

Thanks for that!

Yes, VP has only 3 studs on the tower, but I was looking at the driver side since mine is a 6 and there is no room on the pass side for anything on the tower because of the intake pipe and AC stuff.

It will only be for a catch can or two depending on blow by requirements on the engine.

The vac pump will be for the brakes as my cam is way too big for any useable vacuum but I am looking at this unit as it's all self contained, well engineered, reliable and very neat and compact, around the 150 x 150 x 100 dimensions. It should be able to be adapted to hang off the AC dryer bracket at the firewall with a well thought out adapter bracket.

https://mpbrakes.com/shop/?filter_produ ... lent-drive

[brindo]

Having said how much I hate drilling holes, I have drilled some holes. These are hidden though.
These are the brackets to support the extended fuel tank.

Fuel Tank Brackets.JPG (86.33 KiB) Viewed 491 times

There's a limit to how much of the interior can be sensibly done before paint.
But the back wall is covered in stretch carpet. It’s the Car Builders stuff. Went on easy enough and looks better than the saggy vinyl that the factory uses. Hopefully will offer a bit of sound deadening as well.

Have also got hold of an original radio. If anyone has any advice on these happy to hear it. I will get a set of reasonable 2 way or 3 way speakers, and remove the dash tweeters. But probably need an amp too.
And ideally I need to get it to connect to a phone with Bluetooth. Not sure if the radio can have the original inbuilt amps replaced, or be modified in any way to have RCA outputs or for the Bluetooth, or even if any of that is even worth it with the factory Eurovox. But I am wanting it to look more or less factory, so any external amp will need to be small so I can hide it somewhere under the dash or behind the seats.
So if anyone can recommend a radio repairer in QLD, or recommend a small 2 channel budget amp, possibly a D class I’m all ears. And a Bluetooth solution?

I am going to be in the same boat as with my one tonner as I am done with the double DIN Sony playing up in it and want to go back to a factory Blaupunkt in it. I have never used the display screen on the Sony, nor have I listened to a CD on it, so if I can get the a phone to connect to it will be good enough for me.

[VK_3800]

Nice work and thanks for sharing.

I'd think an amp with high level inputs (is that still a thing?) would be simpler than modifying the head unit and just as effective. If memory serves a hard-wired phone input may have been an option in which case it should be easy enough to get an aftermarket bluetooth unit for that, probably not up to snuff for music though.

[vlad01]

I saw years ago there where like these models that gave BT and other functionality to old classic radios. I am sure there are much more feature packed modules you'd be able to get now days. But you need to know the basics of the radio schematics or be able to figure it out to solder in the in and outs of said modules.

Probably a lot you could do upgrading the stuff inside if you are a audio buff. I am def not but I worked in a repair shop for a guy that repaired and built amps for PA type stuff and even re-coned speakers for the whole of Vic, but since I never knew much of the music audio side of stuff I really sucked as a electronics repair tech. It really really helps to know what you are fixing does and how to use it Otherwise you can never see (hear) the big picture.

It actually would be nice to have these old units upgraded to output more power and better sound. But it helps having better speakers to start with, unlike my shitty 4" factory 15w front only units that sound like a tube wireless from the 40s

But I made the right start and bought some 3D printed VN/VP dash to after market adapter mounts to take some modern 4" speakers that makes it all bolt in. I have yet to get any speakers. But VR and VS don't have these constraints and can fit better, larger stuff off the shelf without much worry.

[antus]

For bluetooth get a cheap bluetooth to fm device from ebay (the cheap ones seem to be better than brand name ones from a store) and plug it in the cig lighter, or add a hidden cig lighter connector and put it all behind the dash. Then leave the stereo on the FM channel the BT module is retransmitting on. That gets you BT input. The exact one I have isnt available any more but it's like https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/126361881750 . Says 'bluetooth connected with an accent' everytime I turn it on but thats ok. Not sure how you'll go getting good power out of the head unit though. Amp with high level inputs as above might be best. One that can also run a sub.