Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

I wasn't aware of such groups. FB is a cluster f**k of a platform, I find most business FB pages and groups via google search instead as FB's own search engine doesn't lead anywhere.

Perfect example is a computer repair business in my town have their site as a FB page and came up 1st on google with a very high rating, so I now knew the name of the place. Later that same day I searched the name in FB directly, nothing, then "computer repairs kyneton", nothing. So I had to go back to google to get to the FB page . Sorry for the rant, but FB and I have a love hate, mostly hate relationship.

Thanks for the heads up!, I'll check it out later today. If I can find it that is

[immortality]

You guys need to get onto the facebook groups for the L27/L36/L67 scene more often!
The rails were posted on their through the design and manufacturing stage!
It is 98% absolute pure specimens on those pages, but would be a real pleasure to have a lot of you knowledgable guys on there!

Can you post a link please, then we can take a look at least.

[vlad01]

I searched, as expected I came up empty handed. I saw a Buick builds for aus kinda group come up as a suggestion once few months ago and it looked like some genuine smart people in there but it never came up again, didn't come up in the search. I checked them all and they were those yobo type groups with "does any one know where this spark plug goes" kind of people

To my surprise I was already in some of the V6 groups but never get a single notification or post from them for a good part of a decade it seems, hence why I forgot I was even in them.

I'm in the Formula Holden group and that has been the most useful for me so far, but very cagey people on their and about 2/3rd don't actually know much about engine building and are there about the race series history and drivers etc...

[Rhysk94]

Easy, I'll post a link to them all.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/13508449783/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/990169354375111/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/578638068840894/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/5420514501397856/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1630827003890390/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237831736345711/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/816086906006933/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1881740381866635/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2805458752835381/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/285678406157057/

[vlad01]

Any for the Buick? I really want to find the one I mentioned but can't recall what it was called. It was Buick/pre-eco stuff only and in Aus, not American, not that that means much as in America the L27 and LN3 are almost not recognized as ever having existed and 95% of the development for them was here anyway.

[Rhysk94]

Not that I'm aware of but I will keep an eye out and report back if I find something

[Holden202T]

It is 98% absolute pure specimens on those pages, but would be a real pleasure to have a lot of you knowledgable guys on there!

[vlad01]

Some of you might know that I've been unwell for some time, recently things have have become worse and probably will continue in that direction before things (hopefully) get better, but despite that on my good days I have been tinkering a little again with what limited funds and resources I have.

Cars have been neglected for quite a few years and the S pack I was talking about was the worst in that regard, stuck in the corner of the car with junk around (mainly other family member's hoarding), so it was not able to be moved out in 10 years.

The cooling system went to shit, coolant turned into acid and ate a lot of the gaskets and alloy away despite looking clear and green, the coolant was leaking out on it's own accord via the eaten gaskets.

I bought new intake set, hoses, a pump, new coolant and DI water last year. Finally had enough mobility and motivation to do a decent shed clean up and get it out in the open to give it a wash.

The engine bay was very bad, full of mouse shit and their piss rusted up areas, they nibbled on the silicone firewall sealant but it was minor enough that I was able to very carefully skim it off with a razor blade and make it look like factory again. This was the main motivation to get it out and sort stuff. I hate mice! they have caused so much loss and damage to my stuff over the years despite bating 1-2kg of bate at a time every month or so, miss a few months and they trash everything. Bloody bastards!

Really regret not investing in a few carcoons when I could. Anyway, I forgot to take a pick of the engine bay, it was awful! Thought it was a salvage mission at this point but actually came up surprisingly good.

Over the last month or so I also revised and assembled all my remaining cruise control pedal safety optical cut out switches. I changed from original wire directly solder to pad, to 2.8mm spade terminals and proper female crimp terminals to suit, PVC insulation sleeves, Mexican optical sensors with built in pigtails so no soldering on breakout boards.

The main relay board I also replaced all the components with automotive rates parts and a silicone conformal coating. The 4 sets I have been making have turned out pretty nice, much better than the first few I did back in 2014-2015. This is going on the white VP btw, not the S pack.

IMG_5017.JPG

IMG_5025.JPG

IMG_5033.JPG

IMG_5046.JPG

IMG_5050.JPG

IMG_5056.JPG

[vlad01]

This car, despite an original 73k on the clock and not touched by me in the 10 years I had it, had some work on it done at some point.

Evidence by the buzz marks on the intake surfaces, pump surface on the timing cover actually looked untouched despite obviously being replaced.

Not too bad on the intake and heads, but a little sad for the Ks, the timing cover hasn't got many pits but the ones it has are big! I kinda knew the timing cover would be sad on it, low K old cars usually do due to no maintenance. I found a NOS one on a corvette forum in the US but haven't got a response from the seller yet, was listed in Jan or Feb this year, so hopefully the seller has it and gets back to me. 30 bucks, but has some corrosion from storage, hopefully none on the oil pump side of things.

The inside of the engine looks mint! very clean and inside the coolant passages of the heads and block look great.

When installing the new gaskets, I put a tiny blob of sealant on the O ring line between the coolant and the adjacent intake port, so if (more like when) the gaskets perish and leak coolant, the usual wicking path they take along the O ring to the intake is blocked by this blob of sealant so it hopefully prevents the coolant going into the intake port and causing pitting in the cylinders.


I have also been slowly when I can spare a few bucks, buying bits to do the suspension on the white car, these race spec superpro rear upper bushes being 2 piece are really neat and came up great, I had the arms blasted last year and I painted them with my usual combo of primer and paint.

Some more assembly of the cruise cut out switches.

IMG_5063.JPG

IMG_5064.JPG

IMG_5071.JPG

IMG_5134.JPG

IMG_5142.JPG

IMG_5179.JPG

[vlad01]

One completed cruise unit.

The sensors are slightly lower to the wires that the originals and the wire exit points are much further out than the through hole ones I has, so I just hoped it worked out, so I did a mock up and it just fits, the wires are extremely close to where the spring could be, but luckily the shape of the spring happens to be completely free in that area of any actual spring, lucky!

Did a simulated test in the white car, this setup just intercepts the cruise switches without any cutting. Power is actually already at the brake cruise switch and is switched already at the cluster cruise power on button. Just a ground is needed, can use one of the existing screws on the frame, but probably better to drill one on the black dash frame as it has a real direct to chassis grounding strap near the wipers and would be more reliable.

The bolts for the pump were totally eaten away, so got new off the shelf ones from a bolt supplier, except the factory bolts aren't exact length standards, slightly off from the common lengths. I suspected that the lower small bolt might be an issue with the timing gear. I mocked up on another engine, I found that there is only 3mm of clearance and on this old timing cover I actually measured the amount til it hits the cam bolt on the car and set the bolt on this cover to be the same so I could see. Let this be a warning to anyone replacing these bolts, make sure they are no longer or at least shorter!

I used 3 washers for the 1-1/4" off the shelf bolt, 2 flat and a spring washer and I got the length right using the actual new pump and this old cover. But in the pic you can see, that is all it takes to hit the cam bolt.

IMG_5182.JPG

IMG_5183.JPG

IMG_5187.JPG

IMG_5188.JPG

IMG_5195.JPG

IMG_E5196.JPG