Vlad's rides thread

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vlad01
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Not a lot to add at the moment, but hopefully when school is back on I can have a few days of interruption free time to do a bit more involved jobs on the car like the exhaust tweaks, get the auto out and sell it on, rear brakes, got all the stuff except the bleed nipples and pads (still waiting on pads to deliver, ordered some 6 months ago).

But I did manage to get a cat sorted for the exhaust, flanges welded on by my old work mates in Bendigo. The plan is to grid off the flange and 2-1/4 section off the y pipe and rejig it to 2-1/2 with the primary goal of dropping the y pipe by 10mm while retaining the current position from the cat back. There is little clearance on the 2-1 collector on the y pipe to one spot on the floor, a 10mm more will do nicely!
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The other thing I got done is I had a PS rack input housing modded for more header clearance. There is usually only 8-10mm of clearance and always witness marks from that one cap head screw that the pacemakers always hit under high loads and/or saggy mounts. This mod of recessing the screw down 4mm and then using a low profile cap head gains another 2mm, so there is at least 5-6mm extra gained. So overall there should be about a min of 15mm which I am much more happy with. I think this is a mod worth doing on all cars going forward.

There's a pic of the other side that doesn't need clearance as a comparison to the clearanced side.
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I'm the director of VSH (Vlad's Spec Holden), because HSV were doing it ass about.
OZ38
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by OZ38 »

The Power Steering Rack housing sitting on the V6 T5 Input Shaft cover reminded me to ask, have you heard from the shop making the steel V6 T5 covers for you yet ?

Cheers Deek
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vlad01
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Not yet, I believe they only went back on 20th and I think they said another 2 weeks from when they get back, so I assume the end of this month.

Speaking about input shafts, my one only "good" shaft I have has a lot of pitting in the spigot end from sitting around with the previous owner that I've cleaned out but I am worried it might eat into the spigot bush with time, so I am thinking that since the VR is probably going to end up gutted this year, maybe I should just take the plunge and raid that out of the VR and have a perfectly built T5 since this will be my daily for god knows how many years or decades. That T5 was reco'd from a donor car with 190k that was all factory. Not random T5 conversions bits sitting in someones yard, car was still in rego when I bought it.

Might change the rad over too from the VR one which is a custom PWR one I designed and had them make, solves the issues of the cheap plastic hose fittings having basically no barb and the hoses coming off when driving, also the wonky rad cap neck that often leaks due to them literally being wonky and out of shape out of the box, so the top cap seal can't seat properly. My rads all fixed those issues.
I'm the director of VSH (Vlad's Spec Holden), because HSV were doing it ass about.
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vlad01
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Started working on the Y pipe. I found that with the ball/cup coupling up front that I could easily adjust the angle of the Y pipe and get the floor clearance I wanted, but to do that, I need to redo the end piece and flange as mentioned.

So I am in the process of that now. Carefully ate away at the well to preserve the collector as much as I could. But the way Pacemaker make them though, they appear to grind the end in what looks like some machine akin to a giant pencil sharpener to prep the collector to slip into what they call cone over collector design. So I docked the end off near/on the weld and with the help of my mechanic and his exhaust hydraulic tool station he stretched out the bit of 2.5 and with a few tricks managed to get a bit of a taper from the same machine.

Then I went to the press and slowly massaged it into a oval since that was the exit shape of the collector. Very pleased how it turned out from an idea I felt was lofty at best, but hear we are!

Some minor tidy up and massaging to get it spot on, but it's 90% there and swivels enough that I reckon it will allow the drop I need and also upgrades to the 2.5 from the 2.25 that it was. After I get that welded, and then sort the header clearance for the primary mini flange around the clutch fork cover by grinding a little off the flange itself and mill the bell housing brace to add clearance there too, a linish to help remove some of the heavier rust and smooth out the pitting, it's off to HPC. These headers have done less Ks and half the age of the red cars ones, and the diff in deterioration between plain and HPC is astounding, none for the HPC while these are getting pretty rusty inside and out now and they have seen barely any use, they were brand new!

I am mainly doing it for thermal management as that makes a huge reduction in IR emission, but the deterioration is something I want to slow down after now seeing what a massive improvement HPC makes for the life of the headers.

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I'm the director of VSH (Vlad's Spec Holden), because HSV were doing it ass about.
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vlad01
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Rest of the pics.

Pretty snug fit, but like I mentioned, I can tweak it a bit more and tidy it up with a drill flappy sanding attachment and a file. Some work with a panel hammer and dollies will get the shape a bit better. The collector is oval but not completely symmetrical.
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I'm the director of VSH (Vlad's Spec Holden), because HSV were doing it ass about.
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vlad01
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:41 pm
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Re: Vlad's rides thread

Post by vlad01 »

Took a few goes and careful trimming, adjusting and filing but ended up with a good result! :thumbup: Just needs the final welding to be done and I'll put it all aside for HPC coating not too far in the future.

Got that min 20mm clearance at the tightest spot :thumbup: was more like 8mm when I started I reckon. Interestingly, the shitbox was already at 20mm but the pacemakers on that looks to have the y pipe assembled more logically, but that one predates 2009, I bought it used that year with no known history, so likely much older than that.

I had the exact same issue with the one on the VR from 2014, same mod was needed back then. No such issue on the shitbox. So I guess pacemaker jigged them a bit off from that time onward it would seem.

Brake pads are in the post, ordered them in July or there abouts, so timed well with all the rear end brake bits I bought a few weeks ago from Hoppers stoppers.

Since I have the exhaust mostly removed, I feel like the next step is the auto removal. Anyone interested in buying it? Fully built and beefed up for 700 ~ 800hp iirc.
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I'm the director of VSH (Vlad's Spec Holden), because HSV were doing it ass about.
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