Just picked up a new car for the missus on the weekend. I think she was getting to comfortable in the Senator and wasn't real keen on going back to a V6 so we compromised and she ended up getting a 2002 VX series 2 Calais V6 Supercharged
She's stock as a rock, still has factory 17" rims, the only mods done by the previous owner was fitting a double din JVC head unit and some factory FE2 springs. other then that it has all the factory options etc.
She's fairly tidy for her age (the car) but needs a good clean in the bay. The only major issue is the usual intake gaskets that will need doing. Previous owner runs a automotive workshop so it seems well looked after otherwise.
plans for the car are fairly simple, it's going to be the work horse so reliability is foremost but I will be chasing some power enhancements but without sacrificing economy.
First and foremost a decent CAI, 180° thermostat and new alloy intake gaskets should take care of the cooling system. I haven't looked yet but it may need a new or decent transmission cooler. Fortunately the previous owner has recently serviced the transmission and used a fully synthetic transmission fluid, the box feels good, shifts are firm etc so the plan is to look after it
The missus first complaint was a lack of throttle response which is easily fixed with a 69mm TB. I also have some 1.9 rockers that can go in. These are the extend of the mods to start with other than some tuning to suit.
Seeing as it'll run on 95 I'll have to limit it to about 8psi boost for now. I have a terrible dislike for the factor style POS balancer so I'm thinking of putting a powerbond race balancer on it with 5% OD on the blower drive, this should increase the boost about 1-2psi without touching the blower pulley at this stage.
I'll most likely source a M80 manual diff with 3.46 gears and LSD as I've found with previous V6 engines a few more revs won't hurt economy and it doesn't labour the engine at low revs. Seeing as you cruise around off boost in reality your really just driving a low comp ecotec most of the time (the missus also has a lead foot and likes to win traffic light drag races so the ratio change won't hurt there either)
With time I may consider some more boost coupled with some form of inter-cooling. I'll probably go the W2A route as extreme power certainly isn't the goal.
I'll post some pics in a day or 2 when I get a change to take some.
This is my first foray into the L67 world so some assistance will be appreciated
When I fit the 69mm TB I'll start off with The1's VX enhanced bin which looks like it's based on the factory HSV XU6 tune. I'll tweak the line pressures, shift points and throttle gain % to suit the bigger TB. Are there any other changes folks would recommend in the tune to suit?
Cheers (and thanks for reading).
