Torana SS

[seabreeze]

Just caught up on this build. Fantastic enginnering and ingenuity! I know one post represents dozens of hours of work VK_3800, so appreciate the sharing of your work.
Interesting about the brakes vlad01. Always put off the VT upgrade because of conflicting info on which master and booster combination works. VT rotors are back on the shopping list now.

[VK_3800]

Thanks seabreeze. Regarding the VT calipers, I have late AU (Hoppers conversion, similar piston sizes to VT) on this car with R31 Skyline rear (basically the same as VB-VS). There's nothing wrong with longer pedal travel if it suits your driving style (useful with un-assisted brakes) but front/rear balance needs to be considered. Even with a proportioning valve if you install front calipers that require significantly longer travel then you should change the rear to match somehow. In my case the master cylinder is bored out a little larger for the front circuit only (1 1/16" vs 1" rear) with a stainless sleeve and appropriate pistons. This gives more volume to the fronts for the same pedal travel, and it has a big dual diaphragm booster so the effort isn't a concern.

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A few pages back I cleaned up the two-piece swivel thermostat housing and made it one-piece with some epoxy. It's not a bad unit but there's a design flaw with the recessed cap screw idea; the base material under them is too thin causing warping and leaking if you crank on them too much. They're also difficult to access. I should have welded it up and machined before painting it - I may still one day, definitely won't be throwing it away because this $70 part apparently now sells for $250!!

At any rate I had a genuine GM housing from a VN in good condition, these are better engineered with the bolt bosses being much thicker. Also cast a chunk of aluminium from some pieces of old piston and machined that up as a spacer to get the correct height. Made it the same shape as the earlier thermostat housing so I can use it if I ever change back, or want to drill the other port.


Fixed the colour and made up some shoulder bolts with slightly reduced size heads, fitted with a new top hose.

[vlad01]

Yeah that's right, I have run the calculations somewhere and I came to the conclusion that the same or very similar bias can be achieved with VT size up front and VN group A rear as they are slightly larger piston size compared to the stock size. If you leave the rear stock, you get more front bias but it's not massively more. Without having actually done the conversion yet, I can't comment on the outcome yet, I just don't have an income to do much than a few basic parts once a month or so at this stage and might be a while before I'm back on my feet.

I have secured brake pad manufacturing slot from another company as Forza pads are NLA now after Brakes Direct went bust.

In the future, my caliper selections will come down to pad availability, no point in upgrading calipers/brakes if your only choice in pads is Bendix or a no name brand.

[monaro308]

Excellent build VK_3800......top notch!
My ghetto build has been going great since 2007.
viewtopic.php?t=58

[VK_3800]

Cool, not sure how I missed that. Great to see someone else doing proper port injection with early heads, looks like your injector placement is quite good too.

The Delco ECU was great but I just needed that extra bit of control with injector timing and the electronic throttle, plus it seemed to like eating ignition systems which shouldn't be a problem any more.

[vlad01]

Yeah the V8 implementation of the ignition system on the Delco, at least the our AUS/NZ ones wasn't great. I am often fixing that on my brother's VR 5L. Other than non genuine parts, the V6 ignition has been trouble free for me, not so much on the ecotec but I am fairly certain the eco's high failure rate is due to their much hotter running and engine bay temps. Semiconductor and electronics in general life span falls off a cliff as the temps get close to their rated temp, usually around 85-100c for most stuff. Auto stuff is normally over 100 but not much more than that when considering physics and electronic/material engineering limitation. Silicon carbide and gallium arsenide semiconductors are starting to fill in that gap of high temp and high power and voltage applications, which only maybe the newer car electronics would be starting to use now.

For me, the only thing that an after market ECU would be enticing for is decent knock monitoring and control, Delco's implementation is complete garbage, but hey, it was the 80s and knock management was still very new. Maybe one day I can play with some after market stuff to scratch that itch.

The AEM stuff looks pretty user friendly and also has most of the OEM features. Not really familiar with other brands though.

[VK_3800]

I never had any electronics issues with the Camira module, my problems I think were more to do with the high energy coil and possibly too much timing variance for the distributor. I did kill one magnetic pickup but that was probably more of a corrosion problem.


Haven't used knock sensing with the Link either, but there are some interesting things like math options and combining inputs. For example I currently have the check engine light programmed to come on if the air/fuel ratio is more than 10% lean (and off after half a second when it drops back again), gives me an idea of what's going on while tuning. It's also handy to have closed loop operation with wideband sensors, and half a GB of onboard logging space.

[seabreeze]

Interesting to notice the casting differences. Mine is early VN. I too looked at a new casting, but $250+ is taking the piss! Cleaned and painted it's ready to go again.

[vlad01]

Is that 250 for a Kilkenny one? They absolutely take the piss for basic cast parts and are garbage quality as of the last several years in my opinion. See my builds thread on a KC housing brand new out of the packet and the issues I had to sort.

[VK_3800]

I was talking about an aftermarket swivel one (Aeroflow is one of many suppliers) which is a replacement for pre-VN, but I don't doubt others are just as expensive.

Different castings are interesting, mine was from quite a late VN but possibly NZ assembled. Parts most likely come from multiple sources all over the place.