Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

Collected the brace today, should be good, not 100% on the markings but should be more than good enough.

So the PS should be able to be installed/removed with ease now and the headers should fit too.

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Also this arvo, it arrived!

And I had to laugh when all the important dimensions are exactly the same as the ones I came up with for the mods on the NPC one, like to the same mm I didn't have a flywheel to reference off, just measuring stuff on the crank and block/dust cover. And the disk is obvious, but it was also my reasonable guess that 150mm ID would be a nice round and safe dimension, and 150 it was!

Xrtreme must of seen my cheat sheet lol.

Anyway, this thing is of beauty! CrMo, SPI rated, all one piece billet including the ring gear too. Rings like a tuning fork, so this is very hard and stiff steel. And yes, it does feel a bit lighter than normal.

However, after I confirm the fitment is 100%, I'll ask Duggan balancing to try balance it without the use of the bolt on counter weight, so eliminating a part that can come loose.

I love the hidden dowel holes on the back, neat little trick, so they are 100% captive. I guess that's part of the SFI rating?


I am going to try drop it off on the way to Dandy with the bellhousing, so it's not a wasted trip.

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[vlad01]

Fitment all worked out.

Good clearance on the two problem areas I had on the NPC one are all good on this flywheel. Dust cover as you can see moves up heaps before it hits. 2nd pic is a little hard to see, but the flange and cone of the back of the flywheel clear the sump and gasket/gasket retaining plate no probs.

Bolt holes were also at an ample size, so no installation or binding issues.

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I took this vid of the brace and PS rack installation/removal. You can see that milled out pocket did wonders, first car I can install and remove the rack without having to drop the K frame or remove the engine partially or fully.

Needs a little more clearance on the header side. I had easily 10mm removed already. After I installed the header with gasket for good it was a lot better, maybe 2-3mm of clearance. But I'll still grind that out to make it at least 8mm or more.

https://youtu.be/ylkcY-i14OM

And as of that, header is done as I am happy that I no longer need it removed to do anything going forward.

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[OZ38]

More dramas with the NPC stuff. Flywheel doesn't quite fit.

They made the flange too wide. I got measurements to have it corrected and they said they would, but after providing that, I've only had silence. I asked if they would change the design going forward and they said no, because they never had an issue. Said it must have been my engine in particular. But I made a few videos for them to make it easier to understand and see the issue more in person, I demonstrated it on two different engines and it was the same problem.

The flange being so wide that it interferes with the bottom of the sump, gasket and dust cover, it is also 1mm from the block's boss around the seal housing which is too close for my liking. It needs some undercutting towards the outside, or they need to change the design to have the flange narrower like the factory ones or the billet ones from Dellow conversions. I would have cut my losses and got a Dellow one, but they only make them to order and no longer list them, from what I read on their site, it's a min of 8 week turnaround.

I need to have it in over xmas if I can. So modding the NPC one locally at Duggans while they re-balance it and add the clutch balancing to it all at the same time seems like a much better idea, at least I can effectively communicate the requirements and not waste money on shipping stuff back to NPC. That alone would pay for the modding at Duggans. Quite disappointed with NPC to be honest.



The bolt holes are 8mm exactly and the bolts are 5/16", so there is basically next to no wiggle room for drill hole variation and surprise surprise, two bolts bind against the sides of the holes. So I am going to ask Duggans to also enlarge them to 8.2mm if they can, so it's still snug but the binding is eliminated.

Are you sure that NPC didn't send you a Flywheel to suit the VS - VY Ecotec V6 ?
As you would be aware they have one Off-Set bolt hole out of the 8 flywheel to crankshaft bolt holes. This correctly locates the balance mass weight on the flywheel to compensate for the internal "Out of Balance " moment within the Holden V6 engine as fitted to the VS-VY models. People have manage to mount them 180 degrees out & suffered massive vibrations.

[vlad01]

No, its the right part. Has the part number engraved into it, and ecotec flywheels to suit getrag are a way different height and have a large negative step (pot style). The T5 version is identical to the Buick except a different counterweight, theirs are a bolt on counter weight. They just designed these without properly checking is my bet and in addition, only to suit exedy clutches and not the OEM broader specs.

I actually doubt these would even fit the ecotec as they have the rear plate bolts that stick out proud of the block mating face, so those around the bottom of the plate would likely hit the flange of the flywheel, preventing installation or in the best case the bolts scraping the flange as it rotates.

The plate bolts actually interfere with the normal T5 conversion as they hit the bellhousing up top, so holden made a VS only T5 housing that had cast in pockets up top for the bolt heads to nest into. Most people miss this and have crooked bellhousings, or those that notice usually just grind a few mm off the bolt heads.

[vlad01]

Also, forgot to add. The Xtreme one is 9kg with no material removed in its design, the NPC one which has had a diet in it's design, material removed from the edge, the whole thing is much thinner than stock and the larger dish in the middle takes away material as well, it was about 9.7kg on my scales which is very close to their advertised weight, the Xtreme is a whole Kg less than their listing. Thats pretty awesome!

Given the thickness of the Xtreme one, one could machine a step and use a Tilton multi plate clutch, the ST-246 series should work with these relatively minor mods.

[vlad01]

Bellhousing brace needed more clearance than what I had machined off, like a fir bit more.

So some effort on the die grinder got me this. Much better!

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While I was stripping the paint off the dust cover to redo thinner so the bolts don't come loose, I also stripped the eco oil housing I had clearanced out the pump outlet to a larger size too, paint stripper and a pressure washer. Use PPE for that method!

Results came up good.

Before and after.

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I also sorted out the cat back for a few issues it had with fitment and alignment.

First was to correct this hanger peg. Now it's actually level and not going to strain the rubber on an angle.

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[vlad01]

Painted up the brace, and also repainted the dust cover with less coats (was too thick and rubbery, bolts come loose from that).

Note that I left the contact areas in just a light coat of etch primer, etch also has virtually no build and does not squish out which is what leads to clamp load loss and bolts coming loose.

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Continuing with the cat back. I honed the inside of the rear coupling and sanded the male part, this is for the exhaust cement I used to make a much stronger and also leak proof joint.

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Tweaked the alignment until I was happy and used the Invidia universal multi height rubber, I had one on the shitbox since xmas, so far so good. This one ended up on the max 50mm as I originally calculated once I straightened everything up.

Worked out great! Way better than before and all clearances are good with no to little strain anywhere.

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[vlad01]

Pic of the overall system in its final mock up.

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Got the PS hardlines mounted up, fits really good. But I think I might add a 3rd bracket and clip on the right side of the engine mount, there is some movement and potential loosening in the current 2 point setup.

With previous mock ups, the bracket and clip does fit there without any mods. And I happen to find yet another of these brackets

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I also ended up doing the mod to the drivers engine mount anyway. The Y pipe is still close to the rail, so this should safeguard any contact hopefully under Vlad's mental driving habits.

Given these GTE1H mounts are a bit tighter on the rubber buffer air gaps, a little "pre-loading" helped install of the bushing. Once on the car, there still is a small air gap top and bottom, with the top one being the smallest currently, as they age, it will sag down a little and both should end up the same. On the shitbox where I tested this idea out, I do not notice any extra vibration over stock, so this actually works great as a "mace" or "tuffmount" style solid mount but enough movement that it behaves as stock and eliminates the NVH the solid style ones produce. There probably is more NVH under hard load, but I can't tell the diff from stock since the cars are harsh normally under load. Since I only do this to the driver's side where clearances actually matter (everyone else installs them on the pass for some reason?), leaving the passenger side default ensures there is always good dampening overall.

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[vlad01]

Got some ally black flat bar since no shop sells true steel flat bar of this size range anymore, they are all guillotined strips and are of shit quality. So I took a look at the ally ones, they are actually excellent and you can chop them on a normal drop saw.

Some nicely drilled holes, we have a mounting for the PS cooler.

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I got some good spring clips from Beeps in Bendigo. I recall going around all the industrial and auto shops there when I was fresh out of school and studying/trying to run a gaming PC business and these clamps I found then were perfect for the water cooling systems that I custom built. Well my memory served me well, I found the shop and sure enough they had spring clips, and these were even better OEM grade ones.

Only thing is they came in 1mm size increments and I was guessing as the sample hose I had seemed fatter than normal, so I went one size under. Got some hose elsewhere as they were out of stock of the 3/8"

And luckily, they fit and on the tight side just like I wanted. About 13 bucks for a pack of 10.

I find with many hoses, especially on the PS or trans, the rubber squishes out and becomes hard over time, so they need periodic re-tightening to stop leaks etc... So this will solve that issue.

I think in the future, I'll so the cooling ones too for the same reason, at least the small ones which tend to do it far more than the main big ones. One of the reasons OEM don't use worm clamps anymore.

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[vlad01]

Ripped the cooler mountings off for sand blasting and a bit of tidy up. Since these are modified VT ones and are done so by hand, they are a little unique from side to side. So I stamped them.

Handy things these are.

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I also finally got my crimp dies further modified.

OG one on the left, the modded on the right. I've had it modded once before years ago, but realised years latter as I got a better understanding of what specs a crimp should meet, that these were way too wide.

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And this is the reason. I had many (the cheaper brass ones mainly) terminals crack and break here.

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