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I think I'm doing a VGG/road kill style rescue....

Bought a car off trademe last night, pick it up later this week. I needed a run-about for a few months and felt the need for a cheap project.

It's 2000 VT exec, povo pack 3.8 auto on LPG with apparently a blown head gasket and is using water with about 339,000km on the clock. Plan is to pick it up and drive it home across Auckland.... (better map out all the SCA and Repco stores on the way home).

It has a current Wof and Reg so hopefully that is a positive.

Sellers pics for posterity




Plan is to get it running so it can be used as a daily work hack for a few months and become a project car with intention of fitting a T70 turbo I have sitting on the shelf in the garage. Plan to break out the old welder and make my own turbo kit. I should be able to get steam pipe cheap via the missus work.

What I haven't figured out yet is turbo kit design and turbo location. I see most kits these days are like delco's kit on the VB V6 with a side mounted turbo or go the front cross-over style with the turbo mounted behind the radiator? If I go this route I'll get rid of the AC pump so the dump pipe can fit through there along side the motor. LPG will also go.

Blown gasket, unlikely but what is likely is cracked heads, very common problem on ecotecs.

I almost bought a VS BT1 years ago but I worked out it had cracked heads and broken lifter guide/s

More likely inlet manifold gasket.
Throw some silver seal in and hope for the best.

My best bet is intake gaskets coupled with a stuffed radiator cap causing it boil.

Yep, check out the cooling systems ability to actually cool. Wonder has it been cooked (boiled) before due to poor cooling system maintenance ? Maybe why it is loosing water due to damage from a earlier cooking episode.

My plan for picking it up is to fill and bleed the cooling system first. Then test drive/drive home....

My only issue is it's on LGP and I know stuff all about LPG. Not even sure if it's a factory fitted system or aftermarket and how it all ties in.

One saving grace with lpg, if it looses enough water the converter will freeze, thus shutting down the engine and stopping before any major damage can occur

From the pics it's an aftermarket install, smart converter with dumb mixer, factory used the impco system

Yeah I just bought a cheap commy/ecotec from auctions & got 10min into drive home & temp gauge went over halfway QUICK!!!
Pulled over & had a stuck thermostat, probably why people got rid of it.... anyway 10second fix & all was good till I noticed it going through coolant weekly & obviously previous owners kept driving it till supper hot probably numerous times & bent/warped/lifted stuff... so with guts out of thermostat & a bottle of Rislone head gasket fix all seems to be o.k. a couple of years later!

The seller is a woman so that may go to a lack of knowledge. Here's hoping.

So this is the turbo I've got to help fill in the engine bay.