683 replies to this topic

[rodomo]

His boobs err sorry "bust" are uneven

I though that was standard?

[rodomo]

Update: Captains log, stardate blah blah blah.

The suspension is finished. The original ride height between the sill lip and the ground was 28cm. It had 205/65/15's fitted. I replaced them with 195/50/15's that were (and still are) earmarked for the LJ. This brought the ride height down to 24.5 cm. Further "adjustment" of the springs has now brought it down to 16.5cm approx. A total of 11.5 cm or 4 1/2". Bonuses found were Pedders rear springs (that have been adjusted) and "recent" Monroe gas shockers on the rear and strut inserts on the front all in perfect working order. The tie rod ends and ball joints have also been replaced somewhere along the line with TWR and are all good. The front springs (remember this car was orig. V8) were replaced with 6cyl springs as I couldn't get the required result with the V8 springs. I went to a tyre/suspension joint on Sydney Rd and asked if they had a pair of 6Cyl Commy springs that they had removed. The bloke said wait a min. and I'll have a look. He brought out 2 springs and I said how much? He replied Happy New Year! Another bonus!
The springs were "adjusted" using a thin blade on the angle grinder to minimise heat. Another "technique" was used to ensure the springs sat square in their saddles. After "adjustment" the rear springs had to be "retained" as they were lower than the stroke of the shockers. Again I stress that this is a track car only and I do not condone what I have done for road cars, having said that, a lot of thought went into what I did and it had to be right in my brayn hence the change from V8 springs to 6 Cyl as I wasn't "happy" with the safety aspect of the result with the V8 springs.
Another "budget tip"-
The rack boots were torn where they clamp on to the outer tie rod end so I replaced them. The "old" boots then became the strut "gaiters" and had "K" frame rubbers fitted over the strut shafts to make it all fit. The "K" frame rubbers fit inside the rack boot and now act as rebound rubbers.
Yes! Its looking good for Winton and I'm kinda glad I have been able to do more things to the car before it hits the track so I can blow the doors off gas powered LJ's I am also leaving the SL/E bumper overiders on to push Galants out of the way . Heath is coming over to start his welding tutorial so pics soon of the exhaust mods.

[Heath]

before it hits the track so I can blow the doors off gas powered LJ's I am also leaving the SL/E bumper overiders on to push Galants out of the way

BWAHAHAHHHAH, subtle

[rodomo]

The most photographed forum member in the world came around Sunday for a play with the mig. I had left the "keyhole" surgery on the bonnet hinge for him to practice on. It is the thickness of panel steel.



I gave him a couple of tips and left him to it. This is the result after grinding. This pic. isn't the best but there were no holes to re-fill.



A coat of red oxide and it was "brand new".



He also welded the new "pin" into the bonnet hinge, this was a 3/8" bolt into a 5/16" hinge so there was a bit of variety.

The next "test" was shitty old exhaust bits where rust and internal residue had to be tolerated. The mig was playing up a bit at this stage but the "trooper" persevered.



And yes, he got a "slap" when I realised he had his "ovarybags" rolled down.
By this time he was "exhausted".

The rear left floor pan foot well has to be modified to accomodate the exhaust. The foot well is quite deep and not "user friendly" for exhuast mods. and is why you see handbrake cables dangling under Commodores.
Just another hurdle.

Edited by rodomo, 09 January 2007 - 12:30 AM.

[Heath]

w000 cool pics! lol

I'm sure Matty and Cohen will be pleased with you. haha thanks for all tips and the oppurtunity to test my skills Rob! It's not every day that you get people willing to help you learn (and sometimes screw up) on their own vehicles.

Cheers mate!

[rodomo]

This weeks update.
FLOORPAN:



The rear floor pans on Commodores are deep and not user friendly for exhaust mods. You can see by the "deadener" mat on the left how much was gained in these pics.



This section was cut out, flattened out and the contour of the sides and end "adjusted."



It was then welded back in. It gave another 1 1/2" under the floorpan for the exhaust.



2 x 2 1/4" standard EA Falcon resonators and 2 3/8" tail pipe for the "wank" effect. (It thinks its a VL turbo).
The resonators are straight through but the rear one is offset. Hopefully it will be enough to keep the marshalls at Winton happy.



2 x Commodore A/C condenser fans. Hopefully this will keep it cool enough while lining up. They will be manually operated by an illuminated switch on the dash. The thermostat has been chopped out as the motor is an unknown. I ran it briefly before I pulled it out of a VK wreck. The heater core on the VK had been by-passed which could mean an underlying o/heating problem with the engine. We will soon find out! 28th Jan.

Should I start the countdown again? 14...13...12..............

Edited by rodomo, 14 January 2007 - 10:06 PM.

[Heath]

Well that's definately some serious project since last time I was there. Looks great!

Where does the exhaust exit? Because you just said "tail" pipe... (I hope it's still side exhaust!)

[MRLXSS]

w000 cool pics! lol

I'm sure Matty and Cohen will be pleased with you.

DAMN RIGHT!!! hahaha

Nice Wife beater heath! haha need to tan up those shoulders a bit, or Rodomo u need a warning before showing them that we need sunglasses to reflect the glare! haha

I love this thread Rod, its inspiring me to make a track car like this. if winton wasnt so far away i would pop down just to see you nudge the old galant and fly past that gas powered lj!



This is one strong bucket too! Where did u get it from? Bunnings? lol

Edited by 253ToranaSS, 15 January 2007 - 11:51 AM.

[tinkers]

This is one strong bucket too! Where did u get it from? Bunnings? lol

Couldnt be bunnings, those dont last a day on our site.

[tinkers]

I'll move this thread to the tech articles once it is finish but I think it is great that Rob is sharing all this info with us. And also I think a huge "Good on you" for getting the younger member/s involved so they can learn first hand.

As Heath said it isnt everyday someone is willing to let others have a go.

It's not every day that you get people willing to help you learn (and sometimes screw up) on their own vehicles.

Cheers mate!

[rodomo]

This is one strong bucket too! Where did u get it from? Bunnings? lol

Couldnt be bunnings, those dont last a day on our site.

Um, same here, what bucket? Some dill let the car down off the jack before moving the bucket.

[rodomo]

romodo whered u get the mig from mate ???


i desperately need one before i can start both of my monaros!!

Bunnings about 5 years ago. Its a Cigweld Transmig 130 twin. It was around $700.
There are cheaper imported ones available. My mate bought one off e-bay for around $400 and it seems to work O.K. I'll see if I can find out the brand.
This one started having "issues" recently (Heath knows all about it) but I spent a bit of time fiddling with it yesterday and its brand new again.

[rodomo]

Where does the exhaust exit? Because you just said "tail" pipe... (I hope it's still side exhaust!)

Yes still out the side about 8" (200mm) in front of the wheel.
Right under your left ear

Edited by rodomo, 15 January 2007 - 02:41 PM.

[rodomo]

13 days to go update.
Tonight (15th) the exhaust was removed and the welds finished and painted. Heath, I was wrong. The exhaust is 1' (300mm) forward of the rear wheel and closer to your left ear. Tomorrow (16th) I will try and find some "bungs" for the air pump ports and an "idiot light" temp sender in the head so I can assemble the manifolds. Have these senders been changed? I remember the old EH/HKish sender being quite large and bulky but Bursons and Autopro are trying to sell me something that looks like a guage sender. Help here?
The lower valance (see pic of fans) also had a "tidy up".
After the tidy up I was going to fit the radiator but opted for an alternator mod while there was room.



This pic shows the Alt. as fitted. You can see there isn't a great deal of clearance between the Alt. fan and the fan belt. StedzLC? had trouble last July at Winton where the fan "stretched" with centrifugal force and almost took out the fan belt. The yellow arrows indicate the direction of the "stretch" A recent thread in "Circuit racing" "race preperation" mentions altering pulley size but doesn't mention this (though if you fit a larger pulley this maybe won't happen?) I found an old Sigma Bosch Alt. in the shed (again, I don't throw anything out) which had a bigger pulley and the fan was deleted.



From memory Stedz car was seeing 7000 rpm on the day. I'm not saying the VC will go near that but who knows? The engine is an unknown but has had work on the head at least. With all the mods I've done I'm expecting 350HP as a reality?

Tommorow: How to turn your rollcage into a 50 litre nitros reservoir

Edited by rodomo, 16 January 2007 - 12:04 AM.

[TerrA LX]

With all the mods I've done I'm expecting 350HP as a reality?

Tommorow: How to turn your rollcage into a 50 litre nitros reservoir

LOL you mean 350Kw.

haha you should have left the air pump on and hidden the lines in that.

keep up the good work, and the posting.

[Peter UC]

I believe the VK injected motors had bungs to fill up the air pump so you should go to the wreckers and grab the bungs out of an injected VK, or were you already doing that.

[rodomo]

I believe the VK injected motors had bungs to fill up the air pump so you should go to the wreckers and grab the bungs out of an injected VK, or were you already doing that.

From what I have seen of injected heads, they are blank where the air pump manifold screws in. If my memory serves me correctly, VC blue (pre air pump) were also blank but had the bosses. Maybe you have seen a VK carb head adapted?
Anyway I have done a cut, squash and fold mod on the fittings to block the holes.
Also blocked off the thermal vacuum switches and fitted the extactors and inlet manifold. Fitted a hose between the water pump and T/stat housing where the heater hoses used to go. I jammed a 5/8" welch plug up the hose so it cant "by-pass".
It was 40 degrees in the shed tonight so there was a little: Shhhhheeet glug glug glug involved and not enough action.

Edited by rodomo, 17 January 2007 - 12:30 AM.

[rodomo]

11 days to go.
Last night (17th) was spent pulling off some more SL/E bits to flog on e-bay as budget is tightening and no brakes yet.

Tonight I did the bit that brought it all to a halt before the last fun day (Dec 17th). The centre bearing mount. The tail shaft I have is Commodore V8 but it was the wrong length. Wagon? VL? Who knows? Who cares?
Anyway I cut it and welded it back together just to find the centre bearing mounts didn't line up.



This is the standard mount.



I had another that was cut and hatched into the original.



This was the result. I drilled the end holes (red arrows) out to 10mm and drilled and tapped the mounting holes in the floor. I could then use 10mm bolts and "big fat washers" (technical term) to mount it.



The engine is starting to look like and engine.
The pile of spaghetti to the right is the wiring loom. After the Rangie rewire this should be a piece of cake? Shouldn't it? I don't really need a wiring diagram, do I?

[Heath]

It's all coming together nicely Rob, but there's still plenty of work to do

[rodomo]

It's all coming together nicely Rob, but there's still plenty of work to do

Correct! Someone has to weld the seat adapters in?

[rodomo]

6 DAYS TO GO!
The engine bay is wired with exception of the coil (not fitted yet). The exhaust totally finished, mounts made Sat. And tonight I started nutting out the dash. with no diagram this is taking a bit of time.
"Grasshopper" re-appeared today and the seat mount work began.



The seats are MR2 Toyota, $100 off e-bay. They have good side support and lumber adjustment on the drivers seat, you sit in them, not on them



Two of these were made up and are the front "adapters". You can see 2 plug welds to the insides of the bolts and "burns" in the paint to the outsides of the bolts. These welds are holding the "spreader" plates in that the mount bolts are welded to. The early Commodores have an inbuilt problem with the floors cracking. Its caused primarily by the car being designed in Europe for Europe. Not for Aussie roads with "lard arse" drivers. The second mistake was the mounting holes to the floor being symetrical which causes a "rocking" effect under accel. and braking. The Toyota seats have a "random" bolt pattern meaning more work to fit. Here is a pic of a couple of "shonky" previous repairs. BUYERS BEWARE!



Here is "Grasshopper" tapping up the flanges to close the tolerances prior to welding.



And here he is welding them in place, what a trooper! It's more fun now that the mig is user friendly.

Edited by rodomo, 21 January 2007 - 11:57 PM.