48 replies to this topic

[REDA9X]

What I'm saying is the HO pack available from the Holden spares division was not the same thing Harry ran on the cars. The fact that a kit was available that had an external oil cooler, allowed Harry to skirt the rules and basically run a dry sump setup. We are talking race car verus road car here, 2 different things. remember most race teams ran webbers, but they were not the Holden part, the Holley was. Repco and Holden developed the road cars, Harry just tol Holden what he wanted and usually got the bare minimum to get the job done. Yes I mentuioned 1978, but what I am saying there is this. A HO kit was developed for L34 use. You could go into the dealership and have it fitted to your L34. However, these things were $1500 worth, so not many people bought them. As the years went by, some dealerships still had these kits on the shelves and were offering them to customers that had any 308. ADR27A came along and this kit could not legally be fitted without voiding warranty, so Holden issued a letter to all dealerships telling them to cease fitting HO kits to cars. No need to put Harry straight on this, he is right in a way, but even if you read AMC on the L34, you will see he had little to do with actual development, remember Repco running engines on the dyno, not in race conditions caused the oil surge dramas in the first place. Harry developed his own oiling system to combat that in race use.

[lakeside]

Did they have these L34 H0 engines in the LH 5000 from factory? Because my mate had one on these HO engines in this yellow 5000

[REDA9X]

Hmm Maybe I wasn't clear enough here. An L34 from the factory did not have a HO kit, no car did and the only car to have the L34 block was the L34. The HO kit consists of the following :
780 Holley
Valve springs
Roller rockers
push rods
stud assy's
lifters
camshaft
oil cooler assy
spark plugs
different aircleaner
and all the various hoes adapters etc to fit it all.

The HO kit was a dealer fitted item, not a factory thing, so your mate never had a 5000 from the factory with an L34 engine or HO pack fitted to it. He could of however bought the kit over the shelf and fitted it, or had the dealer fit it.

On Harry, I spent a few hours at his house back in October and got a lot of info from him, but you have to listen very carefully to what he says. He still knows his stuff, but you have to make sure of what exactly it is he is talking about. He can tend to blend from one subject to the next and you have to question what he is saying. He might start off with XU1 and before you know it, you are talking A9X without knowing how you crossed over lol.

[HSVGTS]

I know I�m talking about road cars here, and no you couldn�t get a HO kit fitted to your road L34 at the time as it wasn�t available to the general public. I know this bit as I was there, we tried to get one for my brothers L34 in �75 and couldn�t [Eagers Newstead and Zupp�s Aspley in Brisbane]. We all lived under the one roof at the time and we had lived torana�s, L34�s and SL/R 5000�s.

If you can show us all a copy of the dealers letter regarding the sale of the kits that will put things straight.

On Harry, I have to call him back later regarding another matter and I will be spending some time with him in June, so I will get the info from the horse�s mouth.

Regards����

[REDA9X]

You must have been up against a dealer that wouldn't or couldn't be bothered helping you out then. HO kit was available as a GMP&A kit, the spare parts book proves it, and it HAD TO BE AVAILABLE to the road going cars as under the Group C rules of the time, mainly the oil cooler assy. As I said, Warrington Motrs in Dubbo installed at least one kit to an L34 when the car was new. I'll find the service letter, but it doesn't change the fact that you could get the GMP&A HO kit fitted at a dealership. As I said, it's absolutely nothing like Harry's system he used in the race cars.

[REDA9X]

Yeah, some people just say track pack, but thats a Charger thing from back when you had to run factory everything

[lxsstorana]

Great photo's, never get tired of looking at stuff like that.

Cheers Mick.

[arrimar]

my guess would be that with the alternator on the drivers side theres more room to run the oiling system on the passengers side so the swap was started.later on the system was probably more refined and no longer needed the battery swap. i wasnt there but ive often wondered myself and thats what i came up with.

[REDA9X]

The race L34 system with the tank on the passenger side was obviously developed with the A9X, and if you have a look, the A9X has no engine fan, so the oil coolers were a simple cooler in behind the radiator. There was no need to have that large setup the L34 used, however the Morris team did have a presurised tank in the engine bay that served as their oil tank in the dry sump system they used while HDT stuck with a wet sump.