86 replies to this topic

[el_jay_72]

I havent really made any progress since last post except for lowering the front a bit. I just felt wanted to share that after last years acident at rev heads the torrie was back again this year and made it there and back safely.

Last year -





This Year -




And also this picture because I like it

[SmacT]

Great to see an 18-year-old with a good taste in cars, El Jay! My first car at 18 was an LJ two door with heaps of XU-1 gear in it, this. Rings back some memories. That crash looked like it might bring back some nightmares for you later! Good job.

[el_jay_72]

Ok bit of a delayed update.

First things first, I have finally lowered the rear end of the car and it looks 100% better.

I have been saving up lately as I had been looking at converting the car to a v8. Recently an opportunity came up to purchase a high energy sump, extractors, engine mounts and heavy duty springs to suit small block chev into lj for $900 and a ford 9" with 4.11 centre for $900 as well. I quickly snapped this up and was on the hunt for an engine and box and have just found one I am keen on today.

The engine is a 305 cube Chevy with a TH350. Both were reconditioned approximately three-four years ago but were never installed into a car. the and recon TH350 owes about 8k to the guy I'm buying it off apparently however he doesn't have the receipts. It has 4 bolt mains, fuely heads, hi-rise edelbrock manifold, mild cam and internals and comes with starter motor, twin point dizzy and a few chev bits that are no good to me which I can hopefully sell to recoup some cost. He is asking $1500 firm which I believe is a fair price I just wanted to get some opinions ffrom others.

Are the 305's a good engine? This is a 100% street car so I dont need to much power and being in an lj that weighs nothing im sure it should be more than enough.

Anyway I will post pics of everything soon however extractors and sumps arent that exciting so I will wait to see if I buy the new motor before posting.

Thanks in advance for any feedback on this motor.

Cheers
Jason

[el_jay_72]

No Worries I will let you know if I do buy it then.
Currently the car has a mild blue 202 (all rebuilt between 5-10,000 km ago)with cain maniford and 450 holley , vk 5 speed, shortened tail shaft, and banjo diff with rebuilt 3.36 open centre

Edited by el_jay_72, 29 May 2011 - 10:27 AM.

[el_jay_72]

So it turns out that the guy witht he 305 motor decided to sell it to someone else before I could get to look at it. (wasn't me wasting time he just never had the time to meet me to see the motor, even though i told him i'd pay him cash then and there. Funny how some people work). So now i'm back to looking for a motor and box pefore I can progress any further.

[el_jay_72]

Just payed a deposit this afternoon on a 307 Chev for the Torrie:
It was rebuilt approx 1 year ago and came out of a ht/hk monaro (can't remember) that the owner decided wasn't powerful enough and is in the process of building a 383 stroker.
The motor is bored 40 thou with a stage 2 cam, Has 2.02 valves and mild head work and roller rockers. Motor has done less than 3000km.

Anyway I'm pretty happy with my purchase and can't wait to bring it home.

I will post pictures up soon but all my gear is currently being stored somewhere else so I'll have to wait until i go there to get pics.

Now I just need to buy a gearbox and get a driveshaft made up and I can start swapping everything over.

[orangeLJ]

Whats the story behing the accident?

[el_jay_72]

Picked up two sets of rocker covers for the chevy motor today. Getting closer.

With the accident pictured above we had been to Narogin Rev Heads which is basically 3 or 4 days of burnouts, bogans and a show and shine. The car had just been sprayed and assembled and at the show won top under construction car. On the way home because the car was unlicenced it had to be trailered. No one is 100% sure what happened but we believe that the jockey wheel fell down when the xc was towing it at about 100km/h as it was all bent and partially snapped off. Basically the car and trailer were driving along and the trailer somehow jacknifed and spun the xc out of control. The torana had about 12 tonne of snatchstraps holding it in place which all snapped and the torana was flung off of the trailer and slid into the tree and the xc was wrapped around another tree.

If it wasn't for my friend in the xc partially correcting the trailer and staying calm and in control there could have been a much worse situation than a written off car and trailer and a damaged torana.

Point of this story to me is don't treat your car as a trailer queen and drive the bloody thing.

[el_jay_72]

Well its been a while between posts and the chev has been sold long ago because the boys at licencing wont allow it. I now have a mildly worked 253 boat motor so that I can get it passed. I have a rebuilt and worked trimatic to fit with it aswell. So slowly getting there.

I have had the axles drilled on the diff to suit hq pattern and bought the castlemain hq front brake upgrade.

I also swapped my showwheels with a friend and in return he is going to help me put all the conversion into the car and gave me a set of old roh draglite 15x7 look alikes so I had something to sit the car on until I have the hq pattern all round. I have a set or american racing torq thrusts in 15x7 and a seton of black centre showwheels in 17x7 ready for when the conversion is done.

Will Upload some new pics soon!

[el_jay_72]

Ok some pictures finally as mentioned above


This is the day she left to start putting the new engine etc in.




I have had the seats and door trims recovered to suit the paint scheme.




How the car sits now after swapping wheels with my friend




The car that my wheels went on to. (HG GTS Monaro with 350 Chev, originally a 6 cylinder)




Exhaust purchased off of a forum member. Twin 2.5" exhaust with extractors to suit vn heads




Custom 4 into 1's made to suit old holden heads which are proving very difficult to fit




253 sitting in the engine bay (not actually secured yet just sitting in place as I had the wrong engine mounts at that stage




Torq Thrust Wheels - 15x7 in HQ Pattern




Showwheels Thrashstar - 17x7 HQ Pattern



And last of all which isn't related is my cousins new project. Originally a VH 6 cylinder he bought it with a 253 and we just swapped it out for a 308 that day. We are going to get it running and licenced with the v8 and then fix up the bodykit and give it a respray.





Thanks for reading!

Edited by el_jay_72, 15 January 2012 - 10:55 AM.

[el_jay_72]

Basically just going to put the driveline in and start enjoying it for a while. Future plans are to fit a 308 and tidy up the engine bay, eventually I want to respray it in the same colour as it has a fair few patchy bits and scratches etc. also I wants to get some of those 17" gts wheels and slowly get all the parts rechromed so it looks real neat.

[orangeLJ]

Love the new wheels!

When the thrashstars first came out I loved them, great choice of wheel.

[el_jay_72]

Total buid cost would be around $20,000-25,000 approx after buying and selling bits and pieces and including wheels. I'd hate to actually know what the total was because its probably higher. If I could start over again now with the contacts ive met through having the car and obviously not had that stupid accident I think I could probably do it for half that and have a neater looking car.

The Interior was done by a local upholsterer. Cost me $1200 I think all up but the guy refused to do any more after he finished with mine.

I liked the wheels to orangelj however what I really wants is a set of 15" prostars and id probably alternate the two.

[el_jay_72]

Haha no the seats gave him the shits because he couldn't seperate the base from the backing. My car was off the road at the time so I wasn't irritating him too much