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Torana hatch in California...

Started by _LS1 Hatch_ , Feb 08 2011 01:19 PM

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#201 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 02 April 2011 - 02:22 AM

I still wanna move over there, the sun is actually out!!!

It actually set a record yesterday here! Hit 92 degrees...down a few days today and a few more cooler tomorrow and back to normal basically then. (It is pretty good around here overall though)

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#202 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 02 April 2011 - 02:43 PM

Can tell you have an X pipe.

Heard a late model Commy (LS1) with dual strait through. It offended my ears.

Pull the mufflers off and put a carb on???

Cheers.

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#203 _73LJWhiteSL_

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Posted 02 April 2011 - 03:43 PM

Top video mate. Car looks and sounds good. I was in the states in August last year on holidays, If i had of know about you I would have dropped in.

Steve

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#204 _cruiza_

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Posted 02 April 2011 - 05:29 PM

Cheers for the video, needs more right foot action
I was very surprised by the sound, my car as well as looking the same sounded much the same and it was a big cam holden 308 with a single 3" pipe

On a final note I noticed you drive on the wrong side of the road be careful with that Posted Image

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#205 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 02:18 AM

Thanks all!

Yep, there will be more right foot action...just was taking it easy for the first few miles (and stayed close to home pretty much too) just to check for any obvious issues right off the bat.

It is pretty quiet at idle and low speeds like you can hear, but does sound good when you get on it. My little Sony digital camera does ok catching the sounds but might see about something better eventually...just something else to get too :lol:

I've got to start loading containers on Monday, so won't have time to play around with it for a couple weeks, but soon as I am done with work stuff I'll be getting back into the car and do some more miles in it!

Oh, and the sound deadener mat I used seems to help inside too...does not seem to be any droning issues from the exhaust or big fuel pump out the back...(and I had the windows wide open in the video too)

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#206 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 02:27 AM

Top video mate. Car looks and sounds good. I was in the states in August last year on holidays, If i had of know about you I would have dropped in.

Steve

It wasn't quite going last year, but next time you are passing through be sure and say!

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#207 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 02:58 AM

Loading containers.....

Can we expect a gone in 60 seconds style fanging around the docks???

Cheers.

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#208 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 06:17 AM

Not with customer's cars, that is for sure.. Posted Image

I've got a Bobcat (the little construction equiptment things) to ship...wonder if it could do a 4 wheel drift if I hosed down the concrete first? lol

The guy who bought it is actually over here for a couple of weeks, and he has to show me how to start it...never driven one before? Have to push a bunch of buttons and enter a code apparently.

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#209 _Pallbag_

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 07:37 AM

Brown Davis drop tank I presume ?

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#210 _RB26DETT_

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 08:22 AM

What hubs did you use???

For brakes...the rear I just used an off the shelf kit with 330mm rotors. The front is abit unusual, but worked out good in the end. I used some billet hubs from there with 5 on 4.75" stud pattern (HQ/Chev) and after alot of research I found a rotor with the perfect offset to suit the caliper choice and my wheel...which is a 360 x 36mm rotor from a 2009 Mercedes AMG. Cool thing is they are factory drilled and really quite cheap even right from the Benz dealer! Calipers are 4 spot Brembo's. I would have liked to use the matching 8 piston AMG Brembo calipers, but the price was sorta outa hand for me (at the moment at least) so this combo worked out well. Just made a caliper bracket out of 5/8" thick plate steel.

Mine fit on the 9" fine though ?

Oh, I see now where they would have a clearance issue. The upper mounts on my diff housing went straight down in the front more so, so did not have that issue like you have shown..

Oh, and for those interested, here is my brake setup in the front.

And the caliper brackets I made..

Took a day to work out just the angle and spacing, but once I did it was pretty simple making the brackets.

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#211 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 08:31 AM

Brown Davis drop tank I presume ?

Nope, made by a guy in Mt Evelyn, Vic...named....ummmm....(thinking about it..)

...

...

.......Keith Leggit! Wow, can't believe I remembered it :lol:

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#212 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 08:35 AM

What hubs did you use???

I got them from a guy there who does bigger brake kits, I didn't care for the kit itself but used his hubs (did some trading to get them while I was over there one trip) and just made the rest.

I can't remember the name off hand, but can look around and see if I have it somewhere (think I might have had his business card)

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#213 Collo

( . Y . )

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Location:Newcastle...Home of me.
Car:A Black POS
Joined: 29-February 08

Posted 15 April 2011 - 04:03 PM

This pic of a Monaro in the states is on another forum. The Commodore is a pontiac converted back to a Holden.

Posted Image

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#214 _wblje_

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Posted 15 April 2011 - 07:28 PM

awesome ride. i dont think ya can give it much more stick. by the time you stretch 1st gear its prob over the speed limit any how. my brother moved over to around las vages some where and if i was single id move over too.............

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#215 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 20 April 2011 - 01:36 PM

I had a '99 Camaro SS with a 6 speed for a while (3.4 diff ration and factory 275/40-17 tires) so mine with 265/35-18 and 3.55 is not too far off that..it's a real nice all around combo really, pulls hard off the line and with the couple of overdrive ratios it's perfect to cruise on all the freeways. And easy enough to run around just from light to light around here in the first few gears and be plenty quick, ha ha..

I'm done loading containers again for the moment so can get back onto the few little things on the car and get some more miles in with it! (and will work on doing another driving around video as well..)

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#216 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 22 April 2011 - 08:40 AM

Well....hit my first snag with the car

Was out today driving around, putting some more test miles on it, pretty close to home at least. I had pulled onto a main road with not alot of traffic and gave it abit of stick (sure pulls hard!

) and then started to slow down for the intersection where I was making a right turn and noticed it started to squeal real loud all of a sudden. I just slowed up more and got around the corner (was going to pull up and have a look) when the noise went away. Hmmmm... so kept driving and just looked down at the gauges and noticed it was only sitting at 12 volts and the temp had gone up a little.. I was only a few blocks from home at this point so just kept going...
Pulled into the driveway with the temp gauge around 3/4 of the way up and just shut the car off..popped the bonnet and the overflow coolant tank was bubbling abit and only had to look for a sec (already knew pretty well what the problem was from what had happened) and saw what it was. The belt had slipped off the idler/tensioner pulley and jammed behind it. Since it couldn't spin, the belt overheated and broke around the balancer.

When I put all the new front brackets on the engine for the a/c and alternator I used the original tensioner assembly and pulley...seemed ok at the time, but when I tried to rock it back and forth now, noticed that it does have some play in it....so looks like I should have used a new one at the time (used new everything else bolted onto the engine)

So luckily a pretty simple fix, and lucky as well it was close to home!

Will order another tensioner and belt up and get back to getting some miles on the car and hope nothing else much comes up!

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#217 _scalpa1_

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Posted 22 April 2011 - 08:58 AM

You may find all you need to do is fit a shorter belt. I had a issue with my camaro in that when i would give it a bit os stick the belt would jump a couple of ribs. I noticed that my tensioner was nearly at it full length so i got a 10mm shorter belt and fitted which put a bit more tension on the belt. So now when i have fun i dont have any issues with the belt stretching and jumping off the pulleys. Can you send me your address so as i can arrange to have that A/c kit sent to you for shipment. cheers tony

You may find all you need to do is fit a shorter belt. I had a issue with my camaro in that when i would give it a bit os stick the belt would jump a couple of ribs. I noticed that my tensioner was nearly at it full length so i got a 10mm shorter belt and fitted which put a bit more tension on the belt. So now when i have fun i dont have any issues with the belt stretching and jumping off the pulleys. Can you send me your address so as i can arrange to have that A/c kit sent to you for shipment. cheers tony

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#218 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 23 April 2011 - 11:20 AM

I used abit shorter belt today, and will see how it goes. There is a fixed tensioner setup you can get for the LS engines as well I came across that is supposed to help with belt jumping as well. The tensioner on mine itself does feel abit loose, so will do something either way with it shortly (Just put the new belt on it so I can still run it around some, just taking a little easy to still break in the brakes, etc close by. Will have a think over the weekend and run it some more and order what ever I decide to go with next week.

On the A/C kit...I'm done loading containers for now, so it would sort of have to wait until into June when I will be doing the next batch of containers..Thanks!

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#219 _judgelj_

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Posted 23 April 2011 - 12:06 PM

definitely need to open her up.

its a big tease!

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#220 _L32M20_

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Posted 23 April 2011 - 12:25 PM

my ss has done that before.twice now .use a good quality pulley. i only got 40,000ks out of the last one.

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#221 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 24 April 2011 - 07:09 AM

I might go with the solid (manual adjust) tensioner as mentioned, but I also just came across an idler pulley with sides on it that looks to be similar in size, so that might help things out as well! Might try that first, but think the tensioner needs to be either replaced all together with the solid one or at least updated to a new one as well.

Just was out doing some mild running around in the car earlier this afternoon....it sure pulls well from even really low revs! Had one guy at an intersection really rubber necking trying to figure out what the car was too, lol (happens sorta often)

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#222 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 24 April 2011 - 09:47 AM

I picked up another pulley and got it on now... It is somewhat larger in diameter, but also has a ridge on either side...should help hold the belt from slipping off the side hopefully (as compared to the one I was using that was completely smooth)

Here is a quick video of it with the old pulley...have to make another one (or get a pic at least) with the new pulley still.. You can see how much it seems to move around, even at lower revs.

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#223 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 26 April 2011 - 09:46 AM

Here is the other pulley, slightly larger in diameter and has the edge on it to keep the belt from sliding off the side !

See how this goes and still keeping the non-adjustable tensioner on the cards as well..

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#224 _LS1 Hatch_

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Posted 30 April 2011 - 09:35 AM

Well, I ordered a new tensioner, one of the fixed (non spring loaded one) so you just set the tension like the old days and leave it. It'll be here on Tuesday (per tracking number) so will post a few pics of how it looks once it's on!

Also getting ready to do a final wheel alignment as well...I did it while the car was on jack stands to get it close when I was still building it, but now that it has settled in to it's final place, I'll do it for good. I made some turntables out of aluminum plate and a mate of mine (who used to be an alignment/front end mechanic once upon a time) will bring over his caster/camber gauge and will get it done! I also made (have to get some pics if anyone is interested) a pretty simple tool for doing the toe-in. I gave it a quick check this morning...good thing I did :lol:

it's about 1/2" toed in...I had only done it by eye pretty much originally and knew I was going to check it properly. Only done about 5 or 6 miles in the car so far (maybe 10) so no big deal there at least.

That and just trying to keep up with all the orders that are starting to come in for the next batch of containers already (the ones I sent are still floating on thier way there!) but with the dollar nearly at $1.10 everyone is going nuts, not that I am complaining! lol