19 replies to this topic

[FLY_LX]

Hi all, thought i would post up my project.
It's a 77 LX sedan, i bought it a few years ago. It was a 253 auto, never drove it as the brakes have no pressure and dodgy electrics, the rust was in both rear quarters and passenger sill. Unfortunately i had to park it outside because there was too much shit in the shed, anyway since they started work on the Peninsula Link (the amount of dust that blows over is incredible!) she started to show rust bubbles, so the other week i got off my arse and made room in the old shed.


THE PLAN:
Build a neat weekend cruiser with a bit of GO.

DRIVE LINE:

MOTOR:
Not long after i bought a vs hsv 5l with 72 on the clock.
I was just going to leave it stock, but remembered how disappointed i was when i drove my brothers vs hsv commonwhore ute. So i thought i would give it a bit of a tickle, then thought stroker, finally realised best bang for buck = forced induction. So i bought a supercharger off a v6. with a water/air cooler running 10psi
Also going to fit roller rockers, heaver springs (i here LS1 springs work ok?) clean up the heads and match port it.
Roaring through a twin 2 1/2" exhaust.

GEARBOX:
I was going to go a supra box, but got the shaft when i bought motor because it was supposed to come with manual ecu but slipped me a auto one insted. Wanker probably sold it for $1000. Anyway didn't wont to buy another one so i've got a 460le that i'll get a shift kit and beef it up a bit, with standard stall convertor.

DIFF:
Going for a skyline diff, with 3.45 or 3.7 lsd.

WHEELS:
Not sure yet? just know i want some wide ones to fill the flares. Maybe looking at 16-17" diameter.

BODY:
I bought a set of flares and 2 piece front spoiler, they have never been fitted, don't even have any bolt holes in them yet. Hope they fit up alright. So she'll be kitted up.
Also going to smooth out the engine bay a bit

color, well changed my mind a few times. Was originally going Seabring Orange, then i seen a few cars on here that were too. Now i'm thinking either Atomic Green or another commodore color, can't remember the name but it's a dark blue on the ve. With the blackouts of coarse.

INTERIOR:
It came with a fairly new black velour interior. I'll keep that but add some grey or tan strips.
I might get some hate mail for this but i hate the flat LH/X dash and the location of the heater controls. so i'm going to put a UC dash in there. I like them a lot better.

PROGRESS:
PORTING SUPERCHARGER:
I did a bit of research on porting the supercharger, after sorting the wheat from the chaff, i gave it a go. Pulled out the old dremel and went at it. My main aim here is to increase it's efficiency = more boost less heat. I enlarged the outlet removed the dags and put a radius on it removing the sharp edges. On the inlet i just cleaned it up, was pretty rough in there, looked like th outside of a banana manifold. I'm happy with it so far but the proof will be when it's running on the car.



I bought a throttle body off a ford V10 for the US of A, i'm starting to think it might be to big??? Don't remember the exact size but i think it was 54mm x2.


MANIFOLD:
Now we have to mount the superchager to something, so i bought a spare banana manifold for $10 and started attacking it with the dremel and a grinder.


As you can see still a way to go, but i think it should work. I need to cover the top of the ports, i need to add some material here and there and to #7 port and take it to someone with a mill.
I haven't started on the intercooler yet. I'm going to use some phenolic sheets, just tring to find some for a good price. Going to sandwich a small oil cooler with the phenolic.
Thats about all i've done on the motor side.

BODY:
Like i said earlier only just got it in the shed the other day. I started to strip the rear because i figure it's the worst, so took the tail lights out because there was a few bubbles around them. I did passenger side thought yeah not to bad. drivers not so good, oh well my own fault for leaving it outside.
Then i took off the bumper and said a few choice expletives, then had a small chuckle thinking, this is going to be a fast car with all these speed holes. so i've bought metal to start fixing. But can't start that till i re-tile the shower







Thats it for now.

Edited by FLY_LX, 13 June 2012 - 01:25 AM.

[FLY_LX]

Hey v6uc.
Yella terra use the M90 for there terra charger kit for the 5l, and Eaton say it can be used on 2.5 - 5.7, though i think it would be to small for a 5.7 . I recon it will be ok, i don't want 1000hp, about 200rwkw is the aim. It's still got the standard pulley, but i will get a modular pulley, but it also depends on what size crank pulley i use. Glad to here about the throttle body. My brother had a supercharged vn v6, that went ok, i remember how smooth and quiet it was, yours must surprise a few people.

[Statler]

Terracharger.

[FLY_LX]

Have a look on zzperformance.com
You can get the modular pulley setup pretty cheap

thanks mate, will check them out.

Statler is that yours??

[Statler]

yep

[FLY_LX]

yep

Awsome. Can you tell me does yella terra recomend using the standard MAP sensor?

[Statler]

Yep.
Seems any modifications to the 'kit' don't necessarily = more power. (pulleys excepted, but the kit is designed for a stock engine)

[FLY_LX]

Seems any modifications to the 'kit' don't necessarily = more power.

Interesting.
I know they run on standard tune, with a controller for the extra injectors, but i've got 440cc injectors so will have custom tune. Might sharpen it up a bit?

[Statler]

I hear Mitsubishi Magna blue top injectors are the G.O! Cheap too!

I'm in the process of modifying the heater box (again) to get clearance for the blow off valve.

[FLY_LX]

V6 UC i've got the VS hsv Delco ECU, it has a knock sensor. I don't think it's a 808 think there 24 bit instead of 16?

Statler i got some new bosh green tops. got em off ebay for a good price.

Tyre fryer i know what you mean about manifolds, but if i had a non EFI heads there'd be more options. Maybe thats why most go for a centrifigal charger.

[FLY_LX]

Bit of a update.

unfortunately haven't spent a lot of time on the torana. had a lot of things to do like doing some paving, re tiling shower, starting a business, plus ive got a couple of other toys like a hilux & silvia that need my attention too.

Anyway the old girls been smacked on the arse a coupe of times. One of the repairs seemed to have happened early in her life because its been done the old way with lead fill, while the other repairs where just bog (lots of bog) fibreglass and that tar shit slapped (very heavily) around the inside of the boot.

I'm no dirtbag but im learning heaps along the way. And at least i'll know whats been done to the car and hopefully she'll go another 40 years



So i cut out these bubbles in the tail light bucket.

The first repair i did was ok but i didn't align it the best, it's only out by a bee's dick. i think it's not bad for first attempt anyway.


The second repair i did, i learnt a hard lesson. I accidentally turned my welder up i shrunk the absolute shit out of the panel. You think i would have known something was wrong when i kept blowing holes in the panel but no, Some dickhead kept at it, thinking the rust had made the metal a bit thin. as you can tell i'm not much of a welder, But like i said, i'm learning alot.
I couldn't get a hammer & dolly in there and i wasn't going to bog it up. Probably should have used a dent puller but didn't think of that till later so i filled it up with weld. A stupid idea but to late now.



As you can see i made a bit of a mess. it looks a bit better than this now as i've worked on it a bit. Actually spent a lot of time making it look the mess it is. a skim coat of bog should come up ok.

The next repair i did in 2 sections as the had 2 different angles so seemed easier. and i'm glad i did.
The first section turned out spot on pretty happy with it.




The second section not so good. I was a bit suspect on the metal in that area, because it' s soft & dull, but only after i tried to weld the secion in i found its lead. I tried welding it in and it just melted and runs of the panel . Thats pretty much where i'm at because i thought i better stop and have a think about how to tackle it. I'm thinking i might try welding it from the inside, because it's double thickness there so shouldn't heat up as much, then re- lead it???? Heres the mess i made of this one.


Theres also looks to be the same type of repair in the same spot on the other side.

Any ideas about this would be great.

peace out.

[benno81]

I had to do similiar on my lh need to get rid of the lead (I use a strip disc) Weld your new section in(your tacks are very big try a smaller size wire and turn down your mig try small tacks overlapping each other easier on small sections like this.
redoing the lead is a problem as it is hard to do right and can be hard to get let alone the heath problems it can cause(one of many reasons they stop using it ) people say fillers(bog)these days if applied right are better then lead anyway.
I had to dig a few bits of lead out of a mates car about 3 years ago replaced with a quality filler and to this day its holding on without a problem.
Anyway good luck with the build mate keep going good to see another rana being resurected.

[FLY_LX]

thanks for the advice and encouragement benno.

might have to go with the filler. like you say leads not the safest or easy to find, i want to use the least filler possible on car but guess not much choice. when you say "strip disk" are you talking about those scoth brite things or the flap disks on a grinder?

as you can see from pics i'm not much of a welder. my welders a migmate 110 and i'm using 0.6 wire on the lowest setting and cutting out the repair patches from one of the doors.

[Statler]

Don't try & weld it all in 1 go m8. Stop/ start from the bottom up. Let the first 'spot' cool before you do the next.

Strength comes from fusion, not quantity.