Hold(en) my beer - Monaro, Ute and Commodore content
Discussion
Yeah this is definitely why I'm tempted to keep the aircon, since I did the cam last year I didn't have the AC regassed so have had a year without it, to be honest the heat wasn't an issue at any point, but one particular journey in traffic on the M4 when it was bucketing down was made far more stressful by the fogging up and needing to leave a window cracked etc.
Equally using it on commute mornings when it was really cold out was inconvenient...
Had a single "is it still available?" enquiry about the Alfa so far, why don't people want to buy 3 litre 20 year old Italian cars at the moment?!
Equally using it on commute mornings when it was really cold out was inconvenient...
Had a single "is it still available?" enquiry about the Alfa so far, why don't people want to buy 3 litre 20 year old Italian cars at the moment?!
Big powerful new engine will need those bigger 1 7/8" headers, so the 1 3/4" mid lengths are out.
I was going to put these on the Ute, but someone was interested in buying them so off they come and away they go.
Easier said than done, as access on the driver's side is... Exciting
Passenger side was simplicity itself, except getting the O2 sensor out, which required a spanner around another spanner for leverage.
Driver's side was a rabbit hole, removed all sorts to try and make enough room, chassis corner brace, steering column, coil packs, a couple of spark plugs, some cable tidies, but still it just wouldn't squeeze out.
Gave up for the night at this point and emailed Stuart up at AAS who made the headers...
The cloven hoofs there of a feckless southerner
He replied thsi morning, turns out you don't need to remove all that, just take the coil packs / bracket off, remove the rocker cover and it rotates out upwards...
I can't imagine how it would have worked myself, but I shall give it a go tonight, this time with a beer
Have secured a Kooks 3" Street Screamer exhaust as well from a friend, catless mids, apparently it's not silly loud which is a shame, but it sounds very deep and burbley on ewetoob so I'm excited to hear that in x months when it's running again!
Not too sure how much more progress I'll make with the car this weekend, it's getting nicely sparse in the engine bay though, I may remove a few more bits and then start pondering jacking it up and attacking the gearbox.
I was going to put these on the Ute, but someone was interested in buying them so off they come and away they go.
Easier said than done, as access on the driver's side is... Exciting
Passenger side was simplicity itself, except getting the O2 sensor out, which required a spanner around another spanner for leverage.
Driver's side was a rabbit hole, removed all sorts to try and make enough room, chassis corner brace, steering column, coil packs, a couple of spark plugs, some cable tidies, but still it just wouldn't squeeze out.
Gave up for the night at this point and emailed Stuart up at AAS who made the headers...
The cloven hoofs there of a feckless southerner
He replied thsi morning, turns out you don't need to remove all that, just take the coil packs / bracket off, remove the rocker cover and it rotates out upwards...
I can't imagine how it would have worked myself, but I shall give it a go tonight, this time with a beer
Have secured a Kooks 3" Street Screamer exhaust as well from a friend, catless mids, apparently it's not silly loud which is a shame, but it sounds very deep and burbley on ewetoob so I'm excited to hear that in x months when it's running again!
Not too sure how much more progress I'll make with the car this weekend, it's getting nicely sparse in the engine bay though, I may remove a few more bits and then start pondering jacking it up and attacking the gearbox.
I was so well prepared.
Made no difference, I suspect despite not looking like a problem the O2 sensor is in the way, and it's far too tight to undo in situ.
Cylinder head will be coming off, have undone the intake manifold and drained the fuel from the rails, but a relaxed evening was calling so I've opted for that instead now...
Head off, exhaust manifold finally free
With the heads off I can easily get to the top bell housing bolts, so I'm going to go that route for pulling the engine out, leave the gearbox and bell housing in there. Any thoughts?
Removing the head is a simple process, undo rocker studs, remove all 8 rocker arms together on the bar they sit on
Undo the 15 head bolts and lift the head off. There are dowels to keep it in place without any bolts in, and it's aluminium so not very heavy
Just took one off for meow for the sake of getting the exhaust manifold out as they've been sold on to another Monaro owner
With the heads off I can easily get to the top bell housing bolts, so I'm going to go that route for pulling the engine out, leave the gearbox and bell housing in there. Any thoughts?
Removing the head is a simple process, undo rocker studs, remove all 8 rocker arms together on the bar they sit on
Undo the 15 head bolts and lift the head off. There are dowels to keep it in place without any bolts in, and it's aluminium so not very heavy
Just took one off for meow for the sake of getting the exhaust manifold out as they've been sold on to another Monaro owner
fred bloggs said:
I feel the pain. I fitted proflow extractors, which are amazing,but fitting them was not something I'd ever like to do again.
And how did you take the photo of your hands ? Do you have a spare appendage ??
The old Dutch tickler And how did you take the photo of your hands ? Do you have a spare appendage ??
Nah, sadly enough, put the phone on 5 second timer and held it between chest and jaw
I thought it was a funny photo though in that you wouldn't think anything of it until realising the camera had to be held as well SturdyHSV said:
fred bloggs said:
And how did you take the photo of your hands ? Do you have a spare appendage ??
Nah, sadly enough, put the phone on 5 second timer and held it between chest and jaw I thought it was a funny photo though in that you wouldn't think anything of it until realising the camera had to be held as well 
Sunroof update... Phoned them at 5 today as appointment to replace it is tomorrow at 9am...
Nope, no parts in still. Took my number to phone me back, when should I stop holding my breath?
Would have been nice if they'd actually phoned me to say they couldn't do the fitting, but hey ho...
Nope, no parts in still. Took my number to phone me back, when should I stop holding my breath?
Would have been nice if they'd actually phoned me to say they couldn't do the fitting, but hey ho...
SturdyHSV said:
Sunroof update... Phoned them at 5 today as appointment to replace it is tomorrow at 9am...
Nope, no parts in still. Took my number to phone me back, when should I stop holding my breath?
Would have been nice if they'd actually phoned me to say they couldn't do the fitting, but hey ho...
You know that I'd be more stupid than you, and turn up at 8,55 am and watch them squirm. Nope, no parts in still. Took my number to phone me back, when should I stop holding my breath?
Would have been nice if they'd actually phoned me to say they couldn't do the fitting, but hey ho...
Pit Pony said:
You know that I'd be more stupid than you, and turn up at 8,55 am and watch them squirm.
I've sort of gained the impression over the phone they wouldn't really squirm so much as go "sorry mate, the parts haven't arrived" and blame Webasto for it with zero f
ks to give. I'll speak to the Webasto guy to try and chase it from my end at least, frankly it wouldn't surprise me if they haven't even placed the order for the parts yet...
Received the call... The form wasn't filled out right or not sent off properly or some mumbled excuse, so yeah, it's actually been sent off meow and it'll be about a week before the bits arrive for the sunroof. No surprise there 
Had the day off in preparation for the sunroof replacement, so at least made some engine progress.
Had the day off in preparation for the sunroof replacement, so at least made some engine progress.
Stumbled across these LS engine lift plates for sale in the UK at a great price, one on its way 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264415023352
Also got a Chinesium flywheel locking tool and thought I'd take a punt on a cheap Chinesium harmonic balancer puller that looks like the GM one, I got it off last time with a generic 3 prong puller so will use that as a backup, but this one was only £40 so thought I'd give it a punt as if it works that's pretty cheap compared to shipping one from the states.
Oh and a blowtorch, the pulley bolt needs heat to be able to be undone, it has a locking compound around it, easy to undo if the bolt is heated, next to impossible otherwise
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264415023352
Also got a Chinesium flywheel locking tool and thought I'd take a punt on a cheap Chinesium harmonic balancer puller that looks like the GM one, I got it off last time with a generic 3 prong puller so will use that as a backup, but this one was only £40 so thought I'd give it a punt as if it works that's pretty cheap compared to shipping one from the states.
Oh and a blowtorch, the pulley bolt needs heat to be able to be undone, it has a locking compound around it, easy to undo if the bolt is heated, next to impossible otherwise
Old headers and 2.5" mid sections (2 pairs of mid sections, one decat) have been sold and getting collected tomorrow:
Also gives a bit of perspective to the ridiculous size of the boot before you even fold the seats
The replacement headers and 3" system all shiny (and appreciably lighter) below:
Used the wagon at the weekend, 'sunroof' blew off of course, 2nd attempt clearly wasn't as watertight as the headlining is a bit wet down the passenger side which is a shame, so this evening I seriously upgraded it
Plastic underlayer pulled very taught and taped up flush around the edges. Then a full overlapping duct tape top layer, frankly it's probably better than the inevitable replacement whenever that's done...
After refitting the 'sunroof' in an empty car park when it blew off at the weekend, obviously a stonking great burnout was required. The short first gear of the wagon really does make burnouts effortless as it'll spin those ste ditchfinders up without even trying
Also gives a bit of perspective to the ridiculous size of the boot before you even fold the seats
The replacement headers and 3" system all shiny (and appreciably lighter
) below:Used the wagon at the weekend, 'sunroof' blew off of course, 2nd attempt clearly wasn't as watertight as the headlining is a bit wet down the passenger side which is a shame, so this evening I seriously upgraded it
Plastic underlayer pulled very taught and taped up flush around the edges. Then a full overlapping duct tape top layer, frankly it's probably better than the inevitable replacement whenever that's done...
After refitting the 'sunroof' in an empty car park when it blew off at the weekend, obviously a stonking great burnout was required. The short first gear of the wagon really does make burnouts effortless as it'll spin those s
te ditchfinders up without even trying SturdyHSV said:
Also gives a bit of perspective to the ridiculous size of the boot before you even fold the seats
Not long after I got my first VE wagon (which wasn’t long after they were released) I got stopped at a Random Breath Test. Parting shot from the cop was “Nice car, shame the boot is too small.”!They were coming out of VZ wagons which were on the LWB platform and the VE boot was shorter because it is the SWB platform.
Jader1973 said:
Not long after I got my first VE wagon (which wasn’t long after they were released) I got stopped at a Random Breath Test. Parting shot from the cop was “Nice car, shame the boot is too small.”!
They were coming out of VZ wagons which were on the LWB platform and the VE boot was shorter because it is the SWB platform.
Yeah I saw some figures for the capacity of the VZ wagon boot, it must echo for quite a while back there! They were coming out of VZ wagons which were on the LWB platform and the VE boot was shorter because it is the SWB platform.
So ahead of the engine even being pulled out, obviously one has to consider bearing clearances and such. General advice to do it properly is to use a (decent) micrometer and bore gauge / telescopic gauge.
As you're talking 0.001mm accuracy, then the price is a bit spendy
https://www.hroberts-di.com/micrometers-c11/mituto...
Still, in for a penny right? I mean frankly if this all goes together and works then I'll inevitably be stroking the engine in the Ute as well later down the line, so maybe I'll get to use it more than once
As you're talking 0.001mm accuracy, then the price is a bit spendy
https://www.hroberts-di.com/micrometers-c11/mituto...
Still, in for a penny right? I mean frankly if this all goes together and works then I'll inevitably be stroking the engine in the Ute as well later down the line, so maybe I'll get to use it more than once
Just working through the ste tyres the only way I know how. Bogged a bit going in to second, must work on that
https://youtu.be/CKhSgfSUUbI
te tyres the only way I know how. Bogged a bit going in to second, must work on that https://youtu.be/CKhSgfSUUbI
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff