Hold(en) my beer - Monaro, Ute and Commodore content
Discussion
SturdyHSV said:
As so much of the engine is missing and obviously it didn't warm up much then no nice low settled idle chop but it still sounds pretty rowdy considering this is the baby cam compared to what's coming 
https://youtu.be/0TzPvmrwFuk
sounds surprisingly good - you could always go for side exit exhausts..... https://youtu.be/0TzPvmrwFuk
Bit of a tidy up of the 'workshop' today ahead of making some progress on the Ro
Then whilst dinner was being cooked I got on with pulling the cam out. Popped the lifters / trays out first
Armed with a 10mm, timing cover off first, then the cam gear
Then cam retaining plate
Then time to pull the bumpstick out. Personally I like to use the water pump bolts as a 'handle' to help ease the cam out
Nearly there, can't imagine this being possible with the radiator still in place...
Cam looks fine for 3,000 miles as you'd expect, it's likely to go into the Ute further down the road unless I end up selling the bits off and going sillier...
Tomorrow may be the day to try tugging what's left of the motor out, at least it'll be lighter now!
Angry alien face?
Then whilst dinner was being cooked I got on with pulling the cam out. Popped the lifters / trays out first
Armed with a 10mm, timing cover off first, then the cam gear
Then cam retaining plate
Then time to pull the bumpstick out. Personally I like to use the water pump bolts as a 'handle' to help ease the cam out
Nearly there, can't imagine this being possible with the radiator still in place...
Cam looks fine for 3,000 miles as you'd expect, it's likely to go into the Ute further down the road unless I end up selling the bits off and going sillier...
Tomorrow may be the day to try tugging what's left of the motor out, at least it'll be lighter now!
Angry alien face?
monkfish1 said:
Of course. And i can help you with that 
You're a bad man I'm really enjoying gliding over the local speed bumps at the moment!
The neighbours have told me off for the wagon being too quiet, apparently they've nicknamed it the electric car... Presumably a VXR8 exhaust fits as same chassis?
There's a walky one for £400 on Facebook, needs some sleeves, but I do think the oval tip and general walky bass grumble would suit it...
Rolled the car back (another 40 cm in fact) so it didn't quite hit the door and the hoist fit nicely in front (sideways)
Jacked it up, drained the oil and rotated the hoist around under the car and into position.
I'll be replacing the valley cover gasket, so I've left that in place and then bolted the lifting plate down onto the load balancer's lifting brackets, definitely fully professional use of the lifting plate...
Disconnected the last couple of bits that were connected to the block, undid the bell housing bolts and motor mount bolts, supported the transmission, tightened the hoist so it was taking the weight of the motor a bit... Can't separate the hell housing
There are some cutouts that would allow it to be pried apart, I just don't have anything better than a flat head screwdriver to pry with... Amazon delivery arrives on Tuesday
This is why I knew it'd take months
Perhaps unsurprisingly, prybars made naff all difference, nor did hammering the back of one of the dowels from the engine side with a punch / 4lb hammer.
So I shall take the gearbox off the back and do it 'properly', serves me right for trying to 'save time'
In boring news, refilled the wagon, certainly not as frugal as I thought, or rather perhaps the Ute is just much worse than I thought, ended up doing 525km and topped up with 66.5 litres, which I make to be a rather unimpressive 22.3 mpg
So I shall take the gearbox off the back and do it 'properly', serves me right for trying to 'save time'
In boring news, refilled the wagon, certainly not as frugal as I thought, or rather perhaps the Ute is just much worse than I thought, ended up doing 525km and topped up with 66.5 litres, which I make to be a rather unimpressive 22.3 mpg
SturdyHSV said:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, prybars made naff all difference, nor did hammering the back of one of the dowels from the engine side with a punch / 4lb hammer.
So I shall take the gearbox off the back and do it 'properly', serves me right for trying to 'save time'
In boring news, refilled the wagon, certainly not as frugal as I thought, or rather perhaps the Ute is just much worse than I thought, ended up doing 525km and topped up with 66.5 litres, which I make to be a rather unimpressive 22.3 mpg
Tbh (coming from the sister engine) low 20's doesn't sound that bad - unless you were driving Miss Daisy So I shall take the gearbox off the back and do it 'properly', serves me right for trying to 'save time'
In boring news, refilled the wagon, certainly not as frugal as I thought, or rather perhaps the Ute is just much worse than I thought, ended up doing 525km and topped up with 66.5 litres, which I make to be a rather unimpressive 22.3 mpg
irocfan said:
Tbh (coming from the sister engine) low 20's doesn't sound that bad - unless you were driving Miss Daisy
I've been driving relatively economically, the M1 is a 60mph cruise due to average speed cameras, MK is bad because of the roundabouts though...There were some pretty decent borderline stationary queues as well which don't do these many favours so I'm not entirely surprised, I think I'd convinced myself it was doing about 25 though, hence the 'disappointment'...
SturdyHSV said:
I've been driving relatively economically, the M1 is a 60mph cruise due to average speed cameras, MK is bad because of the roundabouts though...
There were some pretty decent borderline stationary queues as well which don't do these many favours so I'm not entirely surprised, I think I'd convinced myself it was doing about 25 though, hence the 'disappointment'...
I used to get about 10.8 l/100km out the 6.0s with AFM which is about 26 mpg. That was 114km a day 90% of which was freeway with the cruise set at 100 / 110. Range used to be pretty much exactly 600km.There were some pretty decent borderline stationary queues as well which don't do these many favours so I'm not entirely surprised, I think I'd convinced myself it was doing about 25 though, hence the 'disappointment'...
The V6s were about 1l/100km better so nothing in it really which meant an 8 was they way to go.
The LS3s got around 12.5 which meant filling up during the week, which was a shock!
Ah OK, sounds like I won't be making 600km from a tank any time soon then! 550 will be my goal
This morning have been met by the welcome embrace of an ABS fault. Wheel speed sensor presumably, and from a google it seems pretty 'common' for the VE.
Will test it and the loom with a multimeter and then load up the parts cannon.
My deepest fear is the inevitable battle attempting to remove the old one that will have undoubtedly perma-bonded itself to the hub assembly. I'm fully expecting to have to turn it to a liquid to remove it
Having said that, lots of Aussie miles, it does look very clean underneath, maybe it won't be too bad!
Plans for this evening, I may whip the prop off (it's a carbon fibre 1 piece, only 3 bolts to the diff flange and out it slides from the gearbox) and may drain the gearbox oil. It was only replaced about 10,000 miles ago so seems a bit keen, but I can't imagine I'll be able to keep it all in there when removing the box from the bellhousing unless I can rig up a rubber glove and enough elastic bands, which is bound to fail.
I guess no oil means it'll be a bit lighter for when I have to benchpress it off the car
This morning have been met by the welcome embrace of an ABS fault. Wheel speed sensor presumably, and from a google it seems pretty 'common' for the VE.
Will test it and the loom with a multimeter and then load up the parts cannon.
My deepest fear is the inevitable battle attempting to remove the old one that will have undoubtedly perma-bonded itself to the hub assembly. I'm fully expecting to have to turn it to a liquid to remove it
Having said that, lots of Aussie miles, it does look very clean underneath, maybe it won't be too bad!
Plans for this evening, I may whip the prop off (it's a carbon fibre 1 piece, only 3 bolts to the diff flange and out it slides from the gearbox) and may drain the gearbox oil. It was only replaced about 10,000 miles ago so seems a bit keen, but I can't imagine I'll be able to keep it all in there when removing the box from the bellhousing unless I can rig up a rubber glove and enough elastic bands, which is bound to fail.
I guess no oil means it'll be a bit lighter for when I have to benchpress it off the car
Not a huge amount to report, interior taken apart a bit so I can remove the gearstick ready for gearbox removal (yes, I have previously wrapped a cloth around it to reduce NVH )
And took the drive shaft out, 3 bolts to the diff and slides out of the back of the box, caught a little gearbox oil but not much came out as the box is fairly level still at the moment.
Driveshaft is a carbon fibre 1 piece jobby from DriveShaft Shop in the states, have had no complaints and seems good quality to me!
I was a bit hungover so being under the car messing about with bolts and stuff didn't do me any favours, I think I'll pick up one of those gearbox adapters for the jack, seems a more sensible idea...
) And took the drive shaft out, 3 bolts to the diff and slides out of the back of the box, caught a little gearbox oil but not much came out as the box is fairly level still at the moment.
Driveshaft is a carbon fibre 1 piece jobby from DriveShaft Shop in the states, have had no complaints and seems good quality to me!
I was a bit hungover so being under the car messing about with bolts and stuff didn't do me any favours, I think I'll pick up one of those gearbox adapters for the jack, seems a more sensible idea...
The need to take the gearbox off somewhat dented my enthusiasm, but made some 'progress' this weekend at least.
Disconnected the gearstick:
Undid the few connectors
Drained the gearbox oil
Thought I'd try disconnecting the clutch hard line... Nope, so flare nut spanner on order. What turned up was s
te, attempted to get one from halfords and they don't keep them on the shelf, so a decent one is on the way for tomorrow.
Such faff
Disconnected the gearstick:
Undid the few connectors
Drained the gearbox oil
Thought I'd try disconnecting the clutch hard line... Nope, so flare nut spanner on order. What turned up was s
te, attempted to get one from halfords and they don't keep them on the shelf, so a decent one is on the way for tomorrow.Such faff
Halfords 10mm flare nut spanner did the job, obviously it cracked loose and thus I punched the side of the block which was a treat.
Pulled the loom out the way, disconnected the rear transmission mount and decided I didn't fancy disconnecting the box, so time to go bold and just pull the whole lot out at once, there looked to be loads of room so...
Once it was convinced to come off the engine mounts (having no rear trans mount meant obviously it tipped back and the mounts were tight against the mount bolts)
Up a bit
Naturally the handle came off the leveller and the screw fell in the engine
Bit more tilt to get the back of the block over the steering rack...
Really quite scary at this point... Crane won't roll any further back because it's against the garage wall, but fortunately I came up with a plan...
Bit of levelling and it rotated round out of the way
I should mention I put the bell housing bolts back in before starting this...
Car now lowered back down onto its wheels out of the way, it got dark and cold by this point so I shall leave it precariously hanging until some daylight lets me roll the car out of the garage, have got a skip coming for some house related bits so it may be swinging there for a worrying week, will be checking for droop regularly
Once the car is out of the way I shall lay the engine and box down on some tyres / wooden blocks and disconnect bits without having to bench press anything. Pleased to have made what feels like proper progress
Pulled the loom out the way, disconnected the rear transmission mount and decided I didn't fancy disconnecting the box, so time to go bold and just pull the whole lot out at once, there looked to be loads of room so...
Once it was convinced to come off the engine mounts (having no rear trans mount meant obviously it tipped back and the mounts were tight against the mount bolts)
Up a bit
Naturally the handle came off the leveller and the screw fell in the engine
Bit more tilt to get the back of the block over the steering rack...
Really quite scary at this point... Crane won't roll any further back because it's against the garage wall, but fortunately I came up with a plan...
Bit of levelling and it rotated round out of the way
I should mention I put the bell housing bolts back in before starting this...
Car now lowered back down onto its wheels out of the way, it got dark and cold by this point so I shall leave it precariously hanging until some daylight lets me roll the car out of the garage, have got a skip coming for some house related bits so it may be swinging there for a worrying week, will be checking for droop regularly
Once the car is out of the way I shall lay the engine and box down on some tyres / wooden blocks and disconnect bits without having to bench press anything. Pleased to have made what feels like proper progress
Apologies for the dark photos, really should sort some better lighting in the garage.
Unbolted gearbox, took the weight of the motor in the hoist and wiggled the box off.
Swung engine around for better access to prying the bellhousing off, it wasn't budging off the dowels at all, so took the starter off to allow me to give it a 'light' tap with a hammer, that sorted it one side and was then able to pry the other side off.
Tomorrow's bit of work will be trying the Chinesium flywheel locking tool and hopefully taking the clutch / flywheel off
Unbolted gearbox, took the weight of the motor in the hoist and wiggled the box off.
Swung engine around for better access to prying the bellhousing off, it wasn't budging off the dowels at all, so took the starter off to allow me to give it a 'light' tap with a hammer, that sorted it one side and was then able to pry the other side off.
Tomorrow's bit of work will be trying the Chinesium flywheel locking tool and hopefully taking the clutch / flywheel off
Well I got on with it last night anyway, clutch and flywheel are off. Flywheel is the light aluminium one I ordered all those years ago (was fitted by a garage back then) which was nice to confirm at least!
I've no idea how clutches look when they wear, so any input would be appreciated as to how far gone this is (just out of curiosity, it won't be going back in)
Little piece of Chinesium (loosely for best fit) goes where the starter used to be and did its job
Pressure plate and friction disc off
No idea if that's worn much... Probably 25,000 miles of solid abuse on it at least...
So I can assume those patterns are where bits have gotten hot, but again, no idea if that's normal...
Big sexy ally flywheel, it's comically light compared to the stock LS2 flywheel at least, I'll weigh it at some point and probably sell it on.
So here we are, ready to go on the stand, although it's dawned on me the bellhousing bolts aren't long enough to go through the stand and into the block, so will order some suitable
I've no idea how clutches look when they wear, so any input would be appreciated as to how far gone this is (just out of curiosity, it won't be going back in)
Little piece of Chinesium (loosely for best fit
) goes where the starter used to be and did its jobPressure plate and friction disc off
No idea if that's worn much... Probably 25,000 miles of solid abuse on it at least...
So I can assume those patterns are where bits have gotten hot, but again, no idea if that's normal...
Big sexy ally flywheel, it's comically light compared to the stock LS2 flywheel at least, I'll weigh it at some point and probably sell it on.
So here we are, ready to go on the stand, although it's dawned on me the bellhousing bolts aren't long enough to go through the stand and into the block, so will order some suitable
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