Hold(en) my beer - Monaro, Ute and Commodore content

[SturdyHSV]

Daily duties continue, I think I'm finally accepting the auto, it does encourage a much more laid back driving style which is much more suitable to commuting.

As these things are often of interest to people, last tank it did 445km, put in 60 litres of petrol to brim it, so still around 20-21mpg. The stationary traffic really does kill it.

It really needs a reliably working LSD

Did its second tip run on Sunday, loads of decking off cuts, old car battery, old discs and suspension arms, wheel hubs etc. all from various repairs of my own or mate's cars over the last couple of years. It really is delightfully simple just having a big open load bed to chuck everything in. It also amuses me how tiny the bed is on those big VW pick-up things, you couldn't even lay a door in one

Sheila also got a little treat in the form of a strawberry unicorn air freshener (3D as well!) I will attempt to remember to get a picture

[SturdyHSV]

First properly iced up morning today, engine heats up pretty quickly which was nice.

There's a massive bolt (with washer!) in the passenger side front tyre, so as good an excuse as any to get winters put on the 17s.

It still really needs a better working LSD. As it's been colder I've had some funny surprise 2nd gear step outs, it's frustrating because these would be much more consistently enjoyable if 90% of the time it didn't just blow one tyre to hell upon any throttle input.

I'm generally getting around 480km to a tank, as I'm more familiar with it now I'm running the tank emptier, so consistently put 65 litres in when I fill it up with about 9km range remaining

The headlights aren't great, but may just need a clean, I've never washed it and only given the headlights a couple of cursory wipe downs...

[SturdyHSV]

Mostly talking to myself here but there you go

Michelin CrossClimates all around have made quite a difference compared to the ropey old Nexens that were on there before.

Feels a lot more sure-footed at the front, and is able to do such wildly exciting things as pulling gently away from a roundabout without roasting a rear tyre

The 17s all round (instead of just on the front) doesn't seem to have made a noticeable change in the ride quality but then I'm not battering over many potholes during the commute anyway.

[SturdyHSV]

a11y_m said:

CrossClimate + on my Monaro for the past few weeks and impressed. Driven in everything from -8degC to +12degC, dry/sunny to torrential rain. No snow. Yet. I'd be lying if I said I noticed a huge difference, although they coped very well with aquaplaning on the motorway.

Too cold up here to roast anything

Hehe, I imagine they're coping better than the old PSS currently on the rear of my Monaro, it's bloody good fun though

I tried to get the thread title changed to have 'Holden Ute content' appended to the end so it was a bit more descriptive, alas we've lost the joyous commUTEr pun but ho hum.

[SturdyHSV]

Passenger side rear wheel bearing definitely well on its way, but this time in the more typical progressive increase in noise style compared to the last one.

Not a big surprise, when the garage replaced the last one they said it had struck fear into their hearts when they thought they could hear a bit of noise from the other side, and to please not bring it back

Alas, I shall get a bearing ordered and ruin their day once more

It is apparently now on about 55,000 miles, still a little trooper, the cross climates are impressively grippy in the cold, the lack of consistent locking from the diff does make it feel very snatchy when it's icey though, the (worn out Pilot Super Sport) shod Monaro, although more lairy, is far more consistent and trust worthy, whereas Sheila will spin up one then suddenly both will spin and she'll kick out, or maybe this time they'll both spin up and kick out straight away, who knows! Keeps things exciting but not in a way I want to explore more.

I'm still set on importing a manual one as opposed to 'investing' in upgrading this one, so it'll just be routine maintenance and the occasional funny story in this thread for a while I imagine, my apologies in advance!

[SturdyHSV]

CAPP0 said:

Speaking as an ex-VXR Monaro owner and someone who recently missed out on an El Camino with a slightly silly engine & box, do feel free to drop me a PM if & when you find your manual version

With or without stickers?

[SturdyHSV]

monkfish1 said:

SturdyHSV said:

I'm still set on importing a manual one as opposed to 'investing' in upgrading this one, so it'll just be routine maintenance and the occasional funny story in this thread for a while I imagine, my apologies in advance!

You will be pleased to know, im collecting my old green VY this weekend. I wanted an auto and have now got a manual!

You're a man who likes a project, let me know if you want to borrow Sheila for a few months and swap things over

[SturdyHSV]

Well in all the lockdown excitement i somehow forgot to update the thread...

The other rear wheel bearing needed doing so that's done, needed an ARB drop link for the MOT so I replaced both as they're such an easy job, and Sheila has had her first (and second) wash in my ownership in the last couple of weeks.

Alternating the trickle charger between the various cars, the temptation to fit the lowering springs that are in the garage continues to grow, especially now that she's clean and on the 17s all round, the arch gap is a little agricultural for a JPS liveried vehicle

[SturdyHSV]

So, those of you attached to the livery, look away now, and probably forever more...

With Sheila now being washed, the stickers were looking a bit worse for wear, some splitting, some of the stripes peeling up at the edges, so I made the decision that they'd run their course, and it was time to just have the Ute looking nice as opposed to novel.

So, off came the stickers...



Naturally one had to mess about as they came off, much like when you shave you have to leave a stupid moustache or novelty sideburns first... Right?

Anyway, moving swiftly on, the aforementioned lowering springs... These are Pedders units I'd picked up many months ago from a former Monaro owner who'd found them still in his garage. It's a 25mm drop, so speed bumps will no longer be care free, and although a progressive rate spring, no doubt the ride quality may well dip a bit, but as I can't drive anywhere then seems the best time to do it...

Bit of a drop, rears are nice and easy, undo damper, compress springs a bit, pull them out, new ones are small enough to just fit in with the arm pushed down a bit.





Rears done, they'll settle, right?



Putting them on has made the original ride height look hilarious, so there's no way I could go back now anyway.

Without further ado, and who are we kidding, you'd already scrolled to the before / after pictures surely?

Before:



After:







Subjective of course, but I think Sheila looks cooler than a penguin's cock, so I'm very happy

Although the paintwork isn't in amazing condition, I believe the ebay ad would say "wear appropriate for the age", she's getting a machine polish shortly to tidy it up and clear off any sticker residue etc. I will upload more pictures as and when.

Hope all are safe and well, as seems to be the way to end all communication now, curious what we all think to the lack of an inappropriate livery... Any thoughts, other than this?

[SturdyHSV]

therealsamdailly said:

looking fantastic man

is the SantaPod-esque number written on the back window a permanent feature?

No, it's from a trip to Santa Pod about 10 months ago just out of interest, and as it had never been cleaned it has remained. There were stickers on there at the time so just left it, it'll be gone once it's properly polished etc.

The only run I got on the day (before rain stopped play, as per usual) it was about a 14.4, I can't remember if I mentioned it in this thread earlier. I thought I'd put the box in 'PWR' to give it a heads up, left it in D and the 1/4 mile turned out to then be the only time it has ever held on to a gear, it just banged into the limiter a few times in 1st before I realised, lifted off, and then got back on it, so hardly ideal

It was about what I expected though given it's apparently ~390bhp, so largely the same as my Monaro was initially, and they're around a low 14 at around 100mph standard.

It was just for fun though, no interest in how fast she is as I have the Monaro for that.

[SturdyHSV]

When I lowered the Monaro I spent a while getting the rear height as I wanted it, currently has a couple of 10mm spacers each side, and every so often I do think it's too high and have been intending to take one out.

The Ute is also slightly too low at the back for my taste, ideally I'd like an even space between tyre / arch all around, whereas currently it's a little 'squashed' at the top.

So I expect I'll be moving a pair of spacers from. The Monaro to the Ute to see how that looks.

There may be an additional reason for this as well, which you may or may not be able to guess from the pictures below





Whilst I'm sure that would eventually self clearance, and I could (and may still) take an angle grinder to the bottom of that flange, I think the 10mm spacer option is a good start

Showed the previous owner who correctly replied "only you could make a 5.7l Ute more impractical"

Gratuitous extra pics as they're both clean and shiny

[SturdyHSV]

Not a lot to report, the Ute continues to look brilliant, scrapes a bit of exhaust bracket on the drive occasionally and makes commuting fun.

Treated ol' Sheila to an oil change, some of the high mileage Royal Purple and a nice new filter.



Also changed the plugs, which I knew was going to be fun going in as bits of the engine bay are a bit cramped, but it really did get to the point of some quite ridiculous contortions Or maybe I just REALLY love maintenance



As it's a new month and I STILL haven't pulled the Monaro engine out (cylinder heads on way from the states to go with the stroker kit...) I taxed it and have been using that.

It has reminded me why I prefer a manual, right when I was starting to plot an upgrade for Sheila... It would be good to keep the two of them a little different though, so I am still considering upgrades...

[SturdyHSV]

The battery is possibly worth replacing soon, there have been a couple of occasions where the crank is a bit lazy, and one occasion where leaving the lights on for a while (they oddly didn't go off after leaving the car) meant it needed a jump start.

This wasn't an isolated incident though, and the story for that is rather more embarrassing. So, there was a car fire on the M1 a week or so ago. This caused some rather significant queues as you can imagine, and I was stuck in those queues. Naturally I didn't have much fuel because 5.7 litre commuter.

Anyway, eventually the stop start queue became a simple 'stop' queue, where we were all then parked for about 30 minutes. I sensibly turned the engine off for this (love you Greta) and had the radio on to pass the time.

Now, what I suspect I also had on, were the headlights... No surprises for what comes next...

So the traffic starts to head move up ahead, I turn the key and am met with nothing whatsoever. Strewth.

As one does in this situation, I ignore the obvious conclusion and retry the cranking a few times, take key out and back in etc. but no, very clearly the battery is not interested in turning up to work, and I'm parked in a lowered automatic Ute on the outside lane of a now non-stationary M1 with a fair few people behind me not overly impressed with the delay

Fool me once and all that, but since the last time Sheila's battery played silly buggers, I've had some meaty jumper cables on board. Now, time to do my very best damsel in distress impression to commuter traffic, because obviously that's the most sensible thing to do right?

Well either way, hazards on, bonnet up, cables in hand doing my best 'grabby grabby' gestures with them accompanied by a gormless expression that says "oh come ooon, pleeease" to hundreds of passing business executives was ultimately successful when a champion in a suit pulls up in his (trade plated) Corsa and saves the day.

Of course in order to save the day he had to basically back his Corsa up into the central reservation and we had to push the Ute alongside it (still 'safely' in the outside lane) but with a healthy dose of rpm it jumped Sheila back in to life and life went on.

I'm sure jump starting a car in the outside lane of a motorway will mean instant points deductions on PH but alas I couldn't think what else to do with it as felt as the vast tailback cleared behind then the danger would increase significantly

Entries in to the bad parking thread aside, long term plans are changing ever so slightly with how to balance the Holden-centric 'fleet' day dreamed about in the opening post.

Currently Sheila is still staying, but really the auto means I'd like to change her long term. The general faff of swapping (and doing a good job...) doesn't seem worth it, but I have had a sort of silly idea of making it a track car, not least because there's so much room to bring tools and spare wheels with you to the track... if I did go this route, then I'd be content doing a more rudimentary manual conversion (and not bothering how 'OEM' it ended up inside) and obviously there's is that stupid anthropomorphised idea of wanting to keep her as now I'm attached to her

What was also mentioned in the first post was the desire for a Commodore wagon, which I stated would have to be a manual... Well I've now had the thought that keeping the wagon as the comfortable wafter option would mean a later auto (so a 6L80E instead of the 4L60E in Sheila) would provide a much nicer auto experience (less slushy) and be a more comfy daily. This has also been swayed by the availability of just such a wagon for sale at a well known dealer who is happy to take my GTV as part ex...

The GTV has been around for ~ 8 years and I've been telling myself I'm going to sell it for about the last 5 of those years...

So yes, I will be completing the set in a couple of weeks (GTV MOT is end of the month) with an eminently sensible 6 litre wagon (2000 litres of load space don't you know!).

The V70 is still around and will be given to a mate as frankly I don't want it sullying up the driveway with its inexcusably pathetic cylinder count / displacement

Oh, and, erm, the wagon is blue. I feel like wrapping it black is the only sensible thing to do, but will have to see what it's like in the flesh. I'm also not sold on the wheel colour (they'd be silver from the factory) but again, will judge this in person.

[SturdyHSV]

gweaver said:

I saw that Wagon online and suffered some want. I wonder if there is another one in the country?

I've driven a couple of VXR8 on circuit and had four Commodore SV6 (3.6L) whilst on holiday, of which one was a wagon. All were great cars, but the best memories were of the run from Queenstown to Christchurch in the wagon. The load space is huge - our cases looked tiny tucked in against the back seat. I can't think of a better car for the Kiwi lifestyle of canoes and camping.

The gearbox in the SV6 (GM 6L45-E I think) can be a little slow witted, but maybe the 6L80E is better?

I'd love to have a VXR8 manual on the driveway before long.

There's apparently 3 wagons in the country, one is a facelifted HSV Clubsport that Vauxhall imported as a press car (evo ran it for a while, it was supercharged, although this was then removed before it was sold on), there's an Aussie who brought his Calais wagon over with him, and then there's this one

Looking at prices of the VE wagons over in Aus, I decided that importing one (and the inevitable risks of buying unseen) wouldn't be much different price wise, and realistically an opportunity to 'sell' the GTV without having to 'sell' it is worth paying a little extra for for me, as I am terrible at selling cars.

The rear is indeed huge, and knowing how comfortable the Monaro is (well, was) and the R8s as well, this being a Holden I'm optimistic for seat / suspension comfort to go with the auto to make quite the wafty daily

The 6L80E is a decent box by most accounts, and can be remapped to improve the shifts in manual mode which is something I'll be doing most likely. To further bolster its sensible credentials, as an import it's only £265 VED, and the gearing is suitably intergalactic that wafting down the M1 will be relatively frugal.

This is one area where the Ute is a little unsuitable being a 4 speed box, you get a selection of overly long gears that blunt acceleration, and a top gear that isn't really long enough for the full 'motorway cruising at tickover' experience.

Edited by SturdyHSV on Monday 17th August 17:01

[SturdyHSV]

Yes I'm sure it's an L98 (so no AFM) as it's a 2008 so as you say the year where they removed it, but hey, the extra 10bhp is far more important

Plus to be fair, there's always the risk that I'll put a cam in it (but a very mild torque focused one) at some point so the less gubbins there are the better

A clunk coming out of park is fine by me, at least I'll be expecting it now. Interesting about them being later wheels, I'll reserve judgement anyway until I see them in person. Out of curiousity, what diameter are they, 8.5"?

[SturdyHSV]

Jader1973 said:

Yeah, from what I've read the AFM engines are hard to tune, so the L98 is definitely better if you want to go down that path.

Wheels are 19x8.

OK great stuff, cheers

Yeah I think there are AFM (or DoD) delete kits available but would much rather have it from GM without the stuff on just for convenience. Realistically although it would make a difference for commuting, I'm fine with the 21mpg ish the Ute gets and this will doubtless be better than that

[SturdyHSV]

Jader1973 said:

I missed the bit about the ride height.

If you haven't sorted it yet mine is on Pedders Sports Ryders part number 2643 at the rear and it doesn't hit anything (unless you put too much in the back in which case the diff grinds along the road...guess how I know that). It is down about 25mm from standard.

According to some info I found the Monaro part number is 2461 and they sit about 15mm lower on a VY sedan.

Thanks for the info. My drive has a fairly inconvenient hump to it as it gets to the road, it's not been a problem in anything, the Monaro is lowered as well for example, but because of the longer wheelbase of the Ute it just manages to scrape the exhaust (non-standard I suspect) on one of the flanges.

I did start grinding this down for clearance but my arm was aching and I gave up half way

[SturdyHSV]

Not really an update as such, but a preparation for an update, a set of Commodore SS seats have appeared on the owner's group, they're in vastly better shape than Sheila's are, so I shall be 'nipping' up to Doncaster on Friday to pick them up.

I may also be picking up some 1 7/8" long tube headers at the same time for the Monaro, but this is a thread about the Ute

Weather willing I may then swap the seats over at the weekend, and may thus take that opportunity to replace the steering wheel too, the old one from the Monaro is once again in far better shape, and can just swap the airbag centre from Sheila over so I keep the Holden steering wheel badge.

Should improve the interior nicely, still no idea what the actual mileage is, but I've never seen the seats / wheel as worn on any of the UK cars, so I suspect it's high, and it's nice to have found some SS embossed ones that thus match the originals.

Shall post up pictures as and when I make the swap

The CrossClimates are starting to lose the battle with my driving enthusiasm now, can feel them giving up earlier (or I've become accustomed to the grip and am pushing harder) but tread depth is still absolutely fine. Will be curious how they get on once temperatures drop down again, I may swap left / right over at some point because naturally Milton Keynes roundabouts take a serious toll on the outside tyres...

Wagon collection is Monday, bit excited

[SturdyHSV]

The GTV needs a wishbone replacing so that's a nuisance, but I won't be defeated, will remove the old one (the easy part) tomorrow, picking up a new one on Monday morning to then fit (the hard part) before driving down for the part-ex...

The bloody thing knows it's going and won't go without a fight

TAD, I'm confident a cammed and/or supercharged vxr8 would be a lot of fun and definitely be a nice contrast to the M5, both in terms of power delivery and wallet impact. A V10 is pretty special though

[SturdyHSV]

The GTV continues to fight me, EuroCarParts didn't in fact have the wishbone on Monday morning (but I did get to enjoy an hour queueing outside, which was a treat!)

As it wasn't going to be part-exed with 3 wheels, a friend took me down (in the V70 I gave him a week or so ago ) to pick up the wagon, and I'll now have to sell the GTV privately. This fills me with absolute dread, but I imagine I'll be able to get more than the part-ex value for it anyway so every cloud right...?

With the pox ridden Alfa still on the drive (and still on axle stands) I haven't been able to get that joyous shot of a nice clear driveway with 3 Aussie V8s lined up on it, but otherwise the wagon is what I hoped for

The blue is much nicer in person, it has a much bigger range of colour from light to shade, it looked a bit flat in the dealer pictures. It was apparently a special order colour as it's actually from the facelift (VEII) Commodore (possibly?) so obviously that's nice in making an unusual car even more unusual!

It's comically quiet compared to the other two, the gearbox feels about 30 years better than the one in the Ute, and so far it's instilled a very wafty driving style in me.

Driving back returned 10.0l/100km on the dash, so about 28mpg, with traffic and the odd squirt off a roundabout during my commute it appears to be settling around 11.1 - 11.3, so 25mpg, a decent jump over the Ute and not surprising given it's trickling along at much lower revs thanks to having a sensible amount of gears to choose from.

1st is also comically short so it really does pick up and go for such a big car.

Here's a picture to break up the tedium of text...



It came with a spare set of pads, spare air filter and some oil, looking at these and the tyres (APlus no less, China's finest at £73 each!) I'm going to assume it has been maintained with a close eye on cost, so after giving it a little time to settle in to its routine whilst keeping an ear out, I shall be deploying the tried and tested burnout technique to dispose of the ditchfinders and put some proper tyres on fairly soon.

There's a bit of wind noise from the sunroof over 60mph, the ride is quite pillowy so I wonder if the dampers are past their best (wouldn't be surprising) and the steering wheel is a bit girthy and sculpted for my tastes, but otherwise I'm really enjoying getting to know it.

I may give it an oil / filter change and pop it round for an MOT just to take a more comfortable prod around underneath. Although being on 100,000 miles, the overwhelming majority of those were done in Australia (only imported 2 years ago) so it appears very tidy underneath. Again will get it up on the MOT ramp and perhaps weigh up waxoyling it depending on how it looks.

In other news, I picked up some seats for the Ute (just tidier versions of the same) and also some 1 7/8" long tubes for the Monaro ahead of its engine rebuild (it has 1 3/4" mid length manifolds at the moment and they won't be up to the task once it's 6.6 litres and passing 600hp )



The mid lengths (and the whole current Monaro top end realistically) will ultimately go on the Ute (along with a set of ITBs ) but that ridiculous project is much further down the line. The 4L60 on the Ute is pants, so I'm currently daydreaming about it having a sequential box

Given the Monaro is Bruce, the Ute is Sheila, I was expecting to call the wagon Shane-o or something equally bogan, but it's all a bit refined for that at the moment... Stereotypically Aussie suggestions welcome