Hold(en) my beer - Monaro, Ute and Commodore content
Discussion
So some actual progress today... A stupid one, but it's finally warm enough that the leather cover actually stretches enough to fit back on the Ute 
it was off whilst it was cold and wet out, and this is the first time I've been able to get it back on!
Anyway, first step is to jack up your car as they say. The quickjacks are so much better and quicker than trying to use a trolley jack in a confined space and then get axle stands under etc.
Calipers off is 2 19mm bolts, and one 11m for the flexi line banjo bolt.
I then spent a probably unnecessarily long time cleaning up the new calipers and the mounting faces of the discs and cleaning the hub faces. Cleaned up the slide pins, new copper washers, and covered everything in so much copper grease I suspect the brakes won't function for the first 30 miles
New vs old
The originals are a 2 pit sliding caliper, and naturally they wear the inner pad more than the outer. Turns out I was very much due some pads anyway so I suspect there'll be an improvement in braking even without the extra 32mm of disc and the 6 pot fixed caliper design.
Turns out the new ones are lighter too
Popped them back on, although whilst I was there thought I'd randomly dial in a bit more negative camber because why not, let's see what it does!
I then found out I'd mounted the discs on the wrong sides (the internal cooling vanes are facing the wrong way) so will need to swap them back over.
I've ordered some more of the Goodrich valved brake bleeders which arrive tomorrow so will swap the discs and bleed the system tomorrow.
A pleasant day's tinkering. My god those Pedders springs / dampers know how to rust though
Whilst tidying up noticed the light fell in a cool way on the engine, so took a picture of course!
it was off whilst it was cold and wet out, and this is the first time I've been able to get it back on! Anyway, first step is to jack up your car as they say. The quickjacks are so much better and quicker than trying to use a trolley jack in a confined space and then get axle stands under etc.
Calipers off is 2 19mm bolts, and one 11m for the flexi line banjo bolt.
I then spent a probably unnecessarily long time cleaning up the new calipers and the mounting faces of the discs and cleaning the hub faces. Cleaned up the slide pins, new copper washers, and covered everything in so much copper grease I suspect the brakes won't function for the first 30 miles
New vs old
The originals are a 2 pit sliding caliper, and naturally they wear the inner pad more than the outer. Turns out I was very much due some pads anyway so I suspect there'll be an improvement in braking even without the extra 32mm of disc and the 6 pot fixed caliper design.
Turns out the new ones are lighter too
Popped them back on, although whilst I was there thought I'd randomly dial in a bit more negative camber because why not, let's see what it does!
I then found out I'd mounted the discs on the wrong sides (the internal cooling vanes are facing the wrong way) so will need to swap them back over.
I've ordered some more of the Goodrich valved brake bleeders which arrive tomorrow so will swap the discs and bleed the system tomorrow.
A pleasant day's tinkering. My god those Pedders springs / dampers know how to rust though
Whilst tidying up noticed the light fell in a cool way on the engine, so took a picture of course!
Lincsls1 said:
Nice work as usual!
I have the APs myself. Can't believe they are lighter than the originals - result!
Can you point me in the direction of these Goodrich valved brake bleeders please? I wish to bleed mine through again soon.
I got them from Merlin Motorsport, they're m10x1I have the APs myself. Can't believe they are lighter than the originals - result!
Can you point me in the direction of these Goodrich valved brake bleeders please? I wish to bleed mine through again soon.
https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/goodridge-spe...
They're also available from Demon Tweeks and probably other places, I just used Merlin last time and they worked so...
Bleeders arrived, so swapped those over (2 per caliper)
Also swapped the discs over, as I'd got the internal cooling vanes facing the wrong way
Then was the thing I'd been putting off since about August last year... Drilling a hole in my lovely throttle blade. There's a reasonable explanation of why on here I also found:
https://www.oztrack.com.au/2013-09-27-06-14-12/dri...
I started out with a little test by drilling a hole into a cap that I have over the EVAP port on the intake manifold, just to verify nothing overly weird happened...
Goes on here behind the throttle body...
Ran fine with that, let it warm up on the stands, blipped it and things and it seems to handle the idle etc OK, hardly a significant test but enough that I was emboldened to get the drill out...
So took the intake and throttle off
And clamped some wood either side of the blade to guide the drill and hopefully stop me making a dog's dinner of the whole thing... Naturally I didn't want to be hitting the thing with a punch and hammer to make an indent etc to guide the drill, hence the wood.
Annnd success, a decently clean 1.5mm hole. Yes, I know, it's not exactly what you'd call... Central
Whilst that was off I also replaced the breather hose with a better fitting line, the one I'd used didn't really seal to the t-piece well so oil vapour would condense and leak out a smidge.
Also managed to route it more tidily, i noticed the coolant hose was pressed up against the fan shroud, it wasn't rubbing but I didn't like it. I was going to wrap some tape around it as extra protection, and figured I'd include the breather hose in there too.
This has also had the effect of pulling the coolant hose away from the shroud (but still clear of the accessory belt etc) and the breather is now a clean downwards run all the way to the catch can.
Crucially,and my best upgrade yet I replaced the two nuts / bolts holding the catch can to the bracket with nuts / bolts from the BMW engine. As such, clearly the car is now going to be faster, more reliable, and crucially more prestigious
In nerdier news, I've started tinkering with the VZClusterMod tool the yanks made, have got a Python development environment working, updated the code to Python 3 and got it compiling to an exe file etc and working.
Plan is to hopefully extend the functionality to include the ABS code reading / clearing, but sadly it looks like triggering the ABS Bleed Procedure may be out of reach, as even the Aussies haven't managed to reverse engineer how the Tech2 does that
Also swapped the discs over, as I'd got the internal cooling vanes facing the wrong way
Then was the thing I'd been putting off since about August last year... Drilling a hole in my lovely throttle blade. There's a reasonable explanation of why on here I also found:
https://www.oztrack.com.au/2013-09-27-06-14-12/dri...
I started out with a little test by drilling a hole into a cap that I have over the EVAP port on the intake manifold, just to verify nothing overly weird happened...
Goes on here behind the throttle body...
Ran fine with that, let it warm up on the stands, blipped it and things and it seems to handle the idle etc OK, hardly a significant test but enough that I was emboldened to get the drill out...
So took the intake and throttle off
And clamped some wood either side of the blade to guide the drill and hopefully stop me making a dog's dinner of the whole thing... Naturally I didn't want to be hitting the thing with a punch and hammer to make an indent etc to guide the drill, hence the wood.
Annnd success, a decently clean 1.5mm hole. Yes, I know, it's not exactly what you'd call... Central
Whilst that was off I also replaced the breather hose with a better fitting line, the one I'd used didn't really seal to the t-piece well so oil vapour would condense and leak out a smidge.
Also managed to route it more tidily, i noticed the coolant hose was pressed up against the fan shroud, it wasn't rubbing but I didn't like it. I was going to wrap some tape around it as extra protection, and figured I'd include the breather hose in there too.
This has also had the effect of pulling the coolant hose away from the shroud (but still clear of the accessory belt etc) and the breather is now a clean downwards run all the way to the catch can.
Crucially,and my best upgrade yet I replaced the two nuts / bolts holding the catch can to the bracket with nuts / bolts from the BMW engine. As such, clearly the car is now going to be faster, more reliable, and crucially more prestigious
In nerdier news, I've started tinkering with the VZClusterMod tool the yanks made, have got a Python development environment working, updated the code to Python 3 and got it compiling to an exe file etc and working.
Plan is to hopefully extend the functionality to include the ABS code reading / clearing, but sadly it looks like triggering the ABS Bleed Procedure may be out of reach, as even the Aussies haven't managed to reverse engineer how the Tech2 does that
Changed the oil, the sump contents looked good, there was some glitter in the filter, so possibly a sign of pain to come...
There was almost nothing on the magnetic sump plug, except this one wafer thin slice that was impressive...
I'm still clinging to "new engine build things" but naturally the concern is bearing material glittering... I suspect I will be doing a other oil change in say 1,000 miles and seeing what the situation is.
Oil pressure is still reasonable, so I will continue to monitor and generally abuse it in the mean time.
Put the wheels back on and my smidge of negative camber means they're now rather close to the struts... So they shall be coming back off for a smidge less camber
Yes, my suspension looks like it's lived a pirate's life.
Also bled the brakes after the new calipers, this was a pretty painless solo process with the valved bleeders, pedal feels better than I remember it feeling but hard to tell when not actually driving.
I'll sort the camber out and then see what's what.
I popped over to my parents to do a bit of diagnosis on a Panther, this has led to be ordering a compression test kit, so I'll probably also do a compression test on the Monaro just out of curiosity really whilst it's up in the air.
There was almost nothing on the magnetic sump plug, except this one wafer thin slice that was impressive...
I'm still clinging to "new engine build things" but naturally the concern is bearing material glittering... I suspect I will be doing a other oil change in say 1,000 miles and seeing what the situation is.
Oil pressure is still reasonable, so I will continue to monitor and generally abuse it in the mean time.
Put the wheels back on and my smidge of negative camber means they're now rather close to the struts... So they shall be coming back off for a smidge less camber
Yes, my suspension looks like it's lived a pirate's life.
Also bled the brakes after the new calipers, this was a pretty painless solo process with the valved bleeders, pedal feels better than I remember it feeling but hard to tell when not actually driving.
I'll sort the camber out and then see what's what.
I popped over to my parents to do a bit of diagnosis on a Panther, this has led to be ordering a compression test kit, so I'll probably also do a compression test on the Monaro just out of curiosity really whilst it's up in the air.
Edited by SturdyHSV on Monday 15th May 11:07
f
k me, I've got brakes!
I think my original calipers need a refresh, as the pads were wearing very unevenly, and the pedal feel was not good. I don't know if it was one thing or a combination of many (months of usage probably helped push any air out of the ABS module maybe, new calipers, more fluid flushed through for a better bleed, who knows, but Jesus H Christ on a unicycle it's like a different car.
They're not even 'big' brakes by modern standards but the pedal feel is SO nice now, tiny initial squish and then an actual firm pedal and correspondingly solid amount of retardation.
Transformative, it probably just feels like a modern car's brakes now, or, something within the last 20 years anyway, but yeah, I'm very pleased!
My little touch of camber was rejigged, not really noticeable in pictures but here we are anyway:
It may be mostly placebo, maybe it's the 3kg per front corner reduction in unsprung weight, who knows, but it feels more direct about centre, and also feels like it returns to centre more firmly. Hard to describe but obviously as I'm familiar with how it was, it just feels 'better' (I think!)
And finally, that little throttle blade hole, initial suspicion is it's improved the return to idle in that of it undershoots it doesn't get stuck in a cycle of flaring up and down, but far more than that is the off idle transition is now so much smoother.
Only took it for a brief test pootle, got back and noticed I'd cleverly left the locking nut on there and it didn't come off
k me, I've got brakes! I think my original calipers need a refresh, as the pads were wearing very unevenly, and the pedal feel was not good. I don't know if it was one thing or a combination of many (months of usage probably helped push any air out of the ABS module maybe, new calipers, more fluid flushed through for a better bleed, who knows, but Jesus H Christ on a unicycle it's like a different car.
They're not even 'big' brakes by modern standards but the pedal feel is SO nice now, tiny initial squish and then an actual firm pedal and correspondingly solid amount of retardation.
Transformative, it probably just feels like a modern car's brakes now, or, something within the last 20 years anyway, but yeah, I'm very pleased!
My little touch of camber was rejigged, not really noticeable in pictures but here we are anyway:
It may be mostly placebo, maybe it's the 3kg per front corner reduction in unsprung weight, who knows, but it feels more direct about centre, and also feels like it returns to centre more firmly. Hard to describe but obviously as I'm familiar with how it was, it just feels 'better' (I think!)
And finally, that little throttle blade hole, initial suspicion is it's improved the return to idle in that of it undershoots it doesn't get stuck in a cycle of flaring up and down, but far more than that is the off idle transition is now so much smoother.
Only took it for a brief test pootle, got back and noticed I'd cleverly left the locking nut on there and it didn't come off
Cut the old oil filter open, found an awful lot of metal shards, specks etc. Here's a bit of the filter material and the biggest chunk I found.
Was always suspicious the piston skirts may be eating themselves because of the stroker, so who knows, might be that, but never the less, seems foolish to keep driving it and wait for it to go properly wrongj
Shame because it's a lovely day out and I had a few nice little bits to do, was going to improve the seal / sound muffling around the gear shifter and also have a Delay On relay that's arrived to sort my wiring to the PS pump so it will jump straight to working pressure.
Not jumping to any conclusions yet really beyond "something", so realistically it's time to pull the engine out, take it apart, and see what's going on.
Oil pressure obviously still fine, may do a compression test (not that I have done one before to compare the results...) but whilst it's still an engine etc. why not gather some data.
Insert San Andreas "here we go again" meme
Was always suspicious the piston skirts may be eating themselves because of the stroker, so who knows, might be that, but never the less, seems foolish to keep driving it and wait for it to go properly wrongj
Shame because it's a lovely day out and I had a few nice little bits to do, was going to improve the seal / sound muffling around the gear shifter and also have a Delay On relay that's arrived to sort my wiring to the PS pump so it will jump straight to working pressure.
Not jumping to any conclusions yet really beyond "something", so realistically it's time to pull the engine out, take it apart, and see what's going on.
Oil pressure obviously still fine, may do a compression test (not that I have done one before to compare the results...) but whilst it's still an engine etc. why not gather some data.
Insert San Andreas "here we go again" meme
Great thread James, as you know, my stroker disintegrated in spectacular fashion at VMax after one of the forged pistons broke up. Taking the sump off Monkfish discovered it was full of metal filings from 8 piston skirts, I saw it for myself in their workshop. As you know, they rock and in my case, wear away quickly until they fail altogether. If I were you, I'd have it out and take a look before it takes the rest of the engine with it.
In other news, I've used your calliper picture in another thread, hope you don't mind
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
In other news, I've used your calliper picture in another thread, hope you don't mind
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Nope don't mind at all Paul
Yeah I had already bought and received the kit before my additional learning about strokers occurred.
In terms of LS1 vs LS2, by most accounts all the (non-LS7) liners are a similar length, about 5.5 inches, ish, so it's very much a dice roll. Apparently newer piston designs have sorted the issue, we shall see!
It's my first time building an engine and it made over 600bhp, so I'm happy to accept I may not have got something right, and must be realistic that after 2,500 enjoyable miles it drove itself into the garage, so this is hopefully an opportunity to improve it as opposed to having to pick bits of it off the road whilst waiting for a flat bed to arrive.
Going to get it up on the quickjacks and start taking some bits off the underside ready for it to come out and go from there.
Yeah I had already bought and received the kit before my additional learning about strokers occurred.
In terms of LS1 vs LS2, by most accounts all the (non-LS7) liners are a similar length, about 5.5 inches, ish, so it's very much a dice roll. Apparently newer piston designs have sorted the issue, we shall see!
It's my first time building an engine and it made over 600bhp, so I'm happy to accept I may not have got something right, and must be realistic that after 2,500 enjoyable miles it drove itself into the garage, so this is hopefully an opportunity to improve it as opposed to having to pick bits of it off the road whilst waiting for a flat bed to arrive.
Going to get it up on the quickjacks and start taking some bits off the underside ready for it to come out and go from there.
I like those jacks, will have to get some of my own. I had an LQ9 truck block in mine, and guess which one of all the LS engines has the shortest liners? So I might just be unlucky but even my LS1 had scuffed piston skirts with the stroker kit so worth checking out I'd say. I used to build engines when I was younger and had no money but I just don't have the time now. I'd love to give it another go instead of paying other people all the time. I admire your courage and you've obviously done a great job. Now the turbos are calling you!
wormus said:
I like those jacks, will have to get some of my own. I had an LQ9 truck block in mine, and guess which one of all the LS engines has the shortest liners? So I might just be unlucky but even my LS1 had scuffed piston skirts with the stroker kit so worth checking out I'd say. I used to build engines when I was younger and had no money but I just don't have the time now. I'd love to give it another go instead of paying other people all the time. I admire your courage and you've obviously done a great job. Now the turbos are calling you!
Haha, naaah, turbos muffle the noise and to be honest I don't like all that hissy racket Plus it's just loads of weight with all the pipework and the intercooler and the turbos themselves etc etc, not for me.
I'd like to supercharge the wagon though as I think it suits it better
Exhaust is going nice and golden!
There was a bit of a leak at one of the joins, can see a very obvious line of soot on the propshaft and can see the gap so not the worst outcome taking it apart.
On top of that, the 3 bolts that bolt the prop to the diff flange, 2 of 3 weren't tight, despite being loctited. So again, good to discover this way, I'm going to go with a different bolt for those and see if I can fit a nut on the exposed end as this has happened about 3 times now over the years that they've worked loose.
Currently draining out the coolant, by which I mean mostly pouring it over the floor and my arms
Would be nice to get the engine bay fairly clear ready to whip the engine and box out tomorrow.
Well ended up going to a car/coffee meet this morning, then watching some of the Nurburgring 24hr, then the team redline sim racing at Imola, so progress was delayed...!
Never the less, wanted to do a compression test before taking it apart, mostly just because I hadn't done one and I was curious.
Plugs out, all look the same
Compression test was quick and easy, and all were within the 5% of each other, nothing untoward and good healthy compression, especially considering the amount of cam overlap
I then set about pouring any remaining coolant I could find all over the floor whilst also removing things that generally held coolant in.
Coolant also looks as new unsurprisingly, have captured probably enough of it to use again to refill
Then popped the headers off, which have been blueing up nicely! Forget you have to drop the steering rack to get the driver's side one out.
Also unplugged / unbolted any wiring / grounds, just the two on the starter motor to do as the header was largely in the way.
And once again it's time for dinner so will probably call it for today.
There is the inconvenient task of unbolting the gearstick left, and then time to unbolt the gearbox / engine mounts and pull it all out again.
Conscious of the PH25 meet looming, will hopefully get it back together for that, at least it's only an engine to rebuild now and not all that crap wiring and brake lines and fuel lines and loom tidying etc etc to do
Never the less, wanted to do a compression test before taking it apart, mostly just because I hadn't done one and I was curious.
Plugs out, all look the same
Compression test was quick and easy, and all were within the 5% of each other, nothing untoward and good healthy compression, especially considering the amount of cam overlap
I then set about pouring any remaining coolant I could find all over the floor whilst also removing things that generally held coolant in.
Coolant also looks as new unsurprisingly, have captured probably enough of it to use again to refill
Then popped the headers off, which have been blueing up nicely! Forget you have to drop the steering rack to get the driver's side one out.
Also unplugged / unbolted any wiring / grounds, just the two on the starter motor to do as the header was largely in the way.
And once again it's time for dinner so will probably call it for today.
There is the inconvenient task of unbolting the gearstick left, and then time to unbolt the gearbox / engine mounts and pull it all out again.
Conscious of the PH25 meet looming, will hopefully get it back together for that, at least it's only an engine to rebuild now and not all that crap wiring and brake lines and fuel lines and loom tidying etc etc to do
Quinten said:
Still plenty of time for that, but if you're struggling, drop me a message, I'm only 5 mins away 
That's very kind, thank you, will bear it in mind Naturally the mind has wondered / jumped to conclusions that it'll be the piston skirts, so the only sensible fix would be to re-sleeve the block with some longer liners that thus properly support the pistons.
The Darton MID liners support bores of 4.125" to 4.200"... 4.125" giving me the mythical 427....
Would presumably also be a reasonably 'common' piston size as well as that's what the LS7 is...Not the worst outcome in the world if I end up going that way. Yes I could also put a 3.900" stroke crank in there and so on, but that just seems defeatist
wormus said:
Sounds sensible. Have a chat with Richard Ingram, I think he’s still on Facebook. He went the same route and may have some useful pointers.
Cheers, will do I've got Knight Engine Services just round the corner who installed the cam bearings for me and honed the bores etc., so if it comes to it I'll get in touch with them first about whether they're geared up to re-sleeve... Will also ask Craig at DynoTorque as I'm sure he'll know someone.If it does end up going that way, I may be tempted to replace the little V8 side badges with 427 badges
Gutted you've got some kind of lurking issue, but at least you've spotted it early on! (And, of course, have spare cars 
)
I have a similar experience with switching sliding calipers for a fixed caliper instead, often the power doesn't change compared to the standard sliding caliper, but the feel is massively better.
)I have a similar experience with switching sliding calipers for a fixed caliper instead, often the power doesn't change compared to the standard sliding caliper, but the feel is massively better.
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