Home›Forums›Members’ Builds and Rides›VN – VP – VR – VS›Low km 1991 VN Exec
This topic contains 61 replies, has 14 voices, and was last updated by doz10 7 years, 8 months ago.
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May 13, 2016 at 7:31 pm #16825
ImmortalityParticipant- 97 HSV Senator 185i 02 VX L67 Calais
View build HERE
Posts: 535Nice
Very much like my original 1 owner grandpa spec VN, I was fortunate with it been a T5/V6. Awesome car to drive
I did the VT Booster/MC conversion but cut and re-flared the lines to suit instead of using adaptors. Cunt of a job…..
I miss that car
December 14, 2016 at 3:48 pm #21038OK so basically nothing has changed on this since May (wow, 6 months?).
As in the other thread I no longer have the VQ so this now has a full time garage spot. In the interim I’ve managed to spend almost all of our spare cash on finishing the house. I’m now almost done.
And now I want to finally get my bike (MT-07) so it may still be a while for real work to start on this!
So I did some important things like detailing the car and refurbishing my 185i engine covers I’ve had stashed for years along with some rocker covers. Ground breaking stuff.
Next step will be to pull the engine from the VQ, give it a little bit of love, then put it into the VN with bananas on it and a T5 behind it. VN needs a 3.45 Trutrack diff built as well. Bananas will be prepped (cut open, ports blended and work the elbow with a 70mm TB) and I’ll put in a Crow 4503 cam (227/220 on 113) which looks to me like a great turbo cam with the bananas.
Hope to crack into this during winter so I stop being ‘all talk’. However I don’t think much will happen until I get the bike…
January 5, 2017 at 11:17 am #21351Alright, let’s start the new year off.
No major progress but I intend on trying to get out to the garage at least an hour a night to slowly chip away at some of the tasks needed. Just after Christmas I went up to the old man’s place and came back with a trailer full of parts off the VQ. I have the engine on the stand in the shed, as well as a bunch of other bits (Programmable ECU, Crane Hi-6, Bolt ons etc.).
Have started with the top of the engine and will work my way down. Going with a banana manifold for this engine, as I have a strange love for the factory top end look. (Insert Cava hate ). I could ramble on for ages about crazy plans to reduce heat soak but I’m not sure if I’ll even go that far yet so I will hold fire.
So I dug through the collection of engine covers, manifolds, throttle bodies and fuel rails and settled on a set of 185i covers from a VR I had, a 70mm TB, a set of VR/VS rails and the cleanest set of bananas from the fruit shop I have apparently amassed. Welded on some -6 fittings to the rail, plan to use the factory cross over pipe under the covers. Stripped and repainted the covers. Stripped, welded on -10 fittings and repainted the rocker covers. Also went hell for leather on the bananas.
Nasty little lips on the runner inlets.
Cylinder 8 is a little challenging to get to without cutting more out. I’ll give it a go as is first.
This is as good as it gets for Cylinder one due to the water jacket.
January 5, 2017 at 12:59 pm #21352Good job mate. No hate, now I’ve seen what they can do
Do like those photos I text you also on the bananas.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by cava454.
January 5, 2017 at 2:03 pm #21354Yeah that car’s a winner.
January 6, 2017 at 9:17 am #21363Had a ten minute play last night. Hit the top surface with the flap disc to get rid of the casting flash, then used an aluminium carbide to smooth the entry out. I’ll need to get some long shank cutters though, as well as a hone of some sort around 42mm dia.
Top image is flap disc only, bottom image is initial work. Hard to tell in the pictures but its much better.
January 9, 2017 at 9:20 am #21376Ordered a set of long shank aluminium carbides to help progress the manifold. Need to source some other items to port the runners themselves.
Started installing the 80L fuel tank into the car yesterday (operation ‘Ghetto Booty’). Faced some issues with being given the wrong size hose for the tank overflow line by the helpful attendant at the local parts store, as well as the VHT paint I applied deciding it didn’t want to stay on the tank meant I had to strip the tank (again!) and repaint it in VHT Caliper Paint rather than Quick Coat. I wasn’t that concerned as I didn’t really like the finish on the Quick Coat and the Caliper Paint is less metallic and looks more like I think it should.
Installed (Jammed) a Walbro 460 pump in as well while I was there. The tank came from an IRS car so I knew I was in for some modification to the support straps. Turns out the driver side strap bolts straight up, but the passenger side strap needs the diff-end attachment point modified – the IRS chassis uses a tab that goes into a slot on the chassis, where-as the live axle cars use a bolt. Cut that last 100mm off the 63L tank strap and weld it to the 80L strap to extend the effective mounting point by 80mm and you’re good to go. I also removed the 1200kg tow bar.
Haven’t finished the job yet as I ran out of time yesterday. Need to strip and paint the straps black and get some new 5/16″ line as the old ones are too short now. Hopefully finish it Tuesday or Thursday…
January 9, 2017 at 11:21 am #21377
ImmortalityParticipant- 97 HSV Senator 185i 02 VX L67 Calais
View build HERE
Posts: 535Those stock runner entries look terrible
January 14, 2017 at 8:36 pm #21420Operation Ghetto Booty is a success. After trying to get the 1/2″ hose onto a 5/8″ fitting for the tank overflow (thanks Autobarn!) I had some delays in getting the tank back in. Managed to get the correct hose from Enzed on Friday so smashed it back in today.
The Walbro 460 is very quiet, better than the stock pump for sure. Now has E85 compatible hoses for what it’s worth. Getting closer to the target “Dirty circa 1999-2001 Western Suburbs of Melbourne lapping Keilor Park Drive VN BT1 Bro” look I’m going for.
On a serious note it seems as though there’s no real need to change the fuel level sender output display on the guage. It doesn’t have the resolution it should at the lower end (i.e. with ~15L in the tank it showed a bit over 1/16 of a tank, but at 40L in the tank it showed just over 1/2, so no stress.)
Replaced all of the breather lines and what not.
Exactly 40L in,
Starting to look alright
The toys in the shed for the night.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by [TUFFVQ].
January 15, 2017 at 7:26 am #21423<p style=”text-align: left;”>Lookinggood mate, haven’t seen a vn executive that tidy in a long time</p>
January 15, 2017 at 8:54 am #21425Dale. Do u mind listing the hoses you used. I need to do this for mine.
Did u replace fuel hose front to back.
January 15, 2017 at 10:15 am #21426
ImmortalityParticipant- 97 HSV Senator 185i 02 VX L67 Calais
View build HERE
Posts: 535Black bumpers always did suit the VN
Very tidy
January 16, 2017 at 11:06 am #21438Dale. Do u mind listing the hoses you used. I need to do this for mine. Did u replace fuel hose front to back.
Hey mate.
I used 5/8″ Fuel Hose (E85 safe) from Enzed for the tank overflow line. I couldn’t get this from regular auto parts stores. Needed about 600mm of hose length. I also replaced all of the breather tubes, as well as the charcoal canister line to the filler neck. Used 3/16″ hose for this. Also replaced the tank pressure and return hoses with E85 safe 5/16″ rubber line (Aeroflow). The charcoal canister line is standard 5/16″ hardline, but the factory basically have the 3/16″ hose stuffed into the 5/16″ hose as a conversion of hose size to suit the filler neck. I used a 3/16″ to 5/16″ adaptor instead.
Engine bay fuel lines will be replaced when I pull the engine.
January 16, 2017 at 6:16 pm #21443So u removed the hard line for the flow and return?
January 16, 2017 at 10:01 pm #21449Black bumpers always did suit the VN Very tidy
Agree.Sometimes the simple things are best.For me this would stand out more than the same era HSV…..well maybe not a SV 5000,have a soft spot for those.
Haven’t seen the inside of the banana’s before,pretty ugly entry’s.Solid casting.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by VS 355 UTE.
January 18, 2017 at 4:09 pm #21471So u removed the hard line for the flow and return?
Nope – still factory hardlines, just replaced the soft lines.
I’ve got -6 alloy line and fittings for that that if the time comes.
January 23, 2017 at 1:33 pm #21526Not a big change this weekend but one more thing off the list. After trying a couple of times to get the paint right, I eventually found a Nissan touch up paint that matched what I wanted for the grille and garnish. Both are now de-badged, with a replacement 5.0 badge to go on when the engine is converted. I played around with the mounting brackets and got the garnish to mount up much better than it was before.
Also removed the rear louvre as the look of it kind of wore off. I still have all the clips and everything so easy to put back on if required. The photos show the clips still on but I removed them later that day.
That pretty much wraps up the wore externally that I wanted to do, except for maybe a couple of very minor things here and there. Looks like I’ve picked up some 3.45 gears for it also. Next stop, suspension.
January 28, 2017 at 4:33 pm #21587Looking good mate!
February 3, 2017 at 9:11 pm #21646OK so this week’s progress has been pretty average due to work.
What I have had time to do is try and figure out a hone for the curved runners. And I’ve figured out three different ways that won’t work…
Anyway, started port matching the manifold to the head runners. A very long way to go. But at least I’ve both improved
– The runner to head transition (round to square)
– The MCSA of the runner and
– The proportion of runner wall length to flow area at the rectangular cross section. (Good for boundary layer effects.)All of which means pretty much jack under boosted conditions. Which this will eventually be….
February 9, 2017 at 10:12 am #21695 -
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