The VK Calais Daily Project

[NickVRParticipant AdelaideVR V8 Exec, VR SS, VF Redline Reserve View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 264]

Such a nice neat car. Great work on it so far. Where did you get all the brand new connectors from. Would love to that on mine one day.

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Very nice mate.

[VKCALAISV8Participant VICSZ Mk 1 TS Territory View build HERE Member since: March 1, 2015 Posts: 9]

Awesome project mate!!! Looked really clean to start with, hard to find as you’ve said!

I soooooo wanna park my butt behind the wheel of one these again! Goddamn kids and House Reno’s that never seem to end! Hahahahahaha

 

 

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by  VKCALAISV8.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by  VKCALAISV8.

[HoopstarParticipant AdelaideVK Calais View build HERE Member since: June 10, 2016 Posts: 48]

Lacksballs wrote:

WWould you mind sending me (pm) or posting more pictures of the front dash speakers fitted. I put a pair 5 1/4″ JBL’s on the rear parcel shelf & working on a bluetooth adopter to wire into 13 pin DIN for the factory CD player. Well done.

Not sure if I have any more photos to be honest – I was so focused on finishing everything and getting the dash back together so I could drive to work on Monday (the joys of working on your daily huh) I didn’t take a lot of photos.   I literally had the dash in pieces to get everything in.

NickVR wrote:

Where did you get all the brand new connectors from.

Ashdown Ingram at Thebarton.
08 8257 2345
36-38 Cawthorne St Thebarton SA 5031

VKCALAISV8 wrote:

Awesome project mate!!! Looked really clean to start with, hard to find as you’ve said! I soooooo wanna park my butt behind the wheel of one these again! Goddamn kids and House Reno’s that never seem to end! Hahahahahaha

I feel that pain mate.  I’m thankfully finished the house reno’s (are they ever really finished?) and our kids are both now at school.  I also have a VERY awesome wife that doesn’t mind me playing and apparently now wants a pool (refer to that “are they ever really finished” part) so she has a vested interest there

The honest truth is I’ve been very focused on doing this on a very tight budget.  When I did the HR, it was a ‘just throw money at it’ affair.  Doing it on a tight budget makes you think a bit more and look around for bargains – it’s actually been a bit of fun this way.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by  Hoopstar.

[NickVRParticipant AdelaideVR V8 Exec, VR SS, VF Redline Reserve View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 264]

Hey mate, who did the stereo? If you don’t mind me asking how much did it cost? Considering something like this with a stock VR tape deck.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by  NickVR.

[HoopstarParticipant AdelaideVK Calais View build HERE Member since: June 10, 2016 Posts: 48]

NickVR wrote:

Hey mate, who did the stereo? If you don’t mind me asking how much did it cost? Considering something like this with a stock VR tape deck.

I did the stereo.

(I’m an electronic engineer) 

[sands vsParticipant vs commodore View build HERE Member since: March 1, 2015 Posts: 619]

This car is so good on so many levels. I cant believe they still pop up in this condition. Didnt ever consider the ls swap?

[NickVRParticipant AdelaideVR V8 Exec, VR SS, VF Redline Reserve View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 264]

Hoopstar wrote:

NickVR wrote:

Hey mate, who did the stereo? If you don’t mind me asking how much did it cost? Considering something like this with a stock VR tape deck.

I did the stereo. (I’m an electronic engineer)

 

That’s awesome. Don’t suppose you want to do another, lol. I think there are places around that can do them but don’t know where.

[HoopstarParticipant AdelaideVK Calais View build HERE Member since: June 10, 2016 Posts: 48]

sands vs wrote:

Didnt ever consider the ls swap?

I did but the buy in price was pretty high since good, low km LS’s with trans and all the bit still attract good money and then the ‘kit’ to fit them was another $2500.  This car needed to be a budget thing and Mrs Hoopstar probably wouldn’t have gone for that, so it was discounted pretty quickly 

I also have a real soft spot for the old plastic V8 – they sound so sexy…  so much better than the LS.  

As for the radios – I intend to offer it up as a mod down the track.  The problem is there is a fair amount of modification in ‘tricking’ the radio’s microcontroller that the tape deck is still connected and then interfacing to the control buttons, so it’d only ever be a ‘send me your radio and I’ll mod it’ thing.

[NickVRParticipant AdelaideVR V8 Exec, VR SS, VF Redline Reserve View build HERE Member since: March 2, 2015 Posts: 264]

Sounds good to me. I’m in no rush, just a thought I had. Let us know when you start doing them.

[HoopstarParticipant AdelaideVK Calais View build HERE Member since: June 10, 2016 Posts: 48]

So going back a couple of steps (and because someone PM’d me and asked):

The front end consists of a VR V8 K-frame fitted with VK lower control arms (to correct the camber) and new ball joints.  Everything is fitted with Nolathane bushes along with King ultra-low springs and Monroe struts.  For better extractor clearance, I fitted a rebuilt VN power steering rack with new ball joints and connected it to the stock VK column using a VL intermediate shaft.

 

OK… so a couple of weeks ago I finally got everything wired up, plumbed in and the car running but it certainly hasn’t all been smooth sailing.. 

First up was an intermittent dizzy pickup that would sometimes allow the car to start and other times not, then a faulty coil overheating the ignition module randomly shutting the engine down, then two faulty (yet rebuilt) injectors causing idling issues, a throttle position sensor error causing the electronic trans to only shift at 4000rpm regardless of throttle position and finally a jammed piston in the power steering pump not providing any power steering.

Given that I’d scratch built or reworked 90% of the engine harness wiring and everything was a ‘new fit’, these faults had me second guessing myself and it took a couple of weeks to work through all the problems.

My wife asked me during all this frustration of getting it running if I regretted taking out the original motor.  I’ll admit there were times I almost did so it was a pretty proud moment when it all came together and got to drive it to the wheel aligners.

Basic specs are stock stroke VR 304 with mild tune, cleaned up VN heads with 3 angle job, Crane valve gear and YT roller rockers.  Torque Power dual plane low rise manifold with 1000cfm Holley TB and as previously mentioned, Pacemaker PH5600 extractors with twin 2.5″ into single system by Carline Findon.  Chris and Grant from Norwood Automatics built up a shift kitted 4L60e and put together one of their 2500 converters

Because the car is my daily driver and any EFI engine swap is a pretty big upgrade, I decided to stage the project in phases to reduce the risks.  Phase #1 – Engine Swap, Phase #2 – Diff, etc..

With that in mind I bought another VK Borg Warner housing along with a complete diff from a VN SS.  The latter donated it’s LSD centre and 28 spline axles.  I measured everything up and had Jimmy from Slider Engineering shorten, respline and heat treat the axles to suit the VK housing.

I bought a set of new 3.9 gears and had Boss Engineering set everything up including tightly shimming up the LSD unit (180 ft/lbs break away) along with new bearings and seals.  To give the suspension a bit of a birthday, a set of Nolathane top trailing arms and an adjustable panhard rod were installed.  I also rebushed the stock lower arms with Nolathane bushes and added new Monroe shocks and King ultra-low springs.

Now that the car was running, I spent last weekend fitting the new diff and suspension setup.

 

The 3.9 gears have REALLY woken the car up and the tightly shimmed LSD certainly makes it pretty snappy.  The upgraded steering and suspension have really tightened everything up and the car is a pleasure to drive – so precise and so predictable.

So that’s just about everything completed in terms of the ‘engine swap’.  I’m pretty happy and very impressed with the litle 304’s performance given its basic specs and low comp.

The next phase (phase #3) of the project involves sending it to Awesome Automotive for a proper tune to try and extract the most from the engine and make the most of the trans’s shift kit.  Before we do that I’m going to be slotting in a Crane H284 cam (222º @ .050″),  some higher flowing injectors and a MSD6AL ignition unit.

At the moment I’m working on fitting up a Group-A style cold air tray to the throttle body along with some (lower profile) Aeroflow fuel rails to clear the tray in a bid to get some cooler air into the engine.

Things left to do is make up some new air conditioner hoses, replace the dryer and get it re-gassed ready for next summer for some cool cruising.

Phase #4:  well I also have a spare block, crank, rods and heads sitting in the shed that one day might get rebuilt into a higher compression unit for a bit more poke..  but Mrs Hoopstar is wanting an in-ground pool too so that might have to wait a bit.

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Nice work mate, great write up.

[gtrboyyParticipant gtrboyy1.6 Getz View build HERE Member since: January 20, 2016 Posts: 201]

Nice!

Like these type of builds.

 

On the vk borgy are they equal length axles or 1 long 1 short like other diffs?

Also did you have much spline left after shortening vn axles?

 

Did similar but with vl diff but needed 2 long vn-s axles narrowed down…short axle was spot on,the long axle guessing was just trimmed with grinder has about 20mm spline at end before tapers down.

[HoopstarParticipant AdelaideVK Calais View build HERE Member since: June 10, 2016 Posts: 48]

gtrboyy wrote:

On the vk borgy are they equal length axles or 1 long 1 short like other diffs? Also did you have much spline left after shortening vn axles?

Different lengths. Drivers side is longer and the short side of the VN axle fits in without any mods.

The passenger side needs to be cut down, welded up (towards the flange), machined down and then resplined and finally heat treated.  Jimmy Howard from Slider is a legend at this process and has many 8 and 9 second cars out there with his axles in them.

[exec24Participant 2004 VY S2 Berlina 1996 VS 5L Sedan View build HERE Member since: April 8, 2015 Posts: 435]

nice work, couple of off topic questions

1. do you by any chance have the VN SS rear swaybar?

2. im helping a mate with his HR sedan, would you know which colour wires are ignition, and what is the dimmer for the headlights, as i need to wire gauges for him.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by  exec24.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by  exec24.

[crbParticipant 84 VK View build HERE Member since: March 19, 2017 Posts: 2]

I really appreciate the build quality on your car. Did you do the conversion engine harness wiring yourself or have someone do it for you? Reason I’m asking is because I’m doing a V6 conversion on my Vk but no-one seems to be able to do the wiring.

[Author]

Posts