VH Commodore wagon, burnout build up.

[96]

ok, so, its not entirely bike related (well not at all to be honest), but i thought that some of you may be intersted.

approximately 2 weeks ago me and my mate, brent, found a car we had been looking for.
it had to be cheap, reliable, fairly tidy, and a V8.

this is what we managed to come back with

[96]

we thought we had a 308, but checking the compliance plate revealed it was the 253ci, 4.2L engine, mated to a 4 speed manual gear box. at this point in time, we hadnt started her, but knew it couldnt be that hard.

not only is the exterior in brilliant condition, very minimal rust, chrome trim in perfect condition, all bar one window winder working, all doors working and lockable (except for the lack of a key) but all the interior was in pretty good knick too.

we also ended up learning it had an edelbrock performer intake manifold, holley 465 quad barrel carby, new distributor, new spark plug leads, a spare tire, original jack, an autometer (roughly) 130mm rev gauge with shift light and plenty more.

new plugs in, some fresh fuel (hadnt been started in over a year), cleaned up the battery terminals, and removed the ignition switch from the steering collum, and she started all too easy.

a good scrub and she looks like this (note, the front bumper was not installed at this stage)

[96]

alright, from here, a quick road test....

and, no first gear.

not to worry, we plan on doing 2nd gear skids any way. the clutch has plenty of bite, the engine is very quiet (with the exception of the decent exhaust note).

she pulls hard, and from surprisingly low in the rpm too given its only a 253. runs hard in the top end too, these things love rpm

we have since had a large 700 holley carb promised to us, and a alluminum race fuel cell too. both of these are in the garage now, ready to go.

the interior was stripped bare, with the exception of door trims, and all the carpet and sound deadning was removed. all we have to do there is chip away at the tar like mats that are layed down for heat proofing(any one got any tips), as that shit is super heavy. so far lots of weight sitting in the garage rather than on the springs(which by the way aer very low items, another bonus part).

we have just today fitted some switchgear for ignition, starter and future thermo fans etc and our tacho to the dash. pretty happy with the results.

[96]

not too much more at this stage...

the fuel tank will come out, and the fuel cell sits nicely in the spare wheel well.

a bucket seat (or two, undecided as yet) will go up front.

the area once filled by the rear seat will be made flat and carpeted to be level with the rear cargo area (purley for asthetics)

all the bare metal left where we removed carpet and the like, will be painted black or silver to tidy things up.

gonna get a phat lumpy stick (high performance cam for everyone else) and some valve springs, help get this little sucker rev!

leaking a bit of oil from the front crank seal, and distributor. full ACL gasket kit can be had for $130. from this we will remove the rocker covers, manifold, carbie, and water pump, give them a mightyl good clean, and put in valve stem seals, and new gaskets all over the place to keep the oil inside.

found a set of extractors we can have for a carton of teds, pretty much gonna put a angle on these to aim them near the rears, but leave em short'n'loud.

we need some thermo fans, to get rid of this engine driven one.

put a tap in the rear brake lines to help out in the pad.

find a new bonnet (either with a hole, or cut one in our selves) as this one is pretty tidy, and get a carby spacer to lift the air filter through.

well, that sounds like it for now.... updates to come i guess. (oh, and of course we're gonna get a mini spool to make sure the diff is locked at all times)

[HDK]

Good stuff dude, not many tidy early 'steel bumper' commodores around these days.

If your going for a competition burnout car a cpl major things you should be going for.... torque, wheel speed and temp management..

If your in Craige and your sorting the water side of things.. (rad/thermos/wp) go see Matt at Joondalup radiators.. good mate of mine thats helped me with a few burnout cars Ive had, def knows his holden 8's. Water temps are just one side of things though.. look at using the orange heat sleave on your wiring/ign gear as +3min skids tend to melt everything in the engine bay, go for some heat wrap on your headers before the go in too..

As for an aussie 4sp in a burnout car...good luck

[96]

torque in a 253? haha, funny...

gonna leave the standard diff gears for now, so we keep a decent speed in 2nd, try get things foggy...

we know heat management would be a big one. the car is in thornlie, and we both work east or south, so thats where we are gonna have to do things. didnt consider heat wrapping the headers, although its pretty good idea now that you've mentioned it...

not too sure what orange heat sleave you are refering too, but will look into it... would you put the plug leads in this aswell, or are they ok?

worst case scenario for the gear box... it blows up. plenty of trimatics and the like out there cheap that'd bolt straight on...

[HDK]

The heat sleeve is sold as fire retardent sleeve I think.. couplers/enzed will sell it.. not cheap but worth its weight in gold.. I would use it on the leads.. escpecially near the plugs where the header heat is intense. As for the thermos.. EL/AU falcon thermos are proven performers... wrked so well in one of my cars the hot air being blown off the rad would burn your ankle as you got out of the car!

I didnt want to shit on the 253/4spd combo like a negative nancy so I kept quiet but i wouldnt be wasting money on cams/head work for it.. just abuse it till death then fuck it off and put a turbo pattern 308/trimatic in with the money you would have spent on the cams/valve springs (just remember a big trans cooler for the auto).

[96]

Hear it all day everyday mate... Gonna have to see how this performs first, then decide if we put the big engine in... There are a few tuff 253's out there, and with even exhausts there was only 11kws between 253 and 308 anyway... But yeah, if she skids well in current trim, we'll work this one, if it struggles, the 253 will run til it pops as well swap it then.

Got told about those el thermos. Big twin suckers in a nice shroud... Should work a treat...

[HDK]

Shit dude my bad for telling what you already knew.. but there is a reason youve heard it all before.. its true, and those tuff 253's your talking about are built motors not 20 year old stockers.

Good luck with it.

[Bigmandazz]

Stoke it while you are there possibly. Bring up its cubes.

Or maybe a supacharger? I must admit I like an older style crumbedore

if it is light no need for a 308, just needs to be as bulletproof as possible. I am sure I am not
saying stuff you don't know yourself or heard from others.

I made a a burnout machine out of a L6 Hemi put into a Corolla, was a awesome machine. It
was ok down the 1/4 mile also. Good times building a machine which the point is to try and kill
it everytime you start her up.

Keep up the Good work

DaZ

[96]

Don't wanna stroke it, will hold the revs back. You can gain good torque by stroking, but when it's not gonna go below 4000rpm or so, I don't think it's really needed. If we need cubes it'll have to be a 308... Plus, kinda Cbf taking the engine out :p

Certainly no supercharging. The budget isn't even close to those kind of $$$ numbers :s unless you have one on offer.

We aren't expecting miracles, but just hoping the wee 253 has enough to turn the tires on the burnout pad... That all we want

[HDK]

The piss weak 2 bolt mains, stock push rods and pressed rockers will be what holds it back from reving.. increasing the stroke the amount bigmandaz is talking about wouldnt make farkall difference.

[chief wiggum]

put a bit more effort in than my burnout car. i just welded the diff and swapped trannies with my runabout car. dodgy as. and added NOS whilst on the piss in a real dodgy way

it's all in here somwhere http://www.perthstreetbikes.com/foru...8/#post1162473

25918-burnout-beast-nos-bottle.jpg25922-burnout-beast-nos-wiring2.jpg

[96]

Wow, wiggum. That's bunky :p

We heard from the boys at crane cams... Freshen up the top end and choose the right cam, they said to expect 7000rpm pretty easy.

Noice...

Any one know about valve seats? Have heard of lots of people getting hardened valve seats. What's the idea behind this? Or is there no need without having done xyz...

[Orson]

Don't know if its already been posted but that "heavy tar" stuff you referred to is what I believe to be the sound deadening (which you claimed to have already removed???)

To remove that, get a whole box of dry ice. Spread it evenly in a single layer over the area then brush it aside and hit the deadening with a hammer. It should just break away in shards.

[darkfibre]

I didnt want to shit on the 253/4spd combo like a negative nancy so I kept quiet but i wouldnt be wasting money on cams/head work for it.. just abuse it till death then fuck it off and put a turbo pattern 308/trimatic in with the money you would have spent on the cams/valve springs (just remember a big trans cooler for the auto).

This.

Not the best combo to spend $$ on improvements, and it will last longer as it is.

Save the real $$ for version 2.0 and then 3.0

There is still fun to be had with what you have, but keep any real budget for later.

Not to say fun will not be had as it is, but spend $$$$$ to break it sooner? Nope

[96]

And where might one find said dry ice?

Not too sure if it's sound or heat. I've heard its one/other/both... There was a dense fibre type mat under the carpet, not sure if it was just Intended to be soft under the feet, it for sound.

[Orson]

Heres one I found: Dry Ice Supply | Dry Ice Cleaning | Dry Ice Pellets | Fire Damage Restoration | Industrial Cleaning

[Orson]

[Crobbo]

From memory they used to rebuild old leaded engines with hardened valve seats so they could run on unleaded petrol.

National phase out of leaded petrol - Some questions and answers

No clue what fuel you're going to be running but might be worth getting some Avgas, these old cars love the shit.