2005 Vz Calais 190 Alloytec

[fishman88]

Sounds good man! i always love reading the excitement from you after every mod you do haha!

Got me thinking, the final gears are low stock, 2.92 or something i think, but if you kept the same gears and just put in the LSD, i wonder how it would go... Why cant all cars just come with LSD, single spinners are drainers...

Did you need to get the speedo calibrated to the new gears?

Thanx mate!! the stock ones we have are 2.87 be good if it was lsd but not to be. I reckon it would go pretty goood if u keep the original gears and put in LSD two wheels traction is always better then one haha. Yes i did have to get the speed fixed up after they fitted the diff. Cheers!

[fishman88]

Well slight update!! Decided to change the diff back to the standard 2.87 ratio as it is just too hard to drive around town 60km/h overdrive isnt very good and im get lazy to use Active select.The gearbox changes gear way too early. Fuel ecomonomy was pretty shockin. Went Bondi on saturday alot of stop n start traffic n average fuel economy was 20L/per 100km SHOCKING!! haha. Its just too bad that the 5 Speed Auto cant be tuned otherwise i woulda kept it. Had a Service yesterday and got some Iridium spark plugs, throttle body clean and feels pretty sweet!!

[pmac]

After all that u go back to the 2.87 gears. but 20l per 100 i guess is a pretty decent reason.

[surfwagon]

Well slight update!! Decided to change the diff back to the standard 2.87 ratio as it is just too hard to drive around town 60km/h overdrive isnt very good and im get lazy to use Active select.The gearbox changes gear way too early. Fuel ecomonomy was pretty shockin. Went Bondi on saturday alot of stop n start traffic n average fuel economy was 20L/per 100km SHOCKING!! haha. Its just too bad that the 5 Speed Auto cant be tuned otherwise i woulda kept it. Had a Service yesterday and got some Iridium spark plugs, throttle body clean and feels pretty sweet!!

Welcome to my world, I live at bondi and my Senator with 4 spd auto & 3.46LSD averages 21+L/110klm around home everyday with an average speed of 22kph.

[fishman88]

After all that u go back to the 2.87 gears. but 20l per 100 i guess is a pretty decent reason.

haha ye mate n plus the 5 speed auto cant be tuned/tweaked but my fuel economy has dropped so much now!!

---------- Post added at 09:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 PM ----------

Welcome to my world, I live at bondi and my Senator with 4 spd auto & 3.46LSD averages 21+L/110klm around home everyday with an average speed of 22kph.

Ouch!! but it is a V8 !!! and a very sexc car!! hahaha !! does hurt the wallet abit..

[surfwagon]

But my point is its the low avarege speed that contributes to the bad average overall and with my car being a V8 also.
Between my place and Bondi Junction (Westfield) there are bewteen 5 and 10 sets of traffic lights for a 1.5klm journey depending on which route I take and both are heavily trafficked.
I'm sure on the highway yours would get fantastic economy, I recently did a trip to Kempsey and back with 5 adults and luggage on board and returned 11.1L/10klm from Bondi door to door which i thought was pretty good considering the load and the traffic you get between Bondi and the F3 at Wahroonga.
Back to yours.
So there is absolutely no way around fixing the shift problem with the lower gears, it seems a shame to have to change back to 2.87's.
I nearly bought a Calais like yours and the diff gears was one of the first things I was going to change.
Sounds like Holden may have done this on purpose to stop people modifying the rides.
Good luck and I hope somebody on here can help you.

[fishman88]

But my point is its the low avarege speed that contributes to the bad average overall and with my car being a V8 also.
Between my place and Bondi Junction (Westfield) there are bewteen 5 and 10 sets of traffic lights for a 1.5klm journey depending on which route I take and both are heavily trafficked.
I'm sure on the highway yours would get fantastic economy, I recently did a trip to Kempsey and back with 5 adults and luggage on board and returned 11.1L/10klm from Bondi door to door which i thought was pretty good considering the load and the traffic you get between Bondi and the F3 at Wahroonga.
Back to yours.
So there is absolutely no way around fixing the shift problem with the lower gears, it seems a shame to have to change back to 2.87's.
I nearly bought a Calais like yours and the diff gears was one of the first things I was going to change.
Sounds like Holden may have done this on purpose to stop people modifying the rides.
Good luck and I hope somebody on here can help you.

On the highway with the 3.46's wasnt as good as i thought. Went up north near newcastle and back in the end i got to bouts just under 13L-14L/100km. With the gearbox theres no way as VCM hasnt released it yet for the 5 speed auto. ITs a shame i had to change back but was a good experience first time i ever got a diff change and was fun with the LSD and the 3.46's defintiely goes hard. Thanx for your input!! cheers!

PS i luv ur car mate!! soo tough!!

[Lincoln87]

do u still ahve the gears??


just outta courosity.. how much it cost to go from stock to 3.46lsd??


after i get stopping under control, i think i will look at going faster.. which will be gears

i do abit of fanatic driving.. mix between city and highway/motorway driving..
last fuel was avg 40km/h, returned 19L/100kms.

that was with a few trips on a motorway, and also a national park thrash + highway back home.

[surfwagon]

I thought my 6.0 LS2 was thirsty but your Alloytecs aren't much better from nearly half the size.
I've been doing a bit of running around Sydney this week picking up pieces for a bathroom reno and my average for the week was 18.9L/100klm with av speed of 29.4KPH.

[kpop]

Well slight update!! Decided to change the diff back to the standard 2.87 ratio as it is just too hard to drive around town 60km/h overdrive isnt very good and im get lazy to use Active select.The gearbox changes gear way too early. Fuel ecomonomy was pretty shockin. Went Bondi on saturday alot of stop n start traffic n average fuel economy was 20L/per 100km SHOCKING

20L / 100 km? nothing to do with gears, thats your lead foot or your car is tuned like shit. i have the same and have never gone above 12.6L/100km, and thats suburban driving. highway driving i can drop into the 9L/100km range

as for having to do active select all the time, why ? why not just pop the gear shifter into '4' so it is limited to a maximum of 4th gear

then again, i did have the pro's down at autotechnicue do all my tuning and installation, so i guess they do a better job than some random workshop

if anything, i would go 3.7 next time. 3.45 is nice, but 3.7 would really get you up and boogying

[fishman88]

do u still ahve the gears??


just outta courosity.. how much it cost to go from stock to 3.46lsd??


after i get stopping under control, i think i will look at going faster.. which will be gears

i do abit of fanatic driving.. mix between city and highway/motorway driving..
last fuel was avg 40km/h, returned 19L/100kms.

that was with a few trips on a motorway, and also a national park thrash + highway back home.

Cost me bouts 460 for the complete diff and 250 for fitting and speedo fixed up. I did abit of national park spirited driving 2nite!! n took the highways home with some squirts here n there. Ended up with 10L/100kms

---------- Post added at 12:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 AM ----------

20L / 100 km? nothing to do with gears, thats your lead foot or your car is tuned like shit. i have the same and have never gone above 12.6L/100km, and thats suburban driving. highway driving i can drop into the 9L/100km range

as for having to do active select all the time, why ? why not just pop the gear shifter into '4' so it is limited to a maximum of 4th gear

then again, i did have the pro's down at autotechnicue do all my tuning and installation, so i guess they do a better job than some random workshop

if anything, i would go 3.7 next time. 3.45 is nice, but 3.7 would really get you up and boogying

Would leaving it in 4th be bad for the gearbox?. I also didnt like the way the gearbox changed didnt feel right. Changes gear too early for me. Your getting some seriously good economy outta that. When i took it on the highway couldnt even get it under 13L/100kms. 3.7 would be insane!! haha 3.46 was enough for me takes off harder!! n get boooogyin!!

[Lincoln87]

i really dont worry about my fuel ecomony. i didnt buy a V8 to save money.

however, it prob uses less petrol than my V6 VG Ute. just that petrol costs 10c more a L.






random workshop.. didnt CHE do all the work?? and tune?

[kpop]

random workshop.. didnt CHE do all the work?? and tune?

either way, his gears didnt work the way they were supposed to. when i got my diff gears done, my car was on autotechniques dyno for about an hour, it wasnt an easy job. my car shifts perfectly, and the speedo is accurate to within 1kph.

leaving the shifter in 4th wont do any damage, not for normal driving. when commuting to the city im regurarly popping it into 3rd or even 2nd just to stop it from changing gears too much from all the stop start driving.

when highway driving, and i look at real time fuel usage, if im doing exactly 100kph @ 2200 rpm in 5th gear, i use about 7L/100km. so if you were getting nothing less than 13L, that really strange. this is on 19" 245's as well.

[fishman88]

either way, his gears didnt work the way they were supposed to. when i got my diff gears done, my car was on autotechniques dyno for about an hour, it wasnt an easy job. my car shifts perfectly, and the speedo is accurate to within 1kph.

leaving the shifter in 4th wont do any damage, not for normal driving. when commuting to the city im regurarly popping it into 3rd or even 2nd just to stop it from changing gears too much from all the stop start driving.

when highway driving, and i look at real time fuel usage, if im doing exactly 100kph @ 2200 rpm in 5th gear, i use about 7L/100km. so if you were getting nothing less than 13L, that really strange. this is on 19" 245's as well.

CHE did a great job on my car. WOW 7L/100km!! hmmm u must have an really healthy alloytec. I dunno maybe theres an issue with my car...anyways mate thanx for your input.

---------- Post added at 11:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 PM ----------

i really dont worry about my fuel ecomony. i didnt buy a V8 to save money.

however, it prob uses less petrol than my V6 VG Ute. just that petrol costs 10c more a L.






random workshop.. didnt CHE do all the work?? and tune?

True that mate!! hahaha if you wanted to save monney buy a 4CYL!!

[pmac]

i always thought the gearboxes could be tuned just the ve ones couldnt.

after reading kpop's comments im starting to consider doing it while its in the garage so its ready for my return onto the roads. so kpop u didnt have the problems with bad shifts like fishman88 did? and what do fuel avg do you get when ur stuck in melbourne traffic?