Sam's VN

[savage1987]

hi good writeup. Am putting LS engine in VK. Is the vl k frame best to use? Is it different to the vk one? What steering rack did you use? I see everyone seems to have problems with clearance in this area so I want to make it as easy as possible.
Dave

I'm not sure on the differences in the K frames but as far as I know they are fairly close to the same from VL-VS, not sure about earlier but wouldn't be surprised if same again. I used the factory VN V6 power steering rack, and yes I have trouble with clearance to the shitty CAE headers.... I hear Pacemaker's new release VN LS1 headers don't have this issue so I'm looking to move to those once my steering wears a hole in these ones.

Sorry I can't give you more than that

[savage1987]

Someone dug this up for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He4U76kkm_Y

don't know how to embed it here

[Adam007]

Have to bring it down to Mackay once Palmyra is back up and running and go for a run on a decent strip mate. Maybe make a weekend out of it and pop into see Jezza @ HDT

[savage1987]

Yeah for sure! Would be worth a drive. Have to run the diff in properly first though not going to go hammering this one straight off the bat like the last one haha

...........UPDATE

Well a fair bit of progress was made last night.

Got to a wrecker during the day and picked up a VX bonnet cable and a few spare main fuses.

It was actually surprisingly easy to route the bonnet cable around the outside of the guard and inside the top radiator support panel (or whatever it's called) so it's all neatly hidden. Cable was the perfect length for it; the only problem I had was the little cable crush-clamp's screw stripped its thread, so I threw a bolt/washer/nylock in to take care of that.

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...N/SAM_1963.jpg
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...N/SAM_1965.jpg


Brad was working steadily away on the driver's footwell area - I pretty much left most of that to him because he's much better at soldering than I am .. and he's done a pretty damn good job of tidying everything up into manageable bundles.







With the starter / alternator wiring I started by choosing the best possible path (as much clearance to the exhaust header as I could manage), placed a grommet and a power stud through the floor from the cabin, adjusted the cabling to length through the grommet, attached terminals and wired everything up before test fitting the alternator and finalising the setup. Once I was happy with how it was running I did as nice a job as I could manage with convoluted tubing and eletrical tape in an awkward-to-get-at spot. I'll probably need to revisit this harness later on with some heat-proof insulation but I'll see how it goes. I think there's about 50mm from the header at any given point.






















It's also worth mentioning that on the advice of the bloke who built my engine harness for the conversion I routed the battery sense (white) wire from the alternator plug straight to the positive post on the alternator. Is there a reason they don't do that from factory? Or is that the difference between a 1- and 2-wire alternator? I have no idea but it seems to be charging fine anyway.



Oh, funny story. I did one of those amazing things I seem to have such a habit of doing, no matter how careful I think I'm being. Choosing the spot for the power stud, I drilled a 2.5mm hole first to make sure I was in the right spot. Sliding under the car I decided to move it about an inch to a better location. I drilled another 2.5mm hole and decided I was happy with that, sliding back under the car to confirm of course. I got the holesaw ready, thought about what I was doing to make sure I wasn't cutting the wrong hole, then proceeded to cut the wrong hole. Damn. Anyway it turned out fine, just not the ideal spot I'd have liked to use.

A few more hours connecting things and stuffing around with less-than-ideal battery terminals saw everything ready for testing. We checked over everything we could think of, hooked up the battery and flicked the isolator on - lights came on and nothing shorted out .. turned the key to 'on', the immobiliser disarmed nicely and we had a healthy 4bar fuel pressure. The battery barely had enough left in it to turn the motor over but it got there.

At the end of the night's work we had achieved startup - on the first attempt. It wouldn't idle very happily but I'm putting that down to what is probably 6 month old fuel. There's still a lot to get done before it's ready to drive anywhere but it's a damn good start! Now I can get on with tucking all the wiring away and getting the body back together. Here's a little video for anyone interested ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDqtD...b8AUAAAAAAAAAA

[savage1987]

yesterday's progress:

Adjusted and mounted wiring so it was (mostly) out of the way.
Got all interior trim panels back on except the sill panel.
Crafted an under-guard-mounted washer bottle from a dishwashing liquid bottle and some cable ties, a grommet, some silicone and a bit of garden hose
Guards back on
Front bar and grille back on
Lowered onto 4 wheels again

Short test drive



Needs hard core wheel alignment so I'll do a tape measure job on that for the moment.. and the only thing so far I've found that doesn't work is the headlights. High beams work fine so the HIDs have power, hopefully just a dud fuse/relay. Really kicking myself I didn't check the lights BEFORE putting all panels back on. Got too excited and forgot to

[dogsballs]

good work. reckon put it on interceptors

[savage1987]

good work. reckon put it on interceptors

It was at one point but they don't fit over the VY HSV brakes

I don't like the Jets. I've got a set of VZ R8 19s to go on it, just need to get them here from Perth. Should look a lot nicer with those.

[dogsballs]

can you run the 16's?

[savage1987]

probably fit VE 16" stockies but I don't see it being worth the effort, at all. I'd rather keep a set of nice wheels on it and forgo the 'stalker' look

[savage1987]

Thermo fan fuse blew before they got a chance to turn on, I guess 20A was always going to be optimistic for both the AU fans coming on at once.. I put a 30A in there to see if that one has more luck. (edit: don't think so - pretty sure it blew tonight)

First lot of diff run-in Kms are done so I dropped the oil (pain in the ass, no drain plug in a VN).. and gave it a bit of a flush with some fresh oil from my Kincrome Giant Syringe (I like to think it's actually called that), resealed the cover and refilled it with the same cheapo stuff - LSX90 for now, will put some better oil in it later.

I decided the brake lines would be a quick job to do while I was in the area. Fail. Took hours. 2 out of the 5 10mm fittings were too seized for my pipe spanner to undo, had to butcher them off with a combination of pliers, rage and incredibly sore hands. New braided lines are present all throughout the car now. Bled the brakes to finish up and called it quits for today.

[Adam007]

Hey Sam, yeah those AU thermo's draw massive on startup, I always thought twin 30 amp's were the go. Have heard of them when combined melting 40 amp fuses.

RE the diff, the VL is the same with no drain plug, I actually think they are the same, a borg warner unit.

Also i went through the pipe spanner business recently, ended up using a pair of vice grip's and then heading to the local brakemart store and getting new hardline's made up! Was cheaper then what I thought, whole rear diff hardlines fore about $40.

[savage1987]

VZ R8 19s are on their way to Townsville. Hopefully I don't come across any fitment issues with them - their offset is a little different but I don't think it'll be enough to ruin everything.. I hope

Holiday in Perth is nice. Got just under a week left here now.

[CapriceLS1]

Hey Mate,

congrats on the hard work paying off! can I ask a stupid question, would you do it all again? would you recommend doing doing it? I only ask as i know someone wanting to attempt this conversion but it looks like a lot of messing around, what power does it make & has it been on the quarter??

cheers

[savage1987]

Hey Mate,

congrats on the hard work paying off! can I ask a stupid question, would you do it all again? would you recommend doing doing it? I only ask as i know someone wanting to attempt this conversion but it looks like a lot of messing around, what power does it make & has it been on the quarter??

cheers

I would do it again, yes. Particularly because I have a sentimental attachment to this car, but even if I didn't I consider the gains to be worth the cost (conversion cost, perhaps not total cost including me stuffing around with other setups before LS1..)

326rwhp (stock, exhaust+MAFless+underdrive)
13.2 @ 107mph (I'm not much good at launching it, also changed tyres and diff gears since then but haven't had another run yet)

[savage1987]

Sneak peek

I'll endeavour to get some better photos up eventually but this is all you get for now!





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