v6 vn dragger # 2

[VRV666]

Im back to complete what I never got to finish last time. I have purchased a vn series 2 v6 manual and am turning it into a designated drag car aimed specifically at 1/8 mile dragstrips.

The aim at this stage is to better the 9.05 naturally aspirated I have previously got in my old vn, get it looking better than it does, then once im happy with it put it on the bottle and see what it can acheive.

Ive only had it a few days now but so far weight reduction has begun, cold air intake has been started, v8 throttle is on its way, scored some semi slicks and I have just picked up some 3.45 diff gears. A mini spool, chip, and exhaust will be all purchased and fitted before our next local drag meet.

The car itself came with a new clutch, new windscreen, new plugs and leads, new battery and a few other minor bits and pieces. $700

It was just about roadworthy then a roo jumped in front of it, so I gained it at a bargain price, all though it doesnt look good at the moment.

Ill keep progress posted on here for you all to see, heres a few pics of what it is now.......It will look good in due time haha.

Removing bell mouth and creating cold air intake to receive air from a gutted headlight.

[VRV666]

I am looking at swapping a 2.5 inch sedan exhaust for a vy clubsport front bumper (built to fit vn's) today. Hopefully it all goes well so the kit would look complete.

[knight wombat]

sounds sweet ill be sure to follow this thread

[vk.jonno]

Looks good man

[STEEV888]

is that your daily driver next to the car in the first pic ? haha. i joke i joke.
hope all this works out for you will be interesting to see what kind of power you can get out of it.

[jonko]

i see your a bairnsdale drags guy you racing at next drags in october 16th ?

[VRV666]

steev888, for sure man, the little pocket rocket doesnt look like much, but it has that wheelie bar for good reasons lol.

jonko, sure will be mate, Ill take it there looking just the way it does too, hopefully get through the day without any break downs.

As it stands at the moment, Ive now got a chip on its way, along side a mini spool so its ready to have everything chucked in and race. BUTTTT, I have developed a rather bad tick/crunch noise, im 99% sure its just the balence shaft bearing so ill look at that this weekend. If not I have another donk lined up anyway.

I got the vy hsv style front bar for it without paying too much attention and it turns out it is a vy hsv bumper so now im trying to sell that to fund another front bar.

All though I am going to go a proper 2.5 inch exhaust, for the drag meet on the 16 october itll be straight out under the car.

And that about all thats happened since the last update.

[jonko]

ill see you out there then i MIGHT be racing my stock vr commo ill hav to run you if i can race that day BURNOUT

[old mate]

if youre taking the wagon i might as well take my ute to bairnsdale for drags.

[VRV666]

if youre taking the wagon i might as well take my ute to bairnsdale for drags.

The wagon will definately be there so I reckon you should

[jonko]

hehe if im aloud ill be there haha you going in burnout comp?

[VRV666]

hehe if im aloud ill be there haha you going in burnout comp?

I use to do the burnout comps in the old vn but wasnt going to do them in this one, at least not untill I have a bottle in it....buttttt, now that the minispool is on its way the temptation is right up there haha.

[jonko]

haha i might if i hav spair motor by then

[VRV666]

Today was a very unproductive day, mini spool and chip turned up....that was good. But I ripped the vl diff gears out of the "vl"diff I had sitting here. Turns out I should have paid more attention, the "vl"diff is actually a spare VN diff I had many years ago.... So i do not have 3.45 gears yet. But will hopefull have some installed by october 16th. Then came the next operation, to gut the cat and get rid of the muffler so the standard pipe could get rid of those fumes restricting it. That worked well, a little too well haha, I lost power, didnt gain any. So I will add a piece where the muffler use to be and squash the pipe a little to give it a touch of back pressure. Should work a treat.

I forgot to mention, I have delevoped an engine noise, its a loud clicking/grinding type sound thats comming from up high in the engine, its not the lifters. It comes around when the engine heats up, is not there at all when its cold and it doesnt effect the performance at all, but when it is there is is loud, much louder than lifter noise. I am fairly certain that it is the balance shaft bearings as it also has some vibration, that been the case I will disconnect it and problem will be solved. Otherwise I do have another donk lined up but would like to go the easy path.

[jonko]

maybe try go to the wreckers you should be able to pick up a motor from there cheep or just ask around them motors are real comming so should be able to find one easy

[VRV666]

maybe try go to the wreckers you should be able to pick up a motor from there cheep or just ask around them motors are real comming so should be able to find one easy

Its all good, i have an engine lined up. But id rather try to keep this one alive for the minute because it creates heaps of power, apart from the noise its a fairly healthy donk.

[jonko]

fair enough

[VRV666]

Quick update. I fitted my v8 throttle body today. Had to replace the tps sensor, now its running well. Crushed the end of the exhaust to get some back pressure with very good results. Its comming along nicely. Sunday is the big day to see weather the the engine noise I have is just the balence shaft, heres for hoping, because without it there will be less restriction due to friction :P. New non air con serpintine belt is about to be fitted so all the air con (which weighs a shart load) will be gone by next week too.

Thats all thats left of the exhaust, cat gutted, cut off at the hanger for the 1st muffler and a chushed end. Its effing loud

[Morton]

Ahhhhh I love a good slice-and-dice project with one goal in mind - SPEED! Take lots of pics, I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together ... or in this case, come apart hehehe

Step 1: CUT OFF THE BODY KIT

*cough* glad I got that off my chest.

[VRV666]

Ahhhhh I love a good slice-and-dice project with one goal in mind - SPEED! Take lots of pics, I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together ... or in this case, come apart hehehe

Step 1: CUT OFF THE BODY KIT

*cough* glad I got that off my chest.

I was actually going to ask opinions about the body kit. I was thinking of either going standard bumpers with big wheels or chucking a vy clubby style front bar on to make the kit look better. I was leaning towards standard bumpers, but maybe a sv5000 front bar with stock rear bar. Opinions peoples......?

[VRV666]

Well, on saturday I got it ready to take to a mates place to investergate the rattleing noise. But decided to take it off the trailer at my brothers place to drop a line lockie. That ended in the car loosing power and missing on one cylinder. That had me running around arrangeing that other engine I have previously mentioned. Along came sunday and I got it out to my mates place for the engine swap. But curiosity got the better of us and we decided to pull the engine down to see what the problem was anyway. We started with a compression test, which showed us this on cylinder 3 straight away

That had us stuffed, maybe I had a busted piston, but we didnt think the piston could reach the spark plug. So on with the compression expection no3 to be down on compression a lot

Which wasnt the case at all. By this stage I was really hoping the engine is salvagable because the compression is healthy all round but strangely enough the pot with the problem had the most compression....?.....
So not knowing where to look next we went to the timing chain adjuster hoping to find something wrong there, but firstly we had to battle the harmonic balancer. Which got the better of us so a little heat was applied

once we were in there we found that the timing chain adjuster was in good nick, so that wasnt causing the rattle. We then decided to check weather the timing lined up, which it did, and the balance shaft bearings only had minimal movement and looked fairly good, but we removed the balence shaft anyway.

[VRV666]

From there we had to dig a bit further, considering all things were looking good at this stage we decided it was time to loose the head

Once we got thwe head off we had a look over it and couldnt see any problem at all, then with a little bit of concern we turned our attention to the cylinder to see this
We are not 100% sure but it looks like a few pieces of the hardened plastic inlet manifold gasket, it was stuffed so it makes sense. But as you can see it has been slapping around in there for a bit. So that explained my ticking/rattleing sound, it explains why I could hear it out the exhaust, it explains why I lost power and had it missfiring on a cylinder, it explains the spark plug been bent and the higher compression in that cylinder and best of all, the valve seat looks healthy, the cylinder suprisingly has NO damage, the piston cleaned up well and doesnt have any damage. It looks like problem is solved But by the time we were done all auto parts shops were closed so we will get the gaskets throughout the week and get it running again next weekend. This is how I left the beast for the week



On a different note, here is a few pics of a series one vn manual my mate turned into a rally car for the boisdale hillclimb track. Can you see anything different about it

[jonko]

awesome progress pics mate
the old vn is not what you see every day ay

[ari666]

ok, curiosity has got the better of me... why? is that for weight distribution?

[vk.jonno]

Thats differet...
Is it so u can crash and not worry about
Damaging the running gear?
lols only idea I could think of..