VH ex-cop red line starts at 5800?

[Colby844]

Hi ya i know alot of years have gone by since these were runnin around but was wondering if anyone knows if the VH cop cars had modified engines at all? i well know some of the VK's did (B cast heads etc) but the VH?? i'm only asking as my VH has a rev gauge red line starting at 5800? i havnt seen this before ive only ever seen holden rev gauges starting at either 5000 or 5500.. the plate has L31 for engine and the original motors long gone but thought L31 meant standard hi compression 308 so why would a VH cop car red line start at 5800 and not where mr and mrs publics car did at 5000??

[ari666]

the VH had the V5H engine for some cop cars. BT1, B01 and BY2. dirbatua's VK ex-cop has the VG engine, but only says LV2 on the build plate, which is a stocker 4.9. so yours possibly could've had one of the BT1's or even the V5H's in it.

but i guess we will never know

[Colby844]

Ta for that info mate yeh it is sad how its practically impossible to find out details- the plates just dont give ya that finer detail that sometimes for whatever reason ya would just like to know...

[Colby844]

has anyone ever seen a pic of the interior of a vh-vk when it was used as a cop car? did different states have different layouts? hey better still does anyone know anyone who used to be a copper back in the early 80s and can remember driving them

[tuckerbag]

Hey Colby i have a vh ex cop car it's a 6/83 vh rhone green and it is as it come from the force still. It has 5lt TH350. It has an ariel hole on top of the rh guard, speedo with 2k increments,redline is only 5 grand,ashtrays in all 4 doors, deeper console, sl/e done light, broken toggle switch on console,small red light above centre vents,wires still in headlining above drivers head, 2 holes in L/H lower a pillar between between door hinges where i believe there used to be a plate with a police serial no on it, fuel lines inside chassis rails [hot weather fuel option i believe] and on the back of the speedo written in pencil is "HWY28" and 15129 which i believe is the serial number that was on the tag on the a pillar. Might be worth pulling ya instruments out and having a look. Take it easy though as things are easily broken. Hope this is of interest to ya cheers Garry

[Colby844]

yeh that was garry top stuff! love hearing stuff bout the old cop cars they have character and are just different enough to be kinda special- umm yeh that rev gauge is a real mystery i just cant work out why its startin at 5800 its definately not tampered with- i took the dash out but yeh its been out before and has 83 stickers on it the car was made early 82 so doubt its the original the car is definately ex cop its one of the early absinth yellow victorian ones (1d008) with hole in roof left hand side just above door you can see the crimps in the roof guttering where the light rails were attached and where they patched holes on lower dash for the CB talk piece mount etc she hasnt got the fuel lines inside the rails but all the usual evidence is still there- love the bloody thing more than my missus and almost as much as me dawg it had another dash in the boot that was broken the one that gos to 220ks with fine increments and the fine orange needle with the white tip so guess that was the original one its gone now but i remember its rev gauge redline starting at 5000 the only other thing slightly strange is it started out with the 2.6 ratio diff? it has always been auto so yeh if it ever was highway patrol i guess that diff would have given it a high speed edge? thanks again for ya help guys

[jpetrou]

Hate to be a kill-joy, but all VH Commodores with factory Tacho had their redline marked from 5800 RPM. It did not matter if the model had a 6 or a V8.

Dont know why, the previous VB/VC and subsequent VK had their redline at 5500 RPM.
In either case, the redline was optimistic, all stock engines struggled to reach 5200 RPM, unless the engine was modified.

I have attached a copy of a photo from the VH SLE brochure.

[VK SL 3800]

The 308 VK i have is redlined at 5000rpm,and the 6cyl tacho in the yellow k is at 5500, thats not the only difference in the dashs though, the 84 vk (the 308 one) has lines at 1/4 1/2 and 3/4 on the temp guage, where as the 85 VK has only a couple of little lines at either end and a large normal section without any lines.

[L67 Calais]

My SLE reds at 5800.

[Colby844]

yep all cool is interesting to find out all these things thanks for all ya help

[Dirbatua]

the VH had the V5H engine for some cop cars. BT1, B01 and BY2. dirbatua's VK ex-cop has the VG engine, but only says LV2 on the build plate, which is a stocker 4.9. so yours possibly could've had one of the BT1's or even the V5H's in it.

but i guess we will never know

yea mines an unmarked SA cop car, still has all the mounts and wiring for the sirens and stuff, build plate says LV2 but the car is actually a VG Prefix 308 not a 304 since it was ordered that way specially by the police from the paperwork the original owner has(won't bloody give it to me though, he has it framed), can't tell its an ex cop car from the outside except by the map pockets on the doors but once your in the engine its easy to tell the difference with the intake and the hand ported manifold and stuff.

Diff is also a 3.55 LSD but the build plate says its a 3.08 LSD but again actual build sheet paperwork for the car says otherwise.

Spoke to the guy who originally brought it in SA from the police auctions and brought it over to Vic, when he got it off the coppers it still had all the lights behind the grille and sirens under the guards but he had to remove em all for registration in victoria.

So you can't ever really go by the build plate on these things cause cops actually special ordered crap in the past like that and the build plate rarely matches the build sheet.

[Colby844]

AHHHHH love it! Framed the bloody build papers HA! Hey i looked at a VH interceptor today that was very original had that fine needle 220k dash no power steering still the original paint and M21 manual gearbox stack of wires still up in the roof! Unbelivable hardly touched at all since the auction the guy who owns it at first wonderd why i was makin a fuss about his bloody car but yeh he was bit happy bout it all after i explained anyways his rev gauge started at 5000 and hes never touched it its as it came so was it just SLE that got 5800? Stuffed if i can work out why holden did it for the VH- why is it impossible to find this shit out? Some rouge schollar at holden stuck his hand up and made a change at some stage so surely it was documented?

[tuckerbag]

Hey Colby, my Vh too is as it left the force. The bloke i got it off bought it from the auctions in 1985 when he was 17 and it had just ticked over 40000ks. Now has 217000ks. been shedded since late 90s when i got it, even still runs 14x6 steelies. Original dash redline is at 5 grand, speedo goes to 200kph

[Colby844]

here i will wack up a couple more pics on a thread called interesting VH pics

[slothman30]

my vh sle is 5000 redline

[Jonno]

my vh sle is 5000 redline

cool..123456789

[Dirbatua]

my vh sle is 5000 redline

thanks so much for posting in a thread thats been dead over 6 months, your off to a great start

[dags061]

My Vh 185 pack 253 redlines at 5000 and my Vh Vacationer 202 at 5500.

[magnetvh]

I got a VH SLE 6cyl dash with 5800 rpm redline.
I also got a VH SLE 8cyl dash with 5000 rpm redline.
Mayb if u optioned for a 8cyl they changed the tacho.