VH Revival

[Pub247]

So its coming up to year since i bought this beast for $650. Now she done holden proud by never missing a beat (well a few minor hiccups) and almost next to nothing spent on her, besides a service and some new brake pads. So i've decide to give her and me a birthday present ( also cause shes running on 5)

So this is what i have planned to do over my easter holidays.
1- Reco 2.85lt HC head with some minor port work and Over sized/ "high performance" valves +.005 on inlet and +.015 exhaust (on valve stems for those who don't know) and Megatork valves springs. Total cost $0 thank you work for the free ****.
2- New Lukey High Performance (LPH605E) Headers. Total Cost $0 some dumb **** threw them out on hard rubbish day they're brand new still have price tag sticker on them.
3- New Hydraulic Lifters (well i got 6 so far) Total cost $0 thanks again to work They're $4 each to buy from work so at the most 12 will cost me $24
4- New 35613 Crow cam, nothing to special just a bit more torque. Total cost $130 is that a decent price? never bought a cam before
5- All gaskets i need for the job. Total cost $25
6- misc parts, a few spare pushrods, rockers and the like just incase any are damaged Total cost $0 thanks again to work.
7- New oil, air and fuel filter, new oil, spark plugs, leads, coolant all that sort of stuff. Total Cost About $100 havent got all of it yet.
8- last but not least a Carton of beer for me and my mate helping out on this job Total cost $40.
Build Time- 1 day hopefully as long as we dont get too pissed

So all up i figure $300 not bad value i think

So Tell me guys of what u think and if there's anything i've missed.
Can someone recommend some decent oil for this i normally use 25/60w"
Can someone tell me where to get manifold studs as i dont want to use the old ones.

Cheers Pub sorry for the long post

[vkberlina]

If your going to go to that effort, rip out the engine and at least put a set of big end & little end bearings through the bottom end. Maybe a new rear main while your at it.

How about a JP High Volume oil pump?
Electric thermo fans... you might be able to source series I VT 5L electric fans or AU falcon fans cheap through your work.
New plugs, leads, rotor button & dizzy cap?
Replace your thermostat whole you have it all appart.
As for oil a good 20w50 mineral oil is best. After going through a few different brands of oils I am now using Penrite HPR30. I put 100,000km on my last 202 after I rebuilt it which was a carbie black motor nothing special. I checked the big end & little end bearings when it was getting a move agressive cam to see vitually no wear on them what so ever.
Oil filter wise I have been using the AC Delco/Holden small bodied oil filters for some time with good success.

Also the manifold studs you can buy them from Repco, bursons, supercheap, autobarn they are on their nut & bolt racks. When fitting them I used 2 nuts and locked them together and then wound them in. Use a little loctite on the thread so they wont come undone if you try to take a manifold off later.


cheers
Scott

[Pub247]

Thanks vkberlina i would do those things you suggest but unfortunatly i cant afford it money is tight atm and cant afford to do all of it. Basically if didn't get this head for nothing i probably wouldn't do it all. This car is also my daily driver so i cant have it off the road too long. I'm actually in the process of thinking of buying a v6 for full rebuild to put in.
The Dizzy cap and rotor buttons are good idea i totally forgot about that!!!
I already got the leads and plugs. But replacing the thermostat and housing is also a good idea and i'll see if money(g/f in other words) will allow that.

[vh-holden]

are you stealing the bits from work?

[Pub247]

Nah most of things are left overs or un-used parts, We build 60-80 heads a day and about 30-40 engines we have thousands of parts lying around. Things like the head they were going to throw away even though it had been machined new inserts and new stems, just because it was a 173 and we don't need any of them. So i asked if i could have it otherwise it was going in the scrap bin. Lots of the parts i.e. valve springs push rods and rockers are all second hand.
We only do standard rebuilds (besides our gold star motors) so basically any modified would go straight in the bin. I've seen them throw out plenty of heads including gen3's. Ported ford and holden heads

[vh-holden]

ah, i'm guessing you work at a engine reconditioning place.

[Pub247]

Yeah Hm Gem Engines australias largest and worst . Nah were not bad but they are a lot people who will disagree. Personally I'd build a motor myself or get a pro to do it. But if your after a cheap motor for any production car in australia we'll basically have it. Built and ready to drop straight in.

Anyways i went and got almost all my parts today got some very good deals on parts through work 50-80% off depending on the part. Some things we didn't have in stock i.e. sump gasket so the best part was I was able to walk into Repco and get all the other at prices my work quoted me. Suppose thats one bonus of owning part of Repco
All up I think i spent almost $300 including a few new bit like dizzy cap rotor button thermostat and housing and a new waterpump Thanks to Scott for reminding me of those things.

[Pub247]

Ok Heres an update guys got the camera out today and took some pic of my parts. Theres a couple of my Lukey Headers that i painted the other day and the rocker cover, came up well I thought. Also threw one in of some of the tools in that shiny Sidchrome toolbox

[Pub247]

Well a quick update we did a fair bit in half a day the cars been stripped to a short motor basically and i can't believe the state of the motor the amount of **** that has built up on the outside let alone the hard caking of crap over almort every part i.e. rockers and pushrods, side plates inside the rocker cover and the head! unbelievable i'm suprised it even works! One other thing we noticed is the exhaust valves didn't have the rotary retainners on them wtf? obviously it seems like this head has been fixed at some point. The carbon build up is shocking! the exhaust ports are like half the size of standard ones. I'll take the camera round tomorrow and get some pics

Cheers Pub

[Pub247]

Well we finished at about 5pm today. After almost 4 days took a bit longer than expected with a few things like the lifters, sump and a pivot bolt snapping giving us a headache. But finally after a bit more cranking than we wanted, she fired up with a loud belch (from my dodgy exhaust welding ) And a huge plume of of smoke pouring out the end. After 10 minutes of running in and a slight adjustment to the timing she runs like a dream. Damn does it go! so much better than 5 cylinders and it lays a decent burnout now aswell

I'll put some pics up tomorrow when its light gotta take to the exhaust shop to fix the leak.