the vh starfire wagon!!

[starfire vc]

ok picked up this beauty, fresh rebuild starfire. 4 speed manual. nice fadded brown paint. does 100 k/ph. cant find pics atm. but i'll get em up asap

[immortality]

nice, my first car was a 83 VH 4cyl with 4 on the floor, maxed out just over 130kph

[starfire vc]

nice, my first car was a 83 VH 4cyl with 4 on the floor, maxed out just over 130kph

yes what a beast. mine's goin ok. finding a few little things that need fixing.like the shifter,it was all flogged out and you could select reverse without pressing down. carby probs cud do with a rebuild too ,as its a bit playfull 1st thing in the morn..

[Astranomical]

So, how's it feel to have a Starfire again?

[starfire vc]

So, how's it feel to have a Starfire again?

hahaha yes,its good.they just have such good comical value. when i rang up to get ctp the girl on the phone didnt believe they brought out 4 cylinder commodores. will get pics up soon...

[VH commodore]

put the weber on!!!!!!!!!!

[starfire vc]

nah .just going to leave it standard......and mayb a turbo

[starfire vc]

ok iam really lazy!!!

had pics buttttt, i dont know were they r now..so i'll hav t take sum more....


so far she is lowered .i put sum half decent beat pumping equipment in. put vl brake on the front......

iam thinkin bout goin for a bit of a rat rod style...powder coated red wheels with white walls. matt black .black interior..with truck style red pinstriping

[starfire vc]

been ages since i posted here..so thought id post a vid of the wagon doing a skid...





YouTube - skid wagon

[starfire vc]

Well it seems the mighty starfire has sucumbed to some v.s.r. Instead of fixing it ive decided to put an rb30et in it...Luckily i wrecked a vl not to long ago and stole its entire drivetrain goodness..So far ive pulled the salisbury diff out and now in the process of puttin the borgwarner in...

[starfire vc]

nah .just going to leave it standard......and mayb a turbo

I loled at this comment. I have done a heap of work to this thing over the last few months.It is no longer standard.,about the only thing left original is the shell. I put an rb30 in it etc ..will just post pics cause no one wants to read a novel .....

Some before pics....


The day we went to inspect it......




The mighty powerplant sitting in its home......



Full grandand spec.....(note towbar)




Ill post some more in the build pics tommorow.
Engine bay now.......

[starfire vc]

Ps could a mod please move this to the my ride section? Thanks!

[RippleEphex]

shes looking good, well done mate. I also have a mighty starfire VH (mine gets a few laughs as well), would be good to get some info on what's needed to convert it? maybe a few pics if you can?

[starfire vc]

shes looking good, well done mate. I also have a mighty starfire VH (mine gets a few laughs as well), would be good to get some info on what's needed to convert it? maybe a few pics if you can?

Cheers buddy. Good work on peddling another starfire around.is it auto or manual? I'll post up plenty more photos and write up what i did to install the RB30. Its a relitivley easy conversion but just takes lots of time if you want to do it properly.





Starfire out, vl k frame in, vl brake booster and master cylinder in. and beggining of the wiring

[RippleEphex]

a write up would be awesome thanks, mines a manual as well. my first project is to get a new diff, new front brakes, and suspension. so i can fit my new wheels on (free 17" 2004 caprice rims ) i think i might try and get a donor car with a 202 and do it that way first off (bolt off/on job for most of it hopefully?) and then build up from there, ive learnt a fair bit but im still learning, but my dads a diesel mechanic (trying to do as much as i can myself) so if i get desperate ive always got the help. i just put a new reco'd varajet on it, so i wanna go to the 202 for a while so i can keep it in use

got a pic there of it pretending to wear its new boots

[starfire vc]

Yip will definatley do a write up , Would have been really helpful when doing the conversion. I might make up an entirley new thread on how to or just tack it on in here. still gota get all my pics together. I have heaps but spread across 2 computers and in 50 million different folders.

Anyway man good start you got by the looks, lucky you got a manual ive had both auto and manual starfires and trust me the auto didnt like to move forward in great hurry. especially combined with the 6 cylinder ratio diff and 17's. As for running your 17's ive guess youve probs figured out the 4 cylinder had the smaller studd pattern. 6cylinder front rotors and calipers will bolt straight on to your 4 cylinder strut. (the 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder strut are exactly the same . so no point in going to extra work to swap your struts. As for the diff you have 2 options.

1) pull your entire 4 cylinder diff out and swap it for a 6 cylinder one or....
2)pull the axles out of your 6 cylinder diff and put them in your 4 cylinder diff.

Keep in mind, swapping an entire 6 cylinder diff over to yours and running 17's and the 6cylinder final drive ratio, accelartion is going to be really bad.

[RippleEphex]

yeah its hard to find out what needs to be changed and what doesn't (without owning both a starfire and a 202) could be a couple of months before i get my project really going but ill try to get all the parts together, its good now i know what i need, thanks. good to know that i dont have to change the struts (tight on cash as well, so could be a slow process)
i can imagine the auto would have only had 2 speeds, slow and really slow haha.

haha i figured out that the 17's didnt fit the hard way :/ but after a little research found out it had a torana stud pattern. i thought id keep the wheels as they were free and id either have another commodore at some point or convert this one (ive gone with convert this one).
at the moment im only on my P's, so going the acceleration and speed thing isn't an issue for me just yet, but by the time i get my full licence hopefully ill have the 202

couple of more quick questions,
will the 6 cyl axels go straight into a 4cyl diff?
and if i got a the new axels would the 6 cyl brakes still be the same? (probably a dumb question)

[starfire vc]

If you need to know what fits and what doesnt just let us know. between me and my mates we've owned 4 starfire powered commodores and done everything to em. lol.anywho to answer your questions . yep the 6 cylinder axles will slot straight into your 4 cylinder diff. make sure you get them from the same diff though ( a 10 bolt salisbury) out of 6cylinder vb,vc or vh. some vks had borg warner diffs and these axles wont fit. As for your brakes. yes the brakes are the same on both the 4's and 6' however the drum is different to suit the differnt stud pattern. And not a dumb question, only learn this stuff by asking qusetions and thats what this forum is here for

[RippleEphex]

thanks mate, haha im sure at some point ill have some more questions, you have saved me a lot of work im looking forward to the conversion thread on the starfire.
ill also try to do a thread on the conversion of the mighty powerhouse that is the starfire lol

[RippleEphex]

sorry to bring up old thread, im desparate for some starfire engine mounts, do you have any left over from your conversions in good condition?

[starfire vc]

Bit of an update ..It wasnt fast enough so this happend.Setup on E85 ,going for tune in the next few weeks looking at makin around the 500hp mark .............







Thats a 600x300x100 cooler stuffed in there

[starfire vc]

PS could mod please move to my ride section? thank chu

[VK SL 3800]

I like your radiator setup, much better then the VL radiator with in/out on the one side. She would go pretty well with that little ripper under the bonnet. Might be an idea to shroud that fan somehow though.

[starfire vc]

I like your radiator setup, much better then the VL radiator with in/out on the one side. She would go pretty well with that little ripper under the bonnet. Might be an idea to shroud that fan somehow though.

Yeah mate thats the reason i did it. plus a vl radiator wasnt going to fit without a decent amout of work to the brackets it slots into..Definatley cant wait to get it out to the track and see what it runs..so far havnt had any cooling problems without a shroud but something maybe to consider in the future.
.

[vb_commie]

Great conversion mate!!

Ive been thinking about putting a RB30 in my VB for a while now, its been an off again/on again sorta thing. I was just wondering how you went with the write up on this conversion. I think if I had alot of it put into writing I could break it down and finally do it. Thanks mate and once again great job on the conversion