okay so my vn is a heap of sh#@

[PUSHIN]

i need some info on my car, my mate looked up my rego on the net yesterday, and showed me everything on it, apparently it ISNT a calais, and the engine it has was a front wheel drive converted to RWD, the car isnt here for me to check, but i sussed it out last night on the net, and i think hes right, so i've spent 5 grand on a vn calais wannabe, which has the engine outta a fwd, and i know nothing else about the cars past.

im fairly sure it was from dandenong, as it had something done to the transmission at some place there when it was on 270,000 or something, if anyone can give me some details on it, just ask what you needa know and i'll tell you (also, my paint code, is only for the imperial blue, it doesnt have a code for the bottom half, and i dont think my cruise control works..

im thinking i'll just keep it anyway, cause i cant really sell it as i dont wanna rip noone off, yeah, my vn "calais" which isnt a calais, and has a fwd engine, and has rust under the windscreen. i'd get like 2 grand at the most, and therefore cost myself 3,000. (sorry to ramble, but im irritated) the car was sold to me by an old guy, for $1800, and he said it needed $600 till it was roadworthy, it cost me $2700 to get it roadworthy, and im posotive it wasnt his car as he said it was his family car, that he had owned for 5 years, it has a 2.5 inch exhaust tip, its a fake calais, full calais interior, wheels, paint, all of it.. and it has the sony xplod head unit and speakers, and once had an amp and a sub.. and the diff was pushed over more then an inch.. so any info would be great guys. thanks

[227shanno]

did you notice something wasnt right when there was no ecotec under the hood. lol.
just trade it in to a dodgy car dealer you should get a few hundred

[stocky]

looks like a normal calais to me. what makes your friend think its fake? sounds like he has no idea what hes talking about

[azzfox]

All S1 VN's technically have FWD motors. Hence why the top radiator hose travels all the way to the rear of the inlet manifold, and the TB is also at the rear. Holden changed the inlet manifold in 1990 (S2) but the TB still remained at the rear. The Buick V6 was used in FWD vehicles over in the states.

[227shanno]

All S1 VN's technically have FWD motors. Hence why the top radiator hose travels all the way to the rear of the inlet manifold, and the TB is also at the rear. Holden changed the inlet manifold in 1990 (S2) but the TB still remained at the rear. The Buick V6 was used in FWD vehicles over in the states.

my mistake mate

[PUSHIN]

my friend thinks its fake as he looked up the rego and it said nothing about calais i think, + my reason, it doesnt have the paint code for the bottom half anywhere. i looked up on wikki last night, and a few weeks ago, about these engines; LN3 was apparently baught out in the s1 vn, and the 3800 FWD was an 84 engine or soemthing like that.. my mates got a vr, and his engines nearly dead, thinking about buying it and boring it out a little and gettin performance piston/rings and bearings and whatever it needs, and as for it not being a calais; it has a full calais interior, and the paint, does that not make it a calais reguardless of what it was when it rolled outta the factory? :P and shanno vn/vp/vr had buick 3800 and then vs onward had ecotec i thinkk..

[centy]

ok wikki is the wrong place to look. Any ford loving tool can put what ever they want on it.
take some pics and post them here to get feed back from commodore owners.

[Philthy]

By rego do you mean he looked up your vin number?
Not sure what's up with the ecotec comment though

[pow3rslave]

my friend thinks its fake as he looked up the rego and it said nothing about calais i think, + my reason, it doesnt have the paint code for the bottom half anywhere.

i don't think rego will mention it as a calais. if anything will it's the model numbers on the build plate at the top of the firewall. post these up. i the paint code for the 2nd tone might not be up there because it was standard across the calais range, iirc VL calais's had asteroid silver as the 2nd tone, not sure what Vn's got. could be the same colour but i don't know.

i looked up on wikki last night, and a few weeks ago, about these engines; LN3 was apparently baught out in the s1 vn, and the 3800 FWD was an 84 engine or soemthing like that..

something like that, i'm not sure what the engine codes were in the states but you have the same engine as every other VN, VP and VR on the road. there were minor tweaks between models and series's but yes. it was a FWD engine in the states used in stuff like buick grand nationals and leSabres. holden bought them over here and chucked them in the commodore

my mates got a vr, and his engines nearly dead, thinking about buying it and boring it out a little and gettin performance piston/rings and bearings and whatever it needs

if you want to keep it N/A look at stroking the one you've got now, if you're not on P's check out forced induction or a v8 conversion.
if his engine's nearly dead you'll spend more fixing it up than you will adding power to yours.
and as for it not being a calais; it has a full calais interior, and the paint, does that not make it a calais reguardless of what it was when it rolled outta the factory? :P and shanno vn/vp/vr had buick 3800 and then vs onward had ecotec i thinkk..[/QUOTE]
a calais is really just a name, if you're really tied up in what to call it then it'd probably be ok, i wouldn't feel right about selling it as a calais if it isn't, best way to check is to post up the model code from the build plate. i think some very late VR's might have gotten ecotecs, but that's basically right

[Cobez]

did you notice something wasnt right when there was no ecotec under the hood. lol.
just trade it in to a dodgy car dealer you should get a few hundred

Ummm, something wouldn't be right if there WAS an Ecotec under there, VN's didn't have Ecotecs, they had Buick 3.8's lol.

[Cursed CX8]

1) when was the commodore released in aus with a FWD config?....thats right as above, import engine etc.
2) It wont have the lower paint code, only the main color
3) Rego will probably show as commodore sedan or Holden sedan, not calais. Just like my adventra is a wagon.
4)When you say the diff was over to one side, what do you mean? Pics might help.

Cheers

[Blown V6 Hatch]

The VIN number will tell you straight up if it's a Calais or not....

Have a look at the VIN number (under the windscreen on the passenger side) and see which one of these are the first digits on it.

6H8VNK=Executive
6H8VNL=Berlina
6H8VNX=Calais.

[Jake.VScommo]

Does ur car have the buik V6 in it? it should say 3800 on top of the engine in like red writting....

[227shanno]

Ummm, something wouldn't be right if there WAS an Ecotec under there, VN's didn't have Ecotecs, they had Buick 3.8's lol.

yeah i say again my mistake, only knew they had 3.8 's
its all good...

[Nevyn]

When I seen ya VN I'm pretty certain its a genuine Calais.....want me to come around and help u sort it out for sure?

[azzfox]

Does ur car have the buik V6 in it? it should say 3800 on top of the engine in like red writting....

what does this say about the car? besides its not a 5L or 4cyl NZ special

[Cobez]

I was just thinking that ^^^

Any VN - VR V6 had the Buick 3.8 in it (unless of course someone has done an Ecotec transplant), whether it has "3800" on the manifold is irrelevant to what this bloke needs to know.

[PUSHIN]

it IS a buick 3800, however thats not the problem, i dont care that its a FWD engine, however; i'd rather the RWD, i read on wikki (idc weather you tell me not to or not, its a source of info either way, and why would someone bullshit about this??) that the MPFI (Multiport fuel injection) which was later upgraded to the SFI (sequential fuel injection) in 86, blown_v6_hatch thanks allot, thats exactly what i need if the numbers you wrote are correct, it IS a calais.

Vehicle Registration: XBG473 Registration Status: CURRENT UNTIL --/--/2010 VIN/Chassis Number: 6H8VNX19HML468---- Written-Off Status: NOT-WRITTEN-OFF Engine Number: VH11624-- Encumbrance Status: NO-ENCUMBRANCE Vehicle Make: HOLDEN Stolen Status: NOT-STOLEN Vehicle Colour: BLUE Body Type: SEDAN Year of Manufacture: 1990

if anyone can give me info on anything with the information above, send me a message and i will send you one back with any (full) info you needa know, just not comfortable showing everyone all my cars details lols.

i was only thinking about doing the conversion with my mates engine so i have the proper rwd engine, to be sure everything i wanna do will actually work (cause i've planned everything for the RWD engine, not the fwd.. dont wanna buy shit and have it not fit..) however if it will all fit into the FWD with no issues.. i may aswell keep the current one

[Blown V6 Hatch]

The engine isn't front wheel drive....Don't worry about it. Good to hear it's a Calais.

[PUSHIN]

okay cheers how you know it isnt front wheel drive but?

[shiftySLE]

i was thinking if it wasn't a calais, they went to a lot of effort to make it look like one because i reckon it looks pretty good.

[TrikkBen]

okay cheers how you know it isnt front wheel drive but?

Is this guy for real... How do I know it isn't front wheel drive.... Put your foot down in the dirt see if you torque steer into a wall....

[PUSHIN]

thats what i thought too, but there is small problems in it which made me beleive it, my cruise control dont work, my damn ariel wont go up or down, sometimes my immobiliser cracks the shits, doesnt say press remote, doesnt beep, just keeps trying to turn over but gets nothing, so i press the remote and nothing happens, but i've found opening the glove box makes the "press remote" light come up, then it works after i press it?? o.O

and classified calais, that was just a statement to show that it wasnt owned by the 50 year old for a family car, someone took it into a gutter sideways, cost me like $600 to fix >.<

[PUSHIN]

Is this guy for real... How do I know it isn't front wheel drive.... Put your foot down in the dirt see if you torque steer into a wall....

yeah mate, learn to read fool. were talking about the engine, not the car. shoulda read the whole thing first.

[immortality]

FWD WTF. no commodore has ever been FWD. the engine can be used in both configurations but that doesn't mean it's a FWD engine. it's a engine. simple. in your commodore it's mounted in a north - south confguration to suit RWD. in the US the mount it east - west for front wheel drive, big deal, not really.

mate, read wiki again, the 3800 buick has been round for decades and used in many different makes and models and configurations. you have the LN3 engine, it's got 6 cylinders with 3.8liters of displacement (actually 3791cc but who cares) multi point fuel injection with a electronic distrubutorless ignition system featuring wasted spark 2 cylinders per coil setup.

anyway, go so surf some of the US forums for buick vehicles and tell em what you got and most will agree that the proper orientation of a buick V6 is RWD