Looking at buying a VN v8, some q's

[GTP 85]

i looked at a VN Berlina V8 (to buy) yesterday.

Now, i know sfa about the v8s so i thought id ask a few q's about what i found looking at it.

- Its got a 3 month old gas system in it which has a recon tank. It drives pretty guttless on gas. A mate tells me the gas mixer systems are pretty useless for making even slightly above average power. I have always considered running straight gas, and i'm mates with my tuner so tuning's a cinch. Should i ditch? or keep the system?

- It's got 4 door power windows. I thought only calais got all four doors?

- Engine has done 250k, but runs pretty good and i think 250 is pretty reasonable for a '90 vn right?

- there is a slight leak from the front of the engine, a few drips after driving. mate tells me it is the crank seal??

- it is all original except for a few little extras. But i did notice that the boot badge looks a little different? the 'V8 5.0L' badge on the bootlid has the 'V8' part in red outline? I don't know if this is true (dont flame me) but YEARS ago my mate had a VN SS, and his had a red v8 badge. He said it signified some sort of HSV enhancement? i have no idea???

[levymetal]

i had gas put on my car about a year ago. i find there to be a slight difference between gas and petrol but for every day driving it's not noticeable. i have a gas ring, it's a big restriction right in front of the TB. so there's no doubt about it - it'll slow you down (both on petrol and gas). by how much i don't really know, on petrol it seems to drive the same as it did before so you'd have to put it on a dyno to really see the effect. having said that, the performance tradeoff vs the cost of running the car is well worth it for me. if you want to race your car then you wouldn't want gas. for me i only put my foot down occasionally, so when i do, i just flick it over to petrol and do my business and flick it back . it takes half a second to switch between fuels and you can do it while driving.

250xxx sounds about right for kms, mine has 240xxx.

leak could be as you said or sump gasket or maybe the oil filter isn't on tight enough.

if it's really hsv enhanced, there will be a build plate on the firewall from hsv with your build number. otherwise it's just a badge

[_R_J_K_]

If your keen to keep the gas, maybe look at injection?

[Morton]

250,000km isn't a bother. The 304 will power on forever.

The only unusual things that tend to die randomly after such a long life, are the dizzy/coil/oil pump/efi module. Other than that, you may have a bit of compression loss in some cylinders, but it'll keep going

[greenfoam]

A guy on SC rebuilt his 304 for straight gas a few months ago, with a Chinese manifold, flat tops and a 284 on 108? lsa and it made almost 200 rwkw on gas

[centy]

yeah keep the gas.
nice and cheap to run.
remember to use petrol occasionally to lube the valves or fit a lube kit.

[mmrdb]

i looked at a VN Berlina V8 (to buy) yesterday.

Now, i know sfa about the v8s so i thought id ask a few q's about what i found looking at it.

- Its got a 3 month old gas system in it which has a recon tank. It drives pretty guttless on gas. A mate tells me the gas mixer systems are pretty useless for making even slightly above average power. I have always considered running straight gas, and i'm mates with my tuner so tuning's a cinch. Should i ditch? or keep the system?

- It's got 4 door power windows. I thought only calais got all four doors?

- Engine has done 250k, but runs pretty good and i think 250 is pretty reasonable for a '90 vn right?

- there is a slight leak from the front of the engine, a few drips after driving. mate tells me it is the crank seal??

- it is all original except for a few little extras. But i did notice that the boot badge looks a little different? the 'V8 5.0L' badge on the bootlid has the 'V8' part in red outline? I don't know if this is true (dont flame me) but YEARS ago my mate had a VN SS, and his had a red v8 badge. He said it signified some sort of HSV enhancement? i have no idea???

The V8 badge on the VN's all had the V8 part in red outline, except for the Calais. The Calais has the silver outline, like the V6. The red does not signify anything of HSV enhancements.

[jaywa]

I wouldn't mind putting gas on the ss but since mine doesn't have it now i won't bother. Mine also has power windows so a few other models have it too. I also thought only ss and above had hsv enhanced but might be wrong

[GTP 85]

Hmmmm.. thanks for the replies!

Well i pick it up tomorrow, quite anxious. First job will be to fix the leak from the front of the donk.

Still unsure of the gas situation though. I went for a spin in my mate's VN calais on gas. It seems to haul arse on both fuels, but he says his econ is approx 350km on a tank of gas and not much more on a tank of petrol (the regular size tank). Also it struggles to 'hang out' when you nail it round a corner, still takes off quick but.

At this point i might keep the gas and throw in some diff gears to pep her up a bit. Might get my tuner to have a sus of the tune up too

[levymetal]

yeah well petrol will always just feel that little bit stronger. i guess that's a good thing because you learn how your car works on gas, then when you flick it to petrol for when you need to boot it, it just goes a bit harder which always makes you happy .

hopefully it is a mixer type setup and not a gas ring. rings are pretty shit. i've driven both and at the moment i have a ring and yeah the mixer setup seems to give more power, and i think it's less restrictive as well. maybe that's the problem? or maybe the gas is just out of tune.

[GTP 85]

yeah well petrol will always just feel that little bit stronger. i guess that's a good thing because you learn how your car works on gas, then when you flick it to petrol for when you need to boot it, it just goes a bit harder which always makes you happy .

hopefully it is a mixer type setup and not a gas ring. rings are pretty shit. i've driven both and at the moment i have a ring and yeah the mixer setup seems to give more power, and i think it's less restrictive as well. maybe that's the problem? or maybe the gas is just out of tune.

Oh, i though the ring and mixer were the same??

Woops. It has the same type of gas systems you see on most commodores. With that short alloy pipe that sits inline in the intake pipe. That is a mixer right? so what is this ring type?

im confused!

[levymetal]

well, i don't really know the internal differences, a ring seems to just pump gas into the intake around a ring, where as a mixer has a mixer cone which may adjust the mixtures better? but i've never heard anyone say that rings are good . rings actually look quite small and aren't very noticeable. see my current engine here - that tiny thing right before the TB is the ring



take a look at my old vn though... that massive thing before the TB at the back of the motor is a gas mixer

[GTP 85]

Yeah it has one exactly like the one on your v8