Please help me with my ongoing saga

[impakt]

hey all, i really need some help eith my ongoing engine dramas. i recently had a recon motor into my car, and it wasn't cheap. i never felt really pleased from the guy that did it, felt he was just fobbing me off.
now its been running fine, but not as smooth or powerfully as you'd think a full recon would.
i took the car down to automasters for a completely different issue, fuel tank issues, and thought it might be a good idea to have the motor just checked over by a third party as its still under warranty.
He's come back to me and questioned why theres the extra sensor on the front just below the water pump(pic 1), and also commented that after road testing the vehicle that the return hose to the surge tank from the intake manifold is cold(pic 2). He also commented that the car felt 'gutless for a vn'.
I've also wondered bout the manifold gaskets since i've had the car back(pic 3). don't look right to me.
So i got talking with the automasters bloke and he made the point that it may be a later series engine, maybe vr non ecotech, with the vn intake manifold bolted on. Does this look like it to anyone else?
If it is, could the manifold and the ports not be lining up properly.
Basically, have i been shafted by geoff kendrick with a dodgy recon. Any info you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated so i can go back to him with ammo.
Cheers in advance

[stockvp]

i reckon you got a vr for sure you can see the cam sensor in pic one but that shoudnt be the problem the problem i think is that hes put the vn heads and manifold on wrong

[1991_Vn2nV]

Theres several parts that cant be interchanged between the VN S1 engine and the S2-VR engines. If it is a VR engine with VN bits on it, then theres gonna be some big issues.

Go back and quiz him about it.

[hakhawk]

ok, vr bottom end or vr timing case, the heads are vn s1 and so is the manifold, hes just used vn s2/vr gaskets, thats not a problem.

id say he used a vr bottom end and vn top(heads, intake) as the vn s1 plumbing is a bit different to s2-vr. easier for hm to chuck s1 top on than to change all the hoses and stuff.

[CSL]

go back and have a chat

[anton1o]

Yep im agreeing with everybody else that has been bodgied up real bad. Pretty much kept all the old vn gear and just used the VR bottom end as stated..

Id go back to him and ask for all the remaining VR items aswell..

[Streetvision]

This is why i love the fact my dad is a mechanic.

[greenfoam]

Those manifold gaskets are the only ones you can buy from Holden now, they suit all models but on the VN they hang out a bit. Don't worry everything else in the gaskets is the same. Not sure what's up with the performance not being there but the engine looks fine from the outside, also if the engine is still very new it will get faster as it loosen up a bit and no buick v6 is smooth

[impakt]

thanks for the speedy relpies. suppose i've gotta go see if he'll admit to mismatching the parts. i'm hoping the only reason the top hose isn't heating up is because they're just blocked inside the manifold.
So from what everyones said, if its a vr bottom end with vn heads, manifold and plumbing, its not a problem?
Should be sweet?

[impakt]

Also any one that can help, bit off topic, but when i bought the car sometime in its life the heater core has shat itself and they've simply disconnected the supply and return hoses in the engine bay( just back from battery area) and plugged them with screws.
Could i disconnected the heater hoses on the other side of the connector and run basically a loop hose between them so all the flow is going properly, or is there more too it? Hope you get what i mean

[stockvp]

just fix the heater core and then run the hoses properly mine was the same when i bought my car replaced heater core and changed the hoses back how they should be

[impakt]

how much roughly is it to fix the heater core?

[stockvp]

it depends if you do it yourself or not cause if you pay someone they could charge anywhere to a $1000 but if you do yourself you can get away with it for maybe 150 mine cost 35 as i got a secondhand one from the wreckers which was virtually brand new. you cut the old one out then cut the new one exactly the way you cut the old one then with some heater hosing just join them up and use some hose clamps this is the easiest way and only takes a couple of hours

[cracker]

i dont see anything wrong with what he has done. just used vr bottom end probaley better that way i guess.