Throttle body and memcal upgrade

[Swathe]

Are there any good ponters or things to look out for when installing these? The memcal is the blue unit with the brown socket connector below it and I haven't even looked at my ute (vg ute series 2 motor) computer to see what swapping it entails so any help would be great. I am upgrading to a 70mm throttle body too so any hidden trap or tricks please let me know.

thanks guys

[savage1987]

I am upgrading to a 70mm throttle body too so any hidden trap or tricks please let me know

Memcal swap takes 5min, will need torx bits.
Why are you doing the TB? Makes no difference really on a stocker.

Sam

[Morton]

The throttle body makes no difference on a heavily modified car either, because it's not the narrowest part of the induction chain.

The memcal just unplugs, and plugs in. A simple clip-out-clip-in procedure. You may not even need torx bits if you're lucky. I didn't. And even then, most torx bits have a corresponding allen key that'll fit in just nicely. If you're REALLY unlucky and you have an anti-god-knows-what plate rivetted over your ecu, just drill out the rivets and work from there

[LowVp]

i dunno where the torx screws are, usually its 3 or 4 rivets to remove a shield, 2 phillip headed screws that hold the plastic carrier to the pillar and then 2 screws holding the cover on the ecu itself

[Morton]

That's what I was thinking But then, I've seen so many VPs without the shield on there, so goodness knows what the blokes on the production line were getting up to. (my VP Exec was rolled out in the first week of VP production, and it had the shield, so it wasn't a late model revision.) There's probably cars out there with ECUs held on with cable ties and gaffa tape

[Swathe]

I was under the impression that if i got a high flow air filter with CAI or a pod filter and a larger throttle body I would flow more air and make a bit of power. I know it's not gonna be a mega increase but i though it may make some small difference.

[centy]

you do feel a bit more go off the mark with a larger tb. if you get it cheap enough then it is a good buy. changine tb is a little fiddly to get the bottom nut of but not to bad.
you will need torx bits to take the tps and iac off to put them on the other tb.
only hassel i had when i went to do it was i have cruise control and the mounting points were different on the vn v8 tb. also be careful when you remove it as the gaskets is brittle buy the age o these cars. remember to hook up the vac line at the back of the tb when you put it back together.

[Swathe]

Ahh i have cruise control too (Factory). Whats a decent price to pay for one as ATM I am looking at "ebay" and around the 160 mark seems to be the standard (new)

Maybe i should spend the money on splitfires and and new leads? Any other cheap mods?

[savage1987]

Sorry I was getting confused between my cars... VR BT1 had torx bit bolts to remove the memcal cover

[greenfoam]

That's what I was thinking But then, I've seen so many VPs without the shield on there, so goodness knows what the blokes on the production line were getting up to. (my VP Exec was rolled out in the first week of VP production, and it had the shield, so it wasn't a late model revision.) There's probably cars out there with ECUs held on with cable ties and gaffa tape

At one stage I thought all VP's has the sheild (mine did) and just that most had been removed over the years to test for faulty ecus. But I've never had anyone that got a memcal for a VP tell me they had the sheild in there yet so it seems it may not have been in them all

[greenfoam]

Ahh i have cruise control too (Factory). Whats a decent price to pay for one as ATM I am looking at "ebay" and around the 160 mark seems to be the standard (new)

Maybe i should spend the money on splitfires and and new leads? Any other cheap mods?

You should be able to manage a proper front mount cai made from flexy hose and a memcal for 100$ and that will be a fairly large gain (for a v6). I allways say this but the cheap recipe for a decent weight (non calais) VN/P or G in this case to get to 60 mph in under 7 seconds or low 7 at the worst is fairly simple

1. Front bumper CAI
2. Better tune
3. VP exhaust manifolds (you probably have them allready)
4. Make sure your standard throttle opens all the way then you wont need a bigger one)

You can add a 2.5 inch cat back if you want to be cool but you wont need it

[Swathe]

Well i have the 2.5"cat back and the memcal and the trottle body appears to open right up so basically a cai kit then? Is it worth going a pod filter or a high end panel filter?

[greenfoam]

There's no real messurable gain on the filter alone so it's best to use one that filters well under dirty and wet conditions (that you will get with a front mount cai) And that's a oiled foam panel or oiled foam pod in a box. Paper is OK but keep checking it to see when its past it's prime. Cotton ones like K&N aren't really the best at filtering for that kind of setup. The finer filter/uni filter foam panels are quite small in size and I can messure them to be almost .1 of a second slower to 100 than no filter on my 5 litre but there's no messable loss on the V6 and they filter perfectly but you can probably upgrade to a larger airbox maybe? from a VT/X and then run a larger foam panel. Anyway you will have to think about that

[Swathe]

Thanks greenfoam your advice has been most welcome.