The Stig's Blown VP Calais

[thestig]

Ok Ok.. So I've been around here long enough now, and people are starting to pressure me to post here in the "my ride" section. Today was wet, cold and not conducive to driving. In a word I was bored....

So here goes.

Current Spec:
1992 Holden VP Calais (Built Sep 92)
2 Tone Paint, Empire Red/Silver
EFI V6 3.8L (Buick L27 derivative)
SC14 Supercharger running 6psi pulley non intercooled.
Throttle Body is in front of blower for increased drivability, power, and stealth factor.
K&N Pod Filter
Borg Warner T5 Manual with Spring Loaded Short Shifter
RPM/PBR Heavy Duty Performance Clutch
Pacemaker Competition Headers (PH-5029)
High Flow Catalytic Converter
Single 2.5" Redback Catback Exhaust
Customized $5D 2 Bar Tune on stock ECU
Bosch 5 Wire Wideband 0xygen Sensor
Innovate Motorsports LC1 Lamda Controller & SSI-4 Multi Sensor Interface & Data Logger
Innovate Motorsports G3 Precision AFR Gauge
AMG Siege 17x8 Alloy Wheels
Pirelli Dragon 235/45/R17 W rated Rubber all round
Cruise Control, Electric Windows, Power Mirrors, Air Conditioning, Climate Control, LSD, IRS & ABS
Drift Iridium OEL Electronic Gauges: AFR, Boost/Vac, & Oil Pressure
Pioneer BEH-2350 4x50 MOSFET Head Unit
Pioneer 2x 4way 8" 180W Speakers
Pioneer 12" Sub driven by bridged 500W Pioneer Amp

Current Peformance Figures (Best G-Tech Run):
60ft 2.529s
330ft 6.048s
1/8 mile 8.934s @ 86.71mph
0-60 5.055s
Maximum Power 170rwKW @4775rpm
Maximum Torque 368 Nm @3946rpm

To be added in coming Weeks:
Yella Terra High Ratio (1.8) Roller Rockers
KMAC Adjustable Strut Tops
Bilstein Shocks and Springs (about 1" lower)
Heavy Duty Strut to Sway Link Pins
Remanufactured Variatronic Power Steering Rack
77mm 12PSI pulley for blower
600x300x75 High Flow Intercooler
Racetech EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) Sensor Probe
Innovate Motorsports TC-4 Thermocouple Amplifier & Data Logger
Customized 2bar tune on Modified 01227808 ECU
Some form of brake upgrade (330mm front 300mm rear)
and possibly Nolathane bushes throughout.

Pictures:

Comments and Suggestions Welcome..

L8r

[kniever]

very well done indeed, the front needs to be a touch lower i reckon but very nice car.
making some nice power there too and should get a wee bit more when ya put the intercooler on, must be hanging for that.

and mate those photo's are amazing, the quality is just A1, wanna take pics of mine

[VrWagz1]

That would have to be the nicest looking calais iv seen.

[WisdomFist]

Very nice indeed. I like how you have kept it clean and are producing some good numbers too!

[immortality]

good to see you finally posted it up here. nice work (again)

[thestig]

Here is a collection of stuff that is planned for the near future. Some of it is sitting in my garage waiting for motivation, others have been budgeted for, but not yet purchased. Some I haven't decided on for sure.


Bilstein Shocks n Springs:

This is a definite. Haven't sprung (no pun intended ) for them yet. The photos you see here are of Reaper's purchase earlier this year. Having been around the track a few times in his 5L VP. These things.. I can tell you!! They ARE the SH*T!

Soft Rubber for Straight Line Launches:

Once the Cooler and 77mm pulley have been fitted getting my machine off the line smoothly is going to be critical in making decent ET's. It can be pretty hard at 6PSI, I am guessing 12 is going to be a lot harder. These Highway Max remoulds are very soft rubber and have been snapped on to my stock 15" rims. They come highly recommended by some of the guys here on JC and at $69.00 each how could I say no.

Aero:

Not so sure about this one. From a practical standpoint the spoiler will be great for track days. I am not so sure about the aesthetics on the street. It may also have an anti-sleeper effect. Not what I am looking for. Would like to hear some opinions on this. As you can see it's in great condition and all the LEDs work.

Exhaust Gas Temp & Link Pins:

Here you can see a photo of the link pins, again this is mainly for track days, don't want to have the stock ones break in the middle of a 200kph sweeper.

The EGT Sensor, & Thermocoupler Amplifier will be used to tune spark advance for peak torque. Basically, in theory, one monitors the Exhaust Gas Temp whilst upping the advance in the tune. Once a peak temp is reached, timing is retarded until your EGT drops about 20 deg C. For a Petrol Engine this should be Peak Torque. It may also come in handy to monitor knock as pre-ignition and or pinging show up as huge spikes in EGT.

15,000 Revolutions Per Minute:

This little gem with either make or break the blower. At 77mm in diameter it will ring the neck of the SC14 pushing it up to around 15,000 rpm. This should be enough for around 12PSI of everybody's best friend - BOOST!

Too Damn Hot!:

Temperature is proportional to pressure in a fixed volume, and that's unfortunate. Luckily help is on hand to help keep the charge temperatures at something bordering on a sane level. The intercooler is an integral part of any high boost application. Here's the one I am planning to use.

U.S. ECU??:

This 1227165 ECU (out of an F-body) is supposedly identical to the 1227808 that run the donk in the VP except it has a high speed ALDL interface, I haven't had much use out of it with my current 2 bar tune as it wont run the 2bar $5D code. It's currently up for sale if any of you Normally Aspirated guys want it. However if it runs the $59 code, and it's supposed to, then I might use it. I don't really need high speed ALDL as I have all the Innovate gear to do my logging. But it might come in handy someday.

Damn those are BIG tables:

The latest GM boosted code that runs on DELCO stuff is $59. I'm gonna give it a bash to see if I can improve on power and idle quality. The VE and spark tables in this sucker are 16 x 32 and should provide a silky smoothness that is lacking in the $5D tune. I am skeptical as I don't think getting it to run will be all that easy, non the less I have declared that I will try.

Nolathane Me:

Something similar to what you see here goes for around $300 on ebay these days. I will decide how necessary it is after all the other suspension mods have been completed.

Camber and Castor:

Track days aside I will need something to help keep this sleeper pointing in the right direction 100% of the time. So I plan to fit fully adjustable strut tops from K-mac. How far I go will depend on how much over budget I am when everything else is said and done.

As always, suggestions, opinions and comments welcome.

L8r

[vnv8driver]

do you get much wheelspin with the current setup off the mark?

[thestig]

do you get much wheelspin with the current setup off the mark?

With a full on start yes.. Wheelspin and really nasty tramp if you keep the boot in. With a more progressive start, say 20% throttle pushed to 100% once past 15 to 20kph you can keep it in check.

L8r

[Wagon_Wheel]

Very nice dude, been waiting for you to post a thread about your car, ive been rather curious lol.

Looks good, cept needs to be a tad lower, and also whats up with the shifter? Looks odd, did you put a short shifter in it?

Anyways, great times and what not, bet you cant wait til intercooled 12psi and wet roads lol

[nicko451]

nice man i likey!

[thestig]

Very nice dude, been waiting for you to post a thread about your car, ive been rather curious lol.

Looks good, cept needs to be a tad lower, and also whats up with the shifter? Looks odd, did you put a short shifter in it?

Anyways, great times and what not, bet you cant wait til intercooled 12psi and wet roads lol

I agree it needs to be lowered. That is part of the plan with the Bilstein stuff.

There is a funny story (well it wasn't so funny at the time) behind the shifter.

I was planning to buy a short shifter at some stage, but first things first I had to get the T5 in the thing.

I picked up a T5 and Flywheel, got the flywheel machined and stuck em in with the PBR performance clutch, but the starter motor wouldn't fit (it was a manual one). So I go back to the guy I bought the box n stuff off and he's like "Nah.. it should fit!" And I'm like, "NO! It doesn't!" Anyway after much comparison about this starter motor and that we decide the guy has sold us the wrong flywheel. But all the bolts line up and it fits. So WTF??

Just on a gamble we (being Reaper and I) decide to try the old Auto starter motor, and it fits. Strange, but it was a solution so we didn't think much more of it. Time finally then to start the car. After which the next issue becomes apparent. The gearbox doesn't have a second gear.

So we pull the box out again and take it back to our by now, "favorite" parts supplier and he agrees to swap it for another box. We get the other box put that in along with the Auto starter motor and all seems well, for a short time at least.

It soon becomes apparent that something is not balanced properly. Guess what?

The flywheel is the wrong one, it's a dual mass job out of a manual v6 VS. And of course it's been machined. So we take it back to our "best friend in the whole world" parts supplier guy and say look ********, you sold us the wrong flywheel with the box. And he's like, I can't do anything, you had it machined, it's useless now! Getting desperate and quite angry at this stage so.. I storm out before I do something that will get me into trouble with the authorities.

I end up taking the flywheel to Berryman race engines in Moorabbin where I get it mirror balanced to the flex plate from the auto. (photos of the proceedure for which are attached) Stick it back in and everything is fine for like 1 week. Then my second T5 starts making terrible grinding noises in 3rd and 4th. So out it comes again goes back to "the guy I intend to leave my entire estate to when I die" auto wrecker. After much yelling and gesticulation gives he me another box and this one has a short shifter attached. "Hrmm" I think, "I hope he doesn't notice before I leave this black hole of automotive commerce."

Thankfully he didn't. So I take this box straight to get rebuilt. I do not intend to pull the box out again for a very long time. It has been installed 12 months and so far has given a very strong performance.

Free short shifter aside, it is my suggestion that no one in their right mind frequent Holdent Auto Wreckers in Oakleigh Victoria. They take incompetence to a new level.

Of course as fate would have it, having pulled my box in and out of the Calais around half a dozen times, we've since had the T5 out of Reapers SS so many times we've lost count. But we're damn fast at box change overs now.

[Morton]

Wow. That's a bloody adventure and a half. I feel lucky now that I only had to install my T5 twice

That calais looks MINT too, by the way. Love the red over grey, it's beautiful. Good sleeper, I think. I love sleepers Doesn't look like it could melt butter, but goes like stink. The perfect combination

Absolutely love it Nothing bad to say at all!

[kniever]

whats up with the shifter? Looks odd, did you put a short shifter in it?

i thought the same until i noticed it was the console is from an auto, he has just modified it a bit, the manual ones usually have the ashtray at the top

[thestig]

i thought the same until i noticed it was the console is from an auto, he has just modified it a bit, the manual ones usually have the ashtray at the top

Yeah.. it is an auto panel but it does have a short shifter too.

L8r

[stocky]

so theres no problems getting these shifters to fit into an auto console? i have a cracked stato one that would be perfect for a manual shifter. what material did you use for that and around your gauges?

[thestig]

so theres no problems getting these shifters to fit into an auto console? i have a cracked stato one that would be perfect for a manual shifter. what material did you use for that and around your gauges?

The shifter fitting the auto panel is a close run thing. But it can be done.

The material I used around the gauges was the actual covering from the cubby hole that they replaced. I removed it from the plastic console and recut it to fit around the gauges.

The material for the shifter came from Blackmore's auto trimmers in Moorabbin. It is the closest they had to what is currently around the hand brake.

L8r

[calaiscruzer]

Cool calais.
Awesome work. Nice package of engine tuning you have put together there, only problem would be getting addicted to tuning and trying to get every hp out of it :-)

Gota be one of the cleanest engine bay's of a VN v6 ive seen.

[thestig]

Here is something rather subtle that I added earlier today. If the power doesn't bring a smile to your face when sitting in the driver's seat, this certainly will.

L8r

[hakhawk]

love it!! rest of car is cool too

[Pub247]

Thats a nice calais Stig love the interior work with the gauge and data logging. Though my favourite things are the nurburgring sticker and your new mirror one is good 4 a laugh too

[stocky]

thats the best sticker ive ever seen on a car. love it

[Archers]

lol man thats so cool love the car and the sticker is gold

[thestig]

Finally.. the old girl is finally showing signs of her age. Last night during the cruise phase that immediately followed high rev action from a set of traffic lights my engine decided to empty the contents of it's radiator via the exhaust.

I am glad that hydraulic lock occurred in 5th during cruise as it would have been a lot messier if the head gasket had let go a few seconds earlier at 5600 rpm in 1st.

Anyhow after some ad lib towing, some pushing and some sleep I got up this afternoon and had a shot at repackaging my engine bay.

Took about 1.5 hours to get to where you see in the pictures. Would have gone further but I need to borrow the trolley jack off Reaper in order to drop the exhaust away from the heads.

After a bit of preliminary investigation it looks like number 1 is the problem. Will pick up some gaskets and provide more photos as the tear down continues.

In a way I am glad as I will finally get a good look at the internals of my engine, something that I really wanted to do before I fitted the blower. But up until now, there had not been even the slightest hint of a reason to pull the bugger apart.

[immortality]

damn. i sure am glad i've got a complete spare engine in the garage in case of such a incident occuring. it's gonna get a freshen up soon with some decent head gaskets and head studs to help it with the nitrous shot and then my low mileage engine will be in the garage as the spare

[thestig]

Yeah.. I have another complete engine sitting in the garage. At something like $100 each there is no reason not to. I have it on standby in case of considerably more violent/epic failures.

L8r