VP S2 Excutive - Going Fast, Cheap

[Abrowne70]

The VP S2 Executive - Going Fast, Cheap



Hey guys, a few months ago i bought a granny spec auto VP commodore with 245,000kms on it.
Im currently studying diesel mechanics and am hoping to get an apprenticeship in the next couple of months once my course has finished. So therefor money is pretty tight.

I bought the VP and planned to keep it for a while so thought id spend my money on it.

The Slow Build Up
Bought the car of a family member.


Totally Stock as i bought it.

Start of Modifications
I then proceeded to jump onto these forums and have a look around to find out what the cheapest performance upgraded i could do and found that it was the S/C CAI, so off to Holden i went and ordered one in, by that afternoon i had one in my possession. I bought all of it except for the bottom of the airbox as i thought i'd do that myself and save some money.

While i was searching for cheap performance mods i also found out about removing the bellmouth. So when the S/C CAI got done i decided to remove the bellmouth aswell. This therefor completed my first performance modification to my car.

I believed that the throttle response had improved a bit and it went that little bit harder, could all just be in my head though.

Sound System
Meanwhile i had also installed a sound system out of my old car which consisted of:
1 x 12" Pioneer 400wrms Champion Series Sub
1 x 4ch Soundstream Amp
a pair of 6.5" Soundstream Splits

I then bought a pair of Polk Momo 6.5" Speakers and there for my sub now no longer had an amplifier and was removed from my system.

A couple of weeks later my mate said he wanted to sell his amp and subs and i decided i'd buy them off him. So that added:
2 x 12" Kicker subs and 1 x Alpine V12 amp to my system.

Rims and Tires
I had always wanted to get some 17" VY SS rims on my commodore so i was on the lookout for a set of them, i found a couple but they were a bit too pricey for me as i was pretty low on cash. Then one afternoon i was browsing the forums in the "parts for sale" section and came across some 17" VY SS rims in adelaide for sale, instantly i rang my father and asked to borrow some cash, very luckily he allowed that and off i went to buy these rims.

After i bought the rims, they just sat there for a while as the tires didn't have legal tread on them. With having them just sitting there i couldn't resist putting them up against my car to see what they would look like.


Just couldn't help myself

After a little bit of saving i had managed to pay my old man back and bought tires and got my rims fitted and wheel aligned.

The next lot of performance modifications
The modifications then slowed down for a bit as i started a tafe pre-voc course for diesel mechanic.

By having the ability to hoist my car up i found out that the exhaust had a nice fat dent in it and thought it was time to replace it.

So off to U-Pull It just to have a look around, i eventually ended up scoring a 2.25" Catback exhaust with one luckey muffler for $27 which was a bargain!
So back off to tafe to take advantage of their hoists and up the VP went and came back down with a new catback exhaust system.

I noticed a fair reasonable difference in terms of performance due to having a less restrictive exhaust which kept pulling in higher speeds.

Dash Upgrade
Next came an upgrade from a standard boring Level 1 VP dash into a Level 2 VP dash with some VR gauges and retained the VP level 1 Speedo to keep my original kms on it.
I also added some blue dash likes to give it a bit of a better look.
Scored the dash for $39 from U-Pull It and took 3 trips there to get one that worked.
Blue dash lights were $10 for 2 and i bought 4 of them to completely cover the dash with blue lighting.
Only downside is the temp gauge doesn't work but I'm planning on upgrading to a Level 3 dash in the near future.

Ride Height
Because it was a granny spec VP obviously it wasn't lowered, as a matter of fact i believe it was raised to tow a caravan as it was much higher than every other VP on the road.
So lowering was defiantly on the list of mods to do, but only when i had the money to do it.
Luckily a mate that lives with me decided he wanted to raise his VS ute back up to a bit comfier ride height so i scored a free set of springs off him.
So a couple of weeks later, the rear springs went in which level out my car perfectly, therefore i didn't worry about lowering the front.

Tune
I had been reading for a while about everyone going on about getting into contact with greenfoam from these forums to organize a tune for my car.
So i finally decided i'd pull my finger out and post a forum of a way to try to get into contact with greenfoam (his pm inbox was full at the time).
Many people suggested his ebay but at the time he didn't have anything for sale, luckily 88greenvn got into contact with me about it.
As i wasn't keen to have my car off the road for a little while i bought a memcal off 88greenvn and he helped organise a tune with greenfoam.
At the moment I'm waiting for it in the mail and it seems like Ive been waiting for ages buts its been less that 2 weeks.

Future Mods
Currently I'm looking at converting it to a 5 speed manual as Ive always preferred manual over auto.
I'm also looking for some 2nd hand extractors to suit it.

Some Pictures of the car at the moment





That just about wraps it all up, all comments are welcome, on things like what else i should do, suggestions on looks etc.

Thanks,
Anthony

[LightningVP]

Looks great, and yes, is very clean any inside pics?

[VL Berlina 5speed]

very nice and very clean

local boy i see, old reynella area

[Abrowne70]

Looks great, and yes, is very clean any inside pics?

Will get some in the next day or so.

very nice and very clean

local boy i see, old reynella area

Haha asif u picked up on that, flagstaff hill area im at.

[BLOWN R8]

looks killer! wana swap for a clapped out old maloo? lol

[Abrowne70]

looks killer! wana swap for a clapped out old maloo? lol

Nah, not interested in swaps atm, if i was probs have to be the clapped out old maloo and cash my way for me to be interested :P

[TVR-190]

nice man, when you gonna chuck a diesel in there?

haha

nice clean VP mate.

[Abrowne70]

nice man, when you gonna chuck a diesel in there?

haha

nice clean VP mate.

when petrol doesn't exist and i have no other way of keeping her running, but ill defiantly be running her on canola oil.

[padrickz88]

looks good man, i say dump the **** out of it


btw look at morton's thread for his old vp, maybe worth trying to do the mod he did with the indicators?

(oh and he could teach you a thing or two about weight reduction he did get taught by the king greenfoam lol)

[Bz Kn33z]

Weight reduction and diff gears would be the Go, a manual will help alot to but a mini spool of LSD is needed badly i know :P

I got my old VN going pretty quick with mods, no Gtech times but held its own on the street lol,

[Abrowne70]

Cheers for that guys, ill be looking into over the weekend.

Thats the plan, to go quick.

[padrickz88]

Weight reduction and diff gears would be the Go, a manual will help alot to but a mini spool of LSD is needed badly i know :P

I got my old VN going pretty quick with mods, no Gtech times but held its own on the street lol,

his right gears and a diff that spins 2 is 100% needed ade a huge difference on my auto vn

[greenfoam]

Hey I was just reading this thinking, nice thread! then I read you are the guy waiting on the tune, well you will be happy to know I posted that today so Monday or Tuesday you will have it in the car. If you don't mind a noisey of bomb of a car pull weight out is the ultimate way to go fast on the cheap but you really have to be commited to keeping the car long term because only Me, Morton or Bz Kn33z are potential customers after you do that to it

[Abrowne70]

Haha cant wait to get the tune in my car. Yeah im unsure about the weigh reduction due to the noise level of it all, but still, its a way to go faster for free. Thanks for doing the tune for me aswell, much appreciated

Also looking at getting myself a G Tech but there arent any on ebay, any ideas where to get one cheap (not after the newest one, just one that u guys are using).

[Abrowne70]

Cold Air Intake Modification
So i remembered reading how greenfoam widened his CAI a while back so i thought i'd head out and pick myself up a heat gun and give it a shot myself.

Yes i know this is a lot of pictures for just a CAI but i got bored.

Standard Width


Stage One widening

Stage One compared to standard width

Flattening the Edges to fit better


Final Product - yes i had to keep the sticker


Mounted to the VP


Update on car:
Tune will be here hopefully in next couple of days (Cant wait)
May be buying a strut brace this week as well
Spark plugs and leads need to get done (recommendations please)

[TVR-190]

damn thats huge, does it make much difference?

[Abrowne70]

Not a clue, would have to be time related and i havent done any timing so im unsure, but im sure it'll do some sort of difference somewhere through out my car.

[vnv8driver]

looks good mate youve got the basic idea of a cheap go fast v6, anf you had me look twice at the top pic of your car with the new wheels (thought it looked a bit out of wack lol)


And greenfoam ill beat you one day with a half cut up executive shell with a 5 litre in it : ) i can feel a 13 second pass coming on

[Abrowne70]

haha yeah nice tricky picture aye!

yeah trying to get the 6 going as quick as i can without spending big money, need ideas of what to defiantly do next though

[vnv8driver]

heres the go fast cheap list-

2.25-2.5 inch exhaust
extractors
cai
diff gears- 3.45 onwards
shift kit (auto)
mitsubishi magna v6 injectors which flow a little more
complete service on the motor/trans/etc

[g00gz]

heres the go fast cheap list-

2.25-2.5 inch exhaust
extractors
cai
diff gears- 3.45 onwards
shift kit (auto)
mitsubishi magna v6 injectors which flow a little more
complete service on the motor/trans/etc

I'd agree with that, apart from the injectors, dont bother waisting your money / time on those. you'd need to be pumping out a hell of a lot more kW's before injectors even become an issue....

[88GreenVN]

With the short spin you gave in the VP the other day at Maccas Brownie - your car's perfomance aint that far off top shelf already.

Bet it's easier on the eye now that its closer to the ground.

[guilty]

ey man looks nice couldnt help but see that ur after a set of exractors i have a set of advance headers u can have for 50 bucks but u have to supply the x pipe

if ya interested pm me mate or any1 else

[Abrowne70]

With the short spin you gave in the VP the other day at Maccas Brownie - your car's perfomance aint that far off top shelf already.

Bet it's easier on the eye now that its closer to the ground.

Haha yeah but i'll always wanna go faster.

Yeah much better now its closer to the ground, handles a lot better aswell.

[Abrowne70]

Chip is in.
Go's alot better now, picks up through the higher gears and higher speeds alot quicker now and also has a nice lean cruise to save me petrol.

Thanks heaps greenfoam!

Now onto the next mod. what shall it be?