VN 3.8 Turbo Wagon

[VN Wagz]

Hey all, thought i'd show you some pics of my everyday driver... bought her a few years back as a bog stocker, with yucky 14" rims, tiny brakes and 4x4 ride height. Still, she came with cruise, power windows, factory LSD and was a one owner car, for $2500- a bargain!

Mods since purchase are:

Lowered all round, new springs and shocks and rear swaybar, strut brace.
VT 297mm Front brakes, with matching VT booster.
Turbo kit- T3/4 hybrid, intercooler, external 38mm wastegate, boost controller, rising rate adjsutable fuel reg... etc etc. Stock injectors and tune for the timing being, running higher base fuel pressure.

Still rolling with the factory TH700 which is not liking the turbo- the torque its making is unreal, but the auto is slipping and slurring badly, so thats the next thing (after a proper tune). Hope you like



Original breathing mods...


VT Stoppers


Turbo kit going on:


Once on








Stealth

[VN_Luke]

Mate that's very cool! I'm so happy that there are more and more boosted VN's around

Love the black cooler too! - fantastic!

now go get some bigger injectors and a proper tune and report back!

[TVR-190]

looks good. people wouldnt suspect it had a turbo under the bonnet.

[levymetal]

why the hell is everyone's car turbo'd except mine?! this ride is AWESOME!
how much has the turbo setup set you back?

[VN Wagz]

ahh, cheers for the comments. Yeah, i built it up to be a sleeper, its pwns cars right now without trying, but sounds like a stock VN V6 when off boost. On boost its not loud either, it just moves hardcore!

Will be looking at 10psi once she's tuned, and north of 200rwkW, then we'll be looking at built internals and GNX alloy heads from the US, and a swap to a GT35/40R, and 13-15psi, for 240+rwkW ...

this turbo kit owes me 4K on the car as now, but still needs a BOV, 36 or 42lb injectors and a Kalmaker tune. I've got a larger fuel pump (Walbro GSS341) and 2 Bar Map Sensor ready to go, but havent installed yet.. the kit was bougth off an eBay seller from some performance shop in Queensland (which has since gone bust?) and they only made 3 kits- their development one, mine and one which is on a VP ("vspt" on the Street Comms forum).

Seeing how the manifolds and pipes in this kit is hugely better than a lot of others out there, im expecting this setup to be good for some awesome power once the big turbo goes on...

The only thing i dont like about my kit (and most out there) is the loss of the Air Con, im so feeling it right now... *stinking hot*

[VN Wagz]

Forgot to mention, im going to try my hand at developing a lowmount twin turbo (or single) kit for the buick V6s later this year, similar to how the APS TT kit is setup for the 5.7L Gen 3s... lowmount black piping that hides from prying eyes, a water to air cooler hidden under the airbox location, feeding up internally through the stock air intake.

Going to try making it look like a stock VN-VR engine but twin turbo and W2A cooled, and get it working for under 3k. With no extractors, crossover pipe etc, shouldn't be too hard, and the turbos will be located in a good spot to have them plumbed up to an exhaust (will also keep excess heat out, and can retain factory thermo and shroud).

Going to try getting them really close to the sides of the gearbox, so that we can bolt them onto the box itself by way of some bracketry... a set of small GT28s should be good for fast spoolage and solid top end- they will eb the most expensive tho, as i have to buy ball bearing ones so that the oil flow can be unrestricted, as the oil retunrs will need to flow back uphill a bit to return to the sump...)

Want it to be so good that a random roadside inspection turns up NOTHING when the bonnet is popped... only way to find it is on a hoist

[Matt_vp]

Nice wagon mate, its the last thing people expect is a v6 wagon to have a turbo straped to it, i know i get a few weird looks. Well done and good luck with the kit, check out my wagon i made all the manifolds and pipeing for it.
Matt

[levymetal]

something like this hey? APS Intercooled Twin Turbo Pontiac GTO/Holden Monaro - LS1 & LS2 Engines

i'm in love with turbos, almost a definite to get mine done one day. i've heard that stock 304s can take 5-6psi no worries. i hope that's true. should be enough to get me started

[redcv6]

thats awesome, nice sleeper

[VN Wagz]

yeah, im not quite sure about how much a stock 304 can take, but i do know my brother's supercharged 304 (Yella Terra PD blower kit) runs 8psi happily... i think with it, the only limitation is the head clamping, they arent all that flash in stock form.

[DeViLisanAnGeL]

Most Intercooled Supercharger kits (ie vortech) run 10psi on a 304 without any issues, so long as the tuning is up to scratch.

As i've said before, i really like this car cos I have a wagon also (VR) and i have grown to love it. So practical and reliable as shit. Plus yours has a bonus of boost. Win!

Get it tuned! then 35/40 ala Boosted_Wag and 19psi FTW!

[VN Wagz]

... or, im even thinking about going for a TT setup using two of these turbos- i have a spare one kicking around at home... you know, just in case

May need a 3000 stall convertor to get them both spinning, but meh, who cares? Something to think about for the future.

[VN Wagz]

forgot to mention- heads are coming off, cos i popped a gasket whilst trying to tow a ski-boat... wouldve worked, but i think under long time at high load, i leaned her out (prolly drained the stock fuel pump i think..) and she started making bang pop noises...

Pretty pictures up soon, showing a) nice chomped head gasket, and me smiling or b) cracked/fractured pistons and me doing a sad panda impression. Although, i do know that the head gasket is gone... for some reason i thought it would be okay. LOL, poor wagon...

Once the motor is back together (this weekend i'd say, if no major damage), i'll install the walbro GSS341 in tank pump, just to give a bit more safety until it gets a proper tune. Also getting the stock V6 radiator end tanks put onto a VR V8 core, which is twice the thickness, and getting the block and radiator flushed out, i think the bottom of the motor is gunked up solid (pulled the drain plugs a while back and NOTHING came out, motor was filled with coolant and thermostat removed!!!).

turbo assembly is pr1ck of a thing to remove and reassemble, but shouldnt take too long. Im gonan get the heads resurfaced and assembled again with stock gaskets, as they'll take as much boost as i can throw at them and will at least serve as a 'fuse' for my stock motor.

[PaRaDoX]

stock tune + boost will pop the headgaskets every single time mate!

i learnt this one the hard way!

[ToxicVn]

Very Nice Sleeper mate.

[VN_man]

Beautiful mate!

[Bz Kn33z]

stock tune + boost will pop the headgaskets every single time mate!

i learnt this one the hard way!

I also have blown head gaskets on stock tune, just waiting on my new tune with bigger injectors to go in

has it been dynoed? whats the estimated rwkw?

[PaRaDoX]

i must say the turbo setup is clean as **** good work

[VN Wagz]

Now running a Bosch BOV just before the Throttlebody, seems to be helping to keep the intake temps down (no more air compressing in the intake piping from pressure buildup at part throttle- it now bypasses), and have taken delivery of a set of 36lb super-6 injectors.

All i need now is to get her tuned (Kalmaker most likely), but i think the auto will die really quickly if i even take her anywhere near an dyno- at half throttle it takes a few seconds to drop into third and the box just surges and churns before dropping into gear... not fun. And this is with only 5psi- we would be looking at 10psi when getting it tuned.

[ASIAN_VP]

Thats awesome. seeing more VN - VP turbo charged. Ultimate sleeper. Keep itup champ

[Fun_Bucket]

Hey mate, did ya notice a difference after fitting the front strut brace? Ive seen a few going pretty cheap, but i just dont know if it's worth the purchase??

[ucwepn]

Nice wagon mate looks like it would fly, GL with head gasket.

[NEDWOB]

very nice wagon and stealth FTW

[VN Wagz]

new dump pipe gets fabricated up next monday at Fyshwick Exhaust Centre, sick of the current one hitting the strut tower and chassis rail. That means some coil pack relocation over the next few days, to up behind the passenger side strut tower. Only thing im not keen on is buying new leads, these ones are barely 5000ks old...

Will get pics up once done.

[LordMayhem]

nice wagon mate love the colour