VR bunky

[savage1987]

Picked up a VR Exec today to use as a runabout while my VN gets her heart transplant.

With no further ado, I give to you, THE REASON IT'S A NON RUNNER!












Lucky for me I have a V6 handy that I shan't be using for a while


I'll document this thread with my tidy ups along the way, the car should come up delightfully well with a little work.


Sam

[SHANBANGER]

nice starting point there mate, ill be keeping an eye on this thread to see how she cleans up.

[neet_wagon]

^^^ at least the thermostat housing is clean......

[excalibur]

all i could say was FARRRRRRKKKKKK!!!!!!!!

that looks shithouse lol

[savage1987]

^^^ at least the thermostat housing is clean......

Yep thermostat housing and water pump.. I'd say the dude had a mystery water leak for a while and couldn't work it out, so just started replacing coolant related parts at random


It's a bit yucky in there.

Sam

[savage1987]

Feeling lazy tonight so all I got done was remove the header bolts and remove the radiator. Unclipping a few random hoses, was little more than prodding about really but hopefully I will grab a crane off a mate this week and get the engine out.

Had a long day at work today and simply couldn't be arsed working any more when I got home

[Kurtp]

That's disgusting.

[nathanVY]

wow thats hectic! good luck with the repairs mate.

[neet_wagon]

I think its a thing of beauty.
How long was it running like that for?

Reminds me of what we used to do at the wreckers, set engines up on stands and see how long they'd last while running them on all sorts of stuff!

I tell you the best little motor we found was the lil' Isuzu out of a TE gemini, that thing ran on sand, oil, bloody anything you could think of. and it still started the next day!

[nathanVY]

lol. the place I was at last night getting the trans seal done, he had a few mates come at one point and they had this video of a vr v6 they ran into the ground, brick on the accel pedal. went hard for a good 4 or 5 minutes at max rpms then it seized up and popped lol.

[neet_wagon]

^^^^ theres a VN out next to the burnout pad at heathcote park that someone has done something similar to.

Its got a piece of RHS (steel) wedged between the go pedal and where the drivers seat once was.

This one kept going until it caught fire, not much left now. ohh it had homemade quad side pipes too!!! (straight out of the headers)

lol, woulda been loud as

[savage1987]

I think its a thing of beauty.
How long was it running like that for?

Don't know the history of it. The previous owner was apparently a mechanic, and apparently not a very good one!

[Verynice]

god damn that is sludge mania!!

[savage1987]

god damn that is sludge mania!!

Not for long!! Got a day off work tomorrow, will see if I can make some good progress.

Honestly there is as much oil mixed with dirt OUTSIDE the engine (coating EVERYTHING, even things you wouldn't expect) as there is oil-water mix INSIDE it

[savage1987]

Work gave me the day off today so I got stuck in to the VR:

















Driver side head gasket:




Passenger side head gasket:







I cannot be arsed even TRYING to rebuild that before the weekend, so it can have my VN's engine on Sunday/Monday. It'd better be damn grateful too ...

Sam

[MUT4NT]

looks yummy sam YUMMY!!!! hahahaha LS1 VN FTW!!! haha

[Haydz]

looking good mate.

its pretty good to have a spare v6 powered commodore on hand for when your working on the other car aye

good luck with it.

[sik_dose]

the V6 i rebuilt last year looked alot like that when i pulled it apart, had a couple of cam bearings twisted and chewed in the bottom of the sump as well. good luck with it. I like your garage wish i had one with as much room.

[savage1987]

Cleaned the bay down tonight and started pulling the motor from the VN.

[savage1987]

Progress from Monday night:
got the motor out of the VN today and swapped the VN T700 for the VR 4L60E so it'll all run on the VR harness. Got it all mounted in the VR, and I've begun prep'ing the VN for the LS1 instal.

All that's left before firing up the VR:

1. tailshaft
2. exhaust
3. steering
4. coolant
5. wiring
6. startup



Sorry no pics of this part, camera out of battery and got no decent ones left in the house





Progress Tuesday night:
Fired it all up, everything seems OK so far. Just need to fit some finishing touches (exhaust, intake, bonnet) and we're good to go. Oh, and pay rego/insurance.

Sam

[SweetWagon]

The name of that icecream tub in the background of the last photo, "Caramello" is very much what i'd be calling whats inside that motor

Just a heads up, if your using the VR loom and box it might throw an error code as the VN motor wont have the cam angle sensor on the timing cover.

[savage1987]

Thanks, you know your stuff too

The VN motor is a VR motor though, how handy was that it's a VR (s2 i think) rebuild we put in a while ago.

[savage1987]

Test drive results:

Took it around the block tonight a handful of times to troubleshoot the automatic which was playing up.. it had lied to me on the dipstick and was still around 2L low on oil. It seems fine now

Just have to pay rego and insure it, then I'm good to go!!

Next job is fix up interior. The seats are dirty and ****ed, so I'm debating whether or not to put my VN Calais velour ones in as a selling point.. they are such comfy seats it'll be a terrible shame to see them go!

Also will give the car a thorough paintwork detail, it will be bloody shiny when done!

Sam

[savage1987]

Disaster. Car has been out of rego WAY longer than I was told, so it has to go over the pits.

****.

[savage1987]

Motored it outside for a wash up to see how bad the paint is..

Pre wash:














Post wash:







Bonnet before polish:



Roof before polish:



Bootlid before polish:




Hopefully the paint will come up OK.


Bit of work required on the interior:







...but the engine is all good



Sam