Beginner looking for advice

[Sm1thback]

Hey all,

Just recently turned 18 and got my first car, a VT Acclaim S2.

Was looking for some advice on some standard modifications I should make to it before I try and do anything too drastic. I was thinking about putting some king springs on, because I don't want it too low, just enough to get rid of the space above the guard and the wheel.

Thanks in advance

[madsav]

Hi mate, spend about $50 for a inlet manifold gasket kit and $8 for a can of mr muscle over cleaner,
Pop your manifold off and give it a good scrub down over the years them v6 gather alot of soot and old oil and reduces the cars breathing.

[soop]

If you're keen, get some sand paper and polish up the intake manifold. Check the painting forum, I've got a thread going in there with some info. Be warned its a long tedius process.

[Sm1thback]

ok thanks for the tips fellas. I'm not very fluent in technical language unfortunately, so I'm gonna scout these forums to see if I can figure out which parts are where, haha.

Thanks a lot

[soop]

Intake manifold is the bit that the has the throttle body. which attaches to the airbox.

[Sm1thback]

thanks soop. also, when you said that it's a long tedious process, how long are you referring to? Hours or days?

Thanks mate

[soop]

Day's :P.
I'm doing it all by hand and taking my time. But you could do it in a day if you started in the morning and worked like a dog. Its better if you just cruise it and have a few beers while you're at it.

[F l a k]

I'd give it a good clean all over, and then fix anything that's broken, and get some little things done like nice mats and seat covers.
Maybe give it a good service depending on how long it's been, then look at something like a 2.5 inch cat back exhaust and wander over to MACE and check out some of their products.
As for the springs, I went King Spring Lows, and its still pretty practical but looks and handles better. And buy a workshop manual, will come in handy for sure.

[Sm1thback]

alright thanks soop, I'm looking into it as we speak. I'll keep posting here, if you're willing to give a newbie some more advice haha.

sounds good flak, I bought some mats and covers for it but the clean all over sounds appealing. also, can you recommend any workshop manuals?

thanks guys

[Z2TT]

Hi,

I'd begin by getting the car in good condition first, basically giving it a overall service, those should be your first modifications
as it's best to have the car in good condition to start off if you plan doing any performance modifications, or any performance driving.

Check the whole car inside/out. Oil, Oil Filter, Spark plugs and leads if needed. Do a coolant change
and it's a really good idea to replace the radiator if blocked/damaged, takes experience to know what needs changing so it's a good idea
to have a mate help you out.

It's a VERY good idea to replace the fuel filter too. Clean throttle body and Idle Speed Control Valve

Get the car up on all 4 wheels, or 2 at a time and check each wheel for freeplay and fix cause if excessive,
worn bushes/ball joints and bearings constantly affect wheel alignment as you drive. Check the brakes and
brake lines, check the handbrake and adjust if needed

If Auto give the transmission a fluid+filter change. Check all 4 wheels when up in the air
for any play and rectify the problems.

Check the belt and pulleys, they do get worn over time.

King Lows are ok, but if you want to get extra low, consider getting a strut/spring combo, or even coil overs if you like as it's important to have
a good spring/shock combo, it's ok if your only lowering a bit.

Service Manuals - Gregories is your best bet 2nd to the GMH one which are hard to get a hold of. Stay away from Max Elleries as their "wiring diagrams" are rubbish,
but they seem to have more pages. I'd just stick with the Gregories and read it as they are helpful.

When you get the car in a good condition and you want to begin doing performance mods here are some suggestions.

Higher ratio roller rockers from FIT Performance... check out their website
Cold Air Intake will help out a bit
Heat insulator spacer for inlet manifold... apparently gives a bit more power.

Then you can get a Tuned memcal from Greenfoam or Delcowizz who are on this forum

Extractors and Exhaust.... it's a good idea to do lots of reading on the subjects of extractors and exhausts before chosing, see what people run and whats best, the V6's
can have a horrible sound if you don't get the correct setup which I'm sure we've all heard. If there are good off the shelf exhausts for your car, you could buy one
and install it yourself.

[F l a k]

Cool, and yeah a good clean will make a big difference...which reminds me that I really need to wash mine haha.
I bought the Gregorys one, which I'm pretty happy with. Your local SuperCheap Auto/Autobarn/Repco etc should have one in stock.

[Infanti]

just do yourself a favour and stay legal, i went SL King Springs on the front and SSL King Springs in the rear, got away with it for 2 years, but finally got pulled over, defected and fined $300, then cost me a further $250 to put SL's into the rear to bring it back to legal. Trust me, do it right...ONCE!

[soop]

just do yourself a favour and stay legal, i went SL King Springs on the front and SSL King Springs in the rear, got away with it for 2 years, but finally got pulled over, defected and fined $300, then cost me a further $250 to put SL's into the rear to bring it back to legal. Trust me, do it right...ONCE!

Cannot emphasise that enough!!!
Especially for a young bloke.

[2DIE]

Try having a look here, only just started working on this to keep myself kind of a history of what I want to do and what I have done. Yeah its crappy site but its where I keep prices and ideas so I dont forget later.

https://sites.google.com/site/vtacclaimv6/

As you can see if you take a look most of them are just for looks.

On the "Under the hood" page I would recomend the 3 MACE products.

And on the "Exhaust" page I would have a look at the cat back, search "VT cat back" on ebay and they are around $165

Lowering the car is more expensive than just springs, you will also need struts and camber kits and you will be looking at about $1000 at a guess unless you want to buy tyres twice as often and drive you car around with worn shocks.

[1998GTS]

If you're anything like me and like having a clean engine bay,you could try painting.This is the end result at my first attempt.Turned out sweet!!!

[Sm1thback]

Wow there's been a few replies since my last glance, I'll have to reply in sequential order :P

@Z2TT, thanks heaps for all the detail you've gone into, I copied and pasted into a word document haha. It recently had it serviced but can get my uncle to have another look at it. A lot of the stuff you've mentioned is what I'll probably be looking at doing within the next 12 months, so thanks a lot for all of that.

@Flak, yeah I'm going to go down within the next week and pick up the Gregory one for commodores. As my VT is a series 2, will this book be suitable for me? Gregory's Car Manual - 273 - Supercheap Auto

@Infanti, sorry to hear about the defective notice mate, but I'll take your words of advice haha

@Soop, haha yeah, I'll take that on board

@2DIE, yeah I heard about the camber kits and the like, so I had a chat to my cousin a few weeks ago when I mentioned lowering it. He suggested the King Lows, because he can install them and do the necessary adjustments in order to make them work, that's what made me look at them. Also, thanks for the website. I'm having a look at it tonight.

Finally,

@1998GTS, that looks sweet man, probably a bit advanced for me at the moment but definitely something that looks worth the effort.


Thanks for the replies fellas

[soop]

Thing with polishing is its very hard to stuff up.
Tedious but easy.

[Sm1thback]

Is this in relation to the intake manifold?

If so, do I need to pair anything with the sand paper to get a better result, or is sand paper better on it's own?

Also, can you link me to your painting thread? I can't find it.

[soop]

you could use a little water if you want. Might make it easier on your hands.

Just start coarse and work your way up.
I started with 220 - 320-400-600-800-1200-1500-2000 then autosol.

So far i've spent 6hrs with the 220 grit because the castings on my rocker covers was horrible. If you want to buy another intake manifold and send it my way I don't mind polishing it up for you.

[Sm1thback]

Ah ok fair enough, may have to try that out. I appreciate the offer mate, I'll see what happens. I wanna try it myself first, try and learn what I can, but in the likely event that I experience difficulty, I'll give you a yell, haha.

[soop]

Yeah, like I say its really easy just time consuming.

[Z2TT]

How much does Autosol cost and how large is the pack/tube/bottle etc it comes in?

Also the plenum spacer that spaces that top cover of the plenum, how does that increase performance?
I can understand about the one for the actual manifold to head, but what about the top cover one?

[Sm1thback]

Also, thought I better ask. What exactly does polishing the intake manifold do for your car?

[soop]

Makes it look good!! hahaha.

Autosol cost about $10 for a 250g tube, but it goes ALONG way, you don't need much of it at all.
I guess the idea behind the plenum spacer is increased volume, perhaps it helps with the air flow into the intake runners, I wouldn't know I've never looked into the V6 stuff.

[F l a k]

@Flak, yeah I'm going to go down within the next week and pick up the Gregory one for commodores. As my VT is a series 2, will this book be suitable for me? Gregory's Car Manual - 273 - Supercheap Auto

Provided its any V6 VT between 1997 and 1999 I'd say so. I don't imagine there'd be that much difference between Series 1 and 2 but I don't know a whole lot about the VT's. You can always ask when you go in and see them.