82 vh ss

[Darren_L]

Good to hear the COME method worked for you. I've only ever heard positive feedback. The method he uses really makes sense when you are doing it. Every time you fit the crank and remove the cap to trim the seal you can see more of the sealer squeezing out from under the seal, which means it's really forcing the seal in against the cap, making a good seal. Took many shots to get it right, but yeah small price to pay for a dry rear seal. I hate oil leaks, it was the only leak this engine had and it bugged the **** out of me. Every time I was under the car I'd wipe the inspection cover clean and anything that had blown back to the gearbox, because the rest was dry

a couple of photos of it's current state at the moment
I also ended up replacing the oil pump drive gear as for many years I was running a JP High volume pump, until I found out the risks of drive gear and shaft failure. My old gear was showing some decent signs of wear, so I didn't take the risk. Over the shoulder and found a NOS gear (for extortion money...). Surprisingly the main bearings in particular were shot. Big ends weren't much better. Not sure if it has momentarily lost oil pressure at some stage on those track days. Also looking at some of the scoring on the bearings, I'd say when it wore the tips off the pushrods a while back, the abrasive particles went through the bearings. I plastigaged the crank journals on new bearing shells and the mains were measuring up around 076mm which is too much. Big ends weren't too bad but had a fair marks in them as well. So decided to get the crank machined and order some 020 oversize bearings. So if anyone wants some brand new 010 ACL race series bearings only fitted for measuring purposes, I've got a set here lol

Oil pump. It's a brand new JP std volume pump I bought for the engine recently. It's done less than 1000km, so it's in good order.
I'm going to generally follow TK's thread at the AV8 forum. But don't like the idea of removing the bypass valve.
So basically will be cleaning up all the galleries/ports and see if I can find someone to make up a shim so I can shim up the relief spring pressure.

 

[EYY]

Looking good! TBH I actually ruined seal the first time I attempted it (managed to cut it too short). I bought a new one and got it right with that one. I found the key was using a new razor blade for almost every cut. Takes a while when the crank has to go in and out 20+ times lol

I tried to find the oil pump gears but no dice. Tried through premier, austral, precision, rocket and a couple of others. They all ist offered the new std volume jp pumps. I'm just going to port the old pump with the current gears - at least it'll be an improvement. Are you going with undersize cam bearings?

So I take it you're happy with your current cam choice then? Is a roller cam off the cards?

 

[Darren_L]

Looking good! TBH I actually ruined seal the first time I attempted it (managed to cut it too short). I bought a new one and got it right with that one. I found the key was using a new razor blade for almost every cut. Takes a while when the crank has to go in and out 20+ times lol

I tried to find the oil pump gears but no dice. Tried through premier, austral, precision, rocket and a couple of others. They all ist offered the new std volume jp pumps. I'm just going to port the old pump with the current gears - at least it'll be an improvement. Are you going with undersize cam bearings?

So I take it you're happy with your current cam choice then? Is a roller cam off the cards?

lol yeah I buggered the first seal too. Blade wasn't sharp enough and it just ripped the edges of the seal. I even used new blades but they weren't very good. Bought another type of blade this time around. So I bought a second seal as well.
I replaced the cam bearings, just standard size. I dropped the new cam to the engine shop so they could match the bearings up. He offset the oiling holes in the cam bearings so it keeps a little more oil pressure in the mains.

To be honest would have looked at a slightly different grind cam, roller cam would have been good too, but the budget on this one has already blown way out, with what was originally going to be a cam replacement, rear seal, bearings and throw back together. I've now done a full rebuild, plus more costs to come yet with a new steel flywheel, clutch, $600+ for the ASR sump. So if I changed the cam, a full retune would be required, another $1000+. I am fairly happy with this cam, just wouldn't mind a little more at the top end considering the Trickshift is capable of a lot more flow at the top end than the standard manifold. But overall it's a really good cam, good street manners, reasonable fuel economy, and was still making 275rwhp before the heads went on. So hopefully when it's all done, closer to 300rwhp which is fairly respectable for the old girl. I might have found myself a VL 28 spline 3.45 diff too, so that will also liven it up a bit.

Thinking not too far down the track, I might pick up a VT roller engine as they are going cheap these days (before they start escalating in price) and slowly start working on a COME 355 stroker with roller cam, priority mains oiling system etc. Long term project, no rush.

 

[Darren_L]

A bit of progress over the Christmas/New Year break. A long story ahead, for those who appreciate the details. Photos at the end for those who would rather skip the boring details and just cut to the chase

When I first fit the COME heads, I noticed the heads sat a lot higher than the cast heads. There was a big 8mm gap between the intake and top edge gasket surface of the valley. Manifold bolts lined up with the heads, but I wasn't happy with the gap. So thought this time while the block was out I'd get it sorted. Also thought may as well get the intake port matched to to the heads.

So block, heads and intake went down to Pete from Horsepower Engineering in Brisbane, who does outstanding work and really knows his ****. I explained what I wanted done. Cut a long story short, he thought my camshaft choice sucked, gave me a few options, eventually, based on my requirements we agreed on the trusty old Crane H286. With that cam choice, he suggested zero decking the block to achieve 10.77 static compression in conjunction with the 54cc head chambers. With the alloy heads, it will run conservatively on 95 fuel if necessary (one of my requirements). Pete also didn't like the COME supplied valve spring pressures or locks. So new Crane springs, retainers and locks were fitted and valve spring installed heights were all set. Block was torque plate honed, zero decked, new cam bearings fitted. Trickshift intake had 60 thou milled off, and ports were enlarged,blended and matched to the larger COME heads ports. He also supplied custom made intake gaskets, matched to the ports.

Around 10 weeks later I picked up my pile of engine bits (just in time for the xmas break). All nicely matched up and machined - excellent workmanship.

I've painstakingly followed the COME Racing rear seal installation video, cleaned up and re-used the ACL flat top pistons which measured up in spec, fit new Hastings rings (set ring gaps), assembled the short motor, fit a new oil pump drive gear, new Rollmaster timing gear set, degreed the cam. Heads are cleaned up and bolted back on. I've rebuilt the standard volume JP oil pump, carried out Tony Knight's performance mods which should make it flow at least as well as a HV pump, without any additional load on the pump driveshaft and gear. New water pump (why not!).

Next I need to check rocker geometry so I can figure out what length pushrods I need to order. Old clutch was beyond it's limits, so a new clutch built by Direct Clutches Brisbane and new billet, lightened Yella Terra flywheel has made it's way into my upgrade pile of parts. I've also taken the opportunity to convert the cable clutch over to a Mal Wood hydraulic pedal conversion setup with T56 style hydraulic throw out bearing. And need to order an ASR competition sump.

Once it's all back together and in the car, it will need a full tune again. Last tune was done locally by Terry Seng at Paramount Performance, who did a great job. Unfortunately he no longer supports my Kalmaker SP3 ECU. I don't want to throw another $1000+ on a tune on an unsupported ECU. So after much consideration, I've decided to put the venerable Kalmaker SP3 into retirement and invest in a Haltech GM Sport Platinum.

So.... my basic 'refresh' has turned into a fairly expensive rebuild lol

Anyway, hope you enjoy the progress pics below

 

[Immortality]

Good progress, should see a good jump in performance.

 

[EYY]

Looking great! Is there a reason you're going with an aftermarket pcm? Just thinking you may be able to get one of the factory delco computers to give you everything you need? There's much more support for them now than there has been in the past. Not sure on the difference in cost though, but I'd say you'd save a fair bit going with the delco if you can do all the wiring yourself.

 

[Darren_L]

Looking great! Is there a reason you're going with an aftermarket pcm? Just thinking you may be able to get one of the factory delco computers to give you everything you need? There's much more support for them now than there has been in the past. Not sure on the difference in cost though, but I'd say you'd save a fair bit going with the delco if you can do all the wiring yourself.

It all comes down to lack of support
I think the Delco or Kalmaker is a great ECU, easily caters for my needs, except no tuners want to know about them.
But just a bit over the lack of support for them as far as tuners go. Everyone tunes Haltech, whereas even RT Delco seems to be few and far between.

I had my original tune done locally by Terry Seng from Paramount Performance.
But after a discussion with him a little while back, he no longer is interested in doing full tunes on Delco's.
When I mentioned the possibility of a Delco with a RT board mod and the likes of Tuner Pro software, he still didn't seem overly enthusiastic about it.
Delco support around here is getting worse by the day. I don't want to be towing the car 150kms to Brisbane etc.

 

[Immortality]

I'd say it's a tuner issue, it's a bit sad if that tuner has previously tuned his kalmaker pcm but now will only do the Haltech ecu. Comes down to tuners wanting to make money selling/installing and tuning instead of a simple tune revision.

edit: beat me to it. Still sad if he's tuned it before as he must have the relevant software/hardware to do it. He's made conscious decision to screw you out of more coin. I don't see it been a license issue either as your car already has all the relevant hardware and has been tuned previously by him.

 

[Darren_L]

Whilst he is an agent/seller for Haltech (amoungst other ECU's including Wolf) he didn't try to sell me one. He just wasn't interested in the Delco. Ironic because he used to be one of Kalmakers only recommended tuners in Qld. And he isn't protective of the initial tune, in fact I've got a copy of the tune on my laptop, I can access and modify the tune myself. He even spent the time to explain the tune and a couple of suggested tweaks I could do myself if it needed any cold start fine tuning (it was tuned in the middle of summer)

When I first fitted the COME heads (prior to the rebuild) I booked the car in for a tweak on the tune. When I turned up with the car, he asked if had changed the cam. When I replied that it was just the heads, he agreed to do the tune, only because he had done the first tune. But said he was no longer interested in doing full Delco tunes anymore, only tweaks for previous tunes he had done.

Anyway he called me a few hours later and told me his old laptop that he uses for the Kalmaker software would not link to my SP3. He was virtually ready to pull the pin until I suggested I bring my own laptop down. He reluctantly agreed, so I took my old laptop down, but unfortunately forgot to bring the security dongle, I said I could race back home and grab it, but at that stage he had lost interest, so i thought there was no point and took the car back home. Someone else gave him a call since to see if he still tuned Kalmaker and he said he didn't anymore.

I think his old Kalmaker compatible laptop has died and he has intentions of replacing it. And I just think the Delco is too painstaking to tune using the old software. Obviously it's a lot better if you use the likes of Tunerpro on a RT modified Delco, but he just doesn't seem interested. Otherwise, he's a highly regarded tuner, Australia wide and did an excellent tune last time and he's local. So I know I can trust his work. But if I can't use him to tune the Delco, I will really need to look to Brisbane (as I live in a regional area), which would be a 150+km tow. And if it ever needs tweaking, again I want someone local. If it wasn't for the fact I need to spend another $1000+ on a full tune, I'd happily stick with the Kalmaker. But it's a lot of money to invest in a tune, if the support for these ECU's is dwindling fast.

 

[Deuce]

Wow, this has stepped it up since i last checked in on it.
Excited to hear your review of the new setup.
P.s i can get you a oil pump shim for under $5 local to you if you like. Send me a pm if you are keen.