Boingk's Supercharged VS Ute

[VK SL 3800]

Rego fail is just a bit of bullshit, you are allowed to fit engine of the same family without certificates, there is a % size larger your allowed to go then maximum available in the car from factory, so 5ltr. And power output greater then the largest factory engine by around 20% so still your about the same as a 5ltr there anyways.

Definitely go see the other rego place.

 

[SweetWagon]

Damnit I said wish me luck! The ute failed rego... spectacularly hahahaha...

Its too low, too loud, and too supercharged to be registered in the state of New South Wales apparently.

I'll have a talk to another local rego station who is involved in motorsports and see what they say about it. My view is that it is a factory engine that was fitted to the Commodore range and will result in less than a 20% increase in available engine power as per the current modification regs.

Anyone else had experience with this?

- boingk

Cant help with too low/too loud, but i have had similar drama with mine.

Essentially the first time, after the conversion, just went in and got blue slip/engine number change, was all good at that point.

Later on the engine came out for a rebuild, and it also ran out of rego during that period, so i required to go get another blue slip to have it registered again, this is when i had dramas.

The place doing the blueslip (different place to the first time) called me and said they couldn't do it, needed a engineers cert blah blah blah. So i went in and explained that this year/model was available factory with it and its already been blue slipped with it before. They wouldn't comply, so i got on the phone to RTA/RMS and explained to them, they said its all good (as expected) and so i went back in and they kept arguing it, eventually had to get them to call the person i spoke to at RTA and clear it with them.

In my opinion take it somewhere else, its perfectly legal engine swap that does not require engineers cert!

 

[boingk]

Thanks fellas, and yeah I thought it shouldn't be too hard legally speaking.

I did end up getting onto the guy I mentioned and he seemed interested but cautious... and he did say that he would be more than happy to have a yarn to the RMS about it so that encouraged me a fair bit. The first crew wouldn't have a bar of it at all!

I've got the thing booked in later this week for a new muffler and most likely a new joiner as the one halfway down the exhaust is shot to buggery after hitting it on that crap trailer... that should help with the loudness. I'll try and get on Gumtree or a local swap/buy group and get some stock springs for it too.

Fingers crossed with all that it'll pass!

- boingk

 

[boingk]

So... the exhaust. It looks as though the system that's on it is a home-done job, and for what it is it's really not terrible. But - and there's always a but - it needs to be replaced for rego. I'm looking at simply throwing a catback from Redback Exhaust on it and seeing how that lines up. It should be fine, not lose any performance and sound a whole lot better! Fingers crossed.

More progress, too:

I finally got the shifter I've been waiting for in the mail! YES!!! Its bothered me so much having that crappy, short, multi-hued shifter in there I can't even begin to explain. This one is a (very cheap) billet aluminium unit that feels nice and has a much better height for shifting... plus it doesn't clash horribly with the interior like the old one.

Cheers - boingk

 

[Risky]

Just read this in relation to another thread you commented on so I had to have a look. I like how it looks honest & a base model on the outside with the Caprice interior on the inside with the L67. I can't understand why the local mechs were hesitant at giving you a hard time with the rego as the engine is the same displacement. Yes it may have a supercharger & if the transplant (apart from the engine knocking) was ok. 165kW supercharged engine is nothing these days.

I had a homemade exhaust on mine & to be honest I didn't take any notice of it until I got pulled over. It made a good noise but still within db limits. I have a stainless system on it now & it produces the same amount of noise.

A guy here has a VS ute & advertised it on the buy/swap/sell pages on FB. The body looked great, it was out of rego & needed a blue slip. The only problem with it is that it needs a new cluster. He has 3 other cars & was selling his for $650. I was very tempted to buy it but I already have my ute, 4x4 helping a mate with his work ute & his other ute in the works. It would have make a great little project for someone wanting to learn about cars & keep her going.

Keep her going & you'll get there :spot on:

 

[JCL]

Im following your thread with interest at the moment. I too have a VS ute im preparing for rego (not an L67 though unfortunately) and am finding the going slow, fixing up little things here and there

Hope you get there soon - be great to see some pics of some new plates on it when the time comes

 

[dobesz]

Bad luck mate but maybe going in with it low n loud probably didnt help, i always TRY lol look like i care by at least making sure the obvious things like low n loud etc are legal, so when they look they a bit more compassionate towards you. Should be fine tho as stated its out of a commodore so shouldn't be an issue.
Mind you after saying all this looking in my garage i would be royally f#cked if i were to re rego lol

 

[boingk]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

vs ute for $650

Hell yeah, that would be a great but even if it is a bit rough... but with a mint bondy thats really tempting.

going slow, fixing up little things here and there

Yep, I feel the pain as well mate. Chasing up all the little gremlins so I can eventually just turn the key and not worry about the indicator that doesnt work, or the missing exhaust hanger, or or or...

lound n low didn't help

They seemed way more understanding of that than the supercharger to be honest... it was weird. Go figure! I completely know what you're saying though, I've had some sketchy rides in the past and always kept them clean and tidy so theyd pass rego.

Meantime... I've got a bit of an update. The redback exhaust showed up on my doorstep, as did the bearings from ACL for the conrods. I also managed to pick up this on a trip past Supercheap:

The air filter is an obvious one... I didn't have one in the airbox at all on closer inspection. The radiator cap is a decent unit I've used in other cars before and will replace the completely shot original unit that is letting coolant out of the system, probably not helped by an old thermostat which I'll replace with a high-flow unit.

The exhaust hanger is fairly self explanatory, but the Aviation Gasket Maker is for reassembling the supercharger and bottom end of the engine, just to help stick the gaskets together and make sure there is a tight seal.

Lastly... I managed to get a 3"/14psi pulley. I'm not interested in buying an aftermarket snout for the supercharger or getting the stock one machined so this is as much boost as I will be able to run into the old girl with this setup. Planning to up the boost once the intercooler is on. Either way it should be fun!

Cheers - boingk

 

[boingk]

So, while I was yanking the cobbled-together homebrewed exhaust off the ute I noticed a few things. Minor things that wouldn't in any way impact the roadworthiness or driveability of the car.

Like... a completely gutted cat with a pipe welded through it. Why not, right? Hahaha... needless to say I went looking for a replacement and ended up swapping a muffler-delete tailpipe from my wagon for a nice high-flow factory catalyser in good condition. The only thing I had to do was prep the mating faces to remove rust, carbon and old gasket, and she fit in like a dream.

Fitting in behind her, behold! The new mandrel-bent 2.5" Redback system:

Quite a step up from the almost completely unmuffled homebrewed one with incorrect pipe routing:

So, that was my afternoon... although I did pick up a few extra bits with that cat that I hope to install in the next few days...

Stay tuned!

- boingk