Introduction - 1984 VK Calais

[Hoska91]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate the comments and glad you like it I'm loving the mudflaps hehe plus the original onces with the lion logo are fair scarce now too! The badge has been taken off at this point, still not sure about it

For the future, I am thinking about saving and putting an injected 5L into it but on the other hand, the 202 was Holden's very first injected engine which makes me want to keep it as a historical thing aha

Edit: When I say Holden's first injected engine I should correct myself by excluding cars like the Camira and for you real die hard enthusiasts, Opal's and Vauxhalls late 70's injects Omega's and the like..

If it was something special i'd be all for ya keeping the 202 in it, but..it's just a calais ( A damn nice one for sure) but still just a calais, an injected 5.0 would top this off i think would make a brilliant cruiser!

 

[Project_87]

Yeah I know what you're saying. An injected would be excellent (money permitting). Like any old Holden, more years will make it more special. It's it's 30 year anniversary soon

I remember I saw this bloke at a car show that had a early 80s Vauxhall that was nothing special. He had the horrid Starfire 4cyl in, it was clean and I admired him for keeping it all original.

I'm guessing $3,000 would permit the 5L transplant?

 

[Hoska91]

Yeah I know what you're saying. An injected would be excellent (money permitting). Like any old Holden, more years will make it more special. It's it's 30 year anniversary soon

I remember I saw this bloke at a car show that had a early 80s Vauxhall that was nothing special. He had the horrid Starfire 4cyl in, it was clean and I admired him for keeping it all original.

I'm guessing $3,000 would permit the 5L transplant?

depends on what you want to go with, transmission, if you want to rebuild or not.

my mentality has always been while you have the engine out may aswell rebuild it before it goes in

then it depends on what you want out of the engine etc haha, gotta weigh up what you want the purpose of the car to be.

 

[windowless66]

Loving the calais, 80's Tuff minus the high ride height and massive tyre profiles

 

[Project_87]

depends on what you want to go with, transmission, if you want to rebuild or not.

my mentality has always been while you have the engine out may aswell rebuild it before it goes in

then it depends on what you want out of the engine etc haha, gotta weigh up what you want the purpose of the car to be.

Yeah I want to do It cheap to start with. I don't really want it for performance..simply a V8 cruiser. What's the most cost affective way of doing this? Maybe drop a 253 in and keep the trimatic?

 

[Hoska91]

Yeah I want to do It cheap to start with. I don't really want it for performance..simply a V8 cruiser. What's the most cost affective way of doing this? Maybe drop a 253 in and keep the trimatic?

The trimatic won't fit on the 6cyl, if you like the originality i'd keep your driveline setup under covers just incase you feel like returning it to factory spec.

as for the engine combo i'd be going injected simply for reliability with a T700 behind it as the trimatic off the 202 will not fit on the back of these,

if you can pick up a low km go for it but if not i'd be doing a rebuild on it mate. Rebuilding a 304 isn't expensive if you do it yourself, just get the machine work etc and the parts done by an engine shop and assemble yourself plenty of know how around the forums to help you out with this if you have trouble.

 

[VKCALAISV8]

Hey mate if you're keen on a 308 V8 set-up I have an original VK Black 308 virgin bore sitting at the folks place (Sump (HQ-HZ) to Maniifold (not including Carb, Dizzy or Exhaust Manifolds)) that I removed from my VK Calais way back in 2001 when I had mine and swapped it over worked over one out of a mates HJ UTE with a monster cam & head work etc! The motor would need a re-build as it's been sitting now for 12 odd years without being turned over and it did use a bit oil too before it was removed but it did have 240k km's on it though!

I also have most of the parts together for a VN Head conversion too including Heads, Intake complete with Throttle Body & a couple sets of Cast Iron Manifolds as I had planned on going turbo for my next build but now I plan on going in a different direction with the next build I plan plus a heap of other parts too.

If your keen shoot me a PM to discuss!

Here is a link to what the engine was in.
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/vb-vc-vh-vk/14975-my-vk-calais.html


Cheers,

Scotty.

 

[Sandman]

IMO keep it the 202, your going for originality so keep the original engine in there. If you're after some power warm over it a bit, you can get a little more power out of them without costing the earth.

 

[corhijasna]

as sandman stated above,mild cam and head work will improve her massively,set of extractors and bob's your uncle-lol

 

[Project_87]

Thanks Scotty, considering im still on Ps and all I won't be able to seriously go for this until at least May next year. Thankyou though.

Hmm interesting...maybe the 202 can be beefed up? Im wondering about extractors..the EFI 202 came stock with extractors as opposed to cast iron headers - can someone expand on this? Is there any point replacing them with pacemakers?

I asked my mechanic about a cam and he said its a huge job. Can someone edumacate me as far as procedure, most importantly tuning?

I am also curious about a gilmer belt drive for the 202