Pie-VK
That guy.
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2011
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- 160
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- Age
- 33
- Location
- Wollongong, NSW
- Members Ride
- Series I VY SS Ute 5.7/M6
Because I'm a little sick of seeing so many of those 'ERH MAH GERD.. CAN I CONVERT MAH VEE6 TEW A VEE8??!?!?!?!1?!?!!!?ONE???!?!111' Threads I decided to make a thread to collect all of the advice from all the the people who've tried it.
Some have suceeded, some have failed.
First: The Idea.
You have a VT-VZ Exec or some other comperable V6 and you want to take out that shitty old ecotec motor and drop in a big fat 5.7L GenIII. But there are some issues youre going to run into.
For arguements sake lets use my VY Storm as the example here.
Part Deus: The Parts.
It's not just a simple case of 'Get a motor, drop it in and be on your way'. It;s a lot more complicated than that.
What you will need is a Long motor, basically that's a motor with all the bolt on, and by bolt ons I mean, the alternator, power steering pump etc. You can get this a Number of ways, the second cheapest (I started with the second for a reason) and most effective way is buying one from a holden wrecker, in this case we'll use 4blok. They sell conversion kits for a reasonable price and they have a good reputation and warranty behind them. But you'll probably just be buying the engine, loom and ECU + all the bolt ons, you'll also need a K frame to suit. That'll set you back about $4,500. You'll also want to get the gearbox, thats another $1600 at the cheapest and then freight on top.
To eliminate the chances of anything going wrong engine wise, you could go the expensive way and get a brand new motor, but these are usually short motors with no bolt ons at all. that'll set you back $8,000 + K Frams and bolt ons + Freight.
Now the cheapest way to get all the parts you need would be to buy a wrecked SS, in my case it would be a VY SS Ute. They'll probably set you back about $5,000 but atleast you'll have ALL of the parts you'll need. What you'll want to look out for preferably is a repairable write off (thus eliminating the need for a V8 conversion) or a full write off that has sustained front damage but not enough to damage the engine, a side impact enough to bend the chasis but not tear anything apart like a diff or gearbox, or a rear impact that has destroyed the chassis but not the diff/tailshaft. But make sure all the suspension, brakes and drive line components are undamaged.
Part III: The Method:
OK, lets assume you have you're wrecked SS, you exec or in my case the Storm. You will want to take EVERYTHING out of that old SS and put it inside your Exec. Trust me, it's not as easy as it sounds. To put it simply, what you're doing is NOT a V8 conversion to your car, you are in essense doing a chassis and pannel transplant on the SS and that is a big job.
Just imagine unbolting everything from the wrecked chassis of the SS, then unbolting everything from your chassis and swapping them over. That's a lot of nuts and bolts and screws and big heaythings and wires.
Also keep in mind that things are not just simply going to work, you will need check out how your ignition barrel is going to work with the SS BCM. How the ECU is going to communicate with everything. There will be small things that will get in the way. If the ECU detected that the car was crashed, then you will need someone with and OBDII to get rid of the SRS Airbag light from your car. If the SS ECU had set off the immobilizer, you'll need to figure that out too.
At the end of the day you have 3 Choices
1: The most expencive but most reliable: A good mechanic. If he does all the work and he's a really good mechanic, then all of you worries will be taken care off, except that worry of 'how much cash will I have left' or 'I wonder how my kids are going to eat tonight'. Seriously, it will be ####ing expensive, Take a random number between 5 and 10, put it in you head, times it by 2, then add 3 0's at the end and thats how much it will cost.
2: The less expensive but less reliable: Doing as much work as you can, then letting a mechanic take over when you get stuck. This is all down to how much you can do, to be honest it doesn't take a genius to drop a motor in, or attach a gearbox or a diff. Just let the mechanic take over with all the hard parts. It's cheaper, but you might want him to check over your work just to be safe.
3: The least expensive and least reliable: Doing it all yourself. If you can pull it off yourself then more power to you. I'm not saying that you personally are a **** mechanic and have no mechanical skills, but things go wrong. Mechanics have 2 or 3 guys on 1 car to make sure it all comes together properly. To be safe, please get it checked by an engineer or at least a mechanic before you try and take you car out on the road.
Part Four: The Finish
This is all down to how good you, the wrecked SS/conversion kit, your car, and your mechanic all are. If the parts you use are crap, and they go into your crap exec and your mechanic got his mechanics license from hobo georges school of building stuff, then the end product is going to be a steaming pile of bovine excrement.
Part No.5: Other bits.
So at the end of the day, it is actually cheaper and easier to just sell your exec, and buy and SS. But if for some reason you want to do a V8 conversion for whatever reason, here is my advice.
Buy a wrecked V8 that isnt too badly damaged. Recondition all of those parts. Have a huge wad of cashed saved up to do the conversion itself. Make sure youre mechanic isn't retarded, Do as much as you can yourself to keep costs down. Get your stuff checked out afterwards.
You might also want to look at an L67 or Super6 conversion instead.
They're much, much much eaier to pull off than a V8 conversion, Basically the easier way to do it is to get a hold of a complete L67 motor, Short or long, it does matter, you actually have 90% of the parts ready to go in your car anyway. A complete motor willcost about $2000, but you will also need a fuel pump, and ECU and that's about it for an Auto anyway.
L67's mostly came out in calais, and calais all rolled off the factory floor as auto's. So if you have a manual, you have 2 choices, flash you Manual ECU to run the supercharger, or flash your auto ECU to run a manual gearbox.
then it's a simple case of drop in, if you have a short motor, transfer over your alternator, waterpump, aircon pump etc, drop the new motor in, connect up the ECU and fuel pump and away you go.
Manual owners be warned. VT-VY use the Getrag 5 speed manual box. They're ****, so dropping in an L67 might be a little more than the box can handle if you're an aggressive driver.
Anyway, I hope this helps clears some questions about Conversions.
Some have suceeded, some have failed.
First: The Idea.
You have a VT-VZ Exec or some other comperable V6 and you want to take out that shitty old ecotec motor and drop in a big fat 5.7L GenIII. But there are some issues youre going to run into.
For arguements sake lets use my VY Storm as the example here.
Part Deus: The Parts.
It's not just a simple case of 'Get a motor, drop it in and be on your way'. It;s a lot more complicated than that.
What you will need is a Long motor, basically that's a motor with all the bolt on, and by bolt ons I mean, the alternator, power steering pump etc. You can get this a Number of ways, the second cheapest (I started with the second for a reason) and most effective way is buying one from a holden wrecker, in this case we'll use 4blok. They sell conversion kits for a reasonable price and they have a good reputation and warranty behind them. But you'll probably just be buying the engine, loom and ECU + all the bolt ons, you'll also need a K frame to suit. That'll set you back about $4,500. You'll also want to get the gearbox, thats another $1600 at the cheapest and then freight on top.
To eliminate the chances of anything going wrong engine wise, you could go the expensive way and get a brand new motor, but these are usually short motors with no bolt ons at all. that'll set you back $8,000 + K Frams and bolt ons + Freight.
Now the cheapest way to get all the parts you need would be to buy a wrecked SS, in my case it would be a VY SS Ute. They'll probably set you back about $5,000 but atleast you'll have ALL of the parts you'll need. What you'll want to look out for preferably is a repairable write off (thus eliminating the need for a V8 conversion) or a full write off that has sustained front damage but not enough to damage the engine, a side impact enough to bend the chasis but not tear anything apart like a diff or gearbox, or a rear impact that has destroyed the chassis but not the diff/tailshaft. But make sure all the suspension, brakes and drive line components are undamaged.
Part III: The Method:
OK, lets assume you have you're wrecked SS, you exec or in my case the Storm. You will want to take EVERYTHING out of that old SS and put it inside your Exec. Trust me, it's not as easy as it sounds. To put it simply, what you're doing is NOT a V8 conversion to your car, you are in essense doing a chassis and pannel transplant on the SS and that is a big job.
Just imagine unbolting everything from the wrecked chassis of the SS, then unbolting everything from your chassis and swapping them over. That's a lot of nuts and bolts and screws and big heaythings and wires.
Also keep in mind that things are not just simply going to work, you will need check out how your ignition barrel is going to work with the SS BCM. How the ECU is going to communicate with everything. There will be small things that will get in the way. If the ECU detected that the car was crashed, then you will need someone with and OBDII to get rid of the SRS Airbag light from your car. If the SS ECU had set off the immobilizer, you'll need to figure that out too.
At the end of the day you have 3 Choices
1: The most expencive but most reliable: A good mechanic. If he does all the work and he's a really good mechanic, then all of you worries will be taken care off, except that worry of 'how much cash will I have left' or 'I wonder how my kids are going to eat tonight'. Seriously, it will be ####ing expensive, Take a random number between 5 and 10, put it in you head, times it by 2, then add 3 0's at the end and thats how much it will cost.
2: The less expensive but less reliable: Doing as much work as you can, then letting a mechanic take over when you get stuck. This is all down to how much you can do, to be honest it doesn't take a genius to drop a motor in, or attach a gearbox or a diff. Just let the mechanic take over with all the hard parts. It's cheaper, but you might want him to check over your work just to be safe.
3: The least expensive and least reliable: Doing it all yourself. If you can pull it off yourself then more power to you. I'm not saying that you personally are a **** mechanic and have no mechanical skills, but things go wrong. Mechanics have 2 or 3 guys on 1 car to make sure it all comes together properly. To be safe, please get it checked by an engineer or at least a mechanic before you try and take you car out on the road.
Part Four: The Finish
This is all down to how good you, the wrecked SS/conversion kit, your car, and your mechanic all are. If the parts you use are crap, and they go into your crap exec and your mechanic got his mechanics license from hobo georges school of building stuff, then the end product is going to be a steaming pile of bovine excrement.
Part No.5: Other bits.
So at the end of the day, it is actually cheaper and easier to just sell your exec, and buy and SS. But if for some reason you want to do a V8 conversion for whatever reason, here is my advice.
Buy a wrecked V8 that isnt too badly damaged. Recondition all of those parts. Have a huge wad of cashed saved up to do the conversion itself. Make sure youre mechanic isn't retarded, Do as much as you can yourself to keep costs down. Get your stuff checked out afterwards.
You might also want to look at an L67 or Super6 conversion instead.
They're much, much much eaier to pull off than a V8 conversion, Basically the easier way to do it is to get a hold of a complete L67 motor, Short or long, it does matter, you actually have 90% of the parts ready to go in your car anyway. A complete motor willcost about $2000, but you will also need a fuel pump, and ECU and that's about it for an Auto anyway.
L67's mostly came out in calais, and calais all rolled off the factory floor as auto's. So if you have a manual, you have 2 choices, flash you Manual ECU to run the supercharger, or flash your auto ECU to run a manual gearbox.
then it's a simple case of drop in, if you have a short motor, transfer over your alternator, waterpump, aircon pump etc, drop the new motor in, connect up the ECU and fuel pump and away you go.
Manual owners be warned. VT-VY use the Getrag 5 speed manual box. They're ****, so dropping in an L67 might be a little more than the box can handle if you're an aggressive driver.
Anyway, I hope this helps clears some questions about Conversions.
