I have been building a new engine for my vl executive over the past 12months to convert my n/a to a much faster turbo. i have stripped the engine bay and had it resprayed in original marenello red. while doin this removed battery tray and filled in uncessory holes. heres a couple of pics of the engine bay.
i will also post pics of engine on stand and in car and give details of what ive done so far and plan to do to finish. feel free to comment and suggest along the way.
Engine..I started from scratch with this engine sourcing a complete series 2 bottom end. Firstly stripping the bottom end back to block and getting everything chemically cleaned.
I then had the block bored to 40thou over and fitted ACL Forged Race Pistons. I also had the crank neatened up and fitted some new ACL Race bearings. I Had the rods done and fitted some ARP Rod bolts, aswell as assembling the bottom end.
As far as the top end goes i have fitted a reco head with new custom crow cam, crow double vavle springs and the normal bits. Before fitting head i had the compression done which has came out at 7.6:1. Then the head was bolted on with an ARP Head stud kit and a copper head gasket.
while the engine was out of the car and on the stand i started fitting all the other bits and pieces to it. I had a cpc plenum built and fitted, some bosch 036 injectors and all the other bits including new water pump etc. heres a couple of pics of engine at this stage...
thanx guys. heres the next stage in my build. i dropped the engine in, fitted radiator, belts, fan, leads & plugs etc.
Also fitted xf throttle body to plenum and twin feed fuel rail. on the other side i have fitted std exhaust manifold with a turbosmart 38mm wastegate. Under that sits a Garret T4 Turbo. Have also attatched my oil catch can (not the best yet but will do until i get braided lines). Have also fitted Front mount, which is a HKS Cooler...
Okay, thats as far as i have got for now. The rest of the things i have to do is;
Attatch cooler pipes, full 3" exhaust system, Hook up MSD Ignition, wolf 3d computer and neaten wiring, battery to boot, then fuel system which is the 036 injectors (fitted), 044 external pump, surge tank and fuel reg. Turbo diff build and finally a Keas auto to replace the n/a 5 spd....
I will post some more pics as i get these upgrades done...
Hasnt been alot of work getting done to the vl lately due to a lack of funds.
Last week i picked up a stock VLT Auto for $50, so a keas build will be on the cards soon. Yesterday i painted up the cups for gauges and mounted them to the bonnet today. Heres a look at how they turned out. I will hopefully be getting my diff built in the next week or so, so i will post up pics and details when that is done....
just picked my diff up, it is now a fully rebuilt 28 spline VLT diff. Completed with 3.45:1 gears, 4 pinion lsd with a few new parts inside...Shimmed up nice and tight. Getting my brakes this week and should have it all back in car in a couple of weeks. Will post pics when i get it back in...
just picked up my brakes, got drilled and slotted rotors with vlt calipers. they will be going on next week as well as the diff. will have pics as soon as i finish the work. just swapped my 18's for a mx7 conversion, so that will be getting pulled down for inspection, then rebuilt and put into car...fuel system also getting done in the next week or so, so build is almost nearing completion.
just finished putting my diff back in and rear brakes hooked up. heres a couple of pics. Have just ordered some boot carpet and fuel pump bracket, so fuel system will be completed as soon as they arrive. will keep you posted with updates...
hey all. have some more updates on my build. just fitted some superplush black boot carpet and started hooking up the fuel system, heres a pic of what we have done so far. should have it completed by next weekend.
I have also started running my cooler pipes, should have them done by end of week. heres a pic of one of them.
Also just had a exhaust system fitted today. its got a custom 3" dump pipe to suit the t4 with a removeable wastegate pipe following. 3" all the way from there with hiflow cat and to finish it off a 3.5" dumpy. should sound sweet on here. well should have more updates soon...
a few more updates to vl. have ran some more of my cooler pipes and hooked up BOV.
Also fuel system is now complete.
Have also change my bonnet gauges from the earlier pics. I know have two liquid filled autometer gauges (fuel psi, oil psi) all fitted up with braided hose.
The vl is getting close to being started, only a few more things left until the ecu gets fitted. I have been talking to the original owner of ttjet and he is hopefully going to be fitting up my ecu and giving it a tune. then itll b off to melbs for a final dyno tune. Anyway heres a couple of updated pics.
well i have spent two solid days workin on the vl and it should be started by the end of the w/e. what we have decided to do is hook up a std vlt ecu and run the new engine in. also drive it for a week or so and just iron out any little bugs, then it'll b off to get the wolf hooked up. we are also leaving the n/a 5 speed in for now while i wait for a clutch etc. for mx7.
so anyways over the last two days i have hooked up some new front brakes, same as rear pictured earlier. ran the battery to the boot and wired all the engine back up. tested the new fuel system for pressure and leaks, all running great. hooked up remainder off pipes, hoses, lines etc in engine bay. hooked up wastegate and boost controller. aswell of alot of other little fiddly things.
so over the w/e we will hook up the vlt ecu and start engine. do the timing etc. and hopefully take it for a spin. really looking forward to driving it. i will load up some pics on sunday nite after i give car a wash n all that. will try and get a little movie of it running...
well its been a hektic few weeks gettin all the little things finished. we tried to start the car with the vlt ecu i brought but had no success. there was just too many mods for it and it wouldnt run. So anyways i am just about to organise a workshop in melbourne to hook up the wolf i have, do the engine run in and then a dyno tune to finish it all off.
Just pulled the power steering setup out and put manual steering in, so thats free'd up the engine bay a bit more. still have future plans for more litttle mods, like thermo's etc, but for now just wanna get it on the road and have a drive.
everything else is done on the car now except for this ecu hook up and i still have to do the gearbox swap. just picked up a exedy super heavy duty clutch so that should be alot better than the std i was gunna put in. so estimating that the car will be on the road properly by the end of next month. geez it feels like its never gunna get goin but anyway thats how it goes. better to wait and do it properly than rush in and ruin all the hard work. havent had a chance for any new pics yet, too dark when i get home from work and w/e have been too wet to give it a clean.
