These are some pictures I took of my VL after it has been sitting outside for 4 years as up until now, I had no where to store it, as my avatar says it has an RB30DE motor (non turbo) and the car has since been washed , these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago :- I had to manually operate the fuel injectors because the fuel deposits gummed the nozzles up causing them to be stuck shut, I just pulsed them across 12 volts to achieve this, the fuel pumps were also cactus , I'd say they corroded up so I ran an old Toyota Camry in tank fuel pump in a bucket of fuel in the boot, I had a surge tank in there at a time I was going through high pressure fuel pumps so I just ripped the high pressure line & return line off and ran the pump in the bucket like that. I've ordered a 120 LPH in-tank fuel pump off Ebay for $27.27 so it's just a matter of modifying the fuel pickup pipe to suit the new pump, this one is 28mm longer than the old low pressure pump so it will get more of the fuel when the tank is low, the old adjustable fuel pressure regulator will need to be replaced as it doesn't hold pressure once primed but enough for me to start the engine & drive the car. It just needs some rust cut out of it (again after 11 years !!!) mainly around the windscreen and ideally I am looking for 4 new doors to replace the ones on there as they're rusted out at the bottom, failing that I may have to weld metal plates in but I'm hoping I don't have to compromise there. I could weld plates in around the windscreen again but I would like to order a new front sill off Ebay from Rare Spares for $223 and make sure the job is done properly. I am also looking for some chrome strips for the door trim surrounds as well. Around the boot seal area, small sections need to be repaired but I can get away with welding metal strips in there. The motor has done 200,000 kms since I built it in 2003 (using a 300,000 kms old block with good bores), the last time I had it registered (2008) I thought I had damaged the motor because water got past the windscreen and leaked into the computer, shorting the injector driver out for No-4 cylinder causing the fuel injector to stick open and flooding the engine with fuel, replacing that one with a Nissan N14 Pulsar (SR20DE) fuel injector fixed that problem. I was getting oil in the air intake and the engine was blowing smoke & using oil which led me to believe that the engine had excessive blow by, the oil return pipe from the RB25 head to the engine block I think was blocked up with sludge down the bottom so I blew that out and I want to straighten that oil return path so no sludge gets trapped in the pipe, someone mentioned the RB series twin cam engines can have that problem , particularly at high revs where the oil gets trapped up there so needs that return line hooked up. I did a compression test where the fist 3 cylinders tested at 1250 KPA, 4@1275KPA, 5@1300KPA , 6@1275KPA so that's pretty good, perhaps the last 3 may have a bit of carbon buildup in the combustion chambers as the stem seals were leaking oil into the cylinders, the engine seems to have stopped blowing smoke on startup as I think the stem seals may have swelled up after sitting in fairly fresh engine oil for 4 years, when the RB25 engine was over in Japan the oil was fairly old in the engine so they probably shrunk after sitting in a warehouse for a few years. Hopefully I can get away with not having to pull the cylinder head off as the compression is pretty close & the carbon will hopefully will burn off, oil entering through the intake tube would've probably contributed to that too. I'm also looking at a colour change to high opacity white so the car will look the same on the outside as it does on the inside, I have to probably make a new battery tray up for it too as the old one is rusted out, Supercheap auto have a 270 CCA battery which will do the job as it is only starting up a 3 litre engine, I've got a 480 CCA battery cranking over a 5.7 litre V8 no worries so I'm not falling for the trick that the car needs the biggest CCA battery that will fit into it. I don't mean to go on like this it's just the car has a big history and it's the first time it has been going since 2009 and I was surprised how smooth it ran, pretty much as smooth as a new VL. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Good stuff. Should've kept it dirty like in the first pic, would look hilarious driving around.

solid project mate but that white interior.... maybe consider a colour change there?

Better condition than what I'd expect after reading most of your posts lol.

Good to see some TLC getting into that thing mate whats with the engine? couldnt be factory like that? Bigger battery = the longer you can have the radio playing whilst fishing haha ive got 1175CCA in mine :|

Quote: whats with the engine? couldnt be factory like that? I was a bit tired of the RB30E which I had in there (was from my first VL, the one in there now is the original RB30 block fitted in the factory), that block I've still got & is worn out (need to go 0.020" oversized) , I was thinking of just rebuilding the single cam motor but I was having a hard time trying to find good fuel injectors, etc which didn't leak, I suppose I could've used an RB30ET computer & new injectors which are half the price of the genuine salmon coloured RB30 top feed units. These weren't available aftermarket in 2003 so I tossed the single cam head, 9:1 RB30 pistons in favour of a twin cam head from a 1995 R33 RB25 non turbo Skyline motor and 10:1 pistons which fit into the original RB30 bores, the piston rings are oversized ACL rings which suit Mitsubishi 4G63 motor as the RB30 rings don't fit the RB25 pistons, the engine runs the standard 259 cc Denso injectors which are side feed (same type as the Mazda RX7). So the motor isn't factory standard, I have had it registered because it runs the original RB30 engine block (27 years old this year), I was looking to go down the SOHC turbo route but I wasn't after huge horsepower, at the time, if it went as good as the Holden V8's in the VS Commodores I was happy with it and I'm still happy with its performance because I have recently driven it and it goes good enough for me, it would come close to the latest VE Commodore Omega (3 litre) in performance, only the VL is a lot lighter. Even third party property damage is expensive for these in turbo form at any age, turbo is still a dirty word because I think it's a lot easier to get huge amounts of horsepower out of them and the insurance companies tend to crack down on those cars , particularly if they put out a huge amount of horsepower. I think even the later Commodores with over 300kw motors in them are marginal in strength as I've had to rebush the rear end of my VY SS Commodore as the rear control arm bushes were pushed out of shape, that was in a car with a sports exhaust system & tune, these cars also have traction control , ABS braking, SRS airbags as standard safety features as well which makes them more "insureable". Yeah, too much can happen to stock cars in heavily modified form, like the Nissan Bluebirds which people fitted with FJ20DET engines, their weak spot was on the right hand side of the body the rear lower control arm was attached to, the rear axle & lower control arm would tear off the floorpan so would need more strengthening in that area for the turbo motor as from what I was told the mounting point there isn't really attached to the chassis on that side.

i'd bin the car rather than do all that work to it, it simply won't be worth doing it all plus there's that horrid white interior

agreed with Aus

Clocked up 200,000 ks in 5 years nice. I wouldn't lean to hard on a project car with an engine that has done approx 500,000 with only a freshen up.

Quote: Originally Posted by RB30DEVL [View Post] Yeah, too much can happen to stock cars in heavily modified form, like the Nissan Bluebirds which people fitted with FJ20DET engines, their weak spot was on the right hand side of the body the rear lower control arm was attached to, the rear axle & lower control arm would tear off the floorpan so would need more strengthening in that area for the turbo motor as from what I was told the mounting point there isn't really attached to the chassis on that side. lucky you mentioned this, I was about to drop an FJ20DET into a Bluebird tonight, as I'm sure plenty of other people are too, I'll get that weak spot sorted. Thanks maaaate

WOW! RB25/30 NA!! What a waste of time! Should of did the turbo set up from the start. Nice project, I personally would bin 95% of the car basically just keeping the shell and starting from there. Good luck though!

Quote: Originally Posted by REALIST [View Post] lucky you mentioned this, I was about to drop an FJ20DET into a Bluebird tonight, as I'm sure plenty of other people are too, I'll get that weak spot sorted. Thanks maaaate I'll pass the advice onto all my mates who are in the middle of doing that conversion too