Hi Everyone, Long time reader of CT, thought I'd make a build thread for my new Calais. But first I thought it might be appropriate for me to provide everyone with a brief history of my short car career. I'm 23 years old. My dad is a mechanic with his own shop, so I have been lucky to have had experience working around cars since an early age. I myself am not a qualified mechanic. I have done some part time speedway racing at Moruya and also some skidpan days and other various drifting events for fun in the past. I currently live in Canberra but hail from Batemans Bay NSW. In short, I have owned 3 R31 skylines, 2 VLs and 2 S13s a UC Torana a VH SL and a Toyota Crown. It would take me a long time to write stories on each but I will happily do so if anyone's interested. R31s: 1989 Executive 1989 Coupe GTS-X 1990 GX Turbo VLs: 1987 Vacationer Wagon Turbo 1987 Calais S13s: 1988 Silvia 1991 180SX Toyota: 1990 Crown Royal Saloon G Speedway cars: UC Torana VH Commodore Onto the Calais. Basically the story goes after I sold my Vacationer back to its previous owner I always knew I'd buy another VL. Also I knew it would have to be a Calais. I sold my Crown a few months back and decided that now was the time for a Calais. A huge help in making this decision was provided by my good mate Trent [FLY-BYE] who practically demanded I either buy a calais or kill myself :P After a short time searching (I'm renowned for being very impatient) We found a suitable car in the Penrith area and made the trip up one night after work. Some pics of the car as purchased: Some details about the car as purchased: RB30E auto Unifilter, extractors, 8mm leads, 2.5" exhaust 18" Dolce wheels with Federal 595 rubber Custom front door pods, 6" splits, head unit Rear 6x9s, Sub in Parcel Shelf, Amp in boot Lowered on unknown Blue springs Fresh respray, some badges deleted Overall the car was in great condition body wise and interior wise, however it had a few problems: Clunk in rear end under acceleration Fuel pump wiring problem Ran like a dog Rear passenger window not working had 18" Dolces :P Fast forward a few weeks to now, I have replaced the Dolces with some 18" AMG wheels which I stole off my brother and fixed the clunk (centre bearing), fixed the motor (Distributor loose hahaha), half fixed the window (motor needs refurb i believe) and also lowered the rear by replacing the springs with some cut pedders springs out of a EF ute that were in the back of my VH. So then it was looking like this: Since then I have also replaced the silver side skirts with original black items. If you're still reading, you may be wondering why this is in the turbo section, being NA. Well, I aquired off my good mate Trent a turbo setup for the calais (the setup came off the popular ZUTUTU from Sydney), which is set to go on in the next month or so. I will be doing all the work (will be my second turbo conversion), except for the tune. Some details on the setup: Stuff I have: T04E on stainless low mount maniold External Tial Gate with screamer Dump and Pacemaker front pipe GKTech no holes intercooler kit with 600x300 core GTR Injectors Stuff I need: Cometic 1.2mm Head Gasket (for safety and piece of mind) Aftermarket Plenum (leaning towards Plazmaman at this stage) XF Throttle body Walbro Fuel Pump Nistune Stage 1 Board Boost Gauge After the car is running again I plan to upgrade the following also: 28 Spline VLT Diff (probably just minispooled) VR Booster/VT master cylinder/VT Front Brakes Build the auto when it breaks, ratchet shifter under the standard console 3" Mandrel bent exhaust Remove the sub and front speakers, refurb interior standard calais Steering wheel Replace the standard badges that are missing 20" Supersports or VE GTS At the moment the aim for the car is fairly vague, just want something that is really nice and will do good enough skids and I might run it at WSID one day to see how it goes. No real power expectations, though I will be running 15psi. Thanks for reading, hope you follow and enjoy my build. I may throw the odd post in about work on my other cars also. James Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

james is that you? the calais is looking good man

Yeah its me thanks man ill have another update of the weekends progress this arvo or tomorrow. Once its turbo we'll have to chuck some laps Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

yea forshore man , trent was tellin me about it the other day i met yr bro down the bay a few weeks ago too

Haha yeah he actually told me about that but I forgot all about it, small world aye? More progress on the car... I had a spare R31 crossover pipe and since the VL one had the breather connection missing I decided to try swap them over. The whole R31 pipe went straight on (not really suprising) and clamped up to the VL connector pipe to the AFM. Size wise the R31 pipe is smaller in size but square shaped and seems to be harder. I might have made 1HP if I'm lucky hahaha. Bought an Autometer Ultra-Lite Boost Gauge and although it's not turbo yet I decided to fit it anyway to give me motivation and something to do No pics yet but it basically sits down on the panel to the left of the steering column. I'll get some pics tonight. I have had a few problems with the engine wiring loom ever since I've had the car, with it randomly not starting and such. I replaced a few connectors for the cold temp sensor and also an injector plug which had wires contacting :/ It was running fine over the course of the weekend but now it won't start again. So far I've checked the ignition and its fine and then I discovered I had no injector pulse on any injectors. I tested the ECU and it was fine so I then fed power from the battery back through each injector plug to the pin on the ECU connector. Each one worked fine except number 5. When I feed power to it the number 2 injector clicks (turns on). Im pretty much guessing at this point that there are more areas in my loom where wires are either broken or bridging each other. I have a friend who is an auto elec who is going to confirm this and I'm fairly sure I'm up for a new loom. I can see three ways forward on this issue. First off would be to completely strip back the loom and rewire the whole thing to prevent future issues. Second option is obviously to source another VL engine loom in better condition, I know of a few wrecks back home that might have decent looms. Final option is to replace the loom and ECU with R31 items. Sounds crazy but R31 wiring is a much thinner gauge than VL wiring (in general not just in the engine loom) im thinking that the VL looms with the big wires carry too much current and burn out too easily. I have compared the looms quickly (I have chopped up spares of each in the shed) and they appear the same bar the connectors which go to the air con and the dashes (these may be the same the VL loom was chopped at the firewall plug). The only hurdle that comes to mind is the fuel pump circuit which is controlled internally in an R31 ECU but externally with relays and such in a VL. Might be as simple finding an R31 loom and ECU (much easier to find in good condition than a VL and again I have access to some potenial donors) as chopping out the relay and fuse in the fuse box and running a wire straight to the ECU, then soldering the VL plugs on for the dash and air con, and then finally putting the VL Firewall plug on the R31 loom. I like this idea because I've had R31s for 7 years and I've never had wiring issues yet VL looms seem to be plagued with the sort of problems im having. If anyone has any comments or experience on this subject feel free to contribute, perhaps we can all have a little whinge session about our ****ty wiring looms hahaha. Until next time, James Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Updates: Pics of Boost gauge install. Sorry it was a bit dark in the shed but thats the best I could do. Also tried one with the lights on dash lights look blue hahaha: Also a pic of my R31 induction pipe, again sorry for the pov quality. Swapping my LE grille for a standard calais grille today, also have ordered a new bonnet cable to open my bonnet by myself no real progress on the electrical fail front at the moment. Gotta go and pull some 3.7 diff gears out from a mates diff for it. Also thinking about getting arp head studs and a cam while I have the head off. Snowball effect here we go hahaha Until next time, James Some original photos have not been recovered yet.