Well thought I might finally start a build thread... 1986 VL Berlina - Factory turbo RB30 28 spline axles Disk brakes all over Calais nose cone, tail lights, misc. Calais interior Forged LS1: JE Forged Pistons Eagle Forged Rods ARP Head Studs ARP Main Studs Comp Magnum Lifters Comp Magnum Pushrods 225/225 113 Comp Cam PSI Valve Springs Double Row timing chain I bought the car as a project car with an N/A RB30 and auto fitted in unknown condition, recently painted but abit rough, decent(ish) fuel system, some missing interior etc. Reason behind the VL was my first ever car being a 5.0L VL Berlina, lots of fun time had in that car, and still regret selling to this day! Decided that I would go the LS1 conversion route, firstly planned to get a bog stock LS1, then later down the track look at cam/heads and gas, eventually possibly putting a turbo on the side. Jez from HDTCQ will take care of all of my tuning needs, so I will be well looked after in that regard A friend had a slightly damaged LS1 long motor for sale, with the above components; however two of the pistons need to be replaced due to previous detonation. I'll replace all of them, and get the head's tidied up from where this happened. I picked this up at an absolute steal (thanks Sean ), so my plans have changed slightly from the original ones... I'll stick this engine in N/A to start with to get through rego / mod plate and see how long I last till I want some more power.. I have done abit of work thusfar and collected some items on the way.. so I'll go over what's been done in the next few posts, for now here is how it was at purchase: ---------- Post added 02-09-11 at 23:31 ---------- First thing I wanted to get out of the way was to decide what direction I wanted to go for the build up.. just how far I wanted to go. I have decided to have the car resprayed, at this stage I am still undecided to what extent.. i.e. full bare metal respray or what.. a good friend is a panel beater/spray painter so it will be a case of whatever he recommends. I went back and forwards alot with colours but eventually settled on Holden's "Poison Ivy" with the VL Calais upper and lower moulds, front & rear bar in asteroid silver.. a mockup can be seen here: Interior wise, my original VL was "Saddle Tan" and I really liked the cream / tan look. Unfortunately the VL I purchased was blue interior, and trying to find good condition interior in any colour is hard to come by these days - let alone a specific colour! I set out to find a solution rather then painting the interior pieces with regular paint, and found VHT's vinyl dye product. Reviews seem to be mixed, most seem to say the product is great but high use areas it's abit iffy.. I guess time is going to have to tell. Here is the can of vinyl dye, and some prepsol, this one is the "Desert Sand" colour. I still need to grab a can of "Buckskin Tan Satin" to make a choice between the two. The original test subject: First coat.. Second Final coat and colour: I quite like how it has turned out, but as said need to grab a can of the other colour and see what looks the best. Carpet was I looked around and ended up getting some samples sent from Knox Auto Carpets, I got sent the plush carpet in Beige (left) and Tan (right) ended up choosing the Beige colour, went ahead and ordered a moulded 2-piece carpet and an extra meter of the carpet for "extra bits" So that's the interior choices pretty much taken care of, as said I still need to choose between the two vinyl dye's and then get to work dyeing everything. ---------- Post added 02-09-11 at 23:32 ---------- So after getting the VL home my first item of attention was to clean out the interior, and sort out the surface rust. I am still currently renting where I am while our house is being built, and the VL is living out in the weather so until our house is completed I can't really do much on the car. The interior as it stood when the car was purchased.. I soon got to work removing the old carpet, which I promptly ditched, removed all the seats and stored for later.. verdict is still out on what to do with them for now, so I was left with this.. I found some more rust under the carpet.. afew shots So I took to them all with an angle grinder with a wire wheel, funny story with this pic.. I work in the mining industry, where safety equipment is paramount.. first go I had no safety gear and what happens.. cop a flying piece of rust to the face hence the safety gear.. lol Quick clean up with the Wife's Dyson afterwards.. oops And then gave it a quick hit with some primer to stop any surface rust coming back. Will deal with the rust later when paint & panel work is sorted, was simply going through this process to see what I had to work with! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

We had abit of rain over the next few weeks so I wanted something to keep myself busy inside, so I set to work on the rear Calais garnish. Before shots: First step was the tedious process of removing the 25yr old weathered pin stripe on the garnish: After this I sanded, prepsol'd and then used bumper primer on the whole garnish.. sorry was a bit lax with pictures throughout this process! Next stage was to paint on the silver stripes that border the pinstripe sticker, sorry I forgot pictures for this stage.. but just imagine the area covered in asteroid silver After that was to mask over the stripes and paint the rest of the garnish in midnight black, thus resulting in: Apply the eBay purchased replacement pinstripe sticker (which was a royal pain to stick on straight I might add!!) All completed, just need to stick down the Calais badge (another eBay $10 special!) The end result was decentish, will look good from afar but it's no show quality; but definitely 100% on what it was before the "refurb" Once the weather had cleared up I was able to get back outside and attack the car again, this time I wanted to get the boot sorted, you may of spotted from previous pictures there was a fair amount of surface rust on the boot floor This was caused by sitting on the previous owners yard for quite some time with the usual 20c rust holes around the rear window: Apparently the fuel system in the car once pushed a turbo RB30 to 240rwkw.. consisting of a Carter lift pump, Bosch VL Turbo fuel pump and surge tank, I might be able to use the VL Turbo pump as a lift pump and maybe keep the surge tank.. see what Jez say's Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

I attacked the boot floor in the same fashion as the interior of the car, and as with almost all VL's the spare wheel well is beyond repair... You can thankfully buy replacement slot in's from rare spares, or I may just get one fabbed up by the panel beater. After purchasing the forged long motor I got some enthusiasm to get to work on the engine bay, preparing to remove the old N/A RB30 and make room for the LS1 As the engine bay stood.. I then had a great afternoon drinking afew cold beverages and removing anything that got in my way, chucking most of it straight in the bin as not much is of any use anymore. So that's how the car currently sits.. engine and box are ready to be pulled out. Unsure if I will do much more to the car until my house is finished being built as it's just not practical to fab up engine mounts etc out in the open. And lastly just afew happy snaps of the misc. items I have accumulated over the time.. constantly trawling forums and eBay to add more Calais taillights Headlights & indicators Washer and overflow bottles Front windscreen mouldings Wiper switch Also have as previously mentioned the moulded carpet, and a whole garage full of other items to go back into the VL. Got the engine home and onto the stand, will start tearing it down over the next few weeks or so. As previously mentioned, I got the engine fairly cheap as it has had some past issues, looks like spark plug electrodes have come loose and rattled around abit. Anyway pictures speak better then words: Heads - Pistons - ARP head & main stud kits - JE forged pistons & Eagle forged rods - Double row timing chain - LS2 intake manifold, fuel rails and stock injectors that I have purchased - Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Started dismantling the LS1 today. First up, remove the oil pump. This is what it looks like And picture it being in this space (sorry kinda forgot to take photos) Next up, remove the three bolts that hold the cam gear in place. Keep said bolts handy Remove the 4 bolts holding the cam retainer plate in, and use one/two of those cam gear bolts as a "handle" for the cam. Now, realize that you you should have removed the lifters (or somehow secured them, if just doing a cam swap) before removing the cam.. all good tho! - Sorry this was a tricky stage and my hands were covered in oil, not many pics put here is my custom designed holding tool for the lifters. Once the lifters are out, the cam just pulls straight out, with abit of swearing and rotating of the cam. Next up, I'm removing the pistons and rods. Move the rotating assembly to where you can get easy access to the rod caps. Needed to use a piece of pipe over the end of my ratchet to act as a breaker bar.. really need to just buy a decent bar! Give the caps a light tap so that they separate, and then remove the pistons and rods from the bore. All 8 pistons are now removed and stored away, I need to make a decision on the damaged pistons (will get some photos actually) as the most damaged piston has some marks on the side of it.. pics to follow Now some of the bores have these markings inside of them.. not really sure if that's considered "normal" or not.. might need a light clean up?? advice?? Here is said piston, all i'm worried about is the bit of a "dag" on the side of the piston, should I be worried? Further inspection has found that the marks in the bores are not scuffing, can actually feel something there. Crank needs to be linished, two bores need a hone or maybe re-sleeved if it's too bad, rods need to be crack tested and then I need to order two new replacement pistons. After that it will be a bulletproof bottom end. Dropped off the block, rods and crank to the machine shop today. Block will get a hone - they seem to think this will sort the issue out with the bore that I have. Also going to get cam bearings replaced while the block is there. Rods will be crack tested, and the crank will also be tested + linished to remove the scuffs on it. So that's how the car currently sits.. engine and box are ready to be pulled out. Unsure if I will do much more to the car until my house is finished being built as it's just not practical to fab up engine mounts etc out in the open. ---------- Post added 02-09-11 at 23:37 ---------- and yes I know I stuffed up the calais pin stripe, it's around the wrong way :@ Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

looks good mate, you running this n/a or at you going to turbo it?

N/A to get it mod plated then a little while down the track turbo. Kinda pointless having a fully forged motor and running it N/A.

Got a call from the machine shop, bore won't clean up enough with a hone so it's getting bored out 10 thou. So a new set of pistons is on the cards. So it should be pretty bulletproof and achieve the goals that I want now.. Pretty sure I will go with this kit from Mahle: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MLE-LS1314908F04/

Quote: Originally Posted by Adam007 [View Post] Got a call from the machine shop, bore won't clean up enough with a hone so it's getting bored out 10 thou. So a new set of pistons is on the cards. So it should be pretty bulletproof and achieve the goals that I want now.. Pretty sure I will go with this kit from Mahle: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MLE-LS1314908F04/ i bought these pistons for my stroker engine, have a mate making over 1000rwhp with them also with 9.5:1 comp

I ended up ordering the above piston kit, it's since left Summit and is hopefully going to make it to my doorstep Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Had a shock this arvo when the Aus Post lady rocked up - yes on a Sunday!! So off to the machine shop tomorrow to drop these off, hopefully they will turn the block around fairly quickly. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Got the block and crank back from the machine shop. Now to chase up some bearings. Any recommendations on brands or are they all much the same? No pictures as there isn't much to show. Once I have bearings it will be off to get balanced.

acl or clevitte either are good

Yeah mate cheers, i think I will end up going with Clevite - they seem to have the biggest range of choice too which is always good.

Well project has take a slight turn.. all good though! Was on the way home from QLD Transport of all places the other day and spotted this gem for sale: 1988 VL SL Executive 3.0L RB30 Alpine white paint, Sandalwood interior All trim and paint codes match up, I think it's pretty original and un-molested actually. So now going to use this as my shell. Still undecided to keep it as an SL, or put the calais bits on that I have. leaning towards keeping the SL look however. Picked it up for $400, completely running - could of driven it home if it was registered. Took it for a quick squirt around the block, and while it's abit spluttery from the 2+yr old fuel, drives great considering. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

leave it sl champ. nice little bargain you got yourself there

Pulled the disc diff out of the parts car to go into the SL, then cleaned it up ready to be painted when it stops raining. Mrs approved bulk spending so this project is going to get a move on. Ordered: TCE 4200 9.5" Converter LS1 Loom LS1 PCM LS1 Water Pump LS1 Balancer Undercar surge tank / twin pump holder B&M shifter adaptor to suit VL automatic shroud B&M Pro Ratchet Shifter AU twin thermo fan's Still got alot more things on the shopping list, but that should get me started Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

nice build mate. be good to see it when the motor is together and in the car.

keep the updates coming, good read

Went to a friends workshop today with all the motor parts, I probably could have screwed it together at home, I have put together a 308 and a 540 BBC before - but given the newer technology, I would rather have someone watching over and checking what I was doing, plus he had all the tools and essentials on hand. Sofar we have cleaned the block, got the crank in, checked clearances with plastic gauge on the mains caps, mains caps all torqued upto spec, started assembling pistons and rods, filing down rings as we go, checked rod bearings with plastic gauge aswell. All clearances are within spec and everything is spinning freely and feeling as it should, got 4 pistons and rods in today and called it a day. Probably work on it abit more next weekend, I have to work around my friend and my schedule. Just some random pictures from the day: Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Post Office lady now hates me, just wait till the 4 new disc's turn up though B&M Pro Ratchet shifter - assembly required :Paranoid: LS1 Loom & ECU out of an auto WH stato - for my use either manual or auto loom will suffice, as I am using a manualized TH400 anyway. VT-VY looms will work, but VT-VX is apparently easier to work with. Also got all new Bendix Ultimate brake pads for the new discs on order. LS1 Harmonic Balancer, Water pump and the most expensive bolt I have ever purchased.. $54 ARP balancer bolt. Repro Ford AU Thermo fans, these things scream at full power. 2x Bosch 044 & inline filter. Don't worry about the thermo's, that noise will be drowned out by these two Some original photos have not been recovered yet.