Hey guys, im upgradin my old VN Wagon to a Gen 3 V8 VX Wagon. Basically i want Mid/Low 12's - Im tossin up between Twin Turbo and Supercharger...leaning towards supercharger though. Changin the exhaust, but i also heard that there is a cam kit comin out that might yield good power increases. Any suggestions on a setup or things that work well on this engine?

Well mate my old man owns a VXSS which runs a very late 12. If your wanting just a 12 then you don't need a supercharger. What my old man has done is: Exhaust Extractors LS1 edit- you can buy this and do it yourself which is quite complicated or get someone like sam's performance in padstow sydney to do it for you. MAFF less tune. Your aware of the mass air flow meter that allows the computer to determine air flow. Well unfortunately there is a bit of restriction with this. So what you can do is tune the car to run withgout the MAF. Old man did this himself with LS1edit. But if you don't have the time to read a lot and learn about it i wouldn't try it. throattle body. Sorry can't remember the size for you but my old man's is much larger than the original allowing for better response and more air GTS pipe. Since the GTS runs without the MAF we bought this pipe which is much larger than stock allowing once again for more airflow. HSV air intake- one of the first mods, really can't remember much about the instal as it was done ourseves around 3 years ago. Sits near the headlight and just allows a bit more power. Bilstein shock abosorbers and king springs in the back end. Torque and power of the car had stuffed the shocks and springs and it was squatting quite badly. Excellent upgrade and stiffens up the back end a lot. Diff ratio was also changed very soon after car was prrchased. Long time ago and i can't remember what ratio was used but if you want i can find all this out for you when Old man's car is now making 230kw at the rear wheels. So around 315-320 i guess at motor. Not bad for minor sort of mods without opening the engine. I drive it occasionally ie on weekends and i can tell you it flys. Its an auto but the fact it cherps into 2nd and the way it launches of lights and sound of it scares the crap out of a lot of people who think they could beat it eg STI owner Now that if you can drive you will get you very close to a 12. Since you want a mid to low 12 a bit more has to be done. Well a lot of people are using a cam and head package from Sam's performance and are running well below 12s without touching superchargers, etc. Your up for around $10g including install im quite sure last i heard and you will defiently be running below a 12 if you really want depending on how aggressive you want the camshaft, etc. The quickest time i have heard of at the moment is by craig running 10 with a cam and head package. There is also another ute PLAN B. Now using a supercharger (he was featued in SC a while ago using another heavily worked ute but it has been sold). Also MADLS1 another ute which is running 8 throattle body's and is very close to breaking a 9 second pass. I believe you should go for a cam and head package over a supercharger. There startign to become a bit more popular now. Around 2 years ago people using them were getting aroudn 350kw at motor which isn't huge considering. Last dyno i went to another SS with a very aggresive cam and head was making 450hp at wheels. Just depends what you want i guess. hoped that has helped a bit. If you are near sydney i can give you Sam's performance number. People around australia travel to this guy for work on their LS1's. But yeh good luck and they are a great car to drive Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

That was great! Thanks heaps for that. Id like to see the old mans car. And if u can be bothered find out the diff ratio. How much have u spent on the car just in mods? Did u guys need to do any strengthening to it other than the springs? Also, id love to hear that exhaust, thats one thing i want, an aggressive exhaust and from the sounds of it u got that.

Quote: Originally Posted by TufWagon That was great! Thanks heaps for that. Id like to see the old mans car. And if u can be bothered find out the diff ratio. How much have u spent on the car just in mods? Did u guys need to do any strengthening to it other than the springs? Also, id love to hear that exhaust, thats one thing i want, an aggressive exhaust and from the sounds of it u got that. Ok well i spoke to him tonight. Diff ratio in his auto is 3.46 which when discussed on LS1 forums has proved to be very succesful for auto cars. If your wagon is a manuel 3.91 has been discussed as the best. No other strenthing has been done at all as their pretty tough including the transmission. The exhaust he spent around $1200 on it not including extractors. Its a 2.5 inch system with an X pipe (similar to what the V8 supercars use) which merges into 2 pipes. Its not overly loud like on idle its moderately loud. Gets above 3000rpm and it screems. But yeh talk to some exhaust guys down your way. I know defillipo are very good, same with pacemaker. Ohh and i forgot he changed the brakes to HSV slotted ones. Makes a huge difference in braking. Cost of mods would have to be around $5000 -$6000 not including brakes approx. One of the main reasons so much power has been made ouit of tuning the computer from lsi edit is finding out engine parameters on the road using efi live. Basically it shows you everything the car is doing. Quite compicated but makes tunning a lot easier. Well you should have a look on the ls1 forums, a lot of info there from guys running 11s and lower and also guys cracking 12s and above.

Wow ill look into that for my vx ill love to run a 12.5 in my car but will it be a good every day car to go back and forward to work if it had the power to run a 12 sec thanks.

yeah, thats what i want!!

Post your query up on the LS1 forums (http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/index.php) as all those guys do is talk about modding GEN III's, etc.

look up amberly autos in dandy talk to IAN and talk to him about his twin turbo for gen 3's its make over like 300rwkw and runs 10's and they have a supercharger kit but not as nice to drive and its slower anyway good luck on what you choose to do

Amberley Autos are good... they fitted a head and cam package to my Gen III ute about 4 weeks ago cost about $5500 including tune and dyno runs etc. I had a decent exhaust and stuff already fitted - you'll also need a better clutch to cope with the extra power. The car is now pulling 278 kw at the treads on ****ty Tassie fuel, with 3.9 diff gears (it's a 6 speed manual) I managed a 12.62@111mph 48 hours after the mods were done, and I'm sure there's more in it yet. I'd recommend you do diff gears, exhaust and then an edit, to start with - that should get you into the 12s but if you want low 12s or below then a cam should get you there quite easily - no need to go for forced induction just to get 12s. Then again the power is kinda addictive, I'm seriously considering bolting on a blower next year as I'm getting bored with the power already! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

yup there's already gen3's with bolt ons doing 12s now so a low-mid 12 is just a matter of a bigger cam, retuned and good driving. dont need forced induction for them times, hell the way higgins ute is going (runs 10s n/a) u dont need to think about that stuff for ages

Had a big post written out but lost it heres a smaller version On a budget, the best mods would be Monaro CAI (30bucks) twin 2.5inch system with extractors (around 1300ish fitted) Mail order edit (400) you can get into the 12s with bolt ons, there are some good H&C packages out there for the LS1s, cheap blower kits (eg GENX kit from Doughboy, under 6k), single turbo kit being developed by doughboy as well, (known as GENT kit), APS TT kit, HPF TT kit. but thats getting into bigger money.. G&D and Horsepower factory would be two of the workshops to see in melb, go see them, tell them what you have got, what you want out of the car, what you use it for etc and they will advise you on the rest.. and its 3.7s for autos, 3.9s for manuals just go over to LS1.com.au and have a look around, use the search function, there is so much information, more than you'll ever be able to read. check out the sponsers sections, HPF have a forum special on at the moment, 11 second packages drive in drive out for $5500, can you ask for more?? PIGETA, theres a fair few of boys over on the LS1 site with daily driven 11second cars.. Mark with the APS TT 1 tonner even tows a boat with his 9 second ute... Some original photos have not been recovered yet.