Hi, I'm sure there has been a few threads about engine rebuilds, but what I'm after is straight forward prices and advice about getting a N/A VL Calais engine rebuilt. Currently the engine is working pretty good (has its moments), its due for its next service soon (next week I think) and it has currently done 245,000km's. I was thinking of either keep on driving the thing untill it ****s itself, or put the money out now for a engine rebuild before it does die completely. What kind of money did you pay to rebuild a normal RB30 engine, by a normal place, with no high-performance mods done to it. I'm in Perth, so any advice/suggestions/places/prices would be great, thanks heaps Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

you could buy another motor form a wrecked vl.. its cheaper (like 400$) with low km's.. i have no idea how much it'll cost for a RB30 rebuild... but if your gonna get it rebuilt you might aswell get performance cam, etc

hey mate im in the same boat in W.a try ADS engine reconditioning they quoted me $2200 for rebuild including new lifters the guys that works there is a great bloke im just savin the cash for it

Thanks VL2GO, Could you PM me some details on where the shop is please? I'll look into it a bit more. thanks mate Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

um they are in myaree cant tremember the address exactly but look up the name in the phone book hey

whats wrong with your motor? 245k kms isnt much for a stock n/a motor, i personally have seem them still going strong and running perfectly with 350k kms on them, and there are plenty that have done more!

i agree with natho, i have a vl calais and a vl berlina. My berlina has 345,000 ks on it and it doesnt miss a beat. I am an ex mechanic and keep up on my services and all around maintenance, and therefore have never had any serious problem with either of the cars, knock on wood. I wouldnt be in any hurry to rebuild or replace the motor, as long as its strong. If in any doubt just screw a compressoin tester in each of the spark plug holes, and make sure your piston compression is where it needs to be. good luck

Yeah I agree. Mines just clicked over 350,000k's and it's still going strong. Unless it's going through lots of oil, save your money and spend it on something you really want.

yeah mines pushing 280, still goin hard 2k is a lot to spend for no reason!

if it does **** itself, save yourself some money and buy a 2nd hand n/a engine and tranny from the trader - i have seen em go for low as 300. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Cheers guys, I'll probably just wait now, and put the money towards something else It is a pretty good motor actually, the only things which have gone wrong is a few sensors, I think I just overreact to much, always think of the worst. Its going in for its due service this weekend, I'm making sure I always put it in on time, I'll just keep on getting it serviced and see how it goes, thanks again, Atticus. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

the odometer in my car only says she's done 212,000km. However the engine uses a bit of oil, around 1.2L per 5000k (at which time i do a full oil/filter change). Either 1. this car has been flogged by previous owners, or 2. the clock has been wound back/replaced. Compression seems to be fine, the car goes pretty hard. I would also dearly like to do a rebuild and i have been very interested in doing the rb25head conversion leaving the car N/A. I won't do the conversion unless i can buy a head in japan with the inlet, pistons, management etc. But these heads are getting hard to find in Japan since most of them have been recycled. There is a link to a website somewhere on this site that shows you how to do the conversion, all the bits you need etc. It's pretty straight forward, but the computer as someone else has said in this thread, sounds like a bitch.

My engine just **** its self. got 205 000 on the clock. thermostat didn't open on the way home from work last week. don't know for sure but i think the head is cracked and a big end bearing is stuffed. how much would just a bottem end rebuild cost as the head i can do myself?

a fresh motor would be nicer then a old 300,000 one a rebuilt seems like abit of a over kill... if the motor is starting to run abit out then it may be time for a freshen up Steve Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

What do you mean by a "fresh" motor if you're not talking about a rebuild?

Quote: Originally Posted by BeefsVL My engine just **** its self. got 205 000 on the clock. thermostat didn't open on the way home from work last week. don't know for sure but i think the head is cracked and a big end bearing is stuffed. how much would just a bottem end rebuild cost as the head i can do myself? cheapest for a good bottom end rebuild would be www.pavtek.com.au (http://www.pavtek.com.au)

Beefsvl, I have exactly the same thing happen to me about 2 months ago. Problem is, I was driving into the sun, and couldn't see my gauges. I got to a set of lights and smelt something burning, at which point I said to myself, "smell the car in front", lol. But alias, it was my vl, barbqueing itself. My head cracked down the cam tunnel. $150 for a secondhand head, including valves, cam, lifters etc. $200 for the pressure test, replacing the valve guide seals and valves lapped in. $160 for a good quality ACL top end gasket set, oil, filter, coolent, etc and she is all going again now. Am currently running it with a gutted thermostat, till I can confirm the overheating problem was definately the thermostat. I'd love to know the bloke who designed the cooling system on the VL, needs stringing up if you ask me.

why use a gutted thermostat, just remove the b@stard!

umm.. just put a thermostat in. if it overheats, fix the overheating problem. the engine should be warming up to around the 2nd bar on the guage and unless its a really hot day it shouldnt go over it. if it does, check that the clutch fan is engaging. to do this, when the car is hot on the guage(half or so) turn the motor off and try to spin the fan. if it spins freely, your fan clutch is stuffed. this happened to me. if its working, it will turn but there will be a fair amount of resistance there. if thats fine then check your radiator, it could be blocked, or the baffle that redirects the coolant flow through the core may have broken off. get an expert to check it out if you arent sure. removing a thermostat to stop the car heating up is a bandaid 'fix' if you can call it that, and will increase the time the car takes to warm up, and fuel consumption too.

thermostats are there for a reason guys, they prevent cold, cool water from flowiing through the block