Rogue Trooper

[Jeff]

That's going to be one awesome van , Rogue. You are an inspiration.

[Rogue Trooper]

hey mate, looks good!
You've obviously been busy, and the quality of the work looks high also.
It doesn't look like there's much room for the seats, but nothing some fabrication can't fix..

I tell you what, i'd much rather be doing customisation than body work.. it's giving me the shits...

Anyway, keep up the good work. Achievements are good motivation!

Thanks very much for the comments guys. Much appreciated.

The seats will sit a bit higher than normal but that isn't an issue as the Commodore seats I had in there previously were height adjustable and I had the drivers one jacked up halfway anyway. The seats should just sit above the height of the engine cover but to keep them as low as possible I might bolt one side to the engine cover. Seems to work Ok in the jap vans. There will be an inspection hatch between the seats for day-to-day things like topping up the engine oil and trans fluid but for anything more serious the seats will have to come out to remove the whole engine cover. Having said that, once the cover is removed the engine is easy to work on. Just a bit tight down the drivers side for the sparkplugs but how often do you replace those.

Something I forgot to mention. When I removed the engine from the VN I swapped the sump over with a later model. The reason for this is that with the original sump, the dipstick exits the sump on the drivers side which was going to make it awkward to check the oil. The later model exits from the front which will be ideal for the inspection hatch. When I pulled the sump off I found a spring in there which turned out to be the remains of the timing chain tensioner. This was in the last week before fitting so it was a mad rush to get the motor down to my local friendly mechanic's. He kindly supervised me while I pulled down the front of the motor to replace the tensioner and then put it all back together including the replacement sump. Was quite lucky as I still had the dummy fitting engine at home so was able to pull the tensioner off that before it all went off to the scrapyard.

Feeling quite good now that it's all in. The first milestone has been reached. The next will be the diff.

[John Abbott]

Hey Rouge....I am following your project with great interest as i want to do the same thing with my van as well. Just thought i would give you a couple of tips regarding your motor. I am a member of Street Commodore Forum and have found out some very good tech tips regarding the vn-vp motors. It looks like the motor you are putting in is a series 1 motor,do yourself a favour and fit the "coil pack" off a series 2 motor. Grab the entire set up leads and all. The series 1 coil pack are notorius for giving up the ghost. Plus you can remove the "bellmouth" out of the early vn-vp motors which will help with throttle response(apparently). I have done the bellmouth job on the wifes commy but have not been able to test drive it as yet. If you like, i will post some pics up for you? PS love your work dude

[Rogue Trooper]

Hi John

Thanks very much for the appreciation and comments. 

I've been keeping up with the JustCommodores forum and picked some of this stuff up on there. I don't think the bellmouth was installed in the series 1 VN. That was an addition to the later models after Joe Public found the early V6's a bit toey. I agree with the coilpack but will replace that once the engine is actually going. I know the engine was running well when I pulled it out of the car so I want to keep any changes to a minimum till after it is running once again in the van.

Something I have found today is that 80mm Marley PVC downpipe works really well for the air intake. The coupler end of the pipe is a nice tight fit over the mouth of the intake. I'll post some pics after I finish the intake so you can see.

[John Abbott]

Ah...As i thought , you are a clever bugger Rouge! Will be good to see those intake pics when ya get em..   Bloody good little motors those v6s..cheers..johnno

[MaTTe]

Hey Rogue, sounds great. My seats sit pretty high compared to where i understand the original seats would be. But the height isn't a problem so long as you're still sitting comfortably in relation to the wheel and pedals.

It's a blessing in disguise when you find remains of broken parts, it means more work, but less in the long run when things catch up..

With the PVC, i don't know what 'Marley' PVC is, but i used a PVC joiner in the air intake of my BA falcon for a week, and it melted in a pretty bad way.. haha
The heat over here is probably more extreme, and my motor was breathing very well, but i'd advise using aluminium and silicon where possible over PVC

Anyway, keep up the good work!

[Sundownernz]

Awesome stuff Rogue. See, another few weeks work and you'll be ready for the 2010 Van Nats no sweat. 

Keep up the great work and look forward to the next update.

Cheers,
Garry.

[Rogue Trooper]

Ah...As i thought , you are a clever bugger Rouge!

Ha ha! I wouldn't go quite that far Johnno. I just think about things a lot and I don't have a woman to distract me!!

With the PVC, i don't know what 'Marley' PVC is, but i used a PVC joiner in the air intake of my BA falcon for a week, and it melted in a pretty bad way.. haha
The heat over here is probably more extreme, and my motor was breathing very well, but i'd advise using aluminium and silicon where possible over PVC

I did think about that MaTTe and as you've brought it up as well I might do a couple of tests on the weekend with some offcuts. There are different grades of PVC so I'll see how we go. If the PVC isn't going to work I will still have a model of what I need to get something made up out of more suitable material and it is cheap.

Awesome stuff Rogue. See, another few weeks work and you'll be ready for the 2010 Van Nats no sweat. 

Keep up the great work and look forward to the next update.

Cheers,
Garry.

Hi Garry. Sorry no. I think I might have just buggered myself for a while today. I found my dream wheels on Trademe and bought them. It took my last brass razoo so unless there's some serious overtime happening at work soon which is unlikely I think I might be pulling my head in for a little while.

A nice set of SS Cragars mmmmmmmmmm!!!! 15" 275's for the rear and 15" 245's for the front.

[Dano]

hey mate, looks good!
You've obviously been busy, and the quality of the work looks high also.
It doesn't look like there's much room for the seats, but nothing some fabrication can't fix..

I tell you what, i'd much rather be doing customisation than body work.. it's giving me the shits...

Anyway, keep up the good work. Achievements are good motivation!

.....I'm a hearing ya Matte  nearly thru thru the towel in the other day.....then did another 8hrs work on her, only  to go backwards 


Looking good Al, keeep up the good work Bro

[Abodator]

What is the size of your SS Cragar wheels? 15"x10 (rear) and 15"x8 (front) with 5x120,65mm (bolt pattern)?
Correct? Please, give me more information. Your wheels is great. ;-)