431 replies to this topic

[Tiny]

Love the thread mate

[LXCHEV]

And so I cruised the car like that for a while... a hot 6 with triples, celica 5 speed and 4.11 mini spool was a hell of a lot of fun. It beat a few V8's in it's time.

Using the car for it's first wedding was a highlight:





It also went through multiple sets of rims after the brake upgrade:









But it didn't take me long to want more power. I'd always loved V8's, so it was time for an upgrade. I considered 253's and 308's initially. Then suddenly I wanted a Lexus 1UZFE quad cam alloy V8. So I started hunting around and pricing them up. As luck would have it, one popped up in the trading post! An impulse decision saw it coming home with me that same day. But after looking at the conversion seriously I ended up changing my mind and sold it off again. The mass of wiring and unknowns scared me off a bit.

The funny thing was, whilst calling Lexus wreckers initially, I had got onto this bloke who had a mate with a 383 Stroked Small Block Chev runner in need of a rebuild for $800. So I called him back and he still had the engine, so the deal was done! I then sold off my 202 and celica 5 speed, along with the QIK202 plates (that setup was due to go into a HR, but ended up in an LJ)... so now the real fun could begin..... more soon.

[MRLXSS]

Such an awesome thread mate! Keep it going!!!!!

[LXCHEV]

CHEV TIME

Here's the 383 when I first got my hands on it, she was pretty tired:





Goodbye to the 202, hello to the 383.....



And here's the rebuild under way:

[LXCHEV]

To get the Chev in was relatively straight-forward. Engine mount adapters, extractors, starter motor wiring, radiator outlets swapped over etc...

I picked up a TH350 auto from the Trading Post and bought a 2500 stall for it (later replaced with a 3200 stall). I fitted a CRS trans crossmember, CRS chassis strengthening kit, custom shortened tailshaft, 360 degree loop etc.

I think the single tricky part of the conversion is the extractors. With the original chassis rail lips in place, it can be a real tight squeeze.

Anyway, once the engine was in, it initially looked like this, I immediately regretted not having done up the engine bay, it looked terrible!!!



The Torrie stayed like this for a fair while. I started getting into a bit of drag racing, as well as car events like Easternats, Springnats etc, and lots of cruising. My first ever time drag racing I had no idea what to expect (I'd never set any goals) - so was pretty happy with mid and high 12's. It was a pretty tame combo at this stage - still running the quaddy, baby stall (2500), 3.5 gears, BFG Radials and full exhaust... with this setup after a few more drag days, I improved the times to a best of 12.1 @ 114MPH. Not bad for a daily car at that stage.





Does anyone on these forums remember many many years ago, the XFalcon forum guys challenged the GMH-Torana forums to a drag day at Heathcote? I decided to attend at the last minute, with only a couple of other Torana's there, but we had a ball.....

[LXCHEV]

The Engine Bay Overhaul:

As I mentioned earlier, I was pretty embarrassed with the old engine bay, so I bit the bullet and ripped the donk out to bring it up to scratch....

Here's a few pics...











I hid all the wiring, ditched the old brake lines and valve prop stuff on the inner guard, and ended up doing a full custom brake setup, using a Commodore master cylinder, LX/UC combo for the booster, hidden new brake lines etc.

Then one of my mates took over to carry out the rest of the mods.. the chassis rail lips and battery tray were removed, the factory pressed shaping in the inner guards where the brake lines used to go were beated smooth, same with the 3 large grooves towards the back of the inner guards. Everything was smoothed.

All in all, over 30 various holes from over the years were welded up. The washer bottle tabs were also removed. The radiator, booster, wiper motor & heater have all been colour-coded. I also fitted brand new AU Ford thermo fans which I reckon look like a factory fit.

[LXCHEV]

These are the most recent photos of the bay from Luke Oxley when Broads scored me the Xtreme Holdens photo shoot:

[Guns n roses]

gotta be the best torana engine bay ive seen!!looks way to hard to do!!ha ha

[MRLXSS]

Shit yeah, that looks great!!!

I love that for a while there (not all that long ago either), you were driving it as a daily!

Edited by MRLXSS, 14 July 2009 - 08:26 AM.

[LhMusL]

Its an awsome car Bret, great work

[LXCHEV]

So what was next... I messed around with a few various things. The quaddie was replaced with an 825 Mighty Demon. After destroying the Delco Remy electronic dizzy in a burnout comp, I upgraded to full ICE ignition system (Digital Compu Curve box and 2 step rev limiter). As mentioned earlier, I ditched the 2500 hi-stall for a 3200, and the 3.5 diff gears were changed to 3.7's. I also replaced the original tiny Tri-Y's from Castle Auto with custom big diameter 4-into-1's and twin 3" straight through system (it was a bit noisy for the street though). Managed to get pinged coming home from another drag day, that sucked!

But anyway, with these mods at Calder Park I ran a new best - 3 identical back to back runs of 11.77 @ 115MPH. Driven to the track, full exhaust, driven home. I was totally stoked with that. The consistency lied with the tyres I reckon - a second hand pair of 235/60x15 Mickey Thompson ET Street Radials I was given. Nice and grippy! The best I'd managed previously at Calder on BFG Radial T/A's was 11.99 @ 114MPH, but that was with the 3.5's. It's an additive sport isn't it when you start chasing numbers!!

Here's my timeslips from 2005:

[fatslr]

SH*t mate you make it all look /sound way to easy.

Love your work keep the photos info coming

[LXCHEV]

I think it's lucky my car was now running high 11's, rather than low 11's - cos otherwise I'd be chasing 10's, haha! But I'm happy with high 11's. A lot of mates have been hassling me to "get serious" and fit a "man's stall" and "man's diff gears", along with a single plane intake etc... but as tempting as it is to have a 10 second car, I've resisted the urge to date. I like having a cruiser/streeter... but those evil ideas are always still there nagging away at me...!!

I started having some big drama's next with the 4-into-1 pipes. The way they were built meant I now had a remote mounted oil filter under the front guard. The remote lines were run inside heat proof sleeving, but they still managed to get too close and burn through, dumping my engine oil everywhere. On the other side, my trans lines were doing the same thing. I replaced the oil lines twice, and the trans lines twice, before cracking the sads and selling the pipes. I didn't have the patience to rip out the engine and design a better solution for the lines.... I probably should have in hindsight cos they were awesome extractors...

So I went back to smaller Tri-Y's again - although bigger and better than my original set (these current ones are 1-3/4" primaries, 2" secondaries, into 2-1/2" collectors). I'm now running a twin 2-1/2" system, with twin 10" hotdogs in the middle, and twin straight-through/interference chamber mufflers.

Here's some pics of my "spaghetti pipes", custom made with slip joints..... the most user-friendly pipes I've ever had. I can remove them from the car without having to touch the engine now....

[lxsstorana]

Love reading this thread.

Very inspirational as I'm going to be repainting my hatch later this year (also running the 383 with the same rocker covers).

If I can get close to the finish you've achieved, I'll be happy.

Mick.

[LXCHEV]

Well I'm not sure what to talk about next. The only other main thing I've changed in recent times was replacing the hydraulic cam for a bigger solid cam (I changed this at the same time as going from 4-into-1's to the current Tri-Y's). Since then, I've only dragged the car once or twice, and I'm sad to report I've gone backwards. Back to running 11.9's now. Although I haven't yet raced at Calder at night, which is always where I ran my best times.

Anyway, I think the Tri-Y's have possibly robbed a little bit of power, plus the solid cam is actually too big for my combo. (To get the cam working properly I need single plane intake, more comp, big stall etc)... so a while ago I decided my next move is to actually refit my original hydraulic cam. Now that I've bought a house I have less time and money to play cars these days, so I'd rather de-tune it and just cruise more. I want to re-spray it one day too and neaten up a whole lot of little things. I can already tell if I start, I wont be able to stop the snow-ball effect, so I'm trying not to touch it for a few more years! Need to build a proper shed first!

I'll post up some more action pics next....

[LXCHEV]

Some Easternats shots from over the years....

Street Drags:

[LXCHEV]

Easternats Burnout Comp 2004:

Qualified 12th overall in the Eliminations - blew the tyres apart, smashed the dizzy internals, ripped a flare off, and damaged both rear doors and quarters (still haven't fixed the paint damage properly 5 years later), hahaha.

Funny story though - tried to drive the car home with no advance in the dizzy, the exhaust got so hot, it heated up the floor and set the under-felt and carpet on fire!!!!!!! It was not cool. We managed to get it under control though and limped the car home. Fixed it all up, went back for the finals, and did it all over again, but couldn't blow the tyres in time. Only came about 30th. If I had of blown the tyres I would have just about cracked into the top 10... maybe another time....

Thanks Jason and Jade for getting these photos!

[MRLXSS]

AWESOME! LOVE IT!

[LXCHEV]

More Street Drags:





Some random pic from many years back, one of my favourite photos:



Cruisin' with the old Hotwires:

[LXCHEV]

I got sick of swapping between street tyres and race rubber on the rear rims really quick, so I ended up buying some 15 x 10" Convo's. These now hold the street tyres, and my old 15 x 8.5's now hold the ET Street Radials. It's so much easier now just swapping rims over! This is just after I bought the 10's... I'm not 100% happy with how the 265's sit on them though (not enough bulge), so I might try squeezing on 275/50's next time I'm due for tyres...