A ute (truck) from down under

[Radke]

Hey all just heard about this site while watching Black Air. I hear there is going to be a second doco/movie?

Anywho I don't have a buick per say, but the motor technically is.

I own a 2001 Holden Vu Commodore Ute. These we available with either the LS1 or the L36 3.8L V6 or known to us as the Ecotec.

It started life as pretty well standard but being my first car it's been modified slowly and has snowballed over the last 2 years.

It had the usual mods for a commodore done by me, high ratio rockers, plenum spacer and manifold spacer, extractors and a larger throttle body. Made ~190rwhp

The power bug bit harder and harder and I eventually bought a holset hx40 off a Cummins ISC.


Ill throw up some pictures next and then keep going with the story

 

[Radke]

Just when I got it

 

[Nick Micale]

I would assume you are "down under", and not in the USA?

The windows are too dark to see if the steering wheel is on the wrong side for us here in the states!

Last month I did look over a couple "Utes" that have been converted to be legal for use here, and of course the steering wheel is on the left side.

These were new units and rather pricey, but a really neat ride especially with LS power.

Look forward for more info on your neat ride.

 

[Radke]

Yes you're right there I am from Australia. Yeah I've seen a couple pictures of converted Utes, I guess they just use the g8 interior

So this will be a couple pics of the exterior of the ute. Here I changed the rims and taillights to a later model clear style lens.

 

[CzyKats44]

Nice Ute Radke and welcome! I travel to New Zealand quite a bit for work and Utes are all over! Some of the mods and styles have great looks ... I liked the VZ Monaro soo much I bought an American one! too bad there are no more Coupes.

always a fan of the stock L67 RWD configuration.

I was fortunate enough to see these guys race in Darwin, AU

Good luck going turbo!!

 

[Radke]

Yeah theres quite a few guys in aus that transplant the l67 into the utes as well.

New headlights made the ute a little more black and white, also fitted low and high beam HIDs



Anyone remember the floods in Australia back in 2011? I live in toowoomba where it sortof started, we had the footage of the car dissapearing under a bridge.

Anyway while it was flooding we were at work just thinking it was raining a little heavier than normal

 

[Radke]

Next thing was more aesthetic mods, cos hey I was slightly younger.

I decided to airbag the rear. It's useful and practical sometimes.

 

[Radke]

And this is when I really bought the turbo. It's about the size of a gt3582 or slightly larger.

I think the hx40 I have is a 'super' as it has the 60mm 6 blade inducer.

 

[Radke]

And then the spending started to roll along. I decided on a set of t3 flanged Boost Obsession manifolds, high mount on the lh side and the crossover over the bellhousing.



Bought an intercooler, 600x300 if memory serves me right off eBay and found that I'd need to relocate some things. First off I decided to fit a proper powersteering cooler
This

To this



I also need to relocate my A/C receiver/drier. It's still not done 2 years later haha. It's not much of a summer car.

 

[Radke]

Then I decided, you know what I'll be proactive and beef the Driveline first. Next thing a had a brand new t56 6 speed conversion. These are standard with the getrag m35 which isn't very strong at the best of times.


This uses an adapter plate and retains the t56 bellhousing which allows ls1 size clutches to be used

Which of course makes more issues.

 

[trixdout]

Subscribed for sure!!! Love how these look. Modern day El Camino of sorts.

 

[Radke]

So next after that was get a correct starter and fit it all up.

 

[Radke]

Then I tried to fit the manifolds while waiting for a couple boxes of goodies from zzperformance.
Had to modify the manifolds as the adapter plate got in the road.

 

[Radke]

Pulled the heads to get ported, my new cometics, arp studs, yella Terra rockers, pac 130lb springs, titanium retainers, comp cams oer lifters and stattama st4 cam

 

[Radke]

The front of these girls is similar to the older 3.8s

Double row rollmaster


Heads came back, reused the standard valves this time.



Some flow numbers

 

[Radke]

New vs old cam

Installed Cam

Balance shaft has been disabled but left in the motor to fill the oil feeds.

Cleaned pistons and head bolt threads, fitted studs with sealant.


Fit head and torqued

Lifters, trend pushrods and rockers fitted

 

[Radke]

Manifold on and dummy fitting turbo

Started fabbing up the exhaust as I decided to go a 3.5inch full system

Its a tight squeeze between the firewall and the chassis

Its not perfect but for my first exhaust and a gasless mig I'm happy

 

[Radke]

Making the rest of the system to join up to the 3.5 cat back system I bought.

Thats a 5 inch Ballistic cat

New 3.5 vs old 2.5 system


Once I finished the system and manifolds I had the manifolds and dump ceramic coated

 

[Radke]

While refitting the new exhaust I decided to fix my leaking input seal and upgrade the diff. Bought an eaton truetrac centre, fit new bearings and rebuilt the diff centre and fit a nolathane rear diff support


Reused the original 3.46 gears

 

[Radke]

So after getting distracted by driveline, I started on the intake side of things.
Decided to route them under the headlights to avoid cutting inner guards