Here's my ute. It is the second car I have ever owned behind a shitty Mazda 626. I always liked the shape of the vs ute when i grew up so i was stoked that i could get one so soon after i got my licence.
It was originally a mint condition ecotec v6 with getrag 5sp.
The first thing I did to it was make it look a bit better.
Performance wise, I put a 2.5" exhaust and a CAI on the ute first up but the first major performance mods - 'Stage 1' - were diff gears (3.08 -> 3.45) and high ratio roller rockers (1.65 -> 1.9). This was good money spent as the mods complimented each other and i had noticeably more acceleration everywhere. I did a power run at the time and got 120rwkws. I was at uni these years and didn't have any tools or a shed so no other mods took place.
Here are some pics of it during my uni years:
I did uni in Rocky and any car enthusiast who has spent time in Rocky can appreciate that the 'hoon' scene there is great. I cannot remember how many cars spanked me at the lights to raise their self esteem. One thing i noticed during this time was how fast those fucken turbo cars were.
This lead me to spread the last 6 months of uni over 12 months so that i too could own one of these fknwooshcarz. So I drempt up 'Stage 2'. The idea was to get good turbo kit hardware, some mild steel pipe & tube and a $30 swap meet stick welder to tack it all together. Even spread over 12 months uni seemed to take up most of my time and this only left me 2 weeks to get the turbo conversion done! Lucky (a) i had bought all the hardware & collectors beforehand and (b) i was sharehousing with LS400X (off this forum) at the time. We managed to get the majority of the turbo conversion done in these 2 weeks up to the point that it was driveable but with no tune or fuel system.
Here's some pics during the two week build:
I then graduated and got a job in Brissy and put the project on hold for a year and a bit. Finally got a rental with a shed in the heart of Logan Central. I wanted to do all the work this time around but there was one problem... I have extremely limited fab skills. I spent half a year on and off (mostly off) getting a tool collection together and learning how to weld. As of a couple of months ago I finally got enough courage to start the project again. The poor ute has been sitting in the shed right next to the fab area for nearly a year now so it is fucken filty.
Here is what I'm up to currently (all work done by me):
***new 3 bolt flanges and flex joint for turbo manifolds***
***new exhaust and intercooler plumbing***
***everything plonked into the bay to test fitment***
I'll try and keep this thread reasonably up to date now that I'm making some progress.
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Originally Posted by Uncle
