Project 29 - A Monaro Story
Discussion
When you know it's gone to far but you're committed
Most of you have probably seen my build over in the VXR8 & Monaro Enthusiasts facebook group, it's been ongoing since 2018. Originally, the idea was to simply clean the engine up a bit after spotting an oil leak around the sump gasket and steering rack (6 months tops for that and some additional work), that job grew arms and legs very quickly
What I ended up doing was a total engine strip down and rebuild which included things like forged pistons from Wiseco, Callaies rods, JEGS lifters and other upgrades from the likes of Holley, ATI, ARP and Cloyes.
Additional to the engine, I started looking at the underside of the car, especially around the front. I had, I think, almost everything vapour blasted and then, where applicable, powder coated to add to the longevity. I uprated bushes and suspension components with Pedders and Superpro parts, I also replaced all nuts and bolts with yellow zinc plated alternatives to really try and freshen up the car. I rubbed down and painted the entire engine bay along with new seam sealer as well (the front arches still need their coating of Raptor). The list does go on...
The goal was to try and create an engine that was scalable so that in the future I can, if money allows, make changes which the engine will still be more than comfortable with. It was also personal; I wanted to prove to myself I could do it.
In terms of power and that sort of thing, I've never had an arbitrary power figure in mind and tbh it's not something I'd lose any sleep over. I think everyone that owns cars like this know what they can do, it was more about me doing something extra special for a car that I love and seeing where it takes me.
In a perfect world it would never have taken this long, between the pandemic, loss of friends and loved ones and of course...cash, the project is only recently reaching the end and I can finally start the car again.
Anyway, please enjoy the photos and hopefully, I'll be seeing some of you all this year after that first start happens.
Engine out
This was around October 2018, I had taken the engine out to assess the amount of grim, oil and overall road debris that was clinging to it and really, make some decisions about what I was going to do.
That lasted about 4 days, then I ended up taking the heads off to see what the pistons were like and overall health of the engine internals. This, I class as the day I committed to this project.
Engine Work
The block was in good shape, I had the bores measured to check their condition and they came back really good but, I wanted to upgrade the pistons and I had noticed that one of the cylinder walls had a small pocket mark on it which I wanted to have removed. For that reason, I had the block bored out very slighty and I bought in some Wiseco pistons and Callais rods from LS Performance (Carl and Isaac).
I has some items vapour blasted, such as the sump. Then rebuilt that wil new gaskets and relief valve.
On items like the cylinder heads, I made changes to the rods with upgraded Jegs units at the same length as I wasn't changing the cam out just yet. I also added a trunnion kit from Brian Tooley racing as a neccesary upgrade.
I made some smaller changes such as ARP bolts on the bottom end for the main caps etc, I just want to take a moment to say that Spiralocks are the work of the devil haha.
As the project matured, other items were brought in such as the ATI bottom end pulley, the Jegs timing cover which has the split case for accessing the timing chain and cam. The Cloyes racing chain, Holley valve covers the list goes.
In conjunction with the engine itself, I was also working on the all the supporting areas like the subframe, suspension, arb, steering rack. I had pretty much everything blasted and coated for the sake of quality. A lot of this stuff just didn't look healthy when I took it of, and yes it was mainly dirt but no one wants to sit with a bottle of degreaser and a cloth trying to clean these things because they never come out how you want.
Where possible, I reused parts that were not actually broken or damaged but just looked a little more tired than they perhaps were. A good example of this would be things like the starter motor, technically there was nothing wrong with it but to look at it I think most people would be like, let's get that in the bin. I took some time to take things like this to bits and work out what would be needed to rebuild it and so I did. The same can be said for things like the lower arms, I wanted my powder coated but new arms come with the bushes already in place. So I opted to have my existing lower arms blasted and coated, then I added my SuperPro bushes and new ball joints to finish off (thanks Roger at Pedders).
The end result
All of the above is a very very short summary of events from the past 4 years. Like I said at the beginning, the intention was to have a 6 month project but it's taken much longer, a lot more money and a lot more effort to get her to this stage. That said, this project has helped me deal with many of the challanges that life has thrown my way over the past few years and I don't regret any of it.
Edited by Project29 on Tuesday 2nd May 16:39
Absolutely awesome job sir. Well done for taking the time, money and aggro to follow it through. It looks amazing and I hope to see it one day. Have you got pics of the car itself?
I did something similar 10 years ago with a Honda Accord Type R and it took me 4 years to do what effectively was a nut and bolt rebuild. Taught me a lot and the end result was better than I could have imagined. Hat's off to you and post some more pics as these sorts of threads help inspire the rest of us!!
I did something similar 10 years ago with a Honda Accord Type R and it took me 4 years to do what effectively was a nut and bolt rebuild. Taught me a lot and the end result was better than I could have imagined. Hat's off to you and post some more pics as these sorts of threads help inspire the rest of us!!
Fantastic work, and a great reminder to myself why I don't like going under my car !! It all works properly, just looks untidy/grimy underneath.
Surprised you went with standard engine mounts. They are soo soft, and break easily (mind, I do have a history with engine mounts)
I tried the tough mounts but found them too hard, ended up with torque master mounts, which are perfect.
Have you done the rear too, or is that next?
Surprised you went with standard engine mounts. They are soo soft, and break easily (mind, I do have a history with engine mounts)
I tried the tough mounts but found them too hard, ended up with torque master mounts, which are perfect.
Have you done the rear too, or is that next?
fred bloggs said:
Fantastic work, and a great reminder to myself why I don't like going under my car !! It all works properly, just looks untidy/grimy underneath.
Surprised you went with standard engine mounts. They are soo soft, and break easily (mind, I do have a history with engine mounts)
I tried the tough mounts but found them too hard, ended up with torque master mounts, which are perfect.
Have you done the rear too, or is that next?
Thank you mate. I've never had a problem with engine mounts to be honest, these are a slight tier up from standard though, they are from Pedders. I had investigated harder mounts but it was too much in a direction I didn't want to go in terms of how solid they actually where. I want to retain a degree of comfort Surprised you went with standard engine mounts. They are soo soft, and break easily (mind, I do have a history with engine mounts)
I tried the tough mounts but found them too hard, ended up with torque master mounts, which are perfect.
Have you done the rear too, or is that next?
Indeed, the rear is next, at least that won't be as much of a stress in terms of a full engine rebuild and worrying about that first turn of the key.
99PBATR said:
Absolutely awesome job sir. Well done for taking the time, money and aggro to follow it through. It looks amazing and I hope to see it one day. Have you got pics of the car itself?
I did something similar 10 years ago with a Honda Accord Type R and it took me 4 years to do what effectively was a nut and bolt rebuild. Taught me a lot and the end result was better than I could have imagined. Hat's off to you and post some more pics as these sorts of threads help inspire the rest of us!!
I've added some pictures of the car that you have a look at as well as some extra photos of work done. Everything is on my phone so I have around 4 years worth of images to go through, kinda wish I'd taken video now haha. I did something similar 10 years ago with a Honda Accord Type R and it took me 4 years to do what effectively was a nut and bolt rebuild. Taught me a lot and the end result was better than I could have imagined. Hat's off to you and post some more pics as these sorts of threads help inspire the rest of us!!
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