Jake's beige VL and white R31.

[DOHC4LIFE]

Ok I thought it was about time I shared my car with you guys (i'll warn you now that its going to be a bit of a story).

Basically I got into VL's from my cousin who had an R31 Skyline and another mate who had a Silver Exec, I was about 15 or so and was fairly impressed with the power the RB30 made and did a lot of research on them, which only got me more hooked.

So I turned 16 got my L's and got sick of driving my parents auto ford falcon, just before my 17th birthday I bought a beige 1988 SL with manual transmission for $1000.

This is it:


I'll add more photos later.

I know my VL dosen't look great, but I can't really justify cleaning such an ugly colour, but you should know the mechanically its better than A1, nothing but the best for it, I'm kinda more function over form.

There wasn't anything majorly wrong with it, just needed tyres, a seatbelt, a muffler and a new steering wheel. Fixed all the little things up as well, gave it a service at work and got a RWC. It was registered in August last year.
The day it got the RWC, I then voided it by putting a pod filter on it.

After driving it for about a month I got sick of the manual steering (inner subs, slow speeds lots of turning) and installed the power steering I got off a VL I picked up for $250, made a bit of cash stripping that car and got to learn a bit about VL's and cars in general.

Next big mod I did was a 2.5 inch exhaust that also came off that wreck, sounded really nice but it was probably a tad too big so it took a bit of bottom end power.

Soon after that a friend of mine called me up to tell me he had bought a VL for body parts since his mum had a smash in his and that I could come grab whatever parts I wanted for $300, I got a truckload of goodies, an MF5 gearbox, a 25 spline diff, VL turbo brakes, an RB30 cylinder head and lots lots more.

This weekend I picked up my cousins R31 skyline (it's series 3 & manual) for $500, it needs pretty much the same thing as the VL needed, but its probably just going to sit in storage until I decide what to do with it.

Here it is:


Future plans: I'll probably end up making the R31 my daily and the VL will become a track car, seeing as I'm going to be effected by the new P plate laws and I'd rather stay legal. As far as mods go for the track car i'd probably just turbo the engine, get and mx7 or R33 gts-t gear box and a 28 spline LSD and have my fun.

The next thing on the cards though is my Twincam Project.
figured I'd do what most of the guys on here suggest, build a monster engine while your waiting to get off you P's, maybe one of my cars will end up being the donor series II engine.

Quick pic of the VL and the 31:


Hope I didn't bore you guys too much. All comments welcome.

Cheers, Jake.

[gaijin]

nice story mate, glad you've been an enthusiast since a young age (you'll mature more with your driving etc.).

just quickly I didn't think the 2.5" exhaust is that much of a top end loss? especially if you have the 5-speed and a rear muffler to boot through the gears etc. I personally don't think they're a real power gain either, mainly noise factor lol.

regardless, looks like your off to a great start. my first car was a VL, then I went to a R31 and finally back to a VL :P

regards,
Gavin

[DOHC4LIFE]

Originally Posted by Gavin_LP

nice story mate, glad you've been an enthusiast since a young age (you'll mature more with your driving etc.).

just quickly I didn't think the 2.5" exhaust is that much of a top end loss? especially if you have the 5-speed and a rear muffler to boot through the gears etc. I personally don't think they're a real power gain either, mainly noise factor lol.

regardless, looks like your off to a great start. my first car was a VL, then I went to a R31 and finally back to a VL :P

regards,
Gavin

Thanks mate. wlll I had the standard 1 and 3/4 inch exhaust on it before i switched to the 2.5 and it did seem to loose a little bit down low but it gained a bit up higher, just noticed it took a little bit more to get going in the lower gear and i found myself downshifting a lot more. I'm not really too sure what I think about the 31 yet but i'm looking forward to driving it due to the diff gears 3.7's atm, which i'm gonna swap for an auto diff so i'll have 3.9's without having to pull apart a diff housing.

[CB_Cruz1n]

damn nice story n lucky mofo for scoring that r31 4 $500 soon we be cruisin m8

[mr-defect]

ur vl looks to be in top shape. lucky to have bought it for $1,000. keep us posted on the modding progress champ

[DOHC4LIFE]

Originally Posted by Muztwog

damn nice story n lucky mofo for scoring that r31 4 $500 soon we be cruisin m8

I know that red VL! hey Christian! how are you man? and yeah come may/june we'll be tearing it up . I know i'm lucky, but I've waited so long, been saving for a car since I was 13. Oh you should know that the R31 has got an Alpine head unit and pioneer speakers about the size of a calais center cap, so maybe i'll get you to have a look at it and see how hard it would be to wire another 2 speakers in and i'll do a camshaft for you (or whatever you want).

Originally Posted by mr-defect

ur vl looks to be in top shape. lucky to have bought it for $1,000. keep us posted on the modding progress champ

Thanks mate, sadly it looks better in pics, i've been considering cleaning it up a bit lately, maybe get a respray in the same colour and get asteroid silver trim/bumpers. More likely i'll spend my money else where or have a go at it myself. Won't be too much happening modding wise, though I am in the process of adapting an XF throttle body to a spare inlet manifold I've got lying around so I'll keep you posted on that.

[DOHC4LIFE]

alright, bit of an update.

pulled apart my throttle bodies (vl and xf) unfortunately i got a variable resistor tps so i'm trying to figure out a way to adapt the vl switch tps to it, any suggestions welcome, i've already had a look at the tech section on it.

[CB_Cruz1n]

Originally Posted by DOHC4LIFE

Alpine head unit and pioneer speakers about the size of a calais center cap, so maybe i'll get you to have a look at it and see how hard it would be to wire another 2 speakers

yeah course man i'll have a look u should be able to pretty easily either way

[DOHC4LIFE]

took the VL to work today, it blew a heater hose last friday, so I replaced that. unfortunately that didn't fix my problem (overheating, once the new hose was in it wasn't reaching operating temp), so I'm putting a new thermostat in tomorrow arvo, also putting the original exhaust setup back on it in preperation for my P's, after that the pod goes too. tomorrrow morning i'm going down to the storage place to work on the R31 a little, just small things for starters like a new ps pump, fix the boot lock, fix the horn.

so yeah if anyones interested in a awesome sounding 2.5 inch exhaust shoot me a PM (someones got dibs on it at the moment but expecting the sale to fall through as usual).

there won't be too much modding for a while, when I get some cash I want to put a 28 spline LSD with 4.11 gears in the VL.

[4sakenvl]

Hey im from NZ sheepland, u can get your learners here at 15 then restricted which means can drive by ya self then full , takes upto 18 months or t1o yrs to have full licence. But we have no restrictions what so ever. can drive what ever turbo monster, high powered jap or v8 what ever!!!
What are these laws you talk about as in cant even have a pod or exhaust ??

[DOHC4LIFE]

no turbos, no super chargers, no V8's, no high powered sixes (like a 350z or a BMW Z3/4) and no modifications what so ever. maybe i'll just decide that i don't care anymore and just do a CAI through the bottom of the engine bay, K&N filter, xf throttle body, bored out plenum, mild camshaft, port the head, deck the block for higher comp, fit RB25DE pistons, get a set of rusty extractors and weld mounts for the original holden heat shield to them, high flow cat, 2inch exhaust with a single straight through muffler with a pea shooter tip on the end, nistune it, 4.11 gears, then it might be fast enough to satisfy me. more likely though i'll just build the track car and save my money for a the twincam motor, still that setup would look fairly stock and sound it as well.

[4sakenvl]

im running panel filter, xf tb, bored plenum, 2 1/4 wid one muff, extractors, doesn't make a hell of diff did 98rkw and 400nm of torque and it manual.
what plans do you have for it to be a track car?

[DOHC4LIFE]

well i'd like to get into drift instead of the usual vl drag scene, but I'm not going to go completely mental with the setup as I'm going to be saving for a more serious car.

I was thinking 250-300 rwkw probably just a high comp turbo setup.
R33 5-speed manual.
28 spline LSD with 4.11 gears.
a decent suspension setup.
brake upgrades for the front and rear.

I finished fixing the VL on friday, the new thermostat seems to have fixed the problem so i'm happy.