V6 Holden into Hilux

[Bruce Balis]

Gidday folks.
Not too savvy with a computer but we'll see how this pans out

figured theres not much info on the net (that i could find) about throwing a v6 commy into a hilux, so i hope someone out there gets something from this.

Blew the clutch on my 86 lux and figured since im seperating the engine from gearbox i may aswell put a v6 in its place....easy....

im just a fencer so im no brain box just a bit mechanically minded. also wopuld make liufe easier if i had a concrete floor instead of sand.

Theres my lux. pride n joy, know its full history, owned it for 15 years, my first vehicle, 5hundy thou on clock.

[Bruce Balis]

So after gearing up for it i decided the best thing was to purchase an entire car that way i had engine,loom,exhaughst blah blah. picked up one off trade me for 600 bucks and drove it home (bloody stoaked) was the first ''car'' i had ever owned pulled a few skids and paddock bashed it for a bit then tore bits out that i thaught i might start needing.

[Bruce Balis]

looked at different bell housings. dellows seemd good, marks had some stupid gearbox extension sharft thing so i steered away from that.....and just used a steel home made one haha its not flash but its working.

[Bruce Balis]

i just kept the diesel engine mounts too and also used the hiulux rubber mounts, so what i did was cut the steel template off the holden mount (that bolts flush with the block) and just made up a piece of steel to mach the two up (making sure the sump would clear, oil filter wasnt gunna be a c....nt but mostly the throttle body...which was gunna be in the way anyway so all ive done there is weld up an elbow to prop it away from the firewall (no need for an extended bellhousing then ...simple)

[Bruce Balis]

sorry i dont have too many photos of what i done. .....

Once i had the engine in and mounted i hadto cut the gearbox mount and shift that foreward and inch or so which then meant i hadto make a rear driveshaft spacer which i turned up out of a piece of steel i found around the shed.

welded up an elbow that went from the manifold to the throtle body then ran the factory airbox too. i didnt wanto be choking the 3.8 with my old hilux airbox.used the hilux throttle cable too.

with the clutch department i had the flywheel skimmed by a local handyman and ran a holden pressure plate with a hilux clutch plate all H.D. too. with the spigit shaft i got a bearing to suit the holden onto the hilux box (was already running an R151) and the end of the spigot jjjuuust sat in the bearing...shell be right.

Next problem i had was my thrust bearing was too far away from the clutch fingers.....so i just turned up a piece of galv pipe to be pressed into the thrust bearing to extend it out enough to reach the pressure plate fingers and adjusted the clutch pedal out a fair way too to give it a bit more go go. still just running the hilux master and slave cylenders.

[Bruce Balis]

as for the cooling i kept the lux radiator and i have had absolutley no cooling issues whatsoever thats towing all over NZ from northland down to Tuatapere. what i didnt do was go and throw on a poo Repco fan i just kept the holden one and made it fit.

with the power steering i just cut both hilux and holden ends off the pipe and got said handyman to make up a pipe inbetween. i DID however have a problem with it boiling over, so i just used the trans cooler off the car i had and put that in the return line of the P steering.

........what else....ugh oh as for surge tanks ect i hated the idea of havong TWO fuel pumps instead of one so i just ran a pre and post filterand cut the fuel line of the hilux, squashed the ends up using a brake flaring tool and mounted filters and pipes in there (under drivers seat area) the only time i have problems with the fuel surging etc is when im running out and have 5l left in the tank.....oh and dont use a 'warlbro' fuel pump there poos. having an amazing run out of a repco one though.. i hadto buy on a long w.e. cheers scarles.

so then it came to the wiring....im not too crash hot with eletrics,hate computers and was almost gunna carby the 3.8 with a weber. so all i did was buy a manual and went from there cut out all the unessesary crap off the loom labelled everything when i took it off the car AND the hilux. and tinkerd away. i think you have to be in the right mindframe to do wiring like that. but i got there in the end and it all works fine n dandy.

PHOTO; troubles when working in a sand floor lean too

[Bruce Balis]

ive just taken some photos of the lux but dont know how to resize them to get them on here.....

please ask if ive forgotten something, bit hard trying to remember all the little things i came to when doing the build.
The hardest thing was the wiring and the longest thing was the cert took aaages, the conversion took two weeks to do by myself,special tools probly were a small lathe and an arc welder.

the car was a 92 model as its got a real simple simon computer in it, as for fuel consumption if am lead footed 350km to a tank and nice n slow driving 550 on a 53ish lt tank it could get more if i ran 3.9s or something but im running 4.5 ratios at the moment.and im only on 31'' tyres.

[Bruce Balis]

here we go...... thats my power steering anyone doing this wants to make a loop in it and dont do what i did and have a short piece of pipe. I know i know its gunna look ugly but what happens is theres no play in the short pipe and it cracks the holden end off

[Bruce Balis]

heres a birds eye view of the engine bay, she ant got pretty paint , but this trucks lived its whole life(up until now) on the west coast as in driving on the beach from day one, so its had some rust killing hours put into it. One thing i did try and do on this conversion was keep hilux hilux and holden holden so when you break down in say haast your chances of finding parts are gunna be allot higher.

[Bruce Balis]

heres my driveshaft, thaught about turning up a flash alloy one but i didnt have a billet just lying around and say if the bolts came loose steels gunna be allot more resiliant to being f.....ed up.

[Bruce Balis]

showing the engine mount i bent and made up, didnt take long at all, just all scrap steel

[Bruce Balis]

heres the slave cylinder

AND heres the elbow i made up i made it from alloy, didnt have any steel at the time.

[Bruce Balis]

rubber grommet from the car make it look all tikitybu.just cut the hole out with a pair of tinsnips

[Bruce Balis]

ALL UP this whole project including the cert cost just under $2500,

I would have loved to put a 5l diesel in it even looked at a 13BT (bit too deep) but a 5l would have been easy and good. plus T or supercharged (which i have and subsequently made to fit on the holden) but a second hand one of those is about 3k so thats why i went holden. Thaught VERY briefly about a 3l v6 surf engine 3rz? but their terrible on gas and not much better than a 3l lux engine, lexus i found heads are waaay to shit for the engine,lots of computer shit and it crowds the engine bay allot more.

So ive kept the 2lt for when i get sick of gas prices and convert back

think thats it................Questions?

[SMOKEY]

Hi Bruce and welcome, no questions just thanks for the write up, good on you , I like kiwi shed engineering and the old Lux was never going to be a show pony more like a draught horse. It works and you did it. The Coast was built with shed engineering, number eight wire and rusty steel. Thanks for sharing. ------ I'm guessing this is not your first project ----- looking at your engine hoist with the battery counterweight and bumper jack ------- like to share any other projects with us, this is the best read on here for a long time ----- well for me ---- ha ha,

YA GOT TO HAVE A SENCE OF ADVENTURE,

FITZY.

[SMOKEY]

Hey Bruce , Is that a bit of dog tucker hanging up in the back ground of one of those photos , you handy with the smoke stick as well.

FITZY.

[Clint]

Good stuff! - No frills but nice solid tidy work.

Getting any engine conversion done for $2500 is quite an achievement.

Cheers
Clint

[Mattshilux]

good to meet you the other day mate i have the white hilux

[Bruce Balis]

cheers guys,
yeah ive had a few projects on the go over the years, not much to do with 4wd'n latley though more into the jetdinghy scene at the moment. Bit cheaper than wrecking a 4wd every weekend although it is fun. But the budget dosen't allow for too many hobbys.

[kbushnz]

Wow there is some great fab work going on. Nice work...
One thing to watch for is that clutch slave. It looks like it is very close to the exhaust..
Some of the lads have had issues with the heat expanding the fluid in the slave and lifting the clutch making it slip....
Will be good to see it up and running.
My mate runs one in a winch challenge truck and we really woke it up getting the ECU chip replaced... Stage 3 I think... No rev limiter and removed the knock sensor out of the circuit.
Also we used lots of dielectric grease on the main sensor connector on the crank pulley. That sensor controls everything.
We had issues with water getting in and shorting out the pins... Some use soft seal but we used the dielectric grease and its been under water many times since with no issues.

[Bruce Balis]

Ahh mean cheers thats some good info!
yeah ive been driving the truck over a year now after its conversion and ive had no clutch issue.....so far.
Also do you know if it drunk the gas after the chip upgrade? id like to get carried away but i don't want to compromise on economy and reliability.

[kbushnz]

Thats cool.... We use the chip in comp truck so don't do any long distance stuff....So cant comment on economy as we don't care hahahha
But it sure did wake her up.... Can use still use 91... or goto hi octane....

[Bruce Balis]

About a year ago my clutch went in haast, it still drove, just no clutch. So i bleed it and fluffed around in the pouring rain and ended up road rangering it, jetboat in tow back to Canterbury. That viaduct back over the hills gets interesting with no clutch! haha. found out my bolts in the bell housing had fallen out and it was just the engine flexing away whenever i pushed the clutch in.... (this is after i had gone and purchased a run about in the meantime bugger it all) in this time it musthave flexed the hell outta my clutch plate and it spat the dummy 2am in the morning a few months later.
i did end up putting the same clutch plate in becuse i had booked a trip up northland. but if it happens again the clutch man told me i should get my flywheel re-indexed to suit a dyna pressure plate so i can fit a better clutch plate in it. which i thaught was a bloody good idea. so thats something else to consider.
other than that trucks still going good, high steer, 32simex, and one of those EATON geared L.S.Ds are on the shopping list.

[Big]

great write up Bruce and pitty i missed it.. but looks like it is holding up which is great..well done