Time for a change - Ecotec Torana

[Holden202T]

Well as you know from my previous thread my Torana is currently running a mildly worked 202, with delco injection and T700 auto with stage 2 shift kit, previously was dynoed at 140hp at the wheels, this was before the delco injection (when it had VK injection). I can fairly confidently say its probably about 145hp now with the delco and a much much nicer car to drive, not to mention more economical!

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Be that as it may, it still requires 98 octane fuel and even with that i have only managed to get it into the 11L/100kms once or twice ......

So to that end i started wondering about V6 conversions .... i was thinking about a VR motor but it would almost definately mean a step down in performance from where i am currently so on that i decided to go a step further to an ecotec which apart from being more powerful, has better characteristics, 4 bolt mains, better flowing heads, and nicer intake just to name a few and should be about on par or slightly more powerful than my current motor.

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The only thing that was really stopping this was the fact that ecotecs for me are not something i can tune in the backyard due to the development on the PCM's but as it turns out i'm running a hydraulic T700 so i don't need the computer to control it other than TCC lockup and so i decided to convert it to run a map sensor and VN wiring loom.

This turned out to be a fairly simple conversion only requiring some minor re-routing of some sensor wires aswell as tapping a thread into the inlet manifold to run a MAT sensor. So with all this completed i was able to fabricate the hardware required to put an ecotec motor into a torana, engine mounts and sump were pretty much all that needed changing. I also was able to move the gearbox crossmember forward approx 100mm and the whole deal was a goer.

Over some holidays around christmas/new year i pulled the motor out of the Torana for a trial fit of the v6 and to allow me to get the engine mounts and sump perfect. It went alot smoother than i first envisaged and i was actually able to fire the engine up in the car with the VN wiring running on a VN memcal.

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With all that sorted it was simply a matter of collecting all the other bits and pieces i needed aswell as finishing off all the custom stuff and then getting a weekend to do the swap over...... 1 weekend you might say ... i know, its a hard task but as i drive the car 120kms a day i need to be able to complete it in 1 weekend ....

So with everything slowly coming together i spoke to an engineer and showed him my engine mounts and pics from the temp install etc and he gave me the go ahead and told me what information i needed to keep him happy. So with all the planning and pre-install stuff done i picked June long weekend as D-Day .... and its just around the corner!!!!! so hense i thought i would start a thread dedicated to it and put some pics and info up of where i've come from and where im going to as it happens!!

Just today i picked up my custom length tailshaft which was the last piece in the puzzle for the conversion .....

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Plan is to install the motor on the long weekend which im hoping will be friday night and part of saturday, and for the rest of saturday and sunday i plan to make a custom exhaust enough to get me from two header pipes into 1 then into a 2.5 inch cat converter and then from there hopefully to connect to the cars current 2.5 inch system somewhere near the back of the gearbox .... if i can do that then i will be able to drive it everyday to work and then i can slowly complete all the little bits and pieces i need for engineer certificate!

[delcowizzid]

nice looking driveshaft there im waiting in anticipation for the outcome

[Jayme]

Very nice conversion. after recent research and playing with ecotecs, id do exactly the same conversion if I owned an ecotec. im thinking you may have to be careful with using the vn sparks table. from looking at aldl logs, the ecotec runs a fair bit less spark advance than the old buick.

[Holden202T]

yeah thats just something im going to have to suck it and see .... the biggest problem is i can't use the information from VS spark tables because they work totally differently with the MAF but i figure the old V6 table will be the best starting point i can ask for, and im running a knock sensor so hopefully from there i can get it in the ball park ....

if its running a bit more spark then thats what i wanted to do anyways so its not all bad

don't know anyone thats converted an ecotec to MAP and has a bin available do yas

[delcowizzid]

well if you read LEON's tuning article they run ok on a stock VR pcm when people convert backwards to MAP so the buick advance should get you close anyway

[UCMatt]

Cool conversion.
The ECO heads are much better than the Buick, and don't require as much timing.
Pull a bit of timing out of a VN cal and gradually sneak it back up, keeping an eye on knock counts.
Peak HP should be pretty close to the 202, however, bottom end torque will be much better.
I will try to get a copy of a friends cal who put an ECO into a hilux with hydraulic T700 and 808.

WIll have to post some pic's of my UC hatch with 355/Getrag project.

[Holden202T]

Peak HP should be pretty close to the 202, however, bottom end torque will be much better.
I will try to get a copy of a friends cal who put an ECO into a hilux with hydraulic T700 and 808.

Thats what im counting on then from that point i can do some porting and cam and should end up with a nice increase!

if you could get your hands on that cal i would be most appreciative!

[Jayme]

im addicted to nice graphs, to see the diff here is an ecotec WOT (effectively 100 kpa) spark map taken from aldl log vs VN and VR spark maps taken direct from tunerpro 100kpa column

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[delcowizzid]

the graphaholic pulls out another master peice you like that spreadsheet dont you mate how did butt dyno go did you ever redo the xls files to suit

[Holden202T]

there is a fair bit of difference there hey!! i'd say if its gonna ping it'll be in the mid range

also makes me wonder how much of that drop in timing is actually needed and how much of it is holden taming the motor down ....