Heart transplant in Daggsey's "Effacy"

[Daggsey]

Hi all,

Been a bit of a hold up to the start of the "big trip", but probably worth while. As aluded to by Reddo in another thread (I couldn't see any sneek photo?? ), the FC had a heart transplant over Christmas/New Year ;D ;D.

Out with the old .........


and in with the new ;D












I was going to say this was a supercharged grey motor, but Reddo has already given the game away by correctly identifying the new "heart in the Lion".......a 3.3 litre VK EFI jobbie.

Other mods undertaken at the same time were:

Airconditioning
3:08 diff
Dual-circuit brakes
Bigger radiator

Ok, so it's a VK Commodore in an FC body......certainly tows well on the short test I've done so far and is a great sleeper! ;D ;D

Daggsey

[Flattop]

Nice Job.

[Jennison]

Hey daggsey how did you fit aircon in that and where Jeff

[minicamper]

I'm voting under dash unit or one of the modern units available for hot rodders?

[Daggsey]

Hey Jennison,

Missed seeing your post re the aircon.........it was a component system I bought from Ashdown-Ingrams.........the unit is underdash and is a heater/aircon. Ashdowns are a division of Repco I think and they have a fantastic catalogue that you can look through which gives you sizes for the unit and condensor. This allows you to get the components as close as possible to the area you have available in your vehicle and under the bonnett. The dearest part of the excercise was the compressor. Trade discount on these parts are available, so if you have a mate with a business etc ;D ;D ;D.

Because I didn't want to re-invent the wheel, I originally enquired on the FE-FC website about fitting air-con and got little joy, so what I achieved was from my mechanic's "shed of invention"........it certainly worked well coming across the Nullabor on the way to Mt Gambier ;D ;D ;D.

My original thought was to use a unit out of a Japanese car (Mazda, Subaru etc), but soon discovered that because these vehicles have east west engines, they generally have a deeper under-dash area than the FC with a straight six and the resultant hump in the firewall.

The only downfall was the loss of the lever in the FC which opens the vent in the plenum panel for fresh air..........obviously Holden was ahead of it's time and that's why quarter windows were invented ;D ;D ;D

Daggsey

[Cruz]

Hi Daggsey, Looks like you still having a great trip, must be hard going. I noticed you are at peak hill have you checked out Toys For Boys Importer of old cars from across the pacific.
Keep the photos coming At your rate of travel you may be in QLD for wintersun.
Cruz