Someone stole my Monaro Engine

This episode featuring my amazing Monaro is proudly brought to you by us and our all -new Thongs.These things are freaking awesome.We've got a car design on the front and something a little special on the back.

There's even a turbo on there.Now, depending on what country you're in, you may refer to these as flip -flops.That's true.We have been working on these for months and months, and they've finally arrived, and they've got a little secret, people.There's a little secret underneath everywhere you walk.You'll be chopping every fool because we've got them indented with the chopped fingers.

These are available right now.We'll ship them to you anywhere in the world.and then you can walk around and if you happen to go and like borrow someone's engine without permission you could put these on and run away with them because they're even extra little bit grippy on top aren't they for extreme manoeuvres.

I would easily find you if you're on sand because I would just follow the little chop fingers that are in the ground.

Well I'd take one of them off and I'd hop.

Also if thong means something different where you're from don't wear these as underpants.These are for your feet.

I gotta go Martin.Good luck with your engine.See ya mate.Bye.

G'day mate.How you going?Um, we need to have a little chat about mine.

Sorry.I'm just gonna, I literally have no pants on.Give me one sec.

Why do you need pants on to talk on the phone?Um, I would like to have a little talk to you about the Monaro, about the fact that it's got no engine in it.

Give me a shirt on.Give me one sec.Hold on.Anyone seen my shirt?Yeah.Sorry, dude.

There's a few people here.Sorry, what's going on?

I'd like to have a little chat about the lack of engine in my Monaro.Um...Yeah?So...Where's my engine?And why did you take it out?

Where are my shoes?Why did you take my engine out?

Can someone bring me my shoes?Sorry, what do you want?

My engine.Where is my Monaro engine, dude?

Dude, you've got lots of engines.They're not my socks.Those are not mine.

I downloaded...

Dude, I'm a bit busy right now, actually.There's...What do you want?You want an engine?You got lots of engines.

Dude, just come to Supergarage.Come to Supergarage.Put your clothes on and come here, please.

Yep, no worries.

Take off that hat!

What I got going on here?One acai bowl.A what?No peanut butter.That's for you.Extra fruit.

Extra strawberries.Extra excellentness.Cheers!You having some?Maybe.I got the peanut butter.

I know you don't like peanut butter.I had a pretty big night last night, dude.

That sounded like it.

What did you get up to?

I'm not here to talk to you about that.I would like to talk about this.

Yeah?

Without my permission.You took my engine.Literally stole it.

It's not stealing, dude.We've had this conversation before.It's like when you accused me of stealing your car in Dubbo just because I took it and sold it and kept the money.What did the police say?It's not stealing.Because I own half of it.

But that's my car.

in my car.That's our engine, in our car, in our space.

What do you mean?That's, this is my LS, dude.

We dyno'd it.And then you make a video saying, oh, I stole your engine, like, it's mine and I've taken it.No, I didn't.You did, it's on the end of the last video.Oh, that's fake.

That's not, that's not real, dude.That's AI.That's AI.Yeah, I got a real one.If you want to know who stole your engine, check this out.Recognise that voice?

That's Al.

That is the worst AI shit I've ever seen.Come on, man.All right, speaking of footage, I have surveillance footage of you stealing it.Is that not you?Nope.Trying to put my engine in the bin?

Nope.That's Sam, dude.You're literally high -fiving.Nope.You took a selfie.It's not me.

Your actual home screen is selfing of you with my...This is some bullshit.That is my engine.You did not have my permission to take it?I didn't take it.

The truth will come out one day, but this car's gonna be mad, and you can enjoy the potential of that engine in a proper car.Watch the videos, dude.Like, in a Falcon, it's gonna be mad.And, what is all this shit that you have up here?Look how many engines there are.

Daihatsu, Daihatsu, March Super Turbo, Honda, L20.Yep.Uh, L20, um, and that's a EFD flat engine.Lots of turbos, lots of cool stuff.But that's not the point.Why don't you take, if you want an LS, if you took an LS,

why don't you just take Mod Max's engine?That's an LS.That one's thrashed.You can have that one.You should be thrashing it for a decade.

Yeah, but I wanted a fresh one.I mean, whoever took this one had a fresh one.Dude, I'll get you another engine.

And so, while I await the arrival of my new engine, which, let's face it, better be freaking good, because the one that came out was clearly very fresh.I'm gonna make myself feel better by ordering an absolute buttload of mad upgrade and performance parts for the best Australian car ever made.And that is, you guessed it, this Monaro.And being an epic Aussie car, there are thousands of mods for it.And this car will be the equivalent of one of those massive jacked kangaroos that you don't wanna mess with if you see in the bush.Only it's red, has wheels, and also no engine.

After some furious rounds of online ordering, my parts have arrived.Being that I don't have an engine, I'm gonna have to focus on other parts of the car, like suspension and handling.I have some Shockworks coilovers here, which should do a good job at lowering the car and give me some more adjustability.I'm also replacing 20 -something -year -old suspension parts and, of course, a bunch of white -line bushes, because replacing this is one of the best things you can do to make your car handle as good or better than it came out of the factory.The only favour that old mate did by ripping out my engine was he removed my subframe.I need to replace a lot of the bushes and arms in that subframe, so I have one here that I'm going to chuck all the new parts into, and I can do that on the floor or on the bench, which is going to save save a bit of time and hassle, so let's get into it.

Falcon jump.

Oh weird, two subframes.Unlike my obscure JDM hatchback nuggets that are mostly all in scrap heaps in Japan, the mighty Commodore has an absolute bucket load of epic aftermarket parts available for it.Meaning I can give this thing a massive refresh without spending a bucket of cash.And being that I can't actually make the thing move under its own power yet, now is the best time to give this two -deck

old suspension a new lease on life.Use some CRC penetrate with the number eight, which is why I know it's good, onto any of this old stuff.I'm going to replace as many of these bushings and brackets and sway bar links and everything as I can while the subframe's out of the car.Whack that on.Perfection.

Commodores have done billions of combined kilometres across this entire wide brown land.And all of them on a suspension design that started back in the 70s with the Opels they originated from.So, as proven as it is, it still does wear out, so I'm gonna upgrade mine.My good friend, Sam the Mechanic, and his mate, who steals LS1s, dropped the engine out on its subframe.So, before I can add any of my suspension mods, I'm gonna have to install this replacement I got from the wreckers.Speaking of wreckers, some of the cheapest entertainment I ever had as a teenager was jumping in my Gemini with my mates and heading out to pick and pay less in Blacktown.

For five bucks in fuel and two bucks for entry, you could wander around an absolutely enormous yard full of cars that were soon going to be eaten by the shredder.Armed with some tools, you could pick the bits you wanted out of the carcasses.It was a bit of a treasure hunt, because sometimes you'd find a higher spec car than your own, and hit the jackpot with things like brake conversions, carpets, sun visors, sports exhausts, and all manner of interior bits.But the scary part, however, was when you got to the checkout with your wheelbarrow full of junk, and the staff would look you up and down, look in your wheelbarrow, and apply some completely arbitrary maths to the entire deal.Maths is like maths, but with no teeth.Just like the wrecker.

This is my front coilover.The rear of the Holden Monaro uses a separate spring and shock arrangement.The front uses a McPherson strut.I think this is what this is called, when it's got the two bolts here and the thing on the top.Basically, we just undo this plate on the top, which has a couple of 6mm hex head bolts in it.And then, kind of sandwich that in.

so we put the shock up and under like that and it fits into a hole there and then this goes over the top and caps it and holds it in place.A lot of heavy work.The rear arms are out.These things are massive.I have decided to not take the rear hub off, which makes it a bit harder, but this is a pretty massive rear arm.There's like a cradle that lives in the back of the car as well and this sort of makes up half of it.

The diff mount makes up the rest of it.Haven't really seen anything like that before.Either way, we're going to replace the bushes.The whole point of getting these out is to replace these two bushes.Now it's so difficult to do that it's very likely it's never been done before.Uh, so we've got some white line bushes here as well, which also, There's an IRS adjuster.

This is Whiteline make this.You can see it's like an eccentric sleeve thing.And we're going to bash that out and put it in the rear arm here.But it's a little tricky to get these old bushes out.You've actually got to break off.There's like a plastic or like a plastic thing here you've got to snap off.

And then they actually supply just like that.Then they supply a tool that you can use to pull the bush through.And then we just install these ones.These are a bit easier.Bit of grease on there.Put them in.

Arms back in.And we've got brand new bushes in the rear of our mad Monaco.

I'm gonna be completely honest with you.I reckon changing suspension is some of the hardest jobs to do on a car.And I'm always a bit reluctant to get into it.You often have to remove heaps of parts.to get to things.It's dirty, it's greasy and often under tension.

Meaning it takes a lot of effort and leverage to get it apart.The parts seem so simple in isolation and you think they can't possibly make that much difference.Then you've got to jigsaw it all back together and even then, the magic often doesn't show itself until after you've stuck a good set of tyres on it and got it all wheel aligned.Then, it feels totally worth the effort, and it pays off for a long time afterwards.Having the confidence the car will go where you point it, and actually hang on, makes it worth the effort.You do, however, need to make a decision about what your priorities are in terms of stiffness, compliance and NVH, which is noise, vibration and harshness.

There is a sweet spot for a road car where your handling is magnitudes better with only a small bump in noise.A road car that crashes over twigs or potholes is no fun, so select your parts based on your goals.Whether that's a Sunday cruise, or personal best lap times at the track.In my case, I've gone a suite of Whiteline products and fully adjustable coilovers, to give me the widest range of tuning options, once I've got the thing running again.The car's in pieces anyway, so I may as well do it all at once.

It's a big, dirty and challenging job getting all those bushings in, but it's totally worth doing while the rear -end's apart.Even not having an exhaust in the way.This dip's gonna come out next, but, before I do that, I'm gonna put the springs back in.So, I've got the springs that came with our Shockwerks coil -overs.They are separate.I've put the actual, uh, strut in there.

Now, the spring's gonna go in.We also have a spacer.This comes from Whiteline.And a new bump -stop as well.So, it's gonna go spacer on here.And we can adjust that later, if we need to adjust where the spring perch sits.

Then, we wind the spring perch all the way up.The spring goes on, and we put a bump stop at the top.It's a little bit tricky.The angle's not great.So, this is a bit easier to do on a four -post hoist, or than a two.You can see, like, the angle's gonna be a bit funky.

But, as I wind it up, I'll put the bump stop in the top, attach the shock, and then that side is done, and ready to go back together.But I don't know exactly how to work on them and actually appreciating the simplicity of it.Some stuff makes no sense, let's just be real.18mm, 13mm, 15mm, 16mm.But some of this is quite simple and easy to get to and they've thought about it.These front bolts are a total pain.

Back one's easy, everything else here looks good.This diff is going to go and see a special friend of ours to be made even more epic.G'day Frank.Hey mate.Yeah, what'd you have for breakfast?Uh, nothing really.

Okay, good.Let's do a diff.Done.I've come down to see Frank and we're not gonna f**k around.We're gonna put a diff in this.

Let's get it done, mate.What do we do?What's this?Uh, this is the new LSD we're gonna put in it.So it's a Caz clutch toll.LSD, which is going to be a lot of fun.

Is that set up aggressive or not aggressive?It's set up on full send.From the factory?From the factory.That's how it comes.Factory settings, they're made for race cars.

They want you to skid this thing?They want you to do burnouts, yes.

Well, if they want us to do skids, then we should do skids.Or be rude not to.Be rude not to.Should we blow this apart?Let's go for it, mate.Hey, Frank.

Yes, mate?You're a bit of a fan of the Commodore, aren't you?I'm a massive fan of Commodores.You're a massive fan of Commodores?Massive fan.Can you tell me why?

Mate, they're just good burnout cars.That's pretty much it.The later ones will have LS engines in them, which is God's engine in my opinion.And yeah, they're just great for doing that.

I used to have an LS.You used to?Until it got stolen.Well, look.Did you see that?I did see that.

You just gotta come back with something bigger and better.

That's what you gotta do.Unbelievable.

Lucky for me, there's all sorts of LS3s, 6s, LS12s, LS15s.

15s.The 19's probably the bigger bunch.The 19's a big one, hey?Yeah.Yeah, it's the one you're after.

With the cover off, we can see the crown wheel, which tells us our diff ratio of 3 .46 to 1.

This is the big early model, so yeah, after this one, they moved to the ZF style diff, which is in the V8 Commodores, which is Shit.Oh, it's shit.

These are a good thing.

These are better.So the VE diff, so my ute over there with the supercharged or 98, I actually broke it in half a couple of months ago.

Oh, the diff?

Yeah.Do you know a diff guy?

I do, I do.

He's a bit of a knob, yes.

Awkward.A little bit.Luckily, the guy who breaks them also knows how to make them.He's also great at pulling things like this axle stub that needs to come out, so we can remove the center and replace all the bearings and seals while we're in there.There you go.And there's our diff.

That's our diff, mate.

Housing all looks pretty clean.That's all not too bad.Pinion looks okay.You're happy with what you're seeing?Yeah, so far so good.Excellent.

It's been off before because someone's gone nuts with the sludge.But it probably had an oil leak or probably could have had a previous diff build, maybe.

That's good.But no repairs or anything needed.That'll all go back together.That'll all go back together.We'll give that a quick wash.Fantastic.

These are left -hand threads.Oh, are they?So clockwise to get them off.Yeah.There you go.That's a trick for new players.

Left -hand threads.So you've got to put it on tighten to loosen them.There you go.Or you can learn the hard way.Really would, wouldn't you?I often think about with this car, is that so much of this car was assembled in Australia.

Now, granted, not all of it, because I know their engines, Canada, Mexico, whatever, so they're technically not Australian engines, but so much of this car had dudes down in South Australia, in Elizabeth, piecing it together, like 22 years ago, 23 years ago.Definitely.

Pretty cool, hey?I'm not sure where these diffs are built or when they were building these but years ago the Borg Warner factory used to be in Fairfield which is only up the road.Really?Yeah.What were you doing in 2003?I was working here.

Really?Is that when you started this shop?2002.There you go.

And people were still screwing these together.

I can tell you exactly where I was.I was right there.

The Monaro had just come out.Yeah.And you're probably going, what a piece of shit two -door Monaro, ugly thing.Two -door Commodore.Because that's what a lot of people thought.Overpriced Commodore.

Except now it's sick.It is sick.Time has made the car sick.I did always like them, they're not going to lie.Me too.

They've always been a good shape.Or my favourite Commodore forever.

Yeah.What's funny though, because everyone calls them a two -door Commodore.Yeah.But in the old days, it was a Monaro with two -door Kingswood.Yeah, I know.You know what I mean?

Anyway, that's another story for another day.

That's another.

There we go.Okay, so now we can wash it all up.That can, uh, Yeah, wherever you want to put it.That entire assembly goes away now?That all goes away, yes.Not needed?

Not even bearings?Not even the bearings, no.New bearings with this?New bearings I have on the shelf we will be installing.Cool.We'll have to get these bearing cups out.

Yep.And these little noodle rollers and the seals.And, um, yeah, we'll wash it all up and go back together.

So that will go back together or you'll put new stuff in there?We're going to put new stuff in these.I imagine Commodore stuff is very easy to come by.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

With these, I keep everything on the shelf.Oh, man.Came to the right place.All right, let's wash it up.

The best way we take these out just usually run a weld in there and they fall out.Put a bit of weld and it shrinks everything and just drops?Yeah, because to try and hit it out through there, you can't really get behind it.And to get a puller to go and grab it, it just...Do you know how to weld?No, you can have a go if you want.

Okay, I'll do it.Let's go.

What a cool way to, that's using like science and thermodynamics.

Yeah and your brain.We are scientists.It's that thing called worse.

Everything's going in the dishwasher of death.So one more wash cycle, then we're good to start putting it together.Sounds like a plan mate.More smoko.Jam the ring gear on now while it's still hot.The wash should be like 70 degrees roughly and then you just grow in a bit and it'll make it easier to get it onto the diff.

It's our little guide stud so we can locate it properly.

Yep.

And heaps easier when it's warm, huh?Definitely.

So, our limited slip centre.Although the factory one was limited slip too, right?It is a limited slip, yeah.Different kind or same thing?Plates in there and stuff?

No, it's a cone style.Cone style?Yeah.Western Sydney style.Definitely, yeah.Yeah, it comes with an orgy bottle.

That'll do him.

Boom.Awesome, thank you very much.Look at that.Limited slip centre.Almost there.Almost there.

We've got to put a few bearings and push some stuff into this, right?

Yep.So, we'll put that down and put it aside for now.This next?Yep, we've got those ready.Let's go over to the press.

Alright, so the outside of this bearing is in.That's the one that goes onto there.Oh, look at that.That's so satisfying.Now we've got these little needle roller bearings, is that what they're called?Torrington bearings.

Torrington bearings.Torrington bearings.So when you don't want to pay for streaming and you don't have cable TV, Torrington bearing.They get pushed into there, right?Yeah.With our seal.

We tap them in and then we put the seal in.

Sweet.And then we're almost there.You can unlock a lot of performance with a diff ratio change.It can make the car feel snappier, or optimise the power band you have in each gear.Now would be the time to change it, but I still don't know what engine is gonna be in this thing, let alone what gearbox.So, for now, the ratio remains the same as what the Monaro came with.

Only now, with a much more aggressive limited -slip diff, to help put power to the ground.

Now, my friend, we're gonna bolt it to this little cradle.Oh, this is a, like a jig to hold the thing?Yeah, custom -made jig.Oh, mate.

Um, that's cool.

You sure it's made for Holden diffs?It's made for... yes, especially for Holden.Have you ever done a Holden diff before?Maybe one or two.It's actually originally made for 9 -inch diffs, but um...That's just showing off.

As we go.As we go, I've just modified it to suit other diffs.

Yeah, nice.Just to make my life a little bit easier.So it's centre going from underneath?

Yeah, so now we'll just...What's the reason to not drop it in the other way?No, no.You watch what happens now.Oh, I see what's about to happen.Bit of magic, mate.

So clever.With the housing supported, everything needs to be lubricated well before the centre can go in.Then once it's in place, the bearing carriers can be wound into each side.And how far these go in set the backlash, and then it's all locked in place.

So now I'm just gonna set it roughly just by feel and by sound.I see you're listening for...I'm listening for that...Meshing?Yep.Then I'll go get the dial indicator and check it.

Get our desired backlash and then we take a mark and happy days.

We are also going to reinforce the back of this because this is the pickup point for the suspension, isn't it?It is, yeah.Like on a Commodore.So you can get big billet rear plates, which is like the extreme version, or you can put bushes and braces and supports in here, which is probably what we're going to do initially.But this can go back on now, right?

Yep.We'll remove the diff from the cradle and we can put the hat on.

Australian diff -making history goes back as far as 1928, when an engineering company called Coote and Jorgensen set their eyes on making parts for cars.They grew so quick, they caught the attention of a US company, Borg Warner, who bought them out.But their diff -making continued for decades, and ended up in all sorts of mad Aussie cars.And it all started a few suburbs away from Frank's shop in Fairfield in Sydney.

It's all yours, my friend.Ready to go.Done.Thank you, Frank.That was so fast.You're welcome, mate.

I appreciate your Commodore and Holden expertness.And, um, I'm very excited to be in a Holden.You should be, mate.It's a privilege to be driving one.They're the best, aren't they?They're the greatest.

Actually best.Better than Ford's?Way better than Ford's.The only thing that makes a good Ford is when it's got an LS engine in it.Controversial.I'm here for the controversial takes.

Got any, Frank?Thanks so much, man.No, you're welcome, mate.I suppose I should give you some money, eh?

Yep.Alright.All of it.Because my car has no engine, and because Frank is also such a nice guy, he offered to give me a lift to the station in his supercharged LS -powered Commodore Ute.

Thanks for the offer of the lift, mate.No, no worries, mate.I appreciate it.I'll go back.Lift to the station, yeah.Which way's the station?

Station's that way.Thanks, man.Good on ya.No worries, mate.Thanks for the lift.Anytime.

See ya later.Take care, buddy.Alright.

All the best, mate.Say hello to the family.

A short train ride later, I've got my diff back in Supergarage, ready to slap back into the Monaro.And thanks to some truly inspirational skids, I cannot wait to get this thing moving again.All I need is an engine.And my best mate has found me one at a workshop not far away.All I need to do is go and pick it up.Next time, on Mighty Car Mods.