V8 cooling issues? - split from Opel to be reintroduced to NZ

[118 Ben N]

Hahahhahhahaha

I am amazed how people in the southern hemisphere like Opel...

I mean for me in Holland (living 10km from Germany i can see the lights on the propellors of windmills on a clear summer day that stand in Germany) Its weird that Opel would not be common here...U see them daily a lot..Corsa Vectra Astra and and and and.

For me it would be awesome if Holden would of opent a dealership here like 30 jears years back,i love the models VK-VE and the Utes and the Holden V8,s..

All Opel makes at the moment are small crappy ugly front wheel drive cars,with small shitty engines compared to Holden,Holden in its glory days made cars like a VN with a real Ozzie build V8,a car Opel shut of sold as the Senator V8 or something...But Opel never made a V8...In the old Diplomats they uses a Chevy 5,4L V8 and in the Omega B they tryed to put a LS1 in there...but faced cooling problems??????????????
And in Aus where temps are 2x as high as here...as LS1 stays cool?????
Strange that Opel that builds cars for like 700 million people..Face cooling problems and Holden that makes cars for like 30 million keep it cool?????

Anyway the days that Opel made good nice cars like Manta Ascona Monza Rekord Omega Senator are over i reckon,its just all small ugly high tech cars,years back it was VW or Opel....Now brands as Audi and Toyota are taking a big market share and VW is selling heaps more cars than Opel,sadly enough.

I would prefer Holden as being a brand sold here,as they are lighyears behind....Hahaha i shipped in my V8 from my 1994 VR Commodore that i had in Australia as holiday car,to drop in my Monza,compared to a 1994 Opel engine the 304 was the top of the Holden engine list..

And if i compare that V8 to a 3.0 24V or 2l 16V.......Hahaha its a big solid piece of cubic inches that last forever,the 3.0 24V is a way higher technical designt piece of engine but after 300.000km its scrap mostly and than Holden go,s on for another 400.000,for example the C30SE has 4 valves per cylinder aloy heads Dual ram intake,in those days Holden was no further than:2 valves per cylinder and a 70mm trottle body (aftermarket) and the idea of more liters=More power,i like the Holden way of thinking way more than the Opel way with engines with more sensors than i have €,s lol.

Anyway if i see some Opels once i go back to Australia next year it would make me feel more at home...

But Holden shut be sold here instead of Opel,i like there concept way more than Opel:
Big cars big engines rearwheel drive relatively primitive technique,thats the way to go,instead of small engines with heaps of technique and turbo,s and sensors and crap,that are all designt for the enviroment..

Instead of Monza 30E i would like to drive a VK V8 or with a 304 EFI..In the days Opel had EFI 1975 Commodore A GSE,Holden was busy with developing a brake booster lol.

[014 Phil]

Here you go, Ben..................
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=774

[001 Neville]

Yep, makes him go all weak at the knees

Ben, I think it is a case that what you have local, you don't appreciate so much since they are common. Some don't think so much of the Commodores since they are everywhere over here.

I really like the newer styling of the VE model, but hated the bland VY/VZ models. I owned a VR and wanted a VT/VX, but didn't like the VN/VP. So is very much a personal thing.

While I can see the attraction of having a 5.0 V8, I would never want to pay to run one. The Monza gets 30-32mpg which is pretty good in my opinion. I presume the V8s are a lot more thirsty, but have never checked so you and others could probably advise what to expect.

If Bitter can take a Holden VE and rebadge it, with some styling changes, then there is surely no reason why Opel couldn't do the same thing for European markets.

[021 Chad]

The Holden V8's faced 'cooling' issues in Europe because they are not 'Wide open throttle' rated. This means that if you jump on the Autobahn in Germany and open up the taps, the motor will cook itself like a poached egg.

[118 Ben N]

U mean the real Holden V8 or the LS1 that opel wanted to place in the Omega B????

[021 Chad]

U mean the real Holden V8 or the LS1 that opel wanted to place in the Omega B????

The Holden V8's, as in all Australian made V8's are not WOT rated and are likely cook if driven at high speed for extended periods. This is why there aren't many Aussie V8 exports to Europe.

[001 Neville]

The Holden V8's, as in all Australian made V8's are not WOT rated and are likely cook if driven at high speed for extended periods. This is why there aren't many Aussie V8 exports to Europe.

Not rated for Wide Open Throttle? (never heard of the term)

What about the Bathurst cars, do they have a different rating, since that must be at full throttle much of the time - maybe not for so long as blatting down an autobahn for a few hundred kilometres, but still high stress on the engines.

[021 Chad]

The Holden V8's, as in all Australian made V8's are not WOT rated and are likely cook if driven at high speed for extended periods. This is why there aren't many Aussie V8 exports to Europe.

Not rated for Wide Open Throttle? (never heard of the term)

What about the Bathurst cars, do they have a different rating, since that must be at full throttle much of the time - maybe not for so long as blatting down an autobahn for a few hundred kilometres, but still high stress on the engines.

Ummm I think you're confusing a race engine with a production engine there. There isn't much in common between the two internally.

The term they use is 'vollgasfest' (full throttle resistant) or driving at full throttle for a few hours. The Bitter Vero is one of the few EU sold cars with a Holden V8 fitted and I read that they had to fit an oversized radiator and re-fiddle the cooling system in the engine to make it comply.

So it's not 'engine stress' cusing the overheating, but the fact that a 5000cc + motor puts out a lot of heat under load and the radiators / coolant systems in the Aussie v8's are not designed to cope with burning a whole tank of gas with your jandal to the floor boards.

Thats all the info I have on the subject.

[014 Phil]

Holden haven't made a V8 engine in over a decade, all the V8s now come from the US. I would think the lack of chasing exporting the V8 engined Holden Commodore would be more related to projected sales volume rather than heat issues. I see that HSV are about to re-commence exporting the E3 Series HSVs to the UK. Nice car.........

[127 Gordo]

Seems a bit strange - a well loaded car towing a (large boat) up a long hill could have the engine under full, or near full, power and high rpm for a long period, with a lot less cooling air passing through the radiator - especially as some parts of Aussie hit more than 40C.
I know there was a problem with the earlier 308 engine cracking cylinder heads, is that what you're thinking of?

[020 Brad]

It's from this wiki link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Omega ... totypes.29

True or not, who knows? I'd probably put it in the same basket as Holden needing to strengthen the Opel Commodore because it was "too weak".

[021 Chad]

It's from this wiki link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Omega ... totypes.29

True or not, who knows? I'd probably put it in the same basket as Holden needing to strengthen the Opel Commodore because it was "too weak".

Yuh I heard about that one too. They were using the Rekord based chassis I think and ended up with major firewall cracking during testing.

Keep in mind that none of this info is 'from the horses mouth' it's all through the grape vine information. I don't stand behind this info 100%, only say 70% confidence in it's authenticity

[014 Phil]

I'm sceptical about the LS1 overheating. I can, however, confirm the Australian Commodore was strenghtened over its UK/European counterpart.

[127 Gordo]

I'm sceptical about the LS1 overheating. I can, however, confirm the Australian Commodore was strenghtened over its UK/European counterpart.

IIRC, there was a MOTOR journalist with GM when they did the testing and he did a story for the magazine with some pictures of the bent car - I think it was hitting a washout at speed that did most of the damage.