Holden Engine Plant Closes Today...

[mik]

Regardless of how good or bad engine x/y/z is , its another nail in the coffin for manufacturing in this country , and as far as i`m concerned all those knob heads in Canberra ........ yes all of them are directly responsible , its been clearly obvious for decades this was the path we where heading down ,
the result is as clear as the nose on your face , long term jobs on the whole diminishing , the divide between the haves and have nots growing everyday , crime going up ,
real standard of living going down for the majority,
dogs and cats living together (thanks Bill),
uncertain times ahead ,
kaos ensuing !
So where do we go from here ???????

[Syndrome]

Holden probably made stuff all money on the HF V6 project (Alloytech).

When GM Powertrain, Ricardo and Robert Bosch signed the contract in 1999 it was supposed to be something that was going to be a basis for Holden exports for decades to come (just like the Family II engine was).

Holden could not justify the cost for building a new engine plant (plant 18 at Port Melbourne) and engine program purely based on local demand for the V6 engine. Therefore their parent company gave Holden the HF V6 SIDI engine for the then GM-Fiat applications and the HF V6 Turbo engine for GM-SAAB applications (neither of which lived up to expectations).

The atmosphere at the start was buoyant for all involved with the project in the early days. I spent an interesting two weeks in Japan at Sanyo Machine Works at the start of 2003 when the assembly line was being tested before being sent to Port Melbourne.

First HFV6 engine variant which rolled off the Port Melbourne assembly line was the GMT 257 late 2003. It was building up to the release of the VZ in 2004.

When he VZ Commodore was released the local media reaction was muted. How could GM start with a clean sheet of paper and make such a mundane engine? The VZ was hardly any better the then VY with the decades old 3.8 litre Ecotech engine. And the 'old' Barra I6 was superior to the Alloytech in a number of areas.

It saddens me to see the new building when driving along Todd Road in Port Melbourne only had a useful life of 14 years.

So much promise. So little return.

[roddy1960]

G'day , Not long to go now...The days of blandness are almost here...I'm kind of glad Ford went first now . Our pain is dulling a little .Holden's last agonising months are beginning...Cheers Rod...

[Sprintey]

Syndrome thank you for that informative post. The motor was a disappointment, it's shining light was in SIDI form VEII/VF MY14 as it is E85 compliant... for all those moonshining into the future... Sad to lose more capital tooling, and the expertise to run it. Luckily housing boom goes up to '11'

[commodorenutt]

The ecotec launched in the VS was a very different engine to the 3800 Buick that preceded it in VN-VR. Not even the blocks are the same (significantly shorter deck height on the ecotec) and nearly all parts are not interchangeable.
For Holden, it was probably as big, or a bigger change, as what the 4.0L was between AU>BA, but at least Ford kept almost the entire block and rotating bottom end unchanged.

[Bossxr8]

The block was changed from au to ba. Crank mounted oil pump and no auxilary shaft among other things. So fairly different.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by commodorenutt

You're right about the V8 - that's why I'm hanging on to our 6.0L VE - it's pre-AFM, and had no issues in 150,000km so far. Had an early AFM one on the fleet at work and it did the lifters. Young mechanic only got 15 out before morning tea. Forgot about the 16th, which dropped onto the sump's cast tray. Put it all back together and first crank it ventilated the block....took them a week to get a replacement, and wouldn't admit to it until they had to tell the assigned driver he needed to get the engine number changed on the rego papers.

Most of the suspect ones would have been sorted out by now - just like the issues with the early Gen3 5.7L

Its only the auto cars which copped the AFM engine (its L76/L77 i think), the manuals have the non AFM L98.

If anyone wants an auto one but doesn't want the issues that the AFM models may bring, there is a kit to remove it which includes timing gear, timing chain and different lifters.

While you're there you change the valve springs and chuck a small cam in there too while its all apart

From memory I think the VZ which was the introduction of the 6L was actually the L76 which actually had the displacement on demand (DOD/AFM) setup but the ECU software wasn't there for the VZ Commodore to activate/control it which was later introduced in the VE.

[commodorenutt]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

The block was changed from au to ba. Crank mounted oil pump and no auxilary shaft among other things. So fairly different.

That's why I said 'almost' - the changes were minor compared to the dimensionally very different ecotec/3800 changes that were being noted as "decades old" - when it wasn't.

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Its only the auto cars which copped the AFM engine (its L76/L77 i think), the manuals have the non AFM L98.

That's correct - only autos had AFM.

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

If anyone wants an auto one but doesn't want the issues that the AFM models may bring, there is a kit to remove it which includes timing gear, timing chain and different lifters.

Most of the affected ones would have been done under warranty by now, and it was only the early ones. Enough of an issue for people to still steer clear though.

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

From memory I think the VZ which was the introduction of the 6L was actually the L76 which actually had the displacement on demand (DOD/AFM) setup but the ECU software wasn't there for the VZ Commodore to activate/control it which was later introduced in the VE.

Yes - part way through VZ, as the old 5.7L was no longer made in the right spec, nor could meet the required tighter emissions rules they introduced here. Most of the DOD hardware is in place, but no way to activate it - and no need, as our emissions at the time, despite being recently updated, weren't as strict as the US who needed everything the could to lower them.

[mik]

As i mentioned in another thread , its interesting to see how we went from 22% manufacturing in the 60`s to currently 6 % , what a sad little backwater our country has become .

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by mik

As i mentioned in another thread , its interesting to see how we went from 22% manufacturing in the 60`s to currently 6 % , what a sad little backwater our country has become .

When my parents came from Europe after the war the beautiful thing about this country was the amount of work available. A family with no significant skills and poor grasp of the English language were able to live a comfortable life because of the opportunities the Australian manufacturing industry offered in those days. You didn't like the job you had? You started another on the next day. There were vacancy boards in front of factories. No longer the case.

[mik]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

When my parents came from Europe after the war the beautiful thing about this country was the amount of work available. A family with no significant skills and poor grasp of the English language were able to live a comfortable life because of the opportunities the Australian manufacturing industry offered in those days. You didn't like the job you had? You started another on the next day. There were vacancy boards in front of factories. No longer the case.

Good post mate .
Australia was the lucky the country, we had everything going for us , but a lot of those things have slipped away, and sadly more things are slipping away every day.
Coming up from a less than privileged family upbringing myself and having worked most of my life in grass roots type jobs , and seeing so many of these jobs and industries vanishing daily almost brings a tear to the eye ,
Jobs are already naturally diminishing due to that thing we call progress , machines now do the work of multiple bodies these days , computers too .
you always hear from the suits and the educated wafflers in parliament " oh we have to be the clever country " ,
and to a degree thats true , but unfortunately , there will always be a section of society for many reasons i wont go into that needs salt of the earth /grass roots/lower skilled type jobs ...... factory jobs ...... laboring jobs , machine operator type jobs .
Unfortunately the the illustrious boofheads and wafflers in power from all sides over the decades seem to think you can trade those things for snagging a " fair trade deal " and it makes all the problems with society and low employment/low self esteem/broken familys/high crime rate /lower standard of living/ higher prices to pay for the the screwed up society just magically disappear .

It really is not rocket science , and all the BS in the media about masses of people knocking back jobs to stay on dole ........ there is a bigger underlying problem here , and the wafflers just seem to have no clue what direction is up .

[eb2fairmont]

You're right on this. It's also the same in the uk and the us too. Basically fta are removing opportunities for those as you have described and there's a ******** of Pent up anger on it out there too. Why else would the primarily votes of the two major parties be up the creek - because they're not catering for those who don't want to work some crummy service job, or have lost their job due to the economic rationalist thought on uncompetitive industries.

Loss of the car industry is a good example of this.

So when you have opticians tapping into this it's getting them votes viz trump and brexit. It's happening here too.

Note China employs a few hundred to clear runways full well knowing that machines can do it quicker. But they do it to keep people employed and working

[Davehoos]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-0...decade/7560300

http://theconversation.com/the-austr...ro-study-69398

All depends on what wheel barrow is been pushed.