The upgrades for the Supermang continue in this fresh episode of Carnage, with the goal being to get the car ready for the Tuff Mounts Holden Nationals at Heathcote Park Raceway on 25-27 February.

That means (at the time of writing) there’s less than one working week left to get the diff and intercooler upgrades done, so Scotty called in some reinforcements to speed things up.

His good mate Ben Hewlett came down from Echuca to help out. He’s an ex-Army corporal and qualified mechanic who took care of bonkers Army projects like the blown ‘Project Digger’ LTD during his 13 years of service.

The boys wasted no time, stripping the live-axle rear end out the VN. It was handed off to Luke from Mobile Diff Repairs, who fitted the new 3.7:1 rear gears and the Torque-Lock LSD centre supplied by Mace Engineering.

The other major upgrade was the conversion to a water-cooled intercooler set-up. We tested both air-to-air and water-to-air set-ups on the L67 late last year, and Scotty elected to go with the water version for the engine’s current form.

Part of that conversion involves fitting a low-profile sandwich plate between the blower and intake manifold, which is where the air gets cooled before going into the engine. We’re still waiting on the alloy water tank, which is being custom-made by a fan, but Scotty still made hay by getting the sandwich plate under the blower and mounting the heat exchanger at the front of the car.

With solid progress made, the next episode on the Supermang will (hopefully) see Scotty mount the water tank in the boot, plumb the lines to the front of the car for the heat exchanger and wire in the water pump for the system. Oh, and also get the diff back in the car. How long until Holden Nats again?