Nath

I do really like those. 14s or 15s?

Fastest NA crossie?

Well since you put the suit on - They're an acquired taste I think... so maybe you should acquire some taste. Kidding of course haha. Everyone likes different stuff I guess. Personally I actually hate most of the rims that people are happy to drop a couple of grand on, so maybe I'm weird.

That's true, will make a good coffee table. Why is it always raining when I need to do stuff that involves laying on the ground Manifold came up okay-ish after the vinegar/water bath. Degreaser bath barely touched any of the crap on the rockers. About to go get some diesel now.

Thinking I might just Diesel bath the heads, is there any reason I shouldn't do that? Can't really see them getting any more rooted than they are now. Won't be doing much on this engine tomorrow I don't think, have to put the gearbox and stuff back in the XR8. It needs a pink slip in a a couple of weeks so can't really afford to be stuffing around while it sits in pieces.

Yeah I'll clean it up as best I can Greg and make a decision from there. Was my mistake, and one I won't be making twice. I will admit I went into that with every intention of buying it unless it was properly seized because of the colossal fuck around of having to find one then organize picking it up. Not to mention the 3-4 I've already tried to chase up on that have fallen through. Honestly, I'm just sick of dicking around and just want to build something already. There's a perfect, virgin bore crossy sitting on my garage floor that is looking more and more tempting.

Too much apparently.

Yeah I guess. Will have to have a think about it, 3400 is a pretty big hit to take all at once. Was thinking it might be worth buying another one that's been disassembled so I can see for sure there's no nasties, I've seen a few floating around for 250 bucks or so because they're all in pieces. I'm sure whatever is inevitably missing I can make up with stuff from this engine. I already know the answer is going to be "too much" but out of curiosity how much does it cost to get a block re-sleeved? Or if I really can't be stuffed I still have a perfectly good crossy disassembled and ready to go.

Yeah pitted real bad. That photo was after I soaked up all the water sitting there with a rag. Guess my definition of "in a shed" differs a lot to the blokes, since from the amount of water in there it was obviously outside not covered up. Tempted to go drop it back off on his lawn. Should have gone with my first instinct when I took off the rocker cover but I'd been looking for ages, was a long drive out there which I had to organise a mate's ute so I said f*ck it, just wanted an engine to get started on. I'll look into pavtek. Realistically there's not a lot of stuff I was gonna use from this donk anyway since I need to get 351 stuff. I'll clean up and sell what I can (air cleaners, manifold etc) to see if I can recover some of the loss. Edit: No bueno with the Pavtek one. 3400 for a bare, unbalanced bottom end? No thanks. May as well buy the whole crate motor.

Got a nasty surprise when I took one of the heads off... Fuck.

Here's a few pictures. Rockers were a prick to get off, soooooo much sludge in there and it got all through the socket/ratchet and kept slipping. Got them all in the end though. Thinking maybe I should soak the heads or something.. Air cleaner came up alright with a hit of degreaser and a scrub. I have the spare one which I haven't touched yet as a comparison I should use Soaking the manifold to get rid of as much of the rust as I can. Still have to remove the torque converter left on there (bolts are being a prick so I left it for now) and the heads, then I should be able to get it on the stand.

Cheers fellas, quality posts as always. XCSEDAN I will definitely look into those two combos you posted. Just looking for something that's fun to drive that I can take it to a few track days a year. Not worried about out-driving anyone. I'm not looking at doing anything too crazy. Using a proven combo without any funky stuff is fine with me. 1hp per cube or maybe a little more for sub 6k sounds good, especially if I can chase more later down the track. Not really interested in doing a stroker though. Not a huge fan of this 5000rpm rev limit

Will have a think about it... Currently in the process of dismantling and cleaning stuff up. The amount of sludge in this thing is unbelievable - industrial strength degreaser is doing sweet FA, only barely comes off with a wire brush and even then it's not doing a lot. All the bolt ons are pretty much cactus (thermo housing etc). The good news is, is that under 20 years of caked on crap there seems to be plenty of life left under there, seems to scrub up ok. Fingers crossed the bottom end especially is still good. Off to get a gazillion litres of vinegar to soak a few things in and remove some of the rust. Industrial strength degreaser bath seems about the only thing that makes the shit come off (just did the rocker covers) and even then it's still clogging up my wire brushes.

Has to be engineered and I wouldn't be able to drive it for like a year. Here it is... even came with 2 air cleaners! Maybe it should be called the ghetto Clevo build because it looks like hell. What's the general opinion about off the shelf heads? Just having a quick look on ebay there's a few. Would save all the hassle of having to reco these and would probably not be that much more expensive when everything adds up, especially if I clean mine up and sell them. Oh, and I finally found a fitting use for the disgusting chrome wheels that came with the XR8. Wouldn't rate them much as a wheel but they make a good makeshift pallet.

EFI is the devil. And yeah Free. If anyone was thinking of buying shares in petrol stations in Sydney now would be the time...

Cheers Sly, I'll look into those... Fronts are the main thing, seeing as the brake kit will be here in a week, how quickly I can put it on depends on how quick I can get new fronts. They look alright Bear. To be honest I'm a pretty big fan of a lot of the usual 14" wheels - Jellybeans, Hotwires, Globes, Slotters etc. They look good and more like a dealer fitted option (half of them probably were) instead of the big shiny obviously aftermarket stuff.

Cheers guys, gonna ring around and see what's up. If I can get away with something for a few hundred that'd be good. Other than the shitty shifting into second it feels ok.

Just had a few questions for you guys to see what the best course of action would be... The box is out of the XR8 at the moment while I do the clutch and I was thinking it might be a good idea to see if I can get some work done to it while it's out anyway. I don't really know much about the internal workings of a gearbox, while I'd like to learn it could turn out to be an expensive lesson so probably best to get someone else to do it. The box was ok but not great to begin with - everything was nice and tight (if a little clunky but I thought that was normal), but it did whine a bit in first and second, especially first. An oil change really helped that, but you can still hear a very slight whine from the box if you turn the music down and are driving slow enough, especially in first. Whines pretty loud in reverse but I heard that's normal. I am more worried about second gear - unless you were very deliberate with shifting it'd often only go halfway in and pop out. It got so bad on the downshift from 3rd to 2nd that I was double clutching it just to be sure. The new oil helped a bit but it still happens, if not as much. I have full intentions of driving this thing hard (want to put it in a couple of hill climbs for a bit of fun) and I'd rather not have to baby it to stop it falling apart. I have some of that Nulon Smoothshift Paste to empty into it when I refill the oil which should help but obviously that's not a proper fix. Does anyone know if there's anything I can get done to touch up the box (I know you're there unfamilia....) to extend its life a bit? Is it possible to just get some of the synchros done, and if so what's the rough cost of that?

Cheers man, will keep that in mind.

400 isn't really the limit, I'd just rather not be dropping 2k on a set of rims when I have the rest of the driveline to build. I love globes but they're pretty hard to find.

Haha. I've always thought that rims shouldn't be the first thing you notice about a car, they should just compliment it without standing out too much. Always hated big rims on old cars too... Not a huge fan of snowies either to be honest. I don't mind them but they don't really float my goat.

PM inbound! NZXD - $995 for a pair of fronts for my XD. Not cheap but I figure by the time you buy a set of Konis, plus new springs, plus spring saddle you're getting pretty close to that anyway, and these are fully adjustable and it doesn't matter what engine you run, so if you ever want to change your setup it saves you money in the long run. 600lb spring rate which a couple of people reckon might be a bit soft for an X series. Guess I'll find out in a few weeks. I'd imagine you could ask them to use a stiffer spring if you wanted.

Already put a deposit on mine... Only place I could find that does them is a suspension place in WA and there's an 8 week back order. They're not cheap though.

Shit, one spring crapped out... Time for coilovers!

I wouldn't be unhappy with that...