gerg

A good set of them is worth $500 at least. Highly sought after by restorers.

While we're on the subject, my brother's trying to sell some EA pistons, they're +0.030 hypereutectics, unused still in box. He just wants a reasonable offer. Great thread, amazing combinations of factory parts from what at face value is supposedly the same engine. My brother just turfed 2 running e-series engines as he couldn't give them away. A shame because they're a great engine. I still have a fondness for my EA S-pack 5-speed. So far I can gather that the best combo using mostly factory bits would be AU bottom end, EF XR6 head, BB manifold, EA cam, Pacemaker 6-3-1s and 2-1/2" exhaust. I've read that factory Ford cats have decent flowing cores but suffer from small inlets/outlets, so cutting and shutting bigger nipples on helps the gas fan out into the whole brick, not just hit the centre of it and this mod opens them up a lot. I've actually done this and it seemed to work well.

From Dellow website: FORD V8 T5 187 mm INPUT SHAFT FORD 6CYL T5 167mm INPUT SHAFT

Someone on the old site reckons bolting a 4v intake to a 2v head gives bullshit torque, and makes no sense at all but Kostecki Engine Centre did it and got some rather unexpected results. Maybe it's not bullshit torque, but bullshit talk. I dunno, plenty of myths out there but you can't go wrong with a cleanup of the plunge cut in the bowl and smooth the valve guide and match-port to the manifold.

V8s have longer input shafts

Yeah that's right. I knew it was big block something. I've read that 460s are around 8-1/2". But I've also read that BBCs use 2 lengths, one for inlet, one for exhaust. The longer exhaust one is what you'd use.

A 240 might rev a bit but a 300 is definitely a chugger. Over 4500 is getting into the danger zone. But they're all about torque, with a long stroke and V8 pistons. I reckon a boosted one would be off its tits. Later ones are EFI, so some nice manifolds are available. EFI exhausts are the go too, they're a twin branch that people like to split into separate exhausts each side for a bit of rumble. Each to their own but I'm not a fan. Shouldn't be too hard to shove one in a Falcon, just piss off the fan and put thermos in, maybe set it back an inch or so, sump could be a drama.

Ask Slydog, he's up on Crossys quite a bit. I seem to remember 429/460 pushrods are the go.

they have a loyal following in the States, where MPG and longevity are most important. Try 500,000 miles and 22 MPG... and can be made to boogie with a decent carby and manifold. Gear driven camshaft too. I wonder how well they'd transplant into an X-Series Falc.

I've never mixed and matched bits from different diffs, hence my questions on the subject. I have, however done up a few using the same bits from the original, so I could try and describe that process. Axle removal is basic, but a trick to whack them out is to use the disc/drum as a slide hammer by turning it inside out and installing 3 wheel nuts a couple of turns onto the ends of the studs. To get the centre out you'll need some sort of housing spreader, to release the preload on the carrier bearings. I've made a couple of diff preload tools as pictured previously. The factory-type tool is probably better in that it locates two pins into each of the holes either side of the housing face and a threaded bar is wound out and pushes the housing apart, releasing the preload. My one mimics this action not by directly spreading the diff but squashing it top and bottom. Sounds wacky but I can tell you it works. You just need a shitload of force to do it, as you can see on mine, the force needed has bent it out of shape slightly and the paint has flaked off where the top and bottom plates have kinked. Getting the carrier bearings off the diff without a press is doable, you just need some fine grinding skills. You need to grind a groove right down almost though the bearing cone then smack it with a decent size hammer and chisel to put a crack in it. It should walk off once you've done this. Same goes for axle bearings, just DONT hit the axle with the grinder. You're just asking it to break at that point later on. Diff pinion pushes through into housing once the yoke is off and carrier is out, cups should knock out with a long, soft drift into the little slots behind each one in the housing. There you go... Assembly later. I'm off to sleep.

I've always wondered how they do this. I'll be looking forward to that.

Thanks mate the one I just bought is from an XF ute. Confirmed today it's 28 spline 4-pin open centre. My 2-pin 25 spline LSD is on the left, 4-pin open 28 on the right: My diff housing squasher: Is it cheaper/easier to find some 25-spline disc brake axles, or try and find a 28-spline LSD centre?

Yep that's the most plausible conclusion you could draw. If you know how to operate a lathe, it's about a 2-minute job once you dismantle the dizzy. The difference is less than a millimetre between the two. In fact, if you were dodgy enough, a cordless drill and a linishing belt are all you need.

Ok got the complete diff, disc to disc with ute springs, $149 from ebay... Not bad! I pulled the cover off, turned out to be a 3.27 4-pinion. The axles dont turn together so I'm assuming that it's not an LSD, otherwise it's a stuffed LSD. It's really hard to find info on Borgies, and a lot of it I do find is bullshit. I need to know, once and for all, if I can tell by looking at the centre if it's an LSD housing without dismantling it. From what I can gather so far, limos have an inner circle of smaller bolts around the hemisphere inside the crown wheel bolts. If the hemisphere doesn't have these, is it then an open centre? We've established that flat-flange yokes mean 28-spline axles. I have a 2-pinion, 25-spline LSD centre but no disc brake axles to suit. Can I use drum brake axles on a disc setup?

XE-XF t5 crossmember should fit. I'm pretty sure the mounts are in the same spot for either one. Good luck finding one though.

Wow that's up there for a Crossy but I don't think it's quite 7500. Definitely being punished, and that last puff of smoke while driving out wasn't from the tyres...!

I did a night time spraypainting course, and basically with acrylic you don't need to key in between coats unless the bottom coat is old and hardened. Because you use more thinners with acrylic, the high solvent content dissolves the top of the previous layer slightly, giving a sort of chemical key-in. But wet-on-wet is probably something for the experts. It's really treading the fine line between a nice, glassy finish and having deep sags and runs everywhere. There's nothing worse than throwing down a coat, standing back and admiring you work, then come back 10 min later to see the job oozing down the panel. If I was doing it (and I'm no expert) I'd lay down the colour, wait for it to flash-off, then put down a more dry coat of clear to start with. This powdery coat gives the subsequent layers something to grab onto. Don't be scared of a bit of orange peel. Just put down a couple of extra coats of clear and block it back with some 600. With acrylic, you never get a shiny finish off the gun so you'll be rubbing it all back anyway. Then if you're still keen, you can do a final flowcoat to get it smooth, then wait a month to cut/polish.

Nice! I could live with that. You'd get 13's with that combo all day. If you consider that LPG is stored at between 120-160 psi, the flow rate out of even a small hose would be more than enough to feed a big engine, particularly if the gas is still liquid. And even if you did briefly run out of flow from your tank outlet size, the lines themselves would have enough volume to keep the engine going for minutes. Remember pressure is the same from tank to converter inlet. The reason why people go bigger with petrol lines is that mechanical fuel pumps have to suck from a very long distance. As you know, gas needs no pump at all. I could run my Cortina tank completely dry, running on vapours only, and that gave me around 5 k's before it stopped. I could tell because the tank would give a whistling sound and I could play tunes with the accelerator pedal.

Non-return valve I guess. Spongy brakes could be a lot of things. Pads can delaminate and become a bit bouncy over time, fluid can get air/steam pockets in it, brake hoses can bulge under pressure, loose wheel bearings can cause pad/caliper knockoff, the list goes on. Your idle rpm increases because your booster consumes vacuum from the engine, so it's the same thing as a vacuum leak. It should, if at all, increase only for a second. If it continues with your foot on the brake, your booster is faulty.

I've so wanted to do this... Mongrelise a Lotus Super Seven with a dirty big Ford donk up front. Or maybe even a D-type Jag replica would take one. Yummy!

In NSW, blocks are illegal unless originally fitted by the manufacturer. They increase axle tramp and spring wind-up, and also place higher loads on the u-bolts. Flipping a spring would technically be illegal but there is no way to prove it has been done.

Wow not often you have a win like that!

Sorry mate, but it's a box-out. There are no external linkages except for the single shift rail (hence the term "single rail"). Under the top lid, there is a shift pin that sticks out the shift rail that engages with whatever shift fork it is shifting. This pin slides back and forth (with the shaft) inside a slot in an interlock spool that holds all the other forks in neutral except for the gear you've selected. This spool is held in place by a slot in a stamped steel bracket welded inside the lid you've just pulled off. If either the slot or the spool were to become worn, the bracket damaged from poor assembly, or the cover itself distorted, the spool might jump out of the slot allowing you to get more than one gear at once. Single rails are like two stroke engines. They're incredibly simple but the few carefully made parts all have to work together perfectly or it gets ugly pretty quickly.

Buy a shitload of ATF (say 3 times the capacity of the box) and with the new box in, disconnect a cooler line and attach a piece of clear PVC hose on the side that pumps out. Start engine, run the hose into an oil drain container, and while it's pumping out, watch the colour of the fluid in the hose. Keep topping up the tranny and dont starve it of oil, ever. Once it starts to look like strawberry syrup instead of caramel it's clean. Another way which might be easier is to change the fluid multiple times until a sufficient amount is clean. Again you can use the cooler lines as a drain but as soon as it stops pumping, stop the engine. Refill and go again. You never get 100% of it out, it's always just "good enough". Either that or take it to a shop that does tranny flushes. There's an actual dedicated machine that does this.

Not an auto expert, but it sounds like a piston seal on the reverse servo is getting a bit leaky. When the fluid is cold and thick, the seal leaks less so you get more fluid actually pushing on the piston, thus quicker engagement. When it's hot, the fluid has thinned out so the piston leaks more and the piston stroke takes longer. If you don't mind doing a full overhaul down the track, try some automatic transmission conditioner. It contains chemicals that cause your old and hard/shrunken seals to swell up and seal again, but doing this is a one-way trip. It's because the seals swell so much that you'll have to replace the whole lot of them if you pull the box down, as you'll never get them back into the piston/servo again. Sounds bad but let's face it, to pull a box down to do one seal and not completely overhaul it is just silly anyway.