Tazvan

I personally would rather stay as close to a standard bore as possible. It also depends on what you are trying to do, such as, are you going for all out performance or a mild combination... also are you thinking cast, hypereutectic, or forged piston's? There is a lot to consider when building engines... e.g. taking a block out to what is considered maximum, can bring on other issues, like the cooling system may need to be upgraded and the possibility of split bores, and boring out to max also reduces the amount of area for the head gasket to seal against, as the distance between bores is less... Some 265 Hemi 6 blocks can be bored to 90 thou, taking it from 3.91" to 4.00", which all of a sudden opens up a more extensive range of possibilities... Sorry I don't have a direct answer to your question, just some food for thought...

Awesome wheels! I have a set of 14x8's, but yours look more like 9's at least. Are they 14's or 15's?

I have been considering that a reco box is what might be needed already some time ago...I found the below thread, which gave me the incentive to just pull it out and see if it is simply able to be adjusted or needs repairing if even at all possible, as I assume some boxes are too far gone in some way. I have never had any experience with disassembly and repair of these before. This thread below, also made me consider having a go at doing it myself, but one thing in particular that I will pay for, is getting diff's done when changing ratios. I have been looking for places to get a reco steering box from and only one didn't require a changeover box... Just weighing up the options, like, I have no idea what to look for as far as what parts are good or not, if I have ago myself... or If I pay up for a good as new reco one, then at least I have warranty if there is a problem... And I no offer myself warranty on this undertaking... Jury is out as to which way I will go, but have several other priorities also!

I took my power steering box out 6 weeks ago, but I was going to elaborate more on that in my own thread and try leave this to stay more on topic Anyone have recommendations for a reco power steering box? Or at least where to avoid...

Well I can't attest to having bent a drag link before... but in my case I just wasn't sure why it didn't line up well enough...after reading this thread and others it got me thinking that when the drag link is tightened to the pitman arm, you could see the alignment of these pins with idler removed, then rock the loosened steering box back and forth to see how close to straight that you can get it, and then tighten box...maybe...

Personally, I'd give one a go... reducing that up and down movement should only help, as the other side is held firmly by the steering box and pitman arm, so should the idler arm... My XF van has always been really good in the steering with no need to replace stuff regularly, and in 26 years I'm on my 3rd idler arm which is a Super pro polyurethane one, which has shown to have the least up and down movement of any that I have used, and best I've used... It currently lives in the XG van, as I have swapped over the whole (outer tie rod to outer tie rod) to see if any difference could be seen (due to considerations of XG having a possible bent drag link). The XG had a very flogged out steering and suspension when I got it, and this process only concluded that I don't have a bent drag link... My XF has the mounting pins (visibly) at the same angle when idler arm is removed, but the XG's pins are noticeably not at the same angle, making it hard to even get the idler arm back on, so against advice to move the chassis mounted pin, I marked it and moved it, but couldn't move it as far as needed to line up with the drag link pin, but was easier to get idler back on... I feel that the final position of the steering box (due to a little movement in the bolts and holes) may help with the alignment of the drag link pin for the idler... The XG front end rebuild is a story for my thread and not yet finished as I'm looking at a replacement box...

The market for parts seems to be dictated by the demand, hence why VW parts have an OEM quality available due to it's worldwide and popular status, and not quite the same for some of our Australian manufactured cars in particular... and i would assume the same for these hollow tie-rods, and some manufacturers of these are about making money, not quality, and stuff the safety of the purchaser! I purchased over $500 worth of front end and miscellaneous items (for XG van) from RC and am satisfied with what I got (no tie-rods needed). Disappointing to not receive feedback on the flares, seeing as you used an actual torana for fitment... I thought they were

Yeah Roger that... A friend does high quality body restoration like yourself and has purchased rust repair sections from RS and ended up making his own due to not lining up well enough... P.S. I really liked the metal torana bolt on flares you made a while back!

Thanks 2redrovers Based on this pic posted by Dean, is the reason I asked the question in the first place, and wondered if their tie-rods are solid or hollow like in the pic?

Does anyone have an answer to my above question?

I ended up going for this one, and it has some cool capabilities, like auto-ranging (can be be set to manual), rev counter for 2 and 4 stroke engines, temperature probe. I might never use some of it's features though...but it has worked well for everything I've needed so far and the lit up display is great for darker areas...

Essentially they always used what was in the Falcon models etc. Then the commercial range was fitted with the same including the changes that happened over the different models that come along... somewhere along the line the 4.0L changed to a different ratio rocker gear (AU era), the different appearance may reflect that change perhaps...

Many reasons not to, but if you want a real challenge, then go for it

Don't, is the short answer...

That's a mighty tall rocker cover you have there