Thom

Vct heads need vct specific cams, unless converted to non vct, then they take a regular style au cam, el hybrid and au use a 1.8:1 ratio rockers, large base circle cam and beehive valve springs, ea-el (non hybrid) use 2:1 ratio rockers, small base circle cam and straight valve springs, the e series cam and rockers can't be used on el hybrid/au heads (and vice versa) without a lot of work, and it is usually cheaper and easier to use the cam and rocker gear to suit the head you have Sent from my SM-A166P using Tapatalk

Crossflows are a better engine overall, but this does wake the pre Crossflows up significantly, especially with a set of extractors and a cam, in saying that I've had some real turd Crossflows that didn't go as well as a stock 250 pre xflow, if you have a good running non smoking or oil burning pre xflow already in a car i would go with the modified log head, if you have a known good Crossflow I would go that route, if purely chasing power a Crossflow is a better engine, the biggest advantage the pre Crossflows have is sound, the shared centre exhaust port makes them sound better than the later 6 cylinders (especially if you run a set of split extractors and a twin exhaust the earlier 6 cylinders sound all the world like a windsor at low to mid rpm) modifying the 1v head to take a 2barrel really wakes them up, especially if you get the distributor re curved, the make more power everywhere and would be comparable to a midly tired xflow that still had some life left but had lost a bit of enthusiasm Sent from my SM-A166P using Tapatalk

I've done a couple of 1v to 2v conversions, this one was for a 2bbl holley, but personally I think they work better with a xflow webber, as far as your running on issues you problem may be you curb idle is set too high because you don't have enough initial timing, see if you can get a base timing of 8-12 degrees (wherever it is happiest) with the vac advance blocked off and try to get the throttle adjusted to as far closed as possible while maintaining a steady idle, if you can get it to idle cleanly and not run on when you shut the car off your idle circuit or an air bleed may be blocked Sent from my SM-A166P using Tapatalk

As far as 6 cylinders go I've always compared pre crossflows to windsors and crossflows to Cleveland's, pre crossflows have a smaller port and velocity is your friend, crossflows have a larger more efficient port that responds better to camshaft changes so they are easier to make power out of than a pre crossflow, if you look up classic inlines from the usa they make an alloy version of our 2v heads, they might be able to refer you to a list of cam specs that work in pre xflow's

If you pull the starter off you can get to the converter bolts

Dean pretty much has it, as far as the perches go there's only two different widths, xk-xp and xr to el, overall widths are different with xk-xp being the narrowest, then xr-xy, xa-el (there are some minor differences differences in widths but its less than 8mm and that's main due to the differences between drum and disc brakes) and au-fgx being the widest

You may as well just pull it apart, with that much variation it's not going to be fixed without at least the head coming off so you'd as well do it to know what your up against

I use a elm327 with the forscan lite app, it's sometimes painful to get connected to au's but once you do its very useful for diagnostics, ba-fgx work pretty well with it though

You are correct, I probably should have spell checked

Yes it will run hot if you spin the water pump backwards, the design of the impeller and timing cover are both to suit the reverse rotation water pump and will cavitate the water rather than pump when spun backwards, to go to standard rotation you need a pre 86 timing cover, water pump and balancer (balancer needs to be 58ounce imbalance as you have a roller cam engine, if you use a 28ounce early balancer then engine will vibrate and possibly damage the crank, you also have to use a flywheel or flex plate to suit the roller cam engine, 1986 was when the 5.0l went to 58ounce balancer and flywheel/flexplate) the early timing cover, water pump and balancer also means you will need an early alternator bracket, be aware the v belt setup makes a windsor longer than the serpentine setup but that's not a problem in an early falcon

Rod bends and twists, valve pocket is no longer below valve, flat of the piston hits a valve and bends it

Sounds like it's autopsy time, if the gauge is correct, it means that every cylinder has damage, you won't know without pulling the head off or using a bore scope to assess what went wrong, but if I were a betting man I would say you have more than your fair share of bent rods and valves, and if it is really that bad you may be better of financially to just swap the whole engine

If its winding over slow that's a good indication of bent things, unfortunately you won't know what you need to replace until you do a bit more investigation, a leak down test will show if the cylinders are still sealing, but if you've got to pull the head off anyway to change rods+ whatever else is damaged you may as well inspect the valvetrain while it's off

Compression test will show if the engine is mechanically damaged, all cylinders within 5-8% of the same reading should still run smoothly, a bent rod or valves will show lower compression on that cylinder, cylinder walls can crack from hydrolocking but you would most likely bend rods firts (and possibly damaged the skirt on a few pistons if the rod hes bent far enough to let the piston hit the crank, alternatively if the rod twisted it could have bent far enough the valve reliefs dont line up any more, in that case you would have bent valves too) and if the cylinder wall was cracked you would have water in the sump, main bearings will be totally fine unless you've managed to bend the crank but it would probably not run if you managed to do that, e series rods are shorter than au-fgx except el hybrid engines they are the same length as au-fgx, the bigger problem for swapping rods on anything but a factory turbo 4.0 is they use a press fit gudgeon pin and are quite difficult to change without the proper equipment,.you also can't put sohc pistons in a barra as the valve reliefs are in the wrong position for the barra head

Speedo sensor, gearshift indicator (sometimes referred to as neutral safety switch) and wiring loom, only external, internal wiring doesn't need to be changed