BUGA Community

Thanks guys!

I went to Centre Road Wreckers and checked out a few of the commodores with 6s in them. 6 VKs. 2 were EFI, the rest were EST. A couple of nice clean looking blue engines, but after checking spark plugs/cylinder condition, oil cap (whether the it was given good oil changes, peeking into the rockers, making sure they weren't all crusted with black unchanged oil, we selected an EST which was in grand condition apart from a leaky rocker cover gasket. Removed everything to a long motor.

Got the massive forklift to raise the car to prop it up with welded car rims to unbolt the transmission, used a recipricating saw to cut the exhaust pipe under the passenger seat to remove the inlet and outlet manifolds in one piece, unbolted the torque converter off the flywheel, used a long swivel extension bar rachet to get the bell house bolts off the top, then the forklift came back and using a seat belt for a rigging device on the engine mountings pulled back and up. Then transported to trailer. $130

This will be a massive heart transplant.

Worby, check this very insightful guide to understand what is involved to build a high performance holden six engine: http://oldjohnno.id.au/toc.html
As he says:
"Why - Or Why Not - A Holden Six

I'll be blunt. If performance is the primary consideration and you don't have to use a particular engine to comply with rules then there are much better choices than the old Holden. Modern engines from Nissan or Toyota for example will out perform the old Aussie six by a massive margin - you won't even be in the race. Another older engine with a fair bit more potential - mainly due to it's bigger displacement - is the old Hemi six. All of these engines will outperform the Holden and almost certainly cost less on a horsepower per dollar basis. Building Holden sixes with outputs of around 250hp and up can get very expensive very quickly. Unless you really need or want to run the six then something like an LSX, a 2JZ or an RBDET will make more power for less money. If however, you don't need to make a million horsepower, or you'll be competing against similar engines, or perhaps you want to build up a cool old-school street car then the Holden six might do the job nicely. Of course, some of us just have a soft spot for the little sixes and enjoy the challenges of making them perform. Just don't kid yourself that you're going to show these young blokes with their turboed 2JZs a thing or two with the old 202 - you'll only embarass yourself."

It depends on a LOT of factors to get a holden six to even remotely come close to a V8 in performance, and still, by the time you did all that, it would've been cheaper and simply easier to put a V8 in!

I've reached my conclusions that the VK EFI head (even the whole black 3.3 EFI engine, with starfire conrods and a mildly sporty camshaft) is the best choice for immediate performance enhancement. Mine is getting shaved down for greater compression, which you could also do to your 202 head, and only costs about $50. Check to see if it has hardened valve seats and if not, consider getting them put in. Well worth it, especially for running on lpg.

I will have my reconditioned 173 HP head with HV seats for sale when I got my other head back.

Ben, this was just an experimental upgrade that came before the EFI head and ram tubes manifold changeover. I've gone back to this set-up temporarily as I get the EFI head shaved 78 thou since it's compression was only 8.8:1, not good for high octane lpg (knocking)! so it'll be 10.5:1 after shaving, then it's back on!

I've got the 5 speed celica gearbox and had no problem with RWC. It had an after market gearstick extension that curved forwards. I recently made another stick even longer which works real good. The gearbox you've got is a very good one, almost unbreakable, so I'd keep it rather than getting costs of transferring an auto.

When my pushrods were bent, it idled and revved perfectly. As soon as you put it in gear, it would have no power whatsoever.

It took me 2 months to discover it, because everyone else was insisting it was the timing, or the gas setup, or the spark plugs, or the dizzy, or the brake booster, or the oil pump, or the air filter, or the gas lines, or the camshaft, or the coil, or the engine earth... I'm surprised someone didn't insist "Well it must be your windshield!" 

I checked/replaced all of these things and still it would idle and rev perfectly, but no power under load. It drove me to the point of a nervous breakdown. NOBODY had any more ideas.
It was not until I swapped the HEI dizzy for the old points one (another insisting opinion) , and was twirling the rods on cylinder one to make sure it was TDC, that I could see the rods were bent. Checked the rest of them, and more than half were bent. Replaced all of them: BINGO! Power to the max!