Waking up the holden 6.

[Floatncoffee]

What a people doin to their 6 cyl holden engines to get the beddy to boogie?
Not 6sec 1/4 mile stuff just reliable power to pull out and pass at 80km/h  rather than top speed of 80km/h!!
Something that doesn't require pulling the engine out..

I'm thinking a yella terra (or any other big valve) head, extractors, 350 Holley. To begin with then maybe a mild cam if needed..

Thoughts?

[Floatncoffee]

"Pull it out put a v8 into it!!"
Is not much help sorry

[taggraphx]

Every body has there own view on this situation, I had a holden six in my old show van and did nearly everything possible to get more power out of it, spent over 3 thousand and got to the point it drank the fuel and was a nightmare to tune the carbs, best thing I ever did was pull it out and slot in the chev, heaps cheaper and more user friendly, best thing that I ever did,
that's my 2 cents worth

cheers
Graham

[restoreid]

Hi there mate There are web sites that deal with the holden 6 from mild to wild First what motor do you have what gearbox & diff ratio To hot a motor NA will cost a bomb & for very little gain If I was doing mine I would get one of those Toyota supercharger kits that are on the market or a turbo kit way more bang for your buck I have similar to what your suggesting mild porting extractors on a blue 202 it goes ok but no rocketship Keep this going guys I love this shit Cheers Reid

[Floatncoffee]

I hear ya graham, in about 12 months it'll be getting an LS1 implant , just need a bit of pep until then, something I can quickly do whole engine still in..

I saw those turbo kits!! $2800 though but I spose it's instant..
Do you know how they hold up??

[BusyKiwi]

186 head on a 202 block, holley or cortina carb, cam, headers .... but the more power you get the more fuel you'll use so comes down to power or economy

[Sammy]

that not exactly true, more efficiency = less fuel, but often people go too wild in the cam or stupid carby options and then its a pig.

I agree head/cam and suitable carby/exhaust will definitely help it, but then if a LS motor is planned its kind of a waste to spend too much money on the holden 6.

one of the best things I ever did to a holden 6 was to put VK EFI on it, improved power and economy at the same time! but that also requires a blue/black motor head and from what I've seen of bedfords, modifying the floor/engine cover to fit it all!

at the end of the day, all the mods make a difference, and most go hand in hand with another, ie. cam alone is nothing compared to head and cam, and vise versa, head is only mild without a cam to match it .... etc etc.

[Floatncoffee]

Good info Sammy
I've seen second hand YT heads on the bay for around 400-500
2nd hand Holley 350/manifold $250 new headers $300
So bout 1k which isn't too bad.. I'm not looking to drag at the lights at dandy just abit of pep for now

[Worby876]

Hi Guys...Ive been away overseas for 7 weeks so good to be back...

anyway I saw this thread and copied the following comment from our old mate Rothu
 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.

hope its of interest for ya all.

cheers

Ian

[Floatncoffee]

 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."

Haha classic. I had an old timer try drag me off at the lights in a torana 5000.. My turbo Bridgeport 13b RX7 left him like he was standing still (20 years ago) lol oh to be young and stupid again

Anywho yes I would rather any other engine than the holden 6 but I'm just looking for some way to make them less painful to drive without taking the engine out. If I had to yank the engine out May as we'll drop an 8 back in..
A crate 350 chev you can pick up for 5k turnkey!! That's fairly cheap