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Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
How to get a discount on machine work:
1. Lose a few hours sleep
2. Stress yourself out about it
3. Call the workshop and find out that you need your ears checked

Turned out it was $2075 which is closer to what I had planned for. Everything is back on track now, my friend with the ute who was going to help me pick it up had some other poo poo to deal with so I ended up picking it up in the Festiva. No pictures yet because it's still sitting in the back of the car, I'll pull it out with the engine crane some time this weekend.

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Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
Got everything started today, didn't get far because gently caress it was hot outside.

The engine stand and engine crane didn't want to work very well together so it was a pain in the rear end getting the block on the stand.




I need to go over it with prepsol and then paint it during the week and it'll be going into the car next weekend.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
Had a bunch of problems while I was putting this engine together, most of which are solved now. I'll start from where I left my last post.

Some pretty simple stuff, I started by painting the sump on my excellent collapsed cardboard box.


Nice and clean inside of the block, applied the cam lube after I took this.


The oil pickup was thrown into the dishwasher with the block, new oil pump along with that.


I went to fit the sump after that but I found the sump gasket was a horrible fit (in general the gasket kit I bought was horrible). Parts of it weren't cut and it was a bit too thin, got a new one the next day from a different auto store that has better suppliers, Bursons is now the only place I'll go for gaskets. With that sorted:


Masked it all up. Masking tape, autobarn catalogue, and some paper towels, what more would you need?


Blurry picture of the finished product.


Once that was done poo poo really started hitting the fan for me.

Got started early Saturday morning of the weekend that I had planned to have it all done. A friend is around helping me out because this would really be a pain in the rear end with one person.

Got the lifters in no problem,


Started on the head, because of how high it was sitting and how heavy it is it wasn't fun to align it. I had to use the gasket from the lovely gasket kit, didn't have many other options if I wanted to get it put together.


Torquing down the head bolts was something I'd done before, I figured no problem. Crossflow head bolts are reusable, and getting new ones would have been a pain anyway. Torqued them down in 3 stages (I forget the numbers exactly), first two went fine but I got to the third and half way through the bolts one wouldn't go down. I continued with it a little just to see if it would go down.

Snap.

Snapped it part way down the block, it even took a small chunk of the block with it. It wasn't in a spot that easy outs would be useful so my only solution was to take it back to the machine shop to see what he could do. He said it's not something he usually does but my friend was a regular customer of his years ago and he realised I was in a bit of a lovely position so he took a look at it. Went over everything I'd done with him and it pretty much just came down to me being unlucky.

Half a week later I get the call that he got it out no problem at all.

Attempt #2.

Another friend came around this time as well so we could knock down as much as possible. We decided that it'd be a waste of time putting the engine back on the stand so we backed my friend's ute up and bolted it up on that. This time I managed to get some new head bolts. The head bolts on this engine have two different sizes and one bolt that sits outside the rock cover, one side is a couple of inches longer than the other. We make sure the threads are 100% clean, and then pull the new bolts out. My friend unboxes them and starts dividing them into the two different size groups, he stops half way and calls me over. For some reason it's a box full of the smaller size and they have double the thread length. So I pull out the other set of used head bolts I had and then test fit them. They seem to go in okay but we measure them up to be sure, and of course most of them would have bottomed out, but it's only the smaller ones that are doing it. So I throw out the idea that we use the new ones for that side and keep the old ones for the longer side.

I was nervous as hell while I was doing it but they all worked out.



We threw the engine into the car after that, it took 4 trys to get it lined up correctly with the torque converter two of us working it from the top and one stuck under the car (in the middle of the day on a nice hot summer day!), if I ever do this again I'll be bringing the transmission out with the engine. It was all pretty straight forward after that, this is what I was left with after one day of work.


The next day I was expecting to have it all done by the end. Got started nice and early just throwing whatever bits and pieces back on. We got to the radiator, put the mounts in and then tried to fit it into place. One side sat perfectly but the other was too small for the mount. We messed around with it for a while having no luck until I took a look at some other mounts from an XF that I was given months ago. Thicker rubber in the mount and what do you know, it fits in the mounts I'm using. I only had one but my friend pulled the rubber I needed off his XF that he's got sitting in his garage the next day. Worked out fine!

We also tried cranking it to get oil pressure, after a couple of tries with no result we gave up, no oil was passing up through the pipe to the mechanical gauge so we weren't sure what was up with it. Filled the oil filter with oil and tried again, got a decent reading which was a good sign.



(I stopped taking pictures after this, just wanted to get it done)

Left it at that for the day and continued after work the next day. Fit the rest of the crap that we'd missed. We were close and then it came to the radiator hoses and fan belt, which I'd bought a while back. Both hoses were wrong, and the fan belt was too small. Got the upper rad. hose the next day, XF rad. hose fit but we couldn't get a lower hose. Time to cut poo poo up! Got a bit of exhaust pipe and cut the lower hose in half the way a few inches too short. Clamped the two pieces down around the pipe and it fit perfectly.

That leaves me at today, got started after work, great day for doing it because it was already dark and raining. The plan was to run the cam in and then tune it on the weekend. Had a few troubles with the starter not working (my friend suspects it might be the inhibitor switch on the transmission) and tried getting it going, it was very close to firing but it wouldn't hold it. We'll be trying again tomorrow if it isn't raining.

General_Failure
Apr 17, 2005
Your posts make me so sad :(

So much hard won progress. I'm glad to see you are getting there. That motor really looks the goods. I hope you have used up all your bad luck and everything from now on in goes flawlessly.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
The bad luck still seems to be flowing.

We gave it another go but got the same result, it sounded like it was about to start but couldn't get there. First step was to look at the timing, long story short we thought we had it in the right spot (having the rotor button sitting in position for cylinder #1 but it turned out to be way too advanced) but putting the dizzy in one tooth back got it into position. We gave it another go after that and that got it going really quickly BUT it was only firing on 4-5 cylinders. That's where we left it and we'll be continuing today.

I have no idea what it could be, most of the parts are new or under one year old. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report later tonight.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
Finally worked out what was causing the problem. The electronic ignition that was working before pulling everything apart stopped working properly, I would have no idea why it would only fire on cylinders 1 and 6.

The solution was putting points back in. Fired up immediately afterwards.

Ran the cam in and took it for a few drives, apart from having to adjust the accelerator cable a bit I haven't had any troubles beyond an issue with the starter I was having before taking the engine out (might be faulty wiring or something, I can get it to start so it's not a big deal).

Here's a few pictures I took a couple of minutes ago.





These are the bits we had to modify to get this radiator in. We cut the radiator hose in half and stuck a bit of exhaust pipe in between them I don't think it even looks that bad, and running the hoses to the trans cooler. From the hard liens one runs around the front of the radiator and the other runs underneath it.


I'm still being careful with it but it has a fair bit more power than it used it, it sounds a lot better, isn't blowing smoke (the carby is still pumping a bit too much fuel in, but the engine isn't pumping out black any more). I'll be taking it out on the highway tonight so I'll report how it goes. Very happy so far though!

IPCRESS
May 27, 2012
Unless you have hose barbs on that bit of exhaust pipe, I'd have a few reservations about driving it as is: the cooling system will probably come unstuck all at once, in a great hurry, and with little-to-no warning.

randomidiot
May 12, 2006

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 11 years!)

What IPCRESS said - you need some flares on that metal section if you want to make sure it doesn't come apart.

You may be better off going with a universal flexible radiator hose. Something like this:



Doesn't look as nice, but you won't be risking it coming apart.

Glad to see it all back together!

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
The guy at the exhaust shop rolled a bit of a lip into both of the ends of it (he did all of it for free too), I've marked where it's sitting right now, and I'm tightening it down every few trips to be sure. I understand that it's not the best solution but it's all I could do at the time (keep in mind I'm still borrowing a friend's car after mine was blown up). One of those flexible hoses sounds like a good idea, I'm not sure how it'll go with the fan but I'll try and chase one up.

I realised what the problem is with the hoses after looking at a friend's ZG Fairlane. His radiator looked a lot smaller than mine, so I measured them up. His was 21 inches and mine is 26. I'm not sure which cars had the 26 inch ones but they definitely weren't supposed to go onto 6 cylinder XCs.

randomidiot
May 12, 2006

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 11 years!)

If there's a lip on both ends, and you're running a proper antifreeze/coolant mix, you're good for a long time. Don't overtighten either, the clamps will wear out or break.

Granite Octopus
Jun 24, 2008

Fantastic news! So glad to see all that hard work and shitfighting pay off.

It must have been hell doing that in a Brisbane summer.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean

some texas redneck posted:

If there's a lip on both ends, and you're running a proper antifreeze/coolant mix, you're good for a long time. Don't overtighten either, the clamps will wear out or break.

Just tightening them up as the hoses settle into place. I had one cooling hose tear off from the previous owner tightening it down too far, I don't want a repeat.


Granite Octopus posted:

Fantastic news! So glad to see all that hard work and shitfighting pay off.

It must have been hell doing that in a Brisbane summer.

After that head bolt snapped I was prepared to cut my losses and run, I'm glad I stuck with it though, now that it's running it almost feels like it was all worth it.

Definitely the worst time of year to be doing it though, lots of sunburn.



After driving it a bit more I can say I'm really happy with it. It's got a lot more power low down and it really flys when the power valve opens up (I'll need to bump it down to a 6.5 because it opens up way too early). Oddly enough I'm getting a bit of hesitation like I was before so I think it's a problem with the 2nd hand Holley. I made a deal with my friend who had a new Holley 500 sitting around, he gets the EF wheels in exchange for it. I thought it might be a bit of a mistake to go with the bigger Holley but he thinks if I get it tuned properly it'll be okay, saves me from dropping more money into the pit.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
Managed to find out what is causing me so much trouble with acceleration. I figured it was the Holley being poo poo, but no, having someone along with me they realised that the kick down just wasn't working. How the gently caress did I not realise this?

I took off shifting manually and holy poo poo it made a huge difference. No clue why the kick down isn't working properly though.

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

Ansith posted:

Managed to find out what is causing me so much trouble with acceleration. I figured it was the Holley being poo poo, but no, having someone along with me they realised that the kick down just wasn't working. How the gently caress did I not realise this?

I took off shifting manually and holy poo poo it made a huge difference. No clue why the kick down isn't working properly though.

How is the kick down activated on those Borg Warner autos - by vacuum or is there a rod that runs down to it from the carby?

Viggen
Sep 10, 2010

by XyloJW

You Am I posted:

How is the kick down activated on those Borg Warner autos - by vacuum or is there a rod that runs down to it from the carby?

I'm just going to assume for hells sake that he has a BW35 like my old 900T did.

In my case, it was activated by a cable to the carby, held down by two nuts. I'm pretty sure it was the bottom nut used for adjustment, but I don't have a great memory of the minor work I did on that- years ago.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
Yeah, it's a BW35.

At the moment it's adjusted so it moves about the same length as it did when it was on the old stromberg, that could have been wrong.

bend
Dec 31, 2012
I hate BW35s, my XF used to kill them like it was going out of fashion (6 in about 5 months, i lucked into a few parts cars for free). Mind you, you're probably fine if you not throwing a ratarsed XF wagon through the bush at stupid speeds.

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

bend posted:

I hate BW35s, my XF used to kill them like it was going out of fashion (6 in about 5 months, i lucked into a few parts cars for free). Mind you, you're probably fine if you not throwing a ratarsed XF wagon through the bush at stupid speeds.

Holy poo poo, those things are pretty hard to kill. Good work!

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
I'm always told that it won't last long with the extra power. I do know a guy that rebuilds C4s in his spare time, if something does happen that's what I'll throw in there next. My car should have a C4 fitted, all tow cars from factory did but on the build sheet it says "fit B/W transmission".

I know the BW35 can't function for very long without the kick down working correctly because it controls the line pressure, same goes for selecting the gears manually, they won't last long if you do it often.

Viggen
Sep 10, 2010

by XyloJW

Ansith posted:

I know the BW35 can't function for very long without the kick down working correctly because it controls the line pressure, same goes for selecting the gears manually, they won't last long if you do it often.

It truly is an abysmal transmission. I can't believe my moniker used it until the mid-90s. :psyduck:

rscott
Dec 10, 2009
Why didn't saab use ZF autos like every other sane European manufacturer?

Viggen
Sep 10, 2010

by XyloJW

rscott posted:

Why didn't saab use ZF autos like every other sane European manufacturer?

:eng101: They did. From '93+ for non-verts, and '94+ for verts (NG900 'vert introduction.)

E: But this isn't my thread. So'z mate.

Viggen fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Dec 20, 2013

bend
Dec 31, 2012

You Am I posted:

Holy poo poo, those things are pretty hard to kill. Good work!

Thanks mate :tipshat:

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean

West SAAB Story posted:

It truly is an abysmal transmission. I can't believe my moniker used it until the mid-90s. :psyduck:

I think Ford Australia had completely dropped it by the late 80s (and even then they were using BW40s). They must have really loved it to be using it that long.

Quick update on the kick down.

I had to modify the carby a bit to get it to work, the throttle wasn't pulling it far enough (it needed 4.5-5cm of pull minimum, it was getting about 3). Got it to pull 4.3cm without completely having to start over with the custom brackets made for the cables and that has made a huge difference. It stays in 1st up until about 40 and then shifts which is better than not staying in first at all.

I also gave a new power valve a go, 6.5 which is recommended by a lot of people for my engine. It still leans out as it was before. I think this carby might just be hosed.

Viggen
Sep 10, 2010

by XyloJW

Ansith posted:

I think Ford Australia had completely dropped it by the late 80s (and even then they were using BW40s). They must have really loved it to be using it that long.

I think that the truth is closer to 'we haven't changed the mechanical bits of this car much since its introduction in 1978'. Glad to hear you are getting some headway with this. Mechanical solutions seem to be almost mystical voodoo sometimes.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
I was supposed to be driving down to Victoria in this car on the 22nd, guess how that went.

I was really happy with how it was going on the 21st, that fixed kickdown did wonders. Went over a few things one last time before leaving, the only thing that should have been a slight issue was the freeplay in the steering box.

Leave at 4am, some nice easy driving through the empty city (went through the toll tunnels which make a nice echo when I go through). I get onto the Cunningham highway and the steering just shits itself, wandering all over the place and pulling to the side violently every so often. I got 350km before I decided that I don't want to die doing this and turned back. Made it all the way down to Tenterfield in NSW.

Apart from the steering the car went great. I got a better feel for how much I can get out of it, the roads were dead so I had plenty of room to see how quickly I could get up to 100 when the road surface was decent. The best part was after I worked out how much fuel I'd used, on one section of the road it was 16L/100km and on another it was 14L/100km, a huge improvement over the 25L/100km.

Once I was home a friend offered to take a look at the steering box for me, see if it was anything obvious. Nope. We decided to switch the front wheels to the back though, didn't help.

After that, with the success of the 700km trip we advanced the timing to 14BTDC to see if it would behave. Took it for a drive, no pinging and it was performing a lot better. Stopped to grab something from an auto shop for my friend and then the trouble started. As soon as I'd touch the pedal it would lean out and almost stall, to keep it running I'd have to back off and ease into it again.

Took the carby off when I got home and found one of the idle mixture screws was missing the gasket it sits in. Strange because it was there earlier (without it, it doesn't tighten down at all). Took one out of the Holley 500 which I'm not sure has the correct size, it does a little better with it in but same problems. It even takes about 15 minutes to start because it dies if I put it into gear before it's at 70 degrees.

New carby time I think, I really have no clue why this one wants to kill me.

Darchangel
Feb 12, 2009

Tell him about the blower!


Ansith posted:

I was supposed to be driving down to Victoria in this car on the 22nd, guess how that went.

I was really happy with how it was going on the 21st, that fixed kickdown did wonders. Went over a few things one last time before leaving, the only thing that should have been a slight issue was the freeplay in the steering box.

Leave at 4am, some nice easy driving through the empty city (went through the toll tunnels which make a nice echo when I go through). I get onto the Cunningham highway and the steering just shits itself, wandering all over the place and pulling to the side violently every so often. I got 350km before I decided that I don't want to die doing this and turned back. Made it all the way down to Tenterfield in NSW.

Apart from the steering the car went great. I got a better feel for how much I can get out of it, the roads were dead so I had plenty of room to see how quickly I could get up to 100 when the road surface was decent. The best part was after I worked out how much fuel I'd used, on one section of the road it was 16L/100km and on another it was 14L/100km, a huge improvement over the 25L/100km.

Once I was home a friend offered to take a look at the steering box for me, see if it was anything obvious. Nope. We decided to switch the front wheels to the back though, didn't help.

After that, with the success of the 700km trip we advanced the timing to 14BTDC to see if it would behave. Took it for a drive, no pinging and it was performing a lot better. Stopped to grab something from an auto shop for my friend and then the trouble started. As soon as I'd touch the pedal it would lean out and almost stall, to keep it running I'd have to back off and ease into it again.

Took the carby off when I got home and found one of the idle mixture screws was missing the gasket it sits in. Strange because it was there earlier (without it, it doesn't tighten down at all). Took one out of the Holley 500 which I'm not sure has the correct size, it does a little better with it in but same problems. It even takes about 15 minutes to start because it dies if I put it into gear before it's at 70 degrees.

New carby time I think, I really have no clue why this one wants to kill me.

On the steering - look at your brake calipers and bearings, if nothing in the actual steering or suspension looks wrong. If you've got a caliper grabbing or a bearing trying to seize up, that could be the cause of it pulling to the side.
Dunno about the carb. That's why I hate the arcane things.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
I've been a bit slack with the updates.

Darchangel posted:

On the steering - look at your brake calipers and bearings, if nothing in the actual steering or suspension looks wrong. If you've got a caliper grabbing or a bearing trying to seize up, that could be the cause of it pulling to the side.
Dunno about the carb. That's why I hate the arcane things.

I've taken a look at the brakes in the past because of some occasional pulling to the left under light braking. Couldn't find anything and it hasn't returned. I'll have a look at them anyway, I've got some new rotors to go on as well so I could knock that out of the way too (Repco had a decent deal recently, rotors, pads, and fluid for $99).

There's definitely something going on with the steering box, I just can't afford to get it taken out at the moment. I miss having a second car. I might just go the way of throwing a power steering setup in over a weekend.

I had a great experience with a local steering and suspension place while on my holiday as well. I'm on the north side of Brisbane, and my friend previously took the XC around to someone on the south side which is a pain in the rear end to get to quickly. I asked a few guys who they would use and they suggested a place which is down the road from me, franchise that has been there for ages and has a pretty good reputation. They told me pretty much exactly what I was expecting, though they couldn't narrow down the problem with the steering at all (I did say it was a problem with the steering box when I booked it in). I decided to just leave it at that for now and have a think about what I wanted to do. The next day when I start the car up I can hear something rattling around when starting the engine - something I'm familiar with too. They left the coupling on the steering column loose. I go around the car with a breaker bar checking the wheel nuts after this, I'll make sure to check this poo poo from now on because I found a wheel nut missing on the front driver's side wheel. I'm pretty sure the world hates me now.

I got them to give me a wheel nut and got an apology from the manager who said he'd have a chat with the guys that did the work. That's where I'm at with that right now, power steering is probably the smart option for now. I've been offered a box, pump, and everything else from an XD ute, all I have to get is the mount for the pump and I'll be set.

I do have some good news about the carby problem. I ended up getting the 350 fixed by the local custom carby guy. Luckily for me he has a history with speedway crossflows. Got it fixed for a little bit cheaper than a new one would have been. The main problems were the boosters being loose (about to fall into the engine actually!) and the needle and seat had a dodgy repair in the past. He had to do a bit of machine work to fix it but it's all good now.

He threw in the usual bits he would for a 350 on a crossflow and it's running close to perfectly, all the old problems are completely gone. My only real issue now is that the transmission likes to shift up a bit too early. Goes 1>2 when I hit 40 and 2>3 at 70. Not sure what to do about that one.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





That shift timing sounds like you need some adjustment on the kickdown switch / lever / cable, whatever sort of setup your car uses.

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
Exactly right, the cable is just short of where it should be sitting, the bracket holding the cable in place has it too close to the carby so it's a few cm out of where it should be. I don't really want to have to make a new bracket but I don't think I've got many other options.

fingerling
Mar 7, 2010
I'm not trying to hassle you at all here man, but I'm not sure how you can afford register two cars and keep trying to fix that XC. Unless your registration is different in.. it was WA you were in, wasn't it? I think that in South Australia, we pay the most for registration and poo poo, but still..

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
I'm in Queensland and I definitely don't have any other car apart from the XC. I don't even have any plans to get another car, $850 a year is enough for me.

The Festiva wasn't mine and the Camry I had got sent to the wrecker after I let someone borrow it for a few days, it was ready to be sold as well.

Setanta
Feb 6, 2010
This has got me thinking that I should pick up another EH and not be so drat scared of rust when I find it. Love the work you've done to it and love the fact that it's not a garage queen even more.

fingerling: my SO and I have 3 cars between us on full NSW rego. It's not pretty but I refuse to give one of mine up

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean

Setanta posted:

This has got me thinking that I should pick up another EH and not be so drat scared of rust when I find it. Love the work you've done to it and love the fact that it's not a garage queen even more.
Thanks! I imagine you'd be able to find a decent EH somewhere, they're a pretty popular model (saw plenty of them this weekend), don't let a little rust worry you, if you can get your hands on some sheet metal and a welder you're set - if I can do it, anyone can.


I've had a pretty good month, been getting out and doing some fun stuff in the XC.

16th of Feb I went out on a run up two mountains over to Wivenhoe dam with a group from the ford forums. For once there were a lot of classics out, most of them being GTs.
A few pictures someone else took from the day:




I crashed the 351 cleveland party too.


I think the turn out was about 30-35 cars, which is a decent effort because we usually only get about 10-15. It was loving hot though and most of us got to complain about it because of the lack of a/c. Three cars broke down, the white XW was the first with a clogged fuel filter but it's a daily driver and just happened to have three spare in the boot. The two others were brakes catching on fire on the way down one of the mountains, it was probably the steepest road I've ever driven on. I was hard on the brakes the whole way down and could barely get the car to slow down (I'm really glad I replaced all of the brakes, could have been much worse).

The only lovely thing was the problem with the kickdown was really obvious, I couldn't get the rpm high enough to get some speed on a lot of the uphill sections.

Last night I went over to a new classic car show just north of me, it's just out in a huge car park out the front of a few home improvement places after they close. Hundreds of pre-85 cars, lots of rare stuff. It was great seeing a bunch of American stuff that I've never seen before. I was a bit lazy and didn't bring the XC (I should have, wasn't anybody there to represent the Fairmont XC crew), went with a friend in his ute (another bloody hot day, really needed that a/c). For anyone around Brisbane: It's up at the Masters at Morayfield, definitely worth it.

Then today I went to Lakeside raceway for the All Aussie day. It wasn't as full as everyone was expecting because of another car show but that was a good thing because if you paid for entry to show off your car you could get onto the track for a few laps. I wasn't planning to jump on the track at first because I was told it was usually a bit of a car park but because of the smaller numbers I was convinced by the owner of the yellow XBGT in that first picture above. Most of the track you were stuck going about 40 but everyone would slow down before the main straight so you could fly through there. I started out in front of the XB but after two laps I was holding him up a bit so on the straight he effortlessly overtook me while I had my foot to the floor. The fastest I got to was 115km/h mainly because of the transmission and the track being pretty small. Not a real track day but I did have a lot of fun.

Also for some reason they're happy to let everyone drive without a helmet or anything, I have a feeling the event in it's current form might only have a few years left because of that.

I'll be keeping my eye out for any pictures of my car on the track.

In other news, I've been talking to one of the local auto transmission gurus about getting something new. Luckily for me I've met him a bunch of times before and it looks like I'll either be getting a C5 that he has sitting around ready to be rebuilt or a C4 if he can get one. It'll just be a cheap build because I won't be putting much through it but the C4 doesn't rely on the kickdown so it solves that issue. I'll most likely have to switch over to a t-bar auto floor shift though, the linkage for a C4 into a column shift are a little bit rare.

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

Have you considered the FMX, since it was used on Aussie Clevelands for a while, and some Fairlanes were column shift?

H1KE
May 7, 2007

Somehow, I don't think they'd approve the franchise...


Setanta posted:

This has got me thinking that I should pick up another EH and not be so drat scared of rust when I find it. Love the work you've done to it and love the fact that it's not a garage queen even more.

fingerling: my SO and I have 3 cars between us on full NSW rego. It's not pretty but I refuse to give one of mine up

You totally should! I've always wanted an EH sedan or HD wagon, but all I can find is literal rolling shells, with massive rust issues for $4000, and they don't even have any glass in them! :argh: At least you can buy nearly every panel for them these days. Also feeling your pain with rego. I had to drop back to CTP only since the VZ was costing around $1700 a year at $14k write off [the system wouldn't let it insure for any less funnily enough].

Good to see you finally enjoying the old girl Ansith! I'd say going the XD box for the steering is the easiest route. Every Kingswood I've had has had poo poo / downright dangerous steering, due to the box gears being completely played out. Did the steering place say they looked inside the box at all? Rebuilding them isn't really worth the cost or effort anymore, and the XD box should make it handle like magic compared to the original. It should also last longer from all accounts.

You Am I
May 20, 2001

Me @ your poasting

Hey H1KE, what happened to the Valiant?

Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean

You Am I posted:

Have you considered the FMX, since it was used on Aussie Clevelands for a while, and some Fairlanes were column shift?

The FMX isn't as common as C4s as far as I know, all Taxis and tow pack cars got C4s even if they were 6s (My car SHOULD have had one), I'm not sure on the criteria for getting an FMX or a C4 for a V8 though. I don't think I've seen a ZF/ZG/ZH with a column shift before, they'd definitely be pretty rare because much like the Fairmont T-bar auto would have been standard with the option to downgrade for a small discount.

Swapping over to T-bar is looking pretty good though. A centre console would be nice.


H1KE posted:

You totally should! I've always wanted an EH sedan or HD wagon, but all I can find is literal rolling shells, with massive rust issues for $4000, and they don't even have any glass in them! :argh: At least you can buy nearly every panel for them these days. Also feeling your pain with rego. I had to drop back to CTP only since the VZ was costing around $1700 a year at $14k write off [the system wouldn't let it insure for any less funnily enough].

Good to see you finally enjoying the old girl Ansith! I'd say going the XD box for the steering is the easiest route. Every Kingswood I've had has had poo poo / downright dangerous steering, due to the box gears being completely played out. Did the steering place say they looked inside the box at all? Rebuilding them isn't really worth the cost or effort anymore, and the XD box should make it handle like magic compared to the original. It should also last longer from all accounts.

Surprises me that EHs would be hard to find for a good price, they were probably the most common Holdens I saw at both of those events I went to.

I'm pretty glad things are finally going a little bit better now, I'm starting to see that I'll have a decent car when I'm finished with all these small problems.

No one opened up the steering box, the first guy picked up that there was something seriously wrong with it and the other place didn't. It is very odd for a box that was rebuilt shortly after I bought the car, sometimes it does seem like I throw money at things just for them to break again. I will have to get the power steering box reconditioned, the guy who gave them to me gave me the pump out of the XD but was still using the XD box for something so he gave me a different spare he had. Looks like it has been sitting in a wreck for 15 years.

I'm also curious to know what happened to the Valiant!

H1KE
May 7, 2007

Somehow, I don't think they'd approve the franchise...


I had to take a step back and realised the scope of it was just way too much, which kicked home when I realised it'd done a head gasket and I kept finding more and more rust. I also needed some major repairs on the VZ at the time. A guy dropped by, offered me a good cash price and now has a sister to his AP5 ute. His wife drops by my partners work sometimes, and last I heard he's doing exactly what I was going to do. Flat black, lime green highlights and flames and chasers on whitewalls. He's also hoping to drop by and see me when it's finished. Least she's being looked after... :smith:

Keep your eyes peeled though. I'm getting the VZ ready to sell, and I'm itching for more Valiant love. :getin: At least the next one I buy, I'll be looking for a road ready one, and I can just do some of my own touches as I go.

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Ansith
Nov 8, 2010

Elongated Baked Bean
At least you sold it to someone who's going to take care of it. I would have done the exact same thing with this car if I had taken some time out and just thought about it. I'm already at least 12k in with no end to the spending in sight. Roadworthy + previously restored is that way I would go if I had the choice.

Can't wait to see what's next.

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