So very simple...

95 Ef Tickford Xr6 with about 317k on her... got a new exhaust and everything is running fine...

5K to spend on engine box and drive... what should I do???
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Everyday street car... wouldn't mind turbo... only have 5K to spend for now

sell the car, and put all the money towards a BA/BF turbo

OR

fit a low km AU motor, larger cam and short diff gears.... plenty change leftover

I'm going to go with suggesting an AU engine, and a snort turbo kit.

If you can do most/all work yourself you'll save cash, have praticlality, but also light em up when you put the boot into it.

like I said 5K to spend....

ba/bf 18k+

I like the idea of the AU motor... what model? XR6? for the same cost will I get an 8?
Any cam and diff gears you might recommend?
when I bought the car I intended on building it... I liked the colour and wheels and stereo... I bought the car for 3k, has 2K band new wheels and 2.5k stereo...

Just get a stock forte motor with the lowest km you can find and use the difference in price to do some headwork. Follow that with cam and chip, 3" intake and some custom tuning. Should only be looking at 2k so far depending how handy you are. Should be able to put some good quality suspension under it, rebuild the box and diff with the change.

Sell it and buy one with lower kays.
Or as mentioned fit an AU engine.
Or fit a turbo, but for $5k you won't get a setup that will be exactly reliable, especially considering the kays on your engine.

lol, mines at 368k should i sell it?

for 5k spitting some ideas out;

-low k AU motor, with your EF XR6 head on it, 500, +200 for headgaskit change stuff
-decent cam (check wade cam section for suggestions dep on needs), vernier gear etc.
-cold air intake, $30 (tube from front bar, to bottom of airbox) and a K&N pod or panel filter
-j3 chip and dyno tune (last or near end)
-3" pipe intake from filter to throttle
-if manual, short shifter, possibly clutch dep on what you have
-if auto, oil cooler, highstall, electronic shift kit, possibly better clutch packs if you think you want it, possibly higher gears in the back 3.7>3.9's
-DBA slotted rotors, good pads, budget around 150>180 a corner
-whiteline swaybar kit (at 300+k's might want to check your bushes and replace as needed)
-decent shocks/springs combo (yet again deps on needs, slammed or handling)

should leave you with a reasonably well rounded car, good in many areas not just power etc, maybe some change aswell, depends on how much you can do yourself, not much of the above is all that hard to do.

its hard to guess exact parts as we dont know what your after, in the end you have to compare and research to find the right combo for you, or even some trial and error, start with the basic stuff and when your bored then buy the next bit, as its no fun doing it all at once.

Do you want me to answer that? lol

I just hate the thought of pulling down an engine to discover there's more needing replacing then what you expected, that and trying to sell a car with that many kays on it, but then when I think about it my 2 cars have both been written off anyway

with 5 grand i would try and make the whole thing nice and tidy.

manual conversion
big stereo
good suspension and swaybars

that'll take you close depending on how wisely (or not) you spend your money, and you'll have a really tidy cruiser to boot.

if you have change i would then look at cat back exhaust, extractors, short shifter, cam, mags in that order.

nah was just playing mate, i get annoyed at people that get hung up on "how many kays it got on it mate", I've seen cars with 40,000km on them i wouldn't touch with a 40ft pole, and others that are 300k and were legit country highway cars that were in incredible condition, its a bad basis to judge a car is all.

p.s. basicly the only things on my car that are that old are the body, some panels, and dash, so km's don't matter that much in the end.

seriously, buy another motor and reco it, so you still have yours to drive and do all the mods you want while its out of the car so it will be like a new motor anyway just tickle it a bit, or alot

Boost it mate!
I wouldn't bother with extractors & exhaust etc just yet. Save up another 2g and boost it
Once you go the NA route, you'll be kicking yourself for not going boost!

does depend somehwat on the quality of those k's. if its treated well, 300,000 isnt a biggie on these engines.

at the wrecking yard they pulled the head off our old ef xr6 wagon after my bro wrote it off, as the head was sold as soon as it got in the yard basically. I went in to look at the damage he did and they showed me the bore and how good the internals where. they said it looked better than a lot of 50,000k motors and this motor had 323,000 on it.

it was run in properly, always run on good oil, never thrashed to the point of mechanical torture, was well driven and looked after.

and could still keep up with the v8's at the lights. with over 300,000 on it.

just get it checked for compression. if its had a hard life you can junk it. buying a second hand engine could be in no better nick depending.

the ks will play on the gearbox though. they arnt a long life item like the engines. will most likely require a decent rebuild/reco, or swapping for a t5.

t5 with 3.45 rear end (which you already have) is pretty good gear.

I've seen complete BA XR6T engine and auto transmission conversions going on ebay for $3,500, a grand and a bit for a cooler, a few pipes and a tune to get it all going and bobs your uncle. I reckon you could do that for a smidge under $5,000.

That's probably the hardcore option, otherwise there have been some good suggestions, ie: get a fresher SOHC engine and slap a Snort turbo kit onto it. But then you're going to need injectors and aftermarket ECU PLUS everything else to go with it. Kinda makes the BA XR6T engine conversion not so hardcore

[quote="FordFairmont"]sell the car, and put all the money towards a BA/BF turbo

Ouch.