Basically, is it possible to have all 3?? And if yes, how?

Looking into gettin a 250 built for my TC Cortina wagon which i am currently building that has a 200 pre x-flow in it at the moment.

The car will be a daily, but i also want to do some interstate drives in it.

Because of the long drives and daily driving, it needs to be economical and reliable. I dont want to go LPG because a gas tank will ruin all the plans i have for the car.
And powerful... well everyone wants powerful!! doesnt need to be stupid and i have no goal HP or anything, but would be good to be able to put some commodores away!!

Looking to do it all for around 3k!?!?

So basically what im after is a spec list or combination that ticks all the boxes. Obviously the more powerful the less reliable and ecomical, so i'd like somewhere in the middle.

eg. what model block to start with, alloy or iron head, injected or carby, best cam, should i touch internals, etc etc

Thanks in advance as i know its a lot to ask!!

1. Power
2. Economy
3. Reliability.

You may choose 2.

Power enough to smoke some v6 Commodores, could be had, head, cam, exhaust on a fresh motor, decent box and diff ratio will see you there.

for 3K you may be able to get a 4L in there. EL and AU engines are cheap these days. compared to a xflow it every thing you want and then some.

Thanks, i definetly thought about the ef/au motor conversion. Would be easy enough, but would end up costing too much with wiring, im guessing id need a new gearbox and tailshaft, id need to make custom mounts...

Where as the xflow uses the same wiring and mounts etc as the 200 thats in it now!! unless i go EFI of course.

Have a look in the Xseries section. there is plenty of info on fitting them. I think you'll be surprised how easy it is to fit. You also don't need the EFI, an XF electronic dizzy fitted with the donor gear from the EFI dissy in the new engine will supply spark and you could adapt the XF weber or a 350 holley.
There is also a four barrel manifold available to suit the OCH engine.