I am wanting to buy a EF xr8. I am going to do up the motor which i will later on take of out the car to use in another project. Rather than touching the original engine, I have a v8 out of a 94 NC fairlane I was going to swap into the EF instead. Is this possible? I am mainly concerned about any differences between engines that the xr8 ecu might not be able to handle. So the plan is to do up the nc motor, drop it into the ef, then later on swap the stock engine back in, sell the ef and use the done up motor in something else. Can anyone tell me problems with this idea? I plan to get a manual xr8 btw.

The motors were EXACTLY the same from EB-EL series 1 so there will be no problems bolting the motor in complete. Series 2 ELXR8 only really got a manifold change and some better extractors.
Shane

Sweet! OK so the motors are the same - what about the ignition system? If i use the older motor in the newer ef will there be probs with distributors or anything? I guess I could just swap those parts over too. Awesome now to find a EF xr8 manual!

Nope, as shane said - they're identical.