buying a smashed up el to transfer motor, interior, ECU, looms and possibly diff into my ea.
the motor will need a freshen up so this is what i was thinking, any tips would be good...

J3 Chip
Port and polish head
AU head Gasket
Shave the f**k outta the head
*Cam shaft
Extractors
Exhaust
rings and bearings
AU rockers
crow double or triple valve springs

all in front of the EA T5.
want to kinda get the biggest cam that the J3 will allow, what do you guys reckon?
and what do you think of this motor when its done, reckon it will put out a bit of power??

keep the ef/l rockers..more cam choices..

id get a cms stage 3 and you'd be pulling over 160 forsure with the right tune..

If you gunna get some machining done you could also

Balence the rotating assembly (balencer, crank, flywheel)
Machine flywheel
acid bath
valve seats
valve stem seals

I wouldn't recommend shaving a lot off the head, as then the timing chain might get too much slack. If youre going to do the bearings and rings you might as well get a full ACL rebuild kit with hi-compression pistons, and just shave the head so it's flat.

How much do you have to spend?? Doing all this work will set you back a fair bit lol..

If i had the money to throw at it i'd be doing what some of the guys have already suggested..

-Rebuild the bottom end with an ACL kit
-Get the head reconditioned i.e pressure/crack test, get the seats and valves cut or new oversize valves if you want, new or relined guides, new stem seals, get the head machined say 10-15 thou to make sure it's flat and give you a little bump in CR..
- Port polish job (doesnt need to be too extreme, just take out casting dags, deshroud the valves, bit of "pocket porting", work on the short turns etc etc should be fine for a street engine..
- Depending on how big a cam you go, XR spec crow springs for a mild-ish cam or double valve springs for a cam with higher lift
- Wade or CMS cam regrind should go well, they are quite good at what they do going by the feedback they get..
- Vernier cam gear to dial cam in..
- Pacemaker 4480's, 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust..
- A bit of CAI work i.e 3" piping from airbox to T/B, larger snorkel or secondary intake duct from front bar into bottom or airbox..
AU MLS gasket and new head bolts obviously..
- J3 chip..

There is probably a few other things that i may have missed out on as that is all i can think of right now.. Id say all that properly tuned with a j3 could put out 150-160> rwkw, which in a boxcar should go very very well

Like FORDom said, dont worry about changing to AU rockers, EF - early EL are fine.