Just wondering if anyone on this forum has dropped a BA engine into a XH ute?

What mods need to be done. I have been informed that i will have to mod the sump because of the K member in the ute.

I wish to retain the original 5spd. I have been told the a AU bell housing will fix this problem. Has anyone heard differant?

Any feedback, information or contact details to people who know will be appreciated.

EA engine mounts bolt streight onto the BA block, and the engine will sit perfectly on them. Problem1 - The engine sits to high on these mounts and the bonnet won't close. Problem2 - The AU/BA sump is much larger than the EF/EL tin version in the front and fouls the XG type sway bar (XF version would be worse as it sits even further back).
Have made a spacer that bolts onto the block, that relocates the engine mounts 25mm higher up the block (Caution left and right mount spacings are different - forgot about that!) The left mount spacer is more dificult to make as it requires relief around the oil filter mount and the oil pressure/turbo feed fitting.
In hind sight I think 25mm was to much as I now have the engine fitting under the bonnet but the front pulley and alternator are touching the front cross member. To fix this I am going to space the mounts that bolt onto the chassis up 5mm (Yeh I know sounds fiddley, but its going to work (I hope)). Space under bonnet might get tight and I still might have to cut a small section of the bonnet frame out.

Gearbox shifter sits back futher than the old four speed auto did. We had stiched in the 'hump' out of a EB auto for the Auto an d4.0 OHC engine but this time around I've just cut the hole a bit bigger. Sould still look factory with the shifter boot in place.

Power steer pump is slightly different from EF to BA, The EF version comes in from the back, where as the BA's come's in from underneath, so a quick visit to the local hydrulics man and a extra 90 deg swivel bend installed, and everything is happy.

I'm not planning on running the AC and at teh moment the pump is just being used as a idler for the drive belt, but I will end up atapting the EF non AC idler onto the engine.

The coolant pipe that goes behind the head fowls the fire wall if left in place. The EF type on sits down lower ontop of the bell housing but there is a sensor there in the BA engine. Hoping to do a bit of mixing and matching, Also the XF heater pipes are on the oppersite side to the BA ones so more mixing and matching needs to be done there.