Sweet! Let us know how you go.

Well, today was a bit of a fail!

Went out to get some parts for the head and came back almost empty handed. Plan was to see a mate down at the local speed shop and see what valve train gear I could get for i6 motor, but forgot my list of specs at home which I was planning to use to match with whatever was available, lol.

Crow valve springs/retainers/locks seem to be a bit overpriced locally so decided to see what I could piece together using some other decent brands. Cleveland valvetrain gear seems to be a very close/bang on match with the aussie 4.0 falcon valvetrain gear spec wise and with all the speedshops here bringing in a lot of valvetrain gear straight from USA, finding a match should be fairly easy.

Managed to pick up a set of Pioneer Performance valve locks (7 degree, std height, multigroove to suit 351c) to replace the std ones. Tested those out with a sample intake valve and retainer I took in and they fit perfectly. Got them for way cheaper than I could pick up Crow ones for locally ($50 odd for a set of locks from the NZ distributor for Crow gear vs $9.80 for the Pioneer ones ). They had some Crower spring retainers (C87050-16) which I'm 95% sure would be able to suit, just need to double check a few measurements and go from there, but so far so good. Failing that, I'll just pay up for the Crow chromoly retainers. Spring wise, will be either some Crow or Manley 110lb'ers but prices aren't confirmed yet. Also picked up another set of lifters seeing as the last brand new set I bought from the same shop got sold on Trade Me for a $40 profit

Stopped by nearly every decent car dealer known to get in nice V8's and not one had an AU V8 for me to look at. A few nice B-series 8's here and there but they are just not my thing whatsoever. Still waiting to here back from a guy who has an AU XR8 listed so we'll see how that goes I guess

Hell yeah, that's cheap as!! If I bought all 3, I could easily sell the other 2 and get more than my money back, hahaha PROFIT!!..

Pretty hard to come by a motor with all the explorer bits in NZ, so it definitely would be the best option to look at having one shipped over if I was to go that way. Only thing that would even come close to comparing to that motor in NZ would be this http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 875725.htm

How you could let a Sprint get that run down is beyond me

Just wish I had the coin right now to go out, buy a decent AU XR8 and be done with all the hassles, tempts me to just take out a loan but I don't want to get in over my head

Id be keen on one of those motors if the price was decent

there is usually atleast one sprint on trademe.

those engine on ebay, i might have to look in to getting one of them when i decide to convert the ltd.

Group buy lol? Thats 3 of us

Sell car for 4k

Then finance 10k plus use 2k of EF sale to bargain a mint car down to 12k

ANZ - 15.15% variable rate unsecured loan, lets you pay it off earlier, and redraw surplus payments. Over 5 year term, repayments are $238 per month, or $54 weekly....... easy Also means you can sell the car anytime if you feel the need
http://www.anz.com/personal/personal-lo ... car-loans/
http://www.anz.com/personal/personal-lo ... alculator/

Use the other 2k left from EF sale to fund a nice exhaust system, winner !!

or buy a cheaper one, for example
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-ca ... 765588.htm
knock him down to $8500....... finance that and repayments over 5 years would be $202 monthly or $46 weekly. Then use the sale of your EF to fix anything that needs it & a full exhaust

......opps sorry im doing it again

Group buy might be feasible! Wonder if he'll drop the price a couple hundy to help a couple kiwi brothers out


LOL, all planned out and everything, awesome!!

Trouble is I don't think I could ever part with the EF, way too attached to it. I know it's not much of a car to most people, but I've put too much time and effort into it to let it go lol. Unless of course an AU win's me over that much that I have to sell up to fund it. Luckily I am with ANZ so it's good to see they have some decent offers with loans & rates etc.

Thanks for the encouragement though

Haha may work, is the auction price for all 3? or seperately? I dont think i could make myself pull the old faithful 6cyl out of the EL. Another shell would be the way to go, have a 8 and a 6. good variety haha

I would say that price would be for each motor. If it was for all 3 I don't think that auction would still be live

That's stupidly cheap really compared to what we can get here locally. A few weeks ago I saw some guy put a $2500 bid on an EF XR8 motor that was being sold up here in Auckland. I really hope he wasn't expecting it to be a high performance motor in std form or anything lol.

Lol! Ef XR8 motor is just a standard HO equipped motor!

I wonder what needs to be done on the explorer motor, and if the acessories can be used.

gees, i've seen motor and box for $2200, and i think it was an au. f**k paying $2500 for just en ef motor.

Well after a few nights of thorough research, comparing all the different spring and retainer diameters, rated pressures, spring installed heights, coil bind etc etc etc, it looks like I've finally found myself a new valve spring and retainer combo which will fit the 4.0 head.

Crower 87050 retainers
Crower 68315-16 valve springs

Springs are a single configuration with inner damper. Rated at 105lb @ 1.850" installed height or 120lb at 1.800" installed height, so with the std installed height of 1.820" for the 4.0 motor, it should be somewhere around 110lb which is what I'm after. Just so happens that the retainers (which are also std height) are suited perfectly for these springs according to the Crower website, which is great.

Should be able to get both the Crower springs and retainers for just under $250 in total (not to mention 4 extra springs and retainers since they come in sets of 16), compared to the $350 odd for Crow 110lb 7332-12 springs and chromoly retainers (in sets of 12) which is the cheapest I could get Crow Cams parts locally

Hopefully my mate down at the STA Parts has these Crower parts in stock for me 'cause I'll be there first thing tomorrow morning! I hope even more that all the research I have done is correct though lol..

Still haven't test driven any V8's yet. However I've just come across this which I may have to drop in to have a look at on the way back from the parts place. Being a ute, it should be a bit of fun if they let me take it for a spin haha

Let us know how you go.

I'm sorry for not paying attention, but what else are you planning for the new head?

The XR8 looks nice, should be a blast to drive. The wheels look familiar too lol. Check out the Fairlane/LTD thread.

And don't judge me too harshly. The ZS's needed tyres!

Lol, didn't take long!! . Nice excuse though haha, those wheels suit the Lane very well

Plans for the head are just to get it up to a standard that'll be suitable for a decent NA street motor, seeing as boost is no longer in my vision for the Fairmont right now (due to wanting a damn V8 )

I've got a lot of unfinished business with the Fairmont, so just want to give it a few more mods it deserves and make it a bit more fun to drive