New Engine Time

[Bass Crazy]

Well the time has come.

The old 3.9 has had enough of my right foot punishment.
At 315,000, 5 diffs, a gearbox rebuild, about 30 1/4 mile runs and somewhere around 20 sets of rear rubber, BBM conversion 3 head rubuilds and 3 different porting sessions, 2 different cams, 5 hours of dyno tuning, 2 sets of timing chain guides and tensoners its time to give it a rest.

The head gasket was replaced 10000km ago, along with the usual head rebuild, port etc etc, and she is loosing about 1L a day out of the side of the gasket.
I CBF fixing it (pretty sure it was just a tension stuff up on the head bolts) so im going to change the thing.

Just trying to decide if I should go EL or AU.
I want to use my cam, so im leaning toward EL. I dont want to spend $$$ on a new cam as the car is just a daily driver now.. cruising. But i still want my power.

Anyone here gone from an EL engine in their car to AU?
Is it worth while?

[EFFalcon]

use an AU bottom end with the CUrrent Head?
i can't see why the current head would be stuffed so go for the bottom end only.
i can't remember if your car has the serpentine conversion?

I know Dougs now got an AU engine.

[ilsautomotive]

The only issue there is that the bottom end is the part that requires a bit of stuffing around to get in. It's still worth it in my opinion, the AU seems to be a better built motor all round.

[bogan393]

Hey im selling a rebuilt bottom end, never been started, heres teh specs.

EA block bored to 4.0l + .020" (approx 4.1L)
ACL Race series pistons/rings
ACL Race series bearings
Fully balanced
JP high volume oil pump
New timing chain/guides/tensioner
New timing cover
Comes complete MINUS head
Never started, BRAND NEW condition

selling for $1g, no offers.

[Bass Crazy]

Hey there,

Thanks for the offer bogan939, but im looking for something pretty much standard, and i dont think ill be putting any EA parts in the car if it can be avoided.

I spoke to Doug about his engine, seems pretty happy with it, and the conversion didnt seem to be too bad. I dont want to use my head because even tho its been recoed etc, its still an EA head, and will probably give me problems.

Im mainly after a reliable engine as i need to tow around my other car as well.

Any idea on the reliability difference?
Do the AU's still kill head gaskets?

[JUZXR8]

Originally Posted by bogan393

Hey im selling a rebuilt bottom end, never been started, heres teh specs.

EA block bored to 4.0l + .020" (approx 4.1L)
ACL Race series pistons/rings
ACL Race series bearings
Fully balanced
JP high volume oil pump
New timing chain/guides/tensioner
New timing cover
Comes complete MINUS head
Never started, BRAND NEW condition

selling for $1g, no offers.

would a stock 3.9Ltr head fit onto this bottom end?

[SWOOP]

my old ED is running an AU motor ,runs really well made bout 110rwkw from stock Egas spec running on PULP ,smoother better on fuel and quiet
soon we are swapping AU stock head/cam for EL head with works and 1004 , should be a pretty decent engine for bout $2000 all up and bottom end is on about 45000kms so far ,so should (touch wood) last ages

[Bass Crazy]

Swoop, why are you swapping out the AU head. I thought they are meant to be the best head to work with?

[INJECTED_250]

aU's dont kill gaskets.... about 2000% beter than EA-EL as far as head gaskets ting them selfs

[Kenaz]

OT: But, how's the project coming along Simon?

[EFFalcon]

Originally Posted by Bass Crazy

Swoop, why are you swapping out the AU head. I thought they are meant to be the best head to work with?

my guess is cam selection, there seems to be a few more cams available for the older 2:1 rocker ratio from the EA->EL

[Gunns]

Originally Posted by Bass Crazy

Swoop, why are you swapping out the AU head. I thought they are meant to be the best head to work with?

Cos the EF head was sitting there just waiting to be worked, rather than pull the au head and have the car off the road. + he has the cam for the ef head sitting there.

There are a few good engines DP Wreakers ATM, AU EGAS, EF Tickford, AU VCT (that would be a challange).

[Bass Crazy]

Yeah I have been back and forth to DPW for the past few weeks for parts. Had a chat to him, said he has a few ready to go. Might grab one next week... just gotta make up my mind. The thought of driving the EA with a AU engine with a stock cam is not real tempting against what i am used to.

Kenaz, if i get all the bits in, i should be driving it out of the garage this weekend... YAY!!!!!

[sphell]

yeah the AU engine definately feels like it revs better but it's not exactly a ball tearer compared to even a standard EA MPI. Still it'd have to go better than your low comp leaky head u got now Simon ;) I feel it has better midrange than the E-series which you notice if you accelerate from say 80-100 etc. It's really much of a muchness, if you wanna keep your cam then probably just get a EL motor. At least you won't have to grind nearly as much stuff to fit it in lol.

[SWOOP]

Originally Posted by EFFalcon

my guess is cam selection, there seems to be a few more cams available for the older 2:1 rocker ratio from the EA->EL

exactly that reason ,cam and rocker ratio
also to keep car running as my mate cant have it off the road ,so it needs to be done all in a few hours ,so rather than getting another AU head ,get it ported ,get new cam to suit AU gear ,time off road etc costing more $$$$$
we decided to use whats laying round and its keeping costs low and will produce close to or same as what an AU head casing to the same specs would do.
6 of one ,I say

were hoping for around 140rwkw , be rapt if it gets more

[Bass Crazy]

Swoop, are you running the BBM manifold?

Another thing that might become an issue is running a BBM/EA ecu (no timing shift) on the AU engine as it might start pinging with a cam.

Doug, you have a bit of a point there. I lost against a Vs clubsport the other night which was pretty embarassing. My baby does not like anything above 4200rpm any more :(
Mabye I should get you to take me for a ride in your AU fitted beast so i can see for myself. Our cars had pretty much the same performance back when we were cruising every week(before ur turbo setup went in), how does the AU engine go compared to that in performance?

[SWOOP]

bbm is on it now ,but its getting removed when other head gets fitted ,either going to run ED manifold or mate is getting a log custom made up for something different

[Bass Crazy]

Did the AU engine work ok with the BBM?

Any pinging at all?

[SWOOP]

hmmm ,well I used egas spec low kms long motor fitted with el bbm injectors etc
and run it on pulp ,timing is advanced comp is factory 9.6.1,

on ulp she'll ping its head off (short runners) weve cable tied to stay on long runners
on Pulp its fine just doesnt make any more power after 3500 just flattens out and stayed at 112rwkw to redline which we think is Egas cam

I only bought the egas motor instead of normal ulp motor as Ive heard rumors of similarities in part specs with a certain factory turbo engine? and also suppose to be heavy duty taxi motor ,capiable of lots of kms 500000+

I know another local round here with an AU xr HP motor in an EA manual and its a damn freak.

[Bass Crazy]

Ahh the good old EA.. even with the head decked, and 20deg of timing she would not ping.. talk about bloody low comp.

Thanks for that swoop.

hey are you in west suburbs of melb?

[SWOOP]

yeah mate just up past calder park , the car lives down in taylors lakes

[mcflux]

Originally Posted by Juz_Gremlin

would a stock 3.9Ltr head fit onto this bottom end?

Just wondering, why would you put a stock 3.9L head on top of that setup?