Shane,
           Buy a blue/Black motor fuel pump from somewhere like Autobarn. The enclosed type, they produce a little more fuel than the standard 'glass fuel bowl'. This will be heaps for a Mild twin carbed red  

Will you seperate the sideskirts and if so how much?

Best thing to do would be to speak to your local engine builder/head place. I'd say that doing this would require shaving the head a bit, as the motor would be gutless without atleast 8:5:1.

there is a grey motor setup, but this is the messy way, and you wouldnt run a setup like this on an x2 manifold as you dont have a divorce setup...

The setup in Shane's post are pieces of rod and "W Clips". You can go to bursons/autobarn places like that and they can order W clips in for you, or you could just buy a brand new linkage kit to suit your application .

RET,
      I understand that, but ever since Rod sold the bussiness, prices have gone up, i have a 2002 pricelist from CRS and chassis kit for v8 into fe fc is priced at $325. That was a reasonable price, but now the price is just rediculous.

back onto topic, Michael seeings we live quite close you can come and measure up our sedan chassis if you wish, either that or the option i pm'd you about..

CRS chassis kits are over the $700 mark now, its probably $100 worth of materials...

Sounds like a good plan,
                                     I have a mate who has a hq style radiator in his Camaro, it ran really hot, couldnt drive longer than 15 minutes. So what he done was bought a set of AU-BA thermo's, they advertise em in just parts for something like $235, as soon as he fitted them the guage never went over 175f. Was thinking of going down this path but then we would have to move the oil cooler again so we thought bugger it....

anyways good luck with it,  

ohh also, there isnt any different between fans that pull the air or push the air, its just a matter of undoing the nut in the middle of the blade and turning it the other way round  

Ed,
   re: overheating problems. On the fc sedan we had no engine fan and 2 thermos (which turned out to be some jap ones off an camira). The car was great on the highway, but as soon as you sit in traffic the guage crept up and up, 170f is quite good, ours ran around 180 on the run which is about right.

Is your radiator a crossflow or downflow? standard or tripple by-bass? ours now (havent got running yet) is a hq v8 radiator fitted with a tripple by-pass, and will have 2 10" fans, this will hopefully keep it cool this time round.  You can buy the fans pretty cheap from supercheap auto and places like that, they seem to work ok as weve got one on the vk, from memory they are $49.95.

my brother runs one on his vk and the hq, he said theyre fantastic. he says he did have a day (42 degrees) when it got real hot. he said he turned the motor off for no more that 5 minutes and the motor dropped down over 100 degrees.

which type are you thinking of getting? the one with an external motor and the seperate belt, or a full electric one? the full electric ones are around $650, or the one that runs a seperate belt is about $130, i think vpw have them on their site.

what kind of fans are you running on it?

sounds about right, just make sure that

motor is TDC, and that the rotor button is facing the number one lead ontop of the cap.

i might add, that the vt blocks were clearanced to fit a 355 crank as all HSV's and special orders were fitted with a C.O.M.E crank.(well atleast im pretty sure it was a come crank, may have been Harrop, but i doubt it...)

have you checked out COME racings new 383? dont think its what your lokoing for, but man its wild!!!

We are chasing a pair of new old stock sills to suit fe-ek. they must be in perfect condition, will pay very good $$$ for a perfect pair.contact via pm. will pay for postage if they arent in VIC

In my opinion its best to get the least amount of paint as posible on bolts/screws, as you will find it chips off.

I would say get everything primed up ready for top coat then bolt on hinges and everything, allign all the doors so gaps are best as possible, then remove the doors, tighten the hinge bolts then paint on top coat and clear. (so that the paint is fresh, no chips/marks etc)

Ofcourse somebody else might have a better idea....

Ed,
     I believe its the VT and later blocks which dont need machining to accomodate a 355-383 crank.

The harrop gear is nice, but it is also quite pricey but all 355 kits seem to be...


Have you considered getting a standard 308 crank and getting it offset ground? this with a set of small journal 327 rods and +30 oversize will make a 330 stroker, these motors are extremely torquey and will actually outrev a 355.

When/if you decide to stroke it, what type of intake do you plan to run? im actually good friends with FLOWCRAFT ENGINEERING here in victoria. He has not long designed and manufactured his own twin throttle manifold that looks absolutely gorjus!!  Dont really know if its what youd be after, but his manifolds are cheaper than all other twin throttle body setups out there, and it outflows them by something like 11%

just food for thought  

we were also concerned with the stands, but when we purchased a Dominator high stall for the sedan, this is exactly how they recomended doing it, im pretty sure he said it was something like it filled up the convertor, but didnt put the gearbox under strain so if there were any problems there wouldnt be any damage....but hey id doubt there will be a problem with your gearbox anyways!

re transmission.

after you have filled it, put stands under the rear of the car so that the wheels are off the ground, then go through all the gears. this will fill the convertor and once hot will give you a proper reading.

i dont think its nessacery to take out the plugs, when the fuel builds up it could make a mess in your engine bay (worse case scenario...)

another thing to remember, make sure there is petrol in the tank

crap   mustve deleted em, if you want i can email you some more....