FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Can I bolt a 173/186 engine into my ute without having to do any modifications?

no not really.

assuming you have a grey motor that is. the red motor has two mounts on either side that bolt to mounts on the cross member, whereas the grey motor has a mount at the front, and 2 mounts on the gearbox or rear of the engine from memory.

so you would need to get some mounts fabricated in the right position on your cross member, or upgrade to an HR disc brake front end (you have to relocate the mounts if you do this anyway).

also the three speed gearboxes were strengthened for the red motor, so bolting on a grey motor gearbox might not be advisable either.

you might consider upgrading your gearbox at the same time, this is not too hard to do, and there are several kits available that let you bolt on different boxes to the red.

Mooky,

In NSW you can install a 138 red or 149 without upgrading to disc brakes or getting an engineer's certificate.  CraigA's car has been modified in this way.

Note that as Simon said you'll still need to get the engine mounts on the cross-member to support the red motor.

You have to weigh up how you want to use the car with how original or authentic you want it to be.  If it's a daily driver and you are going to go to the trouble of fitting a red, I would recommend getting discs as well.  They're a bolt-on proposition (and you can keep your original king-pin x-member should you ever decide to revert the car back to original), and you won't know yourself in the stopping department!  There is an article on our Tech Info section ($2) about fitting a HR front end.

A grey crash-box will go OK behind a 149.  Wouldn't recommend it behind a 186 though, unless you're very gentle on first gear!

Hope that's some help.  I'm pretty sure the rules are the same in Queensland.

cheers
RET

Mooky,

Here is a picture of my 149 powered FC's engine bay.

The car is basically stock except for the addition of the RED Motor (brakes/gearbox/radiator are original) and does not need to be engineered (NSW). The car is slightly more powerful :-/ but I wouldn't call it a major threat to the WRX brigade  ;)

Only problems have been with a broken second gear synchro due to an over enthusiastic 1st to 2nd gear change and minor overheating which was solved with a good quality thermo and a reco radiator.

Cheers,

Craig.

Thanks very much for the advice fellas.  I think I will stick to the trusty grey.

"If it's not broke, don't fix it" ;D

cheers
RET