FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Does anyone know is a 202 bottom end is stronger than a 186 and if a 202 bottom end will fit in to a 186 block? Is it advisable to re bore a 186 to 192??

Any advice welcomed.

Grah

Hi Grah,
            This has been disscused b4 but i would use 186
personally.I had a 186 block bored out 60thou with 179 steel crank(yes bolts straight in) and 173 high compression commodore blue 12 port head with varajet manifold and 350 holley on adapter plate commodore extractors a 4 speed and 3:36to1 diff ratio and a TQ 20 cam.This thing kicked arse 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) ;) ;) ;).
Hope this helps.
CHEERS .....BRAD....

Have a 202 with a blue motor counter-balanced crank built up as a hottie for my Torana, revved hard and never gave me any trouble. It will soon fire in anger in my FE.

I think unless you are looking at a full-on race application or super/turbo charging, it really is personal preference as both motors are good-uns.

I don't think the 202 crank is a bolt up fit to a 186, and don't bore if you don't have to. It is only 6 cubic inches after all, and gives you room to bore if you have an "accident" down the track.

I have also found that a Vacuum Secondary 4BBL 450 CFM Holley carb works great on a Holden six. A lot smoother and responsive than a couple of Holley 350 set-ups that I have seen.

Depending on what you are intending to do with the motor as far as mods go, a 186 with 179 steel crank or 202 red or blue block with a blue or black motor crank is the way to go. The 202 red motor cranks have smaller oil delivery holes and suffer oil starvation to No 6 big end at high rev's as many 202 XU-1 owners found out before GMH modified the crankshafts. I have personally experienced a 202 XU-1 welding no 6 rod to the crank at 130 mph with disasterous results for the engine, this was on a 10 month old car, which was already on its second motor, having had a similar failure on the first motor at  9000 miles. The second one which was supposedly modified by GMH managed to do 12,000 miles before expiring.
Cheers
Jock

the 202 motors have a reputation of piston tops cracking and or breaking off, but finding a good 186 block with standard bore is becoming hard to find, but i would highly reccomend a good 179 HP block or the trusty 186 for strength and reliability

Thanks for the advice Guys.

I think I'll stick with the 186, check the bores and keep it standard. Yella terra head, extractors, cam and carbie. Might try the 450 Holly, although can get a 350 real cheap. Is the 350 Holly a pig???

Regards,

Grah.

Grah

It might be worth checking out the discussion re "blue head on a red block" (http://www.fefcholden.org.au/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=hotup;action=display;num=1045822646) for some carbie discussion.  The last comment by Nicko mentions a new carbie from Holley, the 320cfm, that may be better suited to the 6.

Just my 2 cents worth.

I used to run a Holley 350 on an XU-1 Rally car (the triple strombergs were too sensitive to dust). The car had a good spread of power and was pretty economic, the engine was a standard XU-1 which was bored to 192, balanced and blueprinted, I retained the original head, camshaft etc. This car ran strong in a lot of rallies for about ten years and was also used as a daily driver, it never suffered any fuel problems or power problems
Cheers
Jock

Thanks Jockster,

I'll try the Holly 350, but will keep the standard water heated manifold to ease fuel flow.

Regards,

Grah.

I forgot to say Grah that I used a Lynx manifold which was also water heated but was specifically for the Holley. It has slightly longer induction tubes than the Holden Manifolds for better air flow and fuel atomisation.
Cheers
Jock

Thanks for the additonal information.

Grah.

Quick question:

Are all 179 cranks all steel???

Regards,

Grah.

Grah
The only 179 Blocks that came with steel cranks were the HP blocks (ie they have HP cast on the block instead of 179). They were fitted to quite a few EH's, and HD X2's. As far as I know the 186S and !85 XU-1 blocks also used steel cranks.
Cheers
Jock