FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

hello

afting much thinking and discusion we have decided to rebuild the grey motor ready for our fc. in the process of rebuilding, we have come to the decision of doing a bit of work to it to give it a bit more go. this includes head work, cam work and also a few other things like twin carbs etc

below are some questions that i was wondering if someone could answer

1. when doing head work to a grey motor, what are the best perf. valves available???

2. when rebuilding a gre motor, what are the best perf. valve springs available???

3. what types of bridge suport are available and where are we able to purchase it from???

4. where are new engine bearings available from, and how much are they???

5. is there a better clutch available to suit a crash box???

6. what would be the best tpe of perf. pistons available for grey motor???

and finally.....

7. is there anything that i have missed from the above that would need to be done when building a perf. grey motor???

Hi Torquefc.Go back to your post re cam grinding and look at "Hysteria's"responce.His engine mods listed may help with some of your questions.Also maybe send him a PM.There was a set of supports on Ebay recently but they must have sold as they are no longer there.Engine bearings, try any Rare spares outlet or look up the rare spares website,prices are there also.The original clutch would probably hold up OK with moderate engine mods.Pistons again try rare spares or maybe JP pistons(I think they have a website).Repco may also still make pistons for the old grey so try them as well.There are probably others around as well.Hope this helps,Terry. P.S. Something else.You may want to have your distributor recurved to suit the engine mods.This can help performance but like everything it adds to the final build cost.Maybe there are some old ex '60's and '70's grey motor boy racers out there that could give you better info than I can.

Torque, I presume you guys deal with an engine machining shop. Talk to them about what you want to do. They should also be able to get engine parts. Pistons (138 + 60) are readily available as are all engine bearings. I have 186 valves, but I believe you can go bigger, 202 valve springs & retainers. To get more power you need to work the head. I havent done this, but I believe it is worthwhile.
I had my grey at 4500 revs & climbing today & didnt it love it!
Have fun. Colin

colt
thanks for the reply

when you say 'work the head', what do you mean?

have now tracked down some twin strommies and manifold so thats one thing we dont need to worry about

Torque, the advice I have been given regarding greys, other than carbs, exhaust & bottom end, is to work the head. They mean to give it a port job. I have hardened valve seats, this means I can use unleaded fuel without having to use an additive, the valves already described and matched the manifolds to the head. The next step for me would be to open the ports. I'm told useful power gains can be had in this area. I'm not the expert on this though.
Colin

here are the list of mods that are planned

twin carbs
20 valves and springs
porting to the head, and matching carb and exhaust manifold
all sincro box
any thing ive forgotten as the head will be ready for maching on wednesday and all other bits and pieces will be ready

From the photo on the left hand side it looks like you have it all done ???

Hi

One of the most important thing you shoud do with a hot grey is to balance every thing from the harmonic balancer to the pressure plate by doing this not only will it rev smoother and harder but when your up in the revs you have less chance of braking a crank the other thing is to also shot pen the conrods.

Julius

Thats something that most people miss Julius, good call.

I had everything in my motor balanced, crank, pistons, rods etc, i can't believe how smooth it runs.

Another mod that I hade done was lightening the flywheel, also make sure you get your pressure plate/clutch balanced as well.

Porting the head is a very worthwhile exercise, the machinist who did mine spent 8 hours taking the intake runner seperators out to open the intake right up and polishing them smooth.

Jay

It depends how much go you want.
Port and polish head and fit 202 valves and 186 heavy duty valve springs. You can skim the head upto 60 thou past the thumb print.
Wade 102 cam , twin carbs and extractors 21/2 pipe work.
lighten fly wheel. Steel timing gear
As others have said its a good idea to have everything balanced and shot peened.
This should give you a smooth and faster grey.
But if you were to spend the same ammount on a red motor!!
Also you cant modify a grey head (bigger valves) and get the seats hardened to run unleaded?

Nick

Are you saying you can't or asking if you can ???  If you are saying you can't, why not?

I have red motor valves in mine and it runs on unleaded.
I have 80 thou off my head and the comp is 8.2:1. Just remember when you do this you will have to make some slight mods to the water pump and side cover to get them to fit.

Jay

Burnsy
Sorry to  confuse, I was told that because I had the bigger valves the
valve seats could not be modified. I think that this was because there was not enough material left to machine out to fit the inserts.
Seems that Hysteria has had it done so may be I was given wrong info?

Nick

here is the head

202 stuff right through

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/pro_058fc_350/fc039.jpg)

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/pro_058fc_350/fc037.jpg)

Torquefc, are you going to port and polish the head, if so I would get the lip on the combustion chamber machined off, apparently it makes a big difference to gas flow.

cheers
jay