FE 1957 - Breton Blue/Teal Blue - 327, T700, modified chassis - original body

[FCRB26]

id say his is a earlly conversion or 327 numbers or block at a guess

[fe350chev]

Hey Hoon, what did you run, a stock rb30 first then go to RB26 head with turbo? How did you go with floors etc, did you do similar to Pedro and use a donor floor or custom one. Some use VT?? Not sure if it would matter that much just for seat and handbrake positions? What u think, how did your extractors go getting clearance? I was thinking maybe a more hypo 4 cyl would give more room under bonnet..... what have u thought on this. if u did again what would u do without going v8.

[fe350chev]

Well, been busy sorting out some gear I got from Melbourne. I got a hr front end.

[FCRB26]

All my floors are original and originally i just welded the VL shifter bit into mine.
I made my own 3/4 chassis i first did the conversion using a 500 thousand km plus VL ended up breaking even by the time i sold the grey motor and the vl parts.
That old 500 thousand km motor blew 3 gearboxes and 13 banjo,s before fitting a centura diff and a rb25 gtsT gearbox for strength.

I then re built it all and did my own engine runs crow valve springs ported polished head 20 thou over block GTS cam extractors patrol clutch and pressure plate.

I had a RB25 head on it for a while with a monster high mount turbo but due to it being our wedding car i had to get it finished and running properly so i went back to atmo 30 head.

I bought a half cut so i could just use the whole RB26 it was very low KM vehicle.

You will have to change your sump and pick up
Also the extractors will be way to long in height they will need to be stumpied up.
The last fuel set up i ran was a V8 commodore fuel pump $38 off e bay in tank with a internal swirl pot.

If you are thinking of running a torana rack i suggest dont they are shithouse in the turning circle run a commodore one shortened Stewarts rods and customs do this also pat gardener or last resort rod haddfield.

I am still thinking of selling my whole set up tank and front end and motor box but am still unsure weather to or not as i have a EH for the wife and i thought i would put all the RB25 bits on the 30 block and runthat set up for her.


Pete

[fe350chev]

Some good pointers there. Thanks.

[FCRB26]

Just one question how would you explain fewithrb30 username  and someone says oh cool you have a rb30 and then you say nah its got a sr20 snap out of it.


If i did it again i would do what im doing as i havent finished yet and a shitload of money has gone into the driveline might go  toyota 2J tho easier to make big power my mates ej van is fairly stock making 550HP at the wheels.


Pete

[fe350chev]

i think i am wanting something different out of my build than yours. your obviously a hoon  , no sorry i know your a hoon  because you have that turbo territory and have blown so many diffs, but i wanna have more of a club cruiser with a bit of poke.  i race my kart when i want to race, but yeah, i think the straight six looks the part. id do a different car if i wanted outright performance not muck around with fc's. this will be more of a hobby car. the fg falcon motor is great, we have one at the moment in our g6 falcon, i had 2 VE's b4 that. I like the ride of the VE commodore over falcon but they usually suck in engine and trasmission department. I think next month ill be getting a dark blue sv6 sportswagon. will be interesting to see what the new2 6 speed auto is like. we do a lot of kays per year. i have a 2000 model dual cab rodeo sport, should put a lexus v8 in that one, but shit handling as is 4wd.

im trying to build a new house at moment, so a lot of money is going into that to get the new driveways and power on etc. got too much on 

sometimes i wonder why i do so much stuff, but i get bored if i dont over commit myself ha ha.

[fe350chev]

Hi all

I have some more questions. When undoing the bonnet hinges and the brake master, I notice on the corners there is black rubbery stuff on the edges, looks like it was once in liquid form like gasket goo and looks original. Is this stuff original?

Also, the bumper bolts that went through the subframe on the brackets were very this, i think they had become loose over the hears and nearly all worn away.. If the rest of the subframe is ok, i suppose building up weld and then re drilling them would make the holes stronger than original.

If my subframe is too far gone at critical points, is it best to put replacement pieces in or I am worried if I buy other so called "good ones" then I might be buying other peoples trouble.

A lot of the bolts are breaking which I am assuming is pretty normal.

cheers

Dean.

[FCRB26]

Old Skool conversion id say i know of a few fe fc with 350s but they are earlly 80s conversions..

[fe350chev]

im plugging away still, but having a think of what i really want out of this build. do i really need a quick FE? If I want quick, there are heaps of better choice for quick that will handle better. mines so original i am thinking back all the time to keeping moist of it original.

[ekute]

After owning a V8 EK ute for a number of years as a daily driver I can reassure you that it was fun in a straight line and around town. But on a trip very noisy and iffy handling.

Going the almost stock route will not disappoint because you won't be looking for the not so easy to attain good handling, NVH, comfort etc. For this reason I'm building an old style custom out of my FE, grey motor, crash box, drum bakes etc then I won't be too disapppointed!

Of course I will love it because it's old and simple, my BMW scares me because of it's complexity (and service costs) but my split kombi is slow, noisy, probably not real crashworthy but easy to sleep in! And everybody wants to talk to me about it.

Ain't that part of what we're about.

[fe350chev]

thats exactly right. here in western victoria, the roads are worse than log truck roads in tasmania. i can still make it old school and very cool with lots of bling and get the grey sounding very sweet and rebore it and do some crazy lumpy shit ha ha. 

if i wanna drive something like its on rails i will be getting our new sv6 soon (3 weeks). I almost wanna have something simple like u say, to take me back to a different era. when i go away in in i wanna leave the computer and mobile home.

i pretty much think that i wanna make it as gooder car as i can like it was new or better, i can always go that way and if i dont like it i can change it anywho.

I have 2 race karts so thats my fast stuff, ill have a vehicle for every mood. I also have a truck! and a 4wd ute. so i virtually have a vehicle for most moods.

Any ideas guys on what other cars/moods I have left out. perhaps and sv6 is a bit bogan and i need a doof doof car like a skyline too lol.

[fe350chev]

Well I finally got stuck into it again after delays due to floods and other crap.

Took gearbox and motor out. The subframe looks good, u can tell it was a bush car, red dirt everywhere. Looks to have a fairly new clutch. was hardly nay oil in gearbox.

[fe350chev]

More pics

[BLOK]

Looks like you are getting stuck into it dean are you planning to do an all nighter ,that happens some times with these old things they get you in Good luck with it mate

[fe350chev]

haha. i might do another all dayer tomoz but i have other things to do but sometimes u just gotta get stuck in hey!

[fe350chev]

its weird cos i could get one of these with insane horsepower very cheap and it would kill a lot of 350 chevs for power and torque, yet my engineer says a twin turbo of 2.5litre capacity is fine, but I cant put a 5ltr standard v8 or a turbo standard rb30 which would make less horsepower than a good 5ltr v8. its all a bit strange.

[Ed]

maybe the horsepower "potential" of a heavily modified V8 would be too much?

it would be nice if they could be assessed on a case by case basis, but impractical and unaffordable!

[fe350chev]

Im really quite confused 

I went to my local hot rod club and they are saying i should keep it to period style. I think i need 2 cars ha ha. A modded custom and an original. Bloody hell. Didnt think it would turn out to be this hard.

[BLOK]

,Mate its great to get other peoples opinions but in the end its your ride and your building it for you to enjoy not everybody else so build it the way you want and enjoy ,it will be a awsome piece of Australian motoring history what ever way you go