Thread: Holden Motor Question

I have done lots of engine swaps on the early series.
My opinion and its only my opinion is as follows.

215 hemi........great motor, getting harder to find.

245 hemi........awesome torque and power, runs cooler than holden motors.

265 hemi........only time i fitted one of these we broke the gearbox and put
a later series 3 gearbox and salsbury diff.


ford 250 crossflow.......very smooth motor and quiet.....did not like the electrics on it as was hard to work on.

253/308.......Put one in a series 3 and had heaps of probs. the heads fowled the bulkhead, startermotor too close to chassis, had to lift engine up to clear prop shaft, no room for headers, better off with a chevy as they were 70 degree blocks.

I would be looking more towards the carby version of the 250 motors even pre cross flow but I'm certainly not against crossflows just the electronics are a pain. The 245 would be great but not easy to find anymore. How did you make or find the conversion plates. Not too keen on the Holdens they don't have the right torque range all the torque is too high in the rev range. The 3.5 V8 is great but they require too much cutting of the bulkhead to fit.

Why are the electronic dissies on crossflow Falcons a pain? I use plenty of the relevant Bosch ignition modules to make Land Rovers more reliable.

They are much better than points, easy to change and last about 150,000km.

the 253 we made our own, used the land rover pressure plate and holden clutch plate. the others we used dellow, the ford cross flow dizzy is a ***** of a position to get to to work on thats all. the 215 hemi with 2 barrel carb and electronic ignition is my favourite. I may be able to find a hemi if your wanting to go down that road,
on another note...tjwa used to have a 225 slant in one of his landy's.

The dizzy on the 250 crossflow is in the worst spot you could put one. Nothing against electronic ignition just the location of it on these engines. As for the Hemi, I'd certainly like one but it'd be hard to find an engine in my price range. And in my range to pick one up. The 250 is my first choice at the moment just cause of availability and price, you can buy a running motor for $100 just finding the conversion plate is the problem. But certainly won't dismiss the mighty Valiant Hemi if you've got an adaptor and I can find a motor.

Hi All

Guys i have heard that you cant cool a falcon 250 of any variety until au over 4000 revs in a falcon or anything else. This is coming from others and not from personal experience really

Regards Mark

Originally Posted by marko66

Hi All

Guys i have heard that you cant cool a falcon 250 of any variety until au over 4000 revs in a falcon or anything else. This is coming from others and not from personal experience really

Regards Mark

Speaking from experiance , I and my brother have both owned a variety of Falcons, both pre and X-flow , in all sorts of configs, The old man had a 3.6L '70 model motor in a G60 Patrol and we never had any probs off cooling at any revs . The falcon motors were the preferred option for our mud trails vechiles, as they ran cooler than holden 6s and were able to withstand overheating better than others. So if you have a good radiator there will be no dramas.

Cheers Scott

Hi to throw some thing else into the ring How about a 289/302 winsor and C4 auto? A company called Seton engineering made adapter kit C4 to s111 transfer case, but not sure if still going.
I made my own adapter about 15 years ago, it was great but fords are little fuel hungy. No I cannot make again (dont have machining equip anymore).
If you want Holden 6 adapter assy (Just pay freight) email me g2landyman@yahoo.com.au they go good with a holden 6.