253 upgrades

[azazeldeath]

I have a 253 blue motor sitting in my back yard at the moment, and I want to rebuild it to throw it in my Pajero or in my Jeep.

My question is what kind of upgrades should I do to it? I need to throw new pistons in it (supposedly one of them cracked). And put a new carby on it (friend 'borrowed' it).

I want it to sound nice and have a good amount of power for going off road. Like to keep the price around the $2,000 to $3,000 mark. But may go over if its worth it, will go under happily lol.

I was thinking (but not entirely sure, the only old engines I have lots of experience with is Hemi and Mopars mainly).
* 'Lumpy Cam'
* Extractors
* 4-Barrel Carby off a 308

The Pajero has the 5 speed manual gear box (used to have a turbo diesel motor in it) and a good body.
The Jeep needs basically everything.

[DANNY8]

If ur gonna have to rebuild the motor, just go buy a 308. You could easily spend ur budget on a 253 and a stocko 308 will prolly still go harder. One of my projects at the moment is a 253 with the 5L injection gear on top, plus a turbo hanging off each bank. That should go alright.

Also....I looked around a fair bit to see if there was some sort of "kit" (bellhousing, engine mounts etc etc) to put a 308 in my Triton, but couldn't find anything. The Pajero's run the same front end, so how are u gonna adapt the 253 to the Paja 5spd? I think you'd have to use a Holden box (or any box u can find a bellhousing for), then adapt the transfer case to the rear of that, and lengthen/shorten the tailshafts.

Or another way is to do wat me mate is doing in his dirt circuit car. Can't remember wat motor and box he's using (he's gone jap V8 turbo) but he's got a bellhousing to suit the motor, and one to suit the trans, he's chopping them up and welding them 2gether. Then he's gonna redrill the motor's flex plate to accept the trans' converter. I wouldn't advise doing that unless u know ur stuff, coz it'd be veeeery easy to bugger it up and yeah as soon as ya rev it the whole thing could fly apart haha.

[ari666]

3k will buy you a nice 308

[Darren_L]

I'm figuring if you want this engine in a 4WD, then you want low down torque. In which case a 'lumpy cam' won't be any good to you.
Go to one of the camshaft manufacturers websites eg Crow, Crane etc and tell them what sort of useage you have in mind and they can recommend the right cam for you.

I do agree with the others though, if you are going to spend 3K, you'd probably pick up a good second hand 308, that's already been rebuilt with all the goodies. It's going to give you a lot more torque, which is handy in a 4WD

[azazeldeath]

I should point out I only got the 253 for $80 (friend wanted it gone and didnt have anything to get it out with or a ute lol).
And I am after a project because I have a fractured spine and cant work, sanity is ever so slowly escaping my grasp so was after something to do.

[ari666]

buy a 308 for 500 bucks, then rebuild that.

just cos' your losing your grasp on reality doesnt mean you should waste your money too.

[DANNY8]

You got ripped. I only buy my 253's for $50 as long as they run lol. Only spent more on them twice, which is when they were loaded with goodies