Owner of a 173

[frenchyvh]

Gday guys,
I've got an SLX VH, with the original 5 speed, which i bought just over a month ago and am starting to get sick of the sluggish nature of the stock 173 blue motor. All along i had planned to put a hot 202 red or even a hot 186 red in it, however i've now heard that it's illegal unless its a motor rigged up with all the pollution bullshit. Is there anwyay around this? Has anyone had similar problems? Should i just pull out the 173 blue i have and work it?
Any suggestions would be appreciated,
Cheers, Rhys

[SL/ENUT]

Its illegal to put an older motor in a newer car. But however a blue 202 or even a black 202 would be nice. These 2 donks are legal to bolt into your VH SL/X.
Oh and that 5 speed won't last to long with a hot 6, even if you drive the car so carefully. Only really designed for the Starfire(backfire) 4 and 173 motors.

[craigvk]

Check out ebay for 202 blue or black motors. They sell dirt cheap and most of them would probably be ok. Some sellers still have them running for buyers. A whole motor for 200 bucks or less are a plenty.

[DANNY8]

I got a stock 173 with the stock 5spd.....thrashed the crap outta it since I got it in february 2004. The only thing which let me down was the diffs....I've blown 2 salisbury 8 bolts, now have a borgy in it.

My motor or trans has never missed a beat even with the thrashing I gave it. The motor was covered in oil from leaks everywhere, and 4 pistons had a snapped top ring, and the cam was pretty worn.....still went pretty hard :P I could always beat a lot of V6's off the line....only 1st and 2nd tho, after that they'll overtake haha......but still the 173 5spd aint too bad. After getting a defect for oil on the motor I've now decided to rebuild it.

[frenchyvh]

cheers thanks for that fellas, VHPIRIE are you rebuilding the 173 with mods or just rebuilding to stock specs? Blue or Black 202 sounds good.. i'll check out ebay and the like, regards,
Rhys

[atrail308]

rebuilding, boring and tweaking up the 173 wouldnt be too bad, they rev like hell cos of the shorter stroke than the 202...