Starfires - how much can they take?

[Astranomical]

Well I got drunk last night and for some reason ended up thinking about Holden Starfire 4 cylinder engines. (Yeah, I know, I get weird when I'm drunk )

Anyway, imagine you had a car based on the Starfire (whether it be a Commo or Torana), and you had unlimited resources, money and time to make it as fast as you could, while still retaining the Starfire. I mean, completely rebuilt engine, stripped interior, the works. And forgetting about it being street legal, imagine this is for track use.

I'm not planning to build one up, no way...I couldn't afford it at the moment, and even if I could afford to build and drive a track car, I'd want something a bit better than a Starfire in it But still...the question remains - if you had unlimited time, resources and power, how much power could you get from a Starfire?

Edit - Lol, power, NOT money! I must've still been a bit "under the influence" when posting this :P Remember kids, Don't Drink and Post.

[immortality]

the rods, use em in the 6cyl. thats about it really

[Wagon_Wheel]

Yeah well.... i get what your trying to suss out but in all honesty, no one is stupid enough to play with one lol.
Be much easier and cheaper to play with a 186/202 or a v8 with MUCH better results

[Cane_It]

i hear that the starfire rods are good for 7500rpm in a 202, after that the engine suffers an electrical fault caused by no. 1 rod crashing through the side of the block and the alternator.

[VH commodore]

haha i'll tell STARFIRE VC to read this thread...he was toying with the idea of turboing 1 in his vc. haha would love to see that.

[starfire vc]

Well I got drunk last night and for some reason ended up thinking about Holden Starfire 4 cylinder engines. (Yeah, I know, I get weird when I'm drunk )

Anyway, imagine you had a car based on the Starfire (whether it be a Commo or Torana), and you had unlimited resources, money and time to make it as fast as you could, while still retaining the Starfire. I mean, completely rebuilt engine, stripped interior, the works. And forgetting about it being street legal, imagine this is for track use.

I'm not planning to build one up, no way...I couldn't afford it at the moment, and even if I could afford to build and drive a track car, I'd want something a bit better than a Starfire in it But still...the question remains - if you had unlimited time, resources and money, how much money could you get from a Starfire?

hahahaha yes mate i like yourelf have had simmilar crazy visions of a sphyco starfire.(we must be a special breed.) usually spured on by the friday afternon bevrage..


i was lookin into turboing one maybe goin injection.i rekon if u had the money to spend on one u could get it goin pretty good.. i did a bit of reasearch on turboing ...evedently a bloke over in nz did it not sure how many ponies it pushed tho. from memory they had 54kw at the fly so i dont see why 100kw wud be outa the question..


i was talkin to a bloke who had a toyota corona.,which had the starfire engine. he said he had worked it to the max .yella terra head roller rocker's beasty cam ,bored out etc etc..said it went pretty good. but yer id love to see one in action..

[tigervh]

if you had unlimited time, resources and power, how much power could you get from a Starfire?

That's easy, two thirds of the power you could get from a 173!

[vk4akp]

Hi guys, come join us.

We've started a `Holden Starfire Preservation Group'

We have a web site and msg board at http://shazam.zapto.org

We need a lot of help to get this kick started.

People can also submit their own pages using the web sites Joomla publishing tool.

Hope to see all the Startfire nuts there (and the wana be starfire nuts too! ) hehe.

.-.-.

[leigh 7005]

ive driven one before i recon it was a gutsy little engine it did burnouts and ive seen some 202 not being able to do burnouts but then again did they have 4.11 diff ratio? coz a 5hp honda engine would do a burnout with 4.11 gears lol.

[vk4akp]

They (UC,VB,VC,VH,VK[NZ]) had a 3.9 Diff and 13" wheels, so yea pretty close and great off the mark. But badly needed the 5th gear for the highway.
I'm getting close to transplanting a VK 5speed into mine currently.
There is a trick where you use the 6cyl Auto Tailshaft front to match it all up.
I hope to document this and other transplant easy tricks into my websites bulletin board and eventually make a wiki to share with other sites such as this one. The more the info is out there the more hope there is over time to keep a few Starfires on the road and available for parts etc.

In the times we live in the Starfire is a great easy and economical way to play around with early holden motors.

- Less rego.
- Less fuel (Some will argue this).
- Smaller then a 6 so easier to handle, less cost to rebuild, more room to work on.

Hell, I'd still love to own a V8 but as the world heads towards electric cars, ethanol, & hydrogen; recessions and poverty the little Starfire is a great solid little motor much like it's big brother (Inline 6's) yet still a lot of fun and reliable to work with.

.-.-.

[jakbob]

It sure would be nice to see a starfire all done up. I wonder if you could cut 2 cylinders off a yella terra head and bolt it on. Or even more crazy, bolt one v8 head onto it.

[vk4akp]

One V8 head, I highly doubt there is any chance there. They would be totally different. But I am only guessing on this.

Now a cut down 6 cyl head,. Humm,. It's not really worth the effort as you'd have to weld the end back on, get it all perfect and face the head again. The big question is whether all the oil and water gallery holes would match up?

If you want a really crazy idea, how about casting your own yellow terror head? Or even a cross flow head. Maybe you could convince Yellow terror to make one for you. hehe.

But luckily the stock heads not too bad anyhow. It's similar to the Blue 6cyl head ports wise.

It sure would be nice to see a starfire all done up. I wonder if you could cut 2 cylinders off a yella terra head and bolt it on. Or even more crazy, bolt one v8 head onto it.

[tigervh]

A V8 head will not fit and why bother cutting down a 6 cyl head when the porting and valves are the same as the six anyway. A more practical performance setup would be an SC14 supercharger and Delco 808 EFI setup.

[H1GHROLLR]

i hear that the starfire rods are good for 7500rpm in a 202, after that the engine suffers an electrical fault caused by no. 1 rod crashing through the side of the block and the alternator.

who says there only good for 7500 rpm we have built numerous ammounts of speedway 202's that rev 8000-8750 rpm for a full race at full noise

[crazy.vr]

The Starfire motors are great. Had one that had over half a million K's and the thing never blew smoke or cost anything more than a regular tune up with points change. Brilliant motor.

[HARVZ-6]

im going to turn this into nissan.. its like getting a skyline with a rb20 compared to a rb26tt

just not worth the effort. to be different thats about all youd get

lol

[starfire vc]

The Starfire motors are great. Had one that had over half a million K's and the thing never blew smoke or cost anything more than a regular tune up with points change. Brilliant motor.

2nd that...i have probs done a combined 80-90,000 kay between both my starfires and never had a problem with either

[Magifil]

Back in the mid 70s GMH made an XU2/3. A Starfire motor with twin SU's, hot cam etc.. and then installed it in a lightened Gemini that Colin Bond drove in the Alpine Rally. It went like a cut snake.

[Cane_It]

in response to the initial post, "how much can a starfire take?" we worked out that at about 4000rpm with major oil and water leaks, the starfire could take about 20 little M6 nuts down the carby before it started to make some very bad noises...

[vk4akp]

Even Holden got interested in beefing up these magic little motors!.

.-.-.

[nemesis_adrasteia]

i think you;ll find that it was built by CDT not holden.

[Darcon666]

Nice thread dig vk4akp.... lol

[ari666]

if ever there was a thread that should remain buried... its this one.

[Hangman]

Back in the mid 70s GMH made an XU2/3. A Starfire motor with twin SU's, hot cam etc.. and then installed it in a lightened Gemini that Colin Bond drove in the Alpine Rally. It went like a cut snake.

The XU2 was the SL/R 5000, not a starfired Gemini.


Yeah yeah, I know it's an old post...

[Blown V6 Hatch]

Wasn't the XU2 supposed to be an LJ XU1 with a 308 instead of the 202? If there ever was a car that Holden should have made, that would be it. It would have been a rocket ship in its day.

Off topic, but who really cares about missfires anyway?