At the end of the day it's up to the owner.
That's the point to this thread. The OP wanted to know what can be done with a 253, to retain the original engine. I've suggested what can be done without losing the reliability of the original engine or busting his bank balance. The "bigger is better" mentality seems to rule on this forum, but there are actually some people who don't want 300 killer wasps at the rear wheels and 12 second quarter times. They want a neat, reliable and streetable V8, with the sound that a Holden V8 can provide. I was going to add something to my earlier post but had to cut it short. Ari's point about the 253 being dropped because it was unreliable was way off the mark. Consider this. The only parts that differ between a 253 and a 308 in the early models were the pistons, rings, valves, heads (for larger ports) and block (for larger bore). Every other part of a long 253 is the same as a 308. Crank, rods, bearings, cam, lifters, valve springs, oil pump, water pump etc etc. so the 253 could hardly have been unreliable. It was dropped because Holden was facing the introduction of unleaded petrol and for those of us old enough to remember, they planned to drop the 308 as well as the 253, because of the low sales of V8's in the VH's, and the cost of making them comply with unleaded regs. After a concerted campaign within the specialist motoring journals, the 308 was re-introduced as the 304 during the VK The 253 was dropped because it would have been too gutless as an unleaded engine and the demand for a small V8 had dropped right off. It had nothing to do with the engine's reliability and the 253 was not released in an unleaded version. It's last appearance was as a blue motor in the VH, when it was fitted with a four barrel and uprated ignition system.
