Quote Originally Posted by playwme View Post
Can you tell me more about this? I've got a burnt HJ van that I bought which a few people kept telling me had a 327 in it. I never opened the bonnet till after I got it home and the block had 308 stamped on it so I assumed said people were wrong. Does the 327 crank fit in the 308 block? I remember this van used to go pretty hard before it caught fire, and it had a 9 inch so I assume they may have been concerned about breaking the standard diff.



What if original colour was Durham Beige?
327 stroker is just an offset ground 308 crank, using SJ Chev rods and 350 pistons (sometimes Hemi 6cyl rods). People sometimes call them 330 or 333 but those capacities are usually at +060". This one is standard bore, and it is a trimatic block so it'd probably have to stay as a manual unless the car was originally a 253 trimatic. The other option is to use one of the VR/VS blocks I have in the shed and stick a 350 stroker crank into it with replacement 215/220i HSV pistons, and disguise it up as a red 308 (would be a TH400 though as blocks are TH pattern). The beauty of a manual in a HX/Z though is you don't have to fit half the pollution equipment, so no EGR, only 1 x Xmas tree plumbed, you can run extractors etc.

If I was to buy a HX ute in Mint Julip, Tuxedo Black or Durham Beige it'd get resprayed in probably Chamois, Mandarin or Aquarius. If it was an original untouched Durham or Tuxedo and the paint was good i'd leave it though. Mint Julip i'd probably not buy in that condition, or if I did it'd want to be cheap so I could respray it.

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Quote Originally Posted by wbute View Post
I think the minor mods for the factory make no difference as its something that is correct and makes it more user friendly.

To me the engine conversion is easily reversed if you were to sell it but it would be important to keep the original to go with it if you sold it. The engine conversion is a thing that would maybe turn me off. I fully appreciate why you would do it though! Better if it was a 308 to start with as there would be no obvious difference then until you drove it.

All the other things are no problem really, except if I found a tuxedo black one that would be a major bonus. Love black cars even if they are the worst for a million reasons. (You should see the paint on our black prado after 100000km! Not very nice.)

Depends why you are building it really. If you are building it to keep, why worry about your plans, and if you are going to sell it you can easily test the market and if it wont pull the dollars you reckon its worth put it back to standard.
That's the sort of stuff I was thinking, although finding a car with original engine is getting less common, so if the original is gone it may as well have a 308 in it as it is no more correct than another 253.

Black looks unreal, I just don't want a black car as they are a b!tch to own, and look dirty 10 minutes after washing. Even as a collector car they are bad news. Take one to a car show and it'll be dirty simply from driving it onto the field! Dark blue is probably as bad.

I never build/buy anything with the intention of keeping it, that is the one of the easiest ways to lose money whether it be car, house, shares, whatever. You never know what the future holds. Hence part of the reason for the question posed by this post. I suppose an adendum to the question is, should I try to find a matching numbers vehicle even though the engine won't get used? Basically how much do you guys devalue a Sandman missing it's original engine, all things equal? To me i'd be looking at around 25% de-value, possibly more? How will this go in the future? What if the Sandman was originally a 6cyl HQ-HX (does anyone care?)? For what I want to do a 6cyl HJ Kinswood Sandman ute would be ideal, but impossible to find!