Bruce Collier Story

Hi.

Yes as posted previously the XU1 option included CD Stromberg’s; 150 on the 186 LC and 175 on the 202 LJ. I once owned an LC XU1 that had triple 45 DCOE Webbers on when purchased. I replaced them with CD 175 Stromberg’s, on a rebuilt 186 engine. It had two piece exhaust headers that used to glow dull red after a fast trip home in the night. From memory I used two different camshafts in that engine, initially a long duration one, that was difficult to drive around in urban traffic. I ended up replacing it with a slightly milder duration grind for better everyday tractability, but I can't accurately recall the specific durations. 292 to 272???

Mine had the 3.55:1 final drive that was noisy and I replaced it with a 3.36:1 final drive, it was better for longer distance driving with lower engine RPM. Compared to whats available today the vehicle was very noisy and rough, but it was fun.

I still have the genuine GMH XU1 option manual supplement that includes all of the different specifications. Of interest, one little known difference is that the XU1 had ignition points with higher spring force to reduce points bounce at higher RPM. These could be purchased as a GMH spare part.

I don't have any knowledge of the later versions with blocked off throats. I wonder how they blocked one throat; the 45 DCOE had two butterflies on a common shaft in each throat.

Cheers
 
He, he. I went then other way with my first LJ.
310 degree solid lifter cam, bigger valves and springs, HV pump, 650 double pumper Holley on a Cain manifold and long tube headers that fed a dual 2" exhaust. I went to a 3.89 diff ratio. It idled at a very hairy 1400 rpm and would easily touch 8000 rpm through the gears. Interestingly it ran a remapped Bosch distributor with standard points.
It was difficult to drive slowly, but as a 20 year old driving slowly wasn't something I was prone to doing anyway.😉
 
This was my last fling with Holden sixes, I built this engine 8 years ago.
It was a blue, 0.060" over 202 block with modified water ways to accept the fully ported, big stainless valved, red motor 9 port head. 302 degree solid lifter cam, straight cut gears, roller rockers, triple SUs, long tube Pacemaker headers and dual 2.25" exhaust. It was fitted in a black LC Torana and had a shift kitted Trimatic, 3000 rpm stall converter and 3.55 gears.
It was a pretty mean sounding combo, was actually quite tractable to tootle around in, and performed very well with the right foot buried in the carpet. The car ended up going to a new home in SA.

20230319_143921.jpg
 
Their was a cross flow head made for the Holden engine way back then? Was it YellTerra?
 
I seem to recall there was a cross flow alloy head for the grey motor, used in a racing FJ or two back in the day. I saw one in melbourne a few years ago when a mate had a damaged head he was restoring for a guy who was restoring the FJ race sar. BTW this thread seems to be a long way off the original topic
 
Back to Bruce Collier, I took the new cylinder head for my 1600 R8G to RAMS at South Windsor to have guides, seats, valves, skim head, CC, flow and tidy the ports. I have copied some modifications from the old head which was done by Bruce many years ago. It has some changes to the water galleries in the head which allows it to flow water in the opposite direction to original. The modification enables me to run the water pump at the timing chain end, not the flywheel end of the engine.

The big gearbox in my car was also build by Bruce and it still works fine with all the best bits in it from that era.
 
Their was a cross flow head made for the Holden engine way back then? Was it YellTerra?
When I was in Victoria in the '80s, some of the speedway guys used to fit alloy crossflow 4.1 Ford heads onto Holden red motors, as the two engines share almost the same bore diameter, and both have identical bore spacing. I don't know the ins and outs of the conversion, but the Ford head was spun 180 degrees around as the pushrods were on the opposite side to a Holden engine. End result was they were very competitive.

All done in the same spirit as Bruce Collier, take something and make it better, as long as it falls within the applicable rules and regulations.🤷‍♂️
 
I remember my teenage years doing the rounds of the speed shops. Carcoy in High St Northcote (owned by Brian Cardosi IIRC), had a cross flow YellaTerra head on display. It distracted me at the time from buying a set of Aunger 5 spoke mags for my Datsun 1600.
 
I seem to recall there was a cross flow alloy head for the grey motor, used in a racing FJ or two back in the day.
Repco made the Hi-Power cross flow head for the grey motor. It was cast iron however, but with an alloy rocker cover.
Depending on the accompanying mods, engines with this head could make up to 3 x the power that a standard grey motor did.
 
Repco made the Hi-Power cross flow head for the grey motor. It was cast iron however, but with an alloy rocker cover.
Depending on the accompanying mods, engines with this head could make up to 3 x the power that a standard grey motor did.
The head I saw was ally, not cast iron. A very rare one as I said.
 
The head I saw was ally, not cast iron. A very rare one as I said.
It would have to be a Dunston rotary valve head as they were aluminium. The only other "special" heads I'm aware of for grey motors are the cast iron Waggot and the alloy Foster and both of these were DOHC.
 
Just as an aside, at one stage I was actively buying up the Grey motor carburettors, at that time I was able to buy them new and also good second hand, as that carburettor had become impossible to source in the U.S.A as it was out of production, and also major parts hard to find. The reason I was doing this was to assist a growing group of American Bantam Jeep restorers, who were desperate to lay their hands on them.

I mostly sold them on at a fairly slim margin of profit that barely covered the basic costs and postage with various complications on the ways those members paid for them. I had met a few of these Jeep restorers while attending the two American Bantam Car clubs in the USA. Very nice people.

I haven't had a request for grey motor carbies for some years now, so I guess they have found an alternative source locally now, or all the Bantam Jeeps have been found and restored.

Ken
 
Hi.

Yes as posted previously the XU1 option included CD Stromberg’s; 150 on the 186 LC and 175 on the 202 LJ. I once owned an LC XU1 that had triple 45 DCOE Webbers on when purchased. I replaced them with CD 175 Stromberg’s, on a rebuilt 186 engine. It had two piece exhaust headers that used to glow dull red after a fast trip home in the night. From memory I used two different camshafts in that engine, initially a long duration one, that was difficult to drive around in urban traffic. I ended up replacing it with a slightly milder duration grind for better everyday tractability, but I can't accurately recall the specific durations. 292 to 272???

Mine had the 3.55:1 final drive that was noisy and I replaced it with a 3.36:1 final drive, it was better for longer distance driving with lower engine RPM. Compared to whats available today the vehicle was very noisy and rough, but it was fun.

I still have the genuine GMH XU1 option manual supplement that includes all of the different specifications. Of interest, one little known difference is that the XU1 had ignition points with higher spring force to reduce points bounce at higher RPM. These could be purchased as a GMH spare part.

I don't have any knowledge of the later versions with blocked off throats. I wonder how they blocked one throat; the 45 DCOE had two butterflies on a common shaft in each throat.

Cheers
Mine had the 336 diff centre but then i found a 3.08 one which was really good. It was optional. The two piece headers you had were likely the cast iron ones that were originally on the HD X2 model. Stock on LJ XU-1. I also had a GTR that was a 192 from the 186 block with a lot of work done to it. It feltmuch wuicker than the XU-1.
 
Not a goose.

the book has sold out so I had those details removed. This was an older thread that was revived recently.
There are no more of the Books available.

kevin
 
I made mention of a cross flow head for a Holden earlier in this thread and thanks to a collector mate he put me onto this website.
primotipo.com

Such a one did exist back in the day-
 
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