Just on the subject of carby V8's, for me, performance is more important than how a V8 sounds.
You can tune a carby to perform fantastic under load or for idle / cruise, but if you try to tune for both you'll never get the most from the engines potential - just a happy medium.
With EFI you can tune the engine from low to high rpm and get every bit of potential power and torque from your engine.

I would love more performance, but as they say, rome was not built in a day.
Heaps of grunt is awsome, but i guess there is some that can only do so much with what we have.
I think having a sweet looking & sounding ride with good reliability is a realistic aim, (At least for me). The fast parts can come in as the cash flow is there

That's it.

I'd rather fork the $$$ for heads and a computer system and a laptop (or paying all the tuning fees) into a 6 and get more than just 2 heads and a tune in parts, have the nice fuel economy, sound and good performance. And I'll probably be able to keep up with your V8 still. (aimed a commys there)

if I had just a little more money when it dose eventually come, I'd be forking it into a hot 351 XD.

Interesting - very polarised too!.

if I was doing a budget car, and I wanted great handling Id go the 6 alloy head, and either LPG with the EFI Manifold, or use the Webber carb after getting it rebuilt by someone who knew. They work faultlessly for years, and while they dont flow like a holley they are reliable and do allow a car to pull quite hard.

The Alloy head makes a MASSIVE difference to handling - can attest to this after changing from Steel to alloy head, and then to a Clevo in my XD.

If I was doing an 8 with no budget, it would be alloy heads, and either the Technocarb LPG dual converters with a shaker, or an exploder manifold with the appropriate stuff.

Ive heard from many that 347s arent quite as sweet, and to be honest I think if I got the 5.0 built right and bolted on a simple s/c setup youd have a very nice package - nice idle, goes hard, not too stressed.

But thats me.

My XF is in the process of having the rear mounts cut out and replaced so I can have 5.0 of goodness, and then hopefully in a year or 2 that will come out, body will be welded up, and I'll get something with a little more punch

I can see both sides of the argument here. I've owned a few "Old School" Windsors and Clevo's and loved the "Mechanical" approach of tuning and setting up the cars with carby.
When I first bought the NC, I was the same, thinking there was nothing I could do to "tune" the car, but having had the Lane for a few years now, I have been converted. The more you get to know the EFI's the easier they are to tune, service and setup for what you need out of it. Fault diagnosis is as simple as replacing the faulty sensor or component and your back up and running in no time at all.
Whilst mine is relatively unopened, i.e. standard head and internals, I have modified mine to the point where I have squeezed every bit out of it and at 143rwkw, I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. And as far as the sound, I think mine is quite unique and a good mix between old school and modern 8's.
As said, there is nothing like the raw power of a 351 clevo, but unless I lived near a drag track, the EFI does me fine for now
Cheers,
Mick
PS. ROYLTY, I have a DC 5.0L here complete if you want to pinch any of the wiring loom or electronics rather than pulling it from what sound to me like a pretty neat 5.0L your about to acquire

There we go, I'm not using those words but that's similar to my thinking.

Hey, what did you mean by polarized? "Clear viewed" or somthin?
The good old 250 X-flows are a good engine Nigel. I've worked on a few an owned a couple. And you are right there.

As with NC Lanes point of EFI growing on you, I was the same with my Lane because of EFI, thinking at first I wasn't gonna do anything to it cos id have to get it tuned by someone etc.

Now after a few years I'm loving it.

143 at the wheels is pretty good for "un opened" they had 145-165 at the flywheel stock? So take driveline loss into account and that'd work well.

Apologies to the guy who started the thread, I've sorta hijacked it here.
I think you have your answer now though.

Last edited by Lowlane7 on Sun Oct 03, 2010 11:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Pete... Won't agree but a cheap ECU fitted as piggy back maybe the easiest option..
That way you can leave the std wireing EEC to control auto if it has one..

Thanks NCIILANE. I will definitely keep that in mind. But the car that i will be getting is a heap of s**t! lol...all im doing is striping it for spare parts for my NC, eg. Panels, Door Locks, Windows, Drivetrain, wiring, etc. and scrapping the rest!

Judging from all the comments & opinions on converting my NC from a 6 to an 8 sounds pretty freaky in comparison to the work that needs to be done.

But here is another question for you'all...
What should i do...Keep saving my money for a ZH FAIRLANE 500 with a 351, C4 AUTO & 9" Diff, plus the rest...OR...Convert the NC FAIRLANE???

Put a 351w in the NC. Get yourself a 5.0 donor car and steal all the required bits off that...piece-o-piss!

But here is another question for you'all...
What should i do...Keep saving my money for a ZH FAIRLANE 500 with a 351, C4 AUTO & 9" Diff, plus the rest...OR...Convert the NC FAIRLANE???[/quote]


Cost is about equivalent I'd say,

but the decision is yours, that's what we are debating though, old school cool, or EFI tech.

Your gonna make the decision in the end so it's up to what YOU want/like.

Ive always preferred old school! A nice 351 sound & the power to go with it. But now i know how difficult & time consuming it will be to convert the NC. So it looks like im leaning more over the old skool zh fairlane!

Go for it then, the only downside for the older girls though is spare parts and finding them.

Mate you are the one that must be happy with your ride at the end of the day.
The only advise I can give is that if you choose the ZH , just make sure you know all the problem rust areas, or get assistance from someone who does. When i was looking to get back in the XY market, I took my brother along to look at a few, because i wanted one so bad i would have more than likly got the first busted @ss piece of sh!t i saw. How ever having a " non involved " party kept my feet on the ground & stopped me making a HUGE mistake.
Cheers Stu