overnite wrote:

I think the improvements in oils over the last 50 years has helped greatly.

I agree, plus the Huge advances in Filtration (both Air & Oil) technology...

600Dodge wrote:

That one has been drastically improved by taking away most of what makes a grey garbage, even been converted to a seven bearing crank, so is it even comparable to a garden variety greypile?

Probably not................But............
It is still an interesting bit of gear, wouldnt you say...................
and somewhere under the bonnet there may just be a teeny bit of grey paint left over............
................Billy.................

Has anyone read Phil Irving an Autobiography? He tells the story of the Repco Hi Power heads and mods for the grey motors. The test mule was an FE Holden that was good for 100 MPH.

For what they were, in their time they were comparable to most engines of that era. They successfully powered many race cars and speedboats. A bit like grey Fergies, good in there day, but in looking back, a fairly useless and very dangerous tractor to operate, but better than a horse in harness.

My grey engine in my FE ute.

Ken Waggots son lived at the bottom of our street in Birrong. I always looked at the EH wagon painted up in irridesecent blue paint with the atomic bomb exploding painted on the side with Atomic Power under it.
Some time back at the car museum at Bathurst race track they had a huge cross flow head set up on a grey engine. They had to move the distributo and it ended up right at the front of the head.

Most here should remember the days when you had to take the head off and decoke every 10,000 miles or so.....or the motor wouldnt pull you up a hill,and knock like mad.........inlet valves like toffee apples with burnt crud,solid carbon caked in the head and piston tops,even the carby blocked with deposits...........about 1970,the oil companies started putting something in the petrol that kept the motors clean inside,and that was the end of decokeing..

When I was a youngster my dad still had a repco hi power head and a set of six amal carbies for a grey along with boxes of hot up gear for 4 banger A model Fords, all of it went to the tip because at the time no one wanted it, all stuff dad had played with in his younger days. He explained it to me thus "...the mid sixties was the living end for all this 4 and 6 cylinder shit, when the manufacturers came out with accessible V8 options everything else got left in the dust"

.
.The only Holden i ever had was an EJ wagon, When dad stopped driving he passed it to me .
(i did have 3 Chevvies ). Any way the EJ was a country car and in reasonable nick except it blew clouds of smoke
and continually oiled up a couple of plugs ...............
So i pulled the grey apart to have a bo-peep and as well as the rings worn out , 2 pistons were cracked around
the oil lands. .................
In my shed were 2 greys i had been given, so pulled them apart to check for bits.............
One was a Std bore , so 2 pistons were earmarked for the EJ............
The other was 40 thou over .......so i took the rings for the EJ , filing them down to fit the std bore ................
Then picked the best of all the bearing shells and used them with the best shells going in the rods..............
The timing case seal was leaking, so pulled that out and shortened the tension spring ,cleaned up the seal area on the crank,
and whacked that back in.................cleaned the spray jet for the timing gear lube..............
A quick clean up and rough lap of the valves. fitted some of those umberella type valve seals i had kicking around
and threw it all back together with the old gasgets and a couple of tubes of gasget goo................
So the over haul cost me time only...............
Had that car for another ten years, till some one rammed it in the side and sent it to god.......................
So for me the old Grey donk didnt do too bad at all..............

........................Billy....................

I liked the design of the grey motor ...proper rockers,sideplate ,neat motor all round...........they were a smaller version of the GMC truck motor..........and I really liked the cost of bits.......valves were $1 each,Repco pistons $4,ringset maybe $5.........didnt like the red motors at all......especially not pressed tin rockers...........I was lucky my motoring started before roadworthys were needed in Qld.