I don't want to put anyone of attempting this conversion at all, but just wanted to throw this into the mix and hopefully get others opinions too.
I spoke to my local mechanic today, who is a good friend and does the after hours kinda jobs for me. I asked him If/When and $$?? to fit a stocko BA motor into my AU and his reply was immediately "don't Do It!!".
When I asked why, he told me that the BAs do have a good motor yes, but rev ranges are different and the stock BA motor was guttless in comparisson to the stock AU motor. He own a stock BA XT Ute and offered me the test drive in it.
He told me to stick with my current motor [cause she's damn strong] and that he'll bolt up a Turbo onto it for me. He gave me this phenominally cheap quote to fit the Turbo onto my AU and I was like OO OO OOHHH!!
He reckons that with a good tune, a piggy back and a couple of other small add ons that we could turn my current motor into quite a monster from stock.
As I said, I really don't wanna put anyone off attempting this conversion and am merely seeking others advice/opinions regarding my latest conversation with my Mech, as he's really thrown a spanner in my works now