Engine-Swapped Valiant Sleeper Is The Ultimate Street Cruiser

It seems there’s no limit to where Aussie horsepower junkies are willing to retrofit Ford’s venerable Barra straight six engine, with this neat conversion into a VF Valiant wagon catching our eye!

“We’ve always had Valiants. My old man bought one brand new in the 70s and he’s always had them. He owns a hard top at the moment actually. I’ve owned a couple of them too, but this is my first Valiant wagon,” concedes owner Nick Papasergio.

The move to Ford’s dual cam 4L six-banger is a big step up over the VF’s original engine packages - even the tip-top ‘Fireball’ V8 combo back in the day only came in at 230hp, which was hardly worth bragging about considering the power outputs of Holden and Ford’s flagship V8 models of the same era.

Which we guess is why Nick saw it fit to kick the Chrysler powerhouse and jump on the Barra bandwagon. The Val’ features a built Barra and whopper E85 fuel system, with a G42 huffer and factory engine management.

“I was going to do a turbo 265ci set up and then I started looking at the 318ci engines, but the Barra was nice and easy to source, you’ve got turn-key reliability, mod cons like air conditioning and they idle nice and smooth,” Nick explains of the litany of reasons that swayed him towards the Ford straight six.

In fact, Nick turfed the entire Chrysler drivetrain, instead opting to mate the Ford 4L to a Powerglide transmission and 9in rear end - a fact made easier by the fact that Aussie conversion specialists Tuff Mounts make Barra-to-Valiant conversion mounts!

“The conversion was really easy with the Tuff Mounts - it bolted straight in and had plenty of room everywhere. Even the trans conversion using their mounts,” Nick adds.

Thankfully, he’s remained true to the car’s unique, era-specific styling and has kept the outside comparatively moderate, if not impeccably well presented. “The car was repainted back in the 80s - it looks like a show car in photos, but in person there’s a little bit of surface rust. Overall its really clean for its age, though,” Nick elaborates, which we reckon only enhances it’s cool cruiser appeal.

Maxx Performance were responsible for tuning the car where it walked all the way to 380kW at the hubs, on a conservative tune with a fairly restrictive exhaust for engineering purposes. “Once we’re engineered we’ll open the exhaust up a bit and go back to the dyno. I’ve got a power figure in mind,” he admits with the kind of casual coolness that rivals that of the Barra Val’!