Has anyone had bad luck with buying the late model motors and retro fitting to the early cars, buying a wreck , fuel injected motors advertised as low Kms , good motor when in car, I am wanting to go this way, just looking at how you went. Cheers

I've done a fair few EFI 5L conversions, and a few V6s too. Best bet by far is to buy a whole, running car. By the time you weigh up the cost of an engine & trans, then add all the fiddy stuff you'd buy seperately, it ends up costing you more to buy it all in pieces.
The other advantage is you can start (and possibly drive) a complete donor car.

I've only been caught once - a shonky Celica 5 speed advertised in the trading post. Owner swore it was perfect, and claimed he was only removing it from his LH SLR replica to swap a supra in it's place ready for when his "fully worked stage 145, 9000hp" engine was ready.
Turning the input shaft, it shifted well, and spun cleanly in all gears, but I couldn't open the case & inspect it internally on his driveway. Got it home, and opened it up to find several missing teeth on the cluster - none of them to be found inside the box. With a quick phone call, and a threat of throwing the gearbox through the rear window of his LH, and jumping on it's roof, he finally admitted he drained the box & teeth fell out, so he decided to sell it.... I got a full refund, and a bit on top to cover my fuel costs. He had it back in the trading post the following week...

Have to agree with this. I have just done a major conversion on my V2 Monaro. I bought a complete running donor from the auctions that had been smashed in the back, so that I knew that everything I wanted up front would be in good nick. I was only expecting to use the major components and sell the rest off. But gee I am so glad I bought a whole car. In the end the conversion required so much of the donor car that I did not even contemplate. If I had to run to the wreckers to get all these bits every time I needed some it would have broke me. But it all worked out perfect and I still have a lot of the donor to flog off to recoup some of the costs.
So yeah, buy a complete donor and you cant go wrong.

Mine was an LX8 Adventra with 101k's. Smashed in the back so all the driveline was still good and the car was easily drivable. Had full leather trim, Sat nav and roof mounted DVD player, as well as L series HBD wheels.

I paid $4500 and with their BS fees and a delivery charge it came to just over $5k.

I have just sold the engine and gearbox for $2500 and still have a mountain of stuff to get rid of. But it is crazy what things sell for. I put the fuel filler cap on eBay and got $105 for it. I was expecting maybe $20. Seller says he paid too much but wanted the color. Now he tells me he also wants the drivers side doors.
All up I have sold nearly $3k worth of stuff off it and still have the wheels and interior and sat ban. So still a bit to go. I was spying on the wagon full length stop light this arvo wondering how much that would be worth.

All going well I will sell more bits than it cost me, so I will start making some money towards the conversion.