Well - the heads differ in their bolt pattern. They simply don't match up.

 

The crank..... there's actually two major generations of the EA71 - narrow case (top starter) and fat case (side starter). The fat case crank might fit. I'm not sure as I haven't really messed with EA71's all that much besides tearing them down for their pistons and such. I have compared the heads at one time or another and EA71 heads definitely will not fit the EA81 and in any case they have tiny valves so it would be a waste. A fat case crank might be compatible with an EA81 crank - I've never seen one but if anything would work I would guess it would be the fat case stuff.

 

GD

Sweet! And many thanks

Not that I have any real intentions of doing so but at least there may be an avenue to explore there.

 

The main reason it piqued my interest in the first place is due to an engine I rebuilt several, several, years ago, inline chevy 6 for a 66 GMC handy van. The engine was a 230/250 ci basically used the 230 crank with 250 heads and the rest. Sure made for a snappy lil engine, even had the front wheels of that van off the ground once trying to pull a boat up the end of a ramp in Ok once.

 

It would reason (to me at least) that for the sake of production, (the 71 was still produced after the 81 was introduced?) keeping as many things the same as possible would be cost effective.

 

Thx again man, hope your enjoyin the weather