kombi ute engine swap

I've been asked to rebuild the engine of a kombi ute. Its been sitting in a guys backyard since forever and he has just decided to fix up the body and wants someone to do the mechanicals. Since clarendon have tried to bankrupt me, I could do with the extra pocket money.

This is probably the first time I have talked engine swap publicly, it is literally my first time in this forum and lightning may strike me. But I am going to try and talk him into an engine swap. It will be more interesting for me. And I know that going back every 10 minutes saying he needs this ad that, heater boxes are stuffed, heads are cracked, all those inevitables that he will get the shits and I will end up out of pocket.

But I can price an engine swap fairly easily. Whats involved? The engine, adapter plate, clutch. mounts, probably fuel pump and swirl pot, plumbing. Only unknown for me that I can think of is a wiring ECU guy. And I'd probably enjoy the project more using my brain a bit.

So can of worms time, what are the engine choices? And it wont be a rotary.

subaru springs to mind first of course and then maybe holden V6 second👍

depends on what ute the intended purpose the budget etc but id personally love to see this in a nice ute
http://offroadracing.com.au/index.php?option=com_marketplace&page=show_ad&catid=12&adid=57&Itemid=7

rocknrob wrote:subaru springs to mind first of course and then maybe holden V6 second👍

what he said,

remember this
subaru EJ20/22 = stock 2l box
Subaru EJ20T/holden V6 = worked 2l box

So I guess it just depends how fast he wants to spend.

Thing to remember is, you need to get the heater/demister working for rego. Not too hard, just involves nogin work. I'd personally suggest the commonbore V6 if he is happy to spend the $$$ on the tranny. They are super cheap and have no end of bits available including the factory supercharged motor. The subaru is very good, but not so much power and if you want a turbo you need to stuff around with intercooler and such, not hard, just a bit annoying.

BTW, if I were you I'd put the radiator in the chest underneath and feed it with a side or belly scoop. You could hide it nicely that way and still the lower the ute a lot.

dont bother with any conversion work if you are going to spend less than 10K

less money = a shit job. Too many people ask this question all the time

and a kombi that can go fast really gets you worried about that spongey (a) steering (b)suspension and (c) brakes...so add on for that and don't forget better wheels and tyres🤘

rocknrob wrote:and a kombi that can go fast really gets you worried about that spongey (a) steering (b)suspension and (c) brakes...so add on for that and don't forget better wheels and tyres🤘

what spongey steering suspension and brakes??? A fast kombi is just hot hatch, only with an extra sliding door! Its a GTi+. Or a Porsche station wagon. Purpose built for off the clock and round to zero auto-bahn-stormer.

I dont know what has happened to this job. I havent been called, and I havent been looking because I dont really have the time so not too keen anymore.

Amazeer, that bus is haulin.
Wasn't on a certain NT trip a few years back? [wild guess!]

that was the one, thanks for the hospitality.

Any time Chris.
Man that was one hell ofa bus.
Still got it? What sort of longevety did you achieve with that donk?

was that hellbus? man if it was i laughed so hard i nearly pissed myself when that was goin around raliegh raceway. we had a 72 sc that was a ball to drive, 1600 box with a mild 2ltr would pull 100mph overtaking people over the burringbar range man i used to get some strange looks

Apart from the dropped valve seat when I needed the room at volksrestore, I didnt have any trouble with it. Wouldnt know what sort of mileage I got out of it. A few trips away, work and back daily for a year or two, shitloads of hillclimsb and the odd drag run, then took it out and put it into the fastback and couldnt get it to run quite the same, Raced it a few times.. A lot of hard miles in the engine. After I blew 2 gearboxes in 2 outings I had to retire it. Didnt have the money because I was at uni. I pulled the motor to pieces because it was showing evil signs anyway. There was grit in the sump at the last couple of oil changes. I'd guess it would have been something between 60 and 80,000 kays.

Mate , with the hp that used to push out, I'd call that quite reasonable. Got to say the Raliegh raceway 2 wheel action was something to see.
History in the making!!

not wrong that was balls and all!!! will be etched into my mind forever. what cam was in your type 4 amazeer?

My bus has seen the speedo needle at that angle!!! then I managed to get hold of a working deluxe trip meter speedo but the reset button stops the needle at about 170. So time to pull it apart and modify the needle so it cleared the stop.(took me about 2 hours of fiddly stuff) Also added a few extra marks for speed too. Best I got was 205km'hr in a slip stream. Big time revs in top gear!!