starting on monday the 16th, i've ripped the v8 out of the rover, (blew up the gearbox)

stripped it, cleaned it all up, bolted up the new 1500lb clutch n new flywheel n adaptor plate n dorve to my mate gatage in quinns rocks north of perth to get the transplant under way,

my mate is a plumber also which helped heaps as he got me all my 40mm copper piping to pump the coolant from the front to back,

kombi engines are so easy to get out!!! better than bloody beetle engines!!! at the moment, ah well, ill try n get as many fotos up now b4 i get hungry n need beer n food haha, catcha

kevo

[ Edited on 21/1/2006 by kevo ]

the bare engine afer a good clean- AND YES I DID BUILT THIS ON A KEG I GOT AFTER A BIG NIGHT HAHA- who ever said drinking was bad 4 you...
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f175/bigkevo/DSC07929.jpg 

the adapter, flywheel and import clutch, love the wrapping eh haha
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f175/bigkevo/DSC07932.jpg 

my new 1500lb clutch assembly


the V8 with the new adapter plate and flywheel bolted on, (so much lighter than the old flywheel and torque converter that was on b4 hand

the clutch bolted on after it was lined up with input shaft

to keep the sweat doun, i bolted on my old bull bars and welded mounts to existing rad mounts, primed and sprayed black to match bumpers


the rad with the piping complete, thanks to my mate the plumber, guna have to replace the front exposed hoses with copper welded in case a stone chip to the warm rubber causes a leak...i thought it looks cool tho haha


under the front of the car with the new radiator set up

the bus in my mates garage ready fo a heart transplant!!!


out with the old n in with the bigger faster n stronger!!! my mate lance in the foto givin me a hand


no i just need to make some room 4 that V8... hmmm

now she will fit in there nicely!!!

theres enough room in a kombi engine bay 4 a few beers n a BBQ, i got proof now haha, nelson n lloid...


prepped n ready to go in

another view of the set up

just realised because i have twin SU carbs on the top, i need to modify the rear cargo floor to fit the carbs & air filter... it never goes to plan does it - ok, chop that! ALSO- when choping this bit out i nearly had another burn down as the insulation under the cargo floor lit up in a flash, thank god i had a beer with me to put it out - another reason why beer is so good!!!


and this is where the car sits untill friday the 20th when a new support brace is welded underneath the rear cargo floor ( i choped the old one off -was in the way) at least the carbs wont get in the way this time haha,



MORE FOTOS 2MOARA EH



[ Edited on 21/1/2006 by kevo ]

Kevo when using photobucket to host pics copy and paste the bottom line ,just a friendly tip

For Rover parts in Perth call Max 94783612 > raced them for years & has all kinds of bits !

Hehe

there seems to be a real BEER theme goin on there.
:thumb

Good stuff Kevo. Are you going to keep the radiator up front, or box it in underneath later on to clean up the front?

Good to see you're doing it the Aussie way....beer and thongs / barefeet. :thumb

Also your mates look like the Logan twins.

excellent, cheers seagul that wil come in very handy mate,
yer squizy ill have to make up some kind of metal sheild if im going to leave the radiator at the front any way (its gota pass the pits) so putting it underneath is on my mind,
i had this idea of removing the spare tyre area and mounting the radiator in there in a made to fit ali box, wood have thermo fans sucking air from usual baywindow fins too,... just a though haha

off to do some welding on the kombi, catcha guys

kevo

Nice looking kombi kevo.

I used to own (for a very short period of time) a Rover V8 kombi (I'm in perth also), that eventually went to Sydney on this forum, where the owner got bored of it after a half assed effort to put a holden v8 in it and then it got sent to the wreckers..... very sad.

The one I had had actually had the whole body lengthened 6 inches in the engine bay area so the engine (with standard water pump) would fit - only found this out by accident it was done so well.

I also had problems with the hose connection to the water pump 'sucking in' due to the large pressure drop through the piping to the radiator at the front - we fixed this by putting a stiff spring inside the water hose (make sure its stainless steel or it will corrode away) to stop it sucking in. This solved most of myoverheating issues - I think also the coolant system had probably never been flushed in its life, so that wouldnt help.

Oh yeah, the reason I had to get rid of my bus was the attrocious fuel economy - about 23L / 100km. I was doing alot of freeway driving at the time, and the gearing in the std kombi box was such that it sat on 3300 - 3400 rpm at 100kmh - no wonder it was drinking heaps ! This was with 31 x 10.5 R 15 Desert Duellers on the rear too.....

There is a guy over east with the same engine in a kombi, he had a gearbox built to suit (and didnt have to run 4WD tyres as a result), I seem to recall he got the fuel consumption down to ~18L / 100km ? from my fuzzy memory. He had a web page, but I cant recall what the address is, sorry.

When I had my V8 kombi, it was an absolute hoot to drive.... even with a slipping clutch it would pull wheelstands just by bouncing the throttle in 1st gear, it would do over 140kmh (I wimped out there....) and get awfully sideways very quickly in the wet if you werent careful. All in all lots of fun.

Last thing I can remember was that the factory cast rover exhaust headers had a nasty habit of cracking.... not sure if u were aware of this already.

Is this going over the pits as a commercial vehicle ? out of curiosity. Nice flywheel / adaptor kit too, looks good quality.

hey doug, thanks for the information, the fuel economy is a very different estimate to what i calculated, in the rover sedan the engine came out of, i could get 11L / 100km, maybe gas will be the go... something to think about then

the length of the engine took weeks of ideas to figure out, i have removed the bottom rear engine bar (as in the photos) and am making new brackets so that the engine lid sits on a 220* angle so to give room for the belt wheel and water pump, and making a custom fit crossmember so it doesn't get in the way,

what gearbox ratio and diff did you have in yours? i am running transporter gears of a 76 in a 2L box,
and with the 1800 in it i was sitting on 2600 @ 100km/r on the freeway, i figures this would be the best ratio for good economy and ease on the engine,
yes pipe pressure has come up in conversation with my plumber friends, they think i should get them to weld prebent copper 40mm piupes at the high pressure points to be safe, might be the way to go by the sounds of things, the cooling system was fresh by the looks of it when i removed the V8 from the rover so lets keep our fingers crossed haha,

yer john sherman from volks conversions sorted me out with the adaptor and import clutch and flywheel, good quality equipment and easy to fit,

thanks for the support n help, will take all into consideration

back to the bus now...

kevo

Another way to get around the pressure thing is to use copper elbows (or bent pipe) and thick silicone or heavy rubber pipe as joins. This keeps flexibility in your cooling system, but removes the chance of sucking in by the total unsupported length of rubber hose only being 10 - 30 mm.

From memory the box in mine was an 1800 box... but thats only a guess. I have a memory that someone said it was a 1600 box (which would explain the revs) but that didnt seem right to me as the bus was a 1978 ex army model, and they werent made with 1600's. 2600rpm on the freeway is better, but the V8 will pull well below that - if I did it again I'd be looking for 2100 - 2200 or thereabouts at 100 - 110kmh (if the car was to be a daily driver). If its just for shits and giggles, then leave the ratios as is and have fun at the traffic light grand prix

I've also seen electric water pumps on these conversions - gets another few inches out of the engine length.

Looking good - just gotta pop the kombi motor back into the rover and you'll be sweet

Kevo give Custom Off Road a ring in Brisbane as they have a radiator and cowl assembly that bolts under neath rear floor area and is good looking and has proven well with the Subaru motors .

Ph 0733564356

late update, the v8 and gearbox are coupled nice and tight, now i just have to measure up and weld some new engine mounts off the original kombi cross member,

haha yer pat ill sell the rover with the kombi engine in it & say it was the limited edition "slow but no radiator" model of rover haha

back to the workshop now, photos later 2mora eh

kevo

'no water leaks'

just got home then, here are saturdays updates,

:thumb


here is a shot of the v8 against the 2L box,


this is the new floor beam i welded in yesterday to strengthen the rear cargo area after the previous bar war cut out to fit the carbs, its nice and strong now:blush


this insulation underneath the rear cargo floor is suprisingly REALLY flamable!!! word of warning to others...


this part was fun, working out measurements b4 i start welding up to the original crossmember


and the finished product after 3 straight hours of tedious measurments, stoked it lines up with the rover engine mounts easily,
while doing this i also found out that this is not a factory sump on the v8, therefore it stuck out too far to bolt in the crossmember so i moved the brackets 35mm down the chasis rails to make do,
ah the fun of conversions...


my assistant for the day, stubby


the engine sitting in the modified to fit crossmember nice and snug!


love the look of the new engine, cant wait to drive her n show up some jap crap!!!


till tmora

kevo

Looks like your water pump is going to protrude from the back of the van in that last pic, is it?

I think (I dont know, so dont quote me on this) that engine conversions in commercial vehicles (vans, utes etc) are easier to rego as they come under a different set of rules ? Could be talking out my ass though....... I've never put one over the pits myself, would be interested to know for sure.

I'm down in Kwinana.

Looking good now - bet you cant wait to fire it up and lay some tracks......

yer it sure is spudmuffin, im guna drive it round the road with out an engine lid untill i mold up a fibreglass bootlid with buldges in it so to fit the crankshaft pulleys and alternator,
so ill just move my number plate to the rear bumper for time bein (bumper wont have to move at all tho!!!) then ill give new bootlid to my local spray painters n ill be layin strips in no time,

will put that into consideration doug, thanks, cos i got a LOT of fine tuning b4 i go to put it over, n plus its not insured in the mean time while i drive it round with the new engine so i gota be real careful hehe

just welded up the exhaust then, was tricky to squeeze it all in and make sure the muffler would not hit the axels when bottoming out, real hard to find time to work on it tho now, i am a full time survey student and am working on it after i finish work so to complete the project b4 i go back to college!!!

more fotos 2mora

kevo

I talked to one of the lads today .He has just fitted his 3.5 ltr to the kombi , backed it out on the road 100mtrs later bang ! no more gear box 3rd gear all over the ground
1.8 box I give you a up date on the 5 rib box next week .


start looking for one there getting hard to find in Perth 5 rib boxes .

na i got a 6 rib 2L, shoodnt be needing an 1800 gearbox, who did this neways?

woodnt mind talkin tot he guy who just fit the same engine as me, go a few quiries to the electrics n where the throttle cable was routed,

yes its all done!
after 13 days, starting from removing the engine from the rover the conversion is done. there are so many little things that can bring progress to a hault its amazing!!! and very frustrating!!

here are the photos from the last week, sorry no photo updates, been too busy workin, then i'd get home n go straight to car to work on it, its been a very sleep deprived 13 days...

rear end cooling pipes

rear view to the front showing to rad pipes and exhaust i welded up using the standard rover mufflers

the rad pipes going around the engine

and the right hand side...

the exhaust fits very snug using a few prebent 90* bends from local exhaust shop, at the front of the car the 2 1/4 pipe just fits between the linkages and the gearbox. it was tedious but fun welding all the piping up, and because the exhaust is so short it only needed one exhaust mount anyway hehe!!

another view of the exhaust routed around the gearbox,


this piping is different to how it was originally routed through the chasis, i moved it because i wasn't totaly sure that with the pipeswere not rubbing on my steering dampener, turns out it was so out they came...


i fit this res tank for the coolant so its sure never to loose coolant on even the hottest days,
plus you can still fill it up there and it was easy to mount and not in the way of anything!!


lucky kombiz have so much room, or else i would have needed a trailer after all the gear i ended up with!!!

new shot showing the piping rerouted, love the VW emblem in this shot,


the powersteering crankshaft pulley and the waterpump pulley stick out just a little bit, about 30mm, but i didnt account for the oil filter to point straight out!!! so untill i match up a smaller japanese oil filter the crossmember and bumper doesnt fit in


the kombi has never looked so technical, all the gauges telling me what the V8 is thinking,
i got stuck with one gauge pod so i put the temp gauge in a stubby holder, might leave it there a little while cos its funny, and it holds the gauge and hides the wiring 2!!! i love it





thats me in the car fot the first drive, really excited its workin after all the hours labouring! lovein the new harder clutch now too




thats the v8 in action,

it drives amazing, at night the headlights dont shine on the road when you put youf foot down, and for the first time in my life i spun both wheels at the lights IN A KOMBI VAN!!!
besides having a car stand rattle through my 12" JBL subwoofer in the back on the speedy trip home, everything drove well,

ill have to put up some quick videos too and some burnout shots (not on public roads ofCOuRsE!)

hope you like the photos

kevo...

[ Edited on 30/1/2006 by kevo ]

Well done.Lookin forward to the videos....

that looks like a sweet ride.
just one tip from me though.
watch how close the muffler is to your gear box.
I had a bommodore v6 in my kombi and the exhaust ran under the g'box.
On a long trip the heat from the exhaust melted the plastic cover on one of the bearings in the box, and then just went pear shaped from there and ended up destroying the box that cost me $3.5k to get built.

You'll have fun teaching the rice boys a little Ol' Skool RESPECT for sure.

:thumb:thumb:thumb:thumb:thumb

typ2 that makes a lot of sense, i might roll that exhaust wrap on to it to be sure not to have the same problem, thanks,

just another update, i got both the front wheels off the ground last nite with one mate in the front and others watching to prove it!!!

man that looks close between that fan belt and the radiator hose. Better watch out it doesn't rub if the copper coolant lines grow or something.

In QLD they would also make you cover the radiator and hoses on the front so pedestrians couldn't burn themselves on it.

Looks like your having fun, and that's the main thing

Ps - My neighbours dog is called "stubby" too

yes i plan to thermo wrap the bottom hoses at the front of the car and bend a sheet of ali mesh over both sides of the radiator so little stupid hands wont go touching and then complaining,
yer i wouldn't think the cops will like that radiator at the moment too much eh,

the mesh will protect my undented radiator also and hopefully stop people stealing my exposed thermo fan too haha

mount the rad underneath.
here's a pic of mine.
it was from an HX v8 and fits perfectly between the chassis rails.