Mostin's Nova

[bushboy]

Mazda/Ford KL V6 2.5 litre.







Or if you really want to go VW




the subaru motors are also a good boxer alternative, but they sound like a boxer.

bushboy

[Mostin]

Hi all.

Thanks for the pic's bushboy. I've been having a look around the net & it would seem that the Subaru is the "now adays" replaccement for the Alfa.

Plus I've read within this forum that there are one or two company's offering engine & conversion kits. Has any body on here used them & how did they get on?

Thanks in advance.
Mostin.

[ChrisBailey]

Biggest problem I see with any engine conversion is the weak vw gearbox, subaru engine would smash it, unless you spend lots of money to upgrade the vw box.

[Alzax3]

Is that so? isn't Bushboy's V6 hung off a VW box? You don't get nice 5-speed or for that matter particularly suitable ratios but the standard box is pretty bomb-proof AFAIK.......

[jimcub]

They go down the strip without breaking too often, but they can be beefed up for that.

[bushboy]

Is that so? isn't Bushboy's V6 hung off a VW box? You don't get nice 5-speed or for that matter particularly suitable ratios but the standard box is pretty bomb-proof AFAIK.......

just about every thing but the gear box has broken on the V6. I have not been cruel enough to drop the clutch from a stand still but I can tell you that 2nd gear wheel spin in the dry is possible

I think the biggest issue is cooling, and there are as many different set ups for that as there are water cooled donks in nova's. As for adapter plates, they are easy to come by for just about any engine you care to think of, or, as Ben successfully did, make your own.

bushboy

[CyCo]

I run a ea82T 1.8 turbo Subaru in mine, and I haven't broken the gearbox. Mind, I am replacing the gearbox as it's about had it, feels like your stirring a stick in a bucket of rocks and sounds like it as well. It's had the oil replaced since I've had it, but who knows when it was done before I bought it?

What am I replacing it with? A new 'bug box from Rancho with the SuperBug ratio. Basically standard 'box in other words.

[Mostin]

Hello all.

Thanks for all the input (it all helps). I'm not planning on nailing it everywhere so I would be happy if the VW box could be kept as it's one thing less to sort out.

Cooling was the problem with the old Ford X flow that was in it. CyCo have you managed to crack the cooling problem with your car?

Thanks all.
Mostin.

[CyCo]

CyCo have you managed to crack the cooling problem with your car?

I actually have a heating problem, it doesn't get up to full running temperature. I have a large radiator up front (think it's from a Commodore), and so I have piping running down both sides of the car. These pipes are 1 1/4" inch copper pipes either side. It takes 10 liters of coolant to fill the system. The large diameter copper pipes would act as a form of radiator in my mind.

So most of the time it tends to run just under the 90*. One of the guys in the club runs the same engine (non turbo version), and he had a similar thing happen. He sourced a generic thermostat set at somewhere in the low 80* and that fixed his problem. I've yet to do the same, but at least mine runs cold, not too hot.

That said, the front of the car is all hacked up, sadly done by prior owners. There are far more neater ways of setting it up without taking a saw to the body work. Sometime I'm going to rectify that.



It's been neatened up now, but I plan a full rebuild of my cooling system sometime in the future.

[islandman]

Cyco, you mean you Rad is now underneath the new fibreglass floor ?