V8 67' Splitscreen

[Baz]

I've had my split for around 5 years and have upgraded the engine several times.



It started with a stock 1600:



Then it got a 1776:



Followed by a 2007:



In 2014 a mate of mine bought a V8 for his Ford Pop, he asked if I could transport it for him..



Just out of curiosity I decided to measure it up, it seemed like it could almost fit into the van's engine bay. I helped him get the engine fitted to his car and the more I worked on the engine, the more I convinced myself it seemed like a good idea to fit one to the Split.

Later in 2014 I bought this:



It's a 1995 Ford Mustang with a 5.0 V8. It had just over 30k on the clock, barely run in and in great condition. So it came as no surprise that Mustang Owners club was a little annoyed when I decided to break it.



Almost all of it was sold, bar the whole engine, for which I had bought the car in the first place


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[Baz]

I gave the engine a clean up, some paint, bolted on a load of shiny bits and converted it to carb:



I put the project on hold as I had to focus on another car of mine, fast forward to January 2016 and I decided it was time to bite the bullet and go for it.

I got the adaptor from Kennedy and went for the double disc clutch setup they do. Other than a serpentine pulley kit, headers, carb and ignition conversion, I kept the engine stock, which should be good for around 250ish bhp.

I wanted to keep it looking as stock as practically possible, so I fabricated an exhaust that loosely resembles a stock exhaust:



It's a pretty short system, going straight into a pair of Hooker Aerochambers. Unfortunately I didn't have the space to put an X or Y pipe in, but I did manage to add a couple of straight through cutouts, which if everything went to plan were to exit just behind the rear wheels.

According the my measurements, I could have gotten away with no cutting to the body had I have stuck to a stock carb manifold from an older car (which I just happened to have lying about), but in the end I bought an Edelbrock performer intake. The extra height from this (only a few cm) and the the practicality of being able to access the engine properly meant I had to do this:



Reluctantly, I was also forced to cut the rear valance:



I kept the engine plate from the Mustang's original intake:



Polished it up and redid the black paint:



And put it aside for the engine bay. Finally it was time to shoehorn the whole lot in:

[Baz]

I plumbed in an alu radiator between the chassis rails, I hope that is sufficient to keep it cool. Here's a picture of the engine bay from the top (with that engine plate)



The whole thing stuck out a bit more than I was expecting, so I trimmed the engine lid first:



Even with the decklid trimmed it was protruding past the body by quite a bit:



A friend of mine made a joke suggestion about what to use to cover it up...then we thought about it a little and it seemed like the perfect idea. There's this odd trend of sticking old tat on roof racks, I've never really understood it. Old suitcases, rusty bikes etc. But somehow.. now it makes sense:



I cut the back of the suitcase to fit over the engine, the engine lid opens and shuts as normal. It does make me feel a little too "scene" but it looks the part

And all closed up, there's no way to tell what's lurking in the engine bay, other than the bigger than stock exhaust tips and that little Mustang emblem on the rear hatch. Apart from when it's running that is..the short system doesn't do much to quieten the engine down. With the cutouts opened up it's just divine!




I started working on it in January, I finished the last few things today. In that time I have been away with work for 3 months, so overall the whole conversion took around 3 months, realistically about 4 weeks of non stop working. I have an airlock in the lower radiator hose to sort out, then it's MOT time, hopefully ready for Camper Jam this weekend or the Limebug Show next weekend.

Sadly, I'll only be able to enjoy it briefly as I found out earlier in the year that I'll be emigrating in a month or so. Still, it was worth the build just to hear that V8 fire up and burble away in a little ole camper van.

[trev]

WOW. just wow.

I'm very impressed!! Have you got many miles on it? I'd be interested to see how the (presumably) heavier engine behaves in terms of handling.

great job

[Cleverchap]

Nice work, and I love the suitcase

[Baz]

Thanks Guys

I haven't done any miles yet Trev, the mot is this Tuesday, fingers crossed!

[Wilfred]

Welcome!!!

What a lovely van and an impressive conversion!

So many questions....:

What gearbox did you use?
What did you do with suspension? Seems like a lot of weight hanging behand the rear axle now...?

Love the suitcase though!!!!

Keep us updated. A pic of the underside would be nice too!
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1973 BayWindow running 1.9 110 bhp TDI with flipped gearbox.

[Baz]

Thank you Wilfred

At the moment it's just running a Rancho Freeway flyer. Ultimately the plan was to get another Rancho with gearing better suited to the V8's torque curve. As the intention was to cruise around Europe rather than tear it up down the 1/4 mile I think the box should be ok. I have 195's on the back at the moment, I'm going to be fitting some 185 commercial tyres to it, the type that last for miles and miles and are not performance oriented at all. My thought process is that if I do end up getting carried away, the tyres will be the weak link in the chain and simply lose traction. That's the theory anyway!

Other than raising the suspension to compensate for the extra weight I haven't upgraded it. The engine has mounts going to the chassis, I figure the extra couple hundred kilos is not much worse than a fully laden camper.

I'll get some pictures of the underneath sorted when I can

[trev]

[Wilfred]

With the TDI, I 'gained' 200 kg. compared to few years ago when it was imported. Part of the weight comes from the roofracks I added, and a 25 kg extra battery though. but still, the entire conversion added 150 kg. Most of it behind the rear axle.

If I would do it all again, the engine and box would go in the other way around. So the engine under the rear seat. Loose some space there, but gain storage room where the engine is now.
No more issues with the flipped box. Mid engined, so better weight distribution.

Would love to do that someday... Probably will have to be done on another van though...
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1973 BayWindow running 1.9 110 bhp TDI with flipped gearbox.

[Baz]

I over estimated, according to google it's 200kg. A little more once you include the radiator, coolant and exhaust system but still. I would love to mid mount a V8..next time maybe.

[panel]

Pics of your radiator set up ?
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EJ20 Turbo bus build