On-Road Modification

[Hellhound]

Ok, some of you may be confused and slightly horrified by the title of this thread but please, let me explain .

I've been treking around in my 3.0td gen2 now for a few years and have been very impressed with its handeling. THe top speed isnt all that brilliant but i realise that a heavy truck with an auto box isnt meant to go 150mph .

Then one day i was trolling these very forums and spotted BUSHWHACKER's Lexurf v8 conversions and that gave me an idea ... (which if you ask anybody who knows me is a bad thing) .

I've started to look at doing a v8 conversion and basically stripping a surf down to its bare shell and doing a (road legal) track day car.

Now when i bought my surf there were a few out there that had the "Wide-Body" name that looked like they had a slightly wider wheelbase and lower suspension. Are these an actualy factory model or just something that has been done post-purchase with parts?

Mods that i'm looking to do are obviously the v8 conversion to a 5-speed manual gearbox. Stripping all the interior out and replacing the 2 front seats with racing buckets with 4-point harness and fitting a rollcage inside the bodywork. Stripping out all the rear electric windows and replacing them with fixed lexan panels. Stripping off all the under-body steelwork (sump pan/mounting brackets etc) and all the other now-unneeded offroad bits.

Now, i need some technical advice (if theres anybody out there with that knowledge) on suspension and drivetrain.

I'm going to be lowering the suspension to hopefully lower the CoG of the whole truck to make it corner even better and also to give it better stability. Now i have no idea where to source the kit to do this as pretty much all of the suspension parts freely availiable are for offroad use.

Right onto my second question. I'm only ever going to be using this in 2wd to the rear axle so therfore have no need for the 4x4 bits. Is there any way to remove the rest of the parts underneath without gimping the front axle? It would be nice to be able to replace the front axle with a basic un-driven axle but i fear that will eat into funds that need to be spent on other things.

Finally i am wondering what my options are when it comes to engine/gearbox options. I know there have been rover v8 and lexus v8 conversions done but i am looking to get to the most bang for my $$$ and also have it all going through a manual box (as an auto just isnt practical for track days) to get the power to the back wheels.

Views and opinions on my project are invited as long as your not going to be all "BURN THE NON-OFFROAD-BELIEVER!!! " .

[tintin]

Why would you want to turn a two tonne beast into a lowered track car?????
Surely there are better vehicles to start with out there!

But if you're determined, the only question i can answer for you is the wide body!

The term wide body refers to the small fibreglass wheel arch extensions as opposed to the narrow body that just has ordinary metal arches. So not really a "wide body" at all.
Hope this helps, and all the best with your project. Keep us updated with plenty of pics.

My narrow body.........







and a wide body..............




Alan

[surfenstein]

ok firstly its a big heavy 4wd vehicle its never going to be blisteringly quick,but if you want to do it good for you,the front axle diff and drive shafts can be removed all you need to do is make up some covers to go over the holes left on the back of the hubs when you remove the drive shafts,i used some 80mm diameter s/s plates and just siliconed them over the holes.,next i would remove the transmission and engine and source a rover v8 or sbc,engine with a 5 speed manual box.i think the lexus only ever came in auto.the rover v8 being an all ally engine will be lighter than the sbc,but performance parts are dearer to tune these engines.then its just a case of working out your final drive gearing,pinion and crown wheel can be bought in from america.as for beefing up the suspension a set of lower stiffer springs can be purchased along with shocks and a set of uprated torsion bars can be fitted,a rear disc conversion and cross drilled vented discs all round should sort the braking out.only thing left is tyres.heres some pics of my conversion if it helps

firstly pics of the front axle removed.you can clearly see the s/s discs in place



the c63 auto box in place,coupled to the tvr motor.you will need to fabricate new crossmember and mounts.



i had to fabricate a s/steel prop shaft.basically chopped both ends off of the surf prop and rover prop and tigged them onto a thick walled stainless steel tube



bucket seats fitted



and finally the 350 bhp tvr rover hybrid engine fitted

[Hellhound]

Many thanks to both of you for the input

Tintin - That simple eah? Oh well thats not too bad then, thought i would have to be digging around the interweb to find something that was different

Surfenstein - I'm going to be stripping alot of stuff out of the surf once the project gets underway but yeah, i know its never gonna be stupid fast but i'd like something quick for the track thats out of the ordinary. Funnily enough i was looking at TVR/Rover engines as well as american engine/gearbox combo's. As for tuning i might just plump up the cash for a pre-tuned recon job or a crate yank engine then all i have to worry about is the bill when i blow it up .

I'm glad the front axle is a relativly simple fix, had visions of it being a nightmare job with half-shafts, transfer boxes and lakes of oil everywhere...

What are you using yours for then? Looks like you've done something along the same lones of what i'm looking at doing.

[lord lucan]

and finally the 350 bhp tvr rover hybrid engine fitted

that looks like an old ambulance engine

[surfenstein]

thats was the 5.0 ltr tvr hybrid engine,i blew that up and fitted stein with a 3.9 ambulance engine.thats what was in it when i swapped it with animal,for the scooby.pay attention man.this is the ambulance engine.

[Dixie.t]

you may want to talk to Diablo Turbo about his lexus soarer that is going in to his surf. i know he has done a 550 bhp conversion on a soarer

[OllieNZ]

I had a mate back in NZ hook up a supra box to the 4l lexus I believe it was as simple as getting a bellhousing adaptor made up. Have you thought of trying a 2JZGTE out of a supra? Ive seen some pretty astronmical power figures from these and they are lighter than the lexus lump.

Regards

Ollie

[Hellhound]

I'm a bit of a petrol head and love the sound of a v8 so i think i'm gonna stick with one of those rather than a st6 or v6.

Whatever i chose its going to be a case of finding an engine then a gearbox that can handle the output. The supra box makes sense as i've heard stock, they can take a fair ammount of BHP before they shred.

I'm guessing that it makes things a whole bunch less complicated to use a gearbox from the same manufacturer as the engine. If this is the case can anybody reccommend a decent manual box that will mate up well with a rover v8? When me, my dad and my uncle did a rover v8 (cast iron) morris minor about 12 years ago we found an old P5 gearbox that worked well but that was hard to find back then so god knows how hard it is to find one now.

[blackpoolsparks]

Heres one I prepared earlier, for such an occasion

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...olsparks/P.jpg

[surfenstein]

how much power are you thinking of putting through it? a heavy duty r380 g/box is propably your best bet. and a company called rimmer bros,in lincoln is your best bet for all the parts you need.www.rimmerbros.co.uk