There used to be a page where he put porsche 928 4 cam heads on a big block chevy, and put it in a 34 with a corvette transaxle. Can't find it. It was also on My Classic Car.
use a toronado its easy,gonna do a rear engined race rod next as just finished this sleeper, rear suspension is stock with 600lb coils it handles great and its quick but will be even faster when I can aford some mondellow heads
That car reminded me that there was a mid engined kitcar about 20 years ago. They had an 'sports car' version and later came out with a hotrod version. Huge engine in the bed, an olds transaxle, and 1970's corvette rear suspension. Kelmark?
This is Bob Schutte's Deuce. Bob's REALLY tall and he needed the legroom afforded by the fact that there wasn't an engine in the middle of the firewall. The car was built a few years ago (2004) by Mike Casey. Mike is now with Enigma Rod Shop in Billerica, MA. You can reach him at 978-667-6060. The car's pretty straight forward. Toronodo driveline and a seen-one,-seen- em-all tuned port small block.
I found that company I was thinking of. Mid-Engineering run by Bill Porterfield. Wonder what happened to him? He was nice enough to show his designs to anyone, and they were all copied and sold cheaply. Some photocopies rephotographed. He also won Hot Rods Street Machine of the Year with a mid engine 442. http://members.aol.com/hrharrys/index7.html
Audi trannys are popular with the kit-car crowd. Heres a link you might find useful...... http://www.lambolounge.com/Chassis/Transmission/5000/5000.asp
I'm running an MID Engineering adapter in my reversed 4.3 V6 rear engined Corvair. I'd like to correct a couple of misconceptions about Corvair transmissions and transaxles. The Corvairs up to and including 1965 used weak transmissions which were very similar to '64 and earlier big chevy transmissions. Small gears, small cases and easy to break. The '66-'69 Corvairs used transmissions that were based on the big Chevy Saginaw 3spd and 4 spd trans. Chevy basically drilled the mainshaft to be hollow so that the shaft from the rear mounted engine could pass thru the diff and trans to connect to the main shaft on the front of the trans. They modified the case to allow shifting gears with a shaft similar to the way a T5 shifts, but in the bottom of the trans. The side cover looks like a 7 bolt side cover from a big Sag but has no holes for side shift arms. The trans mounts toward the front of the of the powertrain and if it were x-rayed you would think it was big Saginaw. The Crown kits put a big car front shaft into the front of the Corvair trans so that an engine could be put in the rear seat of the car. The engine was not reversed and the trans and diff worked just like it did in a stock Corvair. There were no special Crown ring an pinions. Kelmark and Kennedy Engineering turned the Corvair transaxle around and upside-down to get the transaxle/engine package shorter to allow more footroom in the Corvair. There are kits to install 2 extra spider gears in the corvair diff to make it stronger. Even with mods the Corvair transaxles are only dependable for about 300 hp or less. Anything more will make you an expert on rebuilding them. I started getting my expert badge in 1971 on my rear 350 Corvair.
66 to 69 Corvair 4 speed was based on the light/medium duty Saginaw, not a Muncie as stated above. Depending on your machine/fabrication skills, the strongest and easiest to do cheap and dirty solution is most probably the Toro/Eldo powertrain complete and unmodified from whatever you find it in. Being that the cars they come in weigh 4000 to 5000 pounds plus, they should be able to shove a 2500 to 3000 pound car around quite easily. As stated above, using the entire frame section and suspension (with perhaps a second idler arm in place of the steering box) should be a cake walk in the overall scheme of things. In it's earlier 425 (400 based) guise it'll handle a 500 inch, 500 horsepower, 500 foot pound torque, Cad motor, no trouble. The last 325 OD ones much less, but reputedly can be beefed with the same parts used to beef a 200R4. The Toro based drivetrain used in the AMBR winner Russ Meeks built for John Corno in the early 70's certainly shows what can be done with one.
i don't think i posted pics of what my buddy Dan Turner did to put a HEMI in the rear of his Studebaker. he basicly took an early 60s GM 3 speed and whacked the tailshaft off. he had the shaft itself shortened and resplined (and reheat treated i believe) and then made a very short housing to hold a bearing and seal. ad a SBC to HEMI adapter between the motor and the scatter shield and you have a low buck, home grown mid engine HEMI powered Studebaker. it still puts the driver position pretty far forward but that HEMI looks DAMN COOL where the back seat used to be.
A lot of people use Porsche 911 G50 trans axles flipped upside down with an adapter.. but expect to spend at least $1500 for the trans. I'm not positive, but you might be able to use a corvair transaxle. You need to use a mid engine corvair kit that uses a '66+ saginaw. Get the 4 spider gear kit too to make it stronger.. Clark's Corvair has everything including the adapter. Also you can use modern corvette stuff with the torquetube and transaxle. C5+ ('97+). The corvette has a torquetube, but you can take it out and the engine will bolt directly to the transmission/differential combo.
This may have been covered (if it has, I apologize), but what about using the modern corvette transaxle and just shorten the torque tube to the desired length? This will give you the strength/dependability and the prices seem to be coming down...
With an adapter you can use the Audi 5000 transaxle. I'm using an A4. Both mount the engine longitudinal instead of transverse. They are relativley cheap and can handle lots of HP. Check out www.lambolounge.com for some examples. Here's the dirrect link http://www.lambolounge.com/Chassis/Transmission/5000/5000.asp
Kind of a no no, having all that unsprung weight but this is still kinda cool. The Don Waite roadster. Sorry I cant find a pic of the whole car. Doc.
Could you do it like an old inboard? Engine/tranny/xfercase in backwards; spool in xfer case, driveshaft down side of motor. Will have to have an offset rear.
Pontiac Fiero GT has the whole setup, some have been converted to SBC from 2.8 V6 most of that running gear was Citation and was used on sunbirds. The whole thing comes on a sub frame. Cheap
I was in Columbus Ohio about 5 years ago and drove by a guys house that had what looked like a yellow GT-40 on a shelf in the back. Turned out to be a kit car body. So of course I stopped by and asked to look! He had a real clean 32 Ford 2 door sedan, black, pinstriped and I think with red wheels. He was making a "traditional" looking rear engine flatty street rod. I think I rremember it being a chain drive too. Is this the Grimes car before it was finished????? I never saw it with more than a shell of the body. If it wasn't his car, does anyone else know who that was in Ohio??
If you do a little Googling for a Kelmark GT (kit car) you'll probably find a few examples of them using Toronado transaxles and glean some good info. for yourself. Al in CT
Crown is owned by Clarks Corvair Parts now, they still make some of the pieces and they have a website: http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/main
Toro/Eldo units use a different bellhousing bolt pattern, but they've been putting Chevys in front of them for years. Shouldn't be too hard to find the right adaptor. BTW, all GMC motorhomes use the same transaxle.
What years Toronados and/or ElDorados used these transaxles? I would like to keep the engine "north/south".
66 to 77? for the Toro's, and 67 through 77? for the eldos. I think 78 was the downsized car that used a th325 trans, instead of the th425. Sometime in the mid or late 80's they went to 4 speed autos based on the 700R4. Extremely weak without modifications. It's my understanding that all the transaxles share the same internals as the conventional transmissions, so they can all be hopped up. I've never tried it, so take it with salt. The smaller eldo's used the same longitudinal setup all though the 80's I believe, if not the early 90's. The smaller cars have the same front susupension layout as the big ones, it's just scaled down. Might be useful for putting the motor in the back of something, although it's all pretty heavy stuff.
Thanks , I had a bed on it,the clutch went out,had to remove everything to get at it and liked the way it looked with everything exposed .Moved gas tank to under the hood ,relocated tail lights Toying with making new engine frame out of 1/2" x3" steel with holes LFE
It's been done Mid 70 Eldorodo drive train with a 500 Cad with an adapter you could hook a small block to that trans or possibly the later Eldo/ toronado drive trains (around 79) would be easier to find.
Corvair transaxle. Will take all you can give it. Late model, you can try a Porsche 911 transaxle. SBC adapters are available (check out factoryfive; they use this setup for one of their kit cars), but the 911 core will be $$$$. The corvair rear was used with a SBC by many builders over the years, including on the Manta kit car.
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