Here are the pictures of my very own Wild Volkswagen. Its a 1975 camper van with an Australian all alloy Leyland P76 V8 engine puting out about 230hp and lots of torque. Expect to see a lot more changes to this in the near future.
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The bus looks pretty straight forward here but if you look closely you can just about see the radiator mounted behind the bull bar. A bit of a clue as to what might be in the back. At least you know its not air cooled. But only if you look hard. You can also see my new wheels and tyres, its a pretty tight fit but they do fit with NO rubbing anywhere.
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Here's the same picture except with the top up. This conversion is an Australian Sopru conversion and has heaps of head room and a pull out double bed up top as well as the convertible rear seat.
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This photo shows the radiator a bit better but it still doesn't give too much away. If you could look underneath you'd see 2" copper piping running from the back to the front giving a total cooling system capacity of about 25lt. Also notice the mangled front number plate. This Bus has seen dirt and that plate does tend to take the shape of the bull bar! Maybe when I lift it a bash plate will go on there to protect the steering gear and water pipes.
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This photo from the rear shows the engine cover slightly open to allow room for the long V8 engine. As you can see it all looks pretty standard and its only the awesome un-bus like acceleration and the exhaust note that really give it away. Look at that deep blue sky!! I'll see if I can get a shot on a rainy day as I've realised all my shots are on really nice days. Anyway on to a picture of the engine itself!!
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OK! Here's a shot of the very tight engine bay. Your looking from the back of the van at the bottom towards the front at the top. This engines 270cid and is running a 4 barrel 465cfm Holley carb through a custom manifold.
It all bolts up to an adaptor plate and then to a highly modified 091 transaxle running custom gear ratios from Ivan Albins in Melbourne Australia along with a Chrome Moly Diff cover, welded 3rd/4th fork for more engagement and a modified reverse gear to clearance the large Albins gears. Every bearing and seal is a new heavy duty one along with new syncro rings and rebushing of every bush.
This is the only transaxle I've had so far, after killing two, that can cope with the torque. I went overboard with this one as it should cope with double what I'm puting through it. The new gear ratios mean a top speed of about 200kmh or 120mph but wheel stands aren't possible anymore :( It's much better to drive though :)
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