1968 Viva HB was Rotary powered..now...

[JPB]

That engine looks very much at home in the Viva. Well done for taking on a brave, yet (in my view) entirely logical transplant.

[bnicho]

Very, very neat project! I love street sleepers like this.

Well Done!!

[OneCarefulOwner]

Seeing how well that fits in, I'm having my vague "wouldn't it be cool" daydreams stirred into "it would be cool, how can I" daydreams instead… I'd love to learn more about choosing & using a rotary! It's just a shame they don't come with FWD gearboxes… I wonder how hard it'd be to build a RWD floorpan for an Allegro?

[rich.]

ive seen a metro with a 2 litre pinto fitted so it shouldnt be that difficult, have a look at the escort bm conversion & get the welder out..

[JPB]

Why change the Allegro to RWD for a conversion like that? Wankel motors are so relatively tiny that it would almost certainly be short enough.

A Dolomite would be another interesting place to put one of those since there's a shell that was used in both FWD and RWD forms with different tunnels being screwed in to suit and room for the front pair of driveshafts where they come out in a 1500. Hmm, if it'll fit an Allegro, then it'll also fit a Maxi, or how about a Minor with one in it? Room aplenty across the way in there:

[OneCarefulOwner]

Maxi actually has a smaller space for the engine, the wings are much more boxy and encroach a lot; you'd have the same FWD/RWD issues too. While the engines are small, I think they'd need to be too far forward in order to squeeze a propshaft & differential behind them, so they'd end up very nose-heavy - unless perhaps you convert the engine to a transverse installation, and use (for example) an end-on transverse 'box as used in the Maestro?

I bet someone's already done it to a Moggie. How about a Marina?

[JPB]

Why paint yourself into a corner by fitting the engine to an end-on gearbox but?
Presumably these things come with a flywheel and if it's possible to fit a Rover V8 across the front of a standard Clubman, using a modified mini gearbox, bespoke sump and one-off crankshaft extension to take the drop gears, then a few more jobs such as those wouldn't be too hard to work out, would they?

Yes, the Maxi inner wings are about 8.75" deep across the top, but the distance across lower down is what matters seeing as that engine sits so low and there, the difference favours the Maxi since it has space for a radiator to the left rather than the front and its bottles aren't in the way as they're hidden away in a handy tube.

[Mrotwoman]

Lovely Viva,and what a neat looking installation

[tractorman]

Nice one - a nice Viva to start with too! I spent a while this morning reading the full story (nice cat!) - it took an hour (06:00 - 07:00) and I went back to bed afterwards!

Although the purist in me says leave the Viva as it was (a rare beast), I admire the work and suspect there'll be a few surprised modern car owners feeling a little depressed soon!

[OneCarefulOwner]

Why paint yourself into a corner by fitting the engine to an end-on gearbox but?
Presumably these things come with a flywheel and if it's possible to fit a Rover V8 across the front of a standard Clubman, using a modified mini gearbox, bespoke sump and one-off crankshaft extension to take the drop gears, then a few more jobs such as those wouldn't be too hard to work out, would they?

Yes, the Maxi inner wings are about 8.75" deep across the top, but the distance across lower down is what matters seeing as that engine sits so low and there, the difference favours the Maxi since it has space for a radiator to the left rather than the front and its bottles aren't in the way as they're hidden away in a handy tube.

The gearbox I suggested is designed to fit a sump-equipped A-series engine as otherwise used in longitudinal installs, which is why I thought it'd take the output from the rotary more easily; modifying an A (or E) series in-sump gearbox to fit would be more than impractical. I believe Princess gearboxes are used in Rover V8 Mini installs for similar reasons, but they only have 4 gears where the VW box from a Maestro or Montego 1.3 would have 5 speeds - all the better to embarrass the competition, and let's face it: rotaries have never been known as frugal engines!

I'd rather have a front-mounted rad anyway, especially as Maxis were never known for efficient cooling, and as we're counting on available width it seems counter-productive to remove some of that space with the radiator.

It's all pie in the sky anyway Now if we wanted to keep things simple, there's a T-reg MkII Escort in a driveway just 200 yards from where I'm typing & it's been sat there for years!