1966 Volvo Amazon engine transplant!

[Melody121]

I have been planning to make my car a little more useable on motorways and preferably quicker (that's always got to be the way) basically I'm not going to last for ever in the 55mph club lol I have found an MX5 that is being broken for spares, it's a 1.6 import with 115BHP and I've been having a look at the ratios to see if it's a pairing that will work well. Here are some numbers, sorry to bore...

Gearbox ratios MX5 (:1) - 1st 3.136 2nd 1.888 3rd 1.33 4th 1 5th 0.814
Gearbox ratios Amazon (:1) - 1st 3.13 2nd 1.99 3rd 1.359 4th 1

Diff ratio MX5 - 4.3:1
Diff ratio Amazon - 4.1:1

Looking at this keeping the original diff will actually give me a car that's a better cruiser than the MX5. Spot On

The other items I need to collect then;
if I decide to lose the injection...
A set of bike carbs
Megajolt, to run the ignition
A custom intake manifold
And/or if I keep the injection...
I've got a Jasma exhaust manifold already
A hybrid of the two propshafts
A hybrid of the two speedo cables
The clutch master cylinder off the MX5
The rad from the MX5
A custom exhaust
A fuel pump

So first thing will be to grab the MX5 parts that are still on the car and get everything cleaned up while I collect the rest of the bits...

[Melody121]

I got her a spot at Peak Classic Cars where they will be doing a lot of the transplant for me, I need to wait for a little more space as they are quite full at the moment but I'm able to get started!

The engine is now ready to come out apart from the gearbox mount, prop and speedo cable.

The temperature gauge was quite interesting and I'm sure if I get an adapter into the thermostat housing I can use the original. Check out this piece of 60's engineering. It's well cool! The coolant heats the cable and a metal ring on the back of the gauge which in turn moves the needle as it expands! Sorry I'm being lame!



The engine bay after stripping, it doesn't really look any different lol.



Here is the doner...



And finally I found this tucked in round the gear lever!! WTF? needless to say I binned it.
I've discovered I will be able to use some of the original gear lever to extend the MX5 one so that's handy

[Melody121]

Some space came available this weekend so she's been moved in to position, and I'll be taking the engines out myself tomorrow! Fitting the new one and fabricating mounts etc. is where I'll be a bit redundant!

[Tail]

If you go the bike carbs route you could try Bogg Brothers, well known for their work with bike carbs apparently. http://www.boggbros.co.uk/index.html

PS what are those wheels, they look fairly wide

[Underdrive]

Seems like a lot of trouble to go to, an overdrive would have solved the cruising speed problem and retained originality.

[Melody121]

Originally Posted by Underdrive

Seems like a lot of trouble to go to, an overdrive would have solved the cruising speed problem and retained originality.

Cause I like to be different

[Melody121]

Originally Posted by Tail

If you go the bike carbs route you could try Bogg Brothers, well known for their work with bike carbs apparently. http://www.boggbros.co.uk/index.html

PS what are those wheels, they look fairly wide

I have heard of bogg brothers, they have a good reputation. Tbh I think the budget will only allow for keeping the injection for now, I can always play about later though

The wheels are wolfrace slotmags, they are my favorite wheel in the world (old or new) and I managed to bag this set that the seller had specially drilled from wolfrace in 5x114.3 for his Nissan. Two weeks later said Nissan blew the head gasket and got scrapped so I paid a quarter of the original purchase price

[Underdrive]

I can understand that, just not my choice. It would feel wrong to me not to put a period engine in if I was changing it for something different. Having said that I did see a big old 50's humber at a car show with a merc diesel in it that looked fine. If it keeps these old cars on the road that has to be a good thing, better than blending in with today's mundane rubbish.

[Melody121]

There has been some good progress today the Amazon engine was first to exit seeing as it was the easier of the two. Here's some pictures!




No issues taking it out

Then moving on to the MX5 I wanted to label everything I unplugged first so it took a bit more time. So pictures speak louder than words



We split the box from the engine to check on the clutch and someone's been doing some full power starts cause although it's got plenty of meat on it, it looks like it's been getting very hot so I will be replacing it!
Then we popped it in for a test fit!




It seems to be clearing everything nicely (love steering boxes, they just don't get in the way)





It also looks to me that simply flipping the engine mount brackets to the other side of the cross member will see it mounted! But that's enough for today, it's sunny and we deserve a BBQ
P.S. all this only took 3 hours, yay.

[amazon69]

Looking good.Like your style. The mx5 motor sits a lot further back originally doesn't it..anyway you could achieve that? Probably not with the great big heater/bulkhead in the way..Any idea on the weight difference across blocks and gearboxes? keep on keeping on