Making a v8 mid engine

IIRC, this is a 302, not sure about trans, and a Jeep transfer case and front axle.

Trackmouse wrote: I would not go vette trans. Too long. You need a FWD/AWD transaxle. Like the audi or the old el dorado transaxle. Which is likely made of glass.

I dont know about being made of glass.

The 1970 Eldo was 400hp and over 500 lbs of tq and hauled a 6000 pound car around. I used to beat on my old mans Eldo a lot racing people around town with never a hiccup. That is why I chose that combo for my Truck.

In reply to MulletTruck:

I didn't realize the old eldo was FWD! Thought the '79 was which had like 130hp

This one is all corvette in the rear with the original dodge motor driving the front axle. Neat setup with one gas pedal and shifter(auto trans) for both engines.

Trackmouse wrote: In reply to MulletTruck: I didn't realize the old eldo was FWD! Thought the '79 was which had like 130hp

The trans is just a TH400 that is turned around and has a big Hyvo chain driving it. They call it a TH425.

In reply to MulletTruck: Man Thanks for those pics. I remember a corvair at road Atlanta with that set up in the rear DUH, Fast but not having driven it don't know why it wrecked in a fast downhill that broke to the right. I had been thinking about doing it,saw a plate online that holds the TQ Conv. in place against the trans so it can be set back from the engine to put the axel Behind the engine but in front of the trans. I thought about this years ago,The one in my head looked similar.

OP. What's the purpose of the truck? S&G for the street or competition? If it's just S&G then go for the Caddy or Pontiac FWD set up. If you need to dodge cone or guard rails I'd go for the Corvette or similar with the engine and trans in line for a much lower CofG.

What about the Subaru AWD transmissions? I'm pretty sure theres a kit to delete the RWD parts.

Rcr offered a car like this, but I don't think it ever caught on. I think it was supposed to be based off the old Cadillac LMP chassis.

How much power do you need? If you're in the 5.0 ford 250 range you could do a Porsche 915 the g50s predecessor. I got one for 2000 and called Kennedy to get the adapter I needed

Now that is as nicely done as anything I've seen in a long time. is RCR Richard Childress racing.I know he and Rick hendricks dabble in other forms of racing.Like Roush does,Look at those Engine to frame mounts,well thought out.

In reply to GTXVette:

RCR = Race Car Replicas. They make some seriously nice stuff but it's not low budget!

Crackers wrote: What about the Subaru AWD transmissions? I'm pretty sure theres a kit to delete the RWD parts.

Not with a V8 driving it. You would have a bunch of crunchy bits in minutes.

Is American V8 a requirement, or just V8? I'd think an Audi 4.0 or 4.2L V8 in front of an Audi AWD transaxle (with the RWD stuff removed of course) would be pretty plug and play. No adapter plates, no concerns about too much power/torque for the trans, all of the electronics would play nice, etc. Seems like a not terrible deal (cue pictures of crazy timing chains).

V-drive

I personally think the easy button is to use the entire engine/transmission assembly from a LS4 vehicle. Yeah, its going to be an auto, but so what?

Here you go. You can keep that stuff.

In reply to STM317:

Anything Audi scares me as a shadetree mechanic. That said, doesn't Audi, Porsche and some VW models share a gearbox? I've heard that it's good for 400+ HP and is inexpensive. Don't know why people aren't making adaptors for them.

jstein77 wrote: Here you go. You can keep that stuff.

Eeek! That looks like a transformer halfway between car and robot stages.

Someone on here has a race car with an LS going directly into a Corvette transaxle. It's still LONG and AFAIK the only way to do it with junkyard parts requires you to run a slushbox.

If you want to cut the length down and a lateral setup is not an option, you have to go with a proper longitudinal transaxle where the diff is closer to the bellhousing than the rear of the unit. The options are:

1. Mega-expensive racing stuff (Hewland/Xtrac/Ricardo etc, cheapest way to get one might be from a wrecked supercar)
2. Subaru transaxles (only a recent STi box has a chance of standing up to V8 power without costly aftermarket gear sets)
3. Porsche transaxles (expensive but still far cheaper than #1)
4. Audi transaxles (Cheaper than a Porsche box but they usually come with autobahn cruiser gear ratios)

Edit: Yeah I guess an Eldorado transaxle could be option #5.

I Really wish this board did multi quotes well.

Trying to sort through but:

Pantera dif (HIGHLY rare, expensive, 400hp limit afaik, the gt40 guys are on these like something something.)

G50 Porsche, 3k for a used unknown condition one. 5k for a "good" one... Still need an adapter plate.

AT, if I had been the engineer I would not have reinvented the wheel and just added the bits to mate the splines of the tranny that normally bolts to the engine etc.. (i.e. not change spline types and lenghts.) but you know they had three different "teams" working on it so it's probably ass backwards.

Kramer wrote: Find a corvair rear end. Do a Crown conversion. Win. All of the engineering is already done for you. So what if the technology is 50 years old, it would still be better dollar for dollar than almost anything you can come up with today.

As other's said I'd doubt the corvair rear end could handle the powa of any modern v8..

icaneat50eggs wrote: How much power do you need? If you're in the 5.0 ford 250 range you could do a Porsche 915 the g50s predecessor. I got one for 2000 and called Kennedy to get the adapter I needed

To start with that much, but eventually hot it up. Thing is, I've driven a 915, what a POS transmission and that was with only 300 motor hp going to it...

For the purposes of this car, it has to be manual. I'm not going to spend the years building it only to have to suffer with a Fing automatic. Would be street driven when the weather is nice, E36 M3s and Grins, mountain fun, perhaps even road rally, also autocross and hillclimb. (yeah huge list, I REALLY do not care about being competitive, I'll start out low power and learn the car before "hopping" it up.)

Yeah, the only thing crazier would be tearing into a $57000 AMG motor in your own garage, and NOBODY is crazy enough to do something like that right guys?

I can understand being intimidated by a job like that timing chain (s), and I consider it way more complex than it needs to be, but it's just nuts and bolts guys. They put it together, and they can be taken apart. With enough knowledge and some organization, I'd think a ton of that apprehension would fade. I wouldn't be eager to do it, but once it was done, it should be good for 100,000 miles or so, and I doubt this crazy, mid-engined race truck that we're bench racing is going to see that many miles.

Assuming you buy it non-running, like the one in the ad I linked above, you won't have much money into it. Even if you get it apart and it's too much to overcome, you can probably turn it into some cool steampunk table or something and sell it for what you've got into it.

Audi Timing Chain Routing Diagram:

Nice rube goldberg...

The idea of a full corvette donor picked up from copart for 2 or 3k kind of outweighs most other donors right now (one stop donors that is).

Years ago I did a mid engined VW using a Corvair transaxle and Corvette half shafts and trailing arms. I looked for the pics but these are all I have.

I had a corvette 327 in it, The trans held up pretty well until I took it to the strip. I yard sale-ed it on the second run. The second trans was gone through by some buggy shop and it lasted until I sold the car, but I never put slicks back on it for the second trans.

there are a couple c5 and 6 chassie on CL atl. most all the time, just pick up what you need, Corvette in the search bar