Nice site! Right up my alley. I'm in the process of putting together a 1960 baja. This is the 3rd buggy that I have owned. Will be a tube chassis 3800 v6 medium travel car. Cage is about 1/2 done now. Hopefully will be ready to hit the trail by spring. I'll have to get some pics and post them up. Looking for a 091 trans if anybody knows where I can find one.

I've been down that road with the heavy 3800 and an 091.That heavy thing has much more torque than HP and only 5k rpm tops. When you get in a low rpm grunt,the trans case, I don't care what expensive parts you have in it,is going to twist, and the ring and pinion teeth will spread apart just enough to break off the pinion teeth. Sometimes enough to crack the case at the 3 o'clock position when you take off the bell housing. The bell housing itself will twist permanently and the next few times you crank with a high tork starter the starter gear will not mesh correctly and will snap off your starter.Cease and go liteweight ,high HP. That boat anchor will make you do uncommanded wheelies up a hill and get you hurt.I'm leaning toward an Ecotech 2.4, 16 valve all aluminum 160hp motor on my next project, but of coarse the front wheel drive and irs diff set up....AND the RWD 3800 is not good on keeping itself oiled unless you go to a high volume oil pump and two walls in your oil pan on each side of the pick up!Why start at the bottom and work up and blow money and time like I did.Listen to people's past either air cooled or water cooled.I had to convert my 3800 buggy into a chain drive for this reason.Look under"Der Panzerwagen".Under "Buggy Builds".Oh , The wife is from Kalamazoo.

Yea, I'm having second thoughts on this 3800. These are great motors. Ive had quite a few. My daily driver is a 13 second Grand Prix GTP that still gets 28mpg eway. 300hp with tons of torque is easy and cheap with these motors. But finding a trans that will hold up without having to sell a kid to pay for it is becoming a challenge. My past buggys have been vw powered. Expensive to make good HP, and no fuel injection. So you think a well built trans still won't take the abuse?

A well built tranny is a must, with anything more than 100 hp, unless you have a pile of stock ones and plenty of time to swap and don't mind missing a bunch of rides. in my opinion,,,from learning the hard way

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

i have buddy with ecotec and a later 091 that is an amazing machine! climbs great with tons of power thaough out the rpm range. he has about the same money in it as i have in a very stout 2276

I'm not too concerned about the rear weight. I have a set of 3x5 rear arms. And it is a baja, so it will be heavier forward of the rear axle than a rail is. The fuel tank and battery will be up front. Any suggestions on a tranny? Would a built 091 handle it?

im building a 70 baja on buggy builds its a 2.2 subaru it 75 lbs heaver then a vw and has more power then you can use me and bigscott have done 3 of these and love thim cheak out our post mine is the baja build and his is the new staker with a turbo 2.5 suby motor making 330 hp and bmoore on here just did a suby swap we help him out and he said its more power then he needs we run the vangon trans in them all and if you are looking for a 091 bigscott has a new never ran all weddle trans hes going to sell for about 2800