Finished my front end rebuild awhile ago and this weekend a buddy and I got the engine in and mounted. The engine is a 3.0 v6 out of a 96 avalon. The trans is a 6 rib side shift out of a 80's vanagon. Got the shift linkage from TurboBlue, thanks again.




[img]http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q220/ImmortalSoul219/Dune%20Buggy/March72009BuggyBuild031.jpg[/img

Had to chop out the bars to get engine to fit.

Question: As you can see in the last pic of the axles, to me it doesnt look like to hard of a angle. I havent measured it yet but to get the axles to the trans no more play up. I think if I run it this way I know Ill just snap cv's. I have here car inner and bus outer, its how I bought it. Would bus to bus give me more axle movement?

talk about 10lbs of stuff in a 5lb bucket. thats going to be a handfull. should be fun

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I have been curious about this engine for a buggy. We have a ton of toyota engines around here at the local pick and pull.

Great start. Looking forward to the finish.

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Bryan

Type 2 bus will give you more angle. Type 4 will give even more and still bolt directly to the bus flanges. 930 will give more angle but you need differnt flanges and stubs.

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"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." -Henry Ford

Thanks fortydegnorth. I had read some where about it but was a lil confusing what they were saying. Some people think there always on aim.


Yeah the engines around 340 LBS. Very tight fit!

Are the top trans mounts permant? That is not strong enough and the frame tube will cack where you drilled thru them. You have 4 pivot points with that setup. If so I would recommend a single 1/8' plate welded to the cross tube . If they are just mock up then disregard my thoughts.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

The top trans mount is pretty much only to stop side to side movement. I have 3 trans mounts front and back and one motor mount in the very back. I have a buddy running this exact same set up in his turbo echo tech with no problems.

Some more pics






Still have alot of work to do to get it ready for Memorial Weekend!

Got some work done this weekend. Made a radiator shroud and got the rad mounted in with the gas tank. Also cleaned up some hack jobs someone else did.

Lookin real good! Don't know if you know this, but make sure the fans are pullers not pushers. Definitly don't want hot fuel, bad atomization, and a puller will help blow air over the motor to help cooling. But from the pic's, looks like you already have that figured out.

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When in doubt, hit it in second gear!

yea the are reversible. they can be used as pusher or pullers. But I have it set up as pullers. Will prob end up getting a fuel cell and put it in the front of the buggy to try an counter balance all the v6 weight. But I just want to get it running for now.

That is going to be a cool buggy. I would leave the fuel tank where it is.(It is kind of protecting you from scalding radiator water) Offset the weight inbalance by lengthening the rear trailing arms. Longer trailing arms will also provide better ride, more suspension travel, and more ground clearence. IMHO.

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All that really matters is" How many pounds per horsepower ? "

Woo that big motor and that tranny sittin in the back is gonna make it a hell of a wheelie car. Might have to sit on the front end! Haha!

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Boyd Jordan
~< Rob Herring Pit Crew Chief >~
Memphis TN - - - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=840280415

I didnt think of that. Instead of re mounting stuff up front just put in longer trailing arms. Ill look into that then.

Boyd this is the buggy your steering wheel and stubs are going into haha.

Cool! I love wheelies! My wheelie parts become your wheelie parts! When your doing your trailing arms remember that the forwards or backwards angle in the axels has to be calculated into the total allowable dagrees of travel in the cv's. Example say your tranny drive cups sit 3 inches in front of your stub axel cups looking at it from front to back that is. And your total allowable dagrees in your cv's is 21. Well for every inch your forwards or backwards your cv cups are not lined up you have to subtract one dagree of travel from the total amount of travel in the cv's. So say tranny drive cups sit 3" further than the stub axel cups. Total allowable cv travel is 21 dagrees. So 21 dagrees - 3 dagrees (for the 3 inches of offset) = 18 dagrees of allowable travel in cv's. This is cause the axel is in a compound angle. Back 3 inches and down. Remember all this when choosing longer arms. Like, 6x3 or 5x4. Class dissmissed.... I think I confused myself... You have my number if you need this explained again! hahahaha i'm gonna go give my head a rest.

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Boyd Jordan
~< Rob Herring Pit Crew Chief >~
Memphis TN - - - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=840280415

Didnt know that. I thought your cups should be even so when I installed the motor an trans I tried to line them both up the best I could. So both cups are very close to even. I think whats causing me binding issues is the car outer cv. I think when I change to the bus I shouldnt have a prob. Going to test it like that and then if I start snapping cvs Im going to go to the 930.

The best thing to do is to line them up best you can with the trailing arms in there lowest travel position. But somewhere close makes a huge diff. Also putting the tranny as low on the frame horns as you can helps. What size arms did you go with?

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Boyd Jordan
~< Rob Herring Pit Crew Chief >~
Memphis TN - - - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=840280415

I didnt buy any arms yet. I think they are just beefed up stock arms. Just using what I have for now till I get everything running an usable. Then figure out what I dont like and need to change.

Ok cool cool! Well I'm sure all of us here are willing to help with any info we can.

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Boyd Jordan
~< Rob Herring Pit Crew Chief >~
Memphis TN - - - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=840280415

Thanks I always have lots of questions.

Took out the shiter set up and tryed again for the the 3rd time now haha. I copied Odyknucks setup. I like it alot better and it works but still dont like my shifter box setup. To much binding and play in it. So Im goin to order some new stuff an see if I like it better. 4th trys the charm right?! haha

Put a "U" joint were you welded the shafts together. The double hiems give you 2 stationary points so the shaft between them needs to float and the weld will only bind it and make it hard to shift.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

U joints on order. Just welded it to try it out. Works better than the previous 2 try's haha.

Went to the local vw swap meet this weekend. Got some parts and then got some work done. Got the seats mounted and pedal assembly. Tomorrow I hope to get the shifter set up done right and the turn brakes mounted.

Cool, neat setup! Not somethin' ya see everyday! Should be very reliable too. That's a huge plus. You gonna turbo it eventually or anything crazy? Keep us updated.
And Gary, that is one sweet shifter linkage you made, I like that alot. Slicker'n a minners p--ker.

-Dakotah/koko

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-Dakotah/koko
keep on keepin' on!!

Got everything brake and shifter wise done for the most part. Forth try on the shifter was the charm haha.