Are these "facts" correct?

DR SCHNITZEL · January 17, 2010, 04:07:16 PM

I have broke a FD into every component. which i found quite easy. apart from some subframe bolts were a "little" tight. Ive removed and fitted about 3/4 fd engines and done a single tub conversion all by myself so i should have the ability with plenty of reading.

The blowtorch helped with that. I think if i got the granny speed kit id hope. it would match up without problem to the chassis. then the v8/tranny would drop in ok bolt it up.

There are off the shelf solutions for the diff/propshaft, bracings, and exhausts, which should be fairly straightforward to fit. As im writing this im thinking for the costs involved it might be viable to get another rolling chassis and make a nuts stripped road legal / track car.

What are other popular v8 conversions with lots of off the shelf parts/ info.

DR SCHNITZEL · January 17, 2010, 04:10:26 PM

Great advice guys cheers

m1tch · January 17, 2010, 04:34:56 PM

I have got round my RX7\'s fuel consumption by buying a Mark 1 1.6L MX5

does 500 miles to a tank, so nearly 50mpg

so I can still have my RX7 doing 8mpg round town as well

It might actually be cheaper for you to keep your FD as is and get a 2nd car - maybe with a V8 in if you are wanting one, it might work out cheaper in the long run? Just an idea

DR SCHNITZEL · January 17, 2010, 05:30:14 PM

Quote from: m1tch;665910I have got round my RX7\'s fuel consumption by buying a Mark 1 1.6L MX5 does 500 miles to a tank, so nearly 50mpg so I can still have my RX7 doing 8mpg round town as well

It might actually be cheaper for you to keep your FD as is and get a 2nd car - maybe with a V8 in if you are wanting one, it might work out cheaper in the long run? Just an idea

I have a 1.8 16v lpg ford focus. :Viking but its boring

m1tch · January 17, 2010, 05:40:36 PM

Quote from: DR SCHNITZEL;665923I have a 1.8 16v lpg ford focus. :Viking but its boring

Exactly get a MX5

the mark 1 has popups

Spartacus · January 17, 2010, 06:52:26 PM

Quote from: clive;665767When you say not true, sorry you have made this sound like 15 mins of welding and away you go;), Sorry, what I meant by the 15 mins of welding was that this is the small part which I considered to be specialist, the rest of the work involved was nuts and bolts.
What about the fabrication work to make this possible like engine mounts exhaust let alone wiring etc etc, Engine mounts and a stainless exhaust are available off the shelf but I personally wouldn\'t recommend the purchase of the full exhaust system available, just the manifolds and Y pipe. As I\'ve said before, the hard part is the wiring but I did it without all the walkthroughs that there are around now. If you can use a multimeter and are not colour blind It\'s just 1 wire at a time. Also, us V8 conversion guys are a pretty friendly bunch and are always happy to help those who may get stuck. At the moment I am helping others in the UK, US, Canada and a couple more in Australia.
Good on ya that you have the skills to do this but as I say, many here even considering this will need to pay people just to disassemble let also fit something that shouldn\'t be fitted in as standard, Thanks for the compliment Clive, but I would say that this conversion isn\'t for anyone with absolutely no mechanical skills what so ever, but if you ever built an airfix kit, it isn\'t far off. Besides how do all these Rotary guys manage to mod their cars to the degree that they do without a clue what their doing? Also, Should they not have the confidence or the time I would recommend Craig (Tinker) who has converted more than his fair share.

As for the Diff and gearbox, if you get serious with a V8 the torque is going to rip these things apart, blimey a good Rotary will break a diff with no where near the torque of a V8 As Craig has mentioned, the standard diff copes really well even with the sort of torque the V8 can provide. Iâ€™m not sure if it\'s the better mounting of the nose of the diff that the conversion provides or itâ€™s something to do with the greater linearity of power delivery or even something to do with not having a ppf and giving the diff greater independence from the gearbox. Either way, from what I have seen the standard diff copes better that you would expect even when as the US guys would put it "you beat on it"

I thought the whole idea was to produce something quicker than a Rotary, sorry if its putting up with this it can\'t be being driven very hard either that or its a very soft V8 as you would know just because its a V8 it doesn\'t mean its got power in this emission strangling world, Clive as I\'m sure you are aware the "soft" LS1 V8 is still 350bhp with a similar amount of torque and that is with the full US emissions equipment which incidentally you can ditch (depending on year of FD it\'s transplanted to). So I think that would just about make it quicker than a standard rotary? If you want more power there are many other options available just as there are in the rotary world.
If its all being done for economy and it\'s never going to be driven or launched hard then maybe a 4 pot twin cam ford is the way to go, not meant to be offesive, just puzzled because "if" I did this I would want it to rip the tarmac up just like other stuff I\'ve owned. Everyone who does this conversion does it to suit their own requirements. For some, greater fuel economy is required, for others it would be to rip tarmac up, as luck would have it, you can have both! I did it as I wanted a cross between 2 of my previous cars, an original Lotus Elan and a Jensen Interceptor.
I spent a year wining with a Mustang that we had trouble keeping the axle fixed in the car, this is why me no understand that you have no real diff

I doubt the Mustang had the same rear suspension and diff design as the FD does. Maybe all Mazda needed to do was loose the PPF and better mount the diff that it already had? As for the Mustang, sorry I cant comment on that but after youâ€™ve seen what actually works with the conversion you could possibly go back and try again with the Mustang?

Anything else you or anyone else would like to know I\'ll do my best to help.

clive · January 17, 2010, 07:54:25 PM

Quote from: Spartacus;665946I doubt the Mustang had the same rear suspension and diff design as the FD does. Maybe all Mazda needed to do was loose the PPF and better mount the diff that it already had? As for the Mustang, sorry I cant comment on that but after you’ve seen what actually works with the conversion you could possibly go back and try again with the Mustang?

Anything else you or anyone else would like to know I\'ll do my best to help.

Ahh but the Mustang was a 10second car so it had just a little bit of power n torque, tied the axle into the cage, that cured it

Spartacus · January 17, 2010, 09:37:54 PM

Quote from: clive;665961Ahh but the Mustang was a 10second car so it had just a little bit of power n torque, tied the axle into the cage, that cured it

Good on you:Thumbs-up, see much can be achieved with a well located axle. Apparently the factory diff can withstand 60\' times of mid 1.3s for those that know about these things.............is that good then?

With that in mind and for those that are into racing in straight lines, one of the US conversion suppliers is now doing a live axle conversion for the FD to those who want to race with over 600 ft/lbs of torque.