Mopar Muscle Association UK

I started on the van this week....

All the front is stripped out, front panel is removed and the carpet and seats from the cab is stripped out. I am doing this the hard way, and not lifting the front of the van off its front suspension and cross member, this is due to my lifting frame deciding to fold on me , which frightened the poo out of me and set me back quite a bit.

I have had to remove the engine from the big hole in the front which was not as easy as it sounds. I was going to remove the head first so I just had to lift the block out, but some of the head bolts are under the exhaust manifold and all the bolt heads for that have rusted away to nowt, so the cooked 1800 had to come out in one piece .

Bloody stupid place to put an engine!!!
I have just finished cutting the old engine mounts out and hopefully I will have new mounts and V8 block in by the time I decide I can't be bothered any more this afternoon .

Thanks again to Mark (Dustymopar) for the use of the engine lift and to TrevD for the ally work he's doing for me.

Engine mount now cut off and the metal work that surrounds the engine has been cleaned and painted black. I will do the rest of the bulkhead when I fit halogen headlamps.

I have removed the water tank from under the van as this was in the way of the new transmission and guess what? It was very full, of very stagnant water and it went everywhere , so I jumped in the shower quick. The van had been standing for 5 years when I bought it and I didn't put the water in there , I bet there was some lovely infections/illnesses waiting to happen in there.

nice work Stu, so the new lump goes in in the morning i hope.

No mate, next week as its mothers day tomorrow and we're out for the day. I was hoping to have the block and transmission in place today but that was ruined by the tank of smelly water .

Hi Finger's, whats the game plan for the van, i might of missed another thread on this.

Rogue Trooper wrote:Hi Finger's, whats the game plan for the van, i might of missed another thread on this.

Evening, the plan at the mo is to fit a Rover 3500 V8 and auto box from a '79 Rover SD1, with a Holley 2BBL carb. The back axle will end up being Chevy and I will have the front hubs altered to take Chevy wheels too.
I bought the CF in September when I changed jobs as I no longer work weekends, and while driving it home from Kent on the day of purchase, I couldn't help but notice it was doing approx 12-14mpg and had a top speed of 50mph . At that point I decided she needs a V8 motor, if she's going to be crap on fuel she may as well do it quickly . When the engine is in I will be on the look out for some replacement doors as they are all rotten and I will be re-spraying her in the same navy blue she is now, and my good lady Jo is going to paint some WW2 style nose art on her .

Great stuff Stu - keep the photies comin

Keep it up Stu,hope those chevy front hubs will take some good brakes too,not the stock cf drums ..

Late CF that we had used discs up front... 81 ish onwards.

As far as I am aware all CF2's had front discs, but they're still like hens teeth .

She did stop on a sixpence on the drums she has but that was never from any great speed.

Looks like a trying task you've taken on there! Good luck with it all.
I had a CF camper with a 2.0 petrol, that never got over 20mpg!

my CF had drums and had no problems stopping, drums are good if set up right.

What I might do is clean the breaks out and set them up properly and give it a run and see how she stops. Even with the V8 in it we will not be hurtling around in it as at the end of the day, its still a van. The Satellite stops okay and thats got drums all round and no servo.

Went out to do a bit more today, this job really should be done by 2 people but nevermind. I bolted the gearbox to the engine so I know everything is ligned up when I weld in the new engine mounts. I started to slide the engine into place, and it got this far before it got stuck...

The gearbox has got wedged between the cross member where the old gearbox mounted and the floor. So I now need to roll around under the van to remove the cross member and relocate it where it needs to be for the Borg Warner box, and its bloody raining . I need a workshop!!

sorted the manifold for stu to use a 2bbl holley