Wes's 1965 Vauxhall Viva

This is a 1965 Vauxhall Viva that was sitting around my farm for about 20 years.
This is just after I got it running. I drove it about 1/2 a mile to the main yard.
Whats so special about this car you might ask? Well it had a 9 horse Briggs & Stratton auger engine mounted on it. And believe it or not I could get 20 mph out of it in 3rd (thats as high as that engine could do.)

The Unsuccessful Upgrade

This picture was taken right after I placed a 12 horse Kholer Auger engine in it. Now I can only get about 10 mph. In 4th.
So my next step is to put a 90 cc 2 cycle Suzuki dirtbike engine in it. (why? Higher RPMs)
That is after we get our new shop up.

Project Vauxhall Revisited

Ok we've got the new shop up, and scratch the 90 cc engine, now I've got plans to jam a V4 Wisconsin swather engine in there (torque monster haha, picked that up while loading junk a few years back). Tried starting it tonight but got no-where.

Pulled out the old block and mounts to prepare to begin to figure out how I'm going to mount that monster of an engine.

Lifted up the car, and pulled off the front wheels for easier access to whatever I need to access. (note my new Creeper)

Tore off all of the tin shields on the engine so I could clean out the 20 years of mouse nest, not too sure if I want to put all of the shields back on yet. Did I mention this engine is air cooled, thats kinda handy, I can always use more space to work with under the hood.

The Accident (Feb. 14, 2004)

I was checking for spark when I hit the starter and the battery exploded two feet from my head. I couldn't hear for a few days.

There where pieces of plastic blown all over the shop. The cool thing was I caught it all on tape. So I am going to get some stills for the site.

You can't see it but there is a stuck valve in there, and the other one beside it is the same.

This is a picture of what I found while loosening up those valves, yep its a broken piston, i'm not going to worry about it for now, but if the time comes I need to replace it, I believe the cylinder separates from the block.

Ok so now I am setting the engine in to see if it will fit...

The old school motor mounts where in the way, so... we cut them out.

I discovered that the engine shaft sat higher than the transmission did.

So what we did was, cut out the "tranny tunnel" so we could raise the tranny high enough to mount it to the engine.

I tacked the tranny tunnel about 2 inches higher with some old scraps. But later decided to take it out again until I have the engine and tranny together.

I made a plate to build a shield to support the tranny on the engine. Just need one on the engine now and a piece of 6 inch pipe.

Another view.

Figured I'd do some more work on the Vauxhall for a while, so I decided to tackle the job of repairing some sheet metal.

I cut an old piece of sheet metal off of an old scrap car then cut it and started welding it in with the mig.

This is after alot of filler, working, sanding, some primer and paint.

It has finally been made, the one and only coupler to mount a 108 cubic inch Wisconsin V4 to a 4 speed Vauxhall tranny.

Paint, anyone?

Any questions or suggestions about it Please Respond Maybe I'll get some better ideas.
And before anyone says something about this, the original engine is srewed and I can't get parts.