vauxhallviva.com

Well I need more advise - I'm afraid you are going to have to get used to this level of nagging from me

I am trying to fit a zetec engine into the viva, now the big, obvious problem I have is the engine mounts. I phoned up john sharpe and had a quick word with him (what a top bloke!) and he said the easiest way would be to get escort WC cross member and modify it to fit the viva and then use the existing mounts on that to mount the engine. I am now trying to figure out what this would involve. Any help on this idea or any better ideas would be most thankfully received.

Thanks gang!

Surely it would be easier to get some mounts fabricated to fit, we put zetecs and duratecs in all types of kit cars and find the best thing is to offer up the engine in the right position then measure and make the mounts to suit.
I'm planning on something similar myself and although i love the Zetec i will probably go with a 2litre XE or if there is room maybe a V6 form an Omega just to stick with Vauxhall bits.

Chuck in a 2l dohc Rover turbo lump like the one in the 800 I'm smoking about in. 180 bhp standard and if you get a pre 95 then 220 is possible by just winding up the boost and sticking in a bigger intercooler(all on a T25!). If I had the guts (and a Viva) that's what I'd be doing. The Rover engines are often used in kit cars so loads of rwd conversion bits are available.

Gotta say that "chucking a world cup Xmember" is a Daft suggestion. The viva is COMPLETELY unsuitable as its a twin wishbone setup, not a McPherson Strut design. The work involved will be extensive to say the least. Its not too hard to fabricate engine mounts. A few heavy gauge plates, some rubbers and a bit of box section (and a welder) will usually provide what you need. The fun with the zetec is the engine mounts around the exhaust pipe side of the engine.
Good luck
Tony(HA21)

Absolutely, I second that, Escort X-member isn't compatible with the Viva by *any* stretch of the imagination, well short of welding
the front half of an Escort to the back half of a Viva anyway!
.
Sid

----- Original Message -----
From: "lambaj" <antony.lamb@selex-sas.com>
To: <modification@vauxhallviva.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 4:49 PM
Subject: Zetec conversion help.

Gotta say that "chucking a world cup Xmember" is a Daft suggestion. The viva is COMPLETELY unsuitable as its a twin wishbone
setup, not a McPherson Strut design. The work involved will be extensive to say the least. Its not too hard to fabricate engine
mounts. A few heavy gauge plates, some rubbers and a bit of box section (and a welder) will usually provide what you need. The
fun with the zetec is the engine mounts around the exhaust pipe side of the engine.
Good luck

This post was made via email to the Vauxhall Viva Owners Club \n Visit us at www.vauxhallviva.com\vivaforum

Absolutely, I second that, Escort X-member isn't compatible with the Viva by *any* stretch of the imagination, well short of welding
the front half of an Escort to the back half of a Viva anyway!
.
Sid

----- Original Message -----
From: "lambaj" <antony.lamb@selex-sas.com>
To: <modification@vauxhallviva.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 4:49 PM
Subject: Zetec conversion help.

Gotta say that "chucking a world cup Xmember" is a Daft suggestion. The viva is COMPLETELY unsuitable as its a twin wishbone
setup, not a McPherson Strut design. The work involved will be extensive to say the least. Its not too hard to fabricate engine
mounts. A few heavy gauge plates, some rubbers and a bit of box section (and a welder) will usually provide what you need. The
fun with the zetec is the engine mounts around the exhaust pipe side of the engine.
Good luck

This post was made via email to the Vauxhall Viva Owners Club \n Visit us at www.vauxhallviva.com\vivaforum

I think I have figured out the solution to the problem. As soon as new engine mounts arrive I will see what needs to be done to get them to fit.

Tigran

Chucking a world cup Xmember into a viva is NOT a daft suggestion, the cross member mounts between the chassis rails so it does not matter what type of suspension you have.
Fitting world cup "mounts" to your viva cross member is the better way to go, you can then buy for about £30 a pair of professionally made engine mounts to fit almost any engine into your modified cross member.
As you initially say Jon Sharp is a top engineer when it comes to modifying vivas. You only need to look at the quality of his cars to realise this.

Edd

If we're talking HB/HC then the Viva's chassis rails are higher up and closer together than the Escort's so I still cant see what
possible use the world-cup x-member would be on a Viva, as it would need extensively modifying to fit otherwise the mounts would sit
too high anyway.
All this is probably academic anyway as surely it would also foul the vivas own crossmember, which *is* an integral part of the
suspension.

It's far easier simply to fabricate mounts or mount adaptors straight to the Viva crossmember.

Sid

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edd_V6" <eddv6@klaxton.freeserve.co.uk>
To: <modification@vauxhallviva.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 2:15 PM
Subject: Zetec conversion help.

Tigran

Chucking a world cup Xmember into a viva is NOT a daft suggestion, the cross member mounts between the chassis rails so it does
not matter what type of suspension you have.
Fitting world cup "mounts" to your viva cross member is the better way to go, you can then buy for about £30 a pair of
professionally made engine mounts to fit almost any engine into your modified cross member.
As you initially say Jon Sharp is a top engineer when it comes to modifying vivas. You only need to look at the quality of his
cars to realise this.

Edd

This post was made via email to the Vauxhall Viva Owners Club \n Visit us at www.vauxhallviva.com\vivaforum

Edd, Ok Ok, Sorry. No offence meant. Please explain this to me...... fitting a WCX in place of the original viva one will provide a great set of engine mounts - Simple enough, BUT the WCX provides only a TCA mounting, and nothing else...... where are the viva twin wishbones, spring platforms, damper mounts etc all going to go ? This is why I called the idea daft. Yes you could mod the car to macpherson struts with a huge amount of work for no benefit, or forget the idea and do as we both suggested and fit decent custom mounts to the original Xmember !

I wish to add that I never called into question the reputation and quality of Jons work, just that I thought the idea daft as it adds massive complexity and cost to the relativley cheap and simple task of fitting good engine mounts to a perfectly good crossmember. Maybe the answer got lost in the translation ??

Cheers all

Tony (HA21)