1968 Viva HB + Mazda quadcam V6 - now sold to a good home!

[yoeddynz]

Edit; It seems to be that many images I had hosted by Imageshack are missing. I have tried to retrieve them back but they are gone gone.. curse word. Plus Imageshack now want monies to host photos. :-( Then Photofuckit decided that after years of free hosting service it will start charging $400. So please excuse the missing photos as I slowly swap in replacements :-)

Hello! I have owned this little Viva for a while but only finally got around to actually working on it. I have finally started getting a proper move on with it in the last month or so. Getting excited about having it ready for summer shows.









Last year while still living in England I bought an old rusty Rx7 from a friend who owns the oldest Mazda dealership in the UK. It was a rare Elford Turbo series 2 rx7.

The Elford Turbo was a Mazda approved conversions by a dealership in Bournemouth. It only runs at 5psi- enough though to add 40 ponies and a load more torque.

Which is nice.

The Rx7 behind our faithful old BMW 525tds wagon, the rust, the engine...











Here is some info on it... not a lot out there really.



books.google.co.nz/books?id=UDHl8kXiaccC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=elford+turbo&source=bl&ots=QcnD4WApUs&sig=FgrchpIzSVOqfgOqTtjaP1GsDDM&hl=en&ei=KlDES9HbK47AMtWs5K4O&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAUQ6AEwADgU#v=onepage&q=elford turbo&f=false

He had rebuilt the engine fully using all new parts (handy when you own a dealership eh) a few years back but the body work had become tired so I got the car at a very nice price. Engine is barely run in. By the time I had sold loads of other bits and pieces from the rx7 (koni shocks, springs, interior bits) I made back enough money that all the parts I needed only cost me £50!!! £50 for a rebuilt engine...I was very happy. So all the parts went in a container back to NZ. I had also got some spax shocks before leaving- spax were just 5 miles up the road from where I lived so it was rude not to.

My Viva started off as a standard deluxe with the little 1100 engine. This just had to go.



It was burning a lot of oil (about a pint every 100 miles) and was no fun at all. I then fitted a 1660 ford xflo from an escort. I rebuilt it with a sport cam, brand new weber32/36, brand new 'Bestek' electronic ignition setup.

Ford engine going in...



Engine mounts lined up nicely..







It ran very well indeed but still felt a tad agricultural compared to the rotary engines I had become used to. While I was fitting the xflo and the engine bay was empty I slung a rotary in there just for a look. I knew as soon as I slung the 12A into the bay that a rotary would be a nice conversion. The gearbox mount sat bang in the middle of the original g/box support and there seemed plenty enough room in the bay for exhaust building etc. Good clearance around the tunnel.





i57.photobucket.com/albums/g226/yoeddynz/gboxmountbangon.jpg[/

So after a while of driving around with the xflo I decided to crack on with the conversion to rotary. I sold the ford engine to a fella with an escort looking for an engine. Got really good money for it too! He came round and after seeing the engine run helped me pull it out...








I bought some goodies from a fellow Vauxhall nutter here in NZ including an 1800 axle, big 3.3 Vauxhall Ventora front discs on modified lower arms, a brake servo.

I got these seats as I just couldn't get along with the originals. I don't really like the idea of losing my neck from someone rear ending me. It does and probably will happen so head rests are a must for me. So out with these old seats...



Then in with these Momo seats. They are out of an Alfa GTV and match almost perfectly!- I'm really happy because its not often I see modern seats with the 'fluted?' style of cover to match the rear seat. Colour match is almost spot on too!



I have now removed the seats and my original mounts as I will have to redo the mountings for when it comes to being certified.

I have also had to deal with some rust. Just a bit on one arch. I cut it out and welded fresh steel in. As always it turned out to be worse than I first thought so I'm glad I've done it now!!! Its all painted now. There is one little bit on the offside wing, a little bubble, that I am going to leave. I'll paint behind it with epoxy paint and see how long it takes before the skin breaks. I don't want to touch it now because I'll never get a decent match on the paint for that area. I shall treat it as a little experiment as interested to see how long it stays confined/encapsulated by the paint.

[yoeddynz]

So about 3 months ago I did this...



No going back now- I dropped the front crossmember out...nice and easy on a Viva- 2 bolts, 2 nuts and steering coupling. Once off and on the floor I drilled out the spot welds holding the engine mount brackets. Off they came and now its all set to properly drop the rotary in place and see if the turbo fits... 8)





The turbo setup will fit BUT... no way can I fit standard brake servo etc. I would have to go remote servo.

The steering column doesn't need moving which is nice. The rubber coupling just fouls the manifold and would not last long- so a metal joint here would sort that...



The sump needs some chopping about the steering column on one side.

There is enough room for the mazda clutch master with turbo in place- just ;D

The SU carb on turbo setup just touches the battery tray so the tray would go and battery in boot.

And once I shorten gearstick remote the gearstick will pop out in a nice handy place.... I'm gonna take the top off the tunnel anyway to give a touch more clearance on box.

The bottom arms do not have sway bar mounts on them- well they do now. The same guy has lent me some spares to copy so I cut some 3mm steel to shape and bent in the vice- hey presto- factory mounts.



Welded them in and now all they need is a wire brush with a lick of paint.



One day when I have a lot of money I would love to get some lightweight calipers. I could machine my own hubs if I had a lathe (one day) and then have a nice light brake set up because these ones are very heavy.

Oh- and I have some new wheels. These ones are 13" off a vauxhall victor. They still not wide enough but that will get sorted one day. I reckon they look wicked with the 185/60 toyos (not so stretched...) fitted. They came with quite nice flat faced s/s hubcaps but I was well happy to discover the shiny chrome dome caps off my 12" snap in place perfect.

[yoeddynz]

I decided I had better get shifting on this wee car or we'll miss another summer of driving it. Nice hot sunny day for it too..



Marked the sump for some cuttingwhere it sits next to the steering rack/column junction. It possibly wont touch but I'd rather not risk it. I'll also remove the oil level warning gubbins and add a baffle.

Then removed the engine/box so i can cut the top of tunnel off- it only needs to be about an inch higher. Luckily the tunnel is really easy to get too as there is no heater in the way on Vivas, the heater being mounted up on the firewall in the bay.

We took out the front suspension and little discs etc.

Hannah found some rust behind the bumper mount so I cut it out...



There were two skins leading to a water trap. I cut one thick piece of steel to replace it with. nuts welded on back..



Then welded up, ground down and painted.



After doing that it was on with the big 'ol Victor discs and hubs, heftier springs.



Its good to be finally working on a classic again. After doing the engine swap in the hiace this is so easy to work on!!!

A friend told me that there a load of guys in town planning to all have the their project cars on the road for around christmas and do some runs. Plus lots of shows to go in 2011.

Next the axle. I had got my hands on a nice strong 1800 magnum jobbie. With big drums. Gave it a good scrub in the evening sun. Painted black now and sitting under the vivas bum where it should be. I also scored a pair of shorter springs- this is a bonus as Viva's have funny shaped coils that you cant just chop down. So now my Viva sits about 2" lower I think they are stiffer too- certainly were way less rusty!



Next job is to remove the seats and cut the top of the tunnel off so I can lift the gear box 1.5 " and make some engine mounts. Looking forwards to having it sat in there on its own mounts!

[yoeddynz]

more to come- just have to sort through photos! I'm excited- finally progress!!!

[Seth]

Great work

Quick tip:



Rather than cutting that wedge in this repair section to makea coarse "bend", if you hammered along the top edge (when it was still off the car obviously) it would stretch the metal in that area and make the arch lip curve the right way. Similar to what I did here:

[yoeddynz]

ahhh. Sort of like thinning the metal so it grows. Cheers! Every day is a school day. My panel beating skills are still very basic. Yesterday I cut out a previous repair job i did ages back and re-did it but took it slower and did a much neater job. So satisfying.:-)

[oli8925]

Wow, that is a minty fresh and very interior. Love it!

Some great work going on here and it's going to be quite something with an RX7 in there. Interesting to see some of the little differences between HB and HC too.

I've been meaning to research anti-roll bars so just as well I saw this, doesn't look like too bad a job to fab some mounts up, where does the other end mount to?

Keep up the good work

[yoeddynz]

oh yeah. The sway bar. Another thing i learned but too late.. I have gone and mounted the lower arms on the wrong side! I thought the sway bar comes from the front. But nup- its comes from the back. No biggy, i.ll have to swap the lower arms over. Luckily they are identical! I think hc's have exactly the same parts on the front? Someone will correct me if i'm wrong.

[oli8925]

Yeah HCs do. It's something I can never remember, which way the sway bar goes. Now I think about it, it mounts onto the rear arm of the cross member just in front of the control rod doesn't it? Definitely something I'm going to have to get around to.

[yoeddynz]

Yeah thats right. Its just for some reason I thought HB gts had it mounted from the front?! Oh well. Anyway- shouldn't you be out in your warm garage? warm because its insulated by snow....

I had to get up early as we doing roof stuff on truck and it will be too hot to be up there later. It can be tough dealing with sunshine....

[oli8925]

Got back from Uni too late and I think the girlfriend would kill me (she picked me up because the buses weren't running). Will be in the garage tomorrow though and it certainly won't be warm. I lost feeling in my fingers and toes the past two weeks, and today my girlfriends Corsa says -6ºc. Tis cold!

I feel very very sorry for you and your sunshine

[yoeddynz]

Not a cloud in the sky! No shade.

[craig]

Nice bit of welding on the bottom arms! That's UK rust isn't it? Dosen't look like NZ rust.

[yoeddynz]

hopefully they might stiffen up the front suspension- i guess every thing helps. but must replace all the bushes sometime- quite shocking how much they cost though!

[leigh]

Love this little thing Alex, it really is getting quite the transformation. So jealous of your weather though!

[carmad]

woo hooo your going turbo after all

[yoeddynz]

Carmad- I'm still not 100% on turbo yet- but very seriously thinking about it. Its a whole new world out there for me when it comes to turbos- I'll post up some pics later as I have questions about the turbo- it has a external waste gate cast into the manifold and I'm not sure about how to go around building my own manifold and including it. I'm sure its bloody simple! It would be so cool though- if only cause the install has lots of bits of cast alloy I would love to polish whilst drinking beer And that its such a funky oldschool carb setup.

Anyway....I want to put in plenty of detail here for fellow viva owners in the UK. Mazda rotary engines are the bargain of the century in the UK. Whether the 12A (110-120 bhp) from early series 1, 2 or 3 rx7's or the 13B injected or 13 turbo (200 +++bhp) ones from the series 4, 5 rx7 or the 13B twin turbo (260-1000! BHP) beasts out of the series 6 onwards. The 13Bs are block mounted like most engines but just need the front cover swapped over from the 12A to use the same mounting system as I am doing here ( the oldschool way)

A good working 12A can quite often be had for £100. But they will get hard to get soon. The injected 13B (150bhp) is a very easy one to wire in- I think 3 wires to power up its stand alone ecu?

Gear boxes all fit each other- the series 2/3 are easy to move gearstick forwards 100mm if needed.


I have cut the tunnel top off. This is quite often the case- it was with my chevette too. Its due to the rotary having a higher crank and hence centre line of the g/box is a bit higher. Luckily it only needed the very top whipped off. With gearbox lifted, sump sitting on some thin blocks of wood on the viva crossmember a spirit level sat on top of Nikki carb manifold is almost level.

While engine was sat in place I marked the sump where it was touch the steering rack. Off with the sump and I chopped out a notch then welded in new steel. Back on and it fits perfectly.



I then bought some steel from my old work and started on the engine crossmember. I was all set to have to make a breast plate too.( This is engine mount thing mounted to the front cover that sit on top of the engine mounts) I was positive that I had brought one over from the UK with me but I looked and looked and just couldn't find it! But just as I was about to start making one whilst searching for something else I found it sitting in a box right at the back under the bench! I was so happy to find it as it would have been a pain to make.

I started off by drilling two holes a side through each chassis rail. I used a bigger bit on the inside face and welded in some tube so the rails wont crush when the bolts are done up tight.





Then I hung 80 x 6mm plate down from each side and lined up a length of 50 x 25 x 3mm rhs between them. Nice hefty welds and some reinforcing plates on each side to stop sideways movement. The N/S reinforcing plate has a hole through it for the oil cooler pipes.

The cross member has to drop quite far as the viva has quite high chassis rails. Once it was all bolted up it is nice and strong- if slightly over built.

The gearbox was easy- just some 35 mm box section bolted in between the mazda g/box mount and the Viva g/box support. Simple. It was great to step back and see the lot sitting there on its own mounts! Out with the engine again- which is very easy to hoist in and out.



Next job was the clutch master cylinder placement and modifications to the pedal box. As the Viva is originally a cable operated clutch I had to do a redesign of the whole lot. I started by chopping off the clutch pedal from the viva pedal box and fitting in its place a RX7 clutch pedal - with its fulcrum mounted higher up. I made an adjustable stop for it too so I can set the pedal heights.

Then I filled in all the various holes on the firewall that were not to be used and made an extra big hole for the new rx7 master cylinder I had bought to go through. This was the longest part of the mods as my smallest hole saw was broken and I wasn't about to buy a new one for just one job.

To fill in the smaller 5/16 bolts holes I cut little thin discs off a long bolt and held them in place with a magnet so they sat flush before tacking in place. Beats my old way of just filling in the hole from the edge with tonnes of weld!

Bolts are welded onto the back and protrude through the firewall. The master cylinder mounting holes were threaded- I drilled them out and it now slides in place onto the studs easily.

Sadly no photos can be found :-(

I chopped the bottom off the Viva brake pedal and the bottom rx7 pedal fitted in place perfect for good strong welds. Now both pedals match. I set them both a bit lower too as I always found the Viva pedals to high off the floor. I will use an HC accelerator pedal assembly as its all one unit that bolts to the floor and is bottom hinged which I prefer.

The clutch pedal works perfect so i am well happy with it.


On friday I removed the battery tray. It looked at first like it was hiding rust but luckily after a good wire brush session it was deemed solid. I welded up a load of old screw holes and cut off any tabs or bits I didn't need then ground the lot smooth. Some filler and sanding to do but its looking much better without the battery tray there and if i Do go down the way of the Elford turbo i'll have plenty of room to point the carb!

I also cut out the stamped profile on the front valance for extra cooling that the GTs have. This will be needed as standard airflow is not great at all. It was an easy neat job to do with my jigsaw. I will put some mesh behind it to stop stones etc.


Any neat ideas on how to hold the mesh in place from behind with out having any fastners visible from outside would be great- I was thinking of welding some small nuts to the inside of the valance then bolting a strip of steel top and bottom?

[yoeddynz]

Today after a very relaxed hot sunday morning I set to work on shortening the gear box remote. Sorry but a few photos missing.

First undo the 4 bolts holding cover plate on remote then undo the bolt holding the hub thing for the gearstick ball end thing- GSBE- ( techy terms I know).


Then undo the 4 bolts holding the remote in place. There are two pins locating it so it has to be lifted up with large persuasive flatblade screwdrivers. Then hammer it off backwards. The GSBE will come off shaft with it. Remove the pins - they wont be needed and wont line up anyway once remote is shortened.



Mark on shaft a centre 103mm forwards of existing hole. Set up and drill 5mm hole- taking much care to keep it lined up straight with the existing hole. If its out it makes getting reverse a pig.





Then drill halfway in with 6mm. then tap hole M6 x 1

Now cut off remaining shaft. Also cut down remote housing and shorten shaft tube by 103mm. Make a new seal at one end with electrical tape wrapped round it till its a tight fit.


Reassemble and hey presto- a gear stick 100 mm further forwards- which pops it up nicely to hand in chevettes, vivas plus older 4speed rotary mazdas.

I then spent some time out in the afternoon sun (30d today!) cleaning up the outside and giving it a quick polish - I cxan think of worse things to do with a beer in hand... ;D



I followed this with a bit of sanding of in the engine bay. Vivas have got handy seats to sit on when no engine is in there.

[pbottomley]

Excellent pictures ;D I have already copied and the last ones to "this is how I have to do it " folder on my hard drive... Alas those god awful legs will have to go !

Just that small issue of the HA being a hell of a lot narrower than a HB, but I am sure my hammer set can adjust things as needed...OR do I use my spare HB shell and just copy things.... questions questions

Good to see the adjustment on the gearbox leaver, I assume this will get the stick in line with the hole in the tunnel, having seen how long the gearboxes were I suspected it would of been like driving a land rover 101 ?

On my time scale I think I should have started it by the time your back over here Alex, how do you cope with all the blood rushing to your head being upside down all the time?

[Steve]

Some quality work happening here, I'm most impressed

Another vote for Elford setup right here......you know it makes sense!

Steve