My First Car 73 Vega Project

[cpettersen73]

thx for telling me, well rust in hatch isnt as bad as the windsheld so not a huge issue

[bugdewde]

Dave's Vega Village up in British Columbia used to have some front and rear valances that he'd parted off of cars for years...... he even had some that he made out of fiberglass.
gmagilla on here also makes some rear ones out of metal.
I believe Chris Wheaton on here also made an early front valance out of fiberglass, too.


Here's gmagilla's post. Occasionally, he posts one up for sale. If you shoot him a private message I'm sure he'd try to get you one soon. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=39084

Chris Wheaton (VegaMods.com) made parts for the Cosworth guys but he just made a front valance for an early car....... viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35690&start=15

Dave's Vega Village post here...... viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37240

[Ocelotzorz]

Very coool project i got my astre when i was 16 so you have me beat by a year . you might want to look at motors that already come with turbos like a 1.8t or a saab b234(9000). the VW community and aftermarket is very strong so you can get a kit for just about anything, acme also makes a toyota trans rwd kit for the vw 4cly . The saab motor is great because they came with forged internals from the factory its just a matter of bigger turbo, injectors, intercooler, and map and they will hold a reliable 400 hp.

[cpettersen73]

i know ive been bouncing back and forth quie a it on powertrain for a while so im just gonna say nothings fr certain until i find something for a decent price in my area, this last couple weeks ive been sanding on the front end of the car, the front end that came on it had a ton of bondo so i just bolted on the extra panels that were in the car when i bought it, it came with an extra set of front fenders and an extra front header panel, all three appear to be pretty solid, going to save the old panels because, well its my first car so if the front end ever gets hurt i have spares haha, anyways still not descided on powertrain and honestly im open to suggestions. thanks fr the input from everyone its been helpful

[Smiley]

For somthing other than a V8, I would look for a Honda S2000 motor and trans,RWD, 237 hp, 6 speed manual.
Not cheap but more like what the Cosworth should have had under the hood.

For a cheaper/purist combo build a stock Vega motor:use iron sleeves in the block and add forged pistons, GT 2bbl or use a 390 cfm vac sec Holley 4 bbl on a Vega Offy intake, Crane cam with solid tappets,HEI distributor and a Hooker Header. Tracking down the parts is half the fun.
Note use the correct new valve springs when going to a bigger camshaft, I dropped a valve into a stock cast piston at high rpm due to valve spring failure.
While most forged pistons will bend the valve, cast pistons cave in and crumble into the oil pan.

[cpettersen73]

some more pics of work ive been doing got windshield and hatch glass out since these are the two major rust spots on this car also found a big patch in the batery box are i was considering relocating the battery to the back anyways so not a big problem saw a couple SC 3800 v6s out in my local pick'n'pull and was wondering what kind of work would be nescesary for this motor to be swapped into an h body i just dont want to get started on something and get in way over my head ive seen a couple threads on peple who were considering the swap but none where its actually been completed also was wondering about the complications of a 3.4 DOHC LQ1 type swap neither of these is a solid possibility yet im just asking mainly out of curiosity

[cpettersen73]

well made some progress, started peeling out old sound deadening material and plan to replace with dynamat or something similar in the future, pulled off rear bumper and liscense plate mount, working on taking off old AC unit for reasons that will be obvious soon, did a whole cleaning of the front and rear suspensions of the car by putting it up on jackstands and using the shop-vac to get rid of some of the spider webs, ok so heres where it gets interesting about a week ago i went out to my local pick and pull with the intention to pull a 3800 v6 i had seen out there, it had 200,000 miles on the odometer so i was expecting it to be a complete engine rebuild, i went out there with 450 dollars, after they had originally told me 350 i brought a bit extra because i assumed they would add on the extra components such as the alternator. ac compressor and all the other crap they use as an excuse to take more money from you, so i get out there, and first off they dont let me in because i didnt have ID, since when do you need an ID to get into a junk yard? and then i figured my dad and my brother who had came with me could pull the motor without me, well long story short after they added all the "extras" they wanted... wait for it.. $850!! for a core essentially, so i simply said forget it and assumed that was just the end of the day, but then my dad, seeing that i was looking down suggested that we go to the self service yard about half an hour outside of town, we went out there and found this ford SHO taurus, and my dad said "hey cam this would be kind of a cool high revving little motor for your vega" we asked about the price and they said $225 for the whole deal wiring, ECU and the motor, so i figured i couldnt lose at that price, well 4 hours and about seven pepsis later we had dropped the whole subframe from the taurus and had the motor in the truck, 120,00 miles and the thing was clean as a whistle, all the fluids that were left in it were clean too, im pretty sure this thing doesnt even need a rebuild, the car was parked for a bad clutch, and i know what alot of people are gonna say "sacrilage" "ford in a chevy" "blasphemy" but hey technically the whole top end is yamaha.... if that is in fact any less sacriligous. and that means the whole bottom end is good old ford v6 which means the 5 speed from any RWD t bird, ranger truck, or mini van will work, intending on puling the trans from a supercoupe that was across the row from the SHO i got the motor from. any complications to this swap i should be worried about, fab work not a huge problem, my dad has a lot of fabricator friends that have known me my whole life and would be glad to help me out. any input is apreciated... wow this was a long post.

[BillPappy]

Grind off the ford label. I Might be able to live wit it.

[T-FATTY]

As said before, fill or grind ford off. Those are very strong motors, looking forward to your build.

[Smiley]

There was an issue with the cams needing to be welded on V8 SHO motors,
the camshaft gears over time start to slip on the camshaft. They tend to "walk" themselves down the camshaft. Overtime, they will completely let loose from the camshaft, and this will cause your valves to hit your pistons, resulting in complete and catostrophic engine failure. Welding the cams is pretty much a necessity to get the full life out of your 3.4L. Many shops in the United States are more then qualified to get this job done, you can look at http://www.v8sho.com for a list of qualified shops.
I would check that it was fixed before running it, otherwise sounds like a cool swap. I don't think there are any bolt on rear wheel drive transmissions for the SHO V8 but you could always put it in the back seat.....

[cpettersen73]

grinding off the ford marking was a part of the plan and about the RWD trans the SHO v6 is just a ford 3.0L v6 with yamaha desined heads and intake if im not mistaken so the trans from a RWD ford v6 should work, some issues ive seen so far are that the intake on the motor is very long, 31 inches to be exact, which is almost as long as the vega engine bay, but i think ill still have enough room, also the throttlebody, being setup for a FWD aplication, faces the same direction as the bellhousing, but the intake is in fact capable of being rotated around to face the right direction, so long as new brackets are made for all the electronics that mount on the intake manifold.

[vegastre]

... wow this was a long post.

Great reading,
I really like the 'goforit' attitude. Start out the day looking for a 3800 and wind up with a SHO Ford V6. What's not to like about this swap? Leave the Ford name on it. I like Fords. Lots of measuring but hey, the challenge is in the journey not the destination. Hmmm, or something like that =)

[Smiley]

Ah I was looking at the runners and thought it was the V8, the SHO V6 did not have the cam problemsof the later ones and should be easier to fit in there. A T5 should bolt on for RWD installs.I drove a V6 SHO when they came out, nice motor.

[cpettersen73]

yep, i think this should be a pretty decent swap, im hoping to go get the trans as well as the windshield and some interior parts in the next couple weeks, hoping to make alot of progress on the car this summer because im getting my permit in about 20 days and my liscense 6 months after that and id like to be able to drive it during high school, i think the main challenge is going to be the windshield channel rust, but i think i know enough people with experience to help me out and make the job a bit easier, a quick question will the interior parts (door panels, kick panels, seats, etc) from a later hatchback vega work with my car? thanks for all input yet again

[Smiley]

Most of the interior trim should work from all Vega or Astre hatchbacks 71 to 77.