After I sold my RX3 coupe I had restored 2 years back to another Kiwi in London I got itchy spanner fingers.... So I got cracking on with my Viva that I had bought before the RX3 came along.

The HB Viva is a fairly common car in the UK and theres a few left in NZ too. Not as common as the HC Viva which came out after. I think HBs were sold in Canada but not in the US. In Australia they were rebadged as a Holden HB Torana.

Here it is when i first got it home- in the background is my old 12A powered chevette.



I bought it from a bloke in Norwich, UK, and it turned out to be a little bit more knackered in the engine department than he said. Over the 160miles or something it gulped down 2.5 litres of my finest cheap oil.
I did the usual try and kill it once almost home ;D
I was very happy with the body work- so solid! A little patch on one arch, one in the corner of spare wheel well. And the colour is a perfect 60's colour.
Plan was to remove the little anchor and maybe plonk in a crossflow. Not a V8 like I had originally planned as the reason I bought it was to get a cheap to run classic...but i always get carried away.
Givin its stock standard its got quite fun nice handling.
I might mill the holes on the slot mags I bought for the chevette and fit them. And lose a coil each corner.







a little bit of rust (but not like the rx3.....)



I ripped out the original engine and gearbox, gave the bay a scrub. Lots of oil everywhere and waxoil in places which is nice.
Back into garage and slung the 1600 ford crossflow in with 5speed box on the back and i would go in.



It was too tall and I didn't want to be chopping the body up on this one as its to be a simple swap.

The gear lever on the type 9 box was going to comeout quite far back too.
So I got an escort box - with that in place plus a little chop out of the front corner on sump bowl it all slid in nicely.



Infact so nicely that it does indeed look like it meant to be there! The gear lever sits 1.5" further back and the ashley exhaust manifol just touchs the baulkhead lower down (hammer time...)
The mounts line up almost spot on so I chopped the tops off the escort ones and rewelded plates on them. Bought some new 35mm thick mounts from Burton and its all now solidly bolted in.
The Viva gearbox craddle sits right under the escort mount- with 2 bits of RHS thats almost solid...photos of that soon.

 

I cleaned out the bay and then rub back any really rough areas. I removed both bonnet mounts - a well known rust spot is behind them and luckily they were fine behind- surface rust only. They are fitted on at factory before paint and hence they rust away without being seen until gone right through.

Then some coats of paint- spray cans of course!!! Got the right colour mixed at the local factors.
looked loads better- i'm not being as fussy as with chevette- and it wont take half as long...



After this was done i stripped down the crossflow. All was good till i got to cam...bloody hell- one lobe was shot and the follower was 5mm too short.
I've discovered that its been bored out to 1660cc. bores are good- bearings have scoring but crank is fine. pistons good. rings fine.
will reassemble with new bearings and another cam, new followers etc.
keeping cam standard- a gt one.
got a carb too- 32/36 dgv.

........then I started thinking about fitting a rotary....

I had a spare 12A thats been reconditioned at some point. I got it outta woodshed and removed all the rats nest of emmissions **** from it. quick wire brush and looked lots better.

this...


to this...


I slung it in with an old g/box I had kicking about. Looked tight around exhaust. So I thought- nahhhh- i'll stick with crossflow.

Back into garage the next night and I did the wrong thing...instead of quickly hoisting the 12A out straight away I sat there looking at it and then started messing about with the jack under the box moving the engine about a bit here and there.
Turns out that it couldn't be much of an easier fit!



The tunnel doesnt need any work. The gearstick would line up with original hole (bugger- i'd chopped new hole for ford box) and the icing on the cake was that the viva gearbox cradle sits bang on in the right place for mazda mount to bolt in the centre!!!!

It was meant to be...





The sump will need a little bit chopping out to clear the rack. then it can drop down and level out the engine. The exhaust i'd have to make to fit - curving up and around the column.



Radiator- well i have a spare rx7 one that fits in nicely- but viva has small opening fo airflow so a bit of panel ducting. And chop out valance for the oil cooler (which is sitting outside under a bike..)

So it would be an easy fit !

 

So after having done all this I actually ended putting the Viva project on hold and restored the RX3 I'd bought not long after getting the Viva.

That took 5 months to restore and after getting it on the road it was RX3 this and RX3 that...I just loved it and all the time the little Viva sat outside through another winter.

The closer i got to us leaving the UK to haed back to NZ I realised that I would have to finish the Viva so i could at least sell it. So Rx3 out of garage and Viva in. I whittled away at it. I had decided to stick with the original plan of fitting the ford 4 banger. So I pulled out the box of bits and gave them all a good scrub, check everything and started reassembling it with new bearings. At this point I was beginning to hate piston engines- now I realised that I'm a rotor head. two many parts in these here piston things I thought as i cleaned each bloody bit- and as far as piston engines go you dont get much simpler than a crossflow.
Crossflows are lovely little engines- very very robust and will suffer a lot of neglect
- very popular for these reasons. there is a fella in the UK who is campaigning the 1/4 mile with a mk2 escort stripped out fitted with a simple bored out crossflow on twin webers- he is getting into the low 10's and pissing off a lot of the ECU/turbo brigade in doing so!!!!

Put back together and I slung it all in. a bit of hose work, built a new exhaust using the old mufflers I had previously used on my rx3.

The RX3 then sold and that meant no more mazda related distractions.

Some tidying of the wiring, pipe up the brakes, fit a old SU electric fuel pump under the **** end. But all this time I was just thinking about what will go where or how I will change this and that to fit the rotary engine I had sitting there looking homeless....

Anyway- a bit of fiddling and away the crossflow started- sounded quite nice too.

In fact the crossflow does sit in really nice in there -and looks the part.

I fitted a cheap but very powerful audi electric fan and found out why engine had a flat spot...someone had removed the spring from behind accelerator pump on the twin choke weber.! Then it ran really well - needs a nice thrashing!

I was beginning to fall for this little car.

some quick photos..





Then I got to a special point in my Viva saga.....It got MOT'd!!!!



They loved it! I always take my cars to this garage because they love old cars and have a good attitude. They were shocked at how solid the car is. No little hammer needed

I got an advisory on cracks in one front tyre- i had just got a second hand one fitted on other side. But its gonna get new wheels anyhow 8)
And LH front lower ball joint has a slight amount of play- it lifts just slightly.

I raced back home after picking up something cool that had arrived at work. Which i then started to fit ...



I got these seats as I just cant get along with the originals. And these Momo ones are out of an alfa 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 is almost spot on too! Not much to fit them- I welded some plates in place to strengthen the areas and fabricated new mounts.

I have also had to deal with some rust. Just a bit on one arch. I cut it out the other night 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- this morning before mot. not a perfect finish but I'm going to repaint car in NZ (At this point it certainly looked like I was going to keep it...)

 

1660 crossflow is going ok- quite peppy. I"m figuring maybe 90bhp? sound great when secondrys open accelerating!

But not as nice as this will be...



..as possibly seen previously in my other threads - a proper old school 'suck through a carbie' made in the UK Elford turbo 12A.... 160bhp, loads more torque..and that effortless smoothness. hmmmmm and no ECU's in sight!

It has lots of beautifully cast alloy bits to polish up. I'm really picturing a nice old period look to the bay. But cleaned of all wires and brake pipes if possible. Lowered (substantially) on 13" x7"Revolites or oldschool cheviot turbos.



just down the road on way home...nice sunset after a crap start to the day.



New seats are great!

I also got a full set of Spax shocks- after a bit of pissing about with spax insisting that the first ones they supplied were the right length but blatantly were not I got the right ones and fitted them. BIG difference.



So after some playing about in it over the next week we seriously had to start packing for NZ. We had decided to take a full 20ft container back to NZ and take the Viva with us.
It was easy enough to do- the Viva isnt worth alot in NZ but nether was it in the UK plus I had paid (not much) for a long time back so it owed me nothing but some time. I just loved how solid it is and all I can think about is what it'll be like with the Elford engine in place!

This is the van we hired full of 9 pushbikes. 3 generators, all my tools and then all the other crap we collected....



Plus of course this got packed...



Our home which was just about to be driven to france by a nice bloke from sunderland who bought it off us. I like this photo...proper vauxhall fans...



Once in Felixstowe docks the little viva was dwarfed by the trucks in the yard. This place is massive! They were bloody efficient at unloading though. Bloke who helped us load up viva with as many boxes as we could fit into it was friendly and turned out he was a fan of Nortan rotarys




So we are now in NZ and awaiting the arrival of the Viva next month. Once here we have a lot to do so it will stay powered by the crossflow untill we have settled down and have some spare time. I shall keep you all posted.


Alex

 

Hey Alex, welcome back. I've never seen, nor heard of a Vauxhall Viva and at first glance of the front-end, i thought it was an R100 hahaha. I like those Momo Alfa seats, and it does look like it belongs allright. You cleaned-up that Elkford turbo 12A quite nice, can't wait to see that in there.

 

awsome finally made the move back home ay. very interesting turbo setup defintly post up more pics of it when its comes in. That viva defintly looks like a cool project.

maybe ill make the move one day and go home ill have to ship the repu with my stuff to lol

 

cool- i'll look after your repu! send it over now!

 

So today Hannah and I went to Jeffs auto movers in Christchurch where Mr Maf guy re-inspected the Viva after it was steamed cleaned.....



Now its all nice and clean underneath and hes happy its not full of bugs and nastys from England.

We loaded up the last of our stuff from the container and drove out and up the road- feels great to be driving it again!!! With a very light and sharp clutch took some getting used to again. Took it up the road and its getting a wof inspection so i'm covered to drive it onto a certifier and vtnz place in the next week or so. Really looking forwards to the trip home up Kaikoura coast.

 

Picked up Viva from rocks point garage today after they did a wof check. It needs a tyre and obviously needs to be certed. So I shall replace the tyre and be happy about driving it back to Blenheim.
Apparently there is a old law dating back ages ago between canada, britain and NZ that says so long as a car has a valid mot/wof from its country of origin it'll be accepted in the other countries till it expires. hmmm

Anyway- I drove through christchurch getting a few looks with my big shiny yellow UK plates and Viva is now safely parked at my uncles. We'll drive up to Blenheim on Saturday after some more rides on our long awaited mountain bikes!

heres some pics I took tonight...

Our Toyota van dwarfs it!...





Engine running well- looking forwards to giving it a caning over the Hundalees!



Must get some carpet.....



Tomorrow we will check out some wreckers for wheels...

 

how long till u put a rotary in? good thing you got it in one peice

 

yeah- its great its all straight and not dented. nothing seems to be missing. started at first turn of key out of container! sweet.

Rotary conversion will begin once we have finished building the housetruck. maybe in 6 months..not sure.

 

Car is now in Blenheim. Woo hoo. Very very hot day driving north. lots of sunscreen on my right arm which sat outside the car with the speedo optimistically showing 65mph and temp gauge going up and down. I think I need to chop out the bottom valance as per HB viva GTs. because there just aint enough airflow to the rx7 radiator. There are already stampings so its an easy neat job. Plus I need to put the cowling back over the top so air goes through rad not over.

The 1660 crossflow goes well - but its just so agricultural after spending two years driving the RX3- its starts to sound slightly wheezy at 9000 rpm.....

But seriously its just not very satisfying to rev hard, although lack of carpet and sound suppression means its all a bit of a harsh place to be. Bloody cheap to run though. It used about 25 litres over 300 ks -in old money that's 34mpg which is bang on the mark for a mk2 escort 1600 engine. So its running fine.

I wound the Spax shocks up 3 clicks all round which tightened it up but still looking forward to getting a sway bar on the front. Maybe heftier springs some time too.

The brakes are ****. Not much there and a hard pedal pressure. They will be better with the servo I got off an HC from a wreckers yard in the UK. I'm also going to fit 1800 discs or 3.3 victor discs (these will require bigger bottom ball joints and hence modifications to the lower arms). The HB discs fitted just aint man enough.

Kaikoura coast is always lovely to drive along and even nicer in an old car....





Heading towards Blenheim- always sunny....



Once home Dad checked the car out and loved it! although he didn't used to have a Viva..... he owned a FD victor estate (so did we once) so the same era.



And finally a shot of it with the blenheim evening sky on it....ahhhhhhhh

 

awsome nice to see familiar landscape altho i havnt been to the south island much.

 

now then, now then, now, now then, then then, now.

now then,

My Viva no longer has a piston engine

These two fellas came and took it away - its going back to its home in an mk1 Escort.





And within half an hour of the crossflow heading south to Christchurch with its new owners I had the 12A sitting in its place 8)



It will easily go in as a carb engine- but I want to try and get the Elford turbo setup in! There are some clearence issues but not where I thought they would be. The Exhaust manifold will go in OK. This is where I thought there was going to be the problem- hitting the steering column.



But the problem area will be the turbo hitting the brake master/servo. There is not a servo in place yet- that arrives next week. And I want a servo as I want Mum and Dad to be able to drive the car safely. Not keen on remote servo really. would rather make a new exhaust manifold. but its a shame if I cant use the elford one as its so neat and well made!

I wont really be able to tell how close it is until I remove the old engine mounts. This wont happen yet as next week I'm getting another HB Viva with some goodies I want- including the bigger discs from a 3.3 vauxhall ventoura fitted, 1800 rear axle, front sway bar, servo etc.

I will most likely just swap cross members over and modify the new one.

 

I had a look at the engine tonight where the rear frost plug had popped out ages ago. There was quite a bit of oily gunk in the hole when i but my finger in there. Could it be that over a few years the anti freeze would/ could break down leaving just a messy oil like substance?

Or could it be that the engine not only popped out a frost plug when it froze but has also cracked somewhere else allowing the oil sitting in a oil way to find its way into the bottom water way? i will put this in technical section too- i'm hoping someone else might have experience of what cracks when engine freezes.

My plan anyway is to fit a new core plug, fill engine with water over night. Come the morning I will turn engine over with plugs out and see if any water has found its way past water seals.
I
f its ok i will continue on with the transplant into the Viva. Once its all go I will see how engine is. I would rather rebuild it after I have done all the hard work transplanting it. Rebuilding it knowing the car is all ready for it to go back in will be more fun!

 

Sweets the first car i learn to drive stick shift with great project.

 

Nice stuff. I love old European cars. I always wanted a BMW 2002ti , but they are either rust buckets here or stupid expensive.

Nice work and dedication.

 

trini 16- where did you learn to drive?
And mikeric. Imagine a 2002 with a 13b nestled inside.

 

Yoeddynz Back in Trinidad& Tobago we had alot of Vauxhall Viva

 

Wicked- That would be nice- cruising about in the hot trinidad sun in a rota powered viva!

Anyway- here's some more on the project so far. 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)







I put the crossmember back and then slung engine back in. Loads more room without the old engine mounts!





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 engine sits in lovely and sits down low and back in the bay nicely.

The sump clear fine too! that nice as well.



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 have go and battery in boot.

And once I shorten gearstick remote the stick will pop out just forward of the hole I cut to suit old ford box. I'm gonna take the top off the tunnel anyway to give a touch more clearance on box.



Anyway- I'm going to fit it all in allowing for turbo but unless I find a cheap remote servo setup that works I may well stick to a standard nikki carb for now just to get car on the road. Hannah and I just wanna drive this car- Its on the back burner as it is with the housetruck to build. My brother is gonna visit in july from blighty so would be cool to have it ready for then!

Fitting the turbo and mucking about with steering rack alterations and remote servos is too much right now so I am throwing in the 'turbo' towel so to speak. I have just been lent a standard Nikki carb and mainfold which I put in place and it fits fine with the existing HB servo/tandam master cylinder. The housetruck is taking all the time/ effort and building our home is most important. I will fit the viva in around doing that.

Anyway- I'm excited because now it will be sooner that I will be able to brap up the road in my Viva!

here's the carb in place...





Question time for the knowledgeable...what differences are there between series 1,2 and 3 rx7 nikki carbs? I think my engine is a hybrid of series 2 plates and rx2 housings ( the housing have big 'mazda' written on them.

A local bloke might build me a carb out of parts for $100 but I think I would rather just a stock standard carb to begin with. The trouble is finding one! I wish I had brought one over from blighty!!!

alex.

 

Very cool build. Get ahold of Sterling for one of his carbs. You won't be able to get the core deposit back w/o a stock Nikki, but you won't regret the decision.

 

yep i was in contact with him ages back when thinking about one of his carbs for the rx3 i restored. Money is an issue right now - once i.'m working again and not just spending all my savings then i think i might go sterling