Adoom's 1975 Reliant Scimitar. Discussion.

[dmulally]

3 minutes ago, Adoom said:

So there's a big oval hole and a small hole covered up?

Over that is a red pair of underpants with a large round hole for a circular metal vent that looks like a radiation symbol?

Covering over all that, sealing the area below the top vents, is a larger purple pair of underpants with a big hole that the access plate(which was in the boot) goes over?

 

Just what are you suggesting?

Honestly though I can't remember as this was years ago. You'll have to follow your heart/undies. 

[VitesseEFI]

Mate of a local mate has this

It has a “lightly tweaked” 3.2 GM V6 in it with R25-R28 box and is apparently a “bit of an animal”.  Possibly the driver is also as he’s already killed two gearboxes…

[Adoom]

7 hours ago, VitesseEFI said:

Mate of a local mate has this

 

It has a “lightly tweaked” 3.2 GM V6 in it with R25-R28 box and is apparently a “bit of an animal”.  Possibly the driver is also as he’s already killed two gearboxes…

 

I believe that may the the same engine series as mine?
Any chance of photos of the alternator mounting?

[Adoom]

Actually, I take that back, the engine front cover doesn't look right.

[GregT]

What is it about boxes in these things ? Guy down the road from the old place had one - Ford V6 and manual box. I walked into the local engineering firm one morning and he was stripping the gearbox on their bench. He'd got to the point where he couldn't get the mainshaft nut undone as the shaft was moving in the vice - with soft jaws at least. i have no idea where it came from - I suspect I was channeling the old man - i looked at it and asked if he had a spare driveshaft U joint. Yes, at home.  Get it, put the splined end in it and the joint in the bloody vice.  Chuckles all round and thanks Greg.

A week later and he was crashing through the box outside my gate again.  

[VitesseEFI]

5 hours ago, Adoom said:

Actually, I take that back, the engine front cover doesn't look right.

It’s out of one of the Vauxhall/Opel Omega family I believe. Most of them were auto I think. Possibly because GM don’t have a manual that will last the warranty period. 
I’ll see if I can get more detail.

 
If he were to put it up for sale I might struggle to resist the temptation…..

[Alfashark]

15 minutes ago, VitesseEFI said:

It’s out of one of the Vauxhall/Opel Omega family I believe. Most of them were auto I think. Possibly because GM don’t have a manual that will last the warranty period. 
I’ll see if I can get more detail.

 
If he were to put it up for sale I might struggle to resist the temptation…..

Found in Saab 9-3 and Vectra C down this end of the globe

[Alfashark]

If you were feeling brave, I'm sure you could find a stacked Alfa 147/156 GTA and use that - GM 3.2 core with their own heads etc. Should be a lot more room for belt & tensioner changes too.

[VitesseEFI]

It’s this one

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_54°_V6_engine#3.2

I’m not sure how closely related to the 2.5 and 3.0 it is in terms of shared parts

[VitesseEFI]

1 minute ago, Alfashark said:

GM 3.2 core with their own heads etc. Should be a lot more room for belt & tensioner changes too.

Are you saying Alfa used this bottom end as a base for their V6? 

[Alfashark]

Yes - Perhaps not from the same generation as the Vectra C, but yeah there was a big song and dance about Alfa using a GM core from their modular family and adding their own heads to give it a proper Alfa sound and feel. 

Seemed to do the trick, it's no Busso, but they make all the right noises and certainly feel right.

[Alfashark]

Without trawling through banana boxes of car magazines/stick mags from the early 2000s for one of the multitude of articles decrying it, here's a snip from Wiki:

[VitesseEFI]

Interesting. Thanks. Every day is a school day 

[BiTurbo228]

Just caught this one, love a good Scimitar. Especially the SE5s.

[dmulally]

I remember that flatbar. Originally I had just the mounts in there and the cert man said I need to chop them off and put some thicker steal under it along the rail first. I was using that flatbar to build up the tracks on my dozer at the time and I wasn't going all the way to Parmy for more. 

Here is some footage of the scimitar driving in town. 

 

 

 

[dmulally]

 

[Jaffar]

Just signed up to look at the Bugatti builds and noticed this.

If you are still proceeding with the swap I can give you a few tips about the installation of an LY7. I have finished installing one of these in one of Stuttgart's finest.

They are light, lots of power and torque (even more if you go stand alone ecu), compact, lots of cheap bits, easily replaced for bugger all if you blow it up and very long lived engine if serviced properly (like all modern motors). Underrated.

Cheers.

[Adoom]

On 18/04/2025 at 02:21, Jaffar said:

Just signed up to look at the Bugatti builds and noticed this.

If you are still proceeding with the swap I can give you a few tips about the installation of an LY7. I have finished installing one of these in one of Stuttgart's finest.

They are light, lots of power and torque (even more if you go stand alone ecu), compact, lots of cheap bits, easily replaced for bugger all if you blow it up and very long lived engine if serviced properly (like all modern motors). Underrated.

Cheers.

Other than a lack of time and money, I think my main issue will be getting it to run with the factory ECU and keeping as little as possible of the commodore wiring and modules. I found a guy over near Palmerston North who says he can 'recode' the appropriate modules and ECU to make me a 'kit'.

Thanks for the tip about the VE sump, I'll have to have a look.