I have a 1983 Mitsubishi van chopped into a pick-up with an LS3 (317kw) in the tray.

This is to be street driven here in Australia.

The engine sits in the rear with the harmonic balancer above the rear axle with the 6L80E in front of the engine.

This is then coupled to a Nissan Patrol transfer case that turns the drive around and send it to the rear axle.

The rear axle is a Patrol item that has had 455mm (about 18') chopped off one side to make the diff line up with the drive line.

It now has a 4 bar rear end and 4 wheel disc brakes form a Patrol.

I have it driving at the moment and hopefully it will start going through the rigorous engineering process in about 6 weeks.

A couple of pics.

 

I think you may have just won the prize for the most creative LSx swap.

 

awesome! Van looks way older than an 83 model.

 

yea that pretty much is beautiful

 

Just want to correct the measurement here, 455mm is about 18 inches (denoted 18" over here), not feet as denoted by the 18' in the statement above. Really threw me off when I first read it thinking "what the hell kind of vehicle had 18feet worth of extra axle to cut off?" lol.


Sweet ride man, planning on doing many wheel stands with that??


Sometimes I really wish America would just give up and accept the metric system like the rest of the world...

 

Ill bet that thing is an absolute riot to drive.

 

That's ****** awesome..



Looks like part of the Erector Set from The Sandlot was used there..

 

Not until they bury me 2 meters underground

 

The original van was designed in the '70's and has a Dodge A100ish look to it. I chose this vehicle because it looked older than it is.

Whilst old to look at the suspension isn't all bad.

The erector set is actually dexion shelving steel. This was used as it's light and fairly strong.

In all I've done I've done my best to keep it light (hopefuly around 1250kg or 2700lbs) as I don't want to be dragging around useless weight.

Surprised no one has noticed the inlet has been reversed. Bitch of a job and I wouldn't recomment it to anyone.

Hopefully it will be running again this week, as I had the body off for some minor chassis work, then I can start the engineering tests.

 

What engineering tests are you refering to? Do you have to have certain tests done to the chassis in order for the vehicle to be street legal?

 

Thats awesome.
Not quite sure about the use of the shelving material though.
Its still bad ***

 

Awesome job man. Creativity at its finest.

 

The vehicle must pass all 2012 engineering requirements of a new vehicle in Australia except it doesn't need Elctronic Stability Control (all new cars sold here must have it) plus it doesn't need airbags.

This means the engine must meet or exceed current EPA requirements.

The chassis will be tested for torsional rigidity. In this test they bolt one end down and try an twist the chassis. If it twists more than 1degree with a certain load applied it will fail. I'm pretty sure I have that one covered.

Another test is to support the chasis at each end and load it with 250kg (around 550lbs) in the cnetre and measure the deflection. The chassis was designed to carry 1,000kg payload and is plated on each side of the rails with 3mm (1/8") steel it should pass.

It must meet certain braking tests plus swerve tests (like a Moose test) and it has to be under 86db noise level.

The test's aren't all that hard to meet but they will cost up to $5,000 to complete.

Once these are completed I can register it. As the vehicle will be considered of my own manufacture I get to call it what I like. As the original vasns sold in Asutralia were branded Chrysler I'm leaning toward calling it a FARGO (the overseas name for dodge trucks. I picked it because the van could well of been called FARGO had Dodge not stopped using the name in the 70's and to me it's an acronym for F==king Awsome Rod Garnett Original. Rod Garnett of course being my name! Humble to a fault.

The shelving was to be a frame for the tray lining only. Once some checker plate is installed it looks a bit better. The van has a separate chassis so the frame is to hold the aluminium in place only. The two radiators at the front of the tray are for the trans cooler and air conditioning.

 

The material is probably OK, but those welds are scary!

Regardless.....awesome freakin' build! Major creativity points.

 

9 months and not much to show for it.

Since the last update I've replaced the rear window with something more in keeping with the rear cab wall. The original window was the rear window from the van and it was simply too big. I welded in a section of cab from a Mazda Bravo ute and it now looks much better.

Sorted out my scary welds in the tray and it all looks the goods.

The car was painted in July and I'm now just finishing off a full re-wire as I wasn't happy with the way I integrated the original car with later model wiring (to suit the later model dash I fitted) plus the LS3 wiring and creature comforts like electric windows, door poppers, central locking and air conditioning. To top it off I replaced the dash cluster with a custom one that had 6 gauges instead of 3.



The engine unfortunately had to be buried under guards to stop people getting fingers chopped off and/or touching anything hot. The Nanny state exists over here as well!



For anyone wondering the tool box in front of the engine is the air filter. This was the only way I could find that hid the intake and met the rules. A pod filter isn't acceptable unless it's in an enclosure. The tool box has 2 LS3 filters in it and has large holes in the front of it and a bellmouth entry into the MAF. Once registered the MAF will go and it will get a SD tune.

The wheels ended up being 10x15's on the rear with 12x28x15 Mickey Thompson drag radials and the front are 6.5x16 on the front to clear the brake calipers.

To register the car it has to pass all inspections and rules a 2014 model car would have to. This means it must pass a strict engineering test for chassis stength, seat belt mountings and seat mountings. It passed this test about a month ago and the next test is an EPA test to ensure the engine meets our stringent smog laws. I expect it to pass without too much difficulty but you never know.

Once it passes that test it them goes up on a hoist for my Engineer to have a good look under it to see if it's been constructed in a manner to he sees as fit.

After all that it then goes on a racetrack for braking and handling tests. Assuming it passes all these tests it will then be entitled to be registered as a 2014 model of whatever I choose to call it.

This doesn't mean it will get registered as our local Authority could veto the rego if they feel the car isn't suited to the road.

The weight went well over what I was expecting but thinking about it the engine is 220lbs heavier than the stock engine, the trans a minimum of 80lbs heavyer plus it has a 200lb transfer case and even the tailshaft wieghs 3 times what the original did. Add to that the diff housing that is 200lb heavier than stock and the weight gets away. Final weight is 1650kg or 3630lbs! The original van weighed 2530lb.

I've had it on the local drag strip (no times taken) and whilst it doesn't want to wheelstand (which is good thing for driving ont he street) it sure gets down and boogies.

It sure turns heads when people see it.

 

I figured this thing would have been painted red, with 'Little Red Wagon' painted down the side! Still cool though!

 

It does resemble the old Dodge A-100 pickup...

 

The car was always intedned to look like an A100 (which were never sold in Australia) but I couldn't paint it red as it was just too obvious.

My son chose the yellow as he said all the kids in cars would be punching each other after seeing a yellow car.

I'm pretty happy with how its going but progress is slow.