how tuff would you think this would be?
It's certainly do-able limited only by $ and talent. The Karman Ghia is a unibody so you will have to build some sort of frame to channel it over. I doubt the original unibody could stand the torque. Don't limit your thinking to the front engine design, I have seen several Porsches and at least 1 VW with an mid/rear engine V-8. One was a 914 with a Chevy 350 adapted to a high performance Porsche trans axle. I think he had to flip it over to get the rotation right. Another was a 911 with a 500 cu in and transaxle from an Eldorado. That was the slickest one I have seen, he had an engine cover made out of suitcases molded together, talk about a sleeper!
Go for it!
Pat
Go for it!
Pat
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2005
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it would be more difficult than one might think. the ghia isnt exactly a unibody, its more of a body-on-pan layout like the beetle but it still wouldnt be able to handle the power of the v8, you would need to do a tube chassis with stronger points for the body to mount on it. another issue would be legroom, i assume you wouldnt be mounting the engine so far forward that you can keep the stock footwells, so you wont have much room for your feet at all, again this would be much like a beetle (one with a v8). another thing, what would you do for a rear suspension? i would assume if you went tube chassis you would go solid axle, but why get rid of an existing independent? consider mounting it in the rear with an eldorado transaxle or even sideways with a fiero transaxle like im doing with my golf, you would get better traction and you would keep legroom, plus you could keep it even more of a sleeper by mounting a radiator in the rear behind the motor so that it uses the standard cooling vents, and you could have a supplementary radiator behind the horn grills in front. i think its a great idea but there are definitely some hurdles that you would need to leap over.
TECH Resident
Joined: Oct 2004
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From: TAMPA by way of MIAMI!!!
I remember years ago one of the mags like hot rod or carcraft had a guy who put a 350ci small block in one what struck me the most is that he lengthened the front fenders and such about 6-8 inches the rear was tubbed too I think.
