1979 Reliant Scimitar GTE with a difference!

[Burtle]

I guess it's about time I introduced a little project of mine to the piston heads forum fully.



I bought these two, rear is the 1979 GTE and at the front it an ex-police 3L manual estate.


Getting ready to remove the old Essex engine from the Scimitar



Heavy iron beast the Essex.



Same job on the Vauxhall.



Moment of truth, will all the measurements be correct?



Yep, fits nicely, it's also as low and far back as I can get it, the entire engine is behind the centreline of the front wheels.



The manual Omega gearbox was also transfered and fit's a treat, I had Propshaft Services of Heathrow make me a propshaft up for it, and a lovely job they done too.



Slight bulkhead adjustment, and removable panel to access the rear of the engine if required. (good for coil pack changes)



Bracketry made up to house the radiator and support the front of the car / bumper.



In place with the radiator fitted.



The radiator is the one taken directly from the Omega.



This is the wiring for the electric water pump and fan relays on the rad.



Sorted out and mounted along with the Bosch ECU.



My chosen fuel pump, Mk2 Golf GTI, it's a nice little unit complete with swirl pot and filter.



Cam belt change time before the whole lot gets buried behind wiring and air ducting.



Propshaft and fuel pump fitted.



The completed engine bay


Thats about it really, I'm now working on the interior.




210 Bhp
200 lbs.ft
1200 kg's
Rear wheel drive

Happy days

Edited by Burtle on Saturday 19th June 09:51

[OllieC]

That looks like its meant to go in there !

I bet it feels a little more lively than with the Essex in there ? (it looked standard ?)

hmm, but it would be wrong to put a vauxhall engine in a capri...

Lovely car

[Fartgalen]

Nice work !

[Gorvid]

That is brilliant.

Unusual but clever choice of donor

[ManOpener]

Loads of room in there. Supercharger?

-EDIT-

Edited to say- unusual but extremely cool.

Edited by ManOpener on Tuesday 6th July 20:52

[Graebob]

I feel like I've heard of this before... Has it been in PPC?

[Burtle]

Graebob said:

I feel like I've heard of this before... Has it been in PPC?

Well spotted, yep, it had a 6 page article in the October edition of PPC.

[Graebob]

Nice. I remember reading about the scientific approach to removing the Omega loom

I said it at the time, and I'll say it now. Excellent idea with superb execution, and the engine bay looks really tidy. Glad it's still going well for you

[XJ40]

Burtle said:

Graebob said:

I feel like I've heard of this before... Has it been in PPC?

Well spotted, yep, it had a 6 page article in the October edition of PPC.

I saw this in PPC too, looks like you've done a great job of the engine swap, really nice car.

[Morningside]

Very nice . Just a quick question. Why is the rad so far back? For access to the cam belt etc. I thought it would be more towards the front or am I missing something obvious that I cannot see in the picture.

[Jimski]

did you manage to keep the original tank when you used the MK2 golf bits andid you get those bits from a later golf? I am looking to convert my mk1 cortina to EFI and if i can get away with not changing the take that would be great as it sits in the right place

Its a great project by the way - I love scimitars

[Burtle]

Morningside said:

Very nice . Just a quick question. Why is the rad so far back? For access to the cam belt etc. I thought it would be more towards the front or am I missing something obvious that I cannot see in the picture.

The rad will not fit any further forward because of the metalwork needed to support the front of the car and bumper. A small rad would go a bit further forward, but I only had the Omega one, it works perfectly well there, I'm making a cowling for it at the moment..

[Burtle]

Jimski said:

did you manage to keep the original tank when you used the MK2 golf bits andid you get those bits from a later golf? I am looking to convert my mk1 cortina to EFI and if i can get away with not changing the take that would be great as it sits in the right place

Its a great project by the way - I love scimitars

The standard Scimitar fuel tank has a flow and return pipe so didn't need modifying. All I can remember was that the pump came off a Mk2 8v golf GTI. I spent more time under the car than in it at my local scrappy.