Equinox Bodywork

[Ben_Copeland]

Look forward to seeing some pictures of it fitted and what you think might be need in a way to modify if necessary.

The equinox bodywork is taller than Saturn/gilham I believe so your heading in the right way at least.

I cant have a chat to Dave once I see how you get on, possibility of making a mould for a "bump" to fit on the standard bonnet. I doubt it would end up moulded into a full bonnet tbh.

[Jeff01]

I mentioned Vauxhalls in my last post; I should also have mentioned that they were dry sumped so were comparatively squat. So, I have fitted the bonnet and it does indeed need a bump as I expected. For anyone else going down the route of installing the Mk11 engine, here are the details of MY installation:
The front face of the crank pulley is 14" from the front of the chassis bottom rail.
The engine sits on standard mountings.
The sump is approximately 1.7" below the chassis bottom rail.
The bonnet touches on the front of the cam cover and the oil filler but the worst offender is the air pipe from the cam cover to the induction plenum.
A cut out measuring 12" wide X 11" deep clears all of the obstructions but the induction plenum is still only just clear.
The throttle butterfly cam is very close to the bonnet and may need modification for safety's sake.

If asked, Dave at Equinox will provide the dims. of his bonnet (can't seem to find mine) and you should therefore be able to calculate the nature of the problem, if any. Dave does do a scooped version of the bonnet but I reckoned that would not have cleared my engine either.


Some of you blokes have very busy looking engine bays!!

[beardydave]

Originally Posted by Ben_Copeland

What gearbox have you got on it?

I've got the box from a BMW e36 328i, modified to take a gm/saab bell housing, the box is pretty compact and fits well in the MT-box chassis I've got, but the bell housing is huge to fit around the large flywheel and clutch.

I could probably chop the bottom of the bell housing and plate as close to the flywheel as I can, but I don't want to weaken the box.

[skov]

That engine bay photo looks familiar. I hope you got permission from the copyright holder to re-publish it...

It was a bit of a squeeze, but I just managed to fit that lump under the Saturn/Gillham widescoop bonnet.
Wasn't really the height of the engine, but the height/width of the inlet manifold that I had trouble with.

[Ben_Copeland]

Originally Posted by beardydave

I've got the box from a BMW e36 328i, modified to take a gm/saab bell housing, the box is pretty compact and fits well in the MT-box chassis I've got, but the bell housing is huge to fit around the large flywheel and clutch.

I could probably chop the bottom of the bell housing and plate as close to the flywheel as I can, but I don't want to weaken the box.

Did you think about using the omega r28 gearbox and bellhousing?

Skov, google images ;-). How low in your chassis does the engine sit?

[beardydave]

Originally Posted by Ben_Copeland

Did you think about using the omega r28 gearbox and bellhousing?

Yes, but it has the same bellhousing bolt pattern so wouldn't gain me anything, and they aren't renowned for their strength. The saab 2.3 engine is a torquey lump even before its tuned.

Plus this modified bmw box came up at a bargain price with a lot of other drivetrain bits, and it's bullet proof.