Replacing existing motor - whats your flavour

[Brendeni]

Hi Fellas

What would be the best motor to put into a 1979 Bedford SWB. It currently has Vauxhall 2.3 Slant in it with a 4 speed gearbox. I would like to put in a 5 speed gearbox, What motor and gearbox with fit in there with minimal effort. Its going to have a few more seats in the back, making it an 8 seater. Yep.....need to have it cert for all that. I want something with the best fuel economy possbile, I know what you thinking.....This fello must be crazy wanting fuel economy out of an old truck:) Its going to be used to cart church youth and local kids from our town.

[Warren]

EFI 202 out of a late model crumadoor maybe 

Warren

[Rogue Trooper]

Easiest would probably be to find a wrecked Bedford Ambulance somewhere and swipe the straight 6 out of that as well as all the mounts and brackets etc. Then you will probably have a minor bit of cutting and welding and a bit of wiring to do. The bonus of this is that you could probably get the disc brake setup at the same time.

The best in my opnion for more power and better economy would be an early Holden V6 3.8 but that's a bit more work.

Having the original 2.3 still in there means that whatever you do you will be up for a bit of work.

[ben]

im convinced the 253 v8 is the best option.. so cheap to buy them and rebuild they bolt straight up(to the holden 6 mounts). engineering is easy as cause its not much more than 202 but can be made to work real hard..

[Rogue Trooper]

im convinced the 253 v8 is the best option.. so cheap to buy them and rebuild they bolt straight up(to the holden 6 mounts). engineering is easy as cause its not much more than 202 but can be made to work real hard..

Don't forget we're not in Australia Ben and he has the 2.3 pile-of-pus that our models came out with so there wouldn't be any 'bolting straight up'. The 2.3 Vauxhall had different mounts.

[cfjeff]

yep I have to agree with rouge, holden straight six is probably the best bang for your buck, 3.8 v6 would be nice but is a lot more work. I have a 186 holden and trimatic, have had for 21 years, and can go from christchurch to blenheim and only uses 47 litres of petrol. Distance is a bit over 300kms, so is not bad.

[cords]

Chev it there cheaper for parts and cheaper to run as it wont be working as hard 307 should not be to pricey