dune racer
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hello im new to this forum and need some help with a problem let me explain i have a road registered sand rail kit car it weighs in at 500kg it has a non running vw type 3 1600 cc engine that requires a complete rebuild problem is these engines are a bit on the weak side only producing around 60 ish bhp to obtain a more decent 100 ish bhp will cost around £1000 in parts namely pistons, cam, exhaust, carbs, oil filter machining etc etc.trouble with the vw the gearbox will struggle to cope past 100 bhp. but on my drive i have a perfectly running low milage nissan sunny 1.4 ls 12 valve with carburator im not sure what the bhp is but i believe around 80 ish i was wondering would it be better to retro fit this engine into my buggy it would solve a lot of problems that it has an alternator wheras vw is dynamo it alredy has a full flow oil kit whereas vw has non is water cooled although this is heavier than the air cooled vw it may be less trouble long term. problem is if i fit the nissan ill have to somehow retro fit the engine facing the same way it comes out of the nissan otherwise ill have 5 reverse gears and only one forward unless any one knows a way of sorting this ? then if i can fit the engine this should not be to difficult i then have to make a new gear selector because the gearstick will be in the front of the car and the gearbox selector arm will be at the rear of the engine. now the million dollar question providing i can fit the engine sort out how to change gear re-mount the radiator fit a new exhaust etc etc what kind of mods can i do to the nissan engine that will give me reliable bhp gains and what after this can i expect in bhp or is the 1.4 nissan engine to weak to tune for any sort of performance regards dune racer