47-55.1 Rear engine truck

[PDW HOTRODS]

Has anyone here built a rear engine truck? Years ago I saw one and always thought it would be fun. I think the one I saw used an Olds Toronodo front wheel drive. Any ideas of a transaxle that would work with a sbc that is cheap and easy to find?

[mr48chev]

Never built one and probably never will but this is most likely the one you saw.






I saw it in Roslyn in 2007 and it showed up in photos in Cruzin magazine at least once. Appears to run a 500 Cad and probably has the whole Eldorado drive train.

[whitedog76]

The last issue of Classic Trucks had a rear engine truck with a Buick 3800 powering it. I'm not for sure of the Pedigree of the cab. Naturally everything was custom.

[OrrieG]

And you can put your suitcases and lumber under the hood....

[PDW HOTRODS]

I probably won't ever build one, too many other things to do, but it would be cool to pull the front tires off the ground. The one I saw years ago was a flat bed, but very well built.

[mongocanfly]

The owner of our local dragstrip has a 1951 gmc they call tater hauler...truck has been around forever as a wheelie truck..it has a 427 in the bed and individual brake pedals for each rear wheel to steer.heres a artical on it..http://www.thearabtribune.com/articl...ts/sports2.txt

[yossarian19]

At the local car show last year I saw a guy with a Corvair Greenbriar van, IIRC, with a Cadillac Northstar transverse V8 powering the forward set of rear wheels. He took the whole shebang - K-frame, engine, trans, & suspension - and fabbed it into place.
The Northstar is nothing special power wise but it'd work.

My first choice, come to think of it, would be one of the transverse LS-series V8 setups. There are a handful of them around and I think all of the usual heads / cam / intake parts would work if you really wanted to hoist the front at launch.

[ptc]

The best setup for handling in any form for proper weight balance would be to do a truck with a "Mid"-engine layout and a transaxle connected right to the engine. There are many variations of this available out there.

Here is an LS1 with a Porsche/Audi transaxle fitted with an adapter plate. The rear axles would come directly out the side flanges on the transaxle and be within about 24" of the centerline of engine block.

Ever see a 914 with a 350 in it????

[Old Crow]

I saw a pic of an old square body C-10 with a '70's Olds Toronado drive train grafted in. Had a good picture of him just frying the front tires of that truck.

[MARTINSR]

I had a Buick 401 mid engine in my truck for about 10 years of it's life.





I drove it around a little like this. You can see the oil pan hanging down in the middle. The drive shaft was 16" long, I still have it.





I use to love to leave the hood open at shows and watch people walking by glancing over into the engine compartment then walking off where they were headed, closer and closer when they don't see anything closer then end up staring at the axle and ground. LOL

I had "MID ENG" on the front of the cowl vent screen.

Brian

[MARTINSR]

By the way, the woman loved to sit on the engine box there in the middle with me stopping it. LOL I had one of those open topped triangle shaped Edelbrock air cleaners. So when I opened it up there was some serious vibration on the top of the box. I remember more than once letting woman sit there and looking in their eyes in the rear view mirror when I stomped on it. LOLOL I remember one said to her boy friend who was sitting in the passenger seat "I want one of these." LOL

Brian

[_Ogre]

dang martinsr... how many iterations has this truck been thru???

[MARTINSR]

LOL, Well, here is a photo from it's custom days. I've had it since '73 for goodness sakes you can only leave them the same for so long.

Brian

[chuckmc8]

Here ya go. Buy it today and cruise
https://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/5202361914.html

[MiraclePieCo]

Front AND rear Olds Toronado engines/transaxles. I watched this one being built. And BTW PDW HOTRODS, if you're still on here, this one is from your neck of the woods in Springfield, Oregon:

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/...you-stephanie/
.

[chev3600]

Or this one. Twin sixes. Looks like he used a transfer case to send power back to the rear axle.

[1project2many]

That's definitely a unique build. But I believe that's a GMC V-12 rather than two V6's. The V12 used a common block and crank but had four heads, two intakes, two distributors. There's a shot of the truck on this page:
http://thunderv12.com/
More reading material:
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/...s-at-1600-rpm/

[yossarian19]

Hmm.
What about an EcoTec turbo'ed 4 cylinder? 300+ ft lbs of torque from 2000 rpm onward isn't bad, it's really lightweight. You could make a sweet autocross truck with a mid engine 4.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by chev3600

Or this one. Twin sixes. Looks like he used a transfer case to send power back to the rear axle.

i like that twin six motor
definitely have to build any vehicle around the motor
looks like he used a gm thm425 front wheel drive transmission out of a motorhome

[joedoh]

Wheelstanding Dump Truck! Stubby Bob?s Comeback -...

[PDW HOTRODS]

I'm still here. I'v been looking at rear engines anytime I see one. I have a few projects going now, but would like to build one someday.

[bobinbc]

I've seen a couple over the years that have used the Toranado set-up very cool. Sorry no pics on the computer.

joedoh that stubby truck video is awesome! I was almost out of my seat!

Here's another great rear-engine truck, 57 Chevy with lots of "shock" value

https://youtu.be/253lVL4JW-U

[joedoh]

bob just copy paste the url and remove the "s" from "https", and the forum software will do the rest. no need for embed!

thusly:

Les Shockley's "Super Shockwave" '57...

[bobinbc]

Thanks!Much better!

[LuckyFastEddie]

Here is one i built and drove or 8 years . Used a 88 Pontiac Fiero drive train .