Honda K Series AWD Turbo 1960 Bugeye.

[d-craft]

Hi All,

I'm new on here and as much I don't own an Austin Healey I wanted to share a project that we are starting. I own a fab shop in Huntington Beach and have a customer that dropped off a Bugeye. Original plan was to drop a Honda S2000 engine and tranny into it but he decided he wanted a more unique build. Now the plan is to drop a K Series Honda engine and transmission into his car mounted longitudinal and turbocharge it. By far one of the most difficult swaps we have done but when this is done it should be a rocket ship. The plan is to debut the car at the SEMA show 2016. I'll definitely start posting pictures of the build soon.

thank you,
Gary Castillo

[rficalora]

Gary - can't wait to see the pics/progress.

Must be something in the Bugeye water; seems I recently saw another high end Bugeye project highlighted on one of the forums.  Don't think that one was SEMA bound though.

[Anarchy99]

The one you are speaking of should be SEMA bound... It's shaping up like a work of art.

On a side note, I love the AWD conversions in the little mini's. If I ever bought a mini, that's what I would do to it.

[HealeyRick]

Here's the link to the other one: http://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?106153-Frogette-LS-Powered-Sprite

[d-craft]

this was only mocked up but with the engine moved back far enough it allowed me to mount a front differential housing out of a Nissan RB26 with plenty of room left for the rack and pinion.

[d-craft]

This is the engine mount I came up with. I might need to change it a bit since this Honda engine normally has the throttle body on the transmission side and I'm going to use a Honda S2000 intake manifold to have it on the opposite side. BTW, this was shot on the weekend which explains the Heineken bottle haha.

[BWA]

That is a very unique engine swap!!
Those engines are awesome, I have a 2003 Civic SIR which has the 160 hp version.
So I assume that you are going to attach the driveshaft where the axle shaft attached.
How are you going to run this driveshaft out to the back without having an offset hump in the interior?
If you go this route there will be no room for a passenger seat.
What type of rearend do you plan on using?

Cheers
Byron

[d-craft]

here is what I'm planning for the front suspension. this is a GM Aluminum front upright and I also found a spline hub and axles that "should" fit pretty well. The front diff housing is a Nissan that uses cv axles.. Should be mounting it really soon and size up the axles so they can get custom made to length. I'm still trying to figure out shock placement since I seem to be running out of room up front. still need to mount an intercooler and radiator.

[d-craft]

i mounted the front of the diff with a sandwich style adapter plate I made. basically the plate sits between the diff and the front cover. since the housing is normally part of the oil pan on an RB26 Nissan Skyline I had to cut and grind everything off of if to get it too fit right.

[d-craft]

Update 8/9/17

car has been painted and now time to reinstall everything. These are the wheels we decided to go with.


Also we have been selected for SEMA Battle of the Builders this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPUnnspY2mU

[rficalora]

That is AWESOME!  Congratulations; that is quite an honor.

[HealeyRick]

Cool build.  Good luck at SEMA!

[d-craft]

finished up the exhaust and turbo manifold. still trying to figure out how I want to do the windscreen.

[d-craft]

dropping the real engine and transmission in the car this week. crossing my fingers that the car starts up next week after wiring.

[d-craft]

disappointing news, the car was ready for SEMA but I was bottom guy on the totem pole at a certain booth and as of Saturday night, they was no room for the Austin. Funny they couldn't make room for a car so small but it is what it is. next year I hope. No one to blame for this miscommunication but myself. I had too guaranteed spots but held out for areas with better foot traffic. by the time I found out I could not get a better spot my reserve spots were given away. I'm so bummed about this cause I know the Austin had the ability to win Battle of the Builders. crossing my fingers they allow me to enter next year. regardless i will start uploading a bunch of pics this week of the Design Craft Fabrication All Wheel Drive Bugeye Sprite with detailed captions. thanks for following

Gary Castillo
Instagram @designcraftfab


the front intercooler duct hasn't been bonded and the over fender sealing isn't installed yet but most everything else is complete front end wise.

the owner of the car is a big audio guy. personally I would rather do with something that didnt require cutting up the rear but it was at the owners request

one of the collaborations I had with this car was with sparco in designing a restomod/vintage seat. believe it or not this started out as one of their Sprint seats which I modified into a low back vintage.

another favorite thing of mine is the oval stainless side exit exhaust with turbo wastgate muffled tube.

[d-craft]

since we made the rear suspension double wish bone we ran out of room to put the motorcycle shocks so we decided to make it a push rod suspension and mount the shocks in the trunk

this is the rear subfram we made to make the car independent suspension. the diff is a Nissan 240SX

this is how tight it fit under the car. all the axles, arms, uprights are all custom parts we made.

[rficalora]

Very nice!  Sent you some questions in PM.

[d-craft]

added a few more shots from the engine bay

[d-craft]

if you are in the LA/OC area check out the the Austin Healey we built. It will be in the lower south hall in the DUB Booth.

[bayhealey]

Forget SEMA... You've reached the pinnacle...

Jalopnik approval...

and I quote... "If your goal is to convince people, wordlessly, that sanity isn't something you've ever been remotely interested in, I think this very very modified Austin-Healey Sprite is the car you've been looking for. I imagine that your life expectancy drops by a solid decade the second you pick up the keys to this amazing thing."

https://jalopnik.com/all-the-best-weird-stuff-from-the-los-angeles-auto-show-1820862517

[d-craft]

bayhealey. a friend of mine sent me that this morning. i was shocked but it was a really cool surprise.

[bayhealey]

Yep... between Bring a Trailer and Jalopnik those are my must reads every day. When you take the Bugeye out for a test run you should post some video. Oh I love the seats. Hard to do them right and keep the roadster look. I think yours are the best performance seats I've seen.

[d-craft]

K&N filters did a small piece on it as well.

https://www.knfilters.com/news/knews.aspx

[d-craft]

the car will be displayed in the Sparco show room in Irvine this month. stop by if you are in the area and want to check it out.

[rficalora]

Looked great in the earlier pictures -- looks even better in that one!  Really shows it off well!