Just bought a non running 1985 Melos currently fitted with a "rebuilt"?? 1300 x-flow and 4 speed box.

I'm now wondering how much work is involved to fit a 3.0 Essex engine and manual box?
I understand it was a standard unit for them?

Brakes, suspension etc... will all need modifying and uprating, but what about space in the chassis? Were they built for particular engine/gearbox configurations or is the chassis the same for all?

How much work........? Impossible to answer - only you have the car and are aware of your abilities and facilities.

As a quick answer, absolutely everything mechanical, some chassis mods and maybe some cuts and shuts to the body tub tranny tunnel if its still stock.

Treat it as a complete new build with additional making good works and start with reading through the Melos/S4 build manual.

Cheers

Andrew

Thanks for the reply.

I think I've decided to leave the basic car stock (or at least as it is). I asked the question to see if there would be much in the way of chassis / body mods - not that I'm worried about doing them, it's more a question of time etc...

The rebuild will consist of restoring what's there, while replacing/remaking parts etc... that need to be.

The engine is a 1300 xflow - I'll probably stick with that for now (if it runs OK), and maybe go for a 1600 later (or if one falls into my hands in the meantime). Either of these well built and tuned will probably make the car go quite well as there's no weight to them.

I've sent my club membership off, so as soon as I can lay my hands on a build manual, I'll get reading :D