[mdbs]

Started buying parts for my next project, but as I have been out of the game for years dont know what suspension to use. In the old days I would have used HA viva.

Car is a Morris Marina, engine is 1 UZFE, which I think has the sump at the front but can modify.

Thank You....

 

[kapri]

The front suspension to use will depend on how you want the car to sit and how strong it has to be. The Viva would require a large chassis Z to get it down . Sorry ,no idea what engine that is ?

 

[stueeee]

Wouldn't have thought that the Aluminium Lexus V8 was any/much heavier than the 1.8 Marina motor, which was a real boat anchor.

If you want to uprate the suspension rate and keep the torsion bar setup, the Marina Van and Pickup had thicker torsion bars than the saloons. Brakes would need a serious upgrade though from those small unvented discs.

As Kev said, the ride height is key, gasser, road hugger or somewhere in between?

 

[nobody]

if youre buying a complete car to donate the engine why not use the front suspension.
independant on its own subframe though possibly to wide as stock.
use there geometry and make youre own brackets to get it to suit the marina.
some of the soarers come with air suspension if you wanted to fit that as well.

 

[mdbs]

Thanks for the replies so far. Not sure about type of car. Currently have tuned twin turn jap car and want a change of style. Not looked but would not expect ls400 subfrzme etc to fit, would solve many issues at once though. Will hzve to look. Can anyone just give me a list, like sierra, viva etc just to give me an idea. Thanks.

 

[nobody]

what do you mean by youre unsure what kind of car.
its gonna be a marina with a 1uz:incheek:


you dont have a lot of choice for doners as its either the ls400 or a soarer.both use the same running gear.theres no more choices

they come with independant front and rear on there own frames.
yes the front will be too wide but use there A arms and fab new brackets/crossmember.
the front crossmember on the car is alluminium and not really suitable for narrowing unless youre a pretty competant ally welder.

im guess ing that the marina is strut front end.sierra would work but then so would any car that had a strut front end,and rwd.may be worth looking ar bmw,s
again you may need to make a bracket/crossmember to take the lower control arm.
best go to a scrappy and start measuring once youve measured youre marina.

have to ask why the fook would you want to put something as out of date as a viva front end on youre car.
youre suposed to be upgrading with a v8 not going backwards.it isnt the 70,s/80,s anymore

strangly ive just cut a viva front end outa a car.
it will be down the local tip soon in its rightfull home.

 

[mdbs]

Have no intention of using a viva front end just put that in because I have used them before. Shen I wax 20. Now 52. Lol. Need to do some catching up. Some stuff to think about though. Which is what I was after. Thanks.

 

[arsenic]

"im guess ing that the marina is strut front end."

AFAIK the Marina is Armstrong lever dampers and king pins/trunnions, the 1275 certainly is, but it's too long since I had an 1800 and the old memory's failing

 

[nobody]

my first car was a marina my mum gave me.
dont know if it had struts as i never opened the bonnet thats why i guessed.

youre options are endless depending on youre fabrication skills and how much you wanna do to the car.
also stuff like sierra strut front ends can be converted to double A arm

 

[stueeee]

"im guess ing that the marina is strut front end."

AFAIK the Marina is Armstrong lever dampers and king pins/trunnions, the 1275 certainly is, but it's too long since I had an 1800 and the old memory's failing

Marina 1300 and 1800 both have lever damper arm forming the top "wishbone," bottom wishbone is attached to a Torsion bar that runs along side the chassis rail. As per my previous post, car and Van/pickup torsion bars aren't the same but do interchange.

The whole front suspension is basically a heavier duty Morris Minor setup. Would be quite capable of suspending a light V8 IMO, but would obviously need a brake upgrade and some work to get rid of the positive camber and high roll centre that caused Marinas to handle like tea trolleys as standard.

 

[mdbs]

And isn't the rack across the bulkhead like a minor? This would mean I would have to throw the lot away it seems.

 

[kapri]

A few questions to help offer options, are you able to fabricate your own front suspension , can you afford to spend around £1300 -2000 on a custom made item or are you looking to a clip type front to roll underneath that offers an upgrade?

 

[stueeee]

And isn't the rack across the bulkhead like a minor? This would mean I would have to throw the lot away it seems.

Yes, you might need to move the rack from the bulkhead and fabricate some new steering arms, but that's a fairly trivial job by comparison with changing out the whole front end surely?

Oddly enough, this car has Marina uprights fitted with 12" vent discs and four pot calipers, the modified Morris Minor rack runs through a welded in tunnel that goes through the sump pan side-to-side.

This blown RV8 motor pushes out more than 300 BHP and my brother has broken almost everything on this car at some point, but the front suspension and steering have always just worked.

 

[mdbs]

Kapri. not prepared to spend the money on a flash suspension, was thinking of making something fit from another car, hence the original question that maybe I could have asked in a more clear format.

I could modify something but make from scratch, no.

IIRC LS400 sumps are forward of the engine so that is less than ideal perhaps, Soarer are rear sumps but later LS400 are cheap, have more power (just) and 5 speed autos. I am quite happy staying auto.

Stueee, not a fan of the original suspension, but I hear what you say. Ideally I would like to simply fit something more modern and be done with it. But I dont know what might fit.

 

[nobody]

at some point youre going to have to make something.
it wont be a bolt in swap with basic mods.
these engines are huge.
how about a photo of youre marina engine bay so we can have a proper look.
youre not going to be able to use the bulkhead rack if thats whats on it as id guess the engine will be in its place.

if youre trying to find a bolt in front suspension youre going to have to modify it or the chassis to get the car to sit at the correct height.
if you can do that you then could quite easy convert the lexus front end to fit.or design something and get a decent fabricator to knock you something up.
its there free with the doner car so it cant get much cheaper.
you dont have to spend big bucks to get a decent suspension set up.
out of interest what are you doing for the rear end.

have you seen a lexus engine out of the car.
this is one in a lotus chassis to give you an idea of size

 

[mdbs]

AS its a solid rear end I am not bothered about that as yet. But looking for pics of Lexus front suspension I found one of an LS 400 rear that may work. Need to get my tape measure out I guess.

 

[kapri]

The cheaper option I was thinking of was MGB , low crossmember with loads of uprate parts available .You'd obviously need to check the width but it is relatively narrow as I fitted one in a Morris 8 at one stage and they are just a tad wide on for a Devon .

 

[nobody]

im lost now.
thought soarer/ls front and rear ends are all the same.only difference is some run air and some dont.
done all this research very recently.
whatever there still to wide for youre car as stock.

if you measure youre marina ill tell you how much wider they are.
you do have a marina dont you.

 

[mdbs]

Yes and no, I did have one but I was offered a good price last night and now its gone, I live in Aylesbury the car was stored at my sisters in Castle Donnington, hence my not being very familiar with it. So I will be looking for another car to fit the engine into, something without old Minor suspension maybe so I dont "have" to change it.

But most of what has been posted here will be helpfull. Thanks

 

[mdbs]

I did wonder about MGB, a bit old maybe?