Stu C’s bus revamp

Thought this may be if interest to some of you who remember Stu Cully. He doesn’t really do the forum thing now but anyway....



Stu has owned his wicked 1971 South African sunroof deluxe for a quite a few years now and decided to give it a bit of a freshen up inside. He had a 1776 which he brought years ago sitting in his garage which I talked him into fitting in his bus, it was a bit of an unknown quantity so I collected it and delivered it to my good mate and engine builder Hector Howe. It wasn’t bad but Hector gave it a full number anyway.

Stu then dropped the bus off and I set to work

Mocking up breather pipes



Autometer monster tacho and oil temp gauge



And an uprated ignition system

Hector then dropped the completely rebuilt long block off

Seems the engine was originally built quite a few years ago so has some proper cool old Skool bits in it which thankfully were in good condition and could be reused

Spec is a perfect cruising motor for a bus

1776 90.5 x 69
Genuine vw counter weighted crank
Balanced vw rods
Mahle forged 90.5 pistons and barrels all match weighted
Lightened genuine vw vanadium flywheel
Stage 1 clutch and stock disc
Engle w110 cam and scat light weight lifters
Dee engineering 1.25 rockers
Ali pushrods
Jaycee push rod tubes
Scat crank pulley
Stock vw heads hand ported with chamber work by hector
Conservative 8.5:1 compression ratio
Dee engineering short intake manifolds
Weber 40 IDF’s
CB performance air filters
Carter 3.5 psi rotary fuel pump
CSP throttle linkage
26mm full flow oil pump with filter and cooler
Vintage speed exhaust, not ideal but it’s slammed lol
Rotating assembly balanced to ‘0’
Fully blue printed
Genuine Bosch 009 with pertronix module

Should be good for 100hp and a decent amount of torque

My girlfriends dad works at the local powder coaters so I got that all done along with a new Scat fanhousing and front tin with pre heat deletes.





Just need my mate at pirtek to come make up the oil lines and we’re good to get it running



Always use a sandwich plate in the oil system






Never had this issue with carb trumpets but it was easily rectified

Karlos - top skills there buddy, gonna be awesome when its running

StuF said:

Karlos - top skills there buddy, gonna be awesome when its running

Click to expand...

Cheers man, yeah it’s a lovely old bus. Having 1 of Hectors engines in the back will transform it 8) looking forward to taking it for a drive

Awesome..... I would love a 1776.

Yeah Stu is happy with the work so far. Bolted to the stock box it should get up & go pretty well

Just wanner keep away from them dame lorries ya know! .... :x
and overtake without my arsehole twitching!!! :lol:

What would a build like that cost Karlos? PM me if u want.

Made the brackets and mounted the external oil cooler this afternoon. Just pipes left to sort now

The obligatory Fram HP1 filter

So after a hectic couple of weeks and being horrifically sick with the flu over Xmas and new year I have got more done.

Stu decided to ditch the vintage speed exhaust for a Bugpack sidewinder system.



This Will give better clearance, sound nicer and being a 4 into 1 breathe better which will hopefully release a bit more power.

Got the sidewinder painted and mocked it all up tonight. Hung a bit low for my liking so had a bit of a fettle and it tucks up quite nicely now

Really happy with this exhaust, nicely tucked away. Also had my mate make up the oil pipes tonight.

Glen made me up some pipes from aircraft grade Teflon pipe with stainless steel overbraid and proper crimped on fittings. Makes me cringe when people use push on barbs and jubilee clips

And she’s ready to go 8) picked up the oil and camshield for the cam burn which I’ll do during the week. Been a lot of work but it now has a new lease of life and will put a big smile on stu’s face

Great work on this awesome bus! I like the exhaust. 8)

Great stuff Karlos - always liked this bus

Cheers for the kind words chaps. It is a lovely old van for sure.





Am jealous of the stance but my massive engine with a deep sump has made me throw in the towel with the slam war :lol:

I have returned :shock: :lol:

Karlos has done some awesome work along with Hectors rebuild, thankfully coincided with a year of health problems which are (fingers crossed) behind me now.

Can't thank Karlos enough, he's one of my best mates and really put himself out sorting the Bus while I couldn't. Cant wait to hear it and drive it