Hello,
I guess it would be a dead sin, but would a nissan 1400 bakkie engine (watercooled) be able to pull a 71 standard bay window deluxe bus? Or, would it pull a split (which one would be best, i have a 65 split and 71 bay, both blew engines.)
Bart Bervoets
Where would you put the radiator?
In the back, i have seen it done in the engine door (i have a spare one so it's always possible to return the bus to it's original state.
I was even thinking, the vent holes on the side catch wind while driving, make something to guide that air through the radiator. The nissan 1400 is a small but quite powerful engine, very popular in South Africa to do conversions and parts are cheap to obtain, almost every mechanic can fix them. I like the 1600 TP but nobody can fix them anymore these days.
Bart Bervoets
So you wouldn't be working on it?
I guess if you're going to have a mechanic work on it, then ask him/her opinion. If you'd be the mechanic, then why not stick with the 1600? Aren't you familiar with it already?
You have a lot of 35 year old Nissan 1400s there?
Bart,
Short answer, yes. The Nissan 1400 (and the 1200 before it) lasts practically forever. Am glad Nissan saw the potential and continued manufacturing it in SA.
Go to
Good luck
They're not that old, and yes, there's lots of them out there. They're quite popular among the colored population, among with older toyota corolla and hi-ace minivans (which are used for public taxi) Parts are easy to obtain and cheap.
Bart Bervoets
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