Alan.G from New Zealand sent me these pics of his re-engined Civilian. It now has a 327 cu inch Chevrolet V8 motor fitted, 5 speed Nissan gearbox & diff. He reckons it goes pretty well, competing with cars on the hills. 100kph @ 2800rpm. This is a short wheelbase 1984 model, & would be considered unusual in Australia, as it is also a ‘low roof’ version, something not often seen here, but apparently quite common in New Zealand. 21/07/2007,  Hi Cuppa.  A bit more on my Bus. It is a 1984 short wheel base,low roof and was used as a school bus in Japan.I paid $10500 NZ for the bus here in NZ and stripped it out and then started to change it to a Motor home 2 years ago. It was fitted with a 2.2 petrol engine and that was the first thing to change so I got hold of a brand new Chevrolet 327 Engine,made up a plate to fit to the Nissan Transmission.I pulled the engine down and changed the con rods and rockers to roller.Balanced all parts,ported heads and did so many things to the engine and got so more power out of it.We put it on a Dyno and it has 348 brake horsepower at the flywheel.The cam that I fitted gives me a lot of low down power.Now I have fitted electronic distributor to it and have fitted Fuel injection,but have taken off the injection system as all it did was give me more top end power and that is not what I was looking for. It has what I know as a City Diff and needs a Country Diff to drop the Revs down.At 100Kph I am pulling 3000RPM a bit to high,about 2000 would be nice as it will pull away strong in top gear from about 850rpm in top.  The inside. As it is a 6 metre and we go to powered sites most of the time I did not fit a shower. All of the timber work I did myself as to all the plumbing and wiring.My son did all the carpets and seats and curtains. I have fitted 2 stainless fresh water tanks both at 90 litres and a grey tank at 120 litres.Hot water is by califont and I have fitted Sky free to air with LCD TV,DVD,CD Player.   We do have a generator that we can take if we go off site. We have now had it on the road for just over 2 years and now have 86000 K's on the speedo. To date we have just spent just on $20k total on it and are very happy with rhe way it turned out, a very comfortable unit, both to drive and stay in.  Regards,  Alan G, New Zealand.
Alan’s Chevrolet Civilian
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Note Stainless steel ‘skirt’
Number plate
Interior 1
Seating becomes bed
Interior 2
Interior 3
Interior 4
Interior 5
Chevy v8
Chevy v8
Engine hatch