tpot Posted September 29, 2007 Share Posted September 29, 2007 Hi. I'm new on this site and hope some of you can help. I have a 1966 Aztec GT Kit car I built it in 1966. It is on a VW pan with a corvair motor on the vw trans. It has been setting for 30 years and it is now time to re-do it. My idea is to put a Subaru motor and trans mid engine, use the Sub rear and adapt the front shafts to it to solve stearing problems. The car now weighs about 1500Lb I hope to keep it under 1800lb with a new tube frame. I have welders .cutters plasma cutter and am willing to try this, but I will need all the help and ideas I can get. PS. would like 250 to 300 HP. I need to eat vets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 Why not just bolt a sooby engine up to the VW tranny (vanagons do it all the time). Converting to mid engine is a big project, you would need a new floorpan/chassis or some sort of hybrid to the tried and true (and can still get parts for) VW design. Well actually lets back up. Mid eingine just means engine between frt and rear wheels. Are you talking about engine in front of or behind the pass compartment. Shifting can be a nightmare on a a transmission pointing away fropm the pass compartment. If you are talking about the car being nose light (steering issues) putting the radiator and all the associated structure, battery, AC parts and some other tricks can solve that. I would keep it as it is, and look at a turbo sooby engine in the rear (there are kits to do this). If you want to go all out and start from scratch, It can be done, but it's not for the timid. I would keep the VW front end kust for the sheer convience of it almost being one peice. When i had a corvair, just by plaing with the front/rear air pressure you werer able to get better steering. Now with better tires you should be able to get away from that somewhat. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpot Posted September 30, 2007 Author Share Posted September 30, 2007 Yes mid engine behind driver but in front of rear wheels. With the corvair motor out back it was a bear to drive real fast streight but don't try to turn. I don't think the vw trans will stand up to the bigger moter as good as the new trans will. I may go with this but would like to see if I could just cut the pan in back of the driver and weld a new rear section. Some one told me the Sooby was a cable shift and new longer cables would work, i don,t know. The radiator and battery will be in front. The car is less than 4 ft tall and simular to the Ford GT 40. I will try to find a totaled car and salvage most of the parts from it. What do I look for year model and which motor and trans. I wont to go fast but be safe in the turns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSubaruJunkie Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 As far as subaru engines go, you can get what you need from either the Legacy, Impreza or even the Forester. They all use the same EJ series motors. The EJ comes in 2.0, 2.2 and 2.5 liters. Any of them are capable of 250-300hp depending on how they are built. The 2.2 and the 2.5 came turbocharged in the USA. The 2.0 came turbo and twin turbo overseas. Cable shift? Maybe you are talking about Automatic transmissions then? Not 100% sure on that, but any Subaru Transmission should be able to handle 300hp better than a VW trans. Sounds like a cool project. -Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 Yes mid engine behind driver but in front of rear wheels. With the corvair motor out back it was a bear to drive real fast streight but don't try to turn. I don't think the vw trans will stand up to the bigger moter as good as the new trans will. I may go with this but would like to see if I could just cut the pan in back of the driver and weld a new rear section. Some one told me the Sooby was a cable shift and new longer cables would work, i don,t know. The radiator and battery will be in front. The car is less than 4 ft tall and simular to the Ford GT 40.I will try to find a totaled car and salvage most of the parts from it. What do I look for year model and which motor and trans. I wont to go fast but be safe in the turns. The VW tranny can hold up to over 300 HP. Remeber VW were extreemly overbuilt. Part of the problem with the corvair engine (I had both a beetle and a vair) is the mass of the engine. SUbaru engines are extreemly light, and it really doesnt take much weight in the nose to even things out. Soobys are not cable shift, never have been. Even if they were the longer the cable, the more stretch and slop in it. Chrysler used to use cable shift in thier FWD cars, and they were the sorst shifters in the planet. On the VW all you need to do is replace the shift forks (as they get tired). I know that car, its a great kit to work with. Also dont be afraid of putting wieght in the front just for the sake of having front mass. http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/subaruvanagon/?yguid=281753844 http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/subaruVanagon2/?yguid=281753844 Those two links are good placese ofr information, so you wont be reinventing the wheel. They have busses as well as vanagons. Just dont post any questions there, as they are not the most freindly people in the world. Once somone asked how to upgrade his brakes, and the list owner threatend to ban him from the list. To me if you add power to something, adding stopping power is just as important, so now i read the list on the web. Some of the information will not apply to you, but a lot of it will. You also have the advantage of making things from scratch, instead of trying to shoe horn things in. http://www.rjes.com/ http://bb.bbboy.net/vwengineconversions-viewforum?forum=3 and somone whos done it before http://www.vanbran.com/bug/conversion1.htm http://bb.bbboy.net/vwengineconversions-viewthread?forum=8&thread=22 nipper (automotive engineer) edit - bad typing (what else is new) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpot Posted September 30, 2007 Author Share Posted September 30, 2007 nipper i think you just turned a 2 year project into a 1 year project. Your way I can be on the street a lot faster with a lot less work. Now I need to get started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 Thats what i am here for . i dont have the space (and working on getting the ability back) to build things, but love helping others out. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2F1R Suby/dub Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Hi all. I just saw this post, and some of the trouble spots are things I have encountered or I am encountering now. You can use a mid engine shifter by Empi that was made for a VW but will work on the Suby with just a little tinkering. If you don't have one or have difficulty finding one I do have an extra new one(still in packaging) you can have reasonable. If you are going mid engine/rear drive just use the Suby front wheel drive tranny. You could probably use the 4 wheel drive unit too but you'd have to cap the rear output shaft. By using the Suby subframe/crossmember you will solve a bunch of engineering woes when mounting the drive/engine as it all bolts up (or off in taking one down). I'd consider which year and model of Suby parts as the wheel patterns and brake systems will will vary. The question about the cable shifter is that the cable is for the clutch not the shifter. Make it easier by changing to a hydraulic system. Just my .02. Cheers. Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Hi all. I just saw this post, and some of the trouble spots are things I have encountered or I am encountering now. You can use a mid engine shifter by Empi that was made for a VW but will work on the Suby with just a little tinkering. If you don't have one or have difficulty finding one I do have an extra new one(still in packaging) you can have reasonable. If you are going mid engine/rear drive just use the Suby front wheel drive tranny. You could probably use the 4 wheel drive unit too but you'd have to cap the rear output shaft. By using the Suby subframe/crossmember you will solve a bunch of engineering woes when mounting the drive/engine as it all bolts up (or off in taking one down). I'd consider which year and model of Suby parts as the wheel patterns and brake systems will will vary. The question about the cable shifter is that the cable is for the clutch not the shifter. Make it easier by changing to a hydraulic system. Just my .02. Cheers. Dave. Well he would have to go with a hydraulic clutch, due to subarus clutch arangement. If he sticks with the VW, he can use the VW clutch. I didnt even think about using the subframe, stupid me. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2F1R Suby/dub Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Hi Nipper. I am building a reverse trike. It started out as VW/VW and morphed into goldwing/Subaru after I found how easy to use the Suby subframe is. I have crossed many of the bridges mentioned in the initial post. Initially I wanted to avoid the cooling issues so I started to use the VW parts. Then I found the Suby bits and then aqquired a Honda Goldwing. The Goldie engine is smaller than both the VW and the Suby but the HP output is closer to the Suby engine. The torque is similar but comes on much higher in the rev range. I went to the wrecking yard today and found an LSD rear in an RX, that I plan to use in place of the Suby transaxel (front wheel drive, by using the front axels on the rear diff). The first Suby parts I bought were from an 85GL so they are 4 lug, so now I am planning the 5 lug conversion. Cheers. Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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