Subaru Conversion, CSOB style... Options

[jsteele22]

I've been thinking about what it would take to do a Subaru install
into my 914, and making it as inexpensive (and as home-brew) as
possible. I have a friend who is a machinist with a lot of enthusiasm
for the project, and a nice shop. He's done a couple of adapter plates
before, so I'm confident in that part. What I'm more curious about is
the flywheel. My idea for this is to take the stock Subaru flywheel
and machine it down to a radius of 4-5-ish inches, and then bolt a
stock Porsche (okay, VW) flywheel to it. So the Subaru FW becomes
just an adapter hub. Then, the thickness of the adapter plate is
chosen to get the input shaft to reach the proper position in the
friction plate/pilot bearing.

What do all you hybrid gurus out there think of this ? Am I
overlooking anything glaringly obvious ? (I haven't seen the pieces
in person, just in Haynes & on EBay.) Sure, the assembly will have to
be balanced carefully, but I think we (he) can handle that. The
engine I'm looking at is an EJ25 (165-ish HP) or, more realistically,
an EJ22 (130-ish), so it won't be an axle-snapper like some of you SBC
folks are driving.


Another issue is the engine mount. I've seen pics of Scott's, and
another one (tube steel) that I think Friid had made up, but not the
ultra-secret Renegade design. One idea I had on this is to not use
the stock Suby engine mount points, but instead make the adapter plate
several inches wider than the bell housing. Then each side of the
adapter plate could have an "L" shaped bracket bolted (sideways) onto
it; the bottom of the L would bolt vertically onto the plate at two
points, and the back of the L would point (horizontally) forward to
hang from a cross bar, either in the conventional (lower) position, or
up high across the top of the engine bay. This would take essentially
all of the torque off of the mounting bar bolts, and would leave an
open path for the shift linkage. In practice, I'm sure there would
need to be a little cross-bracing to prevent side-to-side motion, and
also to keep the L from straightening. Again, oh learned ones, what are
your opinions on this setup ? I *think* that suspending an engine
from the adapter plate is essentially what all the Subaru airplane
folks do.


I'm really pretty excited about the idea of putting a Suby in my car.
And it would be even more cool if it turns out to be affordable.

Please let me know what you think....

[TonyAKAVW]

okay I think I understand now. I was imagining that you were going to use a subaru flywheel. What you are describing is basically the thng that KEP sells, and what I have for my conversion that I'm working on. the amount of spacing added to the 914 flywheel seems to be about an inch to an inch and a half. Like I said I'll post pictures tonight. That is for a spacer that is pretty thin, maybe 3/8"... I'll measure both of these for you and post it as well. Overall, the flywheel back surface (the surface facing the engine) sits roughly 2 inches from the crankshaft end of the subaru engine. The KEP flywheel is welded together and I _believe_ they use a custom made core section.

-Tony

edit: here's a thread with the progress on my subaru conversion (EJ25)
(also a CSOB conversion, and full 914 restoration as well)