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....

[jsteele22]

Yeah, I was thinking that after hearing how thin the KEP plate is. Aluminum would probably hold the load if it were stationary, but with all that vibration I'm certain it would crack. So some kind of steel (I don't know much about different grades, but Steve does) that meets the relevant mating surfaces and has 2 (or 4 ?) ears sticking out. I'm still just picturing this all in my head -haven't seen the engine or tranny split apart - but I'm thinking it might be possible with this setup to remove the engine from the adapter plate and drop it without having to mess w/ the tranny. Maybe pull the engine/radiator as a pair ?

I'm glad to see you join this thread, Scott. Besides following in your footsteps on the Subaru swap, I went to the RRC last month and walked (drove) off with the coveted "Golden Wheelbarrow" award, which I understand was created at WCC for you in honor of your trans-continental jaunt in an unproven "experimental" vehicle. I, OTOH, just drove halfway across Colorado in a beater 914. But I have to agree with the group consensus : of all the cars present, mine had the most "potential" (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)