Follow the adventure (Page 2 of 3)

Sorry, still owe everyone some pics of the scary gastank/exhaust relationship.

The pic with the test fit of the wheels was bugging me...I know y'all generally eschew clean and pretty around here but I cant help it, those wheels looked gross.

So a little time with some sandpaper and...

before

after

haha, niiice

'fraid not, the AWD stuff isnt compatable with the por.....um poor man's suspension, yeah that's what I was gonna say.

They are cheap, reliable and have reasoable power levels in a small package, what's not to love

Awesome. I hope that 3-banger will make its way into a pit cart or something.

Downhill seizes can be avoided by clutching and revving on the descent. Also doubles as a warning for wayward pedestrians.

Productive weekend.  One of the other misfits stopped by.  Before he arrived I pulled the motor.  I looked at my engine hoist and decided it was too much trouble so I just picked the thing up by hand.

Then we got a little happy with the implements of destruction.  So from the old engine bay above.  To our new and improved engine bay.

After a weekend of towing, bartering and cursing all the major components are now strewn across my, lawn/driveway/garage and we're readdy to solve a little equation.

Who's good at math?

There shall be an unholy marriage of the VW rear tosion, transaxle, suspension and the center "spine" to the Wartburg frame.
The 944 front suspension is getting grafted to the front frame and the 944 rear disk brakes will be adapted to the VW trailing arms in the rear (and by adapted I mean they bolt right on, woohoo). Subie 2.2 motor strapped to the VW transaxle completes the mix.

Its an interesting note for those who havent seen the Wartburg up close to realize how small it really is that a VW bug is very similar dimensionally.  Slightly shorter in the overall wheelbase but the interior space is larger on the bug (no, really, I didnt belive it either)

We've gone through alot of iterations of this project.   The final determining factors were

a) what do we know best mechanically
b) what can we get cheap

Both boxes were ticked by aircooled VW and I was actually able to get a full rolling chassis with transmission for the cost of going to pick it up.

The original plan was to weld the VW front torsion to the frame for the front suspension.  But we wanted better brakes too.  A friend who is building a hell of a 944 (with an LS1) wanted a radiator I had sitting on the shelf and wanted all the unused 944 bits out of his garage so a trade was made.  These parts were supposed to go on my VW bus but I sold that to help pay for our misadventures with the Wartburg and free up some garage space.

So, 944 disks are a direct bolt on to the rear suspension of a VW, the front disks can be modified but we got to looking at those porsche a-arms and struts and the better adjustability and overall performance made more sense so we scrapped the VW front idea and are designing the strut towers.  The design of the existing wartburg shock towers makes it much easier than it would normally be so we decided to bite the bullet on it.

Suspension sorted on to engines.  VW aircooled is a quick and easy setup but the Subie is a simple(ish) conversion and better power/reliability/parts availability so we put that in our notebook.   Our subie expert recommended the 2.2 for its robust nature, availability and the fact that it doesnt make so much power it will immediately grenade a VW transaxle.  Early 90s subie legacies are cheap and we should be able to part out the rest of the car to more than make up for the initial cost. 

We almost flipped the script entirely when we brought home the cheap miata but we decided that was kind of boring in compairason.

yeah, the biggest reason I see for not flipping it really has to do with the transmission, that's why i fancied the LH powertrain. i guess just about any fwd setup would be good so long as fitting it between the wheel wells wouldn't be problematic. Still would make for some issues with cage fab and access should anything go awry(which it will with all that Frankensteining) the boxer/ pseudo 911 setup should be awesome fun though with that low gravity center!

yeah, I can really tell. For a few minutes there I thought you had this in 5000 pieces as soon as it pulled up to your place, and actually tried mid-mounting already. With all the extra engineering you're putting into this you could practically fab up a whole drivetrain on a frame then slip the body over the top. Just keep the caffeine flowing my friend.

...then again, you practically are. can't wait til pics start showing up of the engine in place.

that sounds familiar. I haven't had a single team member less than 3 hours away until VERY recently, and i get the stink-eye every time I skate out to the garage for more than 20 minutes, lol. Makes me wonder why I'm house shopping for a place with a Pole Barn and 220-230v service.