Horse power in dune buggy

[herkster]

We have a full wheelbase buggy with a stiffy bar and a 200 hp 2.5 liter NA Subaru. It's not done yet but we expect good things. Lots of rubber with dropped atom plates in the rear and a dropped and narrowed 4 inch front. No sway bArs yet until we figure it out...

[eschmi]

[Lo Cash John]

Sell that antique to someone looking for a period correct motor and go get a 1600cc dual port at a dead MINIMUM. You'll be glad you did.
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More brains than bucks...Believe it or not!!

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My boss told me I need to work on my mutli-tasking. So now when I use the bathroom at work I surf The Samba on my iPhone.

[eschmi]

[manxcraig]

Listen to John, someone will be glad to trade you for a good 1600. You ask if that engine would be painfully slow getting up to freeway speeds? Don't worry, it will NEVER get to freeway speeds! My old 40 horse would run faster in third gear than it would in fourth, so a 25 or 36 would be worse.
Again, a 1600 dual port engine MINIMUM.
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69 Meyers Manx II on 65 pan, 1 owner !
WANTED, Meyers Manx license plate frames, repo OK, don't like the new smiles per miles ones.

[eschmi]

Yea, i've been strongly considering it... we actually went over to my grandmas today to rummage around some of the old parts because we use to have 5 old beetles and 2 buses there... well I happened to find a bunch of old pistons, 4 old carbs, bunch of old light housings and misc parts but the best find is 1 engine that I can't identify because its missing too much and the serial is gone, a 2nd engine that is a 65 40hp that seems to be in decent shape, and 2, 12v generators! so now I need to decide what to do with myself and all this extra stuff. The generators I'm keeping, 1 for an engine, and another we're going to use for a small wind turbine, engines i'm not sure yet. Also this is kind of a noob question... but would a 1600 or bigger engine work on the current transmission and everything or would I have to swap it all out? the "frame" is from a 1960 beetle and the rest of it is from a 56 beetle...

[eschmi]

Well I got my hands on another engine out of a 73 bettle along with a new trans-axle to go along with it, so i'll be running a 1600cc dual port Oh and a friend of my dads apparently use to have a buggy and decided to sell it before they rebuilt it, but they still have the whole little rebuild kit for it, 1600cc big bore kit to boot! this things going to sprout wings and fly!

[EVfun]

The '73 transaxle isn't going to fit. The front mount is different it has a double jointed rear suspension in place of the single joint swing axle transaxle. That is O.K. because you can run the 1600 on the older transaxle, there are a couple of ways to do it. You will need a new clutch pressure plate at a minimum.
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[Lo Cash John]

Good to know you're still at it!! A stock 1600 in a buggy will be awesome. It'll require low maintenance and have plenty of pep too.

That spare transmission is not easily swapped into an early chassis like yours BUT you can always sell it and apply the profits to the buggy.
_________________
www.LoCashRacing.org
More brains than bucks...Believe it or not!!

If you actually drive your VW, you need www.AirMapp.com

My boss told me I need to work on my mutli-tasking. So now when I use the bathroom at work I surf The Samba on my iPhone.

[slalombuggy]

I would try and find another transaxle if the one you have in your buggy is split down the middle and bolted together like the engine case. They are a very weak transmission and will not withstand any abuse. To put the 1600 in the early split transaxle you have to clearance the bellhousing for the larger 1600 12V flywheel, and the starter bushing will need to be changed to the 6-12V adapter bushing.

Everyone asssumes 36ers are gutless pieces of poop. I've had the pleasure to drive a couple that have been truely rebuilt and a couple others that have ben hotrodded at Bonneville and they are a pretty peppy engine for their size. Even in a bus a well built 36 is surprising. I've driven a few older 36hp cars and the difference between an old 36 engien and a fresh rebuild is night and day Most guys were running high 60s to mid 70mph in the standing mile is all sorts of vehicles with stock engines. Tom Newport hit just over 100mph in his buggy with a modified 36hp motor this year.

brad

[eschmi]

the pan is a 1960, the original tranny was with the original engine which ended up being a 1956, the new transaxle is newer, i'll have to double check to make sure but I believe its a 65 or 67, I would have taken the transaxle off the 73 in a heartbeat but we noticed that the little bars, torsion bars? coming out the back were Very short and very different from the ones on my pan and the transaxle mounted different up front (looked that way anyways) so we grabbed another one off a different beetle that use to be my dads old beetle he rebuild when he was a kid, so I'm hoping it will hold up... bigger issue right now is getting the pan fixed... here's what I'm dealing with... http://imgur.com/a/l0Jfe I thought they took 2 pieces of metal and just crappily welded around them... turns out its almost an inch thick of slag.... ground it down as best I could but that stuff just chews through wheels, luckily a friend of mine is a weld inspector for the nuclear plants in the area so he's going to help me out n weld it up and make sure its strong... would just grab a new pan and chop it up but this ones already stripped down to nothing so yeah... just need to get it welded n blasted before the snow hits!

[eschmi]

Oh, did I mention the last bunch of pics are spare engines and brand new-old parts and a crap ton of wheels caps? Going to use some of those to help fund fixing the botched fiberglass body... also any idea what the V logo is on some of those caps? looked all over google and even on here and got zilch.

[EVfun]

Looks like some previous owner has already handled the transaxle swap to the later tunnel type transaxle. You should be able to run any 1961 to 1968 transaxle, but you may have to put the nose cone from the transaxle in the buggy onto any replacement. They could have swapped to the later transaxle by using a older Bus nosecone, or by changing the mount on the frame.
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[eschmi]

Thanks for the advice, the new engine and tranny are still sitting in the van at the moment, going to move them to the basement tomorrow and see how it lines up, worst comes to worse theres 4 other transaxles sitting at my uncles along with enough parts to make a few cars haha

[eschmi]

Update: I double checked the transaxle because I was worried it might be a split and be junk... luckily it's not, both are solid and not bolted together and the "new" transaxle is a 58.

[joescoolcustoms]

'58 was a split case transaxle.
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Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

[eschmi]

When you say split case you mean like the whole thing splits right down the center into two pieces right? I'll have to look again -facedesk- it's my dads old beetle and he claims its a 58, but I guess i'll have to look up the serial but it doesnt split down the center.

[joescoolcustoms]

The split case transaxles were used into model year 1960. But, as old as VW's are, they can easily have been changed years ago.

The split case splits into two pieces with the seam on the top and bottom, just like the engine.

here is a split case:

here is the later tunnel case transaxle:

You can see the split lines and bolts on the top two pictures of where the case goes together. The later transaxles are considered one piece cases even though the side covers come off.
_________________
Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

[eschmi]

Thanks for the explanation, sorry I'm a bit of a noob, just triple checked it, I thought it was split for a minute... almost crapped my pants. But there's no bolts going through at all and followed what looked like a seam up to the bell housing and there was no seam on the top/inside of it, and cleaned off and checked the serial just to be certain. 8220403 so that should put it at a lat 63. So i should be in the clear lol as long as this one doesn't drain metal shavings in the oil like the other one did!

[eschmi]