Longitudinal Acura Legend Drivetrain in a rear engine VW?

[914turboford]

I am wondering if anyone has explored using a 1st or 2nd gen Acura Legend drivetrain in an air cooled VW. I am specifically thinking about this for a Super Beetle 1303. I think this trans is basically a 2 piece design, with the differential sitting next to the oil pan. The diff is sitting closer to the front of the car. I am sure you would have to do some cutting into the luggage tray area and make an access panel to service the front of the engine. Obviously you would have to make a whole new rear sub frame to support everything. I am wondering if it would fit under stock body work. It's a crazy idea, and I'm just wondering if it has been tossed around here before.

I have done several swaps in my life. My DD is an Isuzu pickup powered by an LS1, and that is pretty mild compared to others I've done, and yes, I know anything will work if you throw enough time and money at it.

[Krochus]

This looks remarkably like a BOPC bellhousing pattern.

I wish there was some readily adaptable late model transaxle for Buggy VW use that could handle some power. Unfortunately these are getting pretty old and aren’t going to be widely available much longer.

[Stripped66]

You'd be mounting it "mid-engined"; I don't think the height of the engine is the issue, but I'd try to get a measurement from the output of the transmission to the back of the transmission...from the looks of it, I suspect you'd have to cut away the apron in order to fit the back of the transmission within the engine bay.
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[anthracitedub]

Would the engine clear the output casting? Looks like it could be a close call.

[914turboford]

[mark tucker]

just put it in like vw did, with the engine in the rear. then just flip the diff assy. just like vw that would be sweet. a v6 even sweeter. or is that a v6?

[richparker]

Here's a Bay build with a Acura engine.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=516038&highlight=acura
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[Onceler]

it'd be cool, but an LS would be even cooler😈
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1972 Karmann Ghia

[914turboford]

[914turboford]

Cleaned up the wiring harness. It might not look too clean, but it's a lot better than what I started with.

[914turboford]

Flipped the intake manifold around so that the throttle body will point backward and be accessible under the engine lid.

[914turboford]

More "progress", or at least more cutting stuff up. I have always had trouble making welds that are fluid tight. I only started welding aluminum (MIG spool gun) two years ago but even when I try to make something leak free with steel (MIG with Argon/CO2 mix) I always get leaks. On one of those housings I welded, checked, found leaks and repeated about 5 times. I am starting to doubt whether this was a good idea. With the amount of time I've spent on this so far, I could have crawled into the back seat to access the throttle body 20 times by now. Also, I fear that I'm introducing leaks that I'll have to chase down once the engine is in the car, and I'll end up crawling back there a lot for that too. I'm considering running this engine with a radiator on a stand before I put it in the car so I can find leaks before installation. Sounds fun, don't you think!

[914turboford]

Here is the welder I'm using

[914turboford]

I made a cart to roll the drivetrain in. It is height adjustable at three points. My next planned step is to remove the rear apron, roll the cart under the car and see where I need to cut.

[FullFender]

wow...this is going to be awesome. Do you know what type of power that engine will make?

[914turboford]

[nextgen]

I have been doing conversions over the years and one thing leads to another. The engine and tranny will be a lot of body cutting, plus hoses etc that all is a given.

But bugs are just not high speed cars. My bug has front and rear anti sway bars, dropped front end, etc. and with my 125 hp with my 914 bug, above 80 becomes dangerous with the light front end.

That is what I mean one thing leads to another - steering at high speeds. With that engine we are talking High Speeds. Also getting to the high speeds is going to be real fast.
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[914turboford]

[modok]

You can have a extremely rear-heavy weight bias and still be totally stable.
It is not hard to do. Make the suspension work in such a way it's ok, tune the tires and sway bars and springs, no problem.

What is hard to do is get every last % of the potential grip out of the tires in every direction and have a good handling balance, on all variety of surfaces, and in pursuit of that then you need to have equal weight bias.

Larger wheels will, all else the same, make it less stable, but they look cool??
The larger and/or heavier the wheel, the more will accentuate whatever the flex is in the suspension.

[nextgen]

Funny we are all guilty of " one thing leads to another " but we don't care!!
It is our art, we want to be different.

I dropped my bug 2 1/2" with dropped front spindles then went 1" more lower in front with a low profile tire. I got the look I wanted but my steering got dangerous over 50mph. Doing new Tie rods, ball joints and recommendations from this forum and from John of Aircooled.net need to use two sets of shims and have have an alignment. What I did throw it off.

I like Highways speed but also like the wow effect when people see the car. With cell phones everywhere. People can't stop taking photos.

Bugs get more attention then some high price Italian Sports cars. Kids to Grandpa's love them.

You will make it work I am sure, or you will not be happy!!

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