subaru engine swap?

[rxwild]

well, I am finally getting back to an engine swap I started over 12 years ago...LOL

I have a 1970 Subaru Sambar (360)van...I bought it in 1975 and drove it until 1985 when I sold the engine/transaxle out of it for more than 5 times what I paid for the whole van...
I was already thinking engine swap before I sold the engine, now I have a reason to do it...what do you put into a 900lb vehicle that was originally powered by a Yamaha 354cc two stroke twin?
A Wankel rotary, of course...
HOW? well, originally it was rear engine/rear transaxle, so that means there is nothing forward of the engine bay(except the shift rod), so MIDENGINE is the word of the day...I have anRX3 that I hot rodded, so the engine is coming from there. This engine was ordered from Japan and torn down upon arrival, then the intake and exhaust ports were opened up for more air flow, blocking nozzles were added so a header could be used, then a carb was massaged to send goodly amounts of air/fuel to the beast...engine dyno read 280hp at the flywheel...not very much really and I will lose some thru the auto trans, but remember, I am aiming for 1000lb vehicle weight...
I got a mazda auto trans, cut down the tailshaft and housing(lost the speedo drive) and saved space, no driveshaft and the slipjoint from the trans output is mated directly to the pinion flange on the 3rd member, this setup puts the water pump pully 6" from the BACK of the drivers seat...I built a subframe to hold the engine/trans/dif in one unit...then a pivot point just in front of the balancing point of this, then mazda coil springs over the axle to the subaru frame(where the IRS shocks were attached)...radiator in the rear with a pusher fan and fresh air intake scoop on the side feeding air to the radiator, 12 gal aluminum marine fuel tank sits just above the axle. No heater or A/C planned, but who knows what will happen as I proceed.
I plan to remove the windows from the passenger area and weld in pieces of metal from a fullsize van(nothing back there but engine anyway) and give it a wild paint job...
I got some allow wheels from a VW and redrilled the lug holes to fit the Mazda hub, these are FWD and there is less than 1" of wheel outside of the hub, most of it is INSIDE so I won't have to build huge fender flares to cover them...
PIX to come...

[TheSilentChamber]

Nice, any pictures?

[ec437]

Sounds like a flippin awesome project. Any pics?

edit: ha the thread was up for 2 hours and someone just waited to post right before I did.

[rxwild]

here are a couple pix from today, I pulled the original frame out from under the body, then placed the subframe in approximate position.


Check out the rack and pinion steering

here is the ingine/trans

you can see where I cut out most of the tailshaft housing

and the header I built

and I almost forgot a couple pix of the bady(covered in dust)

[TheSilentChamber]

And I thought I would never see a motor in a wagon again...

Overall it looks like it will be a nice fun death trap.

[rxwild]

nice fun death trap? LOL
This is by no means a DD, it is a FUN saturday night cruise machine...I think this is actually a more tame than the big block v8 Vega I built back in 1978...ended up using a Dana 60 rear end because after I finally got the T400 tranny fixed right, I was breaking ring gears when shifting from first to secong...I guess the 24" wide tires didn't help that much either, but it was over the top radical fun...I once took it up to 135 and was barely able to keep it between the white lines...man what a ride...was great from start to 80 in a straight, but forget cornering...

I do not plan to go fast in this van, just crusie and enjoy the occasional burnout(glad it has a locker in the diff) for more fun...I will post more pix after this weekend, I hope to have the subframe to mainframe assembly complete, the engine & trans in place and want to run the engine...next stage will be running the pipes for the radiator, lines for the trans cooler, attaching the brake lines and replacing the master cylinder. once all is ready, the floor pan will be cut out and the body placed back on the frame, then an engine cover will be built. Of course, interior, stereo, and wild paint(with flames) for the outside.