Hi All and Happy New Year,

OK my plans for this year are to get the Fug back on the road. Primary aim is to get it up and running before Le Mans so I don't get another trip full of ear-bashing from Adrian :rolleyes:

To that end I'm now looking at getting the Fiat 2-litre replaced with something more modern. The engine is fine but the flywheel appears to have been made specifically for UVA and is proving a bitch to get a replacement for after turning all the crank bolt holes oval.

So....

I'm currently leaning towards the Subaru engines for the following reasons

• Adapter kits easily available to Beetle transmission (http://www.kennedyeng.com/)
• Reasonably good availability of these engines
• More modern and parts not too expensive
• It's a tried and tested conversion (http://www.tsrdragracers.co.uk)

But I'm interested in other peoples views both as to which Subaru engines are likely to be best in terms of the trade off between cost and power and whether people think another route entirely may be better.

Hi Paul.....heres my thoughts......The torque created from the turbo subaru lump will probably give the standard bug-box a fair hammering......the woodruf keys and ring gears are prone to failure.

The fuel system will be injected so you will need to totally replace all fuel lines and pumps, and wiring up the electronic ECU will be a bitch of a job.

Despite being Aluminium, the subaru engines are quite heavy, because the grade of aluminium used in engine manufacture is quite low, hence they need to use more of it the get a comparable strength to cast iron.....aluminium does not mean light.......I design engines for a living by the way.......but needless to say, the fiat lump is no light engine!

I bought my fug-4 with an 1.5 flat-4 alfa-sud motor, and so far I have to say I'm quite impressed with it!......all you need is an adaptor plate kit from GB engineering, and there are a selection of 1.5 and 1.7 8v motors (95-118bhp) both on twin dual webbers....and a 1.7 16v injected 137Bhp motor......and they are cheap and commonly available........a 1.7 8v carb engine would be ideal and hassle free. an MOT failed car would probably be your best bet as the alfa 33 bodys are prone to rotting.

If you are still dead keen on the subaru lump, I would advise considering using a subaru gearbox and mid mounting the engine, the fug-4 was intended for this type of engine installation.....like the V8 in the F33......but I dont know what implications of removing the 4wd propshaft to the rear will have????.....

Dude,

last time I saw your car it was on the back of a recovery truck...but last time I saw you putting oil in your car it was diesel oil - therefore the conclusion is obvious it needs to be a turbo diesel lump - drove a 1990 golf gtd recently and the mid range pull was stunning, not too shabby off the line either in a light Fug chassis I think it'd really cool. Been thinking about it myself and I know there are Golf to Beetle adapters around.

options number two is of course to ditch the H20 - VW air cooled you know it makes sense, simple and relativley cheap - Beetle engines can be taken out to 1835cc and still be good for road use, twin carbs stinger exhaust hot cranks etc etc:- or "just" drop in the 2 litre unit out of a type 4 or type 25 (late model air cooled bus).

Subura engines - there was a beetle in Volksworld magazine ages ago with one, seemed like a lot of work to me....the clock is ticking on Le Mans...you have 6 months left and I know what you are like for organisation...guess you'll be in something with a roof again then...oh no I've started already! :lol:

Thanks for the comments guys.

Knighty -

• I was looking at the normally aspirated Subaru's rather than turbo'd. The power would be nice but I have an adversion to turbos as the last car I owned with one made a big rattling noise and died by the side of the road!
• I'm probably going to end up getting the work done for me as I see it as the only way it's likely to get on the road this year. A combination of lack of mechanical/engineering skills combined with a streak of laziness means it'll just sit in the garage for another year otherwise. I'm probably going to see whether tsrdragracers are happy taking on the Fug, then issues such as the fuel lines and ECU become someone elses issue.
• Mid mounting the engine is beyond my mechanical abilities (so are most things as I'm sure Adrian will point out) and I also kind of like having the rear seats as it's a bit unusual and comes in handy for getting the cases of lager in at Le Mans.
• All in I'm looking to get similar power to the current engine or a little more. The 1.7 Alfa fits that criteria and it's handy to know GBE do a kit, will bear that in mind.

Engine designer, now that sounds like a fun job. Freelance or for anyone we'd know?

Adrian -

• Diesel : NO!
• Aircooled : NO!

I know they both have advantages (particularly the ease of install of a Beetle engine) but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Hi Paul......after writing my speech, I looked at the TSR web site and also realised it was the normally aspirated Legacy engines that TSR generally favour using, in which case that should be OK on the standard vw box, as it wont be as torquey as the impreza turbo engine, also the obvious one is that a fug is very light, therefore there is not much impact load on the box when you are acellerating hard from a stand-still......

TSR looked like quite a competent bunch to me, as they have done many conversiions, quite a handy "one stop shop" for you to be ready for the summer! B)