Date: 3 Mar 1995 10:05:01 +1000
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "King, Robert" <king@tanelorn.aod.dsto.gov.au>
Subject: RE: V-6 Buick into..(rotary)
While on this thread a few more details on fitting a rotary into a bus as
promised.....
Basic components on bus side are flywheel, bellhousing, clutch and pressure
plate and starter. On rotary side is engine, engine mounts and alternator...
OK, there are a couple of bit you may have to 'take out' to have machined but
that is it. The first thing is that the VW flywheel has to have new holes
drilled (and the old filled if you're tidy) so that it can be bolted up to
the rotary crank - it 'sits right on there' and bolts up with no worries.
The second thing is the adaptor plate. This was manufatured from 1/2" plate
and having it machined out by 1/4" so that the VW bellhousing sat in a
'spigot joint' seemed to get everything right in terms of spacing (ie clutch
action, starter meshing on flywheel teeth properly).
This all bolted together nicely and then all we had to do was fabricate a
front engine mount - we ran some plate up to the 'normal' chassis holes and
welded the standard rotary engine mounts onto a bit of 2" X 1" tube running
between these plates.....
As I said, run two pipes the length of the bus to a radiator mounted in the
front connect with some bits of universal radiator hose and that's it. The
rotary water pump has enough push to keep everything cool. We removed the
front bumper and cut out a section of the 'bulge' so as to mount the radiator
as close as possible to the front of the bus. We then cut a smaller section
out of the bumper and put it back - the whole thing sits behind a bull bar
and it's a neat job but probably offensive to the purist (but it's not a
split right?)
It is an 'easy' conversion. I think I read on this list some time ago that
there is an engineering place in the states (California?) *Kennedy Engineered
products? Thanks Thom* that sells kits for all sorts of conversions and
rotaries were mentioned - you may be able to pick up a conversion kit off the
shelf for a reasonable price?
Rob K.
_________________________
Robert King
king@tanelorn.aod.dsto.gov.au
72 Mutant Bug
76 Bus
62 Microbus (long term relaxation project)