Date:         3 Oct 1995 12:14:53 +1000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "King, Robert" <king@tanelorn.aod.dsto.gov.au>
Subject:      RE[2]: Enging transplants, radiators on ba

Hi Bob,

A few more details on fitting a rotary into a bus. My brother-in-law and I put
a 13B bridgeport rotary into his 76 (2 litre) Kombi.  As a point of interest
fitting the rotary was cheaper than rebuilding the 2 litre (at least here in
AUS). He also runs it on LP gas.  Sorta scary being in a Kombi that  revs
forever.....

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 transmission/engine 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 (front is front of engine) - 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.  It's 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?*  that sells kits for all sorts of conversions and rotaries were
mentioned - you may be able to pick up a complete conversion kit or just an
adaptor plate (which is the 'hardest' bit to do) off the shelf for a
reasonable price?

Rob K.

_________________________
Robert King
king@tanelorn.aod.dsto.gov.au