questions about 2.5kl mazda/probe engine convertion to 65bus

[new dave]

I have to learn how to resize pics

C112809_1242_01.jpg

how do you put pics in ?

[Baja Wes]

Dave,

I've put your pics in an album here;
http://www.manxgallery.org/gallery/cbr_bus

That lets me link them here;










So how does it go, and what sort of strange looks do you get?

I have been wanting to put a bike engine into a stripped out beetle of manx buggy. There is often talk of bike engines in cars and most people (who haven't ridden a big modern road bike) think the bike motor won't have the torque. Your CBR900 engine is one of the first of the "modern superbike" motors. Something newer like a Hayabusa engine would handle the duty much better. Particularly with a turbo strapped on

I was going to have the bike motor chain drive a rear diff spool, and then use a electric reverse mechanism. This would do away with the VW tranny. You've taken the easier option and have effectively given yourself 6 speeds in 4 different ranges (total of 24 ratios). I thought that option might result in a broken VW gearbox after a while.

[Baja Wes]

I can't see in the pics, are you using the bike gears at all or only the VW gears?

[new dave]

Thanks for posting pics! . I ran the engine in 4th gear then shifted with the transaxle it would certainly outrun a 1600 aircooled, it could lay some rubber, sounded very cool. Your idea of no vw trans is what I would do, if I was to do this permantly. The rear sprocket would have to be about 70-80 tooth but would work well. I built a two seat mini sandrail with a 04 900 ninja, 148hp aprox 30 hp more than cbr and I am sure it would power a beetle very well, A Busa would be best but is surprisingly big. I tried to put cbr into my 72 supper beetle but would have had to cut rear out for room, I even remounted trans forward about 3" but it still would not fit.

[Baja Wes]

If I was doing a beetle I'd just cut the back out like I did on my Baja;


If we go back onto the KL V6 topic for a minute, the reasons why I cut the back out is the same as the reason why you'd need to modify or relocate your fuel tank. The intake's throttle body and the distributor overhand the gearbox and would stick through the original beetle firewall.


I cut more than I had to because I decided that if I am cutting I might as well put the radiator there too. You could design a custom intake to eliminate the throttle body issue. I have seen some probe guys also get rid of the original distributor and use coil packs on each spark plug, but I think part of the distributor needs to stay there to house the trigger ring for the coil packs (to get a better signal than the crank trigger, and to let the ECU know which part of the cycle it is through, just a crank trigger would fire at the end of the exhaust stroke also).

[new dave]

Wes, do you have pics of flywheel and plate,dimentions ect, I may make my own, I adapted a 350 into a Fireo once and made all the parts, could probably do it again.

[Baja Wes]

All my CAD files are here;
http://www.offroadvw.net/bajawes/V6_baja/Cad/index.htm

There is also a pdf of instructions for making the custom flywheel there.

There is also pics of the main parts with rough dimensions. Let me know if you need any more.

Here are pics of the finished parts;





the welding wasn't quite as neat as I'd like, but it's still working after 6 years




All that stuff is on my website under the V6 transplant diary.

[petew]

that double gearbox setup is awesome. with that, you could have an excellent setup for offroad. real food for thought there.

[new dave]

When I first put that together it was on a rail buggy with 33' tires, with the cbr in 1st and trans in first it had crazy torque.
I checked out your site and hope to do simular job on flywheel.

[new dave]

when I put 091 in bus axles seem too long,do I have wrong ones?
Also wondering about using probe trans,ever herd of FWD power train in rear of vw, but still using vw suspention? Or is that just crazy

[Baja Wes]

Bus tranny into a beetle requires modified beetle axles. You need to machine the shoulder back to slide the wider bus CV on and secure the circlip.

FWD tranny is crazy. They are offset sideways, they use a lay shaft type axle across the motor. This leaves you with two very short axles, that would probably be even shorter to fit into the narrow VW trailing arm setup.

[1freetroy]

hello all im will be building a bike engined beetle here soon i cant wait to get started i think i will use a hayabusa engine

[new dave]

have you started yet?