[Vwdiesel] Diesel engine in Karmin Ghia VW

[pmdolan at sasktel.net]

With enough time, money and determination, you can make anything fit into anything, but then it start to beg the question of WHY??  The rear suspension of the Type I is a major part of the structural layout of the chasis/body, and fitting a transverse unit drivetrain would mean making a completely new suspension system that uses the top of the struts to pick up the rear suspension loads - and there is no structure in the Ghia (or Beetle) to do this.

If you really want a diesel Ghia, why not just start with a Type II gearbox, complete with the correct bellhousing for a diesel and the engine/oil pan assemblies used in a van?  It will bolt up failry easily betwen the frame horns, should all fit under the lid and use the stock rear suspension without any compromise.

Pat

----- Original Message -----
From: William J Toensing <toensing at theunion.net>
Date: Sunday, April 2, 2006 3:13 am
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Diesel engine in Karmin Ghia VW

> Engine swaps are way above my area of expertise. However last year 
> at the Hudson national meet I saw a very interesting engine swap. 
> Someone grafted a front wheel drive unit from a V-6 Dodge/Chrysler 
> minivan. on to the chassis of a 1947 Hudson. He then mounted the 
> minivan rear axel which is a streight axel where the rear axel 
> was. Looked like it was simpiler than matching an engine to an old 
> drive train, engineering new linkages, brackets, etc for power 
> disk brakes, air conditioning steering, etc.  I don't know if this 
> would be practical to mount a Karmin Ghia body on to a Rabbit 
> chassis. You would have to do lots of measuring. 
> One of the reasons I wanted to get in this group is I have noticed 
> a number of you live in Europe. I am sure cars get wrecked & 
> totaled there as they do in the USA. My daily driver is a 2001 
> Ford Focus ZX3. In Europe you can get a diesel option for the 
> Focus but you can't in our "So called free country", the USA. I 
> wonder what one could buy a good used Focus diesel engine plus the 
> necessary brackets & components in Europe for a conversion of a 
> USA Focus to a diesel engine. My Focus gets 26 to 28 MPG on gas 
> whereas the European diesel Focus can get 50 MPG.  I have one 1947 
> Hudson with out an engine & doing a similar engine swap looks 
> interesting to me but if I was to do an engine swap I would like 
> to install a front wheel diesel engine setup in my '47 Hudson 
> similar to the one I saw at the Hudson national meet last summer. 
> I live in Nevada City, CA about 60 miles NE of Sacramento.
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