1.9TD swap into a beetle based kit car?

[The Mad Hatter]

Hello to all.  Back around after a long time (my VW has behaved itself and been faithfully transporting me to work each and every day!).  Was cruising CL and came across an old fiberfab avenger kit car (looks like a ford GT40).  It uses a VW beetle pan.  I was curious to see if anyone knows if a 1.9TD (lets say an AAZ for arguements sake) would fit in one of those?  I imagine having a diesel in a car that light and that aerodynamic would produce fantastic MPG.  This is probably just a pipe dream, but if someone with knowledge of these old bugs and diesels can chime in, who knows! 

As an aside, i've only been able to find small amounts of info on the net.  I've seen an avenger with a gm 3.8L v6 but it looks like a lot of fab went in.  My initial thoughts went to a quantum TD since the engine is longitudinal and i think it has a transaxle but i think the whole thing would be facing the wrong way.  Chime in, brainstorming welcome!  If it's possible, i'll get rid of one of my collection and try it out.  Thanks guys.

[CRSMP5]

think of vanagon diesel swaps...

[RabbitJockey]

i think they actually make an adaptor kit for using water cooled engines on air cooled transmissions.

[truckinwagen]

http://kennedyenginc.com/

all the adapters you could ever want!

-Owen

[CRSMP5]

yea the make adapters... but the kit he wants to use used like a type3 engine i beleive.. aka flat not beetle style.. so to fit i think it needs to lay on its side... been so long since i saw one.. i may be wrong..

[truckinwagen]

kennedey makes an adapter for the VW water cooled that is the stock tilt, one that is straight up and down, and one at the 50* that the bus needs.

should be able to make one of them work.

or, you could make your own...

-Owen

[The Mad Hatter]

I did come across the Kennedy eng. site during my searches, so many adapters!  But my main concerns are the engine actually physically fitting in the car (don't know if a 4 cylinder would hang out the back of the pan too far for the body to cover it), and how the gearing in the transaxle is set up for a diesel.  Along of course with placing a radiator somewhere to keep the thing cool.

[RabbitJockey]

yea the make adapters... but the kit he wants to use used like a type3 engine i beleive.. aka flat not beetle style.. so to fit i think it needs to lay on its side... been so long since i saw one.. i may be wrong..

what do you mean? i beetles also had flat engines, and i believe the type3 shared the same engines with the beetle

[CRSMP5]

yep.. alt is on the side vs on top.. stuff like that.. almost like a type 4/914 set up.. but old bug block

i rember going to bug outs and *** as a kid.. was at #2 even.. back when that stuff was common...

[The Mad Hatter]

Well a little searching over on youtube came up with a video of a GT2 with a 1.8L VW 4cylinder.  And if that will fit, then the diesel should fit as well.  Now the question would be how to get the transmission geared right for the diesel.  I thought i read somewhere about an audi transaxle working in a bug, but i'm not certain about that.

Here's the video from youtube (pardon the bad speed racer background music): http://youtu.be/RF4PuB3Qbq8