Wow a squareback... long time since I saw one of those. If I'm not mistaken, that's a fuel-injected type 4 engine. To split the block, there are a couple of hidden nuts. One is underneath the flywheel. Another is in the recess between the oil sump and the cylinders. Another one in the vicinity of the front main seal, down low.
Nah, T1 engine without the upright shroud in it. Crank-mounted cooling fan that drew air in from louvers on the side of the car, under the rear windows. I have pretty much all the parts to go back to FI, but this #@$#$%#$!#$!&&^*&%&$%^$%@ case won't split! Even with all the hidden nuts sought out and undone! It's quite annoying.
I'd definitely measure before starting on the diesel conversion - there isn't much room above the engine on a squareback, but depending on how large that box (from the PO) is, you might have a chance. If it fits, I don't see why there would be any major differences between that install and mine, save for where to put the radiator. Not many choices for that on a squareback. Don't think there is room to stand one up on the side like I'm doing, but I've been wrong before.
That's the biggest reason I'd be doing the 50 degree orientation; if I'm thinking properly, that's 50 measured from vertical, right? So only a 40 degree angle measured from the horizontal?
The "box" is about 6" tall above the top of the decklid, and the underside of the decklid has ~4" of clearance from the top of the stock trans. So, overall ~10" of headspace above the top of the transmission; how tall is a 1.6TD overall?
I've thought about where to put radiators before; that car has
loads of space in the sides back there, a pair of smaller radiators should do the trick I think. Especially if I do some nice fans drawing air upwards, probably shoot it back out the stock air intake locations.
As for the engine mounts and support (moustache) bar, I have the luxury of being able to easily slide the support bar forward or backwards as much as I want, all I have to do is drill new holes through the frame member. So, I will line it up vertically with the engine mounts. I am pretty sure I'm going to have to put some spacers between the bottom of the engine mount and the bar, but those will be trivial to make.
Ahhh. I have a rear engine support bar that has fixed mounts that hang it from the body of the car; it bolts directly to the block, partially covering the oil pump coverplate.
Maybe a steel frame could be welded up to attach the engine to, a basic box or grid that could then be attached to the pan and body? That would also give me plenty of mounting points for other things, and have the advantage of being simple to put in... just drop the car on top of it!
Also, I don't think that the ring gear can be flipped in the Q tranny. please investigate and doublecheck, but I looked into it once and found that the offset was not the same on either side of the ring gear/input shaft.
Is that something I would need to directly measure, or could I look it up in the Quantum Bentley I have here?
I'd love to go five-speed; maybe one of the fabled "freeway flier" manual transmissions? It's a light car, so I don't think I'd need to worry too much about keeping a good heavy 4.+ differential gearing.