Hello all.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving long weekend.
Although I have my Harley powered car project ahead of me, I'm also looking at items for my next, next project, a slow speed rock crawler of sorts. It will be a 2+2 seater on the small width side. I just picked up a pair of Suzuki Samurai axles with the divorced transfer case. Divorced means not attached to the transmission and uses a short shaft with u-joints between them.
With the divorced transfer case, that leaves me with a ton, I hope, of engine/trans combinations. I need to stay below 2.L, preferably around 1.8L. An aluminium block and head would be nice to keep the weight down. I also want to have an automatic transmission making it a bit easier to slow speed over logs/rocks etc. I also would like it to be old school simple to wire up, no FI, only carb and standard distributor ignition.
I'll be running around a 32" tall tire. I'll have 5.38:1 gears in the differentials and more than likely a 4.9:1 transfer case low range gear reduction. This will NOT be a speed demon.
I was thinking Chevy Chevette 1.6L with an automatic. I think they ran the old TH-200 in them, not sure if the later bell housings bolt pattern is the same. But they're all cast iron and not that readily available locally. Also thought about a very early Subaru flat four, but it would need to be adaptable to a standard rear wheel drive automatic transmission. I some checking and they make tons of different adapters for Subaru to VW transaxles, but couldn't find a reference to a Ford or GM trans bolt pattern adapter.
So what would be a "good" engine/auto trans combo for me to look for? Again it can't be made of unobtanium...
FORGOT TO MENTION.
This will be a scratch build, so engine compartment is not an issue.
Any thoughts or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Have a great week, Dan!
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Dan
1976 FLH Electra Glide
2009 FLTRSE3 Road Glide
Boardtrack Racer Project Bike
Morgan Three Wheeler Project
Picture Trail Photo Albums
http://www.picturetrail.com/Dan_Lockwood