You've made the engine carrier - now  you need the special oil pan and
pickup, the bell housing and the starter, among other things.  $600 is a
bargain Don.

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 7:53 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson@gorge.net> wrote:

>  Quite a bit of work, eh?  But you are getting there now.  I still wonder
> why you chose that route but then it's all good anyhow.
>  I was looking more closely at the conversion in my Van...the Diesel motor
> hangers...specifically.  People always tell me..Oh yah, those kits, if you
> can find em are about $600 bucks, if you don't already have a diesel van
> and
> have to buy the whole kit...(for putting an inline four gasser in exactly
> like the original diesel vans were installed.)  But looking at the motor
> carrier bars in mine...these are dead simple.  You could have some made at
> a
> race chassis shop for about $100 bucks...Just two bends in some steel
> tubing
> with plates welded to the ends.  A good chassis builder or someone who
> builds roll cages could make a pair in an hour, max....  The motor mounts,
> from the carrier bars to the block, those are cast and you might be better
> looking for junkers or perhaps those are still available as aftermarket
> parts.  You could probably also make those..but not so easy as the engine
> carrier bars... The Kennedy Engineering adapter plate...again not too
> expensive..
>  The best part of doing a conversion like this is that it has been widely
> done before and you could likely find one to copy pretty easily or borrow a
> diesel van and copy that..No 'reverse engineering' needed.
>
>  Recently, the rear end of my SO's 70's  beamer 2002 rusted pretty much
> off...The shock mount and spring perch was a stamped extension of the
> trunk...and it rotted away leaving a rear wheel kinda floppy...She really
> loves that car so I took it to my local race fabricating shop and we
> figured
> out a new rear suspension...a couple of tubes, some plates, etc.  Ol' Russ
> welded and bent...and now she is happy again for just $175!  Works better
> than new, too, except stuff in the trunk gets all wet and dirty if the road
> is wet...
>  The point being, with a bit of creativity, you can do almost anything to
> these simple old German cars, and they are certainly worthwhile to keep on
> the road.  Almost any "normal" American, what with our "disposable
> mind-set"
> would have just paid to have the cute little Beamer box smooshed...But not
> Marie..."I just put a rebuilt engine in that car" she said (almost 4 years
> ago) "And it's got a new tire!"..."can't you fix it?  You built a racecar
> that goes 200mph, you should be able to fix a simple bit of
> rust...."....Yes, dear...Sure, honey...
>   Don Hanson
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
Crescent Beach, BC
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27