I tried to make good use of the fu.... winter time, as there is always room for improvement and played around with moving the trans up to get some more ground clearance.

I got me urethane trans rubbers and a stronger trans mount.
You see it installed stock, and turned around as my trans is moved forward some 2 + inches already. I added one more hole to the mount to get the trans up. That gave me 21 mm,
then I added a 3mm alloy plate between the trans and rubbers. I wanted 5 mm but I had 3 mm lying around.

And here you see the difference it made. I took the pics from exactly 2 m away from the car. Note the pulley wheel and oil filter.

Good stuff!!!

And 2 more. To show what a difference 24 mm can do.

You got to know that the engine moved up so high that I had no room for the wiring and fuel lines. Even the firewall must be cut again if I want to ride it like that. For now I just left the 3 mm alloy plate in and put it to stock height again.
Will take advantage of it later on. This has to be done as the first thing if you are starting a conversion. I can change the height of the front trans mount, as it is not stock anymore.
But it is possible to add a 5 mm alloy piece between the trans and rubbers without doing anything to the front mount
and getting some clearence. I hope it is helpful to someone.

[Edited on 7-5-2005 by subaruboxer]

Is your front tranny mount urethane??
Do you find it kinda distorts when you torque all the bolts up?
Mines does...

Great pics Subaruboxer, that's some really helpfull stuf there

Does your suby engine hang only from the transmounts or do you have some other way to support it?

front mount I made

nice mounts

@ Subaruboxer, where did you get that rear trans mount?
I checked my part books and some websites but couldn't find that one.

what starter motor are you using?

How do those anti-twist bars go?
Are they just mounted with heim joints?
Cheers

I use a starter of a Porsche 914, is said to be the same as semi automatic bug (or how do you call those).

The Cup Brace is mounted between the trans horns and the
shocktowers. Mine is welded to the horns, I got the brace way earlier than the stronger transmount, which got holes to screw it on. Those transmounts are pretty common here in Germany, every better bugshop offers them, in steel like mine or in alloy. Price is around € 60 for steel.

The brace is available with even one more strut.











Slowness is an ornament, you are faster without it!





[ Edited on 21-4-2006 by subaruboxer ]

I was lying under my bug yesterday planning this mod. Can you confirm that you have to remove the reverse switch as it is already very close to the torsion bar housing?

Do you use the early or late nosecone on the gearbox? I have both to hand but the late one on the car looks like it would be very close to the torsion bar housing if the cradle was reversed.

Do you have any pictures of your front mounting?

Finally, as your engine is single overhead cam I am guessing you can go much higher thatn a DOHC turbo engine. Does anyone have experience of the limit you can raise an EJ20T?

Cheers,
Rich

Hi Rich,
yes you are right you have to remove the reverse switch if you move your trans forward, but it is even better to change the nosecone. I use a1303 S box ( I think you call it L-bug box) and put the nosecone of my stock ´65 box on to gain even more room.

I don`t have any real good pictures of my front mounting, but here is one to show you something at least. You can see the steelplate traversing the panhorns at the very beginning.
This is holding the front mount, which is screwed on to it.

Customspeedparts torque brace or kafer cup brace http://www.csp-shop.de/technik/pdf/eng/20917.pdf 

[Edited on 9-5-2005 by lugnuts]

And for your DOHC EJ 20 T engine I would build a removable rear with customized sides. It would make it so much easier to work on the engine and pulling and installing it, like you might do when you are working on the conversion. It can`t be that bad to get the sides around the engine, there is enough room to wheel side.

[Edited on 9-5-2005 by subaruboxer]

I might do that one day, when my dailydriver (a Legacy Turbo) is ripped apart and I put the engine into a bug.

I do plan to make my rear end removable, but not that much, I will cut it where the valance is normally welded to the body so the cut is hard to see.

For the front mount I am slightly concerned about the strength as I have broken an early one before. Do many people use a Berg style mid mount for this? If so any pictures with the trans moved forwards?

Good spot lugnuts, I was wondering where I could get one of those mounts locally!

Rich

Here two photos of the modified front mount. oops too big again.

It is probably a good idea to use a Berg mid mount with the EJ 20T engine.

[Edited on 22-5-2005 by subaruboxer]

no. 2