Has anyone ever seen / heard of this being done (that is a multivalve subaru head on a VW block) ? The only photos I can find are of a rallycross beetle built by Autocavan in the UK in the early 90s (see photo).

I know that the 1800 subaru bore is 92mm, this Autocavan motor had 91mm stroke and what looks like EJ20 heads.

i admire the guy holding it up with his face, that must really hurt.

I agree, why bother with all the trouble when you can just stick the whole motor in :thumb

maybe water cooled heads are allowed in certain ac classes ? hmmm 16 valves of fun fun fun

At least he doesn't have to worry about the low subaru sump

Then again maybe he just put a porsche fan shroud on a suby motor and hoped no-one would notice it's non-VW :P

If I remember correctly, this thing was also all-wheel-drive.......
Cheers

dare me too dry sump er wes ;-)..... ummm, nah don't....

Call it the spirit of ingeneuity You are right - the car was 4WD, using a porsche 5 spd, modified by autocavan, a BMW front diff and propshaft, and a bunch of other front end goodies from other manufacturers.

Why do this ? well, this motor made 500hp in a state of tune good enough for rallycross (fair enough, the EJ20T would do the same). I'm guessing that the regs of the comp stated they had to keep original block or something along those lines. They said in the article that they put the water cooled heads on due to the air cooled ones overheating.

So, the ultimate head for the air cooled block ? would certainly flow more than a worked vw head, but its alot of effort isnt it ?

Excellent Mod. Wouldnt the overall weight be less than the full WRX motor.?
I always like that effort to improve , to evolve , "a challenge" .
Now all I need is more money and time to do things.

I agree, an excellent idea, and the owner retains the right to claim it as a 'VW' engine. I like it. :thumb

I've been contemplating something similar myself, but don't have the resources to try it out.

heres a of link about the sub headed bug

http://www.superbeetlesonly.com/articles/battlewagen.html 

heres another one that I couldn't put on the other post

http://www.turbobeetle.itgo.com/surfersrides/ 

I remember reading about that car years and years ago. It blew me away then!
It's definately a good move for anyone who needs to retain the manufacturers original engine block for racing.

I think the heads from a 930 turbo on a big type 4 would be pretty sweet
Some dude in the UK fitted some standard dual plug 911 heads onto a 2.1 type 4 with Bosch mechanical injection and a turbo set-up through a Porsche 901 trans... it's apparently the fastest (1/4 mile times) street beetle around and gets driven daily too.

C

http://www.davesport.com/rally/mycar/mycar.htm