Diesel engine bars

[mike the van]

Ok, I know the question has been asked before, but trying to work through collecting parts for an Aircooled to GTI conversion, body and underside of van is good. Engine is kippered, rebuild is looking to be about £2.5 to 3.0 k, so thought about even on cost to go water cooled. want to keep Aircooled gear box, but looking at engine bars has proved a bit of a mare. 

There seem to be really early diesel bars, with rubber mounts at each end and a square ‘cage’ for the two engine mounts, then there is a a rubber mounted version with a flatter welded on plate for the engine mounts, then varieties of that with rubber mounts at either end (lhs) and or solid, or solid(rhs). 

I would prefer to keep gearbox placement as is, so which bars will do that?  Early diesel I think used same shorter gearbox type. 

Any photos or help would be really appreciated 


Mike

[Aidan]

if you are using the air-cooled gearbox and drive shafts then you need the early bars upto the end of 1982 model year these have the rubber bush at the front both sides and had a cross bar joining them between the rubber for the engine mounts



you will also need the diesel version of the gearbox mount and the diesel version of the rear linkage

[R0B]

I have both early and late bars if you have trouble sourcing some.

[mike the van]

This is what this forum so brilliant, That is an excellent diagram of the layout, I have a pirated CD copy of a vanagon maintenance manual and that is pretty sketchy on a blown up view. So the gearbox mount is different ? and the linkage different, sorry to sound  dim but how do they differ? 

Cheers Mike

[Aidan]

the inline 4 engine sits pretty horizontally along the crank line so the gearbox has to be held slightly higher in the chassis; the gearbox mount lifts the front of the box up and the selector shaft is shaped to meet the gearbox in the higher position with the correct angle for the pin that goes into the gearbox case.

The flat 4 petrol engines sit slightly nose down hanging off the moustache bar at the back

I have an early gearbox mount in stock but I am pretty sure it's the petrol one and I have nothing to compare it to in order to differentiate between the 2 and I don't suppose the part number will be stamped on it and readable

The same applies to fitting an inline 4 into a petrol late van the rear linkage and mount should be changed to match the installation, it's not always done, or is bodged (person on FB 'you don't need to do that I just bent the rod and it was fine') and can lead to gearbox popping out of gear and or poor selection of gears (person on FB has sold the van to mug punter by now as it had become a problem)
Same as people not fitting spigot bearing to end of crank on the engine they pulled out of car, 'you just put a golf engine in'  )

There is no 'just' to doing an engine swap well
 

[mike the van]

That’s really helpful, the engine change is going to be a big job, but with solid enough van, worth it given cost of Aircooled engine refurb

mike