I know it's been covered, but I'm very keen on doing a Scooby conversion. Is that better?

i thought fellows used the adapter plate
is it just two different items doing the same job then

 

so this is what i have i mine

and this is the adapter plate

there looks like a bit more work to have the bell housing compared to the adapter plate
did your gear box have to be re hung or adapted to take the plate

 

I used an adaptor plate for a while and changed to a bell housing and it is better for me. Lighter clutch. Standard clutch parts and the starter motor is suited to the engine. I wouldn't say the adaptor plate and modified fly wheel is bad, but the bell housing is proper engineered solution.

This might help explain

http://www.rjes.com/html/bellhousing_vs_adaptor_plate.html

 

im more than happy with the way mine is
just trying to show people different ways of doing the conversion

heres a bit of information about engines that will / will not fit in our vans


http://www.rjes.com/html/why_subaru_engines_.html

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that looks so neat ...

 

i think this thread should be banned as i keep having bad thoughts about putting in a diesel engine. I would only do a VW TDI diesel if i were to do an engine swap.

A guy I know who does T4 and T5 stuff is going to put in a 1.4 tdi 3 cylinder engine into his T25. he has a seat arosa with the same engine mapped upto 100BHP and it goes like a stabbed rat.

 

I can't talk from experience of putting a scooby lump in a bus, but I've had two Imprezas, my first I sold with 98k under its wheels, my current one has done 180k, both without any engine problems whatsoever.
There were non-turbo Imprezas too, and they should be much cheaper to buy as they weren't that popular and could be sitting in tired bodies by now. They'd have well over 100bhp in 2.0 form. I think there was even a 1.6 in the 1990's.
The Foresters were a more sedate tune in turbo form (the older ones anyway, when they were 2.0, before the 2.5 stroked up engines started to come in), so they were 'only' around 170bhp and probably a bit better low down for towing and low speed. The later 2.5 Forester turbo XTs were around 225 I think.

My old '98 Impreza turbo 2.0 was a little more 'peaky' but that was more turbo 'lag' and mapping than anything else.
The boxers tend to be quite reasonably torquey low down, but they aren't very fuel efficient in my experience.
My '03 WRX was Prodrive mapped and it pulls 'very strongly' from 2-7k, the torque curve is pretty flat and it's not lacking with 265bhp and around the same lbft, but again that's mapping and where it starts to spool up boost. I get around 3ompg. You really don't need to rev it, short-shifting is enough.
The standard tune at 225 ish was no screamer either, the extra Catalytic converter took the edge off the performance a fair bit. But with a short bus exhaust it wouldn't hang about at any revs!
Later Imprezas, from around 2005 I think, had the stroked up 2.5 in them. Standard power around 225.
The Legacy 2.5Td will be plenty powerful enough. Still not that economical, prob in the mid-high 40s, but way better than the petrol ones.
I had three Alfa boxers in my past too. Loved them, but wouldn't dream of using one of those engines in my bus! Mind you, the carbs off those Alfasuds are probably good refurbs for buses, mine were from Italy and very low cost, suspect that's where they started life.

 

lol stabbed rat ..

 

Yes they'll do the same job just approached from a different perspective to achieve the end goal. If you look at the other engine conversions, ford V6 etc, most will use an adaptor plate because it's very easy to have one machined up and pretty cheap to do. RJES I guess would have gone the bell housing route because that is all they specialise in, scooby conversions, so everything is optimised around that and very easily transferable through the different engine options. more specifically, to the DIY market. Whilst fellows also do a DIY kit they're more about the drive in full professional build.

Its hard to see in the pics, is that bell housing cast or machined from billet? Either way it wouldn't have been a cheap thing to design and build. The cost of having the moulds made alone for cast would have been huge

 

When you changed over to the bell housing did you have to move the engine mounts at all? In other words is the VW bell housing plus adaptor plate the same length as the RJES bell housing?

 

Yes I had to move the engine forwards towards the gear box the thickness of the adaptor plate. The RJES bell housing is the same thickness as the vw one.

 

Looks cast to me, unsure how you could get a rough finish like that with a cnc machine.

I thought aluminium casting wasn't too bad if you went the lost wax route - it does show commitment and investment though!

 

It's cast and then machined

 

More likely sand cast. 2 formers pressed into green sand-core and cavity. Put the two halves together and fill em up. Cheap as chips.

 

Apologies if someone has covered this already, but has anyone done a Scooby conversion on a T3?

 

Cheap when you have the pattern made but that alone can be thousands of pounds. Plus the machining isn't cheap

 

So, stick to golf or passat AAZ or 1Y engines then. Thought so, cheers