Want to use a Gen 2 transaxle in my VW Kombi upgrade

You ever talk to any of the guys over on the Toyota modification server like Blizilla on the net . I can't remember everybody's name over there this was years ago they're were flyboys from NZ modding chaterham cars and such w Toyoda period powerplants . They were doing extensive modifications to all kinds of vehicles with Toyoda drive trains . Even going to other countries on military flights picking up engines and front clips . Etc its all their in twenty some odd years of texts since you've got mail . These guys I'm sure would have insight . Maybe they're all expired now . Who knows..

 

I'm decades out of practice but I used to rebuild VW type 2s for a living.

Just going from raw specs the 2nd generation Prius powerplant should do just fine in there. Even the 1974 camper (serial # 234....) is only a little heavier than that Prius. It'll gain some weight from the powerplant swap, but not too crazy.

Personally I think your biggest challenges will be adapting the engine/transmission mounts, and the cooling system.

It shouldn't be too hard to do a tube frame that adapts the stock VW rear engine support beam mounting points, and I'd think you could re-use the stock VW transmission front mount the same way. Just need to make up a cradle from tubing. Consider doing a bit of the tube frame underneath near the center of gravity since you're converting from an engine that was meant to be installed via overhead sling into one meant to be removed by jack underneath- you'll want to create a pad area safe to hold the assembly on a jack saddle.

It shouldn't be too hard to get axle shafts made up, use the inner halves of the stock Toyota shafts butt-welded onto most of the stock VW shafts, though you may need to weld in an extra extension on the right side make up the extra length since you're switching from a symmetrical to asym setup.

For cooling? That's gonna be fun. The stock air intakes on the D pillars are only useful if you maintain an airlock around the cooling fan. The stock VW achieved this between the tin shields and the foam surround gasket, so the pulley-mount blower was the only way for air to pass through that chamber.

I don't think it will be practical to create the same kind of air dam around the replacement powerplant, so you might do best by hanging a rad on the nose and doing long plumbing like the Brazilian-built watercooled breadloaf buses. That's a lot of custom bodywork and it really changes the nose appearance. About the only other thing I could think of would be to do a belly-mount radiator, a bit like the way VW did the air conditioning condenser in the stock '74 models... but that was a very rare option, you may not have seen that. Or possibly cut vents into the side of the engine room and hang a scoop on the outside, much like the aftermarket setup for the 1965-1967 buses. Fair over the D-pillar intakes.

Should be an interesting project, I wish you luck!

 

That's what a lot of those fellas on that old Toyota site we're doing crazy stuff.

 

Have you ever seen the Gen2 that was built to run on the electric bus lines in San Francisco? They basically filled the vehicle up with resistors to get the voltage and amps low enough.

Anyways, keep us updated... Please post some pics! It's hard to make sense of what you're looking at without that.

 

It's very easy to cut out the heater tube, it's very thin mild steel. The shifter rod can slide out towards the front iirc but that may have changed when they re-did the front floor pan for '73. With the stock transmission removed you should be able to get it out rearwards though.

I'm not at all familiar with the battery you're talking about, but that underfloor space is only going to host something about 5" tall before that new thing becomes the scrapey low-point of the car, so be careful.

 

Agreed, not likely to scrape if it fits in there. That's why VW used that location for their heat augmentation system in the later models.

It's always the nose scraping on the approach with those. Drove a few of them in... well certainly not the same places, but ones that could be described in the same words.

Just re-reading this... you aren't going to transplant the entire Prius power system? Just the transaxle? I'm trying to picture how that would work... I guess weld the power split unit solid and tolerate the overall speed limitation? I'd think the result would be grossly underpowered without bringing the gas engine along in stock form.

 

According to this article, the overhead lines supply 600 V.

https://thebolditalic.com/hacked-prius-running-on-muni-power-lines-the-bold-italic-san-francisco-80cdbe55d68e

Doesn't say AC or DC. Something else I found made me think AC, but I didn't find much.

The boosted DC bus in gen 3 can be up to 650 V, so you might be able to do this trick with a gen 3 Prius and not a whole lot of work to adapt the voltage. Maybe get a second gen 3 inverter and make use of its IPM for that.

I think the boost in gen 2 was only up to 500 V, so that's more of a challenge.

Using resistors for dropping the voltage seems like about the least efficient choice. Plus I bet it's no fun sitting near those resistors on a hot day.

If it's AC, a suitable transformer with a 600 V primary shouldn't be awfully hard to find.