Bizarre drivetrain help needed for a mid-engine hatch.

93EXCivic said:

The obvious solution is find a wrecked Porsche Boxster and install that in the back of the Golf.

This man has good ideas.

The problem with most short (small vertical height) engines is there is so much room above them in the engine bay that the factory puts a bunch of stuff there. Mazda, Subaru, and Porsche all stick big intake manifolds and accessories there. By the time you add all of that stuff in the total height makes underfloor mounting impossible. The Previa engine is shorter due to interesting intake and oil pan packaging, but they cheated and put all of the accessories up front driven by a shaft from the front of the engine. Even with all of that work they are not really that short. Putting one under the floor anywhere in a car is going to make a pretty high floor or seating area. The performance is fairly plain as well. The supercharger adds a fair amount of torque which pushes my van around just fine, but getting the supercharger on a car swap would be interesting because its also remotely mounted up front with all the accessories.

Thank you for the great info on the trans, 93GSXTurbo, and thanks to all for the continued ideas.

Mr Joshua is right. I took a look at the Subie engines, and was surprised at how tall they actually are, thanks to the add-ons. The Previa claims a total eight of 17".

That 2TZ-FE also shares architecture with the Tacoma's 2RZ-FE, and possibly the 3RZ-FE (bores are the same, anyway) There are a few speed parts out there. I'm not looking to go crazy. The car is well under 2 tons.

The previous owner is a close friend and turbo engineer. A low-boost set-up might be possible and affordable, if not simple. I know that he would like to see me go that route.

bystickel said:

The Previa claims a total height of 17".

This seems like an awful lot of additional effort just to save less than 8 inches of engine height.

What about motorcycle boxer motors?

In reply to Driven5 :

You can get a lot done with 8". 

Driven5 said:

bystickel said:

The Previa claims a total height of 17".

This seems like an awful lot of additional effort just to save less than 8 inches of engine height.

"Sorry, Lassie, Timmy is missing, but you'll have to stay home... you don't quite fit in the car.."

As someone who always found Previas very interesting, I love this thread. 

bystickel said:

Driven5 said:

bystickel said:

The Previa claims a total height of 17".

This seems like an awful lot of additional effort just to save less than 8 inches of engine height.

"Sorry, Lassie, Timmy is missing, but you'll have to stay home... you don't quite fit in the car.."

We're talking about a couple shoe boxes of volume difference...But if it's really that important to have a place to stash old yeller too, then so be it.