Going off the reservation

[bajavwbus]

I want to build a mid engine trike and decided to use Subaru instead of VW. What are your recommendations for an engine, automatic trans combo that uses little or no electronics.

  What I'm shooting for, with changes to rear tire setup.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[turbosubarubrat]

The engines your going to want are a ea81, ej22, or ej25. The ea81 comes stock carb'd so that would be the easiest. You can put in a ej22 and convert it over to be carb'd by taking off the passenger side cam cap and use a early ford escort distributor. Same thing with a ej25 but you only use the block and swap on the ej22 heads. I don't know what you want to do for a transaxle / transmission / rear end on this but there are a lot of combinations. You could mount in a 5 speed w series toyota transmission with a bellhousing adapter to mount to the ej22 or ej25 then have a solid rear axle. Other than that you could use a vw or subaru transaxle.

[WoodsWagon]

What's your fabrication ability? It's possible to put a ford Escort distributor in the 90-98 EJ22 heads and modify the intake to put a carburator on. You could use a 2.5l shortblock under those heads if you needed more power.

 

The newer subaru engines come with a 4spd transmission they are electronically controlled so you need wiring for that. The older EA 3spd auto was all mechanical but only fits the EA series engines. You could use an EA-EJ adapter plate to run the older trans.

 

If you want power and simplicity, a VW Type 4 engine with a carb conversion and auto trans is about as basic as it gets....

Edited March 25, 2016 by WoodsWagon

[bajavwbus]

Yeah but you can't reverse a VW autotrans

[bajavwbus]

I'm hoping to use Subaru motor and autotrans