New to the Europa Family

[Rosco5000]

Well it looks like the engine swap bug has got a hold of me.  I thought for sure I would keep this car stock but a very low mileage Duratec came up and who can say no to a 32,000 Km Duratec for $500.  Here is some pics of what I have got myself into.

[BDA]

$500 for a low mileage motor is a steal! That should be a great project! Good luck and keep us up to date! 

[blasterdad]

  Here is some pics of what I have got myself into.

Holy wire pile Batman, Looks like Robocop threw up! 
You got a great deal! 

[Rosco5000]

  Here is some pics of what I have got myself into.

Holy wire pile Batman, Looks like Robocop threw up! 
You got a great deal! 

The new cars have a ton of wiring. I would love to run the chipped key for security but who knows if I can make heads or tails of that Robocop puke when the time comes. I may just resort to a megasquirt set up.

[Rosco5000]

The quest to get a new drive line together for the Europa continues.  I have now acquired a 012 VAG transaxle out of a 2002 Passat (the same series of transaxle that is used in the Porsche Boxter).  John from Mamba motor sports is putting together an adaptor plate and lightened flywheel to accept the VAG clutch but bolts up to the Duratec crank for me like he was using in his Lotus 23 replicas he used to support.  So once that hardware is all here it will be time to strip the engine bay and get the body off the chassis and start the restoration.  I am getting excited I just have to get a couple of other projects out of the way first.

[Piper an]

Hi Roscoe like the passat box swap interesting ,im going for espace 5speed condition unkown + crate zetec lots to do Derek 

[Chuck Nukem]

Looks like a very interesting swap!! I am curious, what does the transaxle weigh in at?

[Chuck Nukem]

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/7-02-2015/3K0d-H.gif

  Here is some pics of what I have got myself into.

Holy wire pile Batman, Looks like Robocop threw up! 
You got a great deal! 

The new cars have a ton of wiring. I would love to run the chipped key for security but who knows if I can make heads or tails of that Robocop puke when the time comes. I may just resort to a megasquirt set up.

[Rosco5000]

LOL ^^^ That's a funny GIF. 

I haven't weighed the Transaxle yet.  It isn't much bigger than the Renault transaxle.  The most weight difference could be from the ring gear I think the final drive might be a bit bigger. 

Also collected some more parts for the conversion.  Mamba Motorsport/Bridge Engineering in England as able to supply me with an adapter plate and custom flywheel to mate the Duratec with the VAG transaxle.  The flywheel is a work of art.  CNC'd chromoly.  Ford Duratec flywheel bolt pattern and ring gear alignment and the clutch face is lined up where it needs to be for the VAG transaxle mounted on the spacer and uses a stock VW 1.8T clutch.  I also started down the intake route as the big plastic intake manifold for the Duratec will not mount well in the Europa frame so I bought some GSXR 1000 throttle bodies to mock up a new intake for the engine.

[blasterdad]

WOW, that is almost too pretty to hide in the bellhousing!!!
 

[RoddyMac]

That flywheel is a work of art, it's almost a shame that it will be hidden inside the bellhousing.  How does it compare in weight to the stock Duratec flywheel?  And what computer are you planning on running with the ITBs?  There's an ongoing write up on using the Duratec/MZR engine on the locostusa website ( http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14753 ).  Don't know how useful the write up is, but it might help with a few things.

[Rosco5000]

I have to check those weights as well.  The stock one is a heavy beast.  John from Mamba Motorsport ran this set up in the Nobel Lotus 23B replicas he produced for awhile, I think he has sold the 23B business but could still produce the adapter and flywheel for me.  He had a lighter option if I wanted to use a competition multi plate clutch but the clutch was going to be so expensive I decided to stick with the stock VW one. 

As for the ITBs I am going to have to run Megasquirt more than likely.  There is an Ebay seller that sells motorcycle ITB and manifold kits with a computer ready to go for the Duratecs but it is not much cheaper than running Jenvey's so I will probably work on constructing the intake and velocity stacks myself and then go the Megasquirt route.  Ever seen a velocity stack swaging, search it on youtube it is pretty cool and I think my old southbend lathe could handle it so I am going to give it at try.

Rod thanks for the other link on the locosts, I will have to give that a read.
Ross

[BDA]

Very interesting bits you've got there, Rosco! I agree with everyone else that the flywheel is too pretty to hide in a bell housing. So that means you'll have to really pretty up that tranny! I'm really looking forward to more pictures as you put this beast/beauty together!

 

[Rosco5000]

So it has been awhile since I have had an updated but things are moving slowly on the Europa.  One of my challenges is the S2 seats.  I have wanted to buy a box pan brake for awhile so I thought why not give it a go, the seats seem to be a reasonably challenging but doable project.  So craigslist helped me find a slightly used 48" brake and now I have to strip the seats and make some patterns.  I think I will make the new ones out of stainless avoid the rusting issue in the future.  I also had a leather theater seat that had seen better days.  2 of the reclining mechanisms broke.  So the black vinyl seemed to be in good shape still and there was a lot of nice upholstery foam on them, so I might not even have to buy any other material to rebuild them, score!
Here are some pics.

[RoddyMac]

I'm envious, I used to have access to a brake like that a few years ago, then my friend retired and sold off all the shop equipment.  I'm also going to be fabricating a set of seats, though I'm torn between aluminium and mild steel.  I'm not a bit fan of stainless, and I'm sure if I were to build a set out of steel that they would last the rest of the car's life. 

There is a file on the yahoo list with a 3D drawing of a Europa seat.  I think its an S2, as I've used it to make a plywood "mock up" to see if I can actually fit in the car with a seat in place (luckily the answer is yes).  Though I wonder how the 3D file compares to an actual seat.  I took the 3D file and created a 2D cut sheet in AutoCAD, I can send you a the CAD file or a PDF if you want.


Rod