Adapt engine to bellhousing or bellhousing to tranny?

Lets try something that I don't believe has been done here. I plan on mating the engine out of my newly-acquired Benzo 240D to a T90 in my M38a1. Would it be best to attempt to mate the F-head bellhousing to the back of the MB engine, or adapt a Benz bellhousing to the the T90? Would I use Benzo or Willys clutch components, or a combination of the two? Unfortunately my donor car is an '82, so the tranny has an integrated bellhousing. So I would need to acquire a BH from an older 240D if I decided to go that route (I *would* like to have a hydraulic clutch, if possible).

McRuff sez he can probably make me an adapter plate and a pilot bushing, so I'm not to concerned about that part.

Can you guys pass that crack pipe over this way?

Don

 

What would you need that for?R)

As far as the clutch goes you will need to use a combo of the two unless it happens to have the same mounting locations for the presure plate. Which I guess you could always redrill it to match the Jeep pressure plate. The bell housing choice is up to you. You could make a plate that matchs the motor and weld it to the stock bell or the opposite. If you don't have a way of welding aluminum then the answer is easy (assuming the 240 has an aluminum trans case). Keep us posted and good luck with the swap.

 

The conventional way to do this sort of thing is to use a bell from the engine and an adapter plate. You need to have an input shaft on the transmission that's longer than the depth of the bellhousing. The remaining distance is made up by the adapter plate between the bell and the transmission. The original T-90 stickout (ie the amount the input shaft sticks out from the transmission) is short, but the input shaft from a Willys truck T-90 is longer, and that's what's used for almost all engine swaps to T-90s. The truck input shaft is widely available.

Then you usually use the clutch disk from a Jeep (to match the splines on the T-90 input shaft) and the clutch cover from the engine, along with the TO bearing, clutch arm, etc. Unless you are lucky, you'll have clearance issues to work out between the mix of clutch parts.

The adapter is made the right thickness to bring the pilot tip on the input shaft into the right position with the end of the crankshaft. If the bore in the end of the crank is larger than the pilot tip, you can machine a bearing to make up the difference. Otherwise, the input shaft pilot tip has to be turned down to match the stock or custom pilot bushing ID.

hth.

 

I was contemplating the acquisition of a rebuilt T90 from Herm. I assume I should opt for the "long shaft" version as opposed to the short shaft?

 

Good luck with that conversion, and definitely keep us posted. I am going a slightly different route, with a 1.6 liter VW turbodiesel, a volvo intercooler, and a five-speed transmission and transfer case out of a Suzuki samurai. So far, the engine, tranny and t-case are installed and mounted, I am just waiting to finish the bodywork before I take it in to have the driveshafts made. I'll post pictures as the work progresses.

 

I would think that would allow you a little leeway if you're to use an adapter between the trans and bellhousing. Then Mike could make the adapter to the thickness that's needed.

 

A diesel project intrigues me...along with the Turbo 3.8, 3800 RWD, the 4BT Cumins ---on and on.

Wish I had the time and money to experiment on these all!

 

3800 RWD did me......enough so I have one on my engine stand where it's been for 2 yrs. Gotta find just the right ride for 200 hp and 225#ft of torque. CJ6 maybe w/automatic behind it. Like you said time and money.

 

Whats a 3800 RWD?

Don

 

a little info
http://www.angelfire.com/my/fastcar/specs.html
cam in camaro and firebird