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PostPosted: August 31, 2020, 2:01 pm 
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Joined: August 29, 2020, 1:33 pm
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I All over and I can’t find it. Has anyone actually put the rear end off of two motorcycles on the back of a car? all over and I can’t find it. Just how they would be on a motorcycle to on the backend?. Next question .has anybody built a bike engine build without some massive big honking engine. I just need something to replace my midget engine which is 70 hp 70 foot pound torque?


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PostPosted: September 22, 2020, 8:17 am 
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Location: Hamden CT.
not to sure what you mean about the rear end of a motorcycle ? if you mean using the swing arm and hub assembly I haven't ! I don't see a need to do so if your thinking of placing a bike engine in the front to replace the stock midget motor you would just need to run a drive shaft to the same rear end as in the car. set up like they do with the dwarf race cars.

I restore bugeye/frogeye sprites one after another in my shop same as the midgets and I have entertained the idea over and over of finding a good roller and doing a GSXR1000 motor swap to one.
the HP and torques from the GSXR engine will pretty much max out what the bugeye rear ends can handle for reliability the other down side to the stock bugeye rear ends are they are all open diff's and they didn't offer a LSD per for them. the other problem with doing a swap is the Bugeye's chassis they are not very strong so once you get to two hundred plus HP the chassis will start to flex from the torque loads. I have scaled out a few rolling chassis and they scale out at 687 LBS on average with no interiors so the cars would be about 900 LBS in running weight.
I have even gone as far with this idea as to do CAD designs of what parts are needed for the swaps.


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PostPosted: September 22, 2020, 1:49 pm 
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Joined: November 11, 2013, 4:47 am
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Location: No. Nevada
Bike rears would be horrible.
The loading would be all wrong, bikes lean so loads are vertical, car cornering loads are much more horizontal.
Bike suspension would bind up, and the tire profiles are also wrong.

If you are looking for a "Modern engine" to put into a Sprite I might suggest a Suzuki 1.0 or 1.3.
1.0 3-cyl. will be a reasonably close match for the original HP with more revs, 1.3 4-cyl. would be very sporty.
All aluminum engines so no weight penalty.
Use a Samurai 5-speed trans.
Much simpler than adapting a bike engine.
You still get the "Joy" of adapting the ECU just as you would with a modern bike engine but avoid the bike engine oiling issues.

I have a couple of Geo Metro's I will be doing similar type conversions with.
I will be posting here when I get to them sometime next year.

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PostPosted: September 23, 2020, 5:55 pm 
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Location: Hamden CT.
personally I'm not seeing doing a motor and trans swap with the Suzuki G motor is a plus at that point for the same power you may as well just do the later 1200cc mg/sprite motor.
with the bike motor the swap shouldn't be to hard to do . rill tech offers good oil pans for the Suzuki GSXR motors we have used them in a number of bike engine installs into cars. you would still have to make motor mounts for any swap and exhaust plus a drive shaft. a few places offer drive shaft adaptors for bike motors.
I would need to really be sold on the Suzuki G motor swap .


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PostPosted: September 24, 2020, 9:54 am 
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Joined: December 29, 2007, 10:41 pm
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Location: Vancouver, BC
Here's a couple links to Spridget swaps, the second one uses the G13 but isn't quite on the road yet. Both look like they require a lot of work though.

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/208938/midget-nissan-micra-engine-conversion

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/204929/lotus-elan-2-mk2-midget?page=10


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PostPosted: September 26, 2020, 12:20 pm 
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Joined: November 11, 2013, 4:47 am
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Location: No. Nevada
Somewhere on the Web I have seen a Suzy 13B Twin-Cam in a sprite.
So we know it can be done, up to the builder to decide if it should be done.
The Suzy engines are very light and the Sprite axle is not terribly strong.
I went through the bike engine issues for my Tatum build before realizing the Suzy is so much simpler.
I miss my Bug-Eye's and if I had one today I would try to keep it BMC powered.
But if an engine swap were required the Suzy would be My choice.

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PostPosted: September 29, 2020, 7:15 am 
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Joined: September 3, 2012, 10:48 pm
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Location: Hamden CT.
working on Bugeye's every day the Suzuki G swaps and a number of others are very popular but again with many I'm just not really sold on them.
personally if I was looking to do a swap into a Bugeye it would be the later Gen 1275 motor. if it was a swap into a later gen sprite or midget ( not a bugeye) then you do have lots of options to pick from. for then I would lean towards doing a miata swap and my only reason for the miata is we own 5 Miatas NA to the NC models and work on them in our race shop daily.
one other thing that keeps me thinking that using a Suzuki car motor swap isn't the best is that Suzuki stopped selling cars in the US market about 11 years ago.

personally I'm still liking the idea of using a GSXR 1000 engine. for me it would only be in a bugeye for track day uses not a street driven car.


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