None dually truck question.

O.K. we are not on the same page here. I want a simple(as simple as this can be) swap here. No adapters or anything like that. I do thank you guys for the ideas. The problem I have with the vdub transaxle and I looked at that toyota that ran one is it looks to me like you mount the motor in front of the transaxle and it faces front to rear. A transverse mounted 4 banger outa like a civic or something would be a lot more compact, no adapters and could be upgraded later if we wanted more power. The hyabusa thing looks neat but not quite what I'm going for. I like the idea of a modern drivetrain, and a vdub is not modern.

I don't know it might just be a bit to out there for my son's daily driver.

like i said before you can craft the subframe with suspension from the front of the civic with all the mounting points and drivelinestuff on it intoo the backpart of the truckframe you might even be able to make the subframe bold in between the framerail and make a C-clip in the truckframe where the axle needs to go through you might even be able to hang the struts on that clip if you build it high enough (there airbags available that bolt in place of the mcpersonstruts )
if you do that you have to run the cables for the shifter around the corner twice or make some new shiftinglevers that makes the cables run in the right direction and select the right gear
you prolly have to reverse the gearstick to have the shifting cables come out the back you might even need to hack out the stops in it to be able to select 5th and reverse , i expect the most problems there.
you could check with some hondah technicians to see if theres a ready made solution for that since honda does make rearengined cars too if i recal correctly

you can build an extra frame over the engine along the edges of the bed to hold it up and perhabs mount some top enginemounts ontoo

88-95 civics, some acuras, and 95-99 mitsu eclipse run an upper and lower control arm that could easily be used in the rear of a truck and with an auto trans the shift linkage would be alot easier to adapt.
want modern power use a B18C honda motor. there are way too many aftermarket parts to be any kind of a real challenge at all. turbos, s/c kits, and nitrous too if you need more power. There's B18's out there with 500+ hp.
josh

That's what I'm looking for. I figured the struts would be the biggest obstacle. I figure the shifting wont be that big of a deal(I'm sure it will take some hashing). I would like to stick with a manual though(for fuel mileage reasons). What did they put that b18c in? What is the vtec?

TPI SBC will fit under the hood with it BD's and they are cheap and easy to find parts for. No sense re-inventing the wheel.

If you are baller, go with an LSX engine.

I'm mostly going for the wow, or that's different factor. Not to worried about performance. He has to drive about 30 miles a day so he needs something that gets good mileage. And with a small block up front I still got to get the transmission through a little pickup cab.

We're going to measure some track widths this weekend and see what we can come up with. I just like the idea of no tranny or exhaust to worry about on the bddrp. And it would just be kinda fun to do.

hey you don't have to run the motor to the front. all you would have to do is run a nose cone mount and fab up a motorplate setup and done. or if you run the 2.3 two side mounts. this would be alot eaiser if you just listened to us..lol damm if you dont do it I might, but i will use the vw trans with a toyota motor. (got a few laying around)

The problem I have with the transaxle out of the vw is how old it is. I would like to modernize this not go backwards. Not to mention having a vw transaxle with a ford motor in a mazda pickup. That's a bit much even for me.

I've heard that toyota was unsafe over like 45 mph, I wonder if the weight distribution makes it not handle to good at speed.

making it a midmotor will prolly make it stick a lot better to the road .
you could take a look around at the kitcarscene there a lot of midengine cars bein made there

i know the lotus elise is a midengine car that uses a toyota engine .
i bet they use the toyota gearbox too , if thats so you can buy the forwarth gearshift ready made for the project

Problem is it's not really mid mounted but more rear. And the vehicle is not really designed for that. I don't know, I sure would like to try this idea though.