I've been out of the off road buggy sport for about 12 years . I want to get back into it but I'm having finding donor cars VW for my build . I'm considering going to a GM water cooled 4 cylinder engine like come in a standard Chevy Cavalier .

Would the Chevy Cavalier automatic transaxle hold up for trail riding and some street use ?

I'm finding the parts I'm looking for making the getting involved again are making it cost prohibitive .

I know some of you have tried this . Let me know what the pros and cons are .

Thx
Gonzo

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Thx , Gonzo

I wouldnt think this would hold up very well. Especially if u plan to run it very hard in the woods like hillclimbing etc. But on the street it would be alright. But if u plan to run it like most of us buggy guys it wouldnt last very long.

Honestly I would expect it to be stronger then a stock VW 6 rib. Just based on the fact that it was designed for a 150hp engine instead of a 50 hp engine. But the gearing is probibly way to high stock, and no clue if any aftermarket exist for the gearing. The CV joints are around 30" center to genter which would make for very short axles and little suspension travel without very wide arms. No clue how good the stock cv's are but I assume much weaker then 930's most use with WC engines. Personally I like passats idea of running one sideways to a IRS rear end of your choosing. 2 of the top guys in the hillclimb are running mid engine mendiolas with V6's and doing great. So this may work with fine tuning. Just an idea, and one I plan to try. Most here hate the idea, but the also hate radiaters, fuel injection, a-arm front ends and most things non-VW. Personally I just want to ride, not buy an first hand education on rebuilding and tuning. I have enough trouble just trying to spell

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Thanks Nitro. I tried those 3 ball GM joints once. They are only made for an ocassional bump.And must ride horizontal. They lasted about 30 minutes each.

To me fuel injection is simpler to maintain than 2 carbs.A computer ,maf ,water temp switch,throttle position sensor,fuel pressure regulator.6 injectors , manifold pressure sensor,coil pack,outside air temp sensor, knock and crank sensor,2ea. O2s, speed sensor if its auto trans.The beauty is the computer constantly adjust timing and fuel.There is NO tweaking. No distributor.A 10:1 fuel injected motor runs perfect on pump gas.Get your factory wiring harness and clip off every thing except what I mentioned.Use 3 toggle switches to power the coil pack ,fuel injection pwr,(coming from the computer) and electric fuel pump(coming from the battery)..Let the computer power wire stay hot always so it don't lose it's memory .Save your OBD2 (On Board Diagnostic 2nd generation) port by the driver's knee. If you cut it off , it only has 3 wires although it has 20 0r so pins. The 3 wires are battery, ground and 1 wire to the computer. A borrowed scan tool at Autozone will read your problem.Go to the junkyard and scrounge a bag of assorted sensors.They are very reliable even in the mud and water.Even if your motor has a problem it will still run in the limp home mode usually.(The "open loop") Someone read up on Passat VR6's. The 6 cyliders are arranged like a staggered 6 pack. Poeple swear my motor is a 4 cylinder because it is so small til they look at the 6 wire coilpack.It only uses 1 head!

personally i think the the auto tranny out of a cavalier would be good... i have a wrecked one im takin the drive train out of that i took offroading a few times and it held up good and makin a buggy for my next project... gunna make custom A arm rear suspension and use the outer stubs of the axle and put the on the lathe and turn them down and make them bolt to longer axles like a 930 bolt pattern or something stronger.. i have put some serious thought into the design and it should work great with good flex also... hopefully ill start the project soon. gunna be a total ground up build with chevy parts that are easy to find and cheap and not "rigged" together.

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If your not God, then don't judge me

Would it be possible to adapt VW IRS CV's to the GM gear box output shafts ? This way I could use longer VW or SwayAway axles .

I also thought about using the VW torsion . I would need to cut the forks off to nestle the GM box and still use the VW spring plates .

It's hard to engineer the details without one setting here in front of me . I appreciate all your comments and input .

I've built over 9 VW based buggies and 4 from the ground up . It's somthing I miss but find the parts a stumbling block now after my hiatis of 12 years . I still have a stock of tubing and the fabing equipment , now to step out of the box and make this work .

Thx
Gonzo

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Thx , Gonzo

Well I like my VW engine and trans. The only thing I dislike about the Ecotec's and things is that it seems like they have to rev the gutts out of them, when trying to climb a hill. But it could also be the driver idk.

The driver. They just love knowing that they stay at a constant 180 degrees.lol

Haha figured thats what it was lol

that's what i was planning on... to take the gm axle and take the shaft out and machine the outer parts down and have the bolt pattern drilled in them and that way you could use the vw axles to bolt between the 2 or jus the 1 side and make any setup you want and achieve some flex

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If your not God, then don't judge me