Engine fits, now how do I drive it…?

So, I’m progressing a bit with this idea of using the VR4’s 6A13TT 2.5 litre V6 engine – however, there is one slight snag.

The 6A13 engine was never used in a Rear Wheel Drive vehicle by Mitsubishi, therefore, there are no gearboxes available “off the shelf” that will allow it to be used longitudinally.

The 6A13 is, however, compatible with gearboxes that also bolt up to the Lancer Evolution IV onwards 4G63T – but, the same problem comes – it comes in no vehicles where it’s used in a RWD configuration…

So… to the drawing board we go to find a gearbox.

Well, from my original idea, I just so happen to have a FS5W71C gearbox from the Nissan 200SX sitting around… it’s fairly compact, and the bellhousing looks a similar size to the bolt pattern for the 6A13 engine.

If you look closely, you can just begin to see some workings of one part of an adapter plate in the picture.

The idea is that you use a piece of perspex, with a hole drilled to the exact right size of the spline on the gearbox, and mount them all up centrally with the crank, and make holes where necessary to join the two together.

Luckily both engines come with a narrow tin plate with all the bolt spacings, so it’s fairly simple to marry this up to a piece of perspex, and mark/drill holes in both sides.

And then align the two together:

And you can then see which bolt holes overlap, which require making where, and how you’re going to do it.

Then, you take the templates to an engineering shop, and see about getting them made from something a bit sturdier – the next step!