On Feb 5, 8:07*pm, "Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:
Way back when I was a university student I got stuck fixing a girlfriends VW
"Bug". *(I think she liked the Bug more than me but kept me around 'cause I
could fix it.) *From that experience I developed a strong dislike for the
"Bug". *My Volvo 544 was both more comfortable and more reliable while
providing about the same gas milage.

Once while chasing VW parts in the Volvo (Never happened the other way
'round) I struck up a conversation with a German mechanic at a VW shop.
Refering to the little flat 4, he said, "Well, it was a good idea when it
made 36HP - not so good when they increased the power. *"What do you
drive?", I asked. *He pointed to a brand new Caddy and gave me a slow wink.

If you want a light weight engine why not look hard at state of the art
Japanese "liter bike" engines instead of a 60 year old VW design? *My
Kawasaki cranks out 108HP and is reputed to be bulletproof. *Of course a
PRSU would be manditory given that the little Kawi would be turning almost
9,000 RPM.

Somebody made a 2.8 liter V8 out of a pair of Hyabusa cylinder blocks.
Making a flat 4 shouldn't be any harder.
See:http://thekneeslider.com/archives/20...usa-v8-engine/

some in Deutschland have built aero conversions out of BMW R series
engines.

most of the HP from those japanese engines comes at very high rpm --
have to develop a very solid PSRU for that ... and there's nobody
flying these things, which means you'd be a real guinea pig. But, I
say if you've really thought it through, and done a lot of testing,
bike engine might turn out to work (but only with a really bullet
proof PSRU)