As with any project, you occasionally run into some stumbling blocks that really give you cause to stop and wonder. From simple questions, such as "Which intake runner did that screw fall into?" to the perplexing and all-out "How my supposeta do that?" As KIT CAR's Ecocat project moves forward, one of the single biggest questions that needed to be answered was how the 2.2L GM Ecotec engine (normally a transverse-mounted, front-wheel-drive application) could mate in-line with a Tremec five-speed transmission, and in the process, be used as rear-wheel-drive?
Shafi Keisler and his team at Keisler Engineering in Knoxville, Tennessee, were the people who came up with the answer. Keisler is known in performance circles as manufacturers of five- and six-speed Tremec conversion kits for musclecars, but even this weird combination was a challenge for the pros at Keisler. In the last issue of KIT CAR we interviewed Shafi in order to get the low-down on what it took for his company to develop the necessary pieces to make this combo work (a combo Keisler Engineering now offers over-the-counter).
In this installment on the buildup of the Ecocat, we show the parts and pieces they came up with, and how they work together. The Ecocat project is now in the hands of Bill Hahn of Hahn Racecraft in Yorkville, Illinois, who is busy installing a turbocharger on the vehicle's engine. In the meantime, please drop us a line at kitcar@primedia.com (remember to add Ecocat to the subject line) and give us your thoughts on what you think of the Ecocat project.