Cheers Subie Boxer - just make sure you have a full flow heater or at least a bypass as a lot of heater stop flow when they are turned off.
Keep up the good work look fwd to hearing how it runs.
Brad
Why copy when you can own an original ?
Meyers Manx Australiai see you have done yours a lot different to mine. i tried to retain as much of the car as possible.
yours looks a lot better than mine i must say
nice work, I had a fiat X19 and they had bleed valves on the tubes under the car .
When I started the conversion, I heard things like: you got to use the stock subaru tachometer or the engine will not run, or without the subaru watertemp nothing will work. All not true, I installed a 52 mm VDO watertemp gauge and a 52 mm VDO tachometer. I got my speedometer changed to a 210 km range old style and put a sender for oiltemperature into the oilpan as I shortened it. The oiltemp gauge is installed in the fuel gauge of my bug. From left to right.
have you thought of having a small air scoop under the front valance to direct air into the radiator.
The subaru water temp guage is in a different range to the VDO one. You will not get a correct reading without using the correct VDO one. That being said the VDO one goes in the same place as the Subaru one no hassles at all.
If you use the subaru temp sender it will work your guage will simply not be accurate, it will read slightly ( about 10 degree C) higher than it is in the middle range. So it will say 100 when you engine is only 90. This varies slightly. If you want to test is the Subie temp sender is next to the ECU temp sender and the ECU switches the thermo fan on at 94-94 degree C. So run it hot and see what temp guage is when fan turns on.
It is also a good idea to remove and clean the temp sender as the Subie ones tend to get covered in crap which makes them a little less accuarte again. I am paranoid about Subie engine temps as it is the only thing that kills them.
On the VDO tacho, the old style VDO tachos with the metal surrounds often have issues with the Subie ECU output as the signal strength is no strong enough. I have found all the plastic ones work fine.
There is a lot of crap info out there in relation to subie conversions. The EJ22 is exempt from most of it but the EJ20T's seem to like retention of some subie switches and clusters.
Brad
Why copy when you can own an original ?
Meyers Manx AustraliaRegards the thermo fans, the original Suby ones are 3 wire, so I'm guessing they're dual speed. The fans I have are 2 wire/single speed so I'm interested to hear what fans you are using and how you have them wired up.
[Edited on 8-3-2005 by Jenny]
vwrallycar wrote:will be interesting to see how well your engine stays cool with very little air inlet to the radiator. i say that because i tried mine like that 1st and found that i had to put holes in the bonnet to keep the temp down. please let me know how you get on with this
The car is in Germany which would help enormously with temp, as opposed to Rockhampton... One hell of a way to improve your cooling system, move to Germany:thumb
"Tell him 'We've already got one'"
I have 2 wire original fans. The ECU only has one temp range on the 22. I have been told the EJ20T have twin speed fans. SO the 20's may also have this.
Brad
Why copy when you can own an original ?
Meyers Manx AustraliaMalcom i thought about an air scoop but I think I don't need one.
Jenny my fan is a Spal high performance unit I bought it at a race shop. It sucks air in when standing still , you can feel it in front of the car.
Buggy Brad no problem so far with temp readings. The engine ran for an hour in my garage and the fan started exactly around 94 degrees and went off again just under 90 degrees. My VDO tacho is the new plastic style. My temp gauge is the old metal one. I use the subaru temp sender.
And I would love to move to Australia, even if you think it is an improvement for the cooling system to be here in Germany, Oasis. The cooling got to work overhere, because we have the world famous Autobahn without a speedlimit, at least in some sections. If you drive the converted bug for lets say an hour at top speed it got to work. Let's see what happens when I hit the road.
[Edited on 16-5-2005 by subaruboxer]
Ok, for the EJ20 cars fitted with air conditioning they had two fans that were 3 wire/2 speed. For cars without air con they only had one main fan wired with both + terminals together so that it ran high speed all the time.
The radiator from below.
Watertubes at the front end.
Sideview of the tubes and hoses.
Pan and enginebay.
[Edited on 15-3-2005 by subaruboxer]
Nice work,
Fantastic pics too....
Cheers
Jeremy
......random gibberish for today.......
where did u get it, how much does it cost...is that on a bettle...
need to know, cause my man doesn't like cars without air con...
dubless. 🥲
🥷 And who the helled parked the Mitsubishi "Prancer" under my house??? 🥷
sh1t thats impressive. you've given m lot to think about for my next project 😎
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
I used 28 mm stainless steel tubes under the pan, and silicon hoses except for the hoses running to the heater. I choosed silicon hoses, because they are available in a variety of bends, diameters and reducers. By just using 28 mm tubes and the reversed watermanifold on the engine I managed to reduce the watercapacity of the system to only 9,5 Liter. Less water means less weight. All conversions I have seen overhere used 35 mm tubes and hoses, and therefore 18 to 21 Liter coolant in the system. I have to mention that I wouldn`t install the heater under the rear seat again. I would put it left next to the gearbox outside the car.
Yeah the EJ20 auto fans are twin brush. I ran them on 2 circuits so as to have some redundancy. I have since split the fans having them run at low speed at ign on, and the higher speed at the standard Subi 94 deg.
Spyder-WISD 07-09-05 11.6s @ 125 MPH
Speedster-WISD Nats 05 14.4s @ 89 MPH
Jet cruiser-Coogee 22-09-05 900 deg C @ 110,000 rpm
Weaseling out of things is what separates us from the animals....................Except the Weasel.
I am very curious to know if the car is up and running and if so, does it keep cool, My Watercooled 12A rotary powered bug has a radiator twice the size of this and a large scoop under the bottomless spare wheel well and all the shrouds and fans etc and it still stuggles to keep cool.
I hope I am just experiencing a loss of pressure in the cooling system and nothing more, as it stays cool for an hour or so then starts to climb in Temp slowly but surely. I'll check that next but was suprised to see such a small radiator in the front of your Bug.
Cheers Anthony
62 Ragtop Herbie with a little extra oomph.
Hi Herbie,
I haven't been on the road yet, but I had it running standing still in my garage a few times for 30 minutes and 1 hour. I had to hold the revs up at 3000 to get the temp to climb up.
My radiator is not small, I had to make the spare wheel well wider and deeper to get it in. Probably you got a problem with yours somehow. Will hit the road at the end of april. Have seen conversions with smaller radiators that ran without temp problems.
One thing all you potential Ozzie Subi guys must remember...We live a much hotter climate than subiboxer does. We have 38mm ali lines running the length of my brothers Notch with a smallish front intake area (300x160mm approx) and a Suzuki Seirra rad and stock sub intercooler rad up front, with a single 350mm fan.
Something seems to be amiss with your set-up Anthony...Air in the system maybe? Buggered rad? Does your engine actually feel hot? have you used a hand held electronic temp sensor to confirm your guage readings?
Hmmm?
it does get hot,
I have taken a commadore VH Auto radiator, Brand new out of the box, had its cap etc modified to run sideways, tall, up and down, I have thought that its as simple as there is a fine leak somewhere that loses the water once it gets pressurised, then with the water level low, it may struggle to push the water round properly.
I have not been too stressed about it as I have too many other cars needing attention at the moment,
I have been focusing on getting the split panelvan on the road for the last few months.
I would be finnished but I dont have the cash spare for the parts I need etc.
I have been begging borrowing and stealing the money to import the 57 Chev, and in the back of that was the parts I bought in the states for my RX3 sedan
the list of tasks goes on and on,
I am just happy that herbie goes at all for the moment.
Next step, pressure test of cooling system, there is some corrosion around the top of the radiator, I am guessing thats where there is a leak, probably created by putting the radiator in and out 50 times, I may have flexed it the wrong way or something.
it doesnt need to lose much water before it struggles so its my guess that its unable to push the water to the top of the radiator with the airgap.
62 Ragtop Herbie with a little extra oomph.
Hi
I ran I turbo WBX in a 1302 with only the stock grill in the front apron in Sydney traffic on 40+ days with no problems.
Steve
Wow thats low!
CU
Jeremy
......random gibberish for today.......
1303Steve wrote:Hi
I ran I turbo WBX in a 1302 with only the stock grill in the front apron in Sydney traffic on 40+ days with no problems.
Steve
Hi Steve,
that is exactly what everyone overhere is using on 1302 and 1303 bugs no additional opening for the radiator. But it can' t
be used with the older bugs.
Here is one that would work in your climate, but here it is too much!
nn[ Edited on 20-7-2005 by subaruboxer ]
Hi
I posted that picture of my old car so that you could see that you dont need a huge opening. It gives the game away if you have huge holes cut in the front of the car .
Steve
Another pic of the spare wheel well
a view under the rear with engine installed
