Just Thought I would Share some shots of my L Bug so far.
I have owned it for nearly 4 years and done a few Supersrints here and there. I bought it with a Pobjoy Base 1916cc engine and then upgraded to a 2110cc.
Last year I started doing an EJ20T Subaru engine conversion which has now been engineered, registered etc. It was dynoed with 198hp at the treads before xmas and last week I started stripping it for a total respray and freshen up.
[ Edited on 7-5-2006 by 1303 ]
[ Edited on 4-6-2006 by 1303 ]
This shot shows the bracing used to hold the Subaru engine up
From this side you can see how much steel must be cut to fit the engine. The gearbox is moved forward 50mm for the engine to clear the apron as well
I removed a far amount of the firewall in order to give good access when needed, i could of got away with alot less, but an aluminium enclosure sealed the area off
This is when the engine is first fitted with the new later model apron , the apron is now removable and bolts the the guards
From hear you can see the fork bracing and sort of see the modified bowden tube bracket in order to keep the factory spec bend in the bowden tube...this is the busy side as the exhaust has to squeeze in there too.
Here I started to make the exuast with 2.75 inch mandrel bends, I had the exhaust plate that bolts to the turbo machined so I can run a seperate wastegate outlet.
The outlet snakes around and under the axle, there is about 12mm clearance between the exhuast and the axle when the suspension is at full droop, suprisingly there is still heaps of ground clearance for the exhaust.
Behind the apron is a 3 inch straight through truck muffler which is still pretty quiet, no where near as loud as any WRX with a canon style muffler
This is the entire system nearly completed, I flanged the ends so I can change mufflers if needed. It goes from 2.75 inch to 3 inch diameter at the flange.
I used muffler clamps from a truck also and then welded these to a frame that bolts to the engine.
You can see that the wastegate pipe is roughly positioned, I had to play around with this a bit in order for it to clear everything and be a fair way from the exhuast outlet at the turbo so as to maximise flow.
This is the Main pipe with seperate wastegate pipe completed. The wastegate pipe merges just in front of the axle , any further down would of really complicated things.. I just kept it simple
Thats the veiw from above when it is bolted up to the turbo
This is from inside the car, I made up a heatsheild to cover the turbo and wastegate pipe to try and reduce temps under the decklid. The aluminium box on the left has a small radiator in it. This is for the water to air intercooler, it also has another radiator up front. The idea was to fill the aluminium box with dry ice for a bit of extra cooling, but i haven't tested it yet.
These are the radiators fuel pumps and surge pot
I used a combination of thin and thick sheet aluminium to make an air tight enclosure in the spare wheel well. I lose about 100mm of floor space because the radiators sit vertical. I could have layed them down but I dont use the car everyday and could afford to sacrifice some luggage space, it also enable me to use the factory rubber mounts on both radiators
This is the engine in for the final fit, the Aluminium panels on the left are to try and stop the engine breathing in hot air.
The Subaru engine just looks so right in there!!
This is it conversion finished on the weighbridge prior to getting the engineers certificate
Started stripping it down last week....and started to notice a few little rust spots here and there, so I started fixing these too
Had some rust spots under the decklid seal strip, so they were removed then welded up the rust holes underneath and ground back smooth
Also had rust holes in this area , so small section was cut and welded in new steel, then just plug welded a few pin holes.
I wont be using the factory exhaust cut outs so I made two plates like this to fill in the gaps.
...then carefully welded these sections in so as not to distort the panels
Also had some rust holes in this area...it was touch and go as to whether I should cut out or just weld up. Fortunately I got away with welding the holes up and grinding back.
there was an Aerial hole in this part of the roof which I thought looked a bit daggy so this was filled with a small plate and welded up.
Still love those C2's
What colour you going to paint it??
Loved the blue it was
Barry
Futue te ipsum!!!
I've got no idea what colour to paint it yet, the blue did look ok depending on where you looked at it, but I'm over it.
The C2's do look pretty cool, they sort of look like a factory style wheel. The C2's are going to be kept for track days and some different wheels fitted up for a change also.
Great work Paul. You certainly have put a lot of thought and effort into this project.
Regards
Brendan
A VW for everyone!!
1972 1302 German Look
1971 Bay Panel with Subaru EJ20T
1970 Type 3 squareback in progress
1971 Type 3 notchback in progress
Very nice 🙂
I'd love to do this with my 1303 one day.... but cant see me ever having the money or time....
Beautiful work on the subi conversion. I love how easy you make it sound!
hehehe - I'm not that stupid. Nice functional touches and the fabrication looks great.
This is what I want to do to my car!
