Col\'s EJ20 Powered Kombi

Here are some pics Col sent me of his EJ20 Powered Kombi, I am sure he will post details soon.

nice :thumb

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A bloody good job mate🙂

Respect!

:thumb:thumb:thumb hmmmmm

Yep,

Thats my baby alright!
Cheers for posting the pics brad.
She started as an absoloutely shagged campervan i bought for $600 with a bent slider and a pushed in front skin. Some rust repairs and a coat of paint and she was looking good, but the engine was also stuffed so i gave it to a mate.

The new engine as you can see is a normally aspirated EJ20. The gearbox is a factory kombi auto (you can just see the shortened dipstick tube in the first pic).
As I am just a poor uni i student at the moment, I can't pay anyone to work on my car, so the conversion is all my own handywork. The crossmember was from 50x50x6 mm angle courtesy of my boilermaker bro. Crushtubes were welded into the rails at the new bolt in inlocation. The stainless for the exhaust from my uncle who is a fitter.
The loom i made myself from a ball of psychedelic spaghetti from a cut.
I have been on the road for 3 months and haven't run hot with the radiator in the back, but it willl be interesting now we are moving into the warmer months, though I am pretty confident all will be cool (forgive the pun).
One of the trickier aspects of the conversion and something which recurs on this forum was the reversal of the inlet manifold. As can be seen this is what I did, so it is possible, but making the bracket to use the standard suby alternator was tricky. If i had the doe i might have tried looking for a less bulky alternator - or at least one where the connections are on the back rather than the side, but you use what you have... and it got there in the end.
I have since sen Dans kombi (danzin) and liked the way they got around the problem by making a manifold that bolts onto the plenum chamber to relocate the throttle body.
Another option I considered was cutting the flange off the back of the plenum chamber where the throttle body bolts on and welding it to the top on the plenum chamber, and plating up the old location. i probably would have gone this way if my tig had high frequency on it, but it dont. In a kombi height is not a concern, but i dont think this would be an option for all vw models.

A shortened sump pan will be the next job for the tig, will post some pics when it is done.

As yet she is unnamed, but i have been toying with 'The Kombaru' or 'The Kombaroo' does anyone out there in cyberdubberland know if these have been claimed??

Hope I have answered a couple of questions for those of you out there going water cooled. Anything specific don't hesitate to ask and i will try to get back to you between assignments and exams.

Col

It's good to see others as silly as myself. Silly in that they try to do everything themselves no matter how much of a pain in the *** it is 😀

Very nice work, I hope to check it out in person one day :thumb

looks good col... lv the exhaust!! where abouts in bris are you?

How do you scooby/veedubbers go with the sumps on those things?

nice work. maybe su-bay is fitting?

Excellent job Col... very neat.. and I can See - an enormous amount of work....
Why did You have to relocate the alternator??
Was it too high??
Lee

Col Kombiru sounds fine,,,
How did You know what to do with the wiring???
that can't have been easy!!!

Lee

Dan,
Would like to get together and talk vw at some point, I told Brad the other day I saw your bus at the Dubs by the pub earlier this year and was hangin around it like a bad smell hoping to catch you, only to notice you leave when i got distracted.
I am on the southside of bris near wynumn/manly, and i hear you are a southsider also, is that right?.

very sweet conversion and good to hear its all working well great work :thumb

Hi

Nice job. Oh well, I will ask, how does it run? Plenty of power I guess, the Kombi would weigh about the same as a Scubi.

1302Steve

Kombicol,
nice work.
I take it that motor is an EJ20 DOHC N/A Jap import like mine. Did you get the complete motor/harness/ECU and sensors or have you sourced some of these components elsewhere?

Hi col, yeah i'm over in bulimba..would be keen to see your bus in person also!!

Hi dude,
Sweeet job looks great. I’m in the process of a V6 auto build my self and would like to ask a Few questions,
how are you finding the auto? Do you know what type of gear box oil temps you are getting, are you running an oil cooler. How hard was the T3 engine inspection cover to install, And what temp is the engine running at, I suppose you have had a couple of hot days up there did it run fine with the radiator in the rear. I’ve seen one in a kombi down here but it wasn’t running yet and the owner didn’t have a clue as to how hot it would run. Are you running an air box or pod filter and dose it get air from the outside or in the engine compartment.
What does it go like you must have squeezed it a couple of times (I hope).
Thanks
Email me if you want at ron@wacked.com.au

Wacked1
:jesus

mate that is absolutely awesome... gotta say i love the idea of POWER. dont think it would evry fit in my split. and funny how no one really wants to convert one or assist me either. ah well maybe oneday. but until tht comes i will jsut keep lookinga t your pic and sobbing quietly in the corner.
good effort...:thumb

Come across the border mate we'll help ya put a water pumper in a VW 😀😀

hey BB would i have to move permanently or would two weeks do. am up that was for hols 1st quarter next year.

gee whacked, where do i start...

Gearbox temp? no idea, it is just the stock kombi auto cooled by the fins on the torque converter - i havent altered the system at all. There is no external engine oil cooler- so far no need and something i would rather avoid. Engine water temp ranges b/n 90 and nearly 100, controlled by the ECU through the thermofan -never over 100 so far, even in traffic on hot days.
Filter is a pod and is located under the left ear snorkle so it gets cool air from there.
Oh yeah, and the engine lid is actually 2 std kombi lids welded together and it did take a while but it was soo worth it!!
you can do anything with a tig given time

A mate is sticking a volvo/renault/masserati style v6 in his bus. he is contemplating sticking the radiator in the back, but hasn't got far yet, not sure if there is room myself.

might try to post some pics on the forum when he gets somewhere.

hope that is all your questions answered

Col

normally i would say 2 weeks is a bit ambitous - mine sure took alot longer, but i hear wes and brad a capable of working at some ridiculous rates.
still 2 weeks would have to be a new record...

What size fuel pump are you using and have you added a baffle plate to your tank or are you using a swirl pot?

twoguns wrote:hey BB would i have to move permanently or would two weeks do. am up that was for hols 1st quarter next year.

Two weeks is plenty... as lomg as you have the bits to bolt the engine to the box and keep it cool. Mounting it in a kombi would be a piece of piss. I suggest you find a type 3 rear hatch to wack in as well.
Having said that I must add I knwo nothing about winkles, but hell if it runs now then I am sure it will run just fine once again.
Might be worth your time to talk to some of teh winkle powered bus owners around.
At the end of the day putting it in the rear and the radiator in the rear or underneath is a piece of piss. 😀😀😀

Now if only I could get around to doing my own buggy :cry

Should also mention I am a type spastic 🙁🙁

Thanks Col.
I'm in the same boat as yourself (might look at relocating the radiator to the rear soon), at uni and not a lot of money to throw at the bus, I'm doing a bachelor of medical science at UNSW how about you.

:jesus

wacked1 wrote:I'm doing a bachelor of medical science at UNSW how about you.

I am in the last semester of a dual bachelor of environmental engineering / microbiology degree. Environmental eng. at uq is halfway between civil and chemical. I have specialised in water treatment, potable water production, wastewater treatment etc. but have very broad interests in biotech and bioprocess engineering.
Sometimes i do wish i chose mechanical eng, but i like what i do.

Col

yeah mechanical engineers are the best :thumb

So as an engineer these days do they make you guys get any practical experiance or do you still come out thinking if it works on paper it works. Oh by the way this is not a put down on the graduates but on the system itself.

You need to have 60days work experience by the end of the course, but that can be paper experience.

Since I have been out of Uni (1999) I've been to Hong Kong, Newcastle and Townsville work sites. I have more practical experience than my youthful looks would lead you to believe. 😀

Most companies will send you somewhere to get the experience. You need it to become a Chartered Professional Engineer anyway. Which I should be if I pulled my finger out and wrote my report instead of playing on these forums. 🙁

YEah, Mechanical Engineers are best 😀

obviously, no one ever told him that we get all the girls............ yeah right ! 🙂

Brad, the type 3 engine hatch is too narrow for the kombi opening (only by a couple inches), a double-kombi hatch like Col's is a better idea. 🙂

You may find you'll have to stick a oil cooler on you auto.....I know of a few 2.2 converted Vanagons that blew the transaxles climbing those big ass ROCKY Mountains! I think (don't quote me) the transaxle in T3's are more or less the same as TII's. If you need the infor on how to do it I can help you out...I have all the info from KEP in the US. Even tips on how to adjust the 'kickdown' on the later auto trans and how to convert an early one!

hey humpty,
sounds cool can you send the info to me at ron@wacked.com.au
thanks

yeah ditto here humpty,

my email is s369688@ student.uq.edu.au

my setup is relatively new and i am very cautiosly testing it, i would hate to fry my auto
are you running an auto on your svx vanagon??

5 speed manual for me all the way.....Same final drive as the 2.1 wasser. Hope it holds up...I know of a few 4 speeders bolted up to the SVX...Sofar so good!

As for the transaxle mod details...I only have hard copy...Have to scan it & email a pdf through...
That be ok?

humpty, thats fine by me.
thanks
wacked1
:jesus

would photocopy and postage be less hassle than scanning? are there a few or several pages?

Col

very nice work there Kol
I love the colour! Who did that for you?
Oh and I think you should call it
"the Doofasaurus"
Taking her to EarthCore this year?

Humpty you don't know or have any info on which part of the T3 Syncro trans. is the so often mentioned weak part of it do you?

Andy.

A little advise i got from a mechanic with loads of sub experience,
Always use genuine oil filters,thermostats and timing belts,he's had a lot of dramas with aftermarket belts
thermostat $26 retail
oil filter $18 retail
Love the conversion,are you running premium?

Azz,
she truly will be a Doofasaurus when i lift her up and stick some bigger 4x4 tyres on the back,
think paul's gonna do the same with his too.
Not too sure about earthcore this year - would be nice, but finances aren't too good at the moment, the kombi demands every cent i get - are you goin?

Hazet,

Premium ULP is what i use - I think the standard pump fuel in Japan has a higer octane that the australian, so all jap import engines should use premium or else they run a little lean

It's not that it runs lean, it just may knock on crap Australian fuel.

Japanese premium fuel is around 100 octane.

Australian unleaded is about 91 octane.

So if your running an import engine you should be running 98 octance BP ultimate.

Shell Optimax is also 98. All the others in Aust, or at least NSW have 95 octane as their premium fuel. From memory, more recently Japan has 98 as their regular (vs Aust 91), with some of their more exotic fuels getting up to 106.

curious as to how this is running inthe warmer temps?

I was running warm through the 110 stretches on the highway, but I swapped the vn radiator for a larger EL falcon unit with overflow bottle recently, and that has helped alot,
but i still cannot run with the fluted tailgate i made on, because it restricts the flow a too much. I plan to make another tailgate with mesh welded into it instead of fluted sheetmetal.

The Kombaru will be at DUBS by the PUB this weekend if your headin up. can chat there if you like

Col

unfortunately im not, so i will have to catch it another time. am tossing something like this (well have been for a while) and i have a new project that i think i could fit it into?!?!?

how is your sump mod going ?