The Subabeetle project

OK well i guess its about time i pulled my finger out and started a thread on the conversion
ive already started one on VWKD awhile back but have been very slack keeping it updated so most of this is just copied and pasted from it
for those that dont know yet im putting an subaru EJ22 in my beetle and im one of these people who likes to do alot of research on things before i start especially something as big as an engine conversion
and i found that while plenty of people have done this and made threads about their car noone has really done an indepth thread showing whats involved from go to whoa so ive decided to do that for people that are maybe considering this conversion in the future
i'm an ex photography student so be warned you will be bombarded with photos but i find most interested parties generally like it this way anyway

Just a quick project overview without trying to bore people to much.

ive wanted to subi power a vw for a long time, i fell inlove with the idea after a local put an EJ20T in his superbug convertable back in the mid 90s
I do love VW motors, ive grown up with them and have knocked that many toghether over the years i could do it in my sleep.
i had planned on always keeping my Lbug pretty well standard and VW powered so in 2001 i bought my 70 beetle which already had already been fitted with a mazda rotary and was going to swap it over to an EJ20T as it was already setup for water cooled engine
well that worked...... i sold the car last year cos after nearly 8 years taking up valuable garage realestate i had only got as far as fixing the body and giving it a quick paintjob cos i was too busy always doing something to the Lbug and various other VW projects i dragged home
i hadnt ever given any thought to converting the Lbug, being an unmolested car i never had the heart to cut it up or do anything that was irreversable
but then i started looking into new 2 projects - Fuel injection and Air conditioning
looking at off the shelf EFI kits starting at $3k and even building up myself a junkyard kit wouldnt have left much change out of $1.5k, and mounting a compressor and setting up belts and pulleys on a vw was a hassle id already been thro once already setting up the supercharger so i wasnt sure what direction to take but i definately wanted to step into the 21st century and get away from carbs
after almost 10 years ownership i realised i would never sell it and should just make it into what i really wanted so all of a sudden a Subaru conversion was looking more and more attractive

i wasnt actively looking for a subaru engine, i was happy enough with my 1776 which is only 4500kms old for the time being but a guy i know locally had just bought a Liberty only to get a few parts from for his and the car was just sitting on his front lawn so i jokingly made him an offer and to my surprise he accepted
it had been a well maintiained old ladys car untill some kids decided to use the roof as a trampoline
it was still complete and drivable so not only could i see the engine running i was actually able to take it for a good drive
that was all it took to convince me, it ran like clockwork, none of the usual subaru lifter clacking or shaking around, the oil and coolant were nice and clean and the sticker on the firewall showed the timing belt was done only 3 years ago with a quality Dayco belt and best of all no oil leaks from the engine, only abit of auto trans oil around the back of the engine and a bit of residual shit around the rocker covers
I was told it didnt use any oil either but we'll see, it certainly didnt blow any smoke

for people considering going down this route the best advice i can offer is if you have the room and resources get a donor car as apposed to buying the engine and bits
main reasons are: everything matches. Subaru changed things on a yearly basis particularly ECUs and more often than not parts are not compatible
ive heard horror stories of people buying engines from a wrecker and the loom has been taken from another vehicle and doesnt match the engine
there are also lots of small fiddly parts seprate to the engine that are needed but can easily be missed

it often works out cheaper to, a whole running car can be bought rusted or damaged for as little as $400
you may pay around $1k just for an engine and loom from a wrecker that u cant hear running and maybe a mis match to, plus compression test figures can be fudged
pulling the engine out isnt real difficult but the wiring is a big job and also very delicate and time consuming, wreckers have bad habits of just cutting wires and breaking things being rough with them etc
and you can also recoupe costs selling off uneeded stuff from the car and maybe get some cash for scrap with the shell

I went the EJ22 for a number of reasons, the main one was fit
theyre almost identical in dimensions to a 1600 so theres no body cutting needed except for 2 minor sections of the seal lip cut off the valance in either corner to clear the timing belt covers
you can even leave the valance attached and a few people do but its no biggy to remove and acutally makes life a hell of a lot easier, even with vw motors
the quad cam motors like EJ20T need basically the whole bumper mount area of the innergaurds removed to fit which i wasnt prepared to do
you need to move the gearbox forward 2" unless you want to cut whopping great holes in the valance, gaurds and decklid for the timing belt covers to stick out which totally looks like ass and i dont think engineers would be real impressed by it either plus the rear firewall and parcel shelf area need cutting out for turbo and charge cooler fitting
Ian was telling me at warwick his bug is getting incredibly hot inside from the heat of the turbo sitting in the parcel tray area
theres also significantly more cost involved and they love eating gearboxes, a gearbox to handle the power would cost more than my entire EJ22 conversion will
yes, an EJ20T would have been nice but my bugs a cruiser not a race car and in my case the cons out weighted the pros

EJ22 are widely regarded as the most bullet proof subaru motors, they easily make 300,000 to 400,000KMs with no attention
theyre very common, from 89 to 98 they were used in libertys and the engine itself was unchanged in that time so can be swapped.
only minor details like single port exhaust outlets which i think started with OBDII in 95ish which just means another exhust is needed and the change from hydraulic lifters which is only an internal difference
cos of this there cheap too, replacement engines can be picked up easily from $500 and low KM jap import motors are cheap to
and power, 100KW standard with plenty of scope for improvement and a low boost turbo setup would make for one torquey engine
theres a turbo EJ22 bug getting around VWKD thats allegedly got 300hp
i have looked into putting one of my blowers on, someone on aus subaru has fitted an SC12 on an EJ22 but in a bug there just isnt room to do it
other things like already fitted with A/C compressor, high output alternator, full self diagnostics and far smoother and quieter than VW motors will ever be are just bonuses

I also want this conversion to be nice and neat to, not something that looks like a bunch of junkyard parts slapped in the arse of a bug in someones backyard after to many beers

Stripping the Donor

one nice sunny day back in march (I've forgotten what those are like) i went back up and we stripped the donor liberty of all required parts.
i must have been to full of excitement (or dread) cos i forgot to take my camera with me, which im really quite shitty about cos its one of the most important parts knowing what to take and how to remove it
engines come out fairly easily just unplugging a couple of electrical connections, fuel lines, radiator/heater, AC and power steering hoses, throttle and cruise control crap and the lower cross member mounts oh yeah and exhaust system
then just remove all the bell housing bolts to remove the engine
however he had a nice shiny new engine crane so we took the engine and gearbox out as one which ended up a god send as when we got it down on the deck and unbolted they were well and truely stuck toghether
i dont think they'd ever been separated before and it turned out the culprit was a little locating lug on the side of the bellhousing so getting them apart still in the car would have been a nightmare
after lots of swearing, WD40 and gentle prying with a screw driver they came apart
it wasnt much extra work doing it this way, just d/c the front CVs, rear tail shaft, linkage thing and a few other mounts and electrical
that was all pretty straight forward.



The Engine as removed



along with the engine here are some of the other critical parts to get from the engine bay
these are all parts that more often that not arent included when an engine is bought seprately

Air box with Air Flow Meter


altho the only part thats required is the actual AFM


Ignitor which is mounted on the center of the firewall


charcoal canister with mounting bracket and the little non return valve. this isnt needed for the engine to run but is required for emissions purposes


i also grabbed the fuel filter mount and all the A/C parts even tho i would be replacing the drier, hoses and the condensor has seen better days



OK the loom-o-doom.....
here was where pics are really needed, its removal was epic to say the least, its a good 5hours plus work
i'd read about its removal on US sites but turns out RHD cars are worse yet again
only the left gaurd on LHD cars has to come off but with RHD its both front gaurds needed removing and the ENTIRE bloody dashboard
then the main engine loom goes thro the firewall right down behind the heatercore and A/C evap which meant they need removing to


there were 4 main looms in this liberty and im assuming most subis are the same
i kept 3 of them:


the critical one, the main engine management loom:


parts in the top right corner are all redundant equipment like the cruise control brain and pump, auto tranny brain, duty resistor etc
the ECU, fuel pump, ignition and fan relays etc were all part of it and were mounted behind the dash, it sent 2 looms to the engine bay, one thro the middle of the firewall and another under the Left front gaurd


this was the other main loom,


i didnt really know it at the time but it doesnt actually have any engine related parts except for the alternator connections which could just be cut off it so it probably could have been left in the car which wouldnt have required the right gaurd removed
it has the main fusebox under the bonnet with a big loom feeding all the lights, fans, indicators etc then goes under the Right front gaurd into the car and has the main interior fuse box
there was another loom that run back to the rear of the car obviously for all the rear lights, fuel pump, speakers etc, so i just left that in the car



and finally this is the dash loom


i only grabbed this as i kept the liberty dash cluster which i was thinking of grafting into one of the Lbug dashes i have laying around
As i wanted to adapt the A/C system it had all the controls for it and lots of outlet vents, plus other things like electric mirror controls, fog-lights, demister and hazard switch and the speedo has a built in Vehicle Speed Sensor which the ECU needs
but also my donor car being auto you can see it has the ugly P for pass, D for drag, R for race, etc icons down the middle which means i would want another from a manual


so for now i gave up on that idea, plus ive already got a full range of gauges in my bug anyway
but Neil on VWKD did this with his split and it does look awesome


subaru parts network can be frustrating trying to order parts thro
their systems work off VIN numbers so if you dont have that its quite often you'll get- computer says nooooo......
so if possible record the VIN number of the donor
i took the lazy way and just kept the compliance plate off mine
im sure they'll look at me crossed eyed when they ask for the vin and i hand them the compliance plate

So with all the donor parts sitting in the garage i decided not to jump in too quickly and instead begin planning out the conversion and start gathering parts

i got one of seagulls new 200mm adapter kits (thanks again mate)
the aftermarket clutch scene is alot better for 200mm type1s than the 215mm type4 clutches that alot of them use
also i already had a HD clutch on my 1776 i wanted to reuse as it was only 4500kms old

Ebay and various car forums have been invaluable for buying parts at really good prices

the donor rad was there but i found that it was just to wide to fit neatly in the Lbug spare wheel well so i began looking for replacements.
brad used the EJ22 rad in his Lbug but it sat up very high, i still wanted room to chuck a spare tyre in if needed.
on a front mounted rad, with metal lines under the car you get free cooling thro conduction so the rad doesnt have to be as big, also the long lines from engine to front gives increase coolant capacity

i spoke to simons (humpty) brother mark, hes got a notch that has an EJ20T thats been in for something like 10 years and his rad...... a tiny little thing from an early model honda civic
Even in 40c WA summers it has never over heated, he also puts it down to the conduction thro metal pipes

I ended up getting this one which has been reconditioned and in execellent nick off ebay for only $20


its from a B6 mazda engine so its fairly common and is perfect size for a Lbug wheel well and the hose spigots are also right size
i tried to show the scale against a 17" rim and tyre
it also has a sender in the bottom for cycling the fan on and off as the temp gets up
EJ motors have a sender in the coolant manifold that switches on the fan and many use and swear by this
all well and good but my take on it is the water coming out of the engine will be hot yes, so the computer turns the fan on.
by the time its run thro the pipes up to the front its shed a bit of heat, then going down thro the radiators sheds most of the heat then back to the engine even more heat gone
so i can see potential for the ECU to be over cooling it and the thermostat constantly opening and shutting
by using this sender instead if the coolant is still too hot coming out of the rad then it will turn the fan on so to my way of thinking the temp differential between leaving the engine and returning should be smaller but we shall see
Copper is one of the best conductors out there so ill probably run my lines in that plus its so easy to work with
its an expensive option which is why radiators arent made from it anymore but i worked for years in the the refrigeration game ages ago and can get it cheap thro old work contacts

Ive also got a brand new 14" thermo fan that was bought for the roof top A/C condensor on one of the tractors after i took out a low branch and smashed one of the blades off


i had an aluminuim header tank and surge tank tigged up by bloke up the coast who does great work at very good prices
as well you can see the new rad cap and some of the 3" silicon hoses for the intake i got


genuine Bosch VL turbo fuel pump for $51


brand new pod filter for $12


this is the fan belt needed when the powersteering pump is removed


lots of EFI hose


i did get the header and cat from the donor but they really are a shitty design and as i would be making a custom system up i prefered a better starting point
so i picked up a stock EJ20 forester/imprezza header
you can see it on the left is much better basis to build something from than the stock EJ22 obscenity
ppl have made good systems for bugs using the EJ22 header but i was after something abit more elegant and better flowing


so i was gonna need a cat as the EJ20 header didnt come with one
i got this hi-flow catco one brand new off ebay for $50
i checked up on the catco US site and its worth $279US new so im cheering on that

The Little EJ chariot

Before i started doing anything to the engine i needed to make it easily movable so one of my first tasks was to make an engine trolley
EJ22s are only supposed to be 25kg heavier than a 1600.......
i may have a rooted back but i can still manhandle a 1600 up onto the work bench
but this bloody thing.... i nearly had a hernia lifting it off the trailer with the old man
taking off the powersteering pump and A/C compresser shed abit of weight but it was still a heavy little f'ker

me being a stereotypical farmer means im a shocking hoarder of all things unvalueable especially scrap metal
but times like now it really pays off
"Little Red" here was a birthday present from my grandparents a long time ago.


After 14 years of faithfull service it stopped getting it up so to speak but i never chucked it out
so it went under the grinder and very kindly donated its wheels
also an old farm gate and some scrap RHS resulted in a height adjustable trolley that can move the engine around with enough room for "Big Red" to get under the sump and lift it up
the height adjustable stands sit under the exhaust ports

Fitting the Adapter kit

as my engine came from an auto meant it had this big ugly torque converter on the back
theres 4 bolts holding it to the flex plate
these face the engine so theyre acessed thro a hole in the crank case on the top left which has a rubber plug over it
you can see here the plug sitting on top of the torque converter and a 14mm ring spanner was the only tool that would get down there without ripping off the intake manifold


with the 4 bolts out the torque converter is just pulled off the crank
be aware it maybe full of auto trans fluid

with it gone i was left with just the flex plate bolted to the crank
its easily removed by undoing the 8 bolts
i locked it from turning by sticking 2 large screwdrivers thro the holes in the case that line up with holes in the flex plate


and gone


in the circles you can see on the left is the locating lug
the one of the right was the little bastard that stuck the engine and trans together and i didnt notice at the time but it must have stayed in the tranny.
im not overly concerned, youll see why when i bolt on the adapter plate but they're the same on all EJ motors and even the EG has the same ones as well


at this point i was fairly chuffed with a few things
as you can see the crank seal is bone dry no leaking and its also a brown OEM one
the subaru world has the same problem as VWs with inferior quality aftermarket seals out there (coloured black like shitty brazillian ones for vws)
also the oil separator (big plate inside the bellhousing) is metal and not leaking either
alot of models had a plastic one which leaks badly and can go brittle with age
this is also the case with the thermostat housing, some of them where made of plastic but luckily mines a metal one.
i think the added weight of long coolant lines connected to them could cause a problem with plastic versions
i did notice too that this engine shows all the signs of never being frigged with
the factory sealing paint is still undisturbed on all the adjuster screws for the throttle adjustments, idle control valve, throttle position sensor etc
my poor engine is abit dirty in couple of spots tho
the bellhousing has a bit of nasty stinky ATF around the bottom, the powersteering pump has leaked abit where i disconnected it and has left residue in that area and all down that side of the sump and the rocker cover areas are a bit weepy but all in all im more than happy

the bottom 2 engine studs needed to come out
that was easy as just locking to nuts together and unscrewing them out
it seems nearly all of the threads with the engine are 1.25 pitch
which isnt handy when nearly all VW is 1.5pitch
i got caught out with the flywheel bolts too,
seagull told me to use the stock subi bolts as they're very strong
problem tho is the bolts for a flex plate are alot shorter and wont dont stick thro even far enough to get started.
No worries i just went to the bolt shop and got some nice new high tensile bolts to do the job
Problem..... the subi bolts have a round shoulder on them and a little 14mm head, the aftermarket bolts i got had bigger 16mm heads and would do the job fine but i couldnt get a 16mm socket down the flywheel bores to get them done up
that was solved by going and seeing Bernie at subi village and getting some manual EJ bolts

the adapter plate came with cut outs for the 2 locating lugs
but i hit on an idea thanks to my missing one
as an extra bit of insurance i put bolts thro them as to help bolt the adapter plate to the engine as even tho it only had 4 bolts like a vw its 25kg heavier



you will have to excuse this shitty pic as it was late one night in the middle of the floods we were having and it was cold and miserable and my camera lense was obviously fogged up.
I didnt take as many pics as i meant to, not that theres much to it,
adapter bolted up, followed by the flywheel then clutch went on like a normal vw and clutch plate aligned with an old input shaft, something every VW tinkerers should own if they dont have a purpose made alignment tool

Removing the Valance

this was a job ive been planning on doing for a long time even if i hadnt gone the subaru conversion
my black beetle had the valance removed and was fitted with one of John Shermans at volksconversions fibreglass ones which are just a mould of a factory 75 onwards EFI type with no peashooter cutouts,
it made engine installation and removal so much easier and faster, i was able just roll a vw motor straight in on a trolley jack and bolt it up without even jacking the bug up, it also meant that extractors, heater hoses and breastplate didnt even need to come off as per normal removal and also with stock metal ones the gen pulley nuts and vac advance cans cans just love catching on them and ripping up the seal in the great drop down
heres a couple of pics just showing how it looks and the fit






so when i saw john last i grabbed another off him
by this time i'd dropped my 1776 engine out as removing the valance is something that cant be done with the engine in
i have seen ppl fit EJ22 motors with the valance left in place but from what i can see the only way you would have enough clearance to get the engine to clear it on installation would be remove the timng belt covers and take off the 2 cam gears and even then before it could be done requires some trimming of the seal lip in either corner for clearance
first things needed doing are removing the back bumper, brackets and both rear gaurds

cleaning up the flange down the gaurd mounting surface shows up all the spot welds


with a 4mm drill bit i started drilling out the welds trying not go all the way thro but it was inevitable that it would happen on a few
theres no pattern to the welds, it totally random and all over the place, u can also see in the first pic theres a tack weld right near the top, the other side didnt have this yet its the original valance thats never been worked on
there was also a few spot welds around the decklid rubber area but again only on the left side, guess the apprentice must have done the right side.....



inside the engine bay theres a long tack weld that needs grinding off just below the engine bay seal lip and more spot welds up the inside flange


once all those are broken it should slightly break loose


last thing left to do is cut thro the welds on the seal area
john told me to use a hack saw and i gave that ago but it wasnt quite cutting it so to speak
so out came mr grinder with one of those really thin wafer wheels and made light work of it


and now go thro all that again on the otherside and with some wriggling, grunting and swearing it should come free


once the gaurds are back johns valance is just aligned with the decklid and bottom line of the gaurds then holes are drilled thro it so that the bottom 2 gaurd bolts hold it in place

a quick dummy fit

Trial Fit

so it was time to put the little chariot and big red to work
engine slid staight thro the old valances domain and straight into position like it meant to be there




i quickly nipped up the nuts and ran into a problem most ppl in this situation face
the mounting bolts holdign the adapter plate to the engine were hitting the gearbox mounts and stopping the engine from pulling up flush


ive swapped my gearbox cradle and mounts for the earlier pre 72 type as there a much better and stronger design so i dont know if this would be an issue if i still had the cruddy late model parts but it was easy fixed,
out it came and a big drill bit (think it was 3/4") just chewed out a abit of rubber
not much at all, wasnt even the depth of the bolt heads but enough that when i tried again the engine pulled up flush beautifully

dropping it down off the jack soon revealed why shortened sumps are necessary with subi engines


my bug isnt exaclty a ground scrapper but it is fairly low
somehow part of one of my old engine cases snapped off once where the tinware sleds mount bottoming out and ive destoyed plenty of exhausts over the years,

ive tweaked the torsion bars that many times that its somewhere between a 1 and 2 spline drop, around 3.5" lower than stock so ive established i may need to lift it back up abit even with a shortened sump

Back up ontop all looked pretty good
the throttle body was hard up against the firewall


some people cut away the firewall for clearance but i plan on making up an elbow to mount it like this so the firewall remains untouched


the stock oil filler was sticking up just abit to high for the decklid to close, also easily fixed just by shortening it


putting the stock valance back on also showed where the slight bit of trimming was needed for the timing belt covers to clear




after seeing how well the stock valance fitted i've decided to modify it to clear the covers and bolt in place same as johns would have
i dont want to alter the cars appearance to much and also ive come up with an exhaust design that will have to outlets that will exit the cutouts same as stock
im not sure how the strength would be affected of the fibreglass one with 2 big cutouts added,
black bug had only one cut out and i wondered about its how good its strength was, you can see in the pic of it a tiny crack line going up from it

i had originally planned on chopping down the loom myself
ive been messing around with auto electrics for the best part of 15 years plus working at a couple of car audio/air conditioning places has given me pretty good knowledge of it all

however stripping down the loom, tracing all the wires, discarding the unused stuff, shortening and lengthening various wires then rewrapping it and tidying it all up was gonna make $250 money well spent to have Al at AM auto do it for me
even someone wiht my experience in auto electrics doing this for the first time i reckon would take a minimum of 15-20 hours which is just something i cant face going thro at the moment

great thread Joel!
tagging along

Any pics on how you mount valance back on?

havnet got that far yet

will be pretty simple tho
where the cutouts are to go around the 2 gaurd bolts ill weld in some sheet metal with holes thro to pick up the guard bolts

and also the flat flange in the engine bay i will reinforce and put some bolts thro the inner gaurd

that should keep it firmly in place

Nice work Joel. Looks like a good fit, not too much cutting. Can you reverse the inlet to face the rear and avoid the elbow ? Im sure I have seen it done before.

Awesome read. Will have some questions for you if we go down this road. Hope you don't mind.
Cheers,
Scott

Lovin this thread and great work so far mate!
This should be a sticky.

Euro_67 wrote:Nice work Joel. Looks like a good fit, not too much cutting. Can you reverse the inlet to face the rear and avoid the elbow ? Im sure I have seen it done before.

yep sure can and i intend on doing that to as it dramatically tidys up the engine bay and also simplifies the coolant path

it was another point i forgot to make
subarus are a like VW engines in that they're very symetrical

the 3 manifolds, exhaust, intake and coolant can all be flipped around to face the other way


Scott ask all the questions you like, thats the reason i started this thread

damn that sump is low! I'd be getting the thinnest one I could if I were you. CustomVeeDub make a very skinny sump. Be worth every dollar and I know they aren't that cheap. Coz if it's cheap it will leak. BTW, I agree with you re having the loom ct down by someone else. Best thing I did.

that wasnt even settled either just straight off the jack so it will probably drop another inch

initially i was gonna chop my sump down myself and add some wings to get some capacity back but im starting to think its alot less hassle to just get mine shortend by someone like COR or sharpbuilt, I think even Al might do the them

for those people that were interested in the removable valance, ive put it all back together with the valance sitting in position the gaurds clamped it in place when they were tightend down very firmly
if u diddnt notice the joint had been cut thro in the seal area next to the taillight it could pretty much pass for undisturbed



poor old girl hasnt been to a show since valla last year, i took the mainstreamer to warwick, actionday, goldcoast show, dubs by the pub and mardigrass
so i wanna take it to klubfest on sunday
people are starting to question its existance

Hi Joel

Don't give my son any ideas with your car.

When I fitted the Wasserboxer to my 1302 I kept the car running as long as I could before dropped the air cooler out, I fitted up the cooling system etc while still driving it around.

Steve

Loom is ready Joel. Give us a call tomorrow and we'll get it in the post.

now theres the best news i've heard all week

cheers Al
will give you a buzz tomorrow

1303Steve wrote:Hi Joel

Don't give my son any ideas with your car.

When I fitted the Wasserboxer to my 1302 I kept the car running as long as I could before dropped the air cooler out, I fitted up the cooling system etc while still driving it around.

Steve

I'm sure David's already been corrupted by fathers blue project in the garage 😂
i know i would be

im not gonna take the plunge and cut the wheel well till the rumble of a subaru boxer rattles the neighbours windows first

the bugs a fair weather toy so im not relying on it as a daily, otherwise i would do it the same way

Joel,

Why dont you rotate the complete intake around 180 degrees? I can email you a few pics of my 2.2 in the back of my ghia with the complete intake rotated 180.

flat_iv

like this???

Hi Mick
Is your intercooler bolted to your Fire wall? if so, are u not worried about the motor moving but the intercooler bolted solid thus putting strain on the intercooler piping & joints?
Juat a thought
regards
Jak

i must have been in noddy land when i answered waynes question the other day

the reason i didnt flip the intake is the A/C compressor is staying so the alt would need mounting on the left side where the powersteering pump was
which means a custom bracket would need fabbing up
abit more work than making a simple elbow for the TB

pretty simple brackets Joel...





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l

cover it up with the ironing board...





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leaves room in the middle for you know what...



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i like your thinking rob,
im thinking of the same project later on down the track


i really do have to say a huge thankyou to Al and Miles who did a fantastic job on my loom

it came back about 1/10th the size of what i sent to them all clearly labled with a nice simple instruction sheet

even on a shoe string budget i would still recommend it and anyone who did it themselves says for that money its well worth it

about a month ago a nice old bloke with a subi powered buggy came and checked out my bug as he also has an Lbug hes planning on converting. he had the whole engine swap inthe buggy done by Al and Miles and also speaks very highly of them

Miles sorted me on the rad fan wiring
its best of to use the ECU control, main reason being the computer Idles the engine up to compensate for the load of running the fan.

on the subject of radiators i meant to say earlier in the thread i found when trying to find a rad that fitted theres a few sellers that give the core dimensions and outlet sizes on ebay which is really handy, thats how i found that my mazda rad would be the perfect size:



this is the stock ej22 lib rad, you can see how the core alone is another 100mm wider and the end tanks are on the sides not top and bottom which would add another 100mm as well so thats why it was just to wide for my application



most people would think the B6 rad is too small but thing to remember is 6Meters worth of copper lines under the bug in road draft are gonna shed nearly as much heat as what the rad will

most ppl that fit big rads have over cooling probs

Yeah then sizes should be OK as my EJ20T bug Radiator is
600 x 360 x 16 cross flow with custom side tanks so that the hose fitting are in the best spot
One little fan in centre of radiator that comes on when the computer tells it to 😂

The Intake

well yet another pouring wet weekend down here in sunny australia...... :smt022
the old man says its real pommy weather.... so if any of you are planning a nice trip here to aus to escape it might as well stay at home :smt016
i should be happy gives me a break from working so thought i'd get stuck back into DUB74L

i wanted to start on the intake
as posted earlier in the thread in the stock position the throttle body is hard up against the firewall and i wasnt cutting my firewall away to clear it
doing that would also mean fabbing a box into the firewall around it and building a new subwoofer enclosure so meh to all that
easier to either A. spin the intake manifold around as some have said above or B. make a throttle body elbow
this was the easier option for me as flipping the manifold means making custom alt brackets, rewiring the injectors, coolant sensors, etc oh and finding a belt the right lenght considering ive just spent $28 on a belt to fit the alt in the stock position made the choice easier

Custom offroad here in aus make a nice looking throttle body inverter at a good price too
its an easy option, the only reason i didnt go this way was their inverter is a full 180degree, i only wanted 90 as it makes for less visual clutter without intake plumbing sitting on top of the engine
i assume they do it this way so theres clearance under bus engine hatches and buggy bodys

so first thing i did was got a 2.5" 90 degree mandrel bend from the zorst shop
thats the exact size of the of the intake and TB once you remove it
i cut out a template of the bend from some scrap MDF i had so i could keep trimming it till i got a shape i was happy with rather than play guess work with the bend and risk ruining it by cutting to much



it was just a matter of cutting out flanges in 1/4" plate using the old gasket as template and welding it all together
i also ran a quick bead of JB weld over the top of the joints just incase there were any tiny pin holes i couldnt see




it bolted up nicely with enough clearance for eveything and plenty of room for the TPS plug to fit on despite how close it looks to the firewall in this pic




with that out of the way i needed to sort out the rest of the intake
this is the stock subaru donkey dick that goes between the TB and the AFM



it has a big port on the right side of the accordian section which is the the connection for the Idle Air Control valve
the ECU uses this to control the idle speed so it kinda needs to be there

all the smaller ports on the left are just all the PCV breather connectors, one for the case and 2 for the rocker covers
im not overly worried about these as i would prefer to keep the case fumes out of the intake and illl probably just run the bug pack breather box from my 1776 same setup as per a vw engine

my original plan was out of the throttle body a 3" 135* silicon hose, then a 3" 45* metal bend into which i was going to weld a spigot for the IAC hose
then a straight 3" silicon hose joing the 45* to the AFM

i had all the silicon hoses already but hadnt done anything about the 45* bend with the IAC port yet
then i hit on the idea of just using part of the original subi donkey dick as it was made from very tough, thick plastic which already had the port in it, was the right diameter and as a bonus it was that close to a 45*
so out came the hack saw




i already had a pod filter but hadnt got an adapter yet just so happened that a PVC downpipe fitting laying around fitted nicely
this will only be a temporary measure untill i make or buy a proper metal one




so heres how my intake looked all put together less pod filter




i will have to do some shortening of the hoses to get it sitting perfectly but that will come later on
but for now im happy enough i know it will do the job with a bit of tweaking

The Exhaust

i had made a small start on the exhaust system a few weeks ago but hadnt exactly dont much

i got as far as stripping the EJ20 header of its heatshields




this is what i had roughly come up with in my head
Lukey mufflers make a short stubby little box with 2 outlets alot like badly photoshopped quietpack here




i knew id have to shorten the headers abit but when i bolted it to the engine i thought the collector directly under my diff probably wasnt a smart move


so it was back to the drawing board there but anyway i went those 2 headers needed shortening as they hung even lower than the sump
it would be a chance to straighten up the pipework coming out of the base
so i did a bit of marking......




and a bit of chopping




and ended up with something a bit more practical




and welding back together




not going to win any prizes for best looking headers but still welded alot better than any EMPI piece of crap on the market

like most engine conversions this will be a temporary exhauast system, eventually ill buy a nice stainless steel extractor system and mod it to suit the bug
but for now this one will do

thats as far as ive got with the zorst at the moment till i can get some more bends
ill move the collector over to the side of the gearbox so its not underneath it anymore

im thinking maybe a bigger box is gonna be needed tho cos with no resonator only a single box its gonna be very WRX style droany but ill just have to wait and see how bad it is before i worry to much

i also noticed while i was under there that my gearbox cradle is starting to get a slight bend in it
you can see from the pics ive already swapped to an earlier model gearbox cradle as they're just so much better built

i went hunting for another cradle just to replace mine and found another earlier one but i also found an original 73 on one as well just to show the problem
its not the one off my Lbug bug, i think its the one from my red 75.

the later cradel was blatantly obvious cost cutting on VWs part
there is absolutely no substance to it compared to the earlier ones
you can see how bent and warped it is which makes the engine sit at funny angles and just weakens the rear end
any decent motor with enough torque can do this, it certainly wasnt an abused bug.

Richard at Vforce sells an aftermarket one that is based on the original earlier ones but made even stronger again






the extra weight of the subi is gonna play hell with my chassis forks
i had planned on making my own brace up but have decided its not worth skimping on something so structural so im getting one of Craigs Kafer bars 😎

I spent this arvo getting my loom ready to install into the bug
Al and Miles had already been thro and removed all the redundant wires so all that was left for me to do was postion all the plugs where i wanted them and insulate it all with corrigated split loom
they sorted out the A/C wiring for me as well
using the ECU to control the compressor as per the stock subi setup is better as it makes the engine idle up a split second before the compressor clutch kicks in and also cuts the compressor out if you floor it or the engine gets to hot

now rather than go out and buy the 300 different sizes of corrigated loom required and only end up needing small amounts of each i instead salavaged it from the main wiring harness i pulled out of the donor as it was all there in good condition with lots of assorted sizes

In doing this i can honestly say to anyone who is going to do there own engine management harness you will spend a good 10 hours just unwrapping electrical tape
those Japs truely didnt skimp on electrical tape
not only is the outside of the corrigated loom all wrapped up, once you get that off then all the wires are wrapped in it as well....
its a sticky, messy, frustrating... C U Next Tuesday of a job that i'm just glad i missed the worst of
but under the guidence of Dweezle the tabby i got thro it



you can see how much electrical tape resulted from just removing a few bits of loom, the whole harness is still wrapped in the stuff

while i did that i also extracted the alternator connections which are a part of this harness
theres 2 of them but they join up into one loom.... the main B+ connector with rubber saftey boot and a round black and orange plug with 3 wires




i cut them off with a good meters worth of wiring as im just going to splice them into the old VW alternator connections thro a terminal strip on the firewall
that way incase of unusual circumstances requireing me to refit a vw engine it will be easy to reconnect the electrical side of things

now the connections for the subi alt are bit more complicated than a VW alt
its an internally regulated alt which is where the small yellow wire comes in
it needs to be connected to the ignition circuit as its as a switch wire to turn the internal regualtor on and off
Im going to use my old coil wire for this, it will flatten the battery real quick if its connected to an constant power source
the black wire with the white trace is the charge light connection
so it can just be spliced into the existing VW idiot light wire
and finally all the large white wires can be connected toghther, theyre the B+ so they connect to the cars main power supply
the subi used 2 connected to the main B+ terminal on the alternator and theres yet another one coming from the round plug as well

luckily the 2 B+ are seprate wires so i got rid of one and as my bug only needs one B+ wire coming from the alt im just going to solder the 2 remaining together at the alt end



Now apologies to people with small screens.....
heres my reward for spending a cold wet afternoon in a freezing garage




I hadnt actually given much thought yet to the ECU/relays placement
most bug engine conversions just place them in the rear parcel tray area
problem in my bug is my subwoofer enclosure takes up the entire area and given that its the 4th box ive made i really dont feel like redesigning and making yet another
under the back seat on the left is the next nearest area
altho thats currently occupied by my 2nd battery



i can live without that tho
its just a leisure battery setup same as used in campervans cept mine runs my audio system at sound offs and shows so it can be run completely flat without running the main battery flat and it charges once the engines started

i'll get rid of it and make up a board to mount the ECU, relays, connectors etc like this to sit in the batterys place




im also going to mount the ignitor there as well
subarus have the ignitor mounted on the firewall in the engine bay but i'd like to keep it inside the car away from the elements
most of the vanagon mob that do EJ conversions all mount there ignitors in with ECU and ive yet to hear about anyone having dramas

Joel, they can mount bumpers too!

Enjoying the thread, looking good mate 👍

mate, my ignitor is on the fire wall in all the elements and has never had a drama. the plug has a rubber seal on it so all is good. also, I've heard the ignitor gets a bit hot, so putting it in a spot where it will get air flow is better than inside the car probably.

btw, those factory headers are very strong. I've bashed mine on rocks and everythign and the sheilds have dings but that's all. I do wonder how well they flow?

This is a great thread. Excellent info in here for anyone wanting to do a conversion. Great job Joel.👍

btw, those factory headers are very strong. I've bashed mine on rocks and everythign and the sheilds have dings but that's all. I do wonder how well they flow? [/quote]


Pete on the standard EJ22 they work very well providing good low torque. I built custom equal length headers which rev very freely but lost some of that bottom end...oh well can't have everything🙅

ill give the ignitor a go there and just see how hot it gets
as i mentioned b4 the subaru vanagon guys are boxing them into cabinants and containers with no probs yet so hopefully should be ok

before i had the slave battery there one of my amps was there and the heat that comes off them when u really work them is pretty intense

the guy i got my EJ20 header from had just switched it for a borla replica style staino header
he actullly noticed a drop in power right up till the higher rev range but didnt care as he just wanted the boxer rumble

Joel you might have noticed when you cut those headers they narrow down to about 28mm obviously for a good reason. I made my headers from some old water pipe i had lying around about 1 5/8 ID and its a bit big for the NA EJ22 in the heavier kombi but would probably work better in a beetle. I reckon 1 3/8 equal length would be perfect👍

yea i noticed the original EJ22 header off the donor really tapers down in the bottom
but the EJ20 header i got doesnt do it half as much

i reckon i could make an alright equal lenght 4into1 header up if i didnt have to run a cat

Hi

Silly question, would a WRX header bolt up to your heads, the flange looks similar.

Is there a mark on the stock headers where they miss match the head outlet? WRX headers are like this and apparently a bit of porting really helps there.

Steve

Hi Steve,

yea there is a mark but the gaskets have holes about 10mm bigger than the head and header so that doesnt help

yup the WRX headers do fit and a few people have gone that way with EJ22 engines. only reason i didnt is the headers look as though they are cast so cant be easily cut and shut shorter

good thing about EJ motors nearly all have the same zorst port flanges
only exception seems to be OBDII EJ22 which have single ports



well i was hoping for a start up this weekend
instead it has to go on the back burner for a littler while

isnt it just typical.......
you turn your back for 2 seconds and a sick and injured vw will appear in the garage



got a mates Sbug for a couple of weeks with a shitload of work to be done, my new other new car ive just bought needs some small jobs done before i wanna drive it and my mainstreamer has 11 days of rego left and i still need to legalise a few mods to get thro pinkslip

yeesh never ends with frigging cars.....

on a positive note tho i did make a start on brain central
As i mentioned earlier in the post im going to mount the ECU under the back seat where my second battery was.
as im not using the stock heater outlets it made sense to get rid of the heater junction pipe as its dead weight and taking up alot of space
and once its gone the bakolite tube mount thingy will be perfect for the loom to come into the car from the engine

now theres a fun job...
the bakolite housings need to be unbolted to get the junction pipe out

the bolts for them are in some nice little hard to reach places behind the torsion bar housings



not only that they can only be losened off not removed without lifting the body off the floor pan

so heres my board with ECU mounted and terminal strips for all the wire connections
i still need to make a rack for the relays



sits nicely in the floor pan
i also worked out once the VW regulator is gone the mounting holes for it are perfect for the ignitor bracket

regulators get pretty hot so i have no issues mounting the ignitor there

Who are you Joel2? Are you an alien that's taken over the body of Joel?

yea im the new improved better lookign version 😂

AVD is playing games with my profiles

which reminds me VWCOOL i cant read your PM

can you email me boosted_bug at yahoo dot com

cheers

Joel , make sure you run a few good earths while your doing that wiring.

cheers Neil,

i had a quick talk to Al about earths, hes got me all sorted

Well I guess people may have noticed the lack of activity in this thread
classic Joel tradition.... with the end almost insight i lost motivation
mainly cos i got a new toy/pet project that ive been too busy driving and tinkering with.
its not a vw so i wont go into details but if people wanna hazard a guess think 2 door hardtop coupe from the mid 90s class of "Orphaned Performers"

Ive also been stuck working on everyone elses cars so when i got a free moment working on mine was the last thing i felt like
and being upto the hard part of the cooling system was making it hard to get motivated

but i had a good look over Brads Orange Lbug this morning for some rad mounting and coolant line ideas which has re-kindelled my interest
so with a few spare hours this weekend i got back into and finished off my exhaust

Also a few weeks ago my Craigy bar turned up



i was too lazy to drop the gearbox so i just supported it with the jack and took the cradle off.
this allowed me to shuffle it to the sides enough to weld the back brackets



front ones are easy enough



and yes the underneath of my cars are filthy, its pissing into the wind trying to keep them clean
according to GPS and the car odometers its 0.8km from the farms front gate upto the shed which for the last 6 months has resembled a colin macrae mud stage more than a driveway


while i had the cradle off i took the opprtunity to swap it over as it was starting to get a bit bent with this much straighter one



formerly at home holding the engine and gearbox into a late 50s splitty i hope it doesnt feel inadequate now
my current bananna mounts werent in bad shape, i replaced them in 1998 and they had a bit of life left but it was the perfect oppertunity to replace them
and they're only $14 each
i use german OEM ones as ive tried the pretty red poly ones before and dont like them


now back to the zorst
i had already cut down the manifolds over a month ago but thats as far as i got
so heres what the EJ20 header looks like cut up and welded back together



i was pretty happy with how it fitted, it got the collector out from under the diff and didnt hang down to much



from the collector i wanted to run it in 2.25" with mandrel bends
so i got a 45degree out of the collector into the cat
i also welded a bung into this for the o2 sensor



a small amout of body trimming was needed to keep the cat outlet up nice and high



a 90 degree mandrel bend out of the cat and i could stick on whatever muffler i wanted



for now ive just welded on one of the staino cannons ive got lying around
just needs a dump pipe on it now
i doubt this will stay permanant as when it was on my celica everyone moaned about it being to deep and hurting your ears.
we'll see how it sounds first



im happy with the overall result
it doenst hang down too low or stand out at all
unless you get down on your hands and knees you wouldnt notice anythings any different





so all i have to do now is finish hooking up the rest of the electrical, run some coolant lines, mount the rad and fit a shortened sump

everyone i speak to involved with subi dubs says fit a Custom veedub sump, and after seeing a few im impressed
Brad showed me his alloy Bug@5Speed sump and they look neat but it only gave less the 2" raise is no good to me anyway
COR is good for 85mm and i need every bit i can get with my bug

i got a spare sump and pickup from the boys over at subi-village ready to send to be shortened

forgot to add you can see in that last pic ive done the trimming to my valance so it clears timing belt covers and sits down properly

i went totally overkill with what i cut off but as they say you can never have to much overkill

Hi Joel

Looking good, will it be on the road in 2 weeks?

I'm working flat out on the sons bug getting it back on the road.

Steve

quite possibly

but im not real keen on the idea of its first trip being 200kms from home till its been thoroughly soak tested .
ill see how things pans out

Hey Joel you are going great👍 yes lots of short trips to see what leaks etc...i had trouble with coolant hoses blowing off...with the radiator at the front the thermostat didn't open so too much heat and pressure...answer? no thermostat...heheh... better than cooking an engine😁

yeah the cooling system is my biggest concern
i was originaly thinking of going with one of those remote BMW/rover external thermostats on the hot side but a good chat with brad got me sorted

the subi setup with the bypass working correctly works fine even with the the extra looooooooooong coolant pipe runs

what are u usiung for coolant lines rob?

the main issue with no 'stat is the ecu uses coolant temp to dictate cold start enrichment to a degree

Hi

No worries Joel hope you can make it, its sucks going to VW events without a VW.

Give all your hoses a good re-tighten after the car warms up a few times, they will usually take a few turns.

The Subi thermostat is a 2 stage unit, so they cant be removed, just make sure your header tank is as high as possible.

Steve

yeah i should really have the thermostat back in for winter perhaps with some holes drilled in it...by the time i get around to it will be summer👍 coolant lines...heheh i had some 38mm stainless "lying around" and bought a couple of metres of pressure hose from the local hose shop for $20 or $25/m...had to flare the end of the pipes to stop the hose popping off😬

What's this silly testing close to home talk. I drove my V6 Baja to Fraser Island not long after the conversion. Sure it would have been more convenient to be close to home instead of Fraser Island when I found out the cheap brand of kombi clutch plate will explode at 8000rpm, but it wouldn't have been the same exciting experience. Luckily the fragments jammed between the pressure plate and flywheel causing it to be stuck engaged rather than disengaged. Driving home from the middle of Fraser stopping, starting and changing gears with what was like a broken clutch cable wasn't that bad! 🙂

This is agood thread was thinking of doing similar conversion

Hey joel,

i was wondering what gearbox you are running,

just stock Lbug
good thing about EJ22 is it wont break the gearbox any more than a modded VW engine

its the turbo motors that eat gearboxes

i can finally get stuck into this abit more often now as i finished harvest for this year on thursay which frees me up alittle

i must have been going soft driving around with a sick 1300 engine till it finally bit the dust on thursday

a drive in Daimos berg screamer and Ians VWRX (thanks again guys!) was the reminder i needed of how much fun a high power VW is

As a few people here already know the outcome of this weekend has probably changed the direction this project is heading thanks to me spending to much time in Ians bug and a little birdy whispering in my ear about an EJ20T that may be up for grabs

ill still finish the EJ22 off but it most likely wont be staying in for long

vvvrrrroooommmm -ppppchheeeeeee

hehe , yea your someone that now knows what im talking about 😉

Ians bug was a blast, can drive like a total stocker if you want it to then slam the noise pedal and it will quite literally throw you back in your seat

lets see how quickly i can burn out my stockpile of gearboxes 😂

seems we have the same box issue now too 🤪

maybe i need a swing axle bug

joshs 74 EJ20T bug has about 220hp at the wheels with a stock untouched gearbox that was almost out of oil and he doesnt exactly go easy on it 😂

this is true - see how lucky we get 🙂

i think we'll all be keeping Dave B gainfully employed for quite a while

haha well if you ever need to get rid of your EJ22.................... I'm sure nag power will bring dad over to my side sooner or later LOL

funnily enough i said the exact same thing to him on sunday

oh you know you only came to Sawtell to suck in all the bad influences on offer Joel.....thinking about turbo now hey 😏

At least this temptation is better than the last one you had 😉

anyone know what it means?



havent had a chance to do any research yet
but i'll bet a left testical its probably knock sensor as mine has some cracks through it

Means you're not running any boost 😂
Seriously though congratz on getting it going, sounds fullsick hectic.
Whats the metallic sound when it first starts up?

ah yeah thats a bit of an ongoing contentious issue
its my flywheel and starter motor having intimacy problems

it sounds alot better than my crappy mobile phone makes out

damn i really valued that left nut

FAULTS CODES:

13 Cam Position Sensor or Circuit (TDC Sensor on Justy)

whats funny was when i first turned the ignition on to prime the pumps it was giving the everythings fine and dandy flash
was only after i kicked it in the guts that it changed

mights have to check the plug hasnt come adrift.
it was a pain to get at, i really need to dump that stupid chrome louvered firewall

ditch the shiny bits, it makes the zorst look backyard style :lol

you be laughter cracking at my zorst?

rightly so, its terrible at the moment, still needs a dump pipe fitted and a stealth black paintjob

i was worried it was gonna be too loud so the staino cannon wasnt gonna be permanant but at idle its no different to a stock liberty
even revving its just like a mellow WRX

My light comes on all the time, I just drive the sucker. cause certain things don't stop the car its just for that emission stuff

cheers Ian, ill have a better look around it see if its just the plug or wiring not playing ball

anyway guess i better back track abit 😂
i havent actually worked on it for quite a while
still been flat out working and we had a death in the family recently so i spent a bit of time on it this weekend just to help keep my mind off things

obviuosly by the fact its now running ive got all my electrical in and hooked up

i think its a page back now, but i got my ECU mounted under the backseat opposite the battery along with various relays, fuses and a circuit breaker
heres how it looked before the subaru loom entered the equation



subi fuel pump and ignition relays ontop of the ECU still need mounting somewhere

I felt like a gynecologist feeding the subi loom thro the heating ducting
painfull but evetually got it through there




i was gonna need 2 other looms as well
one from the ECU to the front of the car for the fuel pump and fans and another from the ECU to the dash for things like water temp gauge, check engine light, tacho etc
i started by gutting the interior abit






poor bug looks like a theft recovery
it was also a good opertunity to clean up some of my birds nest wiring additions

check engine light and water temp gauge installed



the front loom only needed 2 wires but now was the easiest time to run a few extras
i pulled it all from the left over liberty looms
nice big 8 guage wire for the pump in the correct black with red trace and yellow for the fan
a few others there as spares




there was an empty hole in the kick panel area so i chucked a grommet in that and fed the loom through into the boot





same deal with the loom to the dash, only needed 3 light wires but i ran a heap of spares including a couple of big 8 guage wires




all tidied up and properly hidden along the sills this time




the other thing i had to do was lengthen the wires to the TPS due to the relocated throttle body






while i was at it i removed the stock liberty temp gauge sender and fitted the new one for my speco gauge






there was also a couple of unused vac ports on the manifold
in the liberty the small one is for the ventilation flaps as there all vacuum opertated and the big one is for the brake booster




theyre both 1/8th NPT so i removed them and chucked in some blanks i had laying around
but you could just do the old bit of hose with a bolt in the end trick if you wer'nt fussed about looks

Hi Joel

Looking and sounding good, so are going to drive it to Warwick?

Steve

Hi Steve,
yep fingers crossed, warwick is the deadline ive given myself to have it running by

i had a look today the cam sensor is all plugged in ok and wiring looks fine
it wasnt throwing any codes in the liberty before i removed it.

might have to do a homer simpson and put some tape over the the check engine light 😂

gotta love these engines,
last time it was running was march 21st when i drove the liberty into the shed and dropped the engine out
so prety much 6 months ago, and it started up first go and sat there idling smooth as the day it left the factory, not even a wif of smoke or the usual clacky subaru lifters
i was expecting it to considering i havent touched a thing on it except checking that it still had oil 😂

pull the sensor out and see if there's any fine shavings stuck to it , my crank sensor has this happen occ and throws an error code.

cheers Klaus

thats a good possiblity with all the welding and grinding ive been doing
looks like a pain to get in and out
anyone know if its the same as the crank pos sensor?
they look the same

gotta love these engines,
last time it was running was march 21st when i drove the liberty into the shed and dropped the engine out
so prety much 6 months ago, and it started up first go and sat there idling smooth as the day it left the factory, not even a wif of smoke or the usual clacky subaru lifters
i was expecting it to considering i havent touched a thing on it except checking that it still had oil 😂

That's great! 🙂

I also found it a revelation that I could start the car, without sitting in it. Just reach in through the window and turn the key. No need to step on the gaspedal during starting anymore!! The CPU does it all for you.

Klaus, your a legend, i owe you a beer

i pulled the sensor out and it didnt have anything on it except a bit of greasy dirt but cleaned up and reinstalled theres no errors codes now just that steady world peace is restored flash




i mentioned early in this thread i was still deciding on what to do about coolant lines
being an ex fridgy i can get copper at cost price but only in 6m lenghts which worked out to roughly $24/meter
copper is one of the best conductors out there but its also ugly

anyway i decided a better option which has been used by many is just plain jane exhaust tube
at $5per foot its alot cheaper but talking to mum and dads neighbour who works at a plumbing shop led me there

for $45 i came home with 3m of food grade stainless steel 1.5" nice shiny tube
i honestly couldnt beleive it was cheaper than cruddy exhaust tube and looks 100x better
cooling properties will be better as well

anyway i took the lengths to a mate with a bender and we bent them up to sit in the sill channels on either side






this was how my black beetle was setup as well
it had hose clamps tucked under those funny body bolt washers to hold the pipes up
worked well for 13 years so im gonna do the same thing with this one


whilst still on the topic of cooling systems i made up some brackets to mount the fan to my radiator



the original mazda fan the radiator came with was one of those old 4 huge straight blade things that are noisey as buggery and could probaby be overpowered by a decent fart
this new one is one of those fancy "S" blade fans which are allegedly quiter and move a shitload more air
well everycar made after 92 that ive owned has had them so if there good enough for the jap manufactures i guess they must work

i actually bought it a couple of years ago
i took out a low branch with the rooftop A/C condensor fan on the tractor on and smashed a blade off it
i thought id try these new ones as tractor A/C systems have a huge job in summer time but ofcorse the mounts and plugs were all different and i couldnt return it


funny though hanging onto the old rooted one all this time payed off
i cracked it open for the magnets inside




this is my $9 speed sensor



im going to attach the magnets to the CV joint and mount the reed switch off the bump stop bracket
thats all the stock liberty speed sensor was
a reed switch and a couple of magnets attached to a disc in the back off the speedo
it had 5 magnets but its not of concern, it only uses the pulses to work out if the cars moving or stationary, or rolling to a stop

people have used these Gaurd reed switches before they seem to be up to task

also working off the rear axle instead of the front is better for dyno situations
its apparently not an issue with EJ22s but some of the later ones when on the dyno without the speed sensor turning go into limp mode and cut the revs to 4k or something

Nice going Joel, glad you got the sensor sorted. It may have been a bit of swarf or just the grease stopping it picking up the proper signal

cheers Balders,

im not exactly sure what caused it, there was only abit of grease on it but ill see how things go, might be an intermittent fault
to be completely honest i was expecting a line up of error codes so its a bit of surprise to have none now as my wiring is a total birdsnest during these trial periods

anyway looks like im in for a weekend of welding again

got 7 meters worth of stainless tube all bent up ready to be welded toghether

Hi Joel

I saw this 1303 on the Kamei site, looks like it has a cut for the factory air con vents.

Steve

mmm, hubcaps and crossplys.................... 👎

cheers for the pic steve,
i still havent decided what to do about it yet.
as you know yourself they just handle too differently without a kamei on
im pretty impressed with how gerrelts looks with the slots cut in it but i'm also gonna talk to a mate thats a fibreglasser and see if he can mould in a discrete scoop that is effective but doesnt look all ricey/transformer autobot style

sorry to the people that have been following this, ive just been to busy/tired/lazy to keep it updated
i have to sort through about 400 pics to finish off the rest

so is this thing gonna be ready for warwick??
im not pinning any hopes on it but i may be lucky
pretty much everything to finish it off is sitting here waiting
custom veedub have finished off my sump and its on its way and all my rad lines just need welding toghether

one area i havent really touched on in this thread yet is my fuel system

the subi requires 2x 8mm fuel lines, one supply and one return
i was halfway there already as i ran a new 8mm supply line years ago for my old blow through turbo setup and used the stock vw line as the return
it was no use in this case though as its only 6mm.

all i did with the original new line i put it was ran a rubber EFI hose through the tunnel inside a protective tube, so all ive done is run another of those
they enter the tunnel through grommets one on the master cylinder side and the other on the opposite side of the frame head

at the rear they exit the tunnel on the right hand side just near the gearbox nose cone.
if i did it over again id just run metal lines under the car with a protective gaurd over them.
alot less work, easier to service and work just as well

the stock 6mm fuel line will be used as the line from the charcoal canister to the tank as its also 6mm in the subaru

when i stripped the liberty i kept the mounting bracket and clamp for the filter from it and bought a new filter (part# Z348)
there not cheap but last 30,000kms




ive mounted it on the side firewall
you can see the couple of holes ive put in for the fuel lines and electrical to enter the engine bay through




ive left the tank as is for the time being
the stock 6mm outlet is feeding the lift pump adequately but i plan on taking the tank out and putting on one of my old SBug ones

they have a bung in the very bottom which is used to access the filter sock thats fitted over the outlet
they stopped installing these in Lbugs and started using inline fuel filters instead so mine doesnt have it




what im going to do is fit the Sbug tank and ive got a big 8mm barbed fitting fitted inplace of the bung just for abit better flow




ive reused the facet pump from my supercharger as a lift pump as its only done 3000kms so hopefully it will be up to the task
ive made up a bracket and im mounting it on some waffle pad to keep the noise down
we used to use this stuff to sit A/C outdoor units on




finally a use for one of those 3 million coil brackets i seem to have lying around
fit my Bosch EFI pump like a glove




now ill do a Lee so that people can understand the chaos that is my pump setup at the moment




now to get the return back into the main tank to save having weld the actual tank which is a real nightmare and dangerous job, i silver soldered another 8mm barb into the filler neck instead




only problem with doing it this way is you have to do it in situ as once the barbs in the neck you cant get it back through the hole in the body unless you make it screw in some how by fitting a threaded boss instead.....or crack out the tin snips like i did 😊




i dropped the engine back out today to do a couple of things

first was get rid of that louvered firewall and tarboard insulation
its amazing how much more room there is once they're gone
ive put in sound deadner on the inside of the car plus my sub enclosure acts as a big sound barrier between the engine and the cabin as well so it wont be missed

now cos ive relocated the thtrottle body the 2 coolant lines that run to it no longer reach




these work alot like pre heater pipes on a beetle, warming up the intake
doing a bit of reading on subaru forums as i thought in a warmer climate like here its not needed and some people have actually reported power gains by removing it

so all ive done is removed the 2 pieces of hose. once comes off the idle control valve and the other dumps into the heater/thermostat return hardline and joined them with a single piece
good quality EFI hose works well




also the purge valve hose to the throttlebody wont reach either
so i ran a new longer one plus ive also disconnected the original canister hard line from the purge valve and run a new rubber vac line which will go straight to the canister instead of through the solid line jungle which im going to remove once i get time to pull the intake manifold off




to give me abit more room for the coolant hoses while the engine was out i also trimmed abit off the the coolant manifold outlet






and finally a really important but often overlooked area is the heater loop
its VITAL that an unobstructed loop is in place with the 2 heaterlines as the thermostat



the subaru engines use a completely different thermostat setup than most mainstreamers as the thermostat is on the cold side of the engine
most cars have it on the hot side so once the water coming out of the block is hot the 'stat starts to open and circulates it through the radiator

with subis its after the rad on the cold side and the engine instead constantly circulates the water through the heater core and back to the thermostat
so as the engine heats ups it just "sips" the cold water as it needs from the radiator relying on the hot water coming back from the heater to control the thermostat so it must be connected and flowing freely otherwise you end up with overheating

Throttle body inverter......Take 2








i guess noone spied the f@@k up with my first one
all was fine and dandy till i removed my decklid stand offs and put the decklid back on stock
and the blooddy thing wouldnt open far enough cos it was hitting the intake hose 😊
would be fine if i owned a baja

the new one i made is pretty much exactly what custom veedub sell
save yourself the hassle and just get one of theres.
welding pipe to flanges sucks especially when they have such tight bends with limited access

definatley not a pretty as my first one but ah welll it can hardly be seen and has no leaks thats the main thing

all fits up nicely now and i can have a decklid spring again.... nothing like holding a decklid up with your head trying to adjust twin webers 🤪

i also made a new joiner piece with the spigots for the IACV and case PCV hoses as the 45degree one i cut from the subi donkey dick was the wrong angle now and i needed a straight

the engine wont run without these so ive made up a bodgy short term solution
i need it running so i can back it in and out of the shed. my driveways to steep to push it
its just 3" PCV down pipe with some home irrigation fittings epoxied in

i need to get some 3" exhaust pipe that i can solder some brass barbs into for the final product

DUB74L now availble in powered form




had a couple of hours spare this arvo so decided to hack my valance around abit
im not real keen on the idea of just cutting a big hole and glueing in some boy racer mesh as the valance loses alot of strength doing that and very rarely does it look good
for one of the rare instances were it does look good check out what Steve did to Davids bug when it was painted

for those that dont really know superbeetles, in the US air conditioning was a very common dealer fitted accessory so all superbeetles bound for the US market left the factory with valances that had vents for the A/C condensor like so:



Steve fitted one of these valances to his yellow bug and it cooled very well but at the moment i just couldnt face unpicking another valance as the front is alot more involved than the back so i figured i'd have a stab at making one similar, i had nothing to lose
gotta thank Gerrelt for the tip










all in all it worked out ok, with the bars still there the valance hasnt lost any strength.
ill eventually put my Kamei spoiler back on once i sort out what to do with it so it will be covered up anyway but it will do for now
luckily i still have abit of crystal white left so i gave it a quick spray job to stop the raw metal edges rusting


now i just have to brace myself and cut the rest of the wheel well out

I started doing that only to find my valance was 1cm thick bog🥲
sso I went with the big hole.😂

my front valance was one of the straightest panel on the car when i got it till i barrelled a possum the size of a large dog hence the ripple in the bottom

they're normally the first panels to get crumpled

funny most yanks would give anything for a smooth valance like these and yets heres me turning mine into one like theirs 🤪

I do like the idea of this for an external oil cooler.... kinda like hellbugged's setup.... just the oil change would be a killer. looks great though Joel. keep up the good work 🙂

we just chucked one in mine colonel. No pics up yet but have a squiz at warwick

mate, im gonna look at, take photo;s of, lay underneath.... your car at warwick. and most likely pester you and your dad for a few hours in conversational topics... 🙂

Looks very good Joel!👍

I'm glad I could help a little! 🙂

another question

The guys that did you wiring harness, where are they based and how much did it cost.

that would be Al and Miles at AMauto - amauto.com.au



when i stopped for lunch today mr courier man had left a nice present for me




these things truely are a work of art
alot better than anything i could have made
just look at how short they are




i couldnt see a thing i was doing down the paddock cos of the dust so i spent the rest of the arvo in the garage and finish sorting the engine bay wiring out

this is the standard bug engine bay wiring with the outter shield removed
being a 74 it has the externally regulated alternator which is the stuff on the left

coil power and oil light wiring in the middle

and the 2 on the right are part of the dealership plug in computer diagonosis system which is all now redundant
i had used them as wires for my tacho and oil pressure gauge




all the wiring for the EJ22 is part of the subi loom with the exception of the alternator which needs to be spliced into the vw loom

im sure i showed the alternator plugs earlier in this thread but its very simple
theres a main B+ (white) out same as VW, a warning light (Black/white) and a wire which needs ignition power (yellow), this turns on the internal regulator
without this it wont charge and connected to always live power will flatten the battery
i made up a new loom with the EJ alternator wires and connectors
i also ran 2 others, one for the oil pressure switch and another will be for my oil pressure gauge sender when i get around to fitting it




now rather than cutting and joining these wires to the VW loom i chose to mount a terminal strip on the fire wall instead




a few reasons for this
its so much easier than soldering wires together, allows for easier changes and finally if for some unknown reason i need to put a vw engine back in all i have to do is connect up this




connections are very simple. theres 2 big white B+ wires that come off the alternator, these need to be joined together and connected to the VW B+ which is the big red/white wire
for the regulator wire i just connected it to the old coil power supply
and the warning light i connect to the small red D+ wire as this goes straight to the speedo charge light
generator equiped VWs would be slightly different but if your undertaking the work yourself you should really know what the differences are anyway
oh yeah and the oil light and pressure gauge sender wires just connected as well


other thing i did while electrically speaking is the bracket for the ignitor with a little bending bolted up beautifully to the old regulator mount




the other thing i did the other day was hook up the throttle cable
i was determined to make this engine use the standard beetle throttle cable as i had an aftermarket cable for the dellorto on the supercharger and it was forever being a problem child

i used some thick walled 3/8" tube i had laying around to replace the guide tube that goes through the fan housing
it had to be thick walled as welding the stock vw one would have only blown holes in it as its paper thin
i bent up a bracket to weld to it that picked up one of the throttle body mount bolts
looks ugly as but its very sturdy




all the cruise control linkages of my throttle body went missing a while ago but it still has the pin that held the springs which was in the way
it was only a press fit and pulled straight out with some vice grips




now to use the standard vw barrel clamp holder thingy was simple, i just folded over a piece of 16 gauge sheetmetal, drilled a hole through it for the barrel to fit then silver soldered it to the throttle body arm

again looks ugly but it works



a few important steps when doing this

firstly is to get the pivot point measurement the same as a vw carb
a 34pict3 had a 24mm distance from the center of the butterfly shaft to the center of the barrel clamp so i had to set it up the same
if you have this measurement smaller then the pedal will only go down about half way before the butterfly is wide open
and on the other hand to big and the pedal will go flat before it fully opens so u wont get WOT (wide open throttle)
this is important for a few reasons other than performance

Now when Joel gets impatient and decides and nail it to overtake 3 cars and 1 truck right before a blind bend , the TPS senses WOT and kills the A/C if its running and sends the computer into closed loop mode for max power and also WOT when starting sends the ECU into flood clear mode

and secondly the angle needs to be just right so it pulls evenly from fully closed to wide open
if its pulling on to much of an angle at any point it only places excess stress on the cable and linakges

anyway it all worked out well, theres less effort required on the noise pedal than a vw carb even though the subi throttle has 2 springs
i just need to tweak with my cable where the barrel clamps it as can be seen here im not quite hitting the WOT stop screw





ive made a little bit of a start on the cooling system
heres a sneak peak




im using hose clamps tucked under the body mounting bolts to hold the pipework up along the sills
mighten't be the pretty solution but it worked well for over 10 years on my black beetle

I see the firewall is back on, or did you take them pics out of order?

nah its off for good
once its all done im going to detail my engine bay and repaint the firewall

alot of this thread is all out of order, i just add bits and pieces to it as i sort through the pics

okoay yeah thought so, just re read and would have needed wiring to get engine error codes duhh

that don't look rite all neat and tidy 🙅

well i cant out class you with power 😂

Joel wrote:well i cant out class you with power 😂

yeah i've been driving it around for 12 months now. And I thought i'd give it a treat with some subaru upper engine cleaner and it feels like it's got an exta 20hp🤪😂 So it realy does do something 🤪

just put 2 more bottles in then and youll have more HP than josh

a clean engine is a happy engine. looks good Joel. can't wait to see it. 🙂

got its first genuine part this weekend
there was only one coolant hose left that hadnt been replaced, the waterpump return line and being the original hose it felt pretty crispy when it was squeezed




speaking of , for all the flexible rubber hoses i picked up some really common ones so that if i ever get caught out the back of whoop whoop needing a hose chances are the local redneck garage might have half a chance of helping

giving my poor bug a bogan element are 2 early commodore top hoses for my header tank in and out
an EA-ED falcon top hose and a bottom hose from a XG falcon ute/panno




i mounted my header tank first so i knew where the hoses had to run too




i mounted it on an angle as it makes for easier hose routing but also it puts the cap in a nice easily accessable place






ive welded up the stainless solid lines as far back as the gearbox.
the supply side just needs a 45 degree bend to go from the chassis fork up over the axle to the rubber hose to finish it off




and the return side its a similar situation execpt it needs a dogleg bent up to come out around the exhaust manifold and into the thermostat housing




im pretty stoked with how the hardlines worked out
at the back i havent lost any ground clearance at all as they actually sit higher than what the floor pans do






even down the sills theres no risk of them hitting anything as they hang down about half and inch lower than the floor pan rails






at the front is where theres usally clearance problems especially when it comes to superbeetles
theres the control arms, tierods and center rod to get passed as the radiator is mounted in front of these

most people go underneath all that which is fine if you have 4WD ride height status as they need to hang low enough that the suspension on full droop is no where near hitting them

that guy in NZ with the white EJ25 powered SBug in one of the VWMA runs his underneath and had a mishap where his rubber hose hit the road and it dumped all its coolant
ive got topline maxx struts on my bug which are already on the highest setting so unfortunately theres no way of getting it any higher than it already is so playing it safe ive decided to take another route and go over all the suspension instead

heres were the falcon top hose came in
cut in half it made for 2 nice elbows that are just a fraz past 90degrees which was needed as i put a small kick down on the pipe to get it under the bulk head







the 2 elbows are only hanging down about half an inch lower than the center of the floor pan bulk head but because they're inline with the wheels there no chance of them hitting anything

from there they will run up and across the bottom of the wheel well to the radiator

oh yeah a couple of other jobs i got done

the speed sensor is finished and mounted




and ive made up the permanant IAC intake adapter thingy

1 scrap of 3" exhaust

1 19mm brass barb

and 1 12mm spray boom fitting thats been rattling around in my ash tray for months




all silver soldered together




painted and installed




and finally all the PCV hoses needed hooking up

its alot like the aftermarket breather kit setups for vws
the 2 rocker covers are ported, they're connected together and also the case PCV is Tee'd into the hose as well then into the air intake

nice one with the coolant lines . I've got 9 flex joints 😂 in the wagon

thats the easy part getting the coolant lines to the front, now you have to get em past the moving suspension.

pull ye finger out & get it drivable before the weekend, you spend way too much time on here/msn etc

STIDUB wrote:pull ye finger out & get it drivable before the weekend, you spend way too much time on here/msn etc

Irony.....

STIDUB wrote:pull ye finger out & get it drivable before the weekend, you spend way too much time on here/msn etc

that aint gonna happen and you know why

klaus, i was trying to make as minimal joints as possible but still have a system that has some flexibilty
we'll see if it works out

the other thing ive been doing when welding up the solid lines is putting a couple of spotwelds on the ends
this will stop the hoses blowing off by giving the hose clamps something to tension against

Nice work Joel

You might want to look at a WRX 'stat housing. It's inlet is 90 out compared to a NA motor so it faces the front (of the dub)

cheers for the tip Balders, i remember Jorg doing that with his 22 only problem with mine is that points it straight at my exhaust manifold

ive actually already got the hardlines finished and im halfway through mounting the rad.
im hoping it will self bleed as theres no high points in my system except for the 2 caps which will let any air out

ok apologies to people who have been following this, i will update it soon just at the moment im night spraying which really screws around my body clock up bigtime and makes me not a nice person,

people who know me know to stay clear 😂

but just quick minutes for those who are interested
it is up and running, it didnt make warwick due to a minor issue which the concerned party happily rectified, the tuesday after warwick....... 🥲

i;ve only been for a quick 5 min run out the road mainly due to the fact i havent finished enclosing my radiator

a rubber floor mat over it may work fine in ians bug but in mine i could nearly cook an egg on the fuel tank by the time i got back 😂

what are people using to close in their rads? ive made an RHS frame that i can screw whatever too but i wanna make it fairly non conductive and not to heavy

im thinking exterior ply maybe or fibreglass

anyway heres a sneak peak of the sump and rad

ground clearance is better than a vw engine with a deep sump and the header hangs down lower so if anythings gonna hit it will be it which im already used to anyway

I have a couple of old street 60km/h signs that go over my rubber mat, they are made of alloy and easy to bend and not hard to find some as they are ever where you look 😂🤪😂
your radiator sits really high.
and I dont think you can have two overflow recovery radiator caps,
youll have to get one of those none recovery caps like they have on V6 toyata Camry's
ps the rubber mat makes it easy to check it over, in the running in period😂🤪😂

might have to go on a good old roadsign adoption missiom, mmm that takes me back 😂

overflow hose on the rad is just plugged off, only using the one on the header tank

ahh, that explains alot, forgot about the spraying, funny though, we have both progressed a lil bit more, maybe u need to work the opposite time slot to me so they get done sometime in the next.... year?

Hi Joel

How did feel power wise on the test drive?

I closed my radiator in using thin sheet aluminum, maybe you could make up a sandwich with two sheets and some insulation in between to cut down heat.

Steve

Joel,

I enclosed my radiator with aluminium checker plate at first. I then put automotive carpet insulation (the fiberous brown crap that gets everywhere) followed by marine carpet over top. It still let heaps of heat through and made the car like an oven inside (rear radiator for me). I soon fixed that problem by lining the radiator side of the aluminium with that aluminium foil / sound deadening material thermal insulation sheeting. It works fantastically well and really keeps the heat out. You can't feel the heat come in from the back at all anymore.

cheers for that Wes, ive been thinking of covering my heater channels and floors with that stuff instead of the regular insulation i currently have just to prevent some of the heat that is gonna radiate into the cabin from the stainless lines under the sills

so i might get some more and cover the rad box as well

but for now i did a temp el'bodjo solution till i work something out

Steve, i couldnt really tell you, i dont think ive ever driven more like a scone gobbler in my life

it was just a quick nanna putt up to the intersection and back and i didnt give it much but it does feel like it really wants to go

i havent been game to unleash it much yet, mainly cos of the way the rad was heating up my fuel tank uncovered but also theres a couple of small issues

ive either got an innaccurate temp gauge or my ECU temp sender is playing up (wouldnt that throw a code??)

my fans not coming on
i let it idle for about 15 mins and the temp gradually snuck up till it hit just over 100c

im thinking its just the gauge reading abit high
it was warm but didnt seeem real hot and wasnt spitting out the overflow but i earthed the fan relay manually and within about 1min the temp dropped back down to 85

i know i should have replaced the thermostat and its on my list but it seems to be working

ill let it go abit longer tomoro and see if either the fan comes on or it starts to boil

guage is a brand new speco sports series and ive never had an issue with speco gauges ive always found them to be very accurate

ive also got an inlet leak somewhere
just a minor one but enough to make the idle hunt abit and its whistling like it has a turbo spooling 😂

ther you go Joel the fan is the brown wire🙅🙅

mines red 😉

well until i get my arse in gear and finish updating heres a quick virtual tour 😂

So - you been for a drive??

Did you find the air leak??

Whatever - looks brilliant
Well done 👍

yeah been for a couple of drives but havent gone far yet
just building confidence up first

waiting for the paranoia of blown coolant joints and electrical faults to die down 😂

Well???

How does it compare to the blower??

its got plenty to give by the feel of it but i havent been too adventuress yet

definatley feels as quick off the mark but i havent had a chance to try out top end power
not expecting miracles comparing it to a force fed 1776 but its best described as smoooooooooth power delivery


the biggest problem im having so far is a force of habit i just cant break no matter what is double clutching back to second when i drive a bug.
which is a fun with a modern EFI engine cos they take so long to idle back

bastard, u left msn early, not fair, will try catch you tomorrow night though, nice work anyway

Hi Joel

We want to see videos on your famous "private" test course. Just give all the hoses a good tighten and get out there.

Steve

Nice work Joel!

There's only one way to find out if everything will hold... 😂

god damn it





took the old man for a blat out the road tonight and it seems my speed sensor didnt agree with going a speed....umm..... somewhat faster than it was supposed to 😂

yes, im slowly getting more game with it

might try plan B and setup an inferred proximity sensor instead.
they will handle higher speeds abit better than a reed switch

all is going well, my fan is happily doing its thing
comes on at 103 and off at 98 so my guage is reading about 8c high but thats better than being to low

ok turns out code 24 is


24 Air Control Valve or Circuit (Exc. Justy)

not VSS like i suspected, although i have a feeling the 2 are connected as alot of ppl get the IACV code on subaru vanagon with faulty VSS

its running really well just the light came on when i drilled it then coasted down a hill so i suspected it was VSS as it didnt effect anything other than the light coming on

Joel wrote:ok turns out code 24 is


24 Air Control Valve or Circuit (Exc. Justy)

not VSS like i suspected, although i have a feeling the 2 are connected as alot of ppl get the IACV code on subaru vanagon with faulty VSS

its running really well just the light came on when i drilled it then coasted down a hill so i suspected it was VSS as it didnt effect anything other than the light coming on

Ahhh, I had that with mi bus. Coasting down in 4th or 3rd (never happened in 2nd or 1st) and only when the engine was warm. 'UK '98 EJ20 ODB-I

Short out your neutral switch. Easiest way with mine was to use half a paper clip inserted into the connector as a link.
Job's a good un

mine was auto so had the inhibitor and park switches but all thats already been chopped out and bridged

after doing some reading thro the subaruvanagon archeives this seems to be a really common problem
in my case its just cos my VSS has stopped producing a signal

cheers Balders for the souvineer too 👍
got plenty of room for it 😎

my shiny new sump got its first battle scar today

ol girl is squatting in the bum abit with the extra weight
gonna have to raise it back up abit



ill get some better vids later but in the mean time heres a quick dodgy incar footage of me driving like a grandma and not breaking any speed limits

Hi Joel

Are you running type 3 rear bars, looks like you might need them or heavier ones again.

Steve

nah stock Lbug, need to chase a pair down

was gonna swap over the squareback rear end from my black bug but i hate duel spring plates with a passion

Hi Joel

I hate the dual as well, you can still run the wagon bars with single spring plates.

My biggest issue was because they were so stubby they were hard to get into place.

The car sounds sweet by the way.

Is that Glenn Torrens in your avatar?

Steve

Ha! im sure Glenn wil be thrilled to know you think he looks like frank gallagher from shameless 😂

was it only squarebacks that had bigger bars?

Joel, I wanna see your bug with black running boards... it makes my eyes freak out with white ones... haha


That photo is awesome, good work 🙂

That acceleration looks so effortless. I can't wait to see it in person

as you say joel, the rear could go up a bit and still look good.

Hi Joel

It was only the square backs with the thick bars, the Notch and fastback had the same bars as a bug.

Steve

yeah call Richard at v force
he has torsion bars

colonel mustard wrote:Joel, I wanna see your bug with black running boards... it makes my eyes freak out with white ones... haha

really?
see i was the other way around, once i colour coded the bumpers and blacked the trim out i found the white running boards really cleaned the lines up
i was thinking of going carbon fibre but thought id try out this first
it was only rough attempt, theyre just shitty old ones that used to be on jasmine, jess's purple Lbug

DaveCarter wrote:That acceleration looks so effortless. I can't wait to see it in person

i gave it abit in 1st but that wasnt really up it much, gets motoring alot quicker than that 😂
just so unusual to have such smooth powerband

just spewin it wasnt ready for warwick



Ian i'll give richard a buzz, cheers for the heads up

28mm bars for about $300ish i think, nice pic btw

Nice work!
Good to finally meet you at Warwick.
Can't wait to feel the subi power next time 😉😂

I like the black board better, but thats just me. love the white headlight surrounds though. 🙂

i had to do the reverse of my rear lowering thread today
it had to be raised anyway as it was almost sitting on the spring plate stops but i took dylan the dubber and his little brother for a spin in it this morn and i drilled it alot harder out of a corner than i previously have only to hear my header go cruuuuuunch along the road in the same style as mick and ians bugs drag the sumps

so shes back to stock height at the back now which is about 1" lower than actual stock due to the increased weight higher than i wanted but on the plus side itll be a struggle to hit anything now
check out all that ground clearance 😵

side profile........ :P

better to be higher than need a new sump, or lose it and all your oil.

i pulled up in a nice scenic location for a side shot and the camera batterys said up yours 😠

will get one tomoro as its doing a run down to byron

I took out my camera to take a photo of some parts, and it was on in my bag... therefore dead. same as what happened at warwick, hence why most of my photos were rubbish.
Stupid digital cameras. I want an SLR!!

Hi Joel

The heavier bars when you get them will help with sudden dips or acceleration. What size are your rear tyres, maybe go up a size as well.

Steve

colonel mustard wrote:side profile........ :P

better to be higher than need a new sump, or lose it and all your oil.

yeah gentleman raise your veedubs😂🤪😂
and be normal🤪🤪🤪 like me

colonel mustard wrote:side profile........ :P

better to be higher than need a new sump, or lose it and all your oil.

just cos i like u so much :p




Steve, im definately gonna track down some Squareback bars cos i want it lower without the bounce


its funnny how the smallest changes can make a huge difference to a cooling systems efficiency

i made a very simple scoop to mount below my rad
hasnt made a huge difference at speed but around town its dropped a good 10 degrees

Joel
you shouldn't be able to see the radiator with the hood open.
or is the picture just to show the air scoop???
and you have a cover???

The speed sensor....... Take 2....


seeing as my first speed sensor failed fairly early in the piece i needed to re think the design
it was to be expected that it wouldnt really work as it was very agricultural
it was just a simple alarm reed switch designed to tell if a door is either opened or closed, not sense a wheel turning 100x per minute
people have used that setup before with good results and mine worked till i took it to a speed faster than what the road signs said
i thought it was worth a try as the subi dash cluster only had a simple reed switch and 5 magnets on a plastic disc

so i needed to come up with something a little more advanced

sure there are the off the shelf VDO inline VSS that screw into the back of the speedo cable but due to the lack of room behind an Lbug dash this wasnt an option anyway and theyre also $200+

enter stage left inductive proximity sensor




its merely a metal detector like at air ports and was only $25 but has a very high frequency response so can read stupidly high speeds well over 300mph with perfect accuracy 😂

to trigger this one i just needed metal to pass in front of it 5 times per wheel revolution
so i made up the wheel of death that bolts to the CV joint
it needed to be cut in half so it could be slipped over the axle
without doing this would require the CV joint to be removed from the axle which is a horrible messy job




credit for this design must go to Andy Malec from the subaru vanagon group
i printed off a copy hes made and traced it onto some 16 gauge sheet metal




a bracket to hold the sensor was easy, just an L shaped bracket rivetted to the bump stop mount




with the wheel of death bolted to the CV joint and the sensor mounted i hooked up the power and checked that it was working
the sensor has a little LED thats part of the housing that lights up whenever its detecting metal




all looked good at this stage, theres only 3 wires to connect, power, ground and the signal to the ECU
first test drive revealed its working perfectly
the OBD1 engines like mine arent as finicky about running with no speed sensors
the main thing they do is stall when coming to a stop or bring the check engine light on when rolling down hill
mine never stalled but it did drop down to about 400rpm when stopping at intersections for a breif second and the idle often hunted alot, bouncing upto 400rpm
its now stopped doing that and has also stopped throwing code 24
i havent done any high speed driving yet but so far its working flawlessly
the wheel of death is very strong and theres no risk of the blades bending


alot of people with OBD1 eninges dont worry about a VSS and just put up with the codes coming on and engine revs dropping right down when coasting to a stop
but OBD2 engines can be alot more problematic doing things like rev limiting and going into limp mode etc
some of them use the VSS to work out what speed to run the cooling fans at as well so can suffer from overheating problems in rare cases

Hi Joel

That looks great, it will slice & dice the road kill.

I have one of the VDO sensors to mount on a speedo cable, my SPA speedo is digital anyway so maybe I can use the signal for both. What is most likely going to be an issue is if I ever put the car on a dyno, there will be no signal getting to the ECU, might have to work something out with battery drill or maybe do what you've done and scrap the VDO unit.

I heard somewhere about making fans up to cool the CV joints, with a bit of angle on your blades you could have "CV coolers"

Steve

Steve, is the SPA speedo the same as Dave's LCD screen speedo?

Hi Jason

the one I have has a tacho built in as well, it only goes to 9000, unlike the photo.

Steve

ian.mezz wrote:Joel
you shouldn't be able to see the radiator with the hood open.
or is the picture just to show the air scoop???
and you have a cover???

sorry i started answering your question yesterday and AVD crashed

it wasnt covered to start with
it worked fine uncovered but more as a neatness thing ive covered it over now and carpeted the enclosure

1303Steve wrote:Hi Joel

That looks great, it will slice & dice the road kill.

I have one of the VDO sensors to mount on a speedo cable, my SPA speedo is digital anyway so maybe I can use the signal for both. What is most likely going to be an issue is if I ever put the car on a dyno, there will be no signal getting to the ECU, might have to work something out with battery drill or maybe do what you've done and scrap the VDO unit.

I heard somewhere about making fans up to cool the CV joints, with a bit of angle on your blades you could have "CV coolers"

Steve

yes keep your fingers clear at speed 😂
this one dices road kill and the last one with the magnets picked up everyones lost wheel nuts off the road

its another reason i set it up on the rear wheeel so dyno situations arent a problem
not that its really an issue on an OBD1 engine but OBD2 motors often go into limp mode on dynos if the VSS isnt spinning

Joel wrote:

ian.mezz wrote:Joel
you shouldn't be able to see the radiator with the hood open.
or is the picture just to show the air scoop???
and you have a cover???

sorry i started answering your question yesterday and AVD crashed

it wasnt covered to start with
it worked fine uncovered but more as a neatness thing ive covered it over now and carpeted the enclosure

Good boy
you dont want the hot air coming in ur car like mine does 😂

thats the joy of an Lbug no where for the hot air to get thro the dash anyway 😂

one thing thats surprised me though is even with stainless steel lines hard against the bottom of the sills its not doing the same as yours and heating the inside of the car

maybe u need some more carpet lol

Joel wrote:thats the joy of an Lbug no where for the hot air to get thro the dash anyway 😂

one thing thats surprised me though is even with stainless steel lines hard against the bottom of the sills its not doing the same as yours and heating the inside of the car

maybe u need some more carpet lol

or just some carpet😂
i am not a big fan of fancy stuff. eg carpet😂

speaking of fancy stuff,
the sticker of approval 😀

joel... finally i catch up with ur subaru conv...

still remember me?? hehe..

ok time i finished the rest of this thread off
ive been too busy out enjoying driving it

you know you've done something right when a subaru mechanic with decades of experience thinks its a WRX engine as u pull up 😀
the look on his face when i opened the decklid and he saw it was only an NA EJ22 was priceless


ive now got just under 300kms on it so far as a combination of city and highway just soak testing everything
first fill up came up with 9.3L/100km which is highly reflective of how ive been driving it, so it'll get way better than that once i ease up on the noise pedal
out on the open road it seems to settle at 90c and around town in stop go it gets up around 95 but its a rare moment for the fan to come on unless im stationary or close to for several minutes
in over 100kms of city driving the fan has still yet to come on other than sitting for 5 mins idling when its hot
the hottest day so far its seen has been yesterday at 32c and it still sat happily around the 90c mark and the fan doesnt come on till 100c so im confident in the cooling systems capabilities

i had an unused hole in my dash so i hooked an LED pilot light up to the fan relay just temporarily so i know when its coming on




anyway back to where i left off, ive ended up using 8M worth of the stainless line which all up cost me $110
this is all thats left over, all joined up theres probably nearlly 1 meter there but oh well, good money in scrap stainless lol




the cooling lines under the sills were run, at the back i just needed a 45 bend for the supply to match it up with the hose coming off the header tank




and on the return a dogleg to kick it out around the header





i used the falcon bottom hose as the link between the thermostat housing and the dogleg
it has a spring in it so it never kinks or loses its shape







heres how the lines look out of the car




at the front the lines run up over the suspension and into the wheel well




now owners of most supers will recognise this hunk of metal





its a defomation/crush plate which is allegedly reinforcing, it also mounts the A/C condensor and fan where fitted and it also covers the hole where the shift rod comes out of the napoleans hat

my first Sbug was a 71 and never had one just a plate over the hole but all the 72 on supers ive owned or worked on have had them

anyway after undoing half a dozen bolts and removing the swaybar saddles its amazing how much more room there is




to deal with the shift rod hole i just cut that section of it out and bolted it back on








Chop...chop....chop








the cut out is still in one piece so if worse comes to worse it can always be welded back in

i got some pinch welting to cover up the raw edges and keep the engineer happy and save my hands




the other thing i did was got some indaflex insulation to cover the pipes up where they run thro the wheel well
just to avoid heating up the fuel lines and pumps
its used to lag refrigeration lines , its good for up to 180c and completely prevents any heat transfer




i made up a frame that will bolt into the wheel well and also supports the radiator




now the days of radiators solid mounted to the body dissapeared along with copper cores many moons ago
these day there all rubber mounted to add some flexiblity

most have little peg feet like this top and bottom




that sit in rubber mounts like this




a few scraps of subaru exhaust pipe were the perfect size for the rubber mounts so i welded them to a piece of angle and made that bolt to the the old crush plate mounts




i mounted it using booker rod so it could be height adjustable




so all bolted in place it looks like this






it was at this point i took the bug for its first drive
i found when i got back that the fuel pumps and fuel tank were a little toasty from the heat of the radiator which was to be expected
i hadnt really decided on what to close the rad in with just yet
the token material seems to be alumnium or sheet metal.
thats fine and strong enough but being highly conductive they really heat the inside of the boot up big time
i intially thought fibrglass as it wont transfer the heat, is strong and light and i have a good mate thats a fibreglasser who owes me a few favours
but unfortunaltely hes out of action for another month due to knee operation so in the mean time i just went to bunnings and bought a sheet of 7mm waterproof ply




i gotta say i was really surprised by how well it does the job
the first thing i noticed was how much it dampend the fan noise
without a cover on the rad it sounded like i had a jet turbine under the hood whenever the fan cut in
now its no louder than any mainstreamer car fan running

but the most impressive thing is when ive been out for a drive and get back with the car hot enough that the fans cycling touching the ply it could barely even be described as warm
anything metal, would cook an egg nicely
to make it look alittle less out of place i gave it a coat of black paint
i did start carpeting the rad cover but it just got to fiddly
wasted effort on soemthing thats hardly gonna be seen




funny, even with the radiator and a spare tyre i still have more room left than a standard bug has normally






the top is on hinges just to allow access




i just use some R clips through pins to hold the lid shut





ive completley closed in the sides to stop any air getting past the rad




and i also made up a small scoop to sit under the rad






simple but highly effective, it dropped my average temps by 10c



lots of coolant



to my amazement first fill and not a single leak

all up the system holds 14L, so just on double the standard subi cooling system

i achieved my goal of having a system that doesnt need bleeding
i just leave the radiator and header tank caps off and fill till they're full and just start the engine and let it circulate the coolant abit
any air soon bubbles to the top

after it cooled down for the first time i got about 1 turn on each hose clamp

ive just got an old windscreen washer bottle as an overflow for now




when its cold i just fill it to the texta line
at it hottest its expands about 2" above that then sucks it back in as it cools down


if theres anything i've missed with the cooling system or any particular part of the conversion that anyone wants to know about, just ask
ive got nealry 600 pics ive taken during the conversion so theres lots of stuff covered that i didnt put up

Joel wrote:funny, even with the radiator and a spare tyre i still have more room left than a standard bug has normally

Rub it in why don't you 🥲

i never keep anything in there other than a few tools anyway

its only a pizza cutter spare as the vw spare doestn match my stud pattern anyway but itll get me home.....at 80km/h 😂

I've read the entire thread right through and have been watching it for updates for the last couple of weeks and i suppose i should say congratulations😁 You've got enough on this conversion to write a book.. or 2!!. I was surprised that you still managed to get room for a spare tyre/wheel. Again congratulations on a job well done

Ryan😀

cheers
i wanted some practical aspects like still having a spare
ive got roadside cover on it in the event of a flat but i still would rather not be stuck on the side of the road all for the sake of not having a spare




another thing ive done is hooked up my oil temp and pressure gauges
the oil temp was easy, the senders just screwed into the drain plug

but pressure sender required abit more thought
the stock idiot light sender on EJs is buried down under the alternator and powersteering pump bracket
only way to really see it is with the bracket gone




room is very tight there
at the other end of the block is a second sender port with a blank in it but its buried rigght down deep below the IACV, the PCV hoses and main engine loom

its all 1/8th gas fittings so i got a Tee fitting of an old compressor with one end capped off and fit an oil pressure Y piece to it

a normal 90degree fitting woulda been much easier but i had this laying around




idiot light sender and pressure gauge sender fitted it nicely



the powersteering bracket interefered slightly so it copped a small haircut




now is anyone else out there running temp and pressure guages?
my oil temp seems to sit around 85c and can get upto 90 with some spritely driving
ive changed the oil and filter and running 15/40 my pressure maxes at 80psi at aound 3000rpm even at 90c
at idle it sits around 15-20 when hot
that sound normal?
im used to VW figures which are lucky to be over 50psi

now is anyone else out there running temp and pressure guages?
my oil temp seems to sit around 85c and can get upto 90 with some spritely driving
ive changed the oil and filter and running 15/40 my pressure maxes at 80psi at aound 3000rpm even at 90c
at idle it sits around 15-20 when hot
that sound normal?
im used to VW figures which are lucky to be over 50psi



if the red IDIOT 😂 light is not coming on it must be ok 🤪

Hi

I asked an oil pressure question on a WRX forum, with some interesting responses.

Steve

=========
Hi

I'm going to buy an oil pressure gauge for my car, what sort of oil pressure do you guys normally see? Would I need to buy a 5 bar (72 psi) or 10 bar (145 psi) gauge?

Steve
=============
i got a blitz pressure gauge.. the gauge reads upto 10 something.. pressure goes up to 7, spends most of its time around 6. goes around 2.5 and 3 on idle when warm.
==============
Hi

Thanks for that, your gauge should have some tiny writing on it and it will say what sort of measurement it is, could you check for me next time your in your car.

Thanks, Steve
===============
I have a HKS gauge.

Mine has similar 1 to 10 rating.

Sits on 3 at idle and rises very quickly to 6 if you are driving around. It stays pegged at 6 constantly when driving hard.
============
Hi

Thanks for that. 5 bar = 72.5 psi. So I think I had better get a 10 bar gauge otherwise it will spend a lot of time off the scale.

Steve
============
Definitely want at least 100psi gauge, my car almost got that at startup ~95psi. So you don't want something lower as you may damage the gauge.

how bout that, right on par
not bad for an untouched 17 year old engine
no wonder these things live so long

Nice going Joel.

Right, you gonna pop round and take me for a spin?

The sticker looks good 😉

cheers,

that really clever who came up with design?
WKD has only just recently hit australia so not many here would get the reference

so have you been brain washed with the subie power🤪😂🤪? And is the only way or would you go back to vee dub power?
Personally I love the sound of vee dub power with twin carbs.

OMG Steve how old are you what's the go with the lights??
😂

1303Steve wrote:Hi Jason

the one I have has a tacho built in as well, it only goes to 9000, unlike the photo.

Steve

Hi Rose

How old, when I grow up I wanna be a kid😂

Steve

His car is going to have sub lights like mine as well 😂

rose wrote:so have you been brain washed with the subie power🤪😂🤪? And is the only way or would you go back to vee dub power?
Personally I love the sound of vee dub power with twin carbs.

my love of VW motors will never die
hell, ive been building them since i was 15, my brain still ticks over conrod bolt torque values and head tension patterns etc when i try to sleep at night 😂

but i am truely happy with the end result of the converstion to though. in the next few years another VW will probably join the stable again and stay mecjhanically stock
how else am i supposed to make use of all these parts i got laying around 😂

i'll get some vids up soon but from inside the car u would swear its just a big VW engine running IDAs
thats exactly what it sounds like


back on topic
it seems i have some territorial marking going on.....






And it aint coming from the engine




J'ACCUSE.......... INPUT SHAFT!




original looking abit raped after removal




bore cleaned out ready for new seal




OEM german parts all the way baby




to tap it home squarely an old axle nut and some of the staino pipe i seem to have an abundance of at the moment




new shaft installed with a dab of permatex on the outside and well oiled on the sealing lip with fresh tranny oil






No more leaks 😎

Wheres the timed video of the subi coming out? 😁

Hi Joel

I didn't know Exedy made clutches for VWs.

Steve

1303Steve wrote:Hi Joel

I didn't know Exedy made clutches for VWs.

Steve

i got introduced to exedy button clutches a few years back when i was part of the the toyota world when i had the celica and corolla

id always gone the token kennedy in the past but at the time there was a stage1 famine on
couldnt get one anywhere
autobahn had the exedy clutch in overnight
not badly priced either

200mm type1 is the only HD air cooled clutch they do

Hi Joel

So apart form the colour, how does it rate against a Kennedy?

Steve

gotta love the pink 🤪

its been a few years since ive had a stage1 but to be honest i dont think theres much difference in it

i was thinking of trying the exedy cushion button next time i get a clutch

just dont like HD clutches that just about dislocate your hip to operate

love this thread!
you have done a fantastic job joel and i will be using this thread very soon for my next project.

cheers Bob,
still got that spare from Ray?

no that went with ray but we do have ash's EJ22 and all the conversion kit she was going to use in her beetle in perth.
now i just need to convince her dad to chuck it all in the back of his landcruser and bring it over at christmas.

she would have just about forgotten what mildred looks like 😂

so....
Who ordered the caramel milkshake?




a direct result of my stupidity, it highlights the importance of the cooling system with these engines
the only weakness with these engines....and there it is 😂
after i stuck the engine back in the other day from replacing the shaft seal i just poured what coolant i drained back in but was still a bit short
one mainstreamer was parked in and the other was down at byron for the day
so i took the bug down to autobahn to ggrab some more coolant

it didnt seem that low and didnt get hot on the trip but next morning i got 2.5L of cooant into it
since then its still running perfectly fine but ive noticed the overflow fills up more than usual and if its just idling the fan stays on alot longer than normal

just gotta decide now whether i can be arsed pulling it down to do the headgaksets or just swap it for another engine
ill probably just fix this one up as i know the history of it and even with a leaking headgasket its still running like clockwork
i was actually in shock when i found out cos its running to well so it must only be the tinyest leak that opens up when its hot
ive put over 100kms on it and didnt even notice anything was wrong till i saw under the oil cap

ill proabably do the timing belt, waterpump, 'stat and cam seals at the same time
im getting abit sentimentally attached to this engine so id rather stick with the devil i know

Hi Joel

That's bad luck, they were probably on the way out, the extra heat just tipped them over. You need to fix it, otherwise your going to reluctant to drive it on trip.

Steve

Hi Joel

Iam about to but a EJ22 motor in my super beetle and I was wondering if you could help me answer some questions.

Is the Kafer brace the only thing needed to hold the engine probably in place? ( http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c366/66glook/Floorpan077.jpg )

How much HP can you run through the original transmission?

What kind of suspension and brakes are you using?

Thanks, Bragi

Your probably right Steve.
it wont even be run again now till i get it sorted, the only reason it has been is i was blissfully unaware of the problem.
im really not too upset over it, pissed off at myself for letting it happen but its not a hard fix, the headgaskets are something i should have done the in the first place 🤪
to much of a rush to get it on the road

Hi Bragi, you'll love it
a kafer brace is the only strenghtening required. you could get away without one but the risk of the chassis forks bending or fatigue cracking is there
they're not hard to install and you can really notice the way it strenghtens up the rear of the car

the standard trans will take the power of a stock EJ22 if your not permanantly driving like a race car
its a bit of a piece of string question you can damage a tranny with a stock vw engine if your rough enough or driven fairly sensibly would last even with an ej20turbo

at present im running 4 wheel discs which were on the car before the conversion
bigger rear torsion bars are a good idea but that said im not running them, now that ive raised the back up a bit its riding perfectly fine

an EJ22 is only putting out about 20 or so more HP than most 1916 vw engines people put in and very few of them bother upgrading transmissions or brakes

change the oil and just chuck some chem weld in the radiator.
isn't it great to go water cooled🤪

ian.mezz wrote:change the oil and just chuck some chem weld in the radiator.
isn't it great to go water cooled🤪

Don't use "mechanic in a bottle" tsk, tsk 🤪

Do it properly, it's not difficult, just a PITA as you'll have to pull the motor.
Don't forget you'll need inlet & exhaust gaskets too

Nice work Joel, this has really come around mate. Been seeing it grow since day one of this thread 👍

hmm... vrs sets sounds like a bit of effort. It will run like a dream after...

The liquid glass (with hte copper flake) Chemiweld i think its called, is a good permanent fix. They even recommend for new engines to seal any factory pin holes. And it works. I was a bit 'reluctant' as i was worried about coating everything and making a mess inside the block. But it only 'collagulates' where the loss of pressure is, so it doesn't deposit everywhere. It simply seals the leak after driving 30 mins minium. Then you drain water, flush, fill with fresh coolant.

If i remember right though, I been told thta when the leaks in the oil you can't use the chemiweld stuff. Can't confirm though... but i would imagine it ain't healthy.

You'd konw more about this than me anyways with your watercooled background. I'm just going from the experience on my celica 2 months ago :P, and took an old mechanics advice (friend of mine) when i was having head gasket issues. its since been sealed, regardless of the torment i put my car through.

cheers Chris
im just hoping the thread helps people that are in the situation i was facing 9 months ago, considering the conversion but not sure of exactly whats involved


its under $100 for a pair of genuine head gaskets
im not a fan of temporary fixes plus its a good excuse to give the top end a freshen up
my old boss will skim the heads for me if they need it which i highly doubt but you never know

if its free... do it 🙂

trouble with shaving the head is it raises the compression if a stock gasket is used which works against me as im still kicking ideas around about force feeding this thing

My mate blew head gaskets the other night in a commodore stationwagon, i laughed at himcause i was doing the same thing in my bug and was fine, now he has no car. And once the mechanics done will have no money.

hmmm Déjà Vu.....



in and out more times than a honeymooners co........😂
pooor bug must feel like a $2 hooker

anyway seems #4 is where all the excitements at

good now that you have that milk shake making motor out. whack a EJ20T in and stop stuffing around,
Ino you want to.🤪

u gonna find me a gearbox that wont break?

joel ej20t has nice stainless steel head gaskets not cardboard ones🙂

dont you start being a bad influence as well 🤪

im happy with the EJ22, gets me shit from both sides
from the vws guys cos its not a vw and from the subi guys cos its not turbo 😂

brrrrrrmmmmm pitchooooo😂

Mick058 wrote:vvvrrrroooommmm -ppppchheeeeeee

wap wap waaaaaaaaap vvvrroooomm >>>> PPPPCCCCCHHEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........

put an air-cooled motor back in.....this subi stuff seems like it's too much hassle 😀 LoL

not gonna happen
im enjoying this engine to much.....when it works 😂

Joel wrote:not gonna happen
im enjoying this engine to much.....when it works 😂

who are you trying to kid🤪

brrrrrrmmmmm pitchooooo😂

back on the road and fully working by Movember 29th 🙂

ian.mezz wrote:

Joel wrote:not gonna happen
im enjoying this engine to much.....when it works 😂

who are you trying to kid🤪

brrrrrrmmmmm pitchooooo😂

keep trying you nearly won last time 😉

Joel wrote:

ian.mezz wrote:

Joel wrote:not gonna happen
im enjoying this engine to much.....when it works 😂

who are you trying to kid🤪

brrrrrrmmmmm pitchooooo😂

keep trying you nearly won last time 😉

me , steve & rocknrob could send you some spare cutting wheels uno you want to.😂

that'd be handy acutally
i reckon i've gone through about 20 of the bloody things already cutting up my car, water lines, zorst piping etc
guess thats what broke my budget

ah man... you dont count paint, sandpaper, cutting/grinding wheels, glue, zip ties or gaffa in a budget..

who says EJ22 arent as fun as EJ20T......

just add a shot of some laughy gas



this thing is only running twin 36IDFs for anyone who doesnt get on STF

Does yours sound like that?....... or better🤓

Ryan

it does sound pretty similar actually
my exhaust setup is almost the same as that one
its running a WRX header and a fatboy muffler which is essentially what mine is

i did make one in car vid the other day before i took the engine out but the camera wedged into the passenger headrest lead to a bit of a camera technical difficulty so i havent bothered uploading it

Hey Joel you are going to love the EJ22 in the bug once you get it running right. even in a kombi it was fun to drive and made highway trips a pleasure...but mine had 280,000 klicks on it and was leaking oil everywhere and could do with a rebuild so when i saw the 98 EJ20T with 86k for $400...well...but i had the 22 in it for 2 1/2 years! can't believe it!🙅

ive already got over 300kms on it so far and im loving it already



im starting to suspect the head gasket was leaking from the word go but even with that it still hammered
they're just such a torquey engine, i can see why people love them in kombis

Trying telling the air cooled purists, they don't listen to reason. They like to knock things they haven't tried 🙂

My V6 has been in my car for nearly 7 years. It still runs perfect. I just changing the oil and filter every now and again and it keeps going! The air con in this summer weather is also awesome. When are you sticking air con in yours Joel?

its not for everyone but each to their own

although out of everyone thats seen it so far i havent got any neg feedback yet, there were alot of old school purists at the show i took it to the other week and eveyrone seems to love how neatly its intergrated and that its modernised a classic, still has that old vw charm but reliability and performance of a modern car

sounds like a sales spiel 🤪

anyway the A/C just have to work out evap placement and im right.
original Lbug evaps sit ontop of the fuel tank and duct in through the fresh air fan box
ive limited my trunk room already so dont really want to make it worse

ive got spare Lbug dashs i can have a play around with
im thinking of making one a porsche style like this






there's room in behind the radio/glove box area to fit an evap core.
Once all the stock Lbug dash vent and defroster ducting is gone theres alot more room behind there

ive got the evap from the liberty but its fairly big and clunky, i've got access to more slimline ones just have to box them in

end result will be similar to how you've done yours

Joel wrote:that'd be handy acutally
i reckon i've gone through about 20 of the bloody things already cutting up my car, water lines, zorst piping etc
guess thats what broke my budget

Ahhh feck it.
I'll bloody send you some
Maybe you could get a sponsorship deal from "pommieland" 😉

Edit: Keep it stock looking in the driver's posn

*biased mode* Jorgen's bug is to die for on discrete looks. But, each to their own.

let me know when you want the checker floors 😂

yeah Joel get the Turbo motor in before the RTA does something silly like change the rules on modified cars🤪

That's probably the most explained suggestion I've seen you make Ian. 😂 🙂 I cant wait to see your subi bug... soon. I heard its gettting lowered at the front///// 😂 :P

geez this thread slaughters my inbox
can any mods explain why i get 5 notifiactons per reply?
used to be about 7 🤪



top idea balders, please send to:

save an EJ20T, donate a cutting disc. PO BOX.....😂

its booked for an engineers cert on the 18th so i'll see what comes of that first

boostcrusing....?

lol yea i use it for the classifieds.
good for cheap parts

theres always some ricer selling parts cheap to pay child support to his 3 16 year old girlfriends or getting his VL commodore out of hock

just for peoples comical amusment heres the vid i took coming up the hill the other day showing that wedging a camera in the passenger headrest doesnt work

oh yeah for the record our speed limits around here are still in MPH no KM/H

Must have some torque if your getting torque steer in the camera 😉

Hahaha the camera lovs ya, cant keep it 'eyes' off you

ian, your not one to use peer pressure to persuade someone are you? 😂

yeah I don't want young Joel to be left out when all his mates have Turbo cars and his is nanna powered😂

STIDUB wrote:ian, your not one to use peer pressure to persuade someone are you? 😂

every school yard had a bully,
this one doesnt steel my lunch money, he makes me spend it on engine conversions i dont need 😂

im digging the invisible price tag ian, does that mean its free? ill stick it in the bug tomoro if thats that story

funny, its usually the older kids that do it too, perhaps joel doesnt need the * extension of having the turbo...

altho... that makes me look really bad 😂

oh man i went on holidays for 2 days and come back to 72 emails about this thread. You know how to draw a crowd joel 😂

hehe now u know what i been going thro for the last 9 months

so i guess that makes you one of the mystery email addresses on my notifications


dont worry another few months ill think of another new project and it will be like this and blowing the bug all over again 🤪

much to ians delight it will probably be an EJ20t conversion

haha at least your projects always work. That is why there is such a big joel following. Can't wait to see this beast in the flesh

Hi Joel

Cant you deactivate the email notification, I don't bother with it.

Steve

Steve i normally dont bother either, its just for long topics like this where its easy for me to miss peoples questions

DaveCarter wrote:haha at least your projects always work. That is why there is such a big joel following. Can't wait to see this beast in the flesh

trust me for each sucessfull project i have theres lots more unsucessfull ones, they just dont get forum air time 😂
classic example was my turbo engine, wasnt a failure but it was one problem after another till i gave up on it

a turbo engine aye, seen a cop witha bug with a turbo engine yesterday, had ps on it too. Dunno how it eneded but. Got plans from it still?

i never work off plans, just build and modify as i go
that one was pre digitial camera days but i was tearing my hair out over it so much i was just glad to see it gone

So then he "cheated" and got a Subi "lol"

okay, im tossing up the idea but steve carter posted some vey scary figueres earlier

will scare you no matter which way you go,
going fast aint cheap

what engine were you trying it on

ummm well frankenstein v1.0 i ASSuMEd was a 1600 cos although it was an AB block which is 1300 i pulled if from a superbug and it had a 1600 carb and manifold and exhaust

i pulled it down after it grenaded to find it was still a 1300

frankenstien v2.0 that replaced it was a 1600 but had some bad piston slap and used to detonate pretty bad under boost it was a time bomb but the turbo gave out before it did

Alrighty, will look into it, hows the subi going

not goin at all for a while

got it dropped out ready to pull down but currently theres just not enough hours in the day
im putting in 14 hours+ a day at the momemt just cos im so snowed under
no wonder im look like the walking dead at the moment

im deteremined to have it ready for run to the sun in acouple of weeks so i;ll make some time for it
only needs a few hours and some parts

okay sounds good.

Joel wrote:not goin at all for a while

got it dropped out ready to pull down but currently theres just not enough hours in the day
im putting in 14 hours+ a day at the momemt just cos im so snowed under
no wonder im look like the walking dead at the moment

im deteremined to have it ready for run to the sun in acouple of weeks so i;ll make some time for it
only needs a few hours and some parts

14 hours a day.
your nuts🤪😂🤪

I whinge and I'm only workin 9-5 😂

ian.mezz wrote:14 hours a day.
your nuts🤪😂🤪

I think you're right, he does farm nuts.

im very nuts, but im also at the mercy of the weather at the moment and have to work around it

dads gonna look after the place for me next week so i can treat myself to a few days off and hopefully get my bug back up and running

it seems this is the month everyone on the interwebs has chosen to look at my pics and have burned out all my photobucket bandwidth
lucky for me i have a couple of others lol


so im stuck in the middle of that wonderfull situation known as awaiting parts at the moment
so ive decided to dress up the plant room alittle while everythings out and apart
subi engines arent much to look at so any help they can get to look better is good
and my engine bay was starting to look a little junkyard-ish now i've removed the chrome louvered firewall and tarboard
i was sick of them as the louvered rattelled badly when the stereo was cranked and the tarboard is doing nothing now i have sound/heat deadner on the inside of the firewall
ive been planing for ages to just paint the firewall but ive been holding off as a few people know already theres a colour change on the cards for my bug so i couldnt see the point in painting it yet
but with how things are going thats gonna be a while off yet


the contact glue on it everywhere that held the padding was looking very ugly




and those little spikes that hold the tarboard are just the ticket for skinned knuckles




and in the corners all the facotry seam sealer has long since crumbled and fallen off and you can also see there was a massive foam tumour that i had to scrape away years ago to get my kadrons to fit




where i removed the valance was also a lot of bare metal and various unpainted metal areas





so i did a heap of prep, removed all those little sharp bastards and painted away

ok thats the bug looking a bit better
so to tidy up the engine first thing to get attention was the timing belt covers

now the easy thing with them would have been get a new set, they're cheap and easily availble but wheres the fun in that??

first thing i did was degrease all the years of roadgrime, oil spills and powersteering fluid off them




the outter sections are in good condition but the center section has had the crank pulley rubbing away on it at some point and its had an intimate moment with the timing belt idler




and look theres even a love stain to prove it




damage is actualluy most curious
its obvious that the idlers been rubbing againt the cover and melted it abit
but in one of lifes little mysteries its managed to some how stop and position itself about 2" lower and leave a perfect imprint in the plastic
so perfect you can read the back to front JAPAN in the plastic




anyway with a dose of ABS plastic glue and some paint its loooking marginally better
i didnt fuss to much about the pulley rub mark as it will be covered up by the pulley

anther thing that sticks out like dogs balls on a subi engine is the inlet manifold
there was a few jobs i wanted to do to this while its off




firstly is remove all the hardlines that were for the charcoal canister
im connecting directly to the purge solenoid so they're not doinging anything and ive already had to cut off the canister ends to clear my top radiator hose




i wanted to remove all the wiring loom as well and rewrap the electrical tape on it as its starting to unwind in a few spots and check the loom for wear spots
ive heard that people have found on some EJ engines where the loom has worn through on something metal and can short out the wiring



i didnt find any of that but i did find the rubber hose on the canister hard line had worn through on the compressor/alt bracket
good thing i havent been using it




now before u go tearing things apart its a good idea to take lots of reference pics

the plug wire holders are like a friggen jigsaw puzzle




all the electrical plugs are different so they cant be mixed up....EXCEPT for the the injectors which are all the same
now im pretty sure theses engines arent sequential fire but they would most likely atleast be batch fire which means u cant mix them up

mine had one on each side marked




but i still marked each one indiviually to play it safe


anyway stripped down with the offending hard lines removed and a coat of paint theres an instant 20HP
goes faster already






i noticed as i was putting it back together that it looked rather animal like......




ive got the IACV still sitting here which im gonna give the clean out treatemtn tomorrow

I wish i had the patience,tools,time,skills to do all the stuff you do, you make it look and seem effortless.

its just a hobby
everything i know is all self taught
ive never done any sort of coarses or training
just abit of time working as a mechanic doing stuff i had already learned years ago

when i got my first bug i was too scared to even take the dissy cap off.
granted i was only 13 years old at the time but i soon learned just pull it apart taking note of how it goes together and its pretty easy to suss out how they work

vws are very simple cars and one of the best to start learning with

i once knew nothing about body work or painting either
all i did was bought a shitty $200 beetle, a heap of sandpaper and bog and a spray gun and had a go

10 years ago a $200 solid bug was easy to find but u can do the same thing these days with an old corolla or pulsar etc

its easy to have a go at anything, you dont develope skills if u dont try

what kinda paint u use joel? (the red paint)

BTW.. im ojan from Malaysia... we chatted for a while a few months back bout ur SC...

nice to see the progress of ur SUBABUG...

hope im not disturbing ur thread...

hey Ojan, havent heard from you for a while

ofcourse your not disturbing, this thread is here for people to ask questions

the paint is just ordinary fire engine red enamel
the manifold doesnt get hot enough to call for hi-temp paint

another things ive done is mounted my charcoal canister
its hiding away neatly behind the header tank

ya its been a while... hope my post are not to nubie... if so.. i will proceed to PM... 🙂

its amazing what u've done here joel...

the SC idea just slips through my mind after seeing ur subaru conv...

i did some search in my local scrapyard and no EJ22 available.. only turbo engines... mostly the EJ20 sti and the twin turbo version...🤪

not too sure if my 1303 gbox is up for that much power... is ur trans stock? its hard to find an N/A suby motor here joel...🥲

yea i know what you mean
the blower had the "cool" factor and was on a par with the EJ22 power wise but this engine is just so much smoother
the bugs lost it soul abit but the reliability factor makes up for it
i know i could just jump in and drive to melbourne without any worrys except whats playing on the stereo

my gearbox is just stock
thats the joy of N/A subi motors they work in perfect harmony with a stock trans unlike turbo motors
but dont tell the others i said that 😂

just for those who are wondering i havent had a chance to do much with it
stripped down to a long block shows just how close in size to a vw engine it really is





i also got another treat for the bug
its amazing the new in box stuff you can find hidden in peoples atticks lol

bosch germany starter motor for a semiautomatic beetle

these are higher HP than a standard a starter and are self supporting so no more dealing with starter bushings
bit more clunkier than a stock starter

Yeah the motors are pretty simmilar. There simmilar size , there both boxster motors , The Subi just runs on water 😂

The Subaru motor is just a modern vw motor 😂

ya... but i dont know if my malaysian road officers will agree with the 'modern vw engine mod'....

gosh!!! i wish malaysian rules were like in OZ....

what options of gbox for the ej20T? will a bus box hold? too many bus box and im confused... 002,091got one more but i forgot... which one is which? which is the best for a blown EJ?

bulletbug, see my gearbox when its finished, its based on an 091, the other option is porsche 915 / G50... alternatively, use a bug box, treat it nicely or get an exceptionally well built bug box & be sympathetic to it, my option is for flogging to death & it should be more than adequate 😀

3days joel, get it done so i can go for a ride, pretty please? & dont even think about mentioning the almost dead 1300 idea🙅

Hi Joel

Is that STI red on the manifold? Is that the starter from Stockers?

A benefit that I've never mentioned when I had my WBX powered 1302, heated windscreen washer fluid, yep run your washer fluid hose around the radiator hose and you will have heated washer fluid, gets rid of bugs etc much better than cold water, I know this because sometimes I wash up at home😂, cant move any gunk of the washing up if you use cold water.

Steve

I got told the stokers sale was a bit of a joke - stupid prices etc. sadly, i personally cannot go.

Well if there prices were a joke i would hate to buy something off them when they werent having a sale cause they claimed everything would be 50% off.

BulletBug wrote:ya... but i dont know if my malaysian road officers will agree with the 'modern vw engine mod'....

gosh!!! i wish malaysian rules were like in OZ....

what options of gbox for the ej20T? will a bus box hold? too many bus box and im confused... 002,091got one more but i forgot... which one is which? which is the best for a blown EJ?

thats outta my jurisdiction i dont speak gearbox to well
bus boxes have bad ratios for a bug but that can be changed

dangerous on here is the man to talk to

STIDUB wrote:3days joel, get it done so i can go for a ride, pretty please? & dont even think about mentioning the almost dead 1300 idea🙅

boring..... trust me its way more fun counting how many death rattles a vw engine can make


Steve, nah its TORO touch up paint 😂
yeah thats the startermotor,
ive been getting parts from alan for over 10 years, ive always found his prices good, and he looks after his good customers
that starter for example is brand new german and was $287 and while i was there i grabbed a pair of wheel cylinders for dads and genuine german ATE they were $3 cheaper than another vw shop i tried

1303Steve wrote:Hi Joel

Is that STI red on the manifold?

ahhh steve you funny you beat me to it.😂

i knew someone had to say it 😂

Joel is you going to put a timing belt kit on it ??
it all looks a bit old .
I think the dearest part is the tensioner.
we get parts cheap.

i am yeah while its off its easy to and ive also got a new genuine water pump coming aswell
ill keep that belt as a spare cos its actually not that old and still looks pretty new, thats just a shitty pic

was only replaced a couple of years ago and done 46,000kms

Hey Joel have you been to the Lee noonan (68autobug) school of painting 😂😂

Preety sure i dislike timimng belts, my girlfriends mum drives a camry and its timing belt is loose. It has been rubbing the inside of its cover for ages. I apparenly am the man for the job cause i work on my dub. So far ive got half the cover off and now ive gotta take the wheel and heaps of other shit off jus to get at the second cover, and i dont even know if it needs a new belt or tensioner. Worst bit is she needs it nearly everyday. So your lucky you can take yours out to do it. They dont make removeable fornt ends for camrys. 🙂

not yet i seemed to have misplaced my yellow and flourescent green

you need to buy a can of kromebrite (liquid chrome enamel) for the case and the heads that the engine reconditioner does where we are. it looks pretty

O by the way how are your nuts?????😂

71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:Preety sure i dislike timimng belts, my girlfriends mum drives a camry and its timing belt is loose. It has been rubbing the inside of its cover for ages. I apparenly am the man for the job cause i work on my dub. So far ive got half the cover off and now ive gotta take the wheel and heaps of other shit off jus to get at the second cover, and i dont even know if it needs a new belt or tensioner. Worst bit is she needs it nearly everyday. So your lucky you can take yours out to do it. They dont make removeable fornt ends for camrys. 🙂

not to be rude, but it sounds like you don't think your the man for the job...

im in year 11 and my dub is like only car ive workeed on and there is no forums like this to help.

STIDUB wrote:bulletbug, see my gearbox when its finished, its based on an 091, the other option is porsche 915 / G50... alternatively, use a bug box, treat it nicely or get an exceptionally well built bug box & be sympathetic to it, my option is for flogging to death & it should be more than adequate 😀

091 is gbox from what model? G50 cost a lot of GGG's... 🙂
and not to mention.... very hard to find right...

i will wait for ur gbox outcome...when is the test? do u have a thread bout your project? do give feedback... 🙂

Joel wrote:

BulletBug wrote:ya... but i dont know if my malaysian road officers will agree with the 'modern vw engine mod'....

gosh!!! i wish malaysian rules were like in OZ....

what options of gbox for the ej20T? will a bus box hold? too many bus box and im confused... 002,091got one more but i forgot... which one is which? which is the best for a blown EJ?

thats outta my jurisdiction i dont speak gearbox to well
bus boxes have bad ratios for a bug but that can be changed

dangerous on here is the man to talk to

STIDUB wrote:3days joel, get it done so i can go for a ride, pretty please? & dont even think about mentioning the almost dead 1300 idea🙅

boring..... trust me its way more fun counting how many death rattles a vw engine can make


Steve, nah its TORO touch up paint 😂
yeah thats the startermotor,
ive been getting parts from alan for over 10 years, ive always found his prices good, and he looks after his good customers
that starter for example is brand new german and was $287 and while i was there i grabbed a pair of wheel cylinders for dads and genuine german ATE they were $3 cheaper than another vw shop i tried

'dangerous' is a persons nick right? u have a link joel?

http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=78092&page=3

thats my thread, 091 is from mid 70s 2L kombi's, aka a 2L box, has 6 ribs on it, instead of 3-5 on the other kombi boxes, plenty of info on each of them on thesamba, keep in mind they arent that cheap either, expect to pay $300-500AUD for the basic box from what ive seen in the last year or so, then add the parts to make it fit with the beetle nose cone, new gears for stronger & better ratios), diff - im told by a friend in the UK that the syncro diff is up to the task if you can source one, seems they are a cheap solution in that part of the world.

Crap i gotta go to work, ill explain more later 👍

rose wrote:you need to buy a can of kromebrite (liquid chrome enamel) for the case and the heads that the engine reconditioner does where we are. it looks pretty

O by the way how are your nuts?????😂

quite comfortable thanks..... oh right 🤪 seriuosly though not good actually thanks to the heat wave
doubt we'll break even next year

Kromebrite huh? sounds like the key ingredient in a GEX engine rebuild

ok... one Q...

if a project is planned... whats the most important thing...? is my priority right in oder?

1. bodywork
2. braking(4 pot front, 2 pot rear) do i really need a 4 pot(f),2 pot(r)? planning on using ej20 engine...
3. suspension
4. power plant (EJ20)
5. tranny (or this should be no 4?)

do comment...

BulletBug wrote:ok... one Q...

if a project is planned... whats the most important thing...? is my priority right in oder?

1. bodywork
2. braking(4 pot front, 2 pot rear) do i really need a 4 pot(f),2 pot(r)? planning on using ej20 engine...
3. suspension
4. power plant (EJ20)
5. tranny (or this should be no 4?)

do comment...

none of the above
if you are in NSW I would check with the RTA and a engineer bfore doing anything as the rules are starting to change on mod cars.
I know a bloke who spent 50k on a Kit car only to find out it didnt meet the RTA rules🙅🙅

Ian, he's in malaysia

probably abit overkill with the brakes, but you can never have to much stopping power
and gearbox depends how you drive

Ian has a stock one with a turbo EJ20 but he drives like a grandma

Joel wrote:Ian, he's in malaysia

probably abit overkill with the brakes, but you can never have to much stopping power
and gearbox depends how you drive

Ian has a stock one with a turbo EJ20 but he drives like a grandma

what is RTA anyway?

ok how if ej20 with stock box?

dont rev too high?

what makes a box get destroyed?

RTA I'd the road traffic authority. There are laws in aus (and they are different in all states) controlling what you can and can't do to modify registered cars.

What kills gear boxes? Power. These gearboxes were not designed to have heapsss of power to go through them, hence why Dave (stidub) is upgrading. And with an ej20 turbo, the last thing you wannt to happen is to have to pull the engine and gearbox out.

Priorities in the correct order?? Probably not. Unless and a
amazing pro is doing all the custom work (exhaust/ intake piping ect) leave body work till last.

BulletBug wrote:

Joel wrote:Ian, he's in malaysia

probably abit overkill with the brakes, but you can never have to much stopping power
and gearbox depends how you drive

Ian has a stock one with a turbo EJ20 but he drives like a grandma

what is RTA anyway?

ok how if ej20 with stock box?

dont rev too high?

what makes a box get destroyed?

ok what ever the road rules are where you are.
after your done all of your home work.
the main thing is that you finish what you start

Joel wrote:Ian, he's in malaysia

probably abit overkill with the brakes, but you can never have to much stopping power
and gearbox depends how you drive

Ian has a stock one with a turbo EJ20 but he drives like a grandma

What is that up near the top end of NT

Any idea what box jak rizzo is using?

Nice work Joel,

Just to comment on the box. most use single side plate boxes with a super diff...and welded 3rd and 4th gears.

I am pretty sure both Jak and Paul spun 3rd prior to gettin the gears welded.

I had the welded gears from the start, although i blew up 2nd gear twice......

I now have albins internals with really tall first (3.0), tall 2nd (2.0) stock ratio 3rd and taller 4th(.82)

Dave butler did mine and I have been taking heaps of people for "hard" runs and the box has not missed a beat.

Without a turbo a stock single side plate will last along time ....if you are not stupid with it all the time..

Matt

You win some, you lose some.....

well its a rainy, dark and gloomy day so i figured perfect to finally get those heads off and suss out my engine
shoulda known better as my mood would soon match.... cos what i found aint pretty

confusious say dont always trust low mileage engines.
because its so long between services this can happen:











lack of schedueled coolant changes has allowed severe electrolosis to nom nom the heads and engine block

and looking how close its got to the combustion chambers and cylinder liners i dont know how it was possible that it ran as well as it did









in all i got 387kms on it and it really impressed me even being like this with how it ran, so i realise that a fresher engine will be even better again

be that as it may though, at the moment im just really over all this shit and the haha told you so's so for now its going back to vw power
no fun but i got rego coming up shortly and its only done 600kms since last years pinky, so as you can imagine i just really want my bug back on the road wont be for too long though
once i regain motivation ill track down another engine or as a last resort theres a WRX front cut sitting here that can go in it but i really would prefer not go thro all the bullshit involved

a good mate of mine who's a car dealer has offered to pick me up a good liberty from the auctions when hes back fromt he US so if nothing turns up in the mean time thats proabbly the way ill go

ouch man that sucks. What a pity. It looked like it went so well

ah shit happens
its a shame cos i cant find anything else wrong it, pistons look abit oilly but it wasnt burning any

it could be fixed with welding and lots of cleaning but in the end its so much easier and cheaper to just grab another long block

gonna look into a few possibilitys cos i can get one half the age and bigger if i went twincam EJ25 just gotta find out whats compatible with what

Hope you have a stack of the sh!t the cat has - man you gunna need something to mellow out on

So the blower goes back in??

quite possibly but i wanna get my 1776 back in and setup so i can put it on the market.
id like to have it running in car so potential buyers can see how it drives though so theres one good to come out of all this

funny as it may seem though yea its a shame but im not terribly upset, this situation is yet another reason why i went the conversion

another engine can just be slotted in and away u go, no frigging around with tuning setting up carbs etc just plug and play

its just getting hold of one

i havent done much in the way of tracking one down yet but the subi boys are looking after me and are gonna try and chase one up,
he tells me he can get late 90s/early 00s EJ20s for alot cheaper than EJ22 with the added benefit of being a much newer engine and the power difference between the two is fairly minimal

Ah well man...back on that horse. It will be sorted out soon enough.

Too bad Joel but cheer up...my 98 forester engine cost $400...supposedly only got 86k on the clock...havn't got

it going yet so may be no better than yours😂 still its cheaper than a service on a new car👍

yea that eases the pain the fact that they're so cheap
hell 3weeks ago i sold a plain old 1600 twinport running well but usual oil leaks for $600 and the buyer was more than happy with it at that price
vw motors arent cheap anymore

my mate reckons he can get me a good lib or imp from the damaged auctions for no more than $300 with a good engine but ill see what the subi boys find first

SOHC ej25 would suit you nicely yes? no turbo, no massive heads... came out of the foresters & such

Put the 1776 in and pick me up on Sunday 🙂

Hi Joel

Bad luck. Some EJ25 models have a known head gasket problem, I'm sure the Subi guys could tell you more about which models are affected.

Steve

HTFU!

🙂

It's just a suby motor, plenty more where that one came from. You should just put some new head gaskets on the suby and keep driving it. Just keep some spare water in the car 😀

That sort of weird damage is why I like the idea of buying a front cut rather than a motor, as you can see the coolant still in it to get a better idea of how bad it might be inside.

gosh... thats some nasty stuff there... its kinda eating ur engine... dont be upset joel... with a talent like u, i know this thread wont be RIP...🙂

just have faith and im sure those subi boys will help u find a motor, hope fully a wrx sti(TURBO)... 😁

im pretty sure the SOHC EJ25 are wider than 20s and 22s so they still need the bug to be baja'd to fit in which case id just go ahead and fit the WRX lump sitting at my mates place

there was no way of picking this problem without pulling the engine down
Wes, I know better than to buy straight engines aswell, this was actually a complete driving car i bought and i had a decent drive of it before, it ran perfectly and had nice clean coolant in it and continued to run well in the bug and wasnt getting hot at all. coolant may have been changed but i severly doubt it, he was in no effort to tidy up the car or engine as it was only going to scrap if it didnt sell
even my old boss whos a mechanic of 43 years was impressed with how it ran

this problem only showed up when i ran the coolant low and the headgasket let go otherwise who knows how long it might have gone for
and even then it was still running fine just started getting hot on me around town. came as a surprise

scott the subi bloke said he sees it all time in older EJ motors and what happened is usually the way it goes, they keep running till the headgaskets give out

itll be back up and running under subi steam soon enough

Bad luck.
I told you to go ej20T🤪🙅🤪
YOU bETA CALL your mate down the coast.
We can get Trade price for you on parts.😵

Bad luck. I know how annoyed i would be right now.

But onto the positives this 1776 woUld it come with carbs and exhaust etc. And roughly how much are we talkin.

Bad luck with That block at least there is heaps of subis out there people will continue to write off.

Hey Joel, check out this thread out of volks-swap. It says that the Ej25 fits with tweaking but no cutting.

http://bb.bbboy.net/vwengineconversions-viewthread?forum=3&thread=135

Oh dude, that's 5hit.

Still, at least they're cheap(ish). I'm sure you'll find a good un soon.
Fingers crossed for ya mate

thanks all for the encouragement and kind words.

you can imagine my frustration, I just got a taste test good enough to enjoy it and this happens

but Ive got a few leads to chase up and thanks to alkoran its confirmed something bouncing round in my head
i knew all the EJ18 thro to EJ22 have the same stroke so are the same width but i wasnt sure how much wider an EJ25 ended up

if they fit without innergaurd cutting then all the better
however not sure if an EJ22 ECU is upto fueling an EJ25 but maybe its an excuse to follow through with aftermarket management

but in the meantime if i have to put up with lawnmower motivation (damn VWKD rubbing off on me 😂) then it could be worse

As for the aftermarket ems, I know you guys got pretty good made in Australia but if your budget doesnt permit a 1000$ one, you can always check for Megasquirt. The thing that is good for you is that an almost pnp version just got out. Check this thread.

http://www.rs25.com/forums/f72/t114341-megasquirt-pnp-opportunity.html

I was told by a Subaru factory tech that the early EJ25 and the EJ22 will run off the same ECU, just take the sensors off the EJ22 and put them on the EJ25 and off you go. 😁

BTW, I've had no dramas with mine, but I could understand how regular servicing would do what you have found in your water galleries.

hey joel in a way we are in the same boat...installing new engines we want to last and one factor is getting the operating temp to factory specs. I see your question on a crappy unmentionable site(wouldn't allow me to register!) regarding flow thru the thermostat. I have done the drilling the 8mm hole but all it does is allow the pump to suck more cool water in. I have a genuine sooby thermostat and it had to sit in boiling water for 5 minutes before it would open 10mm


[/img]

cool water from your radiator just isn't going to do it

i'm going to place my thermostat on the outlet end of the water manifold which gets the hottest water...the normal little trickle hole should be enough to let hot water get to the spring which will be facing the engine of course. a simple housing can be made using the EJ22 spigot and a turbo spigot which are opposite hand


[/img]

all thats needed is this spacer


[/img]

still waiting on this from a mates mate😬

should fit in easy as its pretty much inline

hopefully this will allow the system to work as it was intended and maintain optimum temps👍

Rob, PM elusive stranger on here, hes one of the mods on vwkd he'll help sort out your registration probs

thats a brilliant idea with the 2 thermostat housings

ive been looking around a few cars out there use inline remote thermostats like some BMW and landrovers



might look into it if i have dramas

cheers for the info Pete, i knew 20s will run fine with a 22 manifold and injector but wasnt sure bout a 25

It seems nothing stays a secret long around here....

for some bizarre reason i got this strange sense of dejavu......





gotta love them, as you can see in the vid, just turn the key it fired up instantly, no smoke or clackly lifters

the way vw engines seem to breed in the shed it wasnt gonna be long before the subis started multiplying aswell

looking abit more presentable now than in a past life




it took a bit of fiddling to fit
being a later model and a JDM Legacy import everything on top was different, had to swap my manifold, harness, alternator, AC compressor, sensors etc
but cooling system pressure tested, compression tested and a 3 month warranty for $550 im not complaining
and you can make that $450 cos i got $50 each for the compressor and powersteering pump, yet to sell the alternator

allegedly under 100k on the clock, im sceptical but i started pulling it down to swap stuff over and it would appear to be likely

inside of the sump is clean as a whistle with no sludge or grit on the bottom,
i doubt its been off cos it was still firmly attached with that original orange silastic in the same manner the other 2 were




all inside the block is nice and clean




all the breather connections are all clear with no real carboning




and most importantly the insides of the cooling system is like new






i have just run it till the fan cycled and all is good
it threw a knock sensor code at first for some reason but it hasnt done it since

i replaced the aftermarket thermostat it had in it with a genuine subi one




its amazing the difference it makes
only took about 5 mins for the temp gauge to hit 90c and just sat there for next 10 or so mins till the fan cut in

Hi Joel

Looking good. Is this a EJ20 or 22?

Steve

Very nice, Joel!
🙂

oops 😊
its another 22

seemed destined to be a 20, they were having trouble finding 22s, but could get 20s no worries and cheaper too, but they found this on and i prefered to stay 22 so it was a done deal

still got a few things to do with it
got a new timing belt to chuck on it
theres also a new water pump for the old motor but when i swapped the thermostat the current water pump is either new or in perfect cond so itll stay

Nice one Joel, glad you didn't have to make do with air so soon after the conversion!
Rich

yeah Joel, good to see you staying on the path to darkness 🙂

Nice one joel! Now the subaru parts collection starts....

Wow, didnt take long.

Whatcha gunna do with the 1776.

I like that exhaust too, is the pasengerside tailpipe actually doing anything?

71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:Whatcha gunna do with the 1776.

Sell it.

OKay, whats it gunna come with, i may be keen.

PM joel and he will let you know. 🙂

yahoo!!! keep it goin joel... wonder how if u decided to go ej20... 👍

rocknrob, have you considered how your thermostat is going to sense the water temterature with that setup. You have no flow of water past the thermostat.

Hi (excuse me joel) yeah it will receive hot water same as any thermostat...it will be at the hotwater outlet of the engine and enough water flow thru the little trickle hole so its not a dead end...and it will get a realistic temperature compared to at the inlet


[/img]

colonel mustard wrote:Nice one joel! Now the subaru parts collection starts....

dont be saying that, i'd probably be put up for adoption
after 15 years my bug/s still live in the shed in town at mum and dads along with too many vws in pieces

if i bring them out here to my place they have to live in the tractor shed and the rats use them as night clubs



but on the subject of parts any one want an authentic subaru paper wieght?
runs well if u only drive 2mins to the shops 😂

Robs thermostat setup will work well if the original heater loop is in place as a bypass when its shut

that makes it just the same setup as most cars have with the 'stat on the hot side of the engine
just as long as the spring side is toward the engine so it can sense how hot the water coming from the block is

i was thinking of going this way as well but thought i'd give the stock setup a try first

im surprised how well it works actually
i was worried about the engine getting cold shocks but watching the temp gauge i could see it doing exactly what brad said they do

to get up temp really quick it just circulates the water around the engine only then as it starts to heat up it just keeps sipping cold from the radiator return

as i wasnt driving there was no air through the radiator so it just kept doing this till all the cold was used up then the fan cut in for about 3 mins

incidently does anyone know the cut in/out temps for the fan?

both motors were identical to the degree
on at 103 and off at 98 which i know isnt the stock so im trying to work out how off my gauge is reading

it sat on about 87 till the 'stat opened and given its a 78c 'stat im guessing my gauge is about 10c too high

...that paperweight looks like strange bubble top case, hang onto it, find some BIG p&b's, make the fan & tinware fit.... instant OHC'd 2-3L aircooled 😂

Ha! subaru Oxyboxer 👍

that'll sort the overheating problem 😂

Baja Wes wrote:yeah Joel, good to see you staying on the path to darkness 🙂

*Boomy voice*
The Force is strong in this one!

Gotta say I'm laughing over here. Joel didn't want to come over to the Darkside, had a small tinker then loves it.
Glad he found a cheap replacement 👍

PS this thread is funny

Nice one Joel👍
just a couple of weeks until Ashes folks come over from W.A. with our EJ22 and kit, but it will no longer be going in Mildred 😉

nice one bob, we gonna see all the purists crying at a subi powered split?


well 2:30 this arvo and still 36c and F'King hot!
but i decided what the hell and gingerly went on a maiden voyage run 20km out the bangalow/byron bay road
the new thermostat is certainly doing its job but its abit un-nerving seeing the temp gauge hit 90 within the first 1-2KM
the old motor used to take a good 5-10KM or so before it hit those kinda temps but for those that read my VWKD thread it was cos the thermostat in it loooked like this




but once it got to 90 it pretty much stayed there varying between 90-95 which is really only 80-85 thanks to my innaccurate gauge
didnt get any hotter than that till i got back into town and slowed down to climb the big hill up to mum and dads place, even then it only hit about 98 which isnt that hot

fan didnt start till i got home and let it idle for about 4-5mins

im not giving this motor too much stick till its been running for a while as its been sitting for a quite a while but over all it doesnt feel any different to the other one but its certainly running well and much to my delight when i got back after the run the level in the overflow tank was exactly where i left it

the old motor used to raise it by several inches on a long trip then suck it back in overnight

i also noticed when i came back pulling from down low it pinged abit. it hasnt thrown the knock sensor code again but thats probably cos its not working

Hey Joel you are going to love the sooby when you learn to trust it😂 but it is a bit of a worry this watercooled bit(don't tell the aircooled people🙅) probably telling you something you already know but after a while go back and tighten all your hose clamps...heheh don't ask me how i know😬

dont worry Rob, its the first thing i check after it cools down the first time

i can nearly always get an extra turn on each hose clamp after the first heat up/cool down cycle

the down side to this thread is your not seeing all the f**k ups i have, and theres been a few

had a doozy yesterday after i split a hose

i think the bug must be really pineing for forced induction again

the first subi motor had a really high pitched whine which sounded like a turbo spooling
so much so even an expeirenced subi mechanic thought it was a rexxy dub when i pulled up

i found when i pulledit down it was the bearings in the timing belt tensioner

but to add to the irony, this new motor is also whineing, but a much deeper one, that sounds alot like a supercharger

my camera has crap sound quality but u get the idea



its probably coming off the timing belt, i got a new one here to chuck on it, just havient got round to it yet, been enjoying being back on the road

got a dose of sunshine today at the northcoast christmas toyrun
dad and patrick got the trikes out so i thought what the hell, ill go for a pose
its funny the respect VWs get from all walks of life
i had people coming up all morning wanting to have look

At least we get to see a pic of it outside your garage now, not good bout that coolant but, at least its cause theyre over tight, better than loose i guess.

(and is that the 1776 with the white tinware)

71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:I like that exhaust too, is the pasengerside tailpipe actually doing anything?

nah just for looks but shhhhh dont tell anyone

At least we get to see a pic of it outside your garage now, not good bout that coolant but, at least its cause theyre over tight, better than loose i guess.

(and is that the 1776 with the white tinware)

yea thats it sitting there going to waste
too snooty to sit over in the other corner with all the other motors lol

Joel wrote:nah just for looks but shhhhh dont tell anyone

oh. I actually thought it did...


Nice shots with the trikes 🙂

Joel wrote:

71-BEETLE-SEDAN wrote:I like that exhaust too, is the pasengerside tailpipe actually doing anything?

nah just for looks but shhhhh dont tell anyone

but when it gets a whopping great big turbo on it, theres gunna be an external gate attached & its gunna scream out via that one!😂

joel just doesnt know it yet 😀

pffft screamer pipes belong at the track not on the street

I laugh at the dickheads with screamers on street reg'd cars

Joel wrote:yea thats it sitting there going to waste
too snooty to sit over in the other corner with all the other motors lol

thats because it runs... unlike the others. hahaha.

i was born without a soul so you will have to imagine it

$350 lighter now but my bug is again legal

only 2 changes required and dont even relate to the engine.
my front end needs raising cos it doesnt clear 100mm and my tacho needs relocating cos its illegal to have any gauges or accesories mounted ontop of the dash or the windscreen area

just the kick start i needed to begin on my custom dash i wanna build but for now it can go underneath

thanks to one of Ians secret tricks of the trade it snuck under the noise limit by 4dB

I cant wait till i get mine checked over, glad i mounted my tacho where i did, dunno how im gunna go with the noise limit but, what is the noise limit.

And is 100mm the lowest its legally gotta be?

well, im glad i didnt mount the tacho yet!


Nice work Joel!!

dunno with yours being 71 but mine being 74 had ADR 25 and 27 on the compliance plate that it has to meet

pre 83 cars i think it was have to be under 94dB
we were able to make it abit easier though
the EJ22 like i have make 100KW @6000RPM
but he used the figures from the later ones which make 94KW @5400

the noise level has to be measured at 3/4 peak power so its only 3900RPM with the later ones which i "supposedly" have 😂
at 3900RPM it was only pumping out 83dB but thats with the mr mezz device in

whats interesting though is its actully louder at 3500rpm than it is at 4500rpm

must be the resonation from that stupid canon

re the lowereing rule, lowest part of the car exclusding the wheels cannot be any lower than 100mm

my coolant hoses were at 87mm at the front and my swaybar saddles were at 95mm

Alright well i think mine is louder than that but will see cause its not to bad around half power.

100mm seems like a preety good height to have it sitting at anyways.

Is this one comin to the nationals?

more than likely
i think ill end up on a few peoples hit list if i dont come next year

If yours is 83dB, I would hate to think what mine is with twin webers and a sidewinder 🤪
Wouldn't clear the 100mm either with the muffler 75mm off the ground.

it'll be well over once i take the restrictor out thanks to the hiflow cat

im lucky subis are such a smooth quiet engine
that same muffler on other cars used to set off car alarms in undercover carparks

my zorst sets off car alarms when i drive past flat out in second..... oh yeah!

Pretty sure the limit for VW's is 96dB, which is pretty loud. As I understand it, the sound goes up exponentially, so it takes a fair bit to get to 96dB. My EJ25 with a high flow cat and a straight through muffler registered 90dB at 4000 rpm.
Joel, I would love to know what trick you used to get yours down to 83dB, as long as it doesn't rob too much power.

It's every 4dB, the sound "doubles".
Dads an audiologist 🤓

BlueV2 wrote:Pretty sure the limit for VW's is 96dB, which is pretty loud. As I understand it, the sound goes up exponentially, so it takes a fair bit to get to 96dB. My EJ25 with a high flow cat and a straight through muffler registered 90dB at 4000 rpm.
Joel, I would love to know what trick you used to get yours down to 83dB, as long as it doesn't rob too much power.

it could only be 1 of 1 things to shut it up
gasket after the cat only has a 1" hole

you can feel it holding back a little over 4500rpm but nothing major
infact down low its actually pulling better but it is a very free flowing system so that was to be expected
it hasnt really changed the note of the car at all and you cant really tell its there till over 4.5Gs

for the sake of a piece of sheetmetal (or coffee tin lid ala mr mezz) its worth a try

probably still alot better flowing than the stock liberty exhaust system

im gonna leave it in for the time being but i may try it with a slightly bigger hole as i may be able to find a happy compromise

such a lovely day for a quiet country drive....😂
nothing like scaring the marsupials out of your way with the rumble of a subaru boxer

this is just throwing it through the windies coming up the tuckomobil range (which is a private race track ofcourse....🙄) to see if i could dislodge the camera again

A little something i like to call Toxic build up Release...... Im sure its real name is irresponsible driving but noone needs to know that

That does sound pretty loud 👍
How did you mount the camera this time?

yes the muffler's back to urban assault vehicle specs

as u can tell by the shaky camera action its hung off the passenger headrest

Joel wrote:such a lovely day for a quiet country drive....😂
nothing like scaring the marsupials out of your way with the rumble of a subaru boxer

this is just throwing it through the windies coming up the tuckomobil range (which is a private race track ofcourse....🙄) to see if i could dislodge the camera again

A little something i like to call Toxic build up Release...... Im sure its real name is irresponsible driving but noone needs to know that







Dislaimer: if your gonna drive like a dickhead on the roads, not that i endorse it (do as i say not as i do) atleast know the limitations of your car. its putting innocent lives at risk as it only takes one lose on a bend to head into one of those cars heading the other way and its all over not in a good way

ahhh you bloody young hoooon😂🤪😂

so tell us Joel how much better is it then a old vw motor?

It sounds tough as

Sounds good but I still think that the 1915 with twin dels sound better 😂😂
Who taught you to drive? You shouldn't steer by putting your hand inside of the steering wheel you can get a broken wrist by doing that.

I love that sound, it sounds good at the start when your pull around that corner.

I love knowing the capabilities of my car and also knowing the road helps a tonn too.

I may have to try that little trick too.

well spotted miss rose

not actually a habit i tend to make but at that 20km/h a non rack and peanut superbeetle with a small steering wheel and wiiiiide tyres takes some leverage
might break a pinky at that speed but i think my wrist is safe

If you break a pinky you'll have trouble playing with your nuts😂😂

Joel wrote:well spotted miss rose

not actually a habit i tend to make but at that 20km/h a non rack and peanut superbeetle with a small steering wheel and wiiiiide tyres takes some leverage
might break a pinky at that speed but i think my wrist is safe

oh shit what ever will i do....
have to employ you to do it for me 😉

How much do you pay???😂

Joel wrote:oh shit what ever will i do....
have to employ you to do it for me 😉

rose wrote:How much do you pay???😂

😉

get a room you two 😂

nice vid joel, well the part that loaded before i gave up anyway, & welcome to being deaf in the near future from that exhaust, thats MIGHTY loud in the vid

dont say that, her big scary husband will come after me

im already deaf as a post, got fairly chronic industrial deafness but my camera has a bad tendency to over amplify audio, especially driving with the window down

may sound loud but its still quieter than my 1776
god bless that factory CW crank and balanced bottom end
i keep thinking its stalled when i pull up at an intersection cos u just cant hear it idling from inside
tacho now being way out of my line of vision now isnt helping that

ian.mezz wrote:so tell us Joel how much better is it then a old vw motor?

worst thing i ever did.....

im getting fat now, cos im not gettting the exercise of leaning forward going up hills

speaking of things getting fat....my fatchick seems to have an obescity issue

tipped the scales at 1004kg today 🤪

admittedly thats with a full tank of fuel, about 50kgs of audio gear, probably 30kg of my tools in the front and various other bits like central locking and powerwindow motors etc not in the original 860kg tare weight


EJ22 are supposed to be25kg heavier than a stock 1600 and 14L of coolant....... pipework, frames etc so i guess 140kg more than stock isnt to bad all things considered

my rims are light weight schneider japan racing rims and even with tyres are lighter than stock vw steelies so i cant blame them

Gunna need to shed a few pounds if your planning on keeping up with me at Nationals 😎😂

trickysimon wrote:Gunna need to shed a few pounds if your planning on keeping up with me at Nationals 😎😂

untill the corner after the straight bit, the one after the lil kink in the straight, think ur drag orientated beam thing will struggle with that, though, theres plenty of dirt all around the corse, i hear beams are good on dirt 😂

i'll buzz your mirrors as i flyby when your grabbing 1st to get around the corners 😂

haha dave, great super owners think alike

Hi

We can see if they need the outfield ploughed with all the tractor frontends.

Steve

well i guess i coulda had my 15 minutes of fame here.....
fire her up, stick a screw driver in the belt and bam..... overnight internet celebrity 🤪
but wheres the fun in that??

I picked up this belt originally for the first motor nearly a month ago but i figured what the hell its there and common logic would say replace it anyway
i also have a brand new water pump but it seems the one on the new motor is either new or very low mileage so im leaving sleeping dogs lie on that one


Ive only replaced one subaru timing belt in my life and it was a SOHC impreza about 4 years ago and i swore id never do another again.......
but thats in a subaru 😂
those who have ever done it will confirm IT SUX!!!!, feeling down the back of couch for coins has more room and visibilty


anyway muffler out of the way and alternator belt off




the pulley comes off easy, just buzz the bolt undone with the rattle gun and it just pops off, no pullers needed like a vw pulley




all the covers just unbolt off pretty simply
good to see none of the usual oil leaks from the oil pump, crank and cam seals that theses engines usually suffer from




all the idler pulleys, tensioner pulley and water pump all appear to be new, even the belt doesnt look that old so its probably not long been done,
the engine apprently has just under 100k on it but im wondering if its actually a tad over with all this evidence showing that the timing belt service has just been done
its standard procedure to replace the waterpump, thermostat and all the idler/tensioners as well as the cam and crank seals when done by someone who actually knows subarus and given that everything except the thermostat was genuine parts im thinking im replaceing a perfectly good new belt, but while im at this stage ill replace it anyway so i know where i stand

it may have been done when the engine was removed and sold, i didnt ask much about the history, i was just happy to have a new engine
they didnt mention it had been done to me but ive put over 200kms on it now, just enough to start wearing the markings off the original belt
i could just make them out, its a dayco belt same as the one im putting on




Theres a lot of confusion out there over the indexing marks for the timing belt

lining up the 2 arrows on the cam gears with the notches in the plastic covers:






and arrow on the crank pulley with the slot in the case:




gives TDC

BUT..... as one of the other cylinders is midway through one of the valve stokes the engine naturally wants to keep rotating
and also if u take the belt off at this stage the right cam (left in subaru orientation) as it has valves half open it also want to keep rotating


SO...

thats why theres a second pair of marks

1/8th turn further on the cams lines up a notch in the outer gear with the slot in the covers:







And 90degrees further on the crank lines up the slot at the back:






To remove the old belt i just unbolt the tensioner:
2 bolts, easy as




also removing the lower left idler pulley helps with getting the new belt on




the belt then slides off the pulleys fairly easy





checking the operation of all the pulleys as was expected they were all smooth and quiet, but on my old engine they all were abit sloppy, and very noisy so always someting to check


Now the tensioner is a strange little bit of gear
its hydraulically operated and needs manually compressing to refit the new belt

easiest way to do it is in vice like so




but its a very delicate item and can be very easily be damaged if its done to quick
its a cup of coffee and a smoke process as it takes a good 5-10mins to compress it fully

i found i was getting about 1/8th of a turn on the vice handle every 30 secs till it was fully compressed
doing it to quick can result in blowing the seals


Once its compressed enough drop something strong and the right diameter through the hole like so and remove from the vice




it can then be bolted back to the engine

its too hard to try and get back in place once the belt is on


Its important to get the belt direction facing the right way (arrows facing clockwise)




dayco belts luckily have 3 index marks on them as well which helps with the lining up process on the pulleys





You can also see what i do to stop the belt jumping cogs as its slipped onto the pulleys
important to do it gently and with a cushion like cardboard so as not to damage the new belt



After lots of choice swear words and probably a few thrown tools/nearby inanimate objects it the belt will reappear on the pulleys

it may take a couple of attempts as they do like jumping teeth
removing the upper left idler may also help if its being a PITA
doesnt take much effort to bolt the lower left idler pulley back on
just be sure to get the bolt started nice and straight so it doesnt cross thread




once confindent that all is well the pin can be pulled




a final double check can be doing a tooth count
from the line on the left cam (right side of bug) to the line on the crank is 40 and a half teeth

other side is 44 teeth
i didnt bother, i trust myself.......🙄

Turn the engine over by hand a couple of revolutions to make sure the belt seats properly.

i fired it up for 10 secs just to check all is well,
im sure the neighbours love it with no muffler

putting all back togther is a no-brainer
i just have some work to do with the timing belt backing plates first
the thread inserts in a few spots have pulled out and need fixing back in

Well done Joel.

Now can you find a quad cam engine and do the same thing so I have pictures to follow .... or you can take the pictures while doing mine 😂

WTF🤪🙅🤪
No Pink or Blue belt😂😂😂😂🤪😂😊

pffft i dont go for fancy schmancy stuff like you turbo guys 😂

One thing you didnt mention which I always do when replacing timing belts, is rotate the crank 2 revolutions and rechecking the timing marks, before firing up the engine

good point
all i do is unplug the ground harness and wind it over with the starter a few times

Pfft, twin cam, try replacing the cam belt on a quad cam rexxy engine, it's a lesson in patience. I installed a blue Gates belt in mine a few months ago, now sounds like I have a supercharger driving sowly in traffic zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzzzzzz or straight cut cam gears on my Engle K-8.

Is the twin cam an interference engine like the quad cam, ie: valves will hit pistons if not careful Joel?

regards
Jak

PS I hope u are going to bring that thing to the Nationals Supersprint this year, I've never seen it in the flesh

yeah hardly anyones seen it in the flesh since valla 08

all SOHC up to about 97 are non interfernce, but beyond that they are interferance but of the ones ive seen that have spat the belt, they only ever bend the valves, the pistons dont seem to cop any damage

those 4 cam belts look like a prick of a job

how old is your belt Jak?
my belt was doing exactly what you described,
i can only really hear it when im loping around town about 1000-1500rpm sounds like what you said, a blower/straight cut whine
i thought it may have been a worn idler but they were all new and now with the new belt it does it even louder
im thinking its just the belt bedding in, the old belt was almost new aswell, got me a spare now lol

Apparently u are supposed to replace the belt every 100000k's, mine had well over that though. The belt that I took off had a few small nicks & 1mm sized stones in it.
The gates belt was installed about 6 months ago from memory & it's still making the zzzzzz sound.
I was in an undercover carpark today & it sounds absolutely fantastic! I can't beleive after all this time my car still makes me smile.
Jak

i know that feeling
i was cruising into town today driving along side a concrete center divider just enjoying the note bouncing off

im getting good value outta all the WRX guys rubber necking expecting to see another REX, the look of disbeleife on their face when they see an innocent vw is priceless
would be more fun if i had the power to really embarrase them but oh well itll come one day

I had 2 flanalet wearing mullet headed bogans in an SS commodore give me the thumbs up yesterday bringing the kids home from the beach. They couldn't keep up climbing up & hill & then through a roundabout.
The looks on their faces were priceless, after all this time it never ever gets old.
Jak

PS I don't think getting a thumbs up from bogans is a good thing is it?

totally. I'm a bogan. 😂

Jak Rizzo wrote:I had 2 flanalet wearing mullet headed bogans

Bogans???

Advacheersnce

thanks jak, now i got this stuck in my head

Classic!

Joel wrote:tipped the scales at 1004kg today 🤪

admittedly thats with a full tank of fuel, about 50kgs of audio gear, probably 30kg of my tools in the front and various other bits like central locking and powerwindow motors etc not in the original 860kg tare weight

That's nothing. My V6 powered, climate controlled, electric windowed, kombi gearboxed, subwoofered audio, lift kitted, offroad tyre fitted Baja weighs 1140kg! 😀

Joel wrote:thanks jak, now i got this stuck in my head

I think that was the guy driving!
jak

Baja Wes wrote:

Joel wrote:tipped the scales at 1004kg today 🤪

admittedly thats with a full tank of fuel, about 50kgs of audio gear, probably 30kg of my tools in the front and various other bits like central locking and powerwindow motors etc not in the original 860kg tare weight

That's nothing. My V6 powered, climate controlled, electric windowed, kombi gearboxed, subwoofered audio, lift kitted, offroad tyre fitted Baja weighs 1140kg! 😀

isnt that a bad thing.....?

colonel mustard wrote:

Baja Wes wrote:

Joel wrote:tipped the scales at 1004kg today 🤪

admittedly thats with a full tank of fuel, about 50kgs of audio gear, probably 30kg of my tools in the front and various other bits like central locking and powerwindow motors etc not in the original 860kg tare weight

That's nothing. My V6 powered, climate controlled, electric windowed, kombi gearboxed, subwoofered audio, lift kitted, offroad tyre fitted Baja weighs 1140kg! 😀

isnt that a bad thing.....?

It's a Baja, so going fast isn't the greatest thing, I'm sure Wes's car would give most a run for their money though. Plus a lot of the weight is over the rear wheels which helps add traction while offroading. Still weighs a darn sight less than just about every 4WD out there.

Smiley

colonel mustard wrote:isnt that a bad thing.....?

Depends on what you crash into.

😂

I have been reading this entire thread over the last few days in my spare time. It's very impressive. Also I must say thank you as it has answered questions I had regarding the alternator wiring as well as the surge tank. Hopefully I can get my EJ20 Turbo up and running soon as money permits. I am in California, out here in the desert, a lot of people have been using EJ's for a while in their sand buggies. I was able to pick up a Link ECU for it on ebay with a wiring harness. It plugged in with no issues.

One thing I must comment on is the oil pressure and oil light sender. On my VW motor, I used a VDO sender that was both a pressure and the dash light sender, not two separate items. Also, I saw on a vanagon/subaru conversion website that they used a stainless steel braided line to allow the sender to be mounted out of the way of the alternator. This is what I plan to do as I am leaving the alternator and air conditioning in the stock location.

Again thanks for the great thread and motivation to continue with my project.

Hi Surfbeetle

this time last year when i was first considering this conversion i just couldnt find any real thorough info on it which is why i decided to make the thread.
Its becoming more and more popular conversion so the more info there is out there the easy it will be for people in the future

the oil sender issue really is a PITA....
because of the alternator/powersteering bracket and even the alternator itself its just not possible to screw a pressure sender directly into the port like the stock idiot light sender

those duel pole ones like you have are good as they eliminate the need for a tee and a the idiot light sender
ive seen them fitted by using a pair of 45degree adapters so it clears the alt and powersteering bracket

the other option is at the flywheel end of the block is a second oil gallery with a blank plug in it

with an 90 degree elblow fitted here you can just squeeze in a pressure sender like the pic below

i kept the gallery fitting from my old engine with the intention of doing the same, but in too much of a rush to get the new engine in its on the still to do list

My Autometer Oil Pressure sender fits fine under the alternator, maybe it's different on my rexxy engine? Mine is in a VDO T-Section so that I can run a 2.1L wasserboxer oil pressure switch hooked up to an Autometer warning light on my dash.
The wasserboxer switches come on at a higher pressure than the standard Subaru ones.
jak

they would surely be the same

mine with a 690pk can just get the alternator low enough to actually get the belt on the pulleys

maybe with that underdrive pulley on yours jak it lets the alt sit abit higher??

looks like you have got the alt sitting pretty high on the tensioner bracket?

my alternator height came about purely from belt length. i could definantly do with one an inch shorter, which u just reminded me is on my to do list.
regards
Jak

ok so it was giving me the shits not having the snow plough on

anyone who has a kamei chin spoiler on there bug will know the difference they make especially at speed

for phase one i decided to go the swiss cheese route
i was just a bit worried about losing to much strenght if i just cut a whopping hole in it
i know jak has done that with his but mine has taken a hell of a beating from when my bug was stupid low and has a few stress cracks around the place

anyway with a heap of 40mm holes it looked alittle something like this



when on the move my temp gauge never budges off 90c
within about 5 mins it got there as per normal and sat there for about 5kms but not long after that it started to climb till finally the fan cut in
i was still over 5kms from town but kept it going
it ddint get over 102 which is the temp the fan cuts in at but the fan never turned off the whole way into town

had me kinda puzzled cos the opening i made was perfectly matched to the slots in my valance

then it twigged
the spoiler hanging down below the bottom of the valance was cutting off the air flow to the scoop i made



so spoiler back off problem gone
not a total loss, as i suspected putting a heap of holes in the center partially defeats the purpose
but it was still working to a degree, just not as well as it used to

perhaps runa bit of flat ally from the kamei to the apron then passed the bottom of the radiator, so everything goes thru it not under? jak has a big boxy looking duct going from kamei to apron seems to be very effective 🙂

Hi Joel,

I am fitting a kamei spoiler too.

I allready had it on the car, for test-fitting. I had no problems with cooling.

I recreated the slots I made in my front vallance in the spoiler:


I made some brackets to make the spoiler a little sturdier on the sides, and two lower brackets to make the part below the vents a little stronger.

I also made a plate that goes from the underside of the spoiler to the underside of the radiator.
It's screwed on to these two lower brackets (plate not in place in this picture):

I still have to paint the second hand spoiler flat black. I don't really like the purple.. 😎
But it's to cold at the moment here for painting...or working in my barn... 🥲

This all might not apply to you, btw, you've got your radiator mounted higher, and I am running a 1400 cc, which is probably easier to cool.

FWIW: See this part of my site: http://www.gerrelt.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86:modifications-kamei&catid=35:mod&Itemid=122

hey joel...

re: the pic above, where the two support pieces of alloy are, make it a sheet....?? air flow.......

my question is, does it work as well with holes in it??

you may have trouble cause your radiator sits so hi and its not a cross flow and only the bootom half doing all the cooling, and you may need two small fans????
I ran my around over winter with no hole and the fan used to say on longer at idle. but still go off.

May i say thewy are some nice welds on that rad frame.

Gerrelt, yours works well because your radiator is right down low in the air flow,
due to size of my rad its up on top of the frame head

i've got my setup so the radiator cap and headertank cap are both level with each other and the highest point of the system
so all i have to do is tip the coolant in and drive, no bleeding needed

if i ever have to get a new radiator ill get a small low profile cross flow one from an alfa or a pug but the problem with those are theyre a pain to bleed cos there so low and dont have a cap
i know the alfas have a bleed port on the top but im happy with my current setup its proven itself to be more than adequate in 40c+ weather and my current rad is freshly reco'd so it probably wont come to that

shotgun kamei...?

its pretty well fubar and has a decent crack along the bottom and the gel coats gone where its been bottomed out to many times at the base

oh and now has lots of holes

Hi Joel

I made an alloy section that fitted where the old deformation element bolted it and I completely boxed in around air intake behind the front apron.

Steve

so ive now got over 600kms on this thing since the new engines gone in

all is going sweet, its getting better fuel economy than the old motor
i'm averaging 8.2L/100 which is about 60%city/40%highway which will get alot better once i stop driving it like its stolen

my city cycle sux cos every stop sign or redlight theres always some young dickhead in a falcodoore or rice burner that hears it and wants to race

anyway oil and coolant levels havent moved and the only error code ive had was when i broke the wire off the TPS connection when i was getting the eng cert done


ive already hacked about my kamei, figured i may as well hack up my car bra as well

had a small issue of it blocking the rad intake




easy fixed with a pair of scissors 😂



when i get a chance ill get the upholstry shop to sew in some fabric mesh like mainstream car bras have
this will help give it some strength and stop animals and small children being sucked in

not too many people saw my bug before i resprayed it in 2001 but it had what could easily be described as the worst case of gravel rash on the north coast.
i live out on some very dodgy roads so it doesnt take long for it to get bad hence the need for a bra now that im using it alot more regularly

I was gunna say why you usiing that i think they look like crap on every sort of car.

Mine is the same but only cause havent got running boards and at the moment we are working at saleyards and they have a massive area which is just gravel and i kinda had to show off to the guys i work with. I must say it is fun.

Is there any more accesories youve got for your bug that are gunna be cut up cause they black the intake?

umm no theres not too much more than can be in the way

car bra's worth it on expensive paint. 🙂

its a 9 year old 2 pak respray so its not exactly an expensive paintjob

the car bra may look stupid but its a good preventative measure, it new at $50 is alot cheaper than what it cost me nearly 10 years ago to have the car sandblasted cos the stone chips were so bad

now ive pretty much finished the mechanical side of things i'll finally get into gear and repaint this year, the new paint i have for it has been sitting in the back of my shed cupboard for over a year now and i dont feel like having to have it sandblasted all over again

I guess by now everyones wanting to know the $64,000 question

i kept track of everything that went into it right down to silly little things like $2 check engine light etc

my initial gameplan was on the road and engineered for $3k and 3 months
that was with me doing the entire lot

the 3 month part was way off but that was my doing.
everytime something got hard i cracked the shits and walked away from it, sometimes for several weeks
and if it wasnt that i was waiting on parts or just busy working on other cars
after i bought the S coupe i spent over a month tinkering with it and never once touched the bug
then people kept dumping their own cars on me for work


Well anyway before the first engine replacement the budget looked alittle something like this with me instead taking the smart option and paying the pro's for the loom and sump



1992 Subaru Liberty 500


ENGINE/ADAPTER PARTS
Adapter plate and flywheel 480
Flywheel pilot bearing 08
5PK690 alt belt 23
flywheel bolts 10
adapter bolts 04
Sump modification 605


ELECTRICAL
Bosch EFI Fuel Pump 51
mod to wiring loom 250
reed switch VSS MK1 09
terminal block largex2 16
terminal block small 06
Fuse holders x3 14
Check Engine light 02
temp gauge 52
circuit breaker 30AMP 11
earth cable lugs 08
Proximity sensor VSS MK2 25


COOLING SYSTEM
Radiator 20
header tank 129
radiator cap 12
Stainless steel tube 1.5" x8M 113
bend pipes 45
Commodore V8 top hose x2 32
EA-ED Falcon top hose 18
XG falcon ute/van btm hose x2 40
box of 20 Tridon hose clamps 31
marine ply for radiator 12
pinch welting 12



FUEL SYSTEM
Surge tank 57
7M spool of codan EFI hose 70
1M 12mm fuel hose 14
Fuel tank fittings 16
Fuel Filter 39
Assorted grommets 20
replacement lift pump 80



EXHAUST SYSTEM
Catco Hi-flow catalytic converter 50
impreza header 20
mandrel bend 2.25" 45* 20
mandrel bend 2.25" 90* 19
press bend 42mm 10
stainless steel exhaust tips 44
cat flange gaskets 10


INTAKE SYSTEM
pod filter 12
silicon hose straight 3" 13
Silicon hose 3" 135* 23
mandrel bend 2.5" 90* 16
mandrel bend 180* 2.5" 40


TOTAL 3167



if u took out the $250 for the loom and 605 for the sump and factor in engineer cert ($350) i woulda been under the original budget had i have gone with my original plan
but looking back im so glad i made the right decision and had those 2 professionally done, they're the 2 main areas that make life hell if you skimp

In the end with the new engine costing me $550 and the engineers cert costing $350 I still only ended up just over $4k which is less than what my 1776 cost me to build 4 years ago even with me doing all the assembly

$4k now wont even buy one of those 1600 mexi crate motors after the price jump they had last year and im not even going to comment on the quality of those, i doubt even a stock reco would be under that if done properly
and to build a 150hp vw engine would take double that $4k figure and at the end of the day it will only have 1/3 the lifespan, wont be anywhere as smooth or economical and when it blows up will cost another $8k to replace

i know which i'd rather


there are alot of things missing off that list that i already had like

radiator fan
facet Lift pump
HD clutch
relays
wiring
electrical connectors
clamps
sealants
epoxys
muffler
welding supplies
various nuts and bolts
various scrap metal plate and box section RHS

I did fluke afew things cheap, the chances of getting a brand new hiflow catco cat for $50, bosch EFI pump for $50 or a reco radiator for $20 are pretty slim but with other things it was the opposite
there no real reason to go all out on a custom tigged alu header tank when a plastic factory one from something european works fine and the alu surge tank....well lets not open up that can of worms again

Also i dont really count the kafer bar as being part of the conversion
its a fixture of the car and would always stay even if the subi went for good and knowing now the difference it makes i woulda fitted one regardless

its been a huge job, the amount of welding done has been obscene, especially all the stainless welding on the coolant lines and exhaust
i felt like giving up several times but with alot of perserverance in the end with the way the car now performs now i couldnt be happier

yea a turbo engine woulda been nice but then I'd need to spend another $4k on a gearbox to be able to enjoy it instead of driving like a grandma and hack my car up a whole lot more to get the engine, turbo and intercooler to fit
this engine has more than ample power for me and has surprised more than a few people already
besides my bug is just a toy/cruiser not a race car

damn it my price list didnt copy and paste too well

$64,000!!!!!!!!! woah! i thought this was supposed to be a cheap conversion!!!!!!! now id really hate to know how much micks' cost him 😂

you can tell you dont have a minister of war & finance posting up the expenses :P

thats 64,000 japanese yen 😉
with change left over

STIDUB wrote:you can tell you dont have a minister of war & finance posting up the expenses :P

Hi

When people ask you do you want a receipt you need to say no, its only incriminating evidence.

I spent much more than that on the motor in Davids car, next time is Suby time.

Steve

STIDUB wrote:$64,000!!!!!!!!! woah! i thought this was supposed to be a cheap conversion!!!!!!! now id really hate to know how much micks' cost him 😂

you can tell you dont have a minister of war & finance posting up the expenses :P

🙅🙅🙅 It was $63,999

you know me, not to be outdone by anyone.....

WOW...! Gee mate I only new to this site, and I have been looking for a thread like this for weeks as I am wanting to do the same conversion to mine yet a EJ22T although in saying that you a really starting to make me think EJ22 as it cuts alot of time and work out. Its just that I really want horse power this time round so maybe I will have to go turbo, hhmmmm Im a little lost now, "scratching my head" I must say it is really nice to see everyone on this site seems to be helping each other out. I would really like to say thank you for such an awesome write up! And I wish there was someone like you down here in Sydney because I would be asking them a thousand and 1 questions...😀 good work Joel...

Yes it was a great write up Joel and it really is a hard call to decide between the EJ22 and the EJ20t...just depends what you want your car for. In a beetle the 2.2 must be so torquey down low cos i know it was in the kombi.👍 So glad I still have the 2.2 to swap back should i decide to👍

Kabba, just ask any questions on here, its what the thread is for.

theres probably other people with the same questions and if i dont know the answer someone else reading probably does.

overall im pretty happy with the EJ22
i still havent grown out of that leadfoot boy racer mentality and would really loved an EJ20T.
Theres a GT-B legacy twin turbo engine sitting in a little birdys shed with my name on it but still weighing up if i go through with it or not

the EJ22 pretty much fell into place and fired up where as a turbo engine needs alot of body work.
All the rear parcel tray needs chopping out and boxing in higher for intercooler or charge cooler clearance, and the quad cam motors dont fit between beetle bodywork, see ricolas thread to see exactly what i mean, which takes some major reconstructive surgery to get around
then theres the gearbox which needs moving forward and intensive work over to handle the power.

for all that extra work involved im happy to live with alittle less power, and alot less cost
a stock liberty is no slouch, but chuck that engine in a car thats nearly half a tonne lighter and you still get one f**king quick bug

besides the subaru community widely accept that the EJ22 is one of subarus best built bulletproof engines and very under stressed.
just dont overheat them and look after the cooling system and they'll go for well over 300k. dont seem to see many turbo motors making those kinda KMs, they have a rep for spinning bearings, and having head problems on some models but im probably just trying to find excuses not to do it

first big trip report

well the run upto dubs by the pub yesterday marks the bugs first decent trip with the new engine,
up till now the longest its done is only about 50kms in one hit
its now done a tad over 1500kms since the engine number 2 went in

im happy to say the trip went well, car ran perfect up and back

i filled up as i left ballina and being early on a sunday morn there was sweet FA traffic on the roads
i drove nonstop till i got to the nudgee service center which is 5 mins down the road from the brissy entainment center where every meets
when i say non stop i literally mean NON STOP.

i didnt get stopped at the sextons hill lights and now the gateway bridge toll gates are gone i didnt have to slow down once thanks to the low levels off traffic

it didnt twig till i actually stopped at the servo that i hadnt changed out of 4th once between leaving ballina and pulling into nudgee service center, thats over 200kms without a gear change....crazy
it pulled up every hill and over the gateway happilly in 4th

i didnt fill up till i headed home but that tank i got 7.6L/100km
thats sitting on 110-115km/h as its duel carriage motorway all the way from byron now but also abit of stop/go convoy driving
i took a couple of people for some rigorous joyrides too which probably didnt help things either

i had to head into the city on the way home to catch up with the younger brother who lives over fairfield way
even with all the stopping at traffic lights my fan never came on once
to date in 1500kms the only times its actually come on was my failed kamei spoiler gag and a few times when ive let it idle in my driveway for about 5mins after a drive to make sure the fan really does work
it just doesnt get hot enough to turn it on under normal driving, gets very close some times but hasnt yet, the stainless pipes underneath are largely to thank for this
just goes to show how much energy is wasted on old RWD cars with direct drive fans

it sat on 92c the whole way up there and on the way back untill i slowed down to 100km/h around nerang and interestingly it climbed upto 98 and stayed there.
soon as i left tweed and cranked back upto the 115km/h it dropped back to 92
so my assumption on this is the intake on the valance needs opening up abit more
im just gonna cut the bars out and make it a square hole i think
im surprised actually that it stays as cool as it does given the small area of the intake currently

only other observation was as i pulled off the highway and coasted down the hill into bangalow i noticed the EFI fuel pump was making the cavitating noise again, alot like ians does all the time with no surge tank 😂
a quick check proved the surge tank was pretty toasty to touch.
but im pretty sure the reasons for that is 1. my surge tank is only 1L and 2. my fuel line setup,
i run straight rubber hose all the way through the tunnels which are also inside another protective hose so theyre very well insulated.
if they were metal and running underneath the car they would be getting a good cooling effect from road draft like the coolant pipes

i had pushed the bug abit just prior to this as i wanted to see how it pulled up the st helena hill at byron
probably shouldnt be admitting this on a public forum but anyway it pulled 130km/h in 4th up there with abit more to give but i didnt wanna push my luck,
i'd already done that enough through sleepy hollow where a red P-plater in a BA XR6 just had to play. no wonder they keep killing themselves in accidents
damn this thing is gonna lose me my license

anyway thinking another possiblity was the fuel rails are just getting hot from the non vented decklid i chucked the standoffs on but it actually ended up making no difference

first step is gonna be metal lines under the bug
i feel abit more comfortable doing that now that ive raised it 1" front and 2" at the back

and failing that im thinking of simplifying things with an intank fuel pump.

Hi Joel

Sounds like fun drive, nothing like a bug with some grunt on the open road.

When I 1st fitted the WBX in my 1302 I only did city stop start driving with an occasional quick blast down the M5.

My 1st real road trip was to Valla in 1988, every time I got up to around 100-110 kph the water temp would drop, I kept getting paranoid that I had lost coolant and that there was nothing for the sender to register.

Same thing happened driving down Dorrigo mountain stuck behind slow moving cars, the temp dropped about 20 degrees.

Its your call but I would leave it alone.

Steve

If you loose your liscence ill confiscate your bug so you don do it again.

1303Steve wrote:Hi Joel

Sounds like fun drive, nothing like a bug with some grunt on the open road.

When I 1st fitted the WBX in my 1302 I only did city stop start driving with an occasional quick blast down the M5.

My 1st real road trip was to Valla in 1988, every time I got up to around 100-110 kph the water temp would drop, I kept getting paranoid that I had lost coolant and that there was nothing for the sender to register.

Same thing happened driving down Dorrigo mountain stuck behind slow moving cars, the temp dropped about 20 degrees.

Its your call but I would leave it alone.

Steve

when i get it repainted im going to fit a usa A/C valance but till then just weighing up options
weather is only gonna start cooling down now and some other driving i wont mention failed to get it any hotter so maybe its best left

got another vw gathering on the goldy next sunday which will test a few changes

i'd love to unleash it legally somewhere decent like mt panorama just to properly expeirence what its really got

the back roads around here are no fun, by the time u get a decent speed up u have to slow down for a corner or dodge an animal

Sherman front valance for $190.. :P

Nice drive, Joel. It sounds like you had fun!

Maybe if you cut out the front vent slots to make a square, you can put the Kamei spoiler back on?

I think 92 is perfectly acceptable. Mine sits on about 91 most of the time on the freeway. Even on a really hot day... and that's pushing 31" tyres with a 0.77 overdrive in an 091 box. It's doing like 2700rpm at 110 or there abouts. I used to freak out when it got over 90, but really, it's pretty good now. I mean when I first had it going with the rear mount radiator, it used to creep up to 100deg on the freeway. 91-2 is much more acceptable. I went out on sunday arvo offroading up the mountains and the fans came on a few times then and in traffic on the way home, but the rest of the time it's great. Afterall, the fans are spose to come on. Re the aerodynamics of the radiator box, I'd look at what's happening under the car before opening up the front more. A little gurney flap to create extra pressure under the car might be the trick.

heats getting away from the rad fine
was just that 90-100km/h threshold that it crept up abit
but anyway valance is now modified 🤓
havent done any testing yet but its opened up by over 50%


today it hit 38c and for the first time ever my fan finally came on
but not while i was driving.
sitting in stop go lunch time traffic it came up abit but no fan,
I stopped and went into a shop for 5 mins when i came out and i fired it back up the fan cut straight in, ran about 1 min and cut off, i reckon i can blame heat soak on that one

it will eventually take a toll joel...these motors still like cold air around them.....heatsoak ,fuelrails ,surge tank etc u will end up with probs....

i was thinking that JVL,
curiosity got the better off me so i went for a wander next door and popped the hood of the neighbours 96 GX wagon and had a looksee

the only air entering the engine bay is coming in through the radiator, so its already preheated,
crank the a/c on a hot day too then the extra heat of the condensor is only adding to that

granted the stock airbox has a cold air feed from inside the wheel well but seems to be boy racer etiquette to throw that out and fit shiny pretty pod filters instead so the engine can run soooo much better on hot engine bay air 🤪


im thinking maybe of stealing jaks idea and boxing in my filter and ducting a feed into the wheel well
maybe a frenched intake in the guard, if i can be arsed doing that much body work
but at present my filter is sitting right below the louvers for the rear window intake

been meaning to chuck the digitem remote probe on it and go for a spin

could you run a "daimo style" pipe up to the condensor, just to get some air flow onto it??

i would have to agree that jak's hole in the gaurd would logically mean cooler intake air temps.... but what evidence do you hvae that your intake temp is too high??

colonel mustard wrote:could you run a "daimo style" pipe up to the condensor, just to get some air flow onto it??

i would have to agree that jak's hole in the gaurd would logically mean cooler intake air temps.... but what evidence do you hvae that your intake temp is too high??

by condensor u mean pod filter 😉
i dont think they are high
if i had one of them flashy scanreader thingys i could see what my intake temps are but meh engine runs happy enough and putting the decklid standoffs on for the last 30km home didnt make any differences

but the idea of a cooler intake charge is appealing
havent you read boostcruisng, coldair intakes or CAI for the cool ppl is where its at according to all the 17y/o mechnical engineers that post on there

Jaks way of scollopin the guards is very good....
but first do a test with the deckids u have *heat test with them both* temp testing could save lots of dollars!

Joel wrote:by condensor u mean pod filter 😉

ah no... i mean -

Joel wrote:crank the a/c on a hot day too then the extra heat of the condensor is only adding to that

thinking im missing the gist of that one
anyway the condensor will just sit infront of the rad like a stock install and use the rad fans

but now that the engines in the back, heat off it is not gonna be an issue

JVLRacing wrote:Jaks way of scollopin the guards is very good....
but first do a test with the deckids u have *heat test with them both* temp testing could save lots of dollars!

yea gonna do some testing soon as i get the chance
the highly variable weather we get here isnt making it easy
38c and truely oppresive yesterday.... pouring down with over 2" rain today... gotta love it 🙄,

just on the subject of temps

Pete, can you satisfy my curiousity?
i know your's is a 25 but what temp does your gauge say when the fans cut in?
im assuming your fans are switched by the ECU?

mine are on at 102 and off at 98 which i always thought was a bit high but both engines did it exactly the same and seem happy enough about it, i cant seem to find info on what temps the OBDI single speed fans operate

cheers

My one fan worked of ECU......but never ran at those temps u blokes are at....

So are u living around balina joel?

what a beast well done.

JVLRacing wrote:My one fan worked of ECU......but never ran at those temps u blokes are at....

So are u living around balina joel?

yea just 15 mins out of it

im wondering about the accuracy of my temp gauge
i meant to test it when i swapped the motors over

within about 5 mins it gets to 90c and sits there for ages which im guessing is the 'stat opening temp
but the 'stat is rated at 78c so i'm really thinking gauge could be off

none the less though its not gettting hot at any rate even hot enough that the fan is cycling it only rises the overflow level by 1.5"
not bad for a 14L capacity system



oh yeah steve, i found out the othe day its blatantly obvious when you get a coolant leak
i got a big white steam cloud behind me the oter day driving along, checked it out and my tyre wore a hole in the overflow bottle....oops, knew mounting it under there would have a downside somewhere

ian can only do it cos he has pizza cutter tyres

Joel wrote:

JVLRacing wrote:Jaks way of scollopin the guards is very good....
but first do a test with the deckids u have *heat test with them both* temp testing could save lots of dollars!

yea gonna do some testing soon as i get the chance
the highly variable weather we get here isnt making it easy
38c and truely oppresive yesterday.... pouring down with over 2" rain today... gotta love it 🙄,

just on the subject of temps

Pete, can you satisfy my curiousity?
i know your's is a 25 but what temp does your gauge say when the fans cut in?
im assuming your fans are switched by the ECU?

mine are on at 102 and off at 98 which i always thought was a bit high but both engines did it exactly the same and seem happy enough about it, i cant seem to find info on what temps the OBDI single speed fans operate

cheers

102 sounds ok to me, you think to much🤪

Nice going J.

OT - Why do I get 3 notifications sent when someone replies to this thread? I logged in 5 hours ago, now I've logged back in (E-mail) and 30 bloody notifications for 10 posts!

Hi Joel

Most Euro cars have the fans wired to the battery so that the fans continue to run after shutdown, this is a good idea as the coolant will continue to circulate even with the motor off.

On my old 1302 I had a Davies Craig fan switch, when it was 1st put together with carbs it just turned on or off when needed.

When I went EFI I used the ECU to trigger the fans, I felt that this was not a great idea for cooldowns so I wired the Davies Craig switch to work via the "buzzer" terminal from the ignition switch so as soon as the key was removed the Davies Craig switch took over the fan switching.

Steve

Balders, atleast you only get 3, i get 6 🤪
its just due to the amount of people who subscribed, must only be so many can be sent per email or soemthing like that

Steve, my radiator has a fan sender switch in the bottom of it, i've thought about using but the ECU seems to do a good job of managing it so ill leave it be for now
plus the ECU idles the engine up when it kicks the fan in like that
and once i get my a/c going it will make things easier too as the ECU controls the a/c side of things too

My S coupe i just sold was also like that with the fan switch, running after shutting down.
A few times i pulled up in a carpark locked it up and walked away and someone called out your car's still running 😂

as i mentioned i ended up opening up the radiator intake by cutting the bars out of it which opened it up by 50% as i had the slots evenly spaced

gaping hole looked like crap so i got some expanded metal to put in it





oh whatever 🙄
well its failed to turn my bug into a show car, i want my refund




ugh.... chrome how tacky





thats better





i noticed while i had the rad cover off there's proof there that the airflow is making it all the way to the top of the rad



bug radiator 1
two crickets and a fly 0



now i just gotta wait for some warmer weather with less precipitation to see what sort of difference it makes

Mine aren't switched by the ECU. I have them set to come on at 95deg.

HA yOU
that's what I did,
A Ricer job, stop taking all my good ideas 🤪 next thing you'll know you'll have a Turbo hanging off the thing.

yea, will be the same time i put it back on 165s and stock rideheight 😂


thanks Pete, where bouts does your sender take the reading from?

Mine is a EJ25 with a Imprezza radiator and the fan runs off the ECU. The fan hardly ever comes on, but it did on the weekend when I was at Stockton. It was pretty warm on Saturday and the fan came on a few times after working the motor hard for about 10 minutes or so. I run a imprezza gauge cluster so I cant tell at exactly what temp the fan comes on, but it never goes up past half way.

Joel wrote:yea, will be the same time i put it back on 165s and stock rideheight 😂


thanks Pete, where bouts does your sender take the reading from?

IF You have a used radiator it maybe half blocked already.
you should get ones of those laser gun temp checkers.
or feel the front of radiator and make sure hot all over.

radiators just been reco'd and fitted with new top and bottom tanks
you can see inside its clean as a whistle

its not actually getting hot, hell the fan has only come one once in 1500kms without forcing it

i just noticed the temp went up 5c when doing between 90 and 100km/h and im pretty sure it was my valance opening wasnt quite big enough

Hey Joel its not only the air inlet that matters its the exit too...at 100kph assuming that inlet is roughly 10cm x 80cm you have roughly 2 cubic metres of fresh air per second hitting it but it all needs to go somewhere. There is a possible venturi effect or vacuum caused by the airflow under the car or if its wrong it could prevent airflow...i have frigged around with airflaps a bit but it all gets too hard🤓 someone like Wes could explain it better👍

yeah i made sure there was heaps of room for the air to get away behind the rad, all the wheel arch areas are open

on those couple of 42c days we had a month or so ago when the fan cut in if it was parked you could really feel the heat coming out under the running boards
was making like a tornado under there

well i finally got to try it out today, went for a cruise into ballina to see what this tsunami was doing to the surf

well im stoked
firstly, with the mesh in and painted you cant even tell theres a radiator intake there unless you really look for it
stands out 100x less than the slots did



but more importantly its now running cooler
most noticably in town
where it used to run at 92c its now dropped back to 85 and even out on highway its dropped from 92 back to 88ish

just to check that it wasnt a fluke i pulled over and let it heat up to 100c then took off again
without about 1km it had dropped back to mid 80s.

but best of all that temp differential between 90-100km/h has now gone

didnt seem to matter whether i was doing 60,80,100 or 110 it stayed below 90 so i think i got it nutted now
just needed more airflow

i decided to conduct alittle experiment and covered part of the rad up with cardboard just to see how temps were effected



on the highway it went back to its usual 92c and around town sat at 95, still couldnt get the fan to come on though without stopping completely for a few mins

ahhh I see a bit of the farmer coming out in you.
trying the old potato bag over the tractor radiator trick
to warm it on on those cold morning.😂

aaarr now u are seein good numbers....nice

JVLRacing wrote:My one fan worked of ECU......but never ran at those temps u blokes are at....

thats cause u never F*&king drove it!😂 LMFAO!

Hi Joel,
I too had my pod filter sitting under the air vents under the back window. Thats when I cracked a piston skirt due to too hot air intake temps, BUT, I put mine on the track & it's turboed. But still , I would have the pod filter totally enclosed from the engine bay, at least it will be legal then as well.
As for the decklid, I would definantly go back the original with the slots in it, they actually let hot air out, not in, so would help with the heatsoak that our Subie engines are renown for.
If u want to check your intake temps, just get a probe with digital display form jaycar, cost me $45. Not totally needed though since u are normally aspirated.

regards
Jak

PS black wheels look great!

^ 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂


Joel, my temp sender is in the stock position.

the one for the fans Pete?

cheers for the tips Jak,
I'm not normally one for copying others ideas but I'm thinking about a similar setup to yours by boxing in my air filter and ducting it atleast into the wheel arch, if not into the top of the guard as well

some of the guys on ozliberty seem to swear a CAI gives an improvement

might help stop some of the intake roar too
not as bad as twin webers but still there


it was due for its monthly rim swap, theyre not staying though, just a result of a rim shuffle amongst cars
the bugs the only car of mine that can run 18s without scrubbing.
the roads around here are too neglected to run 18s all the time

What's it look like with 15's..... 🙂

Sorry Joel, but my air intake only increased my intake noise & also the blow off valve noise. it comes right into the drivers window.............................I love it!
It's so quiet I have to have some fun!

Without a doubt cold air makes an improvement, the last couple of days I've had air intake temps in the 20's, the engine really loves it! It literally goes off with the colder air.
Jak

i dont doubt at all it makes an improvement, 99% of stock filter boxes have some fresh air ducting into them

sadly i havent got a wooshka valve to enjoy the sound of yet, which is funny cos people who here the exhaust note would probably expect it, but i can see now you mention it how it might amplify the intake roar especially in the drivers window

my problem is i still have an AFM to deal with
your running map based management now yea?

I've had an aftermarket ECU from the start. No AFM to contend with.
regards
Jak

Same as Jak, after market ECU and no problems. I had tried to run the subi ecu from the start but always had gremlins 😬

Jak Rizzo wrote:

JVLRacing wrote:My one fan worked of ECU......but never ran at those temps u blokes are at....

thats cause u never F*&king drove it!😂 LMFAO!

Hi Joel,
I too had my pod filter sitting under the air vents under the back window. Thats when I cracked a piston skirt due to too hot air intake temps, BUT, I put mine on the track & it's turboed. But still , I would have the pod filter totally enclosed from the engine bay, at least it will be legal then as well.
As for the decklid, I would definantly go back the original with the slots in it, they actually let hot air out, not in, so would help with the heatsoak that our Subie engines are renown for.
If u want to check your intake temps, just get a probe with digital display form jaycar, cost me $45. Not totally needed though since u are normally aspirated.

regards
Jak

PS black wheels look great!

Wat jak! takin pot shots are u....little do u know😂 Heatsoak Jak REALLY!

u don't get heatsoak unless u drive the car either! JVL really?😂

jak

Jak Rizzo wrote:u don't get heatsoak unless u drive the car either! JVL really?😂

jak

pissin in ur pocket again jako haha

ahh you two are a crack up

now i have both lids painted up all ill do is swap the vented one in summer and warmer periods and the non vented one for monsoonal periods like we seem to be having atm.
no joke it hasnt stopped raining in over 36hours
but atleast all my tanks are full

takes me 30 secs to swap them over,
R clips, best invention ever

3 days of constant rain here.... not fun for driving my car here....

[/quote]pissin in ur pocket again jako haha [/quote]

No John, pissing in my pocket & giving advice on things that I have actually done are 2 different things.

Joel,
Are u coming to the Nationals Supersprint this year? I've never actually seen your car in the flesh. Would be good to finally catch up.
regards
Jak

i am so over rain at the moment its not funny
was getting chronic fucking cabin fever being stuck in the house so i decided to do the little kid thing and chuck on some gumboots and go vent my frustration in some puddles

nah not really but i did stick my head in the shed and thank god my bug is still intown at mum and dads cos my poor laser is submerged

its only 1" deep and barely wetting the tyres 🙄 but thats beside the point
i cant get in it without getting my feet wet 😂

not sure yet jak, would like to make the nats this year

just gotta con the parents so they can come out here and feed the animals when i go away
might have to bribe good seeing as vallas coming up soon too

Jak Rizzo wrote:

pissin in ur pocket again jako haha [/quote]

No John, pissing in my pocket & giving advice on things that I have actually done are 2 different things.

Joel,
Are u coming to the Nationals Supersprint this year? I've never actually seen your car in the flesh. Would be good to finally catch up.
regards
Jak [/quote]

So now ur expert how to piss in ur pants! sweet..😂
Just remember lots of ur advice has come from people who know as well!

Joel wrote:i am so over rain at the moment its not funny
was getting chronic fucking cabin fever so i decided to do the little kid thing and chuck on some gumboots and go vent my frustration in some puddles

nah not really but i did stick my head in the shed and thank god my bug is still intown at mum and dads cos my poor laser is submerged

its only 1" deep and barely wetting the tyres 🙄 but thats beside the point
i cant get in it without getting my feet wet 😂

ur gettin alot more rain then we here in Coffs!....i heard on the rad shit more to come

i think up the coast has been copping it worse than we have

Joel wrote:i think up the coast has been copping it worse than we have

yeh agree

Mate really impress with the car looks good easily one of the best...

Jak Rizzo wrote:Sorry Joel, but my air intake only increased my intake noise & also the blow off valve noise. it comes right into the drivers window.............................I love it!
It's so quiet I have to have some fun!

Just found out i dont need one of them fancy turbo engines to get the same cool noise as you

just need one of them wanker iphone things



how lame

Joel wrote:the one for the fans Pete?

nope the stock ECU sensor.

the fan switch sensor is in the top radiator hose as it comes out the engine at the back of the car. I used to have it at the front but the engine used to heat up too much before the sensor caught the drift. I tried lowering the deg setting but then the fans ran for too long.

also, just reiterating what Jak said re lower air temps making a huge difference. Drove mine all day yesterday in 25deg outside and the temp never got much above 87-88 deg. For the last few months it's been 90deg on the freeway. Funny how much difference it makes. If I drive it in winter on a rainy day, it struggles to get above 85deg.

p.s. I'm loving my heater, I know people think I'm a nana for having one in a buggy, but that hot water powered heater is awesome. 😎

cheers,

im undecided at this stage yet if i'll put a heater in, dont really need one much around here

i did have working vw heaters for ages but removed them as i just never used the car when it was cold

im thinking my water temps stay so consistant cos i have a nice short heater return loop with no heater core inline.
works well in a subaru but in a vw which usually have the heatercore along way from the engine can cause overheating

most of the vanagon guys have real dramas cos the heater cores in those are so big and there usually 2 of them too, they have to run an extra bypass hose

I've only just joined this forum and I did it to look for exactly this kind of information.

A brilliant write up Joel. You answered virtually every question I had!
Great pics too.

Thanks a lot!

Ray & da Boyz

thats what it's here for 😉

yep i think i have gone over this thread from start to finish just about every night for the last 3 weeks.. ha ha

Aside from the few people that have been for a ride in it noone has seen what accelaration is like so here ya's go
excuse my ugly mug





that was vid 1 of 2.
first one i took down a street in the industrial estate which was probably a stupid move and secondly i made the rookie mistake of hitting rev limiter in 2nd gear

dunno how many of you have heard a subi with a big exhaust hitting the rev limiter but it sounds like a dog barking 😂

as you can see i got a dumbshit speedo, i need to try another in it
its bit slow to register properly and according to GPS it reads 5km/h fast which is probably because of my front tyre size.

but that taken into account works out to roughly 0-100 in 6.5sec which is over 1 sec quicker than my blown 1776

seeemed strange at first, they're both putting down about same power but then i twigged..... its the rev range

my 1776 only has a balanced non c/w crank so i dont take it over 5k
the EJ hits revlimiter at 6.5k so im still in 2nd by the time i hit 100km/h
the 1776 was in 3rd and ready for 4th at about 115km/h

not a bad effort for a 15 year old $550 engine
same time as the current SS commodore

where is the one where you hit the limiter?

I'm not putting that one up, i wasnt driving into the sun so its pretty obvious that im in an industrial estate and signs on the shops give away which one it is too


i normally atleast do this kind of irresponsible driving out of town

fair nuf then i guess

Yeah.... Don't encourage the little ones to misbehave Joel!

Can't view the video now (stupid iPhone, I'm seriously overthis thing!!!) will check it out this arvo. Pretty sure I'm still impressed from my ride at the pie. 🙂

Keep it for the track see you at Gunnedah. It takes me 10.7sec in Buz on the track to get to 103klms

Joel wrote:I'm not putting that one up, i wasnt driving into the sun so its pretty obvious that im in an industrial estate and signs on the shops give away which one it is too


i normally atleast do this kind of irresponsible driving out of town

Sounds sweeeeeeeeeeeet dude

rose wrote:Keep it for the track see you at Gunnedah. It takes me 10.7sec in Buz on the track to get to 103klms

pffft come watch me at summerland drags 😉

Geez, I actually had to go back 3 pages to find this thread
so I guess I should bump it with a new video





Nothing like that subi rumble bouncing of concrete dividers, not that my camera picks it up over the wind noise
but anyway a good example of how these engines will happily lug about in town traffic
Find me a 150hp VW engine that will effortlessly pull out of a round-about from 40km/h in 4th like that with an Lbug gearbox and still get less than 8.7L/100km and I'll gladly swap back


Seeing as I've just ticked over 5000kms since the new engine went in I suppose I should update, except there's not really much to update about
I've had 5000kms of trouble free motoring, my average tank gets 8.7L/100km with mainly round town running about and the drive out to my house is 20kms of winding hilly rural road so it's not exactly ideal economy conditions

but still not bad for a 2.2L 100kw engine, my 1.8L 92kw laser under the same conditions only gets 8.2L/100km
gets alot better on the motorway naturally, best ive got so far is 7.2L/100

The coolant level has not been touched since the engine went in and when cold is still at the same level as when it went in back in late November
I have swapped to a new stepper movement style temp gauge for better accuracy though
I checked the calibration of it and the old gauge when i swapped them and as I suspected all along my old gauge was reading high.
7c to high to be exact, but the new one is spot on to the degree
So it turns out that it's happy temp that it always likes to sit on is really 82c


It's become fairly obvious that I've over engineered my cooling system, in that 5000kms the cooling fan has only ever come on twice and that was sitting in the bumper to bumper traffic trying to get into Byron at easter time

It doesnt run cool though, infact no matter what ambient temp from cold it only ever takes 6-8 mins to hit 82c and it just sits there never drops below and has to sit stationary for a good 10 mins before the fan comes on at 95c
All that with a stock genuine subi thermostat and water pump, I'll be interested to see how hooking up my heater effects it though.

After Valla i gotta drop it out to do a few jobs like hooking up the heater and fixing the epic oil leakage I have happening at the moment, it's just like having a real VW engine in there
In a rush to get the new engine in i didnt do the best job in sealing the sump when i swapped it and my rocker cover gaskets are leaking too
the bodywork is in the way to get them off with it in situ

Also while its out #2 cylinder is burning a touch of oil after highway runs so i gotta pull it down and find out why
Its still has perfect compression and doesnt do it with low speed town driving for some reason
the Subi Guru here says its common on these jap import motors that spend ages just idling in traffic that the rings gum up we shall see anyway, may just be a a crook valve stem seal
but I'm gonna run some of that subi upper engine cleaner that everyone raves about through it and see if that makes any difference

Sounds nice 🙂
It's weird having a motor in the back that you occasionally see, isn't it?!
I saw mine the other day when I was fiddling with my reversing lights - I'd forgotten it was in there.

yeah subaru engines are boring...til you put your foot down🤘

Now not to be outdone by a certain other subabug owner I'll also do a Valla trip report....




I'm really happy with how it went all weekend.
I convoyed from Ballina to Grafton before sitting on 75-90 got too much and i left them behind.

Filled up at Coffs and that tank got me from there to valla, all the weekends running about and back to Grafton and was still half full.

To my amazement it returned 7.1L/100km on that tank
Surprised me cos I sat on 110km on the highway and gave a few people some joyrides taking if faster in 3rd gear than a 1600 bug can normally do in 4th

I filled it with premium on that tank too but i dont think it would have had that much effect as it was already half full of regular.

But I decided to try for an economy run between grafton and ballina so just took it easy sitting on 100km/h and not nailing it passed all the slow cars and got 6.7L/100
I dont think it would get much better than that though, that was scone gobbling it too the extreme.

anyway It seems to have a thing for the number 80

water temp sat consistantly on 80-82



and the oil temp on the same and 80psi oil pressure

They are impressive mileage figures.

Pfft highest wins, doesn't beat my 20L/100km.
Is 80 degree water temp not too low?

Joel wrote:Now not to be outdone by a certain other subabug owner I'll also do a Valla trip report....




I'm really happy with how it went all weekend.
I convoyed from Ballina to Grafton before sitting on 75-90 got too much and i left them behind.

Filled up at Coffs and that tank got me from there to valla, all the weekends running about and back to Grafton and was still half full.

To my amazement it returned 7.1L/100km on that tank
Surprised me cos I sat on 110km on the highway and gave a few people some joyrides taking if faster in 3rd gear than a 1600 bug can normally do in 4th

I filled it with premium on that tank too but i dont think it would have had that much effect as it was already half full of regular.

But I decided to try for an economy run between grafton and ballina so just took it easy sitting on 100km/h and not nailing it passed all the slow cars and got 6.7L/100
I dont think it would get much better than that though, that was scone gobbling it too the extreme.

anyway It seems to have a thing for the number 80

]

hahaha I was doing a bit more then the 110 speed limit😂
and noboby past me up a hill😂🤪😂
to get 7.4😊