Well after many months of planning and researching and changing my mind I have finally finished my EJ 22 Conversion on the Dual Cab kombi I picked up a few months back. Although the body is far from finished and needs the rust removed and a respray it is a work in progress.

After driving her home this arvo and pulling up Samford range in 4th gear as 80 kmph with ease I can happliy say .. I love it .... mmm SUBI POWER !!!

The Conversion was done using the new Custom Offroad Conversion kit which has been specifically designed to fit the EJ 22 into the bay window kombi. Makes the entire job not only very easy but also look real good.


Custom 16 Mags wrapped in 215 x 65 x 16 Desert Duellers. I will lower it a few inches later on.


The radiator is loacted underneath and is a custom unit supplied by Custom Offroad. It runs 2 x 12 " thermos in a custom suround. Profile is good and cooling seems fine thus far.


The shrouds are louvered to get air flow and keep the profile low. All water lines are high grade suction pipe with hydraulic clamps.


The engine is an EJ 22 which is a 2.2L Twin cam EFI engine from a Subaru Liberty. mmm Fuel Injection ... Although not completed in this picture you can see the inverted throttle body and the Custom Header tank.


The big down side to any Subi Conversion is the lack of ground clearance. With a Custom Offroad SUmp and cross member kit this is no longer a problem. Sitting 85mm shorter you get back to almost factory clearance.
Custom Exhaust also keeps it neat a and tight.


Walla a car with not only character but a hell of a lot of fun to drive.

mmm SUBI !!!!!!

Brad if this was an auto you could connect the power steering pump to one of the auto lines and pump it through a cooler (or ) through a cooling loop in the radaitor

just an idea if you were towing all the time .

Is the A/C hooked up? Looks very good, does it cool alright?

I like that sump, the EJs have massive deep sumps which is a real pain for offroaders.

Looks good Brad.
I'd love to see more shots of how you've set up the exhaust and crossmember.

Good stuff! Now get to work on a bolt-in Beetle kit!

Marvellous job !!!

Good to see youve got the radiator mounted underneath for that Sleeper look

Ill have to come in for a drive. Im a bit worried I might like it too much tho.......

Cheers

Scotty

Cooling is fine so far, runs well, pulls well and drives well.

A/C will be hooked up soon. I have an in dash design which will look like it isn't there and use the factory ducting.

Cruise Control is now working and makes it even more fun.

Hey Brad,

Custom Offroad's asking price for the Radiator/cooling kit is a good price!!

If i could get conformation that it could cool a 4ltr V8 with out any hassles, this kit will go to the top of my cooling solutions wish list.

Great work!

[Edited on 7-4-2005 by fozee]

Feedback:

Ok after driving 1800 km on the conversion I will be making a few changes to the shroud design. The cradle is great and will not change but I need to get mor air into the rditor at high speed. It handles 110 kmph just and driving in 33 deree heat today resulted in having to slow down on occasions.

Once it started raining I could cruise on 120 kmph no probs. If I slow to 100 kmph it cools fine.

I will modify the current shroud I have on the bus while I am in Melbourne which will leave me the home trip to test a few theories.

Having said that I have some ECU issues which have resulted in retarded timing which isn't helping.

Fuel economy wise the timing issue is killing me. I averaged 10L per 100km which isn't what I was hoping for. As most of the driving was on the highway i would have thought 8 was on the cards.

Not to worry the development goes on .... drives nice though :>

As for cooling a V8 , I would say yes as it is a big ass radiator and modern V8's don't put off that much heat.

...any change from $10000?

yep about $1200 as they are $8800 drive in / drive out

That is, very well priced.

Is the conversion suited to the early bays or is it based on the later models?

Does the transaxle need to be 2ltr?

Some idea on RPM V's Road speed?



[Edited on 14/4/2005 by PHAT RAT]

Brad, what temp does your thermo fan come on at? and what's your normal running temp?

Conversion will suit all bays and I am more than happy to do splits but they would take longer.

2Lt box gives teh best ratios and works well. YOu can use 1600 - 1700 - 1800 but you would rev too much.

I sit on around 3100 at 100 - 110 kmph. This gives me plenty of pickup in 4th gear. I have a stock 2Lt gearbox.

Thermo comes on at ECU 94 degree on the outlet normally. I use an inlet thermo contriol switch with a 6 degree bracket. I have it set on 85 degree which means water is leaving at 95 from the block as a guide. This is done due to the capacity of the cooling system and the changes from a stock subie. This means there is less variation than with the ECU control. I am still testing this out but after 1800 km, many of it at 110 kmph it seems to work well.

mmm, mine might be a bit low then. might have to turn it up.

Very Nice work there brad, very nice. bout time you got to have one of your own to play with, instead of buiding them for everybody else too.

Cruise control sounds great for those long journeys.

I am also keen to see what you do with the AC unit, it is pretty hot here in WA, and those roof mount units aren't easy to come by. Keep us posted please.

Cheers Col,
A/C will be intergrated like the heater so no one knows I actually have it.

Cruise Control is great ..

hey i want cruise control in my buggy too .... Put it on the list

Hey, just wondering what you're doing about an Engine Pitch Stabilizer?

I would have thought the fact the motor is also held by the two big bolts above the gearbox, that it would be held really well. Top AND bottom even

Well I've already gone through a set of engine mounts...

Hey when you say engine mounts do you mean on the kombi or the EJ ?

EJ

mmm ok so you have killed a set of EJ mounts, how many KM's ? ANy pics of your cross member.

I have about 3000 km on mine now and no issues. I haven't heard of anyone else with issues from the ones that we have done.

Keen to see pic's, is your cross member square ? Maybe it is pulling off centre.