does the EA81 use an electric fuel pump?

can any 12v (e.g Bosch Blue) work on this engine?

thanks

yep, electric fuel pump, i melieve the originals were constant flow (hence the flow-back tube off the fuel hose where it attaches to the carb) but i have a nice powerful generic one that auto-shuts off when at pressure which does nicely for me.

the EA81 engine I got (over the weekend) is from an automatic car. got a flywheel yesterday from a subaru mechanic but all the bolt holes wont align, you can put on 7 bolts but the 8th is off by a small bit.

the subaru mechanic says the flywheel goes over a bearing, but on my engine, the crankshaft side is not flat, it sort of extends at the centre, the centre bit is just big enough to fit the flywheel's centre (no space for bearing), will this cause problems later? (i.e if I don't put a bearing here)

EA81's do use an electric fuel pump, its not a high pressure pump, it runs about 3psi, I only know this as I have used one on a beetle motor with a webber carby which needed 3 psi.

A 'small bit' can equal BIG problems when the crank is spinning. Cranks can be different in the EA81 (I use one in my Sabre). Check local wreckers for different flywheels. May also be an EA71 or EA82 flywheel?

Oh yeah, generic electric fuel pump is fine.

have you tried rotating the flywheel? the subaru has intentionally a-symmetrical pattern for the bolts so that the flywheel can go on one way only. might explain your struggle with the final bolt. also, is it a standard flywheel? for the conversion i had the bellhousing on the subaru engine modified (front edge cut off and thich sheet aluminium welded on then cut to match the VW bolt-holes and rim) and then had a flywheel made with an offset to match (subaru centre, VW ring gear, offset to match the gap correctly so as not to cause interference with the starter motor)

no, have not tried rotating the flywheel but will definitely try tonight. don't know what you mean by a standard flywheel, if you mean unmodified, yes its still stock.

baybuscamperkid, you were right, rotating the flywheel seems to get the bolts holes aligned. subaru definitely made sure you put the flywheel on only one way.

also found out that they indeed use electric fuel pumps that are located in the tank, will go fuel pump searching this weekend.

about the coil, it also seems any decent 12v coil should work with no problems.

now I just have to figure out what all those hoses on the engine are for!

with the engine hoses, do you have the big black canister? most of them go there. one of the thinner ones off that (the one that comes off the bent arm of the metal tubes that run to the canister) is a fuel tank breather, not sure what to do with it so i have just left it, there will be 2 fuel lines coming from the same spot, 1 big, one small, the bit where you attach those hoses can be replaced with a bit which has only 1 exit on it. in some cases it is easier just to block some of the little hoses off, as leaving them open can cause nasty vacuum leaks. i was reading a performance article on the ea81s last night, it said that the standard coil is 3000 (volts?) and that you can fit a performance 4200 one and widen the plug gaps to gain a little extra power.

GT40R(resistor) coil works great on mine.

don't have a black canister, maybe I will take some pics and show you. two hoses turned out to be water hoses to heater. am going to connect them together as I don't need the heater but have read water still has to flow through them for the thermostat to operate.

yep, completely correct about the water hose, hopefully it is easier to connect them when fitting to a bug. you may find (as i did in my kombi) that when you fit them they rub on the body, you will probably also find that your oil filler will need to be modified as it will hit the body. just a couple more minor things to think about.

cut and suht the oil filer thats all i did to convert my kombi to ea81 ( adaptor plate and new plate)/

about the hoses, couldn't get the camera but can took a good look at the engine and can describe the major hoses.

there is a hose coming from the top of each of the valve covers. looking from the flywheel end, the hose from the right side valve cover goes to the air cleaner housing and the one from the left side valve cover connects to another hose coming from the manifold and together the hook up to a smaller hose that also ends up at the air cleaner housing.

the air cleaner housing then has a hose (same size as those from valve covers) that exists on the left, its cut so I can't tell where its supposed to go.

tonight I will take a look at the smaller hoses and describe them as best as I can.

there is what looks like a switch that has a push on connector, its right next to the thermostat housing, could this be the water temperature switch?

been thinking; rather than have an adapter that connects the subaru bellhousing to the vw bellhousing, why not remove the subaru bellhousing completely (it seems removable) and bolt adapter straight to engine? (still referring to EA81 but suspect it wld apply to all sub engines)

the conversion you mention is what was originally done to my ea71, my ea81 had a simpler method, to save all the fab, the front was simply cut off of the part you describe and replaced with a thick sheet of aluminium which was cut and drilled to match the VW gearbox. as far as the big hose, is the engine auto or manual choke? if it is manual choke the big hose went to the charcoal cannister, if you are lucky and only had a simple unit then the fat hose went to the charcoal cannister and a thinner one came back out.
yes the switch is a temp switch, but only on/off (for light) better to unscrew it and replace it with a proper one and a guage. there is also a similar tab at the front of the engine next to the fuel filter, for the oil pressure.

did you take any pics of your adapter setup? it appears part of the bolts for the oil sump attach to the bellhousing too, will keep you posted on what route I eventually take.

am lost on the choke issue, will have to look closely but my only experience is with vw, so I will be looking through my vdub eyes, the vision might be twisted

this is the best shot i can find so far, it is of the ea71 top, you can sort of make out the custom bellhousing in the place of the original one, and the hand-made flywheel with subaru centre and VW outer to match the vw starter motor and vw clutch

baybuscamperkid, you mentioned that the water temp switch is an on/off switch. can this be used for switching on the fan? many radiators I have seen don't have a fan switch and was wondering how I was going to wire it up.

i dont think so, i have a feeling it only switches on when it looks like the engine is going into melt down, like an oil light in a VW. i dont know if you can get them, but one crude option, you can get an aftermarket variable thermo switch which inserts a 'wand' into the inlet of the rad wedged between the rad inlet and radiator hose, that way you dont need to modify the radiator.

Golf radiators have the thermatic switch in the radiator itself. My Sabre kit (adapted EA81) is set up like this.

[ Edited on 19-6-2006 by sinecure ]