Oh yeah, Wiring issue sorted, I spent a good 3 days going through the wiring and managed to sort our nothing, But then spent time more wisely begging and bribing with beer a Top bloke who actually knows about wiring. He fixed it in about 1 hour.

Spent about another day or so tidying up the wiring and then went off to Lancelin.

Engine ran real well with no drips or problems.

The buggy suffered eventually breaking both front shocks and a tie rod. But that was to be expected as the shocks where street quality, 10 years old and rusted to buggery plus the stock shock mounts have not been strengthen so where probably bending and causing bind, as for the tie rod, I made them too short plus they are beetle tie rod ends.

So the to do list is going to be beef up beam shock mounts, lengthen tie rods and change to Holden tie rod ends.

So the vid on utube is pretty boring, as to be honest I spent my time doing the offroading rather than filming it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNJJHFIwMAk

how did the radiator setup work? did it stay cool ok?

The cooling system seemed to keep up just fine. You could see the temp gauge rise and fall as the fans kicked in and out. I thought the fans would always be on but even when the engine was under a fair bit of stress the fans would still manage to cool the system down enough to turn off.

Mind you maybe doing a 110km\hr in a 1200kg vehicle on road is more stress than thumping it up and down sand dunes in a 700kg buggy.

Just like to say at this point, thanx to this site and the people on it, who without, this engine conversation would im sure not have been possible. Well done people on a great forum, the community, information and help available is outstanding.

Big hand to you alls


[ Edited on 14/12/2006 by vwpete ]

Told you those shocks were cactus..... the shafts were sooo rusted...

Glad to hear the cooling worked ok. I thought the hot air form the engine may be an issue. I actually find my ej powered jbus works harder playin in the sand than cruising on the highway.
The fan never comes on when doing 110k+, but when playing in the sand, you don't seem to get the airflow and the fan kicks in.
Admittedly, pushing a bus through the sand would be much harder than your buggy...

What did you do with the temp gauge?

Good stuff Peter.

The VDO temp gauge is wired using the original ej22 sender which means the reading is all wrong, it reads 105deg when the fans kick in. It’s not ideal but it will do, I am more keen to get the oil pressure gauge sorted, I made a slack attempt by going into repco with the EJ oil pressure switch, but they weren’t much help (I will check out the VDO catalogue at some point).

We should state here just in case people get the wrong idea, I have mounted my original subi rad at the rear of my buggy so I am totally reliant on my fans, unlike your bus which has the rad mounted at the front.

105 deg is very warm for an EJ. they don't like temps above 100 deg celcius.

Guys, you have mis-interpreted what we are discussing here.

Peter has connected the SUBARU temp sender to his old VDO gauge, consequently it is reading wrong. The fan is being controlled by the suby ECU which kicks the fan in at 90ish degrees, so if he is saying the fan is kicking in and out and not running flat strap, chances are it is hovering at around 90 degrees.

I do think tha running 'blind' is a risky business Peter, so get your guage sorted before your next trip. let me know if you need help.

with my temp guage it reads the same as yours (about 15 deg out) because it is a 150 deg guage vdo.

try using a 120 deg guage and it will read more acurate .
i tryed brads 120 guage in mine and the fans kick in at low 90,s where they are supposed to
terry

ps i have sent you an u2u