First of all, hello everyone. I'm new.

A few months back, I was browsing the VW related webs and ended up seeing one of Joel's Youtube videos where he was talking about the weather and a removable valence, which prompted me to watch his other videos and get hooked on the idea of a Subaru powered Beetle.

I started the research, started bugging Joel, and started browsing the forums, here. To say that I've already learned a lot, would be an understatement. I figured I'd start a build thread to keep a record, keep me accountable, and make it easy for others to offer up advice or possibly even learn from all my mistakes.

I'm very eager to get this rolling as I currently don't have a drivable car, have some cash burning a hole in my pocket, and will be doing some serious commutes starting this fall.

Now that all the background is out of the way, to business...


What I have so far:
A donor 98 Forester - Complete
71 Super Beetle in rather nice condition

What I'm looking at Buying:
Adapter plate - Probably from Outfront Motorsports(they are nearby and it comes with a flywheel
Radiator - VW Jetta (I'm told these will fit in the front of the Bug and they are all over the place, around here)
SOHC Heads - I don't want to totally butcher the engine compartment to fit in the DOHC heads
Kafer Bar
Fuel Pump - Not sure if in tank or external is a better idea
Some sort of A/C System
Transmission support - Off of a bus or possibly aftermarket

What I'm looking at Making:
Oil Pan - I have an old buddy who can fabricate one with/for me, or I might just buy one. I'm still up in the air on this one
Loom - Many Kombi owners seem to think it isn't that bad, but I might also have this done by a paid professional
Exhaust
Radiator Tubing

That's all that occurs to me, off the top of my head. The Bug's last owner, who has owned the car since 73, took amazing care of it until 8 years ago when he gave it to his son, who drove it for 4 months, then put the car in a garage after the fuel pump broke. I swapped out the fuel pump and drove it around the block. The timing was way off, but the shifting was as smooth as 10 year old gear oil would allow.

Questions:
1: I have a connection that deals with WRXs on a daily basis, as far as buying wrecks and parting them out. Right now the only EJ25 heads he has, are on an engine that has less than 10k miles on it, so he is very reluctant to pull them off for me. I'm unwilling to spend $1500 on the whole engine, even though I desperately want to, as I already have an engine with a matching wiring loom. He has no EJ22 heads, but does have some EJ20 heads sitting around. I know that the heads and blocks are reasonably swappable, but I wasn't sure what kind of work would have to go into making the smaller heads fit my larger block. Is this a problem or am I overthinking this?

2: Is the loom really a huge burden? Supposing that I'm a glutton for punishment and want to spend 20 hours working with some wiring, it's doable with the right diagram, right? I've been lead to believe that you can just leave all the wiring in place and don't need to trim things down for a functional engine. Am I just misreading that?

I'll post some pictures when I find where I put them.

Thanks for all of the knowledge that I've sponged up so far. I hope you guys keep it coming.

Me talking random stuff in a vid? never.

The loom depends on how electrically au'fait you are.

It's only a matter of stripping out the unused wires - lights, wipers, dash etc and shortening a few then working out the grounds, power etc.


What year EJ25 heads?
its only the early stuff that fits with no cutting.
all the later bout 99 onwards stuff has the plugs in the middle and bigger timing belt covers and take a bit of hacking to fit a bug.

the earlier heads with plugs on top like a type1 vw engine fit straight in.
the others need the sides of the engine bay trimmed to allow access.

The heads are the ones that came on the car, from the factory, as far as I know. I guess I should have measured things out before I decided to swap some heads. They are 1998 DOHC heads. I guess I'll pop them back on this week and see how fitment would be.

Any new progress?