Hi Guys

Any of you drag guys looking at trying one of these subaru box conversions??

As with most people here those who do the Suby conversion boxes are waiting for some actual evidence on how they work. Last I read they still in the developmental stages and only 1 or 2 had gone into a car but no reports?

Yeh i here what you saying, It looks really good on paper,but you have that small thing telling you your not sure! Where are the ring and pinions made? are they Aussie made, some one nice like Albins?

It may be a bit tricky to get the vw motor to sit in the right spot once to fit a Subaru box to it.

CW/P I believe to be made in India. The designer claims them to be a very high standard. Time will tell no doubt as to how well they will handle our application. Crazy Col asked whether changing engine rotation wouldn't have been a easier option than manufacturing these parts overseas. All required would be a new cam and starter mods.

Worked for Corvairs, although with a vw engine there is other considerations like cooling fan and generator direction

I'm thinking about the subi box as a possibility once my current Lbug box gives up the ghost, like the others have said I'm waiting on the end product to prove itself abit more first.

Wouldn't it be better to just build a Subaru drag car. So sick of suby this suby that

I dont want to put a subi engine in my bug, I just want a good trans that dosnt cost me an bodily organ. build a real nice t1 box for my last 2276 with all the gear(sorry about the pun)Albins gears,quaife diff, gusseted case about $5000.its great but not 5 speed and i want a nice box for my 57oval 2165 turbo motor that will take the power(aim about 350hp) on paper it looks like a good idea, and just want to see if any one else is toying with the idea, would be good to here your feed back.

I'd like to hear from the guy building them. I thought he had the first one on the road already. Maybe it broke?

Hey Guys, Todd here from http://www.subarugears.com  I'll try and answer all your questions.

Well it's been an interesting year with getting Subaru boxes up and going. I basically got things going by showing off the first completed box at the Nationals this year.
We put that into an EJ25 powered buggy and drove it for a couple of weeks. Did a few videos of it which are up on youtube (linked from my site). This was a basic $3700 box which worked well with the VW cable clutch and had no probs with the 31" tyres and power of the EJ25.

This box then got sold to a customer on the central coast who is converting a beetle to EJ22 power. His car is still on the way to being finished and will be on display at my stand at the 2011 Nationals. My second test ring and pinion was sold to a guy in South Africa who is yet to do anything with it which is a real shame, I had hoped we would have had another example on the road to show potential customers.

I ended up having to change supplier after the factory in India frigged me around for 7 months. Shame as their product was perfect. Offset Hypoid gears are difficult to make and not many gear factories have them. Albins do not have the ability to make them hence I had to stay offshore. The only factory in Australia who can make them is Dana/Spicers and they only want to know about Commodore and Falcon diffs. My new factory is in China. I have specified the same materials and tolerances as the initial set, with independent QA reports to confirm the quality of the product. I actually spec a much higher grade of steel than necessary, just to be sure that this is a top notch product. First set from this factory will be here on Friday and will get tested in the same EJ25 buggy. I am also fitting a Torsen LSD to put maximum strain on the diff to ensure all is perfect.

Interestingly, last week 2 sets of gears showed up from the Indian factory (they sent them to germany) so I can get an independent comparison of the Indian Quality vs Chinese Quality. I have had the same reservations about Chinese quality as everyone else but they have come a long long way.

Hopefully this 6 month delay to getting the product out there is now solved and we can get a flood of these onto the market. I actually have a bunch of backorders to fill for various vehicles so am sure you will see more soon.

We have a bunch of interesting cars that are going to have these boxes : EJ20T Kombi with 5 speed, EZ30 Buggy with 6 speed, EZ30 Kombi with 5 speed cable shift, EJ22 beetle, EJ20T type 3, EJ20T buggy, EJ22 Vanagon, EJ25 Vanagon...that's what I can think of at the moment.

Of course there's my 4WD EJ20TT Manx but I doubt I'll ever get it done with all this gearbox work

Some other interesting things I started making as accessories. I now make the 2wd locking sleeve that locks the box into 2WD, I make the block off plate to stop the oil leaking out the back of the box when the 4wd yoke is removed, I make Subaflanges which fit onto the Subie box and allow 100mm or 108mm VW/Porsche CV's to fit onto the Subie box.

If you don't want to go Subie engine I am about to start testing the VW aircooled to Subie 5 speed adaptor plate/bellhousing and flywheel conversion kit. This should be a big hit in aircooled California.

Currently having the VW 857 block (diesel TDI motor, petrol VW motor, Audi motor) to Subie adaptor plate/bellhousing conversion kit designed. Again, big market in USA and Germany for these.

We will soon see if we can get the VW motor to sit in the right spot with the Subie 5 speed conversion kit. I think with my extended Subaflanges that put the inner CV to the outside of the frame horns we will be able to keep the motor nice and low where it belongs.

I looked at the whole reverse rotation engine thing before I started this project. Sat down with Brett Middleton at MRT who knows a thing or two about this. You need 2 or 4 cams, then look at the water pump and oil pump as well, starter motor too. Then get the ECU to do everything backwards. With the advent of adjustable camshafts this becomes even more difficult because you end up advancing or retarding the cams the other way too. That would be some serious and expensive dyno time. For my money, that was all too difficult.

Hopefully have answered all your questions and explained a bit why you haven't seen more on the road just yet. Hope this is not too much of a 'commercial' posting on the forums, I am just trying to get the info out there so you peeps can make your own informed choices. Have a surf over to http://www.subarugears.com  and keep an eye on our build threads over the next few months.

Good work ttriebler, you've obviously been busy. Thanks for the update, sounds like there will be plenty on the road before too long.

what? 4-12 k for a gearbox to much? shite! seems reasonable to me, considering what you are getting.

Which one of these do you run in your beast?

Thanks for the kind words guys. As you've shown some interest, here's a sneek peek at our latest development, the Subadaptor. Bolt your aircooled vw or Porsche motor onto this shiney plate and flywheel and get 5 strong, slick shifting gears. Still got some work to do but I think progress is promising...

Transmission bolts onto this side




VW/Porsche aircooled bolts onto this side





Transmission bolted up



Subie starter bolts onto transmission

Quote:

Originally posted by pete wood Quote: Originally posted by fast68 Which one of these do you run in your beast? Yeah, I'd be interested to know what trans you've got in your's. Is it modded up? How have to found it? BTW, Vlad, be happy to take you for a spin anytime your in Sydney to show you how nice a subaru can be, although I like aircoolers too. p.s. Todd, like Ive said before, this R/P set is a great thing. Thanx for all the hard work. Can't wait till I can change over!

Quote:

Originally posted by ttriebler Thanks for the kind words guys. As you've shown some interest, here's a sneek peek at our latest development, the Subadaptor. Bolt your aircooled vw or Porsche motor onto this shiney plate and flywheel and get 5 strong, slick shifting gears. Still got some work to do but I think progress is promising... Transmission bolts onto this side VW/Porsche aircooled bolts onto this side Transmission bolted up Subie starter bolts onto transmission

Looks like it is shaping up well.
You may want to make sure the cylinders and heads and tinwear on the VW engine don't interfere with the adapter.

Albins can make any crown wheel and pinion that you might want.
They make them for all VW, Porsche, Mendeola, and anything custom.
I know they make sube gear sets and dog rings, but not diff gear sets?

Problem is that for this project to be viable cost wise,(us VW people are real tight arses)
the gear set must be affordable,
and so china or India is a lot less $.
As long as you demand a certain quality standard,
they should be fine.

vw people tight arses ? no that is just australia

I don't work that. Direct European descendant brought up in a European family.

You think aussie vw owners are tight asses? we got nothing on the yanks

lol

Albins can make any crown wheel and pinion that you might want.
They make them for all VW, Porsche, Mendeola, and anything custom.
I know they make sube gear sets and dog rings, but not diff gear sets?


No they can't. They were the very first people I went to because I didn't want to go offshore. They don't have the ability to do offset hypoid which is what the Subie is. Vw, Porsche and Mendeola are just normal hypoid.

That is weird.
Unless my terminology is incorrect,
type 1, mendeola, and the Albins AGB is spiral bevel,(which means the pinion and crown wheel are on the same centre line),
but bus and some Porshe has an offset in the centre lines and IS a hypoid.

Perhaps there is a limit to the offset their machine does,
but when I did a shop tour last February they were machining the bus ones right then.
The now make a 4.125 for the 2 lt trans,(by the way).

They also had a Gleason machine going in to speed up the machining time over their Klingelnberg machine.
Both make offset gears,
but perhaps not as far offset as Subaru.

Quote:

Originally posted by vlad01 I would love to have a 930 box but that being said just be easier and better to just get a rhino cased albins gear set and quaife diff, diff ratio?? hmm don't know yet, guess that comes after the engine characteristics are know. I hear Dangerous is the man for boxes as for subys, they just don't have that something special that vw's do. Too many people people do suby conversions. I don't do mainstream well seams that way these days.