| [ Total Views: 1822 | Total Replies: 21 | Thread Id: 34703 ] |
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 Brad
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 posted on January 27th, 2005 at 09:30 AM |
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Why Subaru Conversions get a bad name !!!
Well what can I say .. the more I have to do with the EJ22 Engines into VW’s the more I like them. That being said the more I have to do with
conversions the more I understand why some people reckon they are a crap idea. It never ceases to amaze me what some people are told and let people do
to their cars. Here are some examples:
Checked out a 74 Bay Kombi with an EJ22, they owner asked if I could put an EJ20T into it as he wasn’t happy with the power of the EJ22. I told him
that was weird as it should have a lot more power than his old 1800. He said not as much as he expected as he was still down changing to get up some
100kmph hills. After checking out the conversion I noted the following:
- He used the stock ECU but had no VSS hooked up of any sort
- He used 6mm VW style fuel line and simply enlarged the end to fit the 8mm barb
- He had a fowled injector on number 3, not that he knew as he decided the engine light was a waste of time as he had a VDO temp gauge.
- He used the Subaru temp sensor and with the VDO tempo gauge even after he had been told by VDO the range was wrong. So it didn’t actually work but
he had been told he needed ones so he put it in anyway.
- The exhaust headers sat a little low for his liking, not to worry he just took them off and flogged them flat with a hammer, that got him an extra
1” or so he reckons. Looked better than before so he took to the sump as well.
- The insulation on two of his plug leads was badly cracked and not looking real happy. He had taped a 3rd one up and it had rubbed through on his
engine cover.
Surprisingly enough it still ran, had the power of a wiper snipper. More surprisingly the conversion was done by an actual business and cost him over
$6000
Another example :
Have a T3 with an EJ22 in it. It has died after about 15 000 km’s of use. Very weird when the EJ22 is good for up and over 500 000 km’s. So I get
the job to fix it. As I pull the engine out I notice the following:
- The crank breathers and rocker cover breathers have all be plumbed into each other and sealed, no wonder the engine leaked oil
- The air flow meter was in backwards
- The wiring loom was missing a few crucial wires such as ECU temp sender, VSS, a/c idle up circuit
- Fuel line was not EFI
- The cross member rubbed on the thermostat housing causing it to collapse and partially block.
- The timing belt was two teeth out on one cam.
- No engine check light
- Wrong series ECU for the engine.
- ECU wires were twisted together, not soldiered and at least 3 or 4 of them were earthing on each other.
- Exhaust has 4 very tight 90 degree bends in it. Now with 1/1/2 pipe that don’t leave much room for flow. Not to worry the exhaust flanges were
both cracked and leaking anyway.
- The cooling system was a piece of artwork. You could only put water in under pressure and even then you needed to be lucky as there was no real way
of bleeding the air out anyway. Funnily enough there was no water left in the system and I doubt it had ever been bleed in the first place.
- Throttle cable rubber on the a/c belt when anything over ¾ throttle was being used.
- The guy then asked if the EJ22 should sound like a VW and need to be warmed up before use…. Well no was my response. Oh he said well the guy that
did the conversion told me that was normal. He then went on to tell em how the engine stalled on occasions and the guy had told him to run Optimax to
fix the problem. mmmm now there’s some good advice
When you consider the above conversion once again was done by a business and cost the guy over $5000 you can begin to understand why some people think
any VW is bad news but one with an engine conversion is even worse.
Anyway just thought I would share some of this with you all as it sure bought a smile to my face as I wondered what the hell the people doing the
conversion where smoking when the let them drive out.
In case anyone is wondering an EJ 22 converted VW should drive like a VW but run like a Subaru and no you don’t need to warm up the EFI before you
drive off. It is a good idea but the EFI shouldn’t stall when it is cold.
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nbturbo
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 12:32 PM |
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Well written-and it's only 2 conversions we hear about that have turned to shit.Imagine how many other blokes are out there kicking the shit out of
the dog and too frightened to tell the wife how much they were ripped off for the conversion from hell. These arseholes should be named to save other
people from the costly nightmare,and anybody doing good conversions should also be named so people contemplating the Subi conversion can make an
informed decision.
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HotRodMatt
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 12:48 PM |
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A lot of complaints come from wankers who modify things when they get them back... Or worse still - say to the modifier don't do this or that cause I
will do it myself. When shit comes unstuck they never bother to add their part.
| Quote: |
The exhaust headers sat a little low for his liking, not to worry he just took them off and flogged them flat with a hammer, that got him an extra
1” or so he reckons. Looked better than before so he took to the sump as well.
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This tosser obviously deserved half of his problems.
It is funny how people screw with things but the whole mess becomes the problem of the installer.
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MickH
A.k.a.: Michael Hutchinson
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 02:17 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by Buggy Brad
.
In case anyone is wondering an EJ 22 converted VW should drive like a VW but run like a Subaru and no you don’t need to warm up the EFI before you
drive off. It is a good idea but the EFI shouldn’t stall when it is cold.
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They drive like a better VW!!! After having my twin cab converted at Custom Offroad I'll never go back to a VW motor in my own Kombis again!! Nice
smooth responsive motor and if need be off the speedo in 3rd gear...more reliable and the list goes on. Good one Brad. Hope all is well.
tssnq.com.au
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VWCOOL
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 02:27 PM |
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lol.. engine conversions done well are sensational.. when done badly they are a nightmare
Pay your debts, CxxT
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Andy42
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 06:09 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by HotRodMatt
A lot of complaints come from wankers who modify things when they get them back... Or worse still - say to the modifier don't do this or that cause I
will do it myself. When shit comes unstuck they never bother to add their part.
It is funny how people screw with things but the whole mess becomes the problem of the installer.
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Well I only have seen one of the conversions Brad is talking about and I can tell you that it is definately the fault of the workshop that did the
conversion NOT the owner.
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twoguns
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 06:16 PM |
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hey buggy brad... can you fit a ej22 into a 64dcab splitta. straight axle converted with 1500box?
Simply Cruzin'...
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Brad
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 07:28 PM |
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Yup I can fit em in anything that is why they rock. On a splitthough I would want to hide the radiator. Even I have some taste and I can't imagine a
split looking right with a rad of anysort on the front.
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scooter
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 08:06 PM |
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Well never mind a split ill only do the SC when you can hide the radiator. Mind you with the exhaust thats fitted everyone keeps asking if its a subie
in it. Till I drive off that is 
Cheers
Scotty
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twoguns
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 10:03 PM |
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maybe there would be enough room to mount a radiator in front of the fuel tank under the tray. scoop air in and then let it out. could work?
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Simply Cruzin'...
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pete wood
A.k.a.: figure itout
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| posted on January 27th, 2005 at 10:08 PM |
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Man, those stories are awful. Brad, I am relieved you around to help pick up the pieces. Engine conversions can be an absolute nightmare. Especially
if they are new ideas or a bit out of the ordinary. When I went to get my loom shortened, no one knew which car it came from or where to even start.
It was so difficult to find some one I turned up at a mates place one afternoon nearly in tears.
I ended up talking to the head tech guy at Subaru Aust before I found Anthony Brodsky, a bloke who is a Subaru guru here in Sydney. He's done dozens
of EJ conversions. He did a great job with my loom and I have only had one serious electrical fault (bad connection to one of the coil packs).
Unfortunately, he doesn't do them anymore.
I hear that Quickfit Motorsport in Hornsby does though and they seem to have a good reputation.
It'd be good to have a list of recommended repairers on the forum for this sort of thing.
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michael warner
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| posted on January 28th, 2005 at 06:47 AM |
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Great thread, thanks for spending the time to do it!
I also have a dual cab splitt screen pick up(1963) and have thought It would be a cool conversion.
Two guns, the pic of your dual cab looks almost identical to mine before painting it white! Oh and some eijit also had radiused the rear guards to
fit big baja type wheels on it.
Mind you now that I think of it, i did spend some time up at indian automotive about 6 years ago measuring up the scoobie engine and thought it might
be a bit long to fit in. Did I just muck up my measurements?
Maybe it was an earlier engine or something??!?
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Brad
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| posted on January 28th, 2005 at 08:50 AM |
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You can hide the radiator on any VW. The reason our conversions usually have the radiator up front is to allow us to offer fixed cost solution to the
job. If I was to increase the cost to cover the development of a solution to put it out of site then it would be no issues at all.
If I called in $8800 drive in / drive out then I would happily hide the radiator. Note by hiding you maybe able to see it under neath but it would
not be obvious. Also with this sort of setup it would take longer as we would need to test the setup as it would be an unknown.
There are heaps of options, that is why we call it customisation and not bolt togeather :beer
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Doug Sweetman
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| posted on January 28th, 2005 at 10:09 AM |
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Thats still value for money, esp when you consider it costs about $6k to do an EJ20T into a liberty that came with an EJ series motor in the first
place ! to put an EJ22 into a car its not meant to be in must be far more work.
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koolkarmakombi
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| posted on January 28th, 2005 at 11:09 AM |
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What amazes me with your stories Brad is that the cars still ran at all!
I have the Liberty with the EJ22 in it as my daily driver/kiddie transporter and it is a fantastic car. I look forward to clocking the engine on it!
After rebuilding T1 and T4 engines, if I ever had a T$ kombi again that needed engine work it would be cheaper to convert it than do the whole engine
properly.
kkk |
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nbturbo
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| posted on January 28th, 2005 at 11:51 AM |
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My point was that if the Wanker doing the conversion had any decency or business ethics-the job wouldn't leave his workshop in a condition that
required the Tosser who owns it,to need to bash his exhaust to solve any issues.Thats what you pay the Conversion "expert" for.
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baybuscamperkid
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| posted on January 28th, 2005 at 02:18 PM |
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2g, maybe u could put the rad in the treasure chest(is thta what they call the area under eh bed) and flow air in through the door?
Brad, i know what u'r sayin about the bodgy conversions. whilst the engine in mine was beautifully attached with great mounts, flywheel, bellhousing
etc, the owner desided he didnt need the orig VW wiring, so tied it in a bundle and ran another couple of hundred wires from the front making the
re-wiring Im doing absolute hell. also decided that a stcok clutch woudl be fine aswell :cussing
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
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twoguns
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| posted on January 28th, 2005 at 02:32 PM |
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thats my thinking. will have to do some sweet talking and sorting.
Simply Cruzin'...
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bigbaja
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| posted on January 28th, 2005 at 09:26 PM |
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The biggest issue is that unless you know 100% that the guy who is getting the blame actually did the work you need to be very cautious. I know Brad
was swearing at some tool the other day who said he had just bought a Bus with one of our conversions. He had never even seen the thing much less done
the work.
People do funny things .... I know I have been told I am not allowed to touch anything once the EJ 22 is in my Baja ... sweat .........
[size=4] Terry - Custom Off RoadComponents[/size]
28 Hayward Street, Stafford QLD 4053
Ph: (07) 3356 4356 - Fax: (07) 3356 6765 |
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Baja Wes
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| posted on January 29th, 2005 at 09:24 AM |
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People in the VW circle are actually some of the worst for starting strange rumours. I've heard all sorts of weird rumours about myself and my car,
and the funny thing is that every single little detail about my conversion is posted on my website, so I don't know how I get it wrong. I even have
all the details and story posted on a board beside the car at shows.
I get told, or here people talking at shows that my engine is toyota, nissan, 3L, a commodore 3.8L, not legal as when I tried the department of
transport wouldn't allow it, not as good as the VW motor it replaced, and many more crazy things.
The reason I here most of it is because people don't know who I am, so say silly things either straight too me or right in front of me. So be wary of
what you hear, unless it is first hand.
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bugboymatt
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| posted on January 29th, 2005 at 09:55 AM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by bigbaja
I know I have been told I am not allowed to touch anything once the EJ 22 is in my Baja ... sweat .........
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Any progress shots terry !!!!!!
Da Time For The Aircooled Revolution Is Upon US.
Brothers & Sisters Lets Hit The Streets, Roll As One. And Feel The Power Of The Aircooled Storm.
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Kombicol
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| posted on February 2nd, 2005 at 11:25 PM |
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terry, i thought you weren't allowed to touch anything on your car anyway :P
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