Can anyone comment on the difference in low RPM torque (1500-2500?rpm) between the 2.2 Sub conversion and the standard 2.1L WBX.

Is the Sub better or worse?

开云体育

I'm getting ready to install my subaru engine. It has been sitting
quietly for 6 months since its host vehicle got rear ended.

Does anyone have any recommendations about preparing an engine for
starting. My concern is that the oil may have drained down and most the
bearing surfaces may be dry.

Many years ago, when I worked on the air the cooled engines we used a
very, very viscous oil on all the moving parts if the engine was going
to sit for any time and even if it was going right in.

I've taken apart engines that have sat for years, and the parts are not dry. Six months is nothing. I'd just start it.

Tom
--
+------------------------------------+
| CycoActive Products tel (206) 323-2349
| 701 34th Ave fax (206) 325-6016
| Seattle, WA 98122 USA
| webpage:
| e-mail: TomMyers@...
+------------------------------------+

I'm getting ready to install my subaru engine. It has been sitting
quietly for 6 months since its host vehicle got rear ended.

Does anyone have any recommendations about preparing an engine for
starting. My concern is that the oil may have drained down and most the
bearing surfaces may be dry.

Many years ago, when I worked on the air the cooled engines we used a
very, very viscous oil on all the moving parts if the engine was going
to sit for any time and even if it was going right in.

I'm surprised to find that US prices for used Subaru engines are so high,
especially as it seems that you get SOHC versions there.

Here in New Zealand you can get a DOHC EJ20 (Legacy 2.0) for $350US. DOHC
EJ20 single-turbo for $750US. DOHC EG33 (SVX) for $2250. Haven't seen EJ18
or EJ22 (1.8 and 2.2 Legacy) prices yet. Add about $250 for complete
electrics. A dealer in Japan offered me a 290hp WRX Type RA EJ20
single-turbo for $1800US including shipping, with full electrics and
5-speed trans and driveshafts (I was thinking of modifying the trans case
to flip the diff and use in my Vanagon). Many of these are brought in from
Japan, either out-of-car or still mounted in wrecks brought in for parts.

I am told also that the Legacy auto trans is weak and often gives problems.
Others have told me that the 5-speed is weak too, but have doubts about
that.

Shame Subaru never produced a dieselboxer, though I'm sure they made
prototypes. How about a turbodiesel DOHC 24V diesel six boxer?

Has anyone tried modifying a Subaru trans to run backward for rear-engined
application?

Andrew
Dunedin
New Zealand


Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Molluscophile
69 VW Kombi-Corvair
75 VW Kombi (ex Toyota 3.5 V8)
84 VW T3 Caravelle GL/SVX
85 Mitsubishi Sigma Super Saloon 2.0
86 Toyota Corolla DX 1.8 diesel
89 Toyota Corona Select 2.0 diesel

I'm a new member of this list, having seen the announcement of its
beginning on vanagon.com. I guess most members are vanagon.com as well?

I am gathering parts and information for my 84 Caravelle's upcoming
conversion. Currently it is fitted with a 174hp 3.8liter V6 from a VN
Holden Commodore (Holden is the Australian GM division). The 094 5-speed
was in the process of failing when I bought it, and I wanted to fit a
Porsche trans. However then I decided that as the heavy iron anchor causes
serious understeer, I should go to Subaru power.

I bought a 250hp 3.3liter EG33 engine from an SVX wreck in Japan. This will
be desmogged and run an aftermarket computer, so should produce 260hp or a
bit more. Engine cost $1250US; I could have had the computer etc from
another Jap wreck for a further $250US, but due to uncertainty as to how
well this would work (I know Hobert Kennedy of KEP is working on the SVX
electrics now, but the US wiring etc is unlikely to be compatible with a
Japanese-market engine system, and it could end up extremely expensive to
get fitted from scratch) I passed this up and just grabbed the ignitor for
$27.

As I have serious doubts about any VW trans to handle 200hp-plus I brought
a late-type (aluminum-case) Porsche 915 trans in from the States. I have
found out how to do most of the fitting of this to the van, but it will
need shifter, front mount and output flange adaptors fabricated. As VW
axles can break under severe loadings use of Porsche 930 CVs is judged
wise, and the 915 drive flanges, which accept VW CVs, need adaptor plates
made. After the trans is fitted I can measure things up and order
Sway-a-Way axles. This seems seriously fiddly. Nobody makes a full kit,
though Weddle sells SAW axles, 930 CVs, 930 stubaxles etc for a decent
price, it lacks shifter adaptor, front mount and 930 output flanges.

Does anybody have experience fitting one of these trans?

The Getrag G50 trans, fitted to later 911s, is far stronger and
better-shifting than the 915, and is just about bulletproof. I think I have
found a G50-Vanagon kit in Germany. Apparently it is complete, including
short-bellhousing trans, mount, shifter adaptor, CVs (G50-equipped 911s use
930 CVs), stubaxles, axles etc, all for DM4500 ($2250US). It was offered to
my by Claer Automabile through an e-mail intermediary who doesn't know
cars. Herr Claer is not on e-mail, says through this lady that I can reach
him by fax. However, though he speaks good Englisch, he doesn't reply
directly to my faxes, but passes them via his friend, who doesn't like it.
Has anyone else been in contact with Herr Claer?

The G50 kit will not cost all that much more than the 915 plus incomplete
kit, and when fabrication and labor are taken into account for the 915, the
supposedly bolt-in G50 kit may actually be cheaper, as well as much easier.


I need to claerify this business before I can make an order, either for the
Claer or Weddle kit. German Vanagon nuts and websites haven't been of any
help. Can anyone on this list help?

Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand

Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Molluscophile
69 VW Kombi-Corvair
75 VW Kombi (ex Toyota 3.5 V8)
84 VW T3 Caravelle GL/SVX
85 Mitsubishi Sigma Super Saloon 2.0
86 Toyota Corolla DX 1.8 diesel
89 Toyota Corona Select 2.0 diesel

Hello All,
#1 I've asked this question before in a couple of other forums with no
response, but i'll give it a try here. I'm looking for a KEP Subie
conversion kit that someone purchased and decided not to use. i'm just
trying to save a buck. I will convert my van whether i pay full price or
not, but untill i save enough 100 dollar bills, i'm keeping my eyes open for
a deal. Anyone know of one?

#B Is there a less expensive, good quality way to upgrade the starter in my
'85 Vanagon when i put in the 2.2 without buying from Hobert? Can i just
use any '86 and newer starter?

Thanks for the help!

Patrick
'85 Westy
'73 Thing
'84 911 Targa
'88 Buick really big wagon. 4 sale - engine in wrong end

Marshall Ruskin wrote:

A local yard has a Subaru Legacy FS with 130,000 KM, maybe 90,000 miles.

Is this one too tired to use as a transplant?

Marshall,
Depends on price and condition, I guess. With average maintenance, that engine
probably only has another 100k miles left in it, 150k to 200k if it's had very
good care.
My wife's '91 Legacy was owned by a pilot, and the sucker runs like new at 194k
miles. I expect to get an easy 250k, maybe 300k before she wants a new car. On
the other hand, if the autotrans goes before that, maybe I'll just have a spare
engine for the Westy!
I'd try to get a compression check, or at least pull one of the valve covers to
check the valve train components for varnish. A lot of dark varnish on the
parts can be an indication of poor maintenance, while nice shiny surfaces show
better care. Also check the rear plastic belt covers where they bolt to the
head for signs of melting and distortion. Any melting here is a sure sign that
the engine had been overheated. Probably best to pass in this case.
Was the car wrecked, or is the body in good shape? If the body's good, then the
trans or engine is shot. Any chance of finding out who the owner was? They are
often a great source of info.
Good luck,
Larry

A local yard has a Subaru Legacy FS with 130,000 KM, maybe 90,000 miles.

Is this one too tired to use as a transplant?

TIA

Marshall Ruskin

The Rabbit diesel is unusual, they are happy at high RPM, and would

probably

cruise at 70 on the level. The Subaru will cruise 70 up a pretty good

grade

with less interior noise, but more fuel expense. Total cost of kit and
engine should be about $3000 if you do the work. Allow three days for the
wiring if you like that work. Allow another three full days for radiator
plumbing and setting the engine, etc. in place. Expect 20 MPG on manual

and

18 MPG on automatic.

Bastards are always hard to sell, bus owners with this kit normally will
refuse to sell for any price.

Hobert Kennedy
Kennedy Engineered Products
38830 17th St. East
Palmdale, CA 93550

(661) 272-1147
----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Brubaker <rmbrubaker@...>
To: <subaruvanagon@...>; <syncro@...>;
<vanagon@...>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2000 2:51 PM
Subject: [subaruvanagon] Engine transplant, oil

Greetings. I am a new subscriber to these Vanagon lists and find them
interesting and helpful. Since '93 I and my wife have been the happy
owners of an '86 GL Syncro, now with 175K miles.

Unfortunately my original engine, in otherwise good running condition
(needs the heads resealed for external coolant leak), needs to be
changed because of contamination of the oil system from a failed oil
filter. This has lead me to consider the options of a different engine.
I have looked at the different options shown on the Vanagon web site.
Maybe I missed something, but is there anyone who has installed a
Turbocharged Diesel with as much or more power than the 2.1L and capable
of reving high enough to cruise at 70+ mph?

My other interest is in the Subaru conversion. Some questions for those
who have done it.
What was the total cost by the time you were finished?

About how long did it take to complete the job?

Has it given better gas milage? If so how much?

How does this conversion affect the resale value.

Although I have already read a lot about this through the web site and
e-mail groups, I have not yet gotten through all the archives. If the
answers to my questions are already out there, forgive me for asking
again and point me in the right direction.

A comment about oil used. Since I have had this van (68K to 175K) I have
used only synthetic oil. First Amsoil, than Mobil 1 and now Castrol
Syntec. The engine still has good power and compression and uses no oil
(OK 1/2 qt in 4000 mi). I resently found out that Castrol Syntec is what
my local VW dealer recomends.

thanks for all the input.

Ray Brubaker




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The Rabbit diesel is unusual, they are happy at high RPM, and would probably
cruise at 70 on the level. The Subaru will cruise 70 up a pretty good grade
with less interior noise, but more fuel expense. Total cost of kit and
engine should be about $3000 if you do the work. Allow three days for the
wiring if you like that work. Allow another three full days for radiator
plumbing and setting the engine, etc. in place. Expect 20 MPG on manual and
18 MPG on automatic.

Bastards are always hard to sell, bus owners with this kit normally will
refuse to sell for any price.

Hobert Kennedy
Kennedy Engineered Products
38830 17th St. East
Palmdale, CA 93550

(661) 272-1147

Ray,

If I keep it to 55-60 mph i've gotten 26mpg on freeway.
normal Calif. freeway speeds I get 22mpg some city mostly freeway, which is
2 better than the
1.9l that came out of it. (We put about 30k on this car per year in our
business.)
I now have 40k on this motor and have noticed a slight falloff in mpg,
when we did my wifes westy she was only getting 19-20 with the
ox sensor that came from the junkyard, we switched it out and she now gets
21 - 22 combined freeway and city.

Jay and Pam
1985 Dbl. Cab
1985 Westy

Hello Ray,

Some quick answers. Good luck on whatever you choose!

Greetings. I am a new subscriber to these Vanagon lists and find them
interesting and helpful. Since '93 I and my wife have been the happy
owners of an '86 GL Syncro, now with 175K miles.
My other interest is in the Subaru conversion. Some questions for those
who have done it.
What was the total cost by the time you were finished?

$3000

About how long did it take to complete the job?

12 days

Has it given better gas milage? If so how much?

Increased - from 18.5 mpg to 19.5 mpg

How does this conversion affect the resale value.

Unknown. Who would sell such a perfect vehicle?

Tom
--
+---------------------------------------+
| The AMAZING BLENDERPHONE
| webpage:
|
| CycoActive Products tel (206) 323-2349
| 701 34th Ave fax (206) 325-6016
| Seattle, WA 98122 USA
| e-mail: blender@...
+---------------------------------------+

Greetings. I am a new subscriber to these Vanagon lists and find them
interesting and helpful. Since '93 I and my wife have been the happy
owners of an '86 GL Syncro, now with 175K miles.

Unfortunately my original engine, in otherwise good running condition
(needs the heads resealed for external coolant leak), needs to be
changed because of contamination of the oil system from a failed oil
filter. This has lead me to consider the options of a different engine.
I have looked at the different options shown on the Vanagon web site.
Maybe I missed something, but is there anyone who has installed a
Turbocharged Diesel with as much or more power than the 2.1L and capable
of reving high enough to cruise at 70+ mph?

My other interest is in the Subaru conversion. Some questions for those
who have done it.
What was the total cost by the time you were finished?

About how long did it take to complete the job?

Has it given better gas milage? If so how much?

How does this conversion affect the resale value.

Although I have already read a lot about this through the web site and
e-mail groups, I have not yet gotten through all the archives. If the
answers to my questions are already out there, forgive me for asking
again and point me in the right direction.

A comment about oil used. Since I have had this van (68K to 175K) I have
used only synthetic oil. First Amsoil, than Mobil 1 and now Castrol
Syntec. The engine still has good power and compression and uses no oil
(OK 1/2 qt in 4000 mi). I resently found out that Castrol Syntec is what
my local VW dealer recomends.

thanks for all the input.

Ray Brubaker

ANY MEMBERS CONVERTED SYNCRO'S YET??

If so, what did you do with the intake plumbing?? Modify for the
Syncro or use Kennedy's setup as-is.?

Warren Chapman
San Francisco Bay Areaj
'90 Syncro Westy

My advice would be:

If you never drive in deep water, the snorkel sure sounds like it's more trouble than its worth.

I wish I had a Syncro Westy, and if I did, I would then wish I actually went places where I needed the snorkel!

Tom
--
+------------------------------------+
| CycoActive Products tel (206) 323-2349
| 701 34th Ave fax (206) 325-6016
| Seattle, WA 98122 USA
| webpage:
| e-mail: TomMyers@...
+------------------------------------+

My '90 Van has(or had) both A/C and Cruise Control.

I value them both for those long trips down Hwy 5 enroute to my
favorite mountain spots.

Would like to hear any experiences of getting these accessories to
work. The AC seems not too difficult, but the cruise control is a
definite challenge.

Warren C.
San Francisco Bay Area
'90 Syncro Westy

ANY MEMBERS CONVERTED SYNCRO'S YET??

If so, what did you do with the intake plumbing?? Modify for the
Syncro or use Kennedy's setup as-is.?

Warren Chapman
San Francisco Bay Areaj
'90 Syncro Westy

--- In subaruvanagon@..., "KEP" <kennedy@h...> wrote:

The Vanagon filter and intake is so restrictive that I decided it

was better

to use the Subaru intake duct with our filter. Some customers have

used the

Subaru filter box but it is not an intake silencer like our filter.

The length of the engine control wires dictated that the passenger

side be

used for wires. The Subaru air duct dictated that the filter

belonged on

the driver side. You are welcome to change these things.

Hobert Kennedy
Kennedy Engineered Products
38830 17th St. East
Palmdale, CA 93550

(661) 272-1147

The Vanagon filter and intake is so restrictive that I decided it was better
to use the Subaru intake duct with our filter. Some customers have used the
Subaru filter box but it is not an intake silencer like our filter.

The length of the engine control wires dictated that the passenger side be
used for wires. The Subaru air duct dictated that the filter belonged on
the driver side. You are welcome to change these things.

Hobert Kennedy
Kennedy Engineered Products
38830 17th St. East
Palmdale, CA 93550

(661) 272-1147

I got a copy from a garage that has an on-line service for downloading wiring diagrams.? I went to a local (small) Subaru dealer first to try to get a copy out of a shop manual.? They had just about every other subaru made except my model. They were willing to make copies for me.

I used the diagram to help make sense of the rat's nest in front of me. I traced wires to be sure they all went where they should and to help the eliminate unneeded splices in the suabru harness. I left the ground wires for last because they had the most spagetti dangling off them.?? The power and ground wires get tricky because they serve multiple connections.

When I believed my harness was complete I used another copy of the diagram and marked each line from begining to end with a highlighter as I traced and continuity tested each one individually. I used separate colors for the four grounding circuits, one color for all computer wires, and another color for un-needed wires (a/t, abs, a/c, etc.).? I have an office with lots of colored highlighters - one or two colors would be sufficient.? After all the above were completed I found several uncolored lines representing wires that go from one connector to another without passing through the computer.?? When this procedure was completed all wires on the diagram were accounted for.

There are some wires in the harness that were not on my diagram because it is for the engine only.? These included the alternator wires and others. There was also one, or two, ground wires not connected to a anything.? As I said earlier I connected these remainders (I believe it was only one wire) to wires I spliced into the other engine grounds connected to the Subaru engine ground plug? (four groups of two each). I stagger spliced this group so that there were no unwieldy splices of more than about four wires (tried to keep it to three) and yet only two wires looking for a connection to the engine when I do the install.? Likely a waste of time to add the redundancy but I needed to ground the remaining single wire and I didn't want the fun to be over just yet. Now my harness agrees with both Hobert and Subaru for grounding.

Any time I spliced a group of hot or ground wires to a single wire heading to the power? or ground source I used one size larger wire, probably another redundancy.? As Hobert recommends, in no instance did I use a smaller wire than any within a group that were spliced together.??

Another tip:?? Make sure that your soldering iron gets the wire hot enough to draw the solder into the wires instead of melting it over them.? I paid close attention to each splice making sure the solder was pulled in.? This is similar to sweat soldering copper pipe, where you heat the pipe joints until the solder is sucked completely into the joint.? Heat the wire first then apply the solder (in the case of pipes: cleaned with sandpaperor emery cloth and fluxed prior to solder).? Also goes without saying, use rosin core solder.

This is kinda fun writing it out after the fact.? Hope it is helpful.

Warren Chapman wrote:

Ed and I used mine which was printed out from a Mitchell Repair Computer
CD-ROM at my local garage.

We typed in the type of car, the year and model and then asked for the
wiring schematic. Boom! Cool!

The two pages printed out were:
Wiring Diagrams
Fig 2: Computer Engine Control (Grid 4-7) and
Fig 3: Computer Engine Control (Cont), Ign Coil (Grid 8-11)

Mitchell CD-ROM- Chilton Manual? Probably the same schematic actually.

Either one really helps if you are comfortable following little black lines
around on a schematic. In my case I had to remove my glasses and press my
nose against the page. <grin>

Hope this helps.

Ron Bloomquist

Howdy Folks,
I too am going to convert my '85 Westy to Subaru power.

I'm interested in what my 1.9L might be worth. It has 108K miles. I
think it is still healthy (but that can all change tomorrow).

I'm also interested in how much money i'm going to leak before i'm
done.

Another silly question. Does anyone have experience with the Subie
Turbo engine?

I live in Phoenix and would love to see a converted Vanagon first
hand. Please reply if you are in my area.

Patrick