Club 80-90 Forums

Heads back on, & new cambelt fitted, my EJ25 was out of an Auto so didn't have the cambelt guide so got one from RJES & fitted.


A/C Engine out.

.

Engine is on ebay finishes tonight so hopefully will be out of the way soon.

Now to finish off the Subaru engine & swap the bellhousing on the gearbox for the RJES one.

Reverse coolant manifold fitted


Wiring extended as coolant sensor moves to other side of engine.

Inlet manifold refitted

RJES bellhousing fitted to DK gearbox.

Engine & gearbox united.

Bit more done today, cleaned & painted the engine bay, it was bare metal where the old air cooled skirt rubbed.


Removed the petrol tank so that I can fit the coolant pipes & remove all the Aircooled heating ducts etc, I will be fitting an injection tank if any one is interested in this one.



Removed the rear gear linkage ready to be lengthened by 60mm.


Removed the dash & heater ready to fit the watercooled heater matrix.


Is anyone following this?, Is it worth carrying on posting or has it all been done before so no one is really interested, or is it in the wrong section?

Well I'm following it! Although I've got a water cooled, I do intend one day to fit a EJ25, so all your work and effort posting this is very good indeed, love seeing how it all fits together.
Keep up the good work for me at least!
John

Cheers John, nice to know you are finding it useful.

I will carry on posting, it doesn't take much effort and is a good record for anyone considering doing it.

Thanks

Tony

All good stuff. Maybe a little more detail would help? Aircooled to water is quite a big change and a lot of folks wouldn't contemplate it because of the amount of work involved and/or unknowns.

The detail should start to come through in the next few weeks as the conversion really gets going, but point taken will try to take a few more pictures of the steps as I go.

Please keep posting! Aircooled to Subaru is of massive interest, to me at least!

As many pics and as much detail as possible please

Cheers
Mark

volks_womble wrote:Please keep posting! Aircooled to Subaru is of massive interest, to me at least!

As many pics and as much detail as possible please

Cheers
Mark

OK Mark, will do, are you considering converting yours?

Cheers Tony

Tony,

It is a distinct possibility... It depends of how original I want it to be though tbh, and how far I want to go with the bodywork. #Having put the effort in to get the bodywork upo scratch, I'm worried that the engine wont then be on a par. Seeing how much work is involved to include the water cooling is really useful, and helps with the decision process!

Cheers
Mark

So I have done quite a bit more over the weekend & today:

Fitted the starter motor (thanks for the bolts Zedd) & new slave cylinder



Stripped the plastic water pipes & heater pipes from the donor van



And loosely fitted, I managed to fit the plastic pipes through the existing hole in the central crossmember under the van but had to reroute the main battery cable to the starter motor, the heater pipes won't go through the same hole, but there are other holes in the crossmember they can pass through


While the dash is out I swapped the servo for a BMW E30 one which I read aids braking, it was pretty easy to do with the heater box out of the way, there is a good thread on 'the Samba' about the conversion. it only just fits.



I swapped the blower motor in the water cooled heater box then trial fitted, all the captive nuts are in place, but they are blanked off with tape.


The hole in the tunnel for the heater pipes needs modifying as the rubber grommet is larger in the watercooled vans, I am going to cut this piece out of the donor van & screw it into place as the Aircooled van hole is taller, so you can't just enlarge it.



I robbed the junction box from the donor van which is a later van 85 & fitted to the left hand side of the engine bay, I had to move the servo vacuum pipe over to the adjacent hole to get it to fit neatly. All of the engine bay terminations between the VW & Subaru loom with be made here (on Syncroandy's advice).


I couldn't wait any longer so I fitted the engine, not too bad to do just a bit of jiggling to get the holes on the engine bar to line of with the chassis, I found long bolts helped.



One problem, the slave cylinder is very close to the bulkhead, in fact the bleed nipple is rubbing & there is no way I could get a tube on to bleed the clutch, so I think I need to cut this section out, what have other people done?


lastly fitted the new coolant header tank.


Lots still to do but feel like I am making real progress, hopefully the loom will be back soon as I want to get that fitted before adding anything else to the engine bay.

Cheers

Tony

Cut the top radiator mounting panel off the donor van & cleaned it up with a flap wheel on the angle grinder

Trial fit:

Coat of stone chip;

Then finally bolted it in place:

Also cut this off the donor van for the heater pipe grommet

Offered up, marked out & cut



Bit of sealant on the back, then riveted in place

Grommet in & pipes connected up

Air to watercooled isnt an easy swap! Re: clutch slave clearance, wassers have a different shaped stringer panel at the forward end of the engine bay.

Heater fitted & plumbed in

Chopped the lower front panel, not sure about it will probably fit the lower grill from the donor van.
Radiator fitted.

Engine coolant hoses fitted

Engine bay cut to relief clutch slave cylinder.

Also refitted the driveshafts which was a real pain as the gearbox has moved backwards by 60mm, so I have to drop the back of the gearbox down to fit them.