Club 80-90 Forums

Hi Folks, Haven't been around for a while, but my van has just failed its MOT due to a knackered exhaust (and a few other minor issues). When I put the Subaru engine in, I did a temporary, money-saving job on the exhaust - just made up some plates and welded the Subaru manifold onto the original VW ...

I went for the Subaru conversion, using RJES. There's a thread on my conversion here . I went for a 2.0 NA engine, and I've been very happy with it. Not a great increase in power over the 1.9 WBX, but enough for me. RJES were good to deal with, if nothing else I would strongly recommend getting Rich...

I decided to go with the cheapest exhaust system I could get - so I used the original VW box, and the Subaru manifold. I tried to find someone willing to weld some bits of pipe together to make it work, but no-one was interested in anything other than doing a "professional" (expensive) job...

OK - there's a short hose connecting the 16mm outlet from the thermostat housing to a 16mm metal pipe which passes over the engine block (the thick black line on the diagram). You should have enough 16mm hose to connect the end of this metal pipe to the bypass. I think the pipe was already connected...

Yes, I did use the RJES plumbing kit with no problems. First off I should say I'm not sure if the kit is that same for all Subaru/T25 combinations. Mine was an EJ20 from an Imprezza, and I have a late model 2WD T25. On mine, the large pipe from the thermostat goes direct to the plastic pipe that fee...

Finally got it on the road, taxed and everything! Passed it's re-test with no problems, and almost everything seems to be working OK. There was a slight problem with the speedo - the VSS supplied by RJES fouled slightly on the mechanism, which stopped the needle turning. Trimmed the epoxy covering t...

Then all I'll need to do is get it through the MOT! James Famous last words. 2 weeks on and still not on the road. Engine seems fine - I've now fitted the VSS, but haven't tried it out on the road yet. MOT failed on a small bit of welding (easily fixed), and corroded ferrules on the rear brake flex...

Finally found a loose wire I'd slightly pulled out of it's connector. Pushed it back in, and all is well again. Still getting the engine fault light on from time to time, and an error code 24. I'll probably get a VSS and fit it - hopefully that will fix it. Then all I'll need to do is get it through...

...and a couple more: Exhaust mounting bracket. I was quite pleased with this. I was not entirely happy with welding a bracket to the sump - it seemed a bit flimsy, and with my welding skills, I could easily have cut a hole through the sump. So I made up a plate which bolts to the unused power steer...

This was supposed to be a photo journal - but I didn't get round to taking as many pics of the process as I'd intended. Anyway, here are a few more of the "finished" project. Nice new header tank cap... Dsc_8516.jpg New throttle cable - this was quite a pain to fit, with very poor access t...

Water pump is definitely working? Think so - hot water is getting to the heater OK. ...and simply apply a little bit of air onto the header tank... I assume you mean pressurised - how do did you do that? I also made a small bypass hole in the thermostat... I always thought they all had one already ...

When I started, the back end was still on the ramps, but I've since tried with it level, and also with the front end on the ramps - at which point coolant was coming back out of the top of the header when I removed the cap.

Hmmm, guess there may be some left in there, but I did take the lower bottom hose off the rad, so I'd have thought most of the coolant would have gone?

James

mrmule wrote:Silly question, but are you bleeding it from the top of the rad at the front?

Yes. Richard Jones' filling procedure suggests getting as much coolant as possibly in via the header (with the rad bleed screw out), then slowly filling the rad via the bleed screw hole.

James

Finally got the thing started yesterday! It fired up immediately, which was very satisfying. Ran it for about 5 minutes, then the engine fault light came on, and started to run rather rough. Turned it off, and connected the black test connectors, and read a fault 24 (By pass air control valve). Star...