1981 Aircooled Westy to Subaru EJ25 Conversion

[Dollytony]

Here we go then.....

Hi All

I am new to the forum & new to classic VW's, back in November I bought a 1981 Westy poptop to convert to Subaru power & generally make good for camping trips this summer. Yes I should have got a watercooled van, but this was so good & at a reasonable price I had to have it



The body work is really good, interior is a little tired & unfortunately someone has painted the Westfalia cabinets but overall a good van.

I managed to buy a low mileage Legacy as the donor which I have now stripped.





I have a complete 1985 watercooled van which I am stripping for all the bits I need to convert my Aircooled.

I am using the RJES full kit for the conversion which all arrived this week, so weather permitting over the next couple of months I hope to complete the conversion as I only have weekends available.

Oh yeah I am Dollytony because of this, which I restored last year.



Cheers

Tony

[Whitevanman]

Loving the Dolly. Does the oil cooler give away a modified engine in it? I am rebuilding one with 45 Webers, hot cam, etc.

[silverbullet]

Sprint! Proper small car. I cut my teeth on Toledos, 1850 Dolomites etc but never had a Sprint. My last 1850 would always lock the front wheels if you braked too hard and had ploughing understeer!
I much preferred the revvy 1300TC in my second Toledo with an early 22/62/62/22 mk3 spitfire cam....

[Dollytony]

Yep it's a tad modified,



STR91Cam
Ported head
Lightened & balanced bottom end
Mahle pistons
Twin 48 dellortos
Opened up exhaust manifold into large bore downpipe.
Powr lok LSD
Tracker jack sierra vented disc conversion
Gaz fully adjustable shocks with lower/uprated springs
15" Minilite replicas
Rolling road tuned 145bhp at the wheels.

Good fun to drive turns a lot of heads.

[silverbullet]

Very nice! But no strut brace? I know that its a tight squeeze but didnt the Broadspeeds or the works team cars have one?

[Dollytony]

You're right the touring car Sprints of the 70s had strut braces, but the consensus in Dolomite circles is unless you are racing the strut brace isn't really needed as the Dolomite shell is quite strong around the turrets as they are quite close to the bulkhead.

[Whitevanman]

Here's mine. Still a few bits missing.

[CJH]

Ah this takes me back. My dad had a Triumph 2500TC so the first car I bought was a Triumph 1500 - a 'mini-me' in the Dolomite body shell. It dropped a valve so turned into a lesson in engine rebuilding. I had a mate who bought a Sprint after owning an 1850 - managed to get it facing the wrong way exiting a roundabout on the way home from picking it up. Great cars.

[Dollytony]

Here's mine. Still a few bits missing.

Looking good, what radiator do you have fitted?

If you need any parts let me know I have loads of spares plus I am only up the road in Andover.

Do you use the Triumph Dolomite Club Forum, lots of good advice on there.

[marlinowner]

The joy of six
Well Weberised TR6 anyway.

Rather more used looking I'm afraid, still it's more than 30 years since I put it together.

[Dollytony]

Love the sound of the Triumph straight six, especially on triple Webers, very nice.

[silverbullet]

Here's mine. Still a few bits missing.

Inca yellow? Very much THE colour iirc
I walked away from a Magenta '73 4-speed because of a nasty looking bolster-induced slot right into the sill/front wing overlap. Didn't bode well esp. with shiny paint and GKN's... it was only 600 quid but this would have been around 1993.

[Chiefy]

Any progress on the van?

[Dollytony]

Not done much since last week apart from change the steering rack gaitors to get it through the MOT.

The Aircooled engine is on ebay & will be coming out of the van next weekend.

Expecting the reverse coolant manifold back from RJES this week so can put the engine back together, although whilst cleaning the engine up I noticed a small oil leak out of the left hand head at the back which is quite common apparently, so I have decided to change the headgaskets to the new MLS ones, so this may delay things a bit, depends how well it goes. But I thought it was worth doing while the engine is out & on the engine stand.

It looks pretty straightforward although the torqueing up sequence of the heads is not something I have come across before only really having worked on old cars (mainly Triumphs) normally just gradually torque up to a final setting, but on the Subaru it is different just need to make sure I do it right, lots of stuff on youtube about it.

[Dollytony]

Did the headgaskets on the EJ25 yesterday, replaced them with genuine Subaru MLS gaskets.

Oil Leak on Left Head (Before Gasket Change)

Right side not too bad but just starting

Head off


New MLS headgasket.