Club 80-90 Forums

Hi folks,

First post of what I plan to be a regular(ish) update of progress on my Subaru conversion.

I bought my T25 1.9 WBX in a bit of a hurry to take on holiday in Wales this summer - and it overheated on the first long trip. What with coolant leaks from numerous places (including both heads), suspect oil pressure, and very rough running on startup, I decided the old WBX had to go. After much searching of the internet (including this forum) I decided to go for a Subaru conversion. Last week I received my EJ20 - 72,000 miles - from a 1996 Impreza.

Today I moved the T25 into position and onto the ramps, ran it for the last time (had to remove and clean up the plugs to get it going), and then started pulling bits off!

Weather was good, and rest of the family were elsewhere, so made good progress, and managed to get the old WBX out.




James

Few more pics...



Had JUST enough clearance to roll the WBX out on my sack trolley. The EJ20 is sitting on a specially made low level trolley made with bits of kitchen worktop and some old castors supplied by my Dad.

That's the easy bit done!

James

Keep going keep going!!

If you need any advice giz a shout!

Thanks guys.

Just waiting for the bits from RJES now. Managed to break off one of the coolant manifold bolts when removing it to send off to Richard for reversal, so will have to extract or drill that out before reassembling.

James

Well it's been several months since my last post, and in spite of a number of hold ups, work has progressed...

Lots of pics like these were taken before removing the inlet manifold etc. to get at the coolant manifold, which had to be removed to send off to RJES to be "reversed", in case I forgot where all the wires, coolant and breather pipes went when the time came.


Coolant manifold removed ready to send off to Richard...


A few weeks later, the modified coolant manifold arrived, along with lots of other bits. Meanwhile, the Subaru wiring loom had been sent off for conversion.

First thing I noticed on installing the reversed coolant manifold, and replacing the inlet manifolds and fuel injection stuff, was that two of the fuel pipes now obstructed the temperature sensors...


...easily fixed with a little careful bending of the fuel pipes.

Next I started work on removing the clutch release assembly from the VW bell housing, and installing it on the RJES bell housing. Sounds simple? Toughest job so far was removing the clutch release arm from the shaft. I had to build a puller to get it off, and even then needed to apply a fair bit of heat, and give it some good whacks with a hammer. Fortunately it eventually came off with little damage, and the plastic sleeve intact.


...and here's the assembly mounted in the new bell housing, complete with new release bearing...

More coming soon I hope - meanwhile, here's a pic of one of the main reasons things have been moving slower than I had hoped...


James

A few more pics to bring things up to date...

Here's the drain plug with shortened magnet installed in the new bell housing...


The transaxle ready to receive the bell housing...


...and the bell housing fitted. I managed to get this done just before the weather turned nasty again.

The connectors removed from the VW wiring to send off to RJES for incorporating into the new wiring system...



...and the new clutch installed on the Subaru engine.


The biggest problem with the clutch was removing the Subaru pilot bearing (to be replaced with one with a larger inner race to accommodate the VW shaft). Richard's instructions give a suggested method for removal using a block of wood, a screwdriver, a nut and bolt and a claw hammer (assuming you don't have an internal puller handy, which I didn't). I tried this method, but the thing wouldn't budge. I thought I would have to resort to removing the flywheel, but decided to just try a bit more leverage first. So out came my trusty 4' steel pipe. I removed the rubber sleeve from my claw hammer so that the pipe would fit over the end of it, braced my foot against the side of the engine to stop the whole thing moving, and pulled! The bearing slid straight out. Great what you can do with a big lever, just wish I'd taken a picture of it!

James

Is the coolent manifold reversal esential for a VW T25 conversion.Asking because ive not seen this discussed on subaru T25 conversion.

Hi,

You seem to be getting on well!

I did the same conversion 18 months ago myself, besides a few hiccups it went very well, the reversed manifold works well as I had no bleeding issues at all.

If you have steel waterpipes check them, mine were perforated, I replaced mine with plastic ones.

I has Powerflow make an exhaust using the Subaru downpipes cut off just after the Lambda probe running into a Subaru WRX Backbox tight under the left rear panel, all that is visible are the 2 outlets, keeps it nice and quiet.

Pulls like a train, just stick it in 4th and leave it there, good on fuel too 30mpg easy, hills no longer an issue when loaded Hooray!

The only pain is checking the oil as you have to lift the engine cover to access the dipstick.

Have fun it's worth it!

camper wrote:Is the coolent manifold reversal esential for a VW T25 conversion.Asking because ive not seen this discussed on subaru T25 conversion.

no not at all, I did mine before rjes was even a company, ( he was just starting on making the bell housing mould!) my manifold is still as it left the factory I just plumbed the water pies round to that, that way if it brakes (tho very unlikely) i can get one straight away!

camper wrote:Is the coolent manifold reversal esential for a VW T25 conversion.Asking because ive not seen this discussed on subaru T25 conversion.

As said above, certainly not essential, but it does make the plumbing simpler and neater, and possibly easier to bleed (or so I've heard).

James

jmdlister wrote:

camper wrote:Is the coolent manifold reversal esential for a VW T25 conversion.Asking because ive not seen this discussed on subaru T25 conversion.

As said above, certainly not essential, but it does make the plumbing simpler and neater, and possibly easier to bleed (or so I've heard).

James

made it no difference to bleed it at all, thos who say it is are often the ones who have never had it any other way so wouldnt know !