Subaru ez30d h6, 4eat auto gearbox in a coachbuild

[jamiegolf]

Ok, so the van is packed, ready to take to work for the weekend to get the engine/gearbox setup fitted, it’s Guna be a long weekend!!


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[toomanytoys]

Awesome work.. I sold my old H6 OB off just before I found out that the reverse kit was available.. DOH!!

[jamiegolf]

So thats the van in on the ramp, fluids drained, ready for surgery in the morning…..
i thought it may be a good idea to put the h6 close by so they can both get acquainted over night so they can play nice tomorrow!!


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[jamiegolf]

Evening all,
So today was a VERY productive day…..
Ej20 was stripped out by 11.00, h6 offered up and mounted by 1.30, running by 5.30

Few points to note,

With the reversaru 4eat gearbox, it pushes the engine back about 30mm, so needed to redrill engine mounting holes in the chassis rails,

This in turn meant I couldn’t fit the coolant overflow tank in its original position due to the top hose arrangement,
This isn’t a problem as I can mount it outside the rear panel but still within the coach build body,

I’m glad i did the prep work before hand fitting the dash harness’s,
It made today so much easier,
I just needed to remove the original front harness for the ej20 and feed the 5 (YES 5!!) front harnesses through the new modified heater pipe grommet and over the fuel tank to the wiring grommet in the firewall,

Defiantly have a helper when it comes to fitting the engine into the hole!!

And also it helped having a helper when it came to the wiring.
As my van has a false floor, i decided to fit all the ecu’s and fireboxes under the false floor, these needed feeding from inside out, so with me in the van doorway and a helper under the van we managed to get all the wiring in and out of the firewall grommet.

Anyway here’s some pics















Still plenty to do,

Radiator to swap (old one isn’t in the best condition)

Remove chargecooler rad ( from when it was a TD)

Coolant plumbing to connect up

Driveshafts to refurb and fit (short auto shafts)

Some wiring to tidy up and a couple of connections to make

Gearbox oil to drain and refill

Engine oil to drain and refill

Coolant to fill and bleed

Exhaust to make up

Clutch master cylinder and pedal to remove

Blank off clutch master feed pipe from brake fluid bottle

Blank off gearstick and handbrake cable hole in the floorpan

Intake pipework to fabricate

It won’t be all done tomorrow (I don’t have any intake parts to start with as I wasn’t sure what I would need) but it should be driving and running with fresh fluids tomorrow,

We will see how the day pans out…….

More updates tomorrow


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[J P]

Nice work Jamie. You'll be putting those Porsche stoppers to work in no time. 

[Smiffo]

Awesome Jamie!

Keen to see it completed. Almost as keen as you

Interested to see ground clearance when on the road


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[slowcoach]

Yeah that'll be the fastest coach built in town

What's the sump like on those? Does it need a shortened one?

[jamiegolf]

Evening all,
So got lots of fiddly bits sorted and finished today,
Exhaust system built,
Coolant hoses all connected and coolant filled (needs bleeding)
Clutch master cylinder removed and supply hose blanked
Wiring finished,
Gearbox oil drained and refilled,
Driveshafts refurbed and fitted

Once we got some coolant in it and an exhaust on it was easier to listen to the engine and I noticed it was hunting at idle and would trigger an eml after the hunting started, quick scan with the ssm2 and it showed an idle speed control fault, turns out the idle valve was sticking, quick clean and it was all good.

It also had half a missfire as it wasn’t running as smooth as expected, turns out one injector was stuck due to old fuel in the rail, so removed the offending injector I could smell that old fuel varnish smell, so we rigged it up to a power supply, and with some injector cleaner behind it and it came back to life.
So I think a fuel treatment and some decent fuel will clear the rest of the contaminants out, failing that, will whip all 6 injectors out and get them ultrasonically cleaned, but she’s smooth as silk now! And super quiet……

Few jobs left to finish tomorrow,

dash trims to refit,
Coolant system to bleed and run up to temp,
After cat lambda sensor to mount and cheat, (no cat fitted)
Kickdown switch to fit
Gearbox oil level to check,
Engine oil to replace,

Also while the van is in the ramp I wana run some new cables for the new solar/lithium battery setup…..

Didn’t take no pics today apart from This one of the exhaust fitted…..



Should all be done tomorrow.
Will Get it out for a little road test tomorrow,

Ordered some intake parts tonight, so should be able to get that sorted next week,
Also ordered some new injector seals and idle valve gasket too, just to know it’s good.




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[jamiegolf]

So that was a busy weekend….

First start video from Friday

https://youtu.be/9HWoO0Au3OQ?si=x-RIZVIVMEl6F_9h

Video from inside while running up to temp yesterday

https://youtube.com/shorts/y3LcVpcXV5g? ... QZPkqpB0H3

First road test video!!

https://youtube.com/shorts/Qlb8JfPxw1w? ... CpA3UN8SRv

Van drives SOOOOOO smooth!!
Few things left to sort out. But shes drivable and she’s back home,
It’s been a whirlwind weekend, been so much going on with doing my engine swap going on and my old engine going into another van on the other ramp in the workshop! If only we could be left alone in the week we would get so much more work done without distractions

Like I said, few things left to sort,
Slight gearbox oil leak from torque converter area, so box will probably need to come out to sort that,
Dash trims to refit,
Obd to wire into the dash,
Kickdown switch to fit and wire
Replace a couple of injector seals,
Replace isv gasket
Fabricate an air induction setup, (I was naughty and drove it home with no filter!!)

And get some miles on it!!

Summer cruising should be loads of fun this year


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[Smiffo]

Yes!!!

Well done Jamie


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[jamiegolf]

Just a few other pics of various bits that’s been done during the weekend
Blanked off gearstick hole
Fitted new radiator
After cat lambda fitted into tailpipe with a cheater
Factory headers with lambdas
Vw t3 automatic short shafts both sides
Reversaru push button gear change actuator and shiny cover plate!!











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[jamiegolf]

Evening all, so some induction parts arrived today, will get these fitted at the weekend,

Also got myself some radiator defector plates, after my drive home I noticed the temp was hovering around the low temp fan cut in temp, so after a quick chat to richard at rjes he asked if I had these fitted, I said no, I’ve never had any on any of my vans, he has seen this issue before with a h6 in a t3, and he said after fitting these plates it made a big difference. So he concluded the air was being pushed around the rad and not though it,
So I got myself a set, will get them fitted this weekend and take it for a road test to see how much of a difference they will make to the engine temps….

I have also found the correct seal for my torque converter leak, just need to confirm the part number with Subaru before in order it,

I’ve also been working on another side project for the van. A full victron mppt, dc-dc, shunt and inverter charger setup including a 280ah lithium battery bank being fitted beneath the front seats in the battery boxes, so makes use of the dead space, the rest of the setup is being fitted into the wardrobe in the rear of the van, and the touchscreen display will be mounted in the back somewhere.










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[jamiegolf]

Few more bits done today, air filter and crank case breather setup sorted, ,
Injector seals replaced and idle speed control valve gasket replaced,





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[jamiegolf]

Couple more bits done today,
The rjes kickdown switches fitted and working, my god does it fly when you use the kickdown switch and it drops two gears!!!!

I also fitted the radiator deflector cards hoping this would help with my cooling issue, alas it hasn’t helped, I think it’s down to a slow responsive thermostat, temp will climb and activate the fan, and then won’t cool enough to turn the fan off, after a road test I checked the temp on the diag tool, it was showing 97deg c, but the bottom engine hose and radiator were both lukewarm. So I checked the radiator for any air. No air when I removed the bleed screw. I need to check the coolant bottle to see if any air has appeared in there once it’s cooled down.


It did cross my mind if I had fitted the front to rear coolant hoses correctly and if this would make much difference??

I think my plan from here is to replace the thermostat with a Subaru turbo unit (lower opening temp) and see how it then behaves,







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[jamiegolf]

FINALLY!!
I’ve finally got to the bottom of the erratic temp issue,
It was the damn thermostat all along!!
After doing some testing by clamping the oil cooler coolant bypass and a few other things, nothing seamed to work and the temp was erratic.
So I bit the bullet and ordered a genuine ej20 turbo thermostat,
A few days passed and it arrived, it then sat in my kitchen counter for a few days as the weather was rubbish and I needed to do this job on the drive at home as I didn’t want to drive it to town to use the workshop,
So Monday night it was a dry and bright evening when I got home so I got to it,

So I clamped both big hoses, and both heater hoses to stop all the water draining out of the system and just drain the block, Got the old stat out and thought it would be a good idea to do a comparison test between the old and new unit.


So the new one started to open up at about 72deg and was fully open by 80deg (and opened about 9mm)

Where as the old one, started to open about 78deg and only opened up about 2.5mm,

Both stats were the 78deg version (revised part)

So I was quite confident I had found the issue,



So after getting it up to temp and bleeding any air out of the system, it was time for a road test to see how it behaves compared to before,

Temp was steady in the low 80’s all the time until it came to a hill and then climbed a bit (as your would expect) so i take that as a win!

I have noticed that if you switch the heater to the cold position the temp does rise a bit too close to the fan switch on temp for my liking,

so after some discussion with richard at rjes last night we came to the conclusion that the heater bypass isn’t big enough to supply sufficient flow back to the stat to regulate the temp correctly,
So I will be experimenting with replacement heater valve with a built in full flow bypass to see if it sorts the issue……
More experimenting to come!
But I’m getting somewhere now!!

Also still need to sort the gearbox leak and a few other bits under the van, so once the heater valve arrives , a weekend at the shop is in order to get a few bits done…..





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