Club 80-90 Forums

Right ordered my engine for the crewy from an Impreza 2ltr sport, Has anybody fitted one of these engines, if so any nasty pitfalls??
Off to send RJES an email and order the bell housing, engine mount and the reverse flow manifold. Was impressed with said bell housing when we met up with Richard the other weekend, A proper engineered solution if I may say so.
I am thinking of getting a gearbox and building the complete unit out of the crewy and then dropping it in, Hopefully with the harness etc all tested and working,Any body done this, is it worth doing?? any one got a gearbox going spare ??
All comments and suggestions welcome even rude ones
colin

Have a look at Smallcar.com for engine cradles and exhausts etc.

There's also a german site in a topic on this very board somewhere who do cast alloy sumps that are a lot shorter too.

Everyone who's done a Subaru conversion positively gushes about them, although most have put 2.2 litre Legacy engines in/.

engine mount and the reverse flow manifold

= reversed coolant manifold

better state what sort of gearbox yours is, 2WD/4WD, and code letter. BNice idea to have it all wrapped up before it goes in - but often comes not to pass. Without a testbed/testbench, checking the harness completely would be difficult, but think Richard might be looking into this area..

Hi Thanks for the comments. I did consider the normal 2.2 transplant but to be honest I could not find one that was post 1995 or less than about 100k in my part of the world so went for the 2ltr a few less horses but to be honest I think 125 bhp will be enough in the crewy I was happy with the 95 bhp in the syncro crewy so I think 125 is a lot better than the 60bhp or less it currently has
I have not a clue what gearbox is in the crewy at the moment except its 2 wd and 4 speed so with the present engine if its the original box I guess its going to be either 4D, ABB or DT according to Mr Baxter, I'll have a crawl under it in the next day or two and see if I can find the code then put a post in classiefieds.
Again thanks for the comments keep em coming

Again thanks for the comments keep em coming

OK, the 2.2 EJ22 is the one you really want. '90~'94 is the basic model that can be obtained cheaply, from £150 upwards for the whole car. They do crop up... often autos as the auto is a bit weak. There is a split in the model at '92, the latter ones having a more plug-and play harness. And the cam covers are different, deep ribbing on thaleter ones, but all duringt hat period are findamentally the same engine and the wiring diagrams and most KEP info refer to those years.

Harry I think as the 2ltr is a younger engine with a lot less miles I shall stick with that, How hard can it be to sort the wireing harness
Had a look at the various sump options Mr Diamond but think for the present I will chop a lump off the bottom if I need to and practice some welding. I am sure I shall learn a lot from this swap as I go along

General concensus is that MIG welds can be porous at first pass, some keep on eye on that... presume you are familiar with the resource that is the posts and files section of Warren Chapman's suburavangon yahoogroup site.

Has info on all the engines in the files and database and lots on shortening the sump etc... walk throughs etc.

I've just finished my Subavelle/Carabaru (delete as applicable), using Richards stuff, And what good stuff it is too, there are pictures of my van on his website.

I have details of most things to do to the van, let me know is you need owt.

Just back from a very nice long weekend in the New Forest but look what arrived the day before we left.


Mind you this is the bit that looks scarey


So best get started I guess, watch out for a few "HELP" posts I think
colin

Speaking from experience (of the I didn't do it kind), I'd say the first thing to do is:-

Try to get the VIN that it came out of

and

Get all the engine numbers off the left edge of the engine's bellhousing attachment flange

and

write them down and save them safely.

The most importnat is not the engine number, but the vehicle's VIN, so if you don't have it, and the vehcile's just been broken ( ) then see if you can get it before its too late.

Spares (which you may well need, are referenced mainly off the VIN at the dealers... and of course ultimate identification of what it is.

You might also now get the numbers off the ECU as well.

Manual or auto?

And make a decision as to the cooling system layout, and whether you'll be using a reversed coolant manifold, which'll require the inlet manifold taking off.

Ah yes, very good advice that, I was fortunate in that respect.

As a bit of advice from me, dont throw anything away, until the engine is in the van and the van is MOT'd

The radiator hose that is on the top of your engine can be used to connect to the VW radiator hose. I reccomend the reversed coolant method too, but when you do take the coolant manifold off GET SOME NEW O-RINGS!!!, mine leaked and the whole lot had to come off AGAIN.
Do not buy a halfords replacement thermostat if you decide to change it, theirs is rated at a higher temperature and has too small a hole for the water to flow through, also thier thermostat does not sit high enough in the hot water flow. TAKE CARE IF YOU TAKE THE THERMOSTAT HOUSING OFF,that part of the car gets all the crud off the road and the threads of the bolt can get blocked and it will shear off, like mine did, soak it in PlusGas and use a bit of heat (but dry the plusgas off first, its flammable!!!!) if it looks like you have to take it off.

Keep an eye out for BMW 325 85-94 fuel pumps on Ebay, I think Cavalier ones work also. Use this page as a cross reference. http://www.fuelsystem.co.uk/otp.pdf you need FP603, have a look for all the cars with this pump, this can widen your search on ebay.

Get yourself a log on to the http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/subaruvanagon/ group there are many good links with wiring diagrams, pictures of cooling systems (richards one works for me), I would recommend going for Richard's bellhousing and engine mount, If you go for the bellhousing remember to tell richard (he might ask) if the engine you have has a threaded hole for the starter, some of the subaru engines, starters bolted to the car bellhousing and some bolted to the engine.

Have a look at my bit on Subaru Exhaust in this forum.

Did you get the pilot bearing from the gearbox? If not try Richard might have one, failing that you might have to buy a clutch kit, (Clutch plate, pressure plate and pilot bearing) but you might be able to buy the bearing seperatley.

I can give you the number of the alternator belt, Unless you are planning to use the power steering pump. But it might be as easy to buy it from TSR its not very expensive.

If you need some fine pitch bolts to bolt the engine/gearbox/bellhousing, try a bike breaker, bikes sometimes have a longer bolt than a car.

Finally your engine looks a bit dull, I thinkit would benefit from some nice colour coded cam covers and inlet manifold, I happen to have some spare I will be painting/powdercoating and putting on my engine, so can get my spare ones done any colour you want.

Bugger hadn't thought of the VIN thanks Harry will check the ECU tomorrow. I'll also write all those numbers down as well.
Decided to go with the reversed manifold for the cooling as it seems very neat. Hope to get it off and in the post to Richead by the end of the week.
The engine is from a manual car so came with its flywheel Harry.
Any other things I should do or get before I start hitting this thing with spanners Harry , Klatuu or Mr Diamond ??
cheers colin

Klatuu, good stuff too, on the cooling system...

It would be great if we could start assembling (here will do) a list of useful part nos.

That alternator belt for instance, the thrmostat No. and correct spec. etc.
I have some stuff already obviosuly off subaruvanagon, but whatever you've bought or intend to, wouldn't do any harm getting those numbers together, maybe typical prices too..

On that theme, be good to let us know where you source parts from, experiences and best deals. Also as you've already indicated with Halfords - what parts not to buy from non Subaru or OEM sources.

Any other things I should do or get before I start hitting this thing with spanners Harry , Klatuu or Mr Diamond ??

That depends on mileage... the US advice is to change all cambelt tensioner bearings and seals, crank seals back and front - quite expensive - though a lot of them do actually do this, no doubt on good advice. A right pain though if its already in and needs any of those.

I'd at least try to take the compressions, but that's dependent on starter motor mounting. You want 125 MIN but really about 150 +25/-0 across the engine (guessing, Subaru do specify min, max and spread somewhere). If any are down its likely to be No2, front left. But you may have to wait until engine in time to spin it over now...

Sounds like a plan...

I'll post some details when I get time or when I remember stuff, like now.

The Subaru Airfilter housing can be made to fit but its an ugly P.O.S. and will take up nearly as much room as the engine itself!! (Well not quite)

I have ordered a air filter adaptor and associated filter from these guys, This is the link to the adaptor http://www.needforspeed.co.uk/pages/sbv ... Type=API06 If you ask the fella to supply the airfilter that goes with it they are only about £12 extra.

Demon tweeks also do an adaptor. About the same price.