As the title says I'm looking for opinions on doing a subaru conversion to at least one of my buses. I'm thinking of doing the Bay first and trying to persevere with aircooled on the Split, ultimately getting a 1776cc motor for it.

I'm just fed up with never having a stress free journey and the missus has absolutely NO faith in either of the vans

Both the engines have been cobbled together by dicks (especially the Splittys) and I'm trying to do what I can but I'm no engine expert , mechanically I'm good but I just don't have the experience with motors and no-one I know does and there is no "aircooled scene" in Aberdeen what so ever

I think going for a modern EFI engine would save me so much grief in the long run and will be cheap for me to do as I'm a CNC machinist and will make nearly all the bits for the conversion myself.


Cheers,
Paddy

I went Subaru powered 2 years ago and have not looked back. Its a ball ache to fit the rad in an area of high air flow but once that is sorted its reasonably plain sailing. Be ready for lots of unexpected little problems (and unforseen additional costs) and you'll need a few shake down runs before you can be satisfied that everythings working perfectly, but once its sorted its a great feeling knowing you can get in a 50 year old vehicle and keep up with modern traffic and have proper heating etc. I also fitted disks all round and power steering at the same time so my conversion is a little more in depth than most people would be comfortable with. I now have a 'no tool' rule in my bus

Check out the build thread here
http://forum.exeteraircooled.co.uk/viewtopic.php?id=18

I would same a competent home mechanic could fit a Subaru engine without any problems. The ECU wiring is the most difficult part of the entire build and if you need help try www.vwkd.com and www.rjes.com

And if you want to know what it goes like look here
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 6462710553

its a great conversion if you do it properly and upgrade the bus at the same time like clever chap but it will allways be a conversion and will cause you a head ache some were if your not good with vw engine scooby is going to be out of your reach to fix when it goes wrong (it will brake at some point all engines do) so who do you take it to for work a scooby place wont want to no and most vw places wont want to know so you so it becomes hard work to fix.
i drive every were in my split with 1641 engine pulls like a train just done 340 mile round trip to viccy farm at 70 all the way and it didnt miss a beat

I think your money would be spent on a very well built type 1 engine that you can trust.

It will keep the value if for any reason you would need to sell, plus keep the charm of aircooled.

dubberdean wrote:I think your money would be spent on a very well built type 1 engine that you can trust.

It will keep the value if for any reason you would need to sell, plus keep the charm of aircooled.

I agree with Dean & bbbcvw a well built VW engine wil be cheaper and less hassle in the long term....


Cheers


Andy

How much is a 'well built' air cooled engine though?

TSR will supply & fit a subaru 2.0 (155BHP for the newer ones) for ~£4,500. I have seen people spending twice that amount on 2.0-2.2 'built' air cooled engines ... and that is just the engine!

How much does a second hand 2.0 air cooled engine cost?

I am considering this route myself (subaru), hence my questions! (My mind is far from made up yet!)

Anyone spending £8k on an aircooled engine is looking for either extreme power or extreme originality (period rare components).

If you're just looking for a sensible and reliable engine, 1776 is probably the way to go and you'll struggle to be spending more than £3k to achieve that.

dont forget with 155bhp you need damm good brakes and good steering other wise its a waste of time i look after a 2.2 legacy powerd split and as soon as you floor it it sends you all over the place so still a hard work van to drive

in my honest opinion fitting modern watercooled engines in a classic aircooled vw is just wrong.
If you want a bus that drives like a modern car then buy a T5.
Having said that, each to their own as they say.

cloudinspector wrote: in my honest opinion fitting modern watercooled engines in a classic aircooled vw is just wrong.

Having said that, each to their own as they say. No matter how wrong they are!

Do you have a point to put across cloudinspector

Like the title said I was wanting opinions and true to the title I've got them . I'm still undecided but I know that for the money it'd probably cost for the conversion if I made all the adaptors etc myself, £600 (not including a new gearbox as well £900-£1500) I could get Laurie Pettitt to line bore and rebuild a 1600cc TP motor.

On the aircooled front I've just bought electronic points for a vac advance dizzy so I can now bin 009 on one of the vans so things may improve.

Be different dont be a sheep i say theres lots of them
If u have the skills to do the conversion with a complete donor car ,(£300 for a 2.2 and £700 for a 2.5 with low miles).
Then surely if any problems occur then u can fix it .Plenty of engine builders out there if theres a major issue or just source another motor ,they unbolt the same u know Plus management has a fault code mode whereby it flashes an led to indicate wether a sensor etc has gone down. Buying a complete car enables u to chop the loom about and keep engine running so if u cut wrong wire u know where your upto and u know the mileage.Does take time though.Dimensionally a perfect fit slight trimming of rear valance required.U will more than likely need to upgrade your gearbox as, 2.2 is around 145bhp and 139 torque.Some people with healthy boxs have no issues (dependant on how u drive) .

I had a bay that I put a 1992 1.8 Subaru Legacy motor in, and I have to say it was fantastic. I think I noticed the smoothness & quiteness more than anything initially! Everything was a hassle though - loads of fabrication (obviously not a problem for you), lots of parts sourcing and a lot of 'trial & error' testing! The motor I used wasn't EFI so the wiring was fairly straight-forward, I'd hate to think what wiring in an ECU would involve.

Don't be put off by the luddites, it's your bus after all. Having said that, I did find it quite difficult to sell - it was a case of finding someone who saw the conversion as a bonus rather than a negative point.

I'm staying aircooled with my splitty, primarily because I'd rather use it than spend time working on it (although I seem to do plenty of that anyway!)