Hey Guys,

I have had the car running for about a month now, and boy is it fun!!!

I do have a few quesitons, I have a bit of an oil leak and want to verify that both of these ports off the block are infact case vents...  Please let me know.  I know the previous EJ20 that I had did not have the one closest to the center of the engine.  Where do these go in a factory application?

Thanks for the help!  Alden

The rear opening is the factory crankcase vent, and matches the location on my 2.0 turbo motor.  The center one looks like someone added it custom?  Even the crossover water manifold looks to be modified and welded to clear it.  I guess if you want to use both, just Tee them together and run into the PCV system (or whatever crankcase venting system you're running).

Here is the factory diagram:



Jeff

I'd be cautions about that new center vent - just thinking that the spinning crankshaft could be pumping oil up into that tube while running, unless it is specifically baffled inside to keep that from happening.

Jeff

Thanks for the reply...

The port with the water manifold thats been modified is the one I'm mostly not sure of.  I modified the manifold to fit around it.  The manifold is from another motor I had that was already set up for my application,  but this motor had this additional port.  It is factory as I have seen it on some other pictures of others, but am not sure why Subaru would have 2 crank case breathers, or why they would be so close to one another.

Again, thanks for the help!

Alden

Oh no you didn't ask that! Not in a MILLION years. LMAO WAY too funny. You're never going to live this down now... you know that!

Jay

You're just trying to get information on how to pump as much oil as possible onto the passenger seat huh?

Jay

ehhh  hum.....  Now that is funny!!!  OMG that made me laugh out loud!!

I ended up teeing them together and running a hose to an old bugpack breather box I had sitting around, so far so good!!! 

Now that you have it running, how's the cooling holding up with the rear radiator?  Did you also use an oil cooler at all?

Glad you got a good laugh out of that!

Jay

Alden,

Are you planning on showing your car this year at Funfest in Effingham?

Please do !!!!

"Are you planning on showing your car this year at Funfest in Effingham?"

I am hoping to make it to Effingham but it wouldn't be until Sunday morning.  My business requires me to work on Saturdays, but I am hoping to be able to drive north of Effingham on Sat night and stay with a friend in Mattoon Illinois. If the timing is right, I might swing by on my way thru Sat. night.   This is all depending on what my findings are over the next weeks regarding the cooling, I am still trying to "fine tune" it.  Also, if the weather isn't looking too promising, then I will have to pass!

Its funny that I have owned my car now for 16yrs, have showed it all over early on including the old MOFOCO BUGFEST in Wisconson, lived in Mattoon IL, (20 mins) north of Effingham for the past 5yrs until this past December, and yet I have never had it at the funfest!  Now,  I am living down by Carbondale which is about 1:45 min south of Effingham and I am now hoping to make it there this year!

Tonight, I finally got the car running to its full potential/correctly, and boy am I suprised!! I had been having some problems with the boost and the BOV, both seperate issues, and now are fixed!  I am finally very happy and impressed with the performance!  I have been tweeking the fuel injection and am waiting on my wideband O2 sensor so that I can finally fine tune it! 

More to come!

Alden

Alden, how about an update?  How is the cooling system working out? Just looking for some motivation for mine...

Long overdue for an update....

We last left off back a number of months ago, if I were going to make it to Mid America Funfest in Effingham.

I drove the car 2hrs north to Effingham on Sat evening after work.  About an hour on the interstate, I had to pull over as I noticed that the car was slowly getting hotter.  This told me alot about what is needed in the future regarding the cooling.  I pulled over at a rest area and started playing with the Stinger on the laptop.  For some reason, the fans weren't triggered to come on, so I changed the values and we were up and going again.  I think the ambient temp was pushing 100°F that day....  None the less, I had previously installed some tempory "scoops" to direct the air flow from beneath the car up to the radiator. Considering that I was needing the fans to run down the interstate tells me that I am in need of possibly better ducting, larger radiator, or something I haven't thought of yet.

I continued up the road in time to meet up the Jay H and a bunch of other guys at a resturant.  After talking vw's, subi swaps, our two cars specifically, I continued an additional 20miles north to stay the night with my friend at his house.  Well, during this little trip, I sprung a leak in the radiator, but was able to make it.  Unfortunately, one of the radiator fans rubbed/vibrated a hole in the cooling passage of the radiator, and was leaking tremendusly by the time I got to his house. 

My initial plan that day was to get up, wash the car and head back to MAM, but instead, I called around to all the parts stores trying to find a radiator out of a 6cy Jeep Cherokee (this is the rad. I am using) and ended up finding one.  Due to the time of everything, we ended up just going to view the cars at the show, leaving my car behind to later replace the radiator and drive 2.5hrs south home.

That very next day, the 2010 Hot Rod Power Tour came thru my area, only 20mins away in DuQuoin Ill, they said there were over 3000 cars on display.  I headed up there that afternoon in the VW, showed the car, noticed from the distance spectators pointing to the engine compartment in disbeleaf  

The Highlight - On my way home from the show, I was sitting at a stoplight on the outskirts of town (immediately turns to 55mph and not another stoplight, entrance or exit for 2miles) and up next to me rolls a 69 Camaro.  Now let me tell you, this was one badass car!  Silky smooth paint, lowered with larger rims and low profile tires, and I dont know for sure, but possibly a big block!  It sounded everybit as good as it looked!  Now my heart is racing, my palms are a bit sweaty, and I look over and rev the VW waiting for the green light.  He looked back with a smile - probably thinkin what a joke!    The funny thing was the joke was on him!!!!   The light turned green, I let the clutch out aggressively but not side stepping it ( I still have the factory orginal 1968 VW Tranny) he had a bit better reaction time was just a bit ahead.  I then immediately put the pedal to the floor, shifted to second and all of a sudden I am looking at his headlights out the passenger rear window, threw it into third and I couldn't believe it, I am now seeing his headlights decending in the rear view mirror, into fourth for a bit and decided that was it!!!!   I am now in disbelief but yet also have the biggest smile on my face...   It wasn't even close, I must have been every bit of 50ft ahead of him, yet right off the line, he was 3ft or so ahead of me... As I slow down, now cruising at 60ish mph he pulls up beside me, shakes his no and gives me a thumbs up.  He then pulled off at the next light and went to the hotel as I continued on.  I couldn't help but think, did he just get back to the hotel (parking lot was full of old cars) and tell his buddys what had just happened, or not say a word?  Either way, its pretty funny!  Who would ever think while driving a old hopped up Camero, that an old VW Bug would spank them. 

That following week, My Father came to visit, and was anxious to go for a ride as I had told him this story and how well the car was running.  We go for a small little ride, to get the engine up to temp, I pull out of my subdivision and romp on it, shift from 1st to 2nd and BANG!!  there went the trans!  It now has no forward or reverse gears.  Due to how busy I have been, I pushed it into the garage where it has sat ever since.  I am planning on getting a Rancho Trans this winter and replacing the tranny..  Its a never ending project!

Hopefully I can get a few pics of the trip to Mid America and of the Hot Rod Power Tour posted up later....

That's a great story!  Glad to hear the update.  With your comments about ducting and the radiator, I was wondering if all that you are running is the one radiator?  The Black and white 65 over on Aussieveedubbers is running an oil cooler, one larger radiator and I believe a smaller radiator.  I was planning on using a radiator about the size of yours and located in the rear and then an oil cooler plumbed into the oil at the filter.  I was thinking the oil cooler would go behind the rear tire where I believe it would get plenty of airflow.  Maybe I would run a small radiator behind the other side tire piped in after the main rear radiator.  In the summer we get 110° temps and I would like to not worry about driving it.

Nice going!  I'm sure that Camaro driver won't soon forget your little VW!

Glad to heat it has been running well.  You should post some more details of your cooling arrangement - I see the radiator somewhere around the back firewall?  What is the airflow path?

Nice job on the car - it look great, and sounds like it runs great too.  Might consider stepping it up to the Subaru trans conversion...... 

Jeff

Speaking of the Subi Trans, obviously it requires IRS rather than Swing Axle. I seem to remember several years ago in either HotVWs or VWTrends there was a car that still was Swing Axle but had an IRS trans.  This was accomplished with special axles with U-joints that were attached to the flanges on the IRS trans.  does anyone else remember this?  I thought that this may be a good way to do the subi trans install to the swing axle chassis.

Hey Surf - Dave Folts sold (sells?) a swingaxle conversion for the VW Bus trans, primarily for drag racing.  It is as you describe - the regular IRS output stubs are converted to use U-joints, which connect to modified swingaxles.  The problem is, at least as I see it, is the IRS differential and stub axle connection isn't designed to take any side loads.  In a swingaxle, the axles and diff combination are designed to take these loads and are pretty much integral to each other, as opposed to being bolted on.

Folts did sell a custom version of his set-up to a guy for a 914 trans, for use in a Porsche Spyder.  It worked well according to the owner, but wasn't cheap!

I think to really make this work, you need to design axles that can place all the side loading on some kind of suspension member - not the diff.  There was another conversion that did this using radius arms and a CV joint in place of the u-joint.  That looked like the best compromise for converting to a swingaxle.

All that said - I can't imagine why one would want to convert "to" a swingaxle?  I've no doubt it would cost more than converting the car to an IRS rear (VW style) and you get the better handling as part of the deal.

Jeff

Jeff, thanks for the info.  Now that you mention it, Folts does sound familiar.  I was not aware of the side load issues.  I was thinking more of a bolt on conversion without having to weld in the IRS Pivots.  Yes you get better handling with IRS, but for drag racing, I didn't really care.  I have often thought about IRS on my car, in fact I have an IRS pan sitting on my side yard but don't really want to deal with DMV if I were to swap it.  HotVWs just did a story on adding the pivots to a swing pan, but they showed the body off of the pan. I wonder how hard it would be to add them to an assembled car?

I'd suggest posting the question on the build advise section and give Alden back his cool suby swap thread!  It would likely open up some interesting discussion and be more widely viewed than the suby swap forum?

In the mean time I'll see if I can dig up some pics of the Folts S/A conversion I've got squirreled away somewhere.

Cheers,
Jeff

Jeff,
Never was intending to steal the thread, in fact if you go back and look at this thread you can see that I've posted several times regarding his build as it is almost identical to mine.  With regard to my last question, I was really just thinking out loud...  and besides, you brought up the suby trans thing.
Alden, any idea of how much power your engine was putting out?  I'm not surprised the trans went.  I blew my OEM trans out years ago with just an 1835cc bug motor.  Hopefully you can get it running again soon, it sounds like a lot of fun.

No worries Surf - it's all good!

Yea, guess I did open the door with the mention of the Suby trans option - seems like a good option for a VW (IRS) swap.  Figured you'd get more traffic & replies starting another thread about the swingaxle conversion?

Cheers,
Jeff

A few pics of the the trip.

First at the rest area trying to figure why the cooling fans aren't kicking on...

Second, pulling into my buddies house, antifreeze leak dripping on the exhaust....

Third, at the Hot Rod Power Tour 2010

Lastly, pullin out with my Dad to blow the tranny... 

Alden,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I wasn't able to readily find my receipt from Rancho detailing all the goodies we decided to stuff in there. I reconfigured my old email account so I could reclaim the old emails with Mike Herbert.

Here is what is inside of mine:
Rhino Case with Gusset
Super Diff
2 HD Side Plates
Chromoly 1-4 Gears
C/M Pinion Retainer
3.88 R/P German
SAW Axles
Welded Cross Shaft
Axle Boots

It was a complete tranny with axle tubes, axles, etc all strapped to a pallet. All I had to do was un strap it, fill it with lube bolt it in, and clock the axle boots and finish the axle boots up.

Any further along with deciding what you are going to do for a tranny?

Jay

Well... After one heck of a long year, I have finally sat down, spoke with Rancho, and ordered my tranny!! 

Jay, thanks for your post, as it turns out, that is about the most you can do reasonably with a swing, and we ended up with almost the same configuration!!

Till next year......

Glad you're on the road to repair. Its no fun staring at a broken unit in the garage, thats for sure. don't forget pictures of the install.

Jay

As time permits, I am in the process of swapping out the trannys.  I have taken a few pics of them sitting side by side for all to see.  I sure am ready for the nicer weather!

Glad to see you're getting back on the road.  I finally started a thread for my build over on Shoptalk.
http://shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=134735&p=1052817#p1052817

Alden, sounds like you're on the right track now. It looks like yours came painted. Mine came raw aluminum. Looks like you'll be pounding the pavement this spring again.

Jay

Well, I have had the car running for a while now.  The gearing of the new tranny is so much more streetable! Now that I have a tranny that withstand the hp, I couldn't resist the temptation to up the boost and get some real power out of the new JDM V7 STI,  so I took it from 9psi to 19psi!!  It sure does run well now - not that it didnt before.  From what I have read, they say that 1psi is equal to 10hp.  If this is true, that means its putting out another 100hp, and it feels as if it just might be! 

So, I took it to the dragstrip a couple weeks ago....  On a last minute of "what do you want to do tonight" my wife asked, I said lets take the VW to the races..   She said, lets go!  I had to go and install the seatbelts in the back seat so that I could get our 3yr olds car seat in, and after that we were off.   On the way, I romped on it a couple times, and I look back and my son has a smile from ear to ear while the wife was white knuckled!!  Ha!

I get to the track, everyone was looking like who's the idiot bringing a VW to the dragraces!  I only made two passes, the first was against an early 90's 5.0 Mustang.  It sounded good (what 5.0 mustang doesn't) and had some aftermarket wheels, tires, and big cowl duct hood.  Im thinking there was some performance parts under the hood.   We get into the staging lane, he's doing a big old smoking burnout, while I just drove around the water and went up to the line and waited.  I hadn't had an adreneline rush like this in a long time!  He pull up and the lights go green, I bogged it off the line and passed him right up.  When the boost came on in 1st, it spun the tires all the way to 8000rpm, shifted to second and it continued to spin all the way thru 2nd, into 3rd with a chirp and crossed the line.  I look back, and it looks like the Mustang is between 1/2 and 3/4 track.  He just got smoked by what he thought was a VW!!!  HA! 

The second run was against an 03ish Mustang Cobra!  It thinking, now we are going to have some competition!  We get up to the line, still no burn out for me, and I went a bit faster, but he went the same et and mph as the previous mustang.  That means the 1st mustang had a bunch of work done to it!! 

Below is a pic of the time slips and a poor quality video of the 2nd race against the Cobra.

Is most had said early on, to put the radiator up front, I have now made the decision to do so.  I am very confident that I could make it work in the back, but I would be alot of trial and error until I felt 100% confident in the set up.  I just dont have the time or patients!  I have ordered a radiator which will be installed in the spare tire location with some ducting from below.

More to follow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM3SeRjJTD8

Awesome !!

As spring is just around the corner, I have been getting excited about the thought of getting the car our again.  I have been doing a fair amount of work as time permits. 

I have moved the radiator from the rear to the front...  I think I could have made the radiator work in the rear, but I just felt it would be a more robust system if it were not in the rear, alot less trial and error.

I am currently in the process to modifying the header to gain more ground clearance. 

And lastly a video a friend of mine took while sitting passenger....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYN6yLq2GyU

Here is what I used. It is a bit more pricey, but is superior quality. I will not have to worry about something springing a leak or have any issues. I used this primarly because I ran the hoses down the tunnel of the car when I mounted the radiator up front.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#general-purpose-hose/=lq395s

The Marine Coolant and Fuel Hose...

And a few pics..  sorry for the quality...

The hose enters the pan near the battery and then goes directly into the side of the tunnel while still being completely hidden as its all under the back seat.

How much hose did you need? Also where you went into the pan at the rear, did you go into the battery tray area and then into the tunnel from there? I can't really tell how you got into the tunnel at the back.  Thank you