Syncro SWB Project - The Lightweight.

[SyncroGhia]

A good day spent chopping up vans

After having removed the rear trailing arms from the Crewcab,



I started cutting into the back end of the single cab and removing excess material to gain clearance for the 35s.







I'm not sure yet just how much of the rear cross member I'll leave but while I'm swapping parts around, I need it to stay in one piece for alignment when fitting it back up.



Removed



I've left an inch or so of each longitudinal section so I have something to weld to.





Moving to the front of the Crewcab, I have made more decisions as to what to cut off and what to leave behind before swapping the cab over.

Ever wondered what's under your seat?



One removed seat box. I'm suprised how little holds it in place.





Both sides removed... more room for modifications and more room for large tyres!





And even more clearance



Now that I've removed both pairs of rear arms, I can start Lengthening them. I have a set idea as to how long I want to lengthen them by but it's so much that I don't know if the CV joints will handle the angles. I'll probably just tack the parts together and do a test fit before finalising the spec.

Moving to the cab, I'm going to have to think long and hard about where to cut the cab and make it fit correctly. I have lots of mods in mind which need to happen at the same time so if I cut wrong, it means a lot more work putting metal back! Also I need to have the front wheels (with 35s) bolted on in order to check how far back the cab sits to keep enough clearance for the tyres.

I hope to be going out tomorrow with the gearbox casing, engine and trim the back end to suit. There's a lot to do though and I'd really rather like to watch the F1!

MG
_________________
1989 Syncro 16 S6 Westy Limey
1991 Syncro Lightweight SWB
1989 S8 Bluestar
1990 Tristar

[rubbachicken]

wow, there's not going to be much of that left by the time you have finished
_________________
lucy our westy

lucy's BIG adventure

lucy is 1985, with 2.1 Digifant, 4 speed manual

nesting in socal

[SyncroGhia]

That's the idea

I had a good day yesterday with engine/gearbox and shortening the back as much as possible but I was so knackered last night that I didn't have the effort to type it up.

I'm downloading the photos today so hoepfully will have time to get the update loaded on.

MG
_________________
1989 Syncro 16 S6 Westy Limey
1991 Syncro Lightweight SWB
1989 S8 Bluestar
1990 Tristar

[SyncroGhia]

With the borrowed Subaru engine from Rich (thanks Rich!), I pulled the sump, thermostat housing, oil filter and oil cooler off to enable easier access for fitting the Small car mount.



With the gearbox bolted up to the engine, I hoisted everything up into place and started bolting up the gearbox mounts to the chassis.





You can see just how short the engine is.



Onto the rear panel and trimming off the remains of the chassis legs and then offer it up.







Loadsa space!!







Time to shorten the chassis legs.

I worked out that the max I could shorten the chassis legs by was 130mm. The limiting factor is the engine bar brackets! Not the crank pulley.

The measurement before chopping from the pulley face to the rear cross member was 210mm.



A stepped cut means that I can use the bottom of the chassis leg for the bottom of the cross member and the engine bar can literally be the back of the van.





One shorter van!



Less room for the engine but not as short as I wanted.



The bar is barely in front of the back of the van.









Clearance is down to 80mm.







I'm not that happy with how this went and I'm looking into ways to shorten the chassis further. Possibly using a 2WD engine bar (as this is the lowest part of the engine/gearbox combo) and modifying the small car mount brackets, maybe even scrapping using the small car mount completely and using an RJES mount as it gets rid of everything at the back of the van. I need to see just how low the RJES bar sits in relation to the rest of the engine/gearbox package. If it's too low, it won't work with everything else I have planned.

I could trim the VW engine bar even more by trimming the back of the brakcets by a 40mm and this would take the clearance to the pulley down to 40mm. Not bad. If I can lose another 30mm within modifying the small car mount brackets, I'll be happy to leave it as is.



The engine/gearbox combo





The small car mount setup.







I think I'll phone up a local Subaru engine builder and ask for a dead engine case (with dead crank and crank pulley) so I can carry out further measurements without having to fit and remove the engine/gearbox every time.

I've managed to find a pair of H&R 30mm bolt on wheel spacers for the front wheels cheapish and need to have the ID of them opened up to fit over the front hubs and then I can bolt the front wheels on for more measuring and test fitting.



MG
_________________
1989 Syncro 16 S6 Westy Limey
1991 Syncro Lightweight SWB
1989 S8 Bluestar
1990 Tristar

[rubbachicken]

if you look at an air cooled type iv engine mount, they are also made to angle the mount i think further forward to clear the fan shroud, front to back, i think you could do the same to your engine brace
also the end mount i what 80mm to 100mm wide, could you not cut the rear {of car}side off of that, and weld on more material on the other side so you can have your 2 mounting bolts on the front {of car} side of the engine mount gaining you 40mmm for free

_________________
lucy our westy

lucy's BIG adventure

lucy is 1985, with 2.1 Digifant, 4 speed manual

nesting in socal

[SyncroGhia]

[rubbachicken]

you should be able to gain 30mm by angling the engine brace and rewelding
_________________
lucy our westy

lucy's BIG adventure

lucy is 1985, with 2.1 Digifant, 4 speed manual

nesting in socal

[SyncroGhia]

Hmmm I'll look into that once I get a 2WD engine bar to hand.

Something I've just noticed is that I may be able to reduce more by cutting a slot for each scm side section to fit onto the back of the engine plate rather than the front as it is at present.

I'd need to have everything mounted up in place again to make sure that the engine is central before cutting the slots but it should work.



MG
_________________
1989 Syncro 16 S6 Westy Limey
1991 Syncro Lightweight SWB
1989 S8 Bluestar
1990 Tristar

[foodeater]

Would it be possible to modify the engine carrier to move the mounting points farther forward, like in the image below?



* Edit-I didnt see Rubbachicken's post with the same idea until after I had posted.
_________________
'84 westy Tiico-daily driver
'64 Studebaker Commander-crushed by a tree
on 6/10/08
'82 Caddy diesel-sold
'87 Vanagon Syncro-RIP
'81 diesel rabbit-sold
'82 Vanagon auto-RIP

[rubbachicken]

[foodeater]

I use either Illustrator, or Photoshop. That one was done in Illustrator.
_________________
'84 westy Tiico-daily driver
'64 Studebaker Commander-crushed by a tree
on 6/10/08
'82 Caddy diesel-sold
'87 Vanagon Syncro-RIP
'81 diesel rabbit-sold
'82 Vanagon auto-RIP

[SyncroGhia]

Thanks for the illustrations. It definitely one way of getting the cross member further forwards.

It doesn't really gain with the departure angle.. neither does cutting the back of the bracket off. I need to get a couple of good photos of the RJES engine mount.

I also need to learn how to use photoshop.

MG
_________________
1989 Syncro 16 S6 Westy Limey
1991 Syncro Lightweight SWB
1989 S8 Bluestar
1990 Tristar

[r39o]

Doesn't the KEP bar sit further forward?

BUT, it may not be right for Syncro use. You would need spacers I think.

I understand there may be clutch chattering issues with the KEP bar too.

Dead Meat.
_________________
"Use the SEARCH, Luke" But first visit the Vanagon FAQ!
1990 Multivan EJ 22 running well...

Click to see my ads for Cup holders, Subaru clutch fix and CLK wheels (no wheels currently)

[lifeiskaos]

this is an awesome project! i wish i had the time and money to chop up syncros...
_________________
-Mitchell
1983.5 Westfalia i4 GTI

[GrindGarage]

Maybe look at RMW engine hanger.
If your cutting and welding may be wise to fab up somthing that uses stock suby mount
_________________
-cliff

91 Vanagon AUTO
97 Single Port EJ22 all smallcar.com

[syncropaul]

This is looking good Mike.

My offer of Photoshop help still stands. If you can sketch it on paper I can convert it. If it's photos you need smartening up I can do that too.

[Rocky Mountain Westy]

This is really the first time I looked at this post. Wow dude, that is a lot of work. You should have bought a Pinzgauer. Just kidding.

So I have thought of lots of ways to cut up cars and improve upon things. I did collision work and did lots of unibody splicing in the past.

My first question is are you using the Syncro fuel Tank?

If the answer is no thats good. If the answer is Yes, my question is why?

So ditch the gas tank. Modify the front tranny crossmemberso that you can lift the motor and tranny three to 5 inches. Throw away the small car mount. Just make one that goes to the stock Subaru mounts. Pretty easy compared to what your doing. I am happy to sell you one too. Our mount will enable you to put the engine up two inches in 2wd position. The front diff has room to be raised up too so you can stay close to the stock driveshaft angles although I would be tempt to try it without raising the diff.

Just some thoughts. pretty cool project. Wish I had time to work on my projects. The next one I work on will be my Pinzgauer. I am going to ditch the body and put a 66 Splitty shell on it. You won't be the only monster VW van out there.

Keep up the good work.

Mike
_________________
Rocky Mountain Westy Inc.
www.rockymountainwesty.com
970-310-3441
[email protected]

[SyncroGhia]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the input.

I wasn't planning on moving the fuel tank or respositioning the engine/gearbox.

If I move the engine/gearbox up, the CV joint angle gets worse and I don't yet know if my ideas for the extended trailing arms will work re CV joint angles.

It's not easy to move the transmission up as you're immediately into the gearbox cross member.

The same applies to the front re CV joints angles. On Limey, I'm running 944 CV joints in the inner end and with Syncro 16 outer CV joints and the lift that I've done, the CV joints are at their limit already. To gain more clearance I'll have to drop the subframe down rather than jack the suspension up further. I am planning on running Syncro 16 rear CV joints on the inner end of the front driveshafts but that doesn't sort the outer ones. I'm doing this for strength rather than CV joint angle.

From looking at measurements from my previous thread about engine conversion dimensions (see below), the bottom of the engine bar sits 88mm from the bottom of the case.

Length 415mm (16.34")
Width Not concerned about as I know it'll fit!
Height: More interested in these figures below...
-Centreline of crank to bottom of case 124mm
-Bottom of case to bottom of sump (KEP/SmallCar) 108mm +- 5mm
-Bottom of case to bottom of oil filter (non turbo) 70mm
-Bottom of case to bottom of water outlet 56mm
-Centreline of crank to bottom of RJES engine mount bar 212mm




I don't have the equivalent info from the small car setup. Does anyone have this info? I need from the lowest point of the brackets (not inc the vw engine bar) to the base of the crankcase.

MG
_________________
1989 Syncro 16 S6 Westy Limey
1991 Syncro Lightweight SWB
1989 S8 Bluestar
1990 Tristar

[SyncroGhia]

Small parts update.

Thanks to Syncro Dai's idea... I picked up a cheap square headlight grill and a pair of Maestro headlights from ebay. The whole lot delivered to my door for less than £60. It's gonna be fun fitting the headlights though!

I have some round headlights which I can use the bases from rather than having to buy square headlight bases.









MG
_________________
1989 Syncro 16 S6 Westy Limey
1991 Syncro Lightweight SWB
1989 S8 Bluestar
1990 Tristar

[beelzibus]

Mike, I have a dead EJ25 bottom end here, siezed crank due to oil starvation. Also have some square lamp mounting plates. Give me a shout if of interest to you, cheers Andy.