74 Super Beetle - 1.8 MPFI turbo Subaru engine

[Oregon Bugaru]

This is my current side project that I work on in my free time (which there is not a lot of). I picked up the beetle a couple years ago for this conversion project. It's a 74 Super Beetle that was sitting in a field for a year or two... but a super straight body, minimal rust (except for the floor pans which is to be expected), and a working spinning transmission. I would have gone with an older bug but This was available and a 12 volt system.

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[Oregon Bugaru]

I picked up a suitible size radiator from a junk yard that was for a small V6 engine. It's a side flow which is what I wanted (because of how I want to plumb my water lines down the vehicle).

I cut out where the space tire was enough for the radiator and fabbed in some mounts for it.

Once the radiator was in I went to work on fabbing the fan shrouds to fit two fans that were from a subaru GL. I used the radiator as a template for size, and 3/16" flat bar to make the shroud assembly.

I got this idea from another person online, to make an enclosure that would encase the backside of the radiator and direct all the hot air back down to the ground. This way it will eliminate the excess heat from super heating the fuel cell. No one like a hot gas tank.
The lid is tapped with four 8mm bolts holding it in place. that way i can get in a service the steering components and the fans if need be.

[Oregon Bugaru]

Since there was so much rust on the floor, rust that crept underneath the floor pan and channels, I decided to replace the whole floor pan. Since there was so much metal to remove, and since I knew that i was going to do a whole lot of fabrication on the body to fit up the engine and plumbing, i opted to just separate the body from the chassis to make things easier.

[Oregon Bugaru]

I went ahead and found an adaptor kit from Kennedy Engineered Products to go between my suby power plant and the VW type 1 transmission. With the kit came an adaptor plate, flywheel, stage 1 clutch, fasteners, and stickers.
The bolt up went seamlessly.
The engine is actually lighter than the 1600 vw engine that was in there!!

[Oregon Bugaru]

Sooooo.... These days i am onto the wiring side of things..

If anyone has a wiring diagram or picture of one for an 87 subaru Gl with a 1.8 mpfi turbo i need one soooo bad!!!

I have thinned down the loom to just the essentials for the engine, ecu, ignition system, and injectors.

Originally...

Once it got thinned down

Anyone know what this red connector goes to?.... It shares a lot of wiring with the ECU and engine... I dont have a diagram, or the donor car to know if it plugs in anywhere imrtant...

[Tim Donahoe]

And I thought, pulling my engine for a new flywheel seal was a bitch!

Looks like a great project.

Keep us posted.

Tim

[Oregon Bugaru]

That still is a pain whenever you have to pull the engine when you're not expecting too. Luckily these vdubs are cool enough that you just wheel the motor out the back. The valance on this one will be removable, cause i have a feeling that the engine will be in and out a few more times before everything is dialed in y'know.

[Joel]

Coming along nicely.
That was the same way I had my first radiator setup.
Worked well, i only changed it because I wanted the original trunk space back.

Best advice I can give you is insulate you radiator cover thoroughly.
Being metal it will transfer a lot of heat into the trunk which will heat up the fuel tank and find its way into the cabin.

Any reason you chose the EA82 engine?

[Oregon Bugaru]

[Joel]

Ah that make sense, normally EA82T are very hard to find due to the age and not that many of them sold new.

THeres a bug here in Oz that was the first Subi converted bug I ever saw over 20 year ago now and still getting around with the same EA82T engine it had back then.
No idea how many miles its done it that time but the engine has been rebuilt.

The insulation on the radiator shroud, just anything that will help stop some heat transfer.
I imagine quickroof or one of those stick on tar like pads would work well as tin roof tend to get pretty damn hot.

[Anthonyisawsome]

Only one turbo hahaha this car is gonna be sick. How much hp do the 1.8 turbo motors make?

[Joel]

Not a real lot in stock form as they only ran 7psi with no intercooler.
makes the same power and torque as an early N/A EJ20 (about 110hp)

But soon as you up the boost, intercool and get some better engine management happening they really come alive, the bug around here was allegedly close to 200hp with some work done.

[Oregon Bugaru]

[quote="Joel"]Ah that make sense, normally EA82T are very hard to find due to the age and not that many of them sold new.

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The insulation on the radiator shroud, just anything that will help stop some heat transfer.
I imagine quickroof or one of those stick on tar like pads would work well as tin roof tend to get pretty damn hot.[/quote


Yeah I'm stoked on the functional gas saver! If I need the speed I'll just get another crotch rocket lol! Those are like having a dopamine drip straight to the brain. I don't foresee this being anything other than stock and intercooled. I'd prefer the Huber reliable vehicle, hence getting rid of the VW engine

Lying around somewhere in the paperwork for he car is a receipt for the engine. It was an import replacement from japan. The company that brought em in is out of Portland Oregon. So I could see the rare factor being a reason to make the engine last for as long as possible pay off.

[Joel]

I reckon You'll be more than happy with the power, it's close on double the power of a stock 1600 yet will be better on fuel and far less maintenance.

[Oregon Bugaru]

A fellow Subaru enthusiast just hooked me up with a full service manual for the engine, now I can finish plumbing the wiring and vacuum lines

[Oregon Bugaru]

Correction.... I received an '89 gl wiring diagram for the ea82T mpfi... Not an '87... so it's the little differences in wiring that are making it difficult. errgggg!

[Oregon Bugaru]

Got the front disk brakes installed on my super beetle. Was super easy and only took about 15 minutes per side once I got the new bearing races pressed into the rotors. I got a full kit from Brooks Auto Parts here locally. All I need now for these guys is to get some new brakes lines. The existing ones are sketchy bad to say the least.

[Oregon Bugaru]

I'm trying to get the cooling system done by this weekend, but it's tedious. One bracket at time, one piece of patch metal at a time... I said earlier to my girlfriend when she asks what I'm busy doing,
"well I'm sanding metal"
"why?"
"so I can paint it"
"what are you going to do with it once it dries?"
"I am going to paint it again so I can sand off some of the paint and weld it into place."
"Then that's it?"
"no, then I get to wire wheel the welds and then paint it again."

I had to cut out some previous work that I did once I started fitting in my radiator lines. So these photos are me patching spots up to my radiator box. I will have some finished photos of how I plumbed all my lines by the end of the weekend.

Gotta love the triscut box templates.

[Oregon Bugaru]

So long story short, I'm behind schedule. But all is well as long as things keep going together one step at a time. This was one step that I put off forever and I have no idea why other than that I am a level 5 procrastinator.

So first things first I had to mod the stock outlet for the engines coolant. At the length it was at, it was going to interfere when it comes to putting the rear clip back on the bug. So I chopped out about 3 inches and kept the stock flares on the end for the coolant hose. This however resulted in needing to re-do the bracket that secured it to the engine.

[Oregon Bugaru]

So like I said I also wrapped up all the plumbing minus the overflow tank (gotta make one that fits the way I want it to...)

So connecting to the engine I used 1 1/4" heater hose and without any kinks hose clamped it to 1" copper tube.

The copper line I managed to tie to the body with some brackets, then directed it over the rear suspension and into the body. I ran small 1" diameter steel pipe at the body so it could be welded into place. Bonding the Copper to the Steel I used just a simple high temp 30 minute set epoxy.

Going through the body I used 1" diameter copper pipe again and ran the length along the passenger side (this will get covered up with an insulating tunnel and be upholstered for concealment). To secure it from rattling to much I am using insulated brackets which I tack welded to the floor pan.
going in and out of the body I stuck to using the flexible line (just in case of the event that I want to pull the pipes out and do some painting and / or more body work).

So coming out under the gas tank and up into where the spare tire used to be. Again Copper and flex lines.

was so stoked when I got the hole drilled right the first time!

And so last but not least is the enclosure that I fabbed up for the backside of the radiator. I didn't want to super heat the fuel tank with all the hot air. I got the idea from another thread that I had read a while back. The two 12v fans came from Subaru loyals I believe.

I made sure I could take the top off the enclosure in case I need to get to the fans, tie rods, steering components, brake lines, etc..

Overall I am super stoked how it has come out. Behind schedule, but successful.