EJ22 into Aircooled Vanagon 2.0L to Subaru 2.2L Conversion

[chompy]

OK, some more progress today. I was getting into overtime at work so they sent me home early. This gave me a couple more hours to cut into the wiring harness.

When you look at all of the wiring, it can really make your head spin. You just need to slow down and label everything. The center plug with the bolt in it is your main focus on how everything connects back together. You can either cut each wire separately and resolder them together, or label them. I chose the path of just cutting them and using the wiring diagram, but I like reading diagrams... Most people hate them, and my method could be a potential problem if I made a mistake.
The best thing is to ignore all of the wiring chaos for the time being and just focus on a single item and remove it. I chose to pull out the small relay panel that once resided within the fusebox. Just cut back the tape and shielding until you have a good length of wire. I got as much as I could, but it doesn't seem like you would need a ton of length. This will potentially be controlling my radiator fan if I don't go with the Volvo fan relay set.

It's really easy to take the diagnostic ports off as well. They are a matching pair of green and black plugs that will be right near eachother in the wiring harness. I cut one side of the black test plug and left the other side plugged in, since I would be pulling that piece of harness anyways. You could easily cut both sets of green and black test plugs off without worry.

Another easy removal is this little tan/brown double diode. There are 4 wires that go to it, and it has two small little diodes plugged into the top of it. Only the green and yellow wires are used. The other two can be cut.

Then you can locate the fuel and main(ignition) relay. They were once connected to the firewall of the subaru on a little bracket. The fuel relay has a green connector, while the main relay is a brown color. You can just cut these out with as much wiring as you can manage. Most of the time you are forced to cut these pieces out where they are soldered into a bundle. I'll probably end up mounting these under the rear seat with the ECU and diagnostic plugs.

You can cut the fan wiring harness out pretty easily as well if you are using it. I cut it just in case, and it's pretty easy to remove.

How about the igniter now? This might be a point where you have to begin cutting wires at the central plugs with the bolt through the center. You might have been able to get away without much cutting up until now, but you can just go for it and snip and label/solder each connection. You will end up cutting all of the wires from both sides of the plug if you didn't already separate it at this point, many of which will be tossed aside for possible use later.

So start at the igniter plug and work your way down until you can go no more. Fish out the wiring the best you can. If you don't want to cut too many wires you can hold off, but know that all of the black and black/red wires are grounds and can be cut whenever needed(except the fuel pump relay wire which is not a ground). Here's the igniter with as much wiring as I could pull. I'm going to end up putting it near the ECU.

The alternator harness is another easy removal at this point, and you might begin to see how much easier wires are to remove at this point.

OK, you've now reached the point where you have to begin paying attention to the parts of the ECU. You'll just want to take each bright yellow ECU plug and follow the lines to their ends and slowly pull it all out. Remember that you can cut most black lines or black/red lines. Just leave yourself some room for soldering later.
Shoptalk forums has a great thread with the best description of the ECU harness connections. http://shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=136053 It's definitely worth printing out to have with you while you work through the wiring. A quick note about how he does things... I chose to not cut the blue wire that connects ECU plug A and B. The less I cut, the less I have to attempt to remember where it went to later...

ECU harness A & B. You can see how they are connected by the blue wire. This includes the MAF, Rear Engine Plugs and Oxygen Sensor.

ECU harness C. Includes the select monitor, and the diagnostic plug I left attached(it could be removed and kept with the other one).

ECU harness D. Front engine plugs.

I still have the entire wire harness laid out the same way in case I accidently removed a couple pieces in my daze of wire removal. I'll be going over it all again tomorrow to be sure I didn't miss too much.

Here's an evening's worth of work.

And the sad remnants...

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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[chompy]

I've been at it for the last couple days... Cleaning the wiring and reorganizing sections...

I'm having trouble locating the OBD connector if anyone has a good picture of it. Any pictures of OBD connectors I have found on line are OBD2 and it's strangely difficult to find a good shot.

This is a 1992 Legacy.

Will the OBD1 connector look the same as the one from this shot?

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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[syncrodoka]

There are a pair of green and black connectors for OBD1.
The green connectors are pictured above and the black connectors look similar.

Picture from the interwebz

[chompy]

[syncrodoka]

That yellowish connector in the center of the picture should be kept if you wanted to use a select monitor program for datalogging in the future. The green and black connectors are the standard plugs that are used though.

[chompy]

[syncrodoka]

Examples
http://www.4bc.org/vanagon/engine.html
http://evoscan.com/evoscan-gps-obdii-cables/detail...-monitor-i

[JeffRobenolt]

I now see your question was answered
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[chompy]

[chompy]

Ok, I've been at it with the wiring whenever I've had a chance. It's finally getting rainy here in the PNW so there's plenty of time to be spent indoors, working on wiring. Throughout the whole process I mainly used these three wiring diagrams from http://www.weidefamily.net/vanagon/ amazing conversion page:

Courtesy of Brent Weide http://www.weidefamily.net/vanagon/Pending_Content...g_diag.pdf

Courtesy of Brent Weide http://www.weidefamily.net/vanagon/HTML/05/images/Wiring_Harness.pdf <--the PDF

This is a three page diagram that can be printed out and taped together.

Brent Weide has a super helpful site, and the resource menu located here: http://www.weidefamily.net/vanagon/Pending_Content/Engine_Conversion/ is just jam packed full of information that you could take hours to go over it all.

I also paid for a month of http://www.boxerswaps.com membership which is definitely worth it, although I was hoping there would be more wire diagrams and such... It's still a wonderful resource that is definitely worth the price, if not more!

I ended up soldering every joint, even though I have a really nice set of crimpers. It really doesn't take that long, and you KNOW that it is well connected... I also used the method of butting each wire together and then using a separate single strand to wrap the the individual strands. This squeezes the wires together, and also holds them for ease of soldering. If you really want to get fancy, you can do the lineman's splice:

But this is the method I chose, and it worked great. If only I'd remembered to put the heat shrink on each time. I wouldn't have had to cut each one multiple times...

So here's where it begins:

After some work, but it is still chaos near the CPU:

OK, now we're nearly there.

At this point, most everything is at a close enough length for testing and fitting purposes. The wires that run to the dash have been lengthened quite a bit, although I'll definitely be adding more down the road. I'm going to be double checking the grounds and power sources before ever hooking it up, but I need a couple days break from wiring. Anyways, the engine is still in the car! It's mostly ready to come out. Everything has been disconnected and the radiator and fans have been pulled. I'm going to take off the intake and air conditioning before I rent a hoist to pull it out.

I still have to remove some items from the car before it gets towed anyways. I haven't measured yet, but it would be great to be able to pull the trailer hitch and attach it to the van. I'm not much of a trailer person, but I would love more storage for long hauls, and our bikes. I'll post up how it measures once I get a chance.

I've also bounced the idea around of using the heater core and blower from the car, but it's surprisingly pretty huge. I really doubt it could fit under the dash in the van, and it would take up a ton of room under the back seat. Once again, I'll post up whether this seems viable in any way.

I'm still tossing around the idea of using a front fill radiator to make the whole coolant process much simpler.
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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[chompy]

Back again for a short update. I went to the engine at this point and removed the intake so I could clean it up and remove/rework some parts. I had been soaking the exhaust studs, engine mounts, and trailer hitch bolts with Kroil for the past few weeks. I will say that I had absolutely no problem removing any of these nuts or bolts and I even had a torch on the standby. Good ol' kroil!

I also took the time to remove each of the torque converter bolts since I was already in the area(it's an automatic). Just throw a socket on the crankshaft pulley and turn it clockwise to reach each bolt through the access hatch in the rear of the engine(there should be a small plastic cover that you remove to access the torque converter bolts, or not... the PO might have lost it). I found it easier to apply pressure in a downward motion when removing the bolts while holding the crankshaft with a wrench. I'll hopefully be pulling the engine tomorrow. Usually it would be pouring rain here in the NW, but this weekend is looking to be pretty clear! I've gotta jump at this chance!

Here's a shot of the intake removed and cleaned up just a bit. I used baby wipes on the electrical pieces and injectors. While I used WD-40 and scotch pads on the intake and metals bits.

Here are some optional things you can do to the intake. Don't blame me if you ruin something following my advice!

I cut the unneeded throttle bracket with a dremel cutoff wheel.

Then I reversed the throttle to connect to the vanagon throttle cable correctly. This is a pretty simple procedure outlined by http://www.boxerswaps.com. It really breaks down to reversing the smaller throttle plate, and grinding a slot into it, which you can see in these shots.

You won't need to reconnect the larger throttle plate, and will replace it with some sort of spacer. You may not need the spacer. I tried the throttle without it, and didn't really notice a difference. I'd rather err on the side of caution though since I went to the trouble of making a spacer anyways.

Next was turning the fuel pressure regulator 180*. The return line on our vans are on this side of the intake, so it's unnecessary to route it back towards the fuel inlet like it would be situated on a subaru. You simply remove the fuel line from the hard line, unscrew the two phillips head screws, and pull the fuel pressure regulator out. This would be a good time to check the o-ring on the fuel pressure regulator to see if it's still soft and undamaged. You then turn it half a turn and push it back in, and screw it down.

You can also now just connect a nice new vacuum line directly from the inlet on the intake to the fuel pressure regulator. You can see I've already removed some of the hard lines in this shot.

Now you can remove the hard fuel return line, and the hard vacuum line. This involves some more cutting with the dremel in a few places, but cleans it all up nicely(my opinion).

On a side note, the charcoal canister from my ej22 is cracked, and I don't want to reuse my vanagon one, so I guess I'll be heading to the picknpull soon. I've been considering removing the hardlines on the intake for the canister as well, but I haven't totally worked that out yet. There will be updates...

I also took a bit of time to fabricate a bracket for the ECU. I had some sheet metal that I cut and bent to match the strange angle of the brackets on the ECU. I only had yellow spray paint around, so that's the color the bracket now is. It'll do... This will be located under the rear bench with the fuel relay, ignition relay, Diodes, Ignitor, and test plugs.

Hoping to pull the engine out of the Subaru tomorrow, so I'll try to get some shots of the action for those interested in "the show" of it all.
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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[chompy]

OK, weather here in the NW is frighteningly nice and sunny. We like the rain, and it's supposed to be pouring down during this season. The uphand, is that I was able to pull the engine on Sunday!

After removing the nuts holding the engine mounts on, pulling the exhaust away from the studs, and removing the starter and the long bolt; all I had to do was remove the remaining three nuts. Two came out nicely, while the last one, which was below where the starter would be, took some work... I had to remove the steering knuckle, and pull the transmission cooler lines back as much as I could just to be able to get a mini breaker bar in there. Luckily I had some friends around to chat and drink a beer while we let the Kroil and breaker bar work their magic.

A gratuitous shot of the hoist broken down. I wish I owned one...

Here's a shot of the hoist attached. I tried some different chain lengths to get it centered the best I could.

So the engine is pulled up just enough to clear the engine mounts. Then you pull it out just enough to pass the studs and in my case, try to push the torque convert back... It ended up coming out with the engine. It easily comes off, but is really heavy, so get ready for the weight. It gouged my finger pretty nicely through the gloves I was wearing if that gives you an idea of the surprise weight of it.

So here's the engine taken out, and put on the stand.

This is the first night of cleaning. I kind of like doing this sort of work. I just go methodically. I've used different cleaners, but I think WD-40 really does the best job for this sort of thing.

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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[captincanuck]

Wandered over from the bay forum when I heard the S word. So do you Vanagon guys need to do anything about the transmission, or just slap on the Subaru with an adapter plate and be on your merry way? Looking good.
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1979 Westfalia "FireFly" Subaru 2.2 with Subaru gears 5spd.
Build Thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=634777&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[chompy]

For the vanagon we just slap on the adapter. KEP makes a tighter bend on the air intake so we don't have to cut into the firewall on the aircooled. The KEP moustache bar is specific to the aircooled vanagon too.
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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[thummmper]

I just spent a grand through rancho in Anaheim calif having the .77 fourth gear put in. this is so you don't go screaming down the hwy at 3800 but at 3500 instead. still too high [4.89 rp] [1990]
so how are you going to employ a radiator? canted a midships with a hatch for the cap? and a later wet cabin heater system could be installed too? good job so far

[chompy]

[notahipy]

I used galvanized 1 1/2" electrical conduit from home depot for my coolant pipes. there was some bending/welding involved but it was not hard and materials were very cheap. I converted a 1980 westy to a 95' 2.2

[chompy]

[notahipy]

for the bends in the long coolant lines I cut out "wedges" in the conduit bent it then brazed the cut closed then painted the areas where I burnt off the zinc. be sure to do this with lots of ventilation as you can get zinc poisoning with flu like symptoms. I then used generic flex hoses from autozone (kind of corrugated with a spring support inside) to attach the engine and radiator. I used a kia sportage radiator and the subaru fan and expansion bottle with a home made shroud. deleting the bottles in the rear engine bay. it was not the cleanest cooling system but it works fine. I parked it on a 20 degree hill to bleed the system. if I were to do it differently I would have bought a new kia radiator instead of a used it works fine but for the cost I would have preferred a new one for peace of mind. I later added a Porsche starter (mine is automatic) and that helped greatly. Boxerswaps.com was worth the money, and a great help.

[chompy]

Just a quick update with some pictures for proof.

I removed the oil pan, which is pretty simple and self explanatory. Just be sure to remove the bolt holding down the oil disptick tube and twist and pull it out of the oil pan before removing the oil pan from the engine.

I removed the crankshaft pulley by putting a screw driver through the torque converter cover and pulling on a long breaker bar. It came off nicely. I then removed the timing covers to reveal the belt.

First thing is to turn the engine over till you match up the notches in the crank pulleys to TDC. To remove the timing belt, you loosen the tensioner bolts, but leave them in. Then you remove the #1 & #3 side idle pulley(left side if you are looking at the engine). Then the #2 & #4 side idle pulley(right side next to the water pump). This makes it easier to remove the tensioner and it's two bolts. Now the belt can be removed, as can the other tensioners and crankshaft sprocket.

Next came the water pump, which didn't seem to be spinning quite as smoothly as I would expect, and it's cheap and easy to replace while you're in there.

Then the oil pump can come out. It took a bit of prying in the stronger areas around the pump. I used a very wide scraper to get as much area and contact, as to not damage anything while prying/wedging it out. I left the seal in place and it looks good, but I might switch it out since I have one on order anyways.

Look how the O-ring is all damaged. I've seen this in many pictures when people take the oil pump off. I'm glad I bothered doing it....

I then cleaned each surface for reinstalling.

I'll be pulling the valve covers next and should be getting some parts in this week to start putting pieces back together.

Thanks for tips and for watching!
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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission