Drftsub's 85 Westy build, Subaru Turbo Drivetrain / air ride

[drftsub]

Hello All,
So I am doing this the (mostly) backwards way and posting up a build thread where most of the work has been done already. This can happen when you get so deep in a project every moment is focused on getting it done and a little less on documenting the progress.

So a short intro on me, I have been building race cars since I was a child , worked in the race industry for a while and had my own shop building and maintaining turbo awd cars for street, road course and rally. That said I am a Japanese car enthusiast as well.
My wife and I had decided with all the endurance events we do (I do endurance races in cars, she on foot) plus our outdoors interests a camper van would be very handy to support this. I looked for sportsmobile a bit, decided that the pricing was absurd and turned to other options.

We chose a Westy for the compact size, and because I knew that despite the fact they were very under powered from the factory I could shove one of my spare Subaru engines into it.

Now I live in Santa Cruz, CA which is basically westy mecca. TONS of houses sit with westy's in the driveway. The downside is most are either rust buckets or heavily restored and a ton of $$. After a bit of searching, we found an older couple that had a decently clean 85 for a reasonable price.

We enjoyed our stock westy for a bit. First road trip was from Santa Cruz up to Sacramento for the weekend to visit friends.

From this , I decided a few things between the hills and the drive:
I needed more power, the hills were almost dangerous
I really wanted a 5 speed
Stability through corners needed improving
The stock speakers were horrible

That said I set out a plan for the build.

1. Take the spare EJ20 engine I had sitting in the garage and cram it into the westy, this engine made 270 HP at all 4 wheels when I had it in a WRX.

2. Find a way to use the matching transmission I had. This specific transmission had a rally spec gearset installed. This meant closer ratios, stronger gears and a super overdriven 5th gear.

3. Do something with the suspension that would enable me to do a few things. I wanted to be able to be low (aesthetics really) but be able to increase height should we need to venture off pavement. Increase cornering ability ( IE big sway bars and good adjustable shocks ) , and lastly add a set of wheels and tires that could handle larger rubber and fit big brakes behind.

So, thats what I have started with (more to come on post #2)

Things done to date:

• Air Ride Install
• Subaru EJ20 Turbo Engine
• Subaru Rally spec transmission with helical LSD
• SA front grilles
• Air Dam
• Overkill stereo
• Roof storage
• Installed aux batter bank

Things to do as of now (ever growing list):

• Upgrade shocks
• Upgrade Sway Bars
• Upgrade Brakes
• Install Hardwood with removable slats to accommodate 3rd row seat
• Come up with an A/C solution
• Hot water shower
• Install Solar
• Install Truckfridge
• Update interior, IE door panels, freshen seats etc

[drftsub]

So the first thing I started with was dealing with some minor rust repair around the lower area of the van, along with some at the front bumper area on the "shelf" that protrudes from the body.

While at it I decided I liked the idea of using a bedliner product on the lower area, but didnt want black.

I found the Monstaliner product, which has a huge variety of colors. Now I had doubts on the color choice however I think in the end it worked out well.

In the meantime, I started looking around at options for doing the rest of the work I wanted to do.

A close friend of mine, who works in the air-ride industry just so happened to owe me some $$ from a Datsun I had sold him. So the obvious choice was to work with him to create a Vanagon air ride kit as I couldnt find one anywhere. Once we are done with all the last bits I will post up where to locate it as it should be a comprehensive off the shelf solution finally.
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85 Westy
Subaru Turbo Power!

[drftsub]

Next up was wheels.
I settled on 17x8" wheels with a 35 offset. This required me to run an 8 mm spacer up front to get around the ball joint. I also discovered that this sunk the rear wheel quite deep in the wheel well. The next set will definitely be a lower offset and potentially staggered width in the rear to get the wheel out farther.

I was hunting for a full face wheel, and kept coming back to white with the color combo.

Overall I liked the look, other than the fact that that the van looked like it was afraid of the ground!

Next news on the drivetrain swap was commissioning my buddies over at I-Wire (http://www.iwireservices.com/) to do my engine harness. I have done my fair share of conversion harnesses, but my timing for the project was not going to allow for 40 hours worth of wiring work.

I also stumbled onto Subarugears , and was happy to find exactly what I needed, so I ordered the complete reversed ring and pinion setup from them along with a helical LSD so I could always ensure traction, or billowing smoke from both sides of the van when I was trying to NOT have traction!

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85 Westy
Subaru Turbo Power!

[drftsub]

About this time I did deviate for a little bit.
In a night drive I decided I really wanted some more light up front, so I picked up a SA grille , and while at it also grabbed the lower air dam as well. We had some enjoyment with the van while awaiting my wiring harness and big swap parts to arrive.

I also stumbled on a center seat, as my wife had a 200 mile relay run coming up, and we knew we would need additional seating in the van. And to my luck it was even the right color.

And of course, the sticker that makes me laugh every time I walk up to the van.

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85 Westy
Subaru Turbo Power!

[drftsub]

Next I started working on the airbags.

I will be creating a separate post for the air install with details so I will paraphrase here what the system is.

Slam Specialties bags at all 4 corners. Rear install is super simple. The bag install on the front is a bit more complex with the relocation of the shock but I have developed a bolt on solution for this.

The shocks that we mocked this up with are stock length Bilstien HD's , however I am awaiting arrival of some Ride Tech adjustable with firmer valving and in a slight shorter length.

This system also uses twin Viair compressors and a 5 gallon aluminum tank. I think I MAY be adding an additional tank along with an accessory port for filling tires at the track ( that could be bicycle or car ) .

In this time frame I did a few other camper related things:
Installed a new propane tank
Installed a new sink faucet and pump
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85 Westy
Subaru Turbo Power!

[fleet_maintenance]

Nice work so far. Glad to see new life into another Westy. There was a shortlived thread a few months ago with a couple of SLAMMED vans/dokas. If I find a link to it, I'll post it. The bags for lows was a divisive topic, but to each their own. FWIW, well executed, I am all for it. Keep at it, I'll be watching the progress.

[drftsub]

Just about now I received news that my harness would be done soon so I started tearing into the van.
I had been waiting for this aspect as my wife had her race coming up, and I didnt want to disable the van and not have it functioning.

What this meant for me at this point, was about 3 weeks to do the work and complete the swap, which we did with the help of quite a few friends.

In this timeframe we installed:

Full Subaru drivetrain / wiring etc
Fabbed shift linkage
Fabbed exhaust system
Installed 2000 watt 10 speaker stereo
Replaced carpet

Below are some pictures from the weeks that followed, they skip some big chunks of time as we were thrashing to get it done in time. That was from 6-midnight after work during the week and 16 hour weekend days.

This is how a Subie harness looks fresh out of a WRX

Brian at I-Wire did an amazing job with this harness, new fuse/relay box. A breaker replaces the fusible link, very clean and well done.

Transmission fun!

My wife did the tear down on this as I was working on the engine.

While all this was going on, I was removing the stock engine from the van..

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85 Westy
Subaru Turbo Power!

[drftsub]

[drftsub]

Now it was time for assembly!

I started with getting the new engine ready. I decided for piece of mind to swap the head gaskets as well as convert the engine over to shimless buckets. There has been occasion in some engines for a valve shim to kick free from its bucket and cause major damage, and thats the last thing you want far from home.

The wifey always willing to get her hands dirty!

Setting up the new shimless buckets

With that work done I got to cutting and grinding on the transmission case to fit the Subarugears conversion.

And assembly !

While I was screwing around with trannys the wife got busy on the interior. She ran the entire engine harness and merged it with the dash wiring up front, installed the aux battery system and wired up the stereo.

After that she got busy with the carpet..

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85 Westy
Subaru Turbo Power!

[drftsub]

Now it was time to put all this stuff in!
Luckily I had alot of willing friends to help as we only had about a week left at this point.

Everyone looking a little fried, and my wife forever making sure the dog was around.

I will have to get the first drive video up on YouTube as the next bit of time was rather crazy and I didnt get many pictures. In the end it all came together and short of dealing with needing to bleed the cooling system twice it went really well!

That thursday evening we headed out with another vintage camper in tow to run the Ragnar Relay 205 mile event from San Francisco to Calistoga. I am very happy to report it went very well and the van was a hit!. We installed quick release external speakers to help with motivation (and the after parties in various pits etc).

I will get some more installed pictures together but for now I leave you with a glory shot.

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85 Westy
Subaru Turbo Power!

[wcdennis]

This Summer I put a reversed gear Subaru transmission in my van using David Clymer's well constructed kit. Admittedly, I work pretty slowly and only on the weekends, so the job took weeks to complete. It blows my mind that you were able to do the conversion, and fab all the parts, along with all the other custom work--in just three weeks! You must do this kind of work all the time to have achieved such skills. I would love to see some photos of how you worked out the shift linkage and transmission mount.

[drftsub]

Wcdennis,
I appreciate the comment!

I have had many hours behind the mask/grinder/ratchet. I made my living making things go together so this project was no different. However, I will say that without the help of my wife (who is pretty darn handy if you didnt figure that out) and friends this wouldn't have happened in that time frame.

The linkage was fairly simple once we installed the bay window shift assembly, but in all honesty I am not 100% happy with it. I will be re designing this along with a couple other things on my V2 of this project. I will say that some of my "ideals" were scrapped for functionality due to time.

I made a hybrid of a bay window front linkage, the stock vanagon center section and utilized a universal joint leading to the Subaru transmission shift rod. This has given me a little more slop than I would like (due to the amount of bends) . I intend to create a straight shot shifter with a cam actuated linkage back at the transmission to reduce this. The other issue I found is that the spring in the bay window shifter constantly loads the sychro's which then produces a soft whine ( and wear ) when you do not hold the shifter in a "neutral" position.. IE not leaning any direction but in the absolute middle of the gate.

The trans mount was simple, I used the kombi mount from David to attach to the transmission, then cut and welded the front of the vanagon mount to it once it was placed appropriately.

I will have to get some photos of these things next time I am under the van, all this happened in a very quick time frame and pictures were at the bottom of my list.
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85 Westy
Subaru Turbo Power!

[ChilliConCarnage]

I love it!
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Now:
86 Westy
00 GTI VR6
03 Passat V6 4Motion

Sold:
62 T2 Double Door panel
72 T2 7-passenger
98 Jetta
97 Passat VR6
87 Audi 5000

[syncrodoka]

The GF did Ragnar again last weekend, I am surprised that she didn't mention your van.
Nice build.

[drftsub]

[Signalocity]

Excellent, I like!

[greggearhead]

Very cool. More pics and info when time allows.
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1972 Porsche 911E
1973 VW 412
1984 VW Doka
1991 Vanagon Syncro Westy


Period Lights, VW & Porsche wheels and Recaro/Scheel Seats for sale

https://www.facebook.com/greggearhead

http://greggearhead.com/soco-swap---september-vw-swap-meet.html

[JeffRobenolt]

[Crankey]

sweet build !! looking forward to your air ride thread. always been interested in doing it but there's very few examples to look at for guidance.

nice wheel choice too !

[240Gordy]

Yup, would love to see pics of your front airbag installation
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Tencentlife said,
"So, now that you know what you're doing, go to town."
2010 GOLF TRENDLINE 2.5
1985 GL now with more! a 2.1L
H&R SPORT(RED) Springs FRONT , SLAM SPECIALTIES RE6 AIRBAGS REAR