TheSamba.com :: View topic - My EJ22 swap

Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:25 am

this needs to be a sticky

Fri Oct 09, 2009 7:16 am

Great job! It's very gratifying going for that first drive. You have a big set of brass cajones taking it for such a long trip after only 20 miles of test drives. My first big trip will be this Christmas to Mt Whitney, about 700 miles round trip.

If any Suby swap thread should be stickied it should be ChesterKV's. It's practically a step by step how to. Ranchero was a big help too. They both helped me a lot while I was doing mine.

Happy campy-ing

Fri Oct 09, 2009 7:34 am

Mofus wrote: Great job! It's very gratifying going for that first drive. You have a big set of brass cajones taking it for such a long trip after only 20 miles of test drives. My first big trip will be this Christmas to Mt Whitney, about 700 miles round trip.

If any Suby swap thread should be stickied it should be ChesterKV's. It's practically a step by step how to. Ranchero was a big help too. They both helped me a lot while I was doing mine.

Happy campy-ing

That thread is one of the reasons I decided that in the spring, I'm going to do the conversion myself.

Fri Oct 09, 2009 8:18 am

Looks awesome. Congrats! I'm about to begin my installation in the next few weeks. I'm also putting in an EJ22. What throttle setup did you go with?

Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:18 am

Great write up! Thanks!

I am planning on doing a Subie swap one day (probably when the origional engine dies). I had an EJ257 block with EJ20 heads on my last car, and I think I will probably go with a un-frankenstein-ed EJ257 for this one. It is great to have threads like this to start getting a feeling of what I will be getting myself into.

Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:46 am

Thanks again all - especially Ben, great praise from a master of the conversion-arts! :D

Throttle - I used the setup Leon Korkin sells. good deal, and a good guy.

And yeah, if any swap thread gets stickied it should be ChesterKV and/or Ranchero. They have all the details and pain included in their threads; I just skimmed the surface and put up some pictures - there is much more involved than my post eludes to (as anyone who has done this would know).
Not that the swap is necessarily "hard", it's just time consuming. The road has been graded so many times in the past by the true pioneers it's almost paved now. It was quite fun.

Many more trips to take - She put up 200,000mi with the 1.9 and I plan on another 200,000 in the future.

-Chad

Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:21 am

markmc90 wrote:
"Could you guess at how many hours you spent on it. Mostly the harness is what I'm curious about."

I think ChesterKV talks about how long he spent on the harness, but I haven't read that thread for a while.

I think Ben can do a whole conversion in about 7.5 hours :lol: Leon gets it done in about a week. A shop here in SD takes about 2-weeks.

If you preapre well for the job it can go pretty fast. If you want to clean, and repaint everything so it looks real nice it adds time.

If I just pulled out the wasser and stuck in the Suby I could have had it done in a couple weeks probably, but I have (had) no experience with this stuff. I detail how many hours I spent doing each thing in my conversion thread (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=307465). I never added up the hours, but I was (mostly) done in 29 days.

Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:58 am

Conversion time after 30+ done:
-Harness: now 7 hours + 1 for wrapping after tested.

-Modification to engine (conversion) + cleaning: 1 day

-Removal of engine + cleaning engine bay + installation of cooling components / Power steering line / fuel line / speed sensor: 1 day

-In order (Engine out of engine stand): Installation of adapter plate, clutch, Installation of engine in engine bay, exhaust component, harness in test mode, intake and filter = start engine : 1 day.

-Last day (fine tuning): Wrapping of harness / ECM in sealed box, engine side tins, RPM mod, electrical bypass of ALT light, installation of electronic gas pedal + cable, bleeding + testing : less than one day.

My fastest time ever: 3.5 days (i was on steroid and everything went by the book)
Longest time ever: 10 days

Average: 7 days.

This does NOT include any work on engine, my engine are basically like new so i do nothing to them. Neither any work on the radiator/ coolant line.

This is of course full time, 8-12 hours a day.

So, let say anything between 40-70 hours per conversion.

Cheers, Ben

Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:31 am

Chad:
The ceramic paint you applied to the intake and valve covers looks great. nice, low-key colour. who makes that?

good job on documenting your work.

all the best,
brent

Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:00 am

wasserbox wrote: Farfrumwork wrote:
transit to tranny land (and I'm not talking Trinidad CO)

Heh. Heh Heh.

Gotta love Co Only jokes...

Looks good. I would have been a little (lot) overwhelmed to get an entire engine in 10 separate boxes.

I too love jokes like that.

Great work!

Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:22 am

Very nice!
Love to see projects like this.

Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:36 am

Reviving an old thread with a question on stock ecu placement. I have an 84 an the ecu is on the driverside near the taillight and coil. I'm doing my conversion right now and am thinking about placing subi ecu under bench.

Everything I've read puts my 1.9 ecu passenger side... Do I have a special circumstance or one of a kind van or what? Lol...

Fri Sep 28, 2012 2:36 pm

^^ I don't think your van is different.

If I understand your question/statement correctly, you have the stock ECU basically in the engine compartment (driver side) which is where my stock 1.9l ecu was as well (near the taillight).

I installed my EJ22 ECU under the cabinent in the rear (drivers side), which is accessible from the rear hatch. I didn't want to have the ecu under the bench seat as I stuff that area with sleeping bags and pillows (every cubic inch counts!)

Conversion is still running strong! (although my $275 motor has shown signs of oil consumption on long, HOT hwy travels - but NOT in 'normal' use, even up/down the rocky mountains). A new high compression 2.5l frankenmotor will be build/installed this winter. :twisted:

OH yeah, the board won't let me edit my original (now old) post but I'd like to say that I have had GOOD interactions with Burley since this build (I now sport a high clearance hitch - which is TITS!)

Fri Sep 28, 2012 5:29 pm

Farfrumwork wrote: ...I'd like to say that I have had GOOD interactions with Burley since this build [/b](I now sport a high clearance hitch - which is TITS!)

Agree 100%—Burl fabbed, painted, and shipped the same hitch in 2 days for me, and it arrived 3x faster than any gowesty order I've ever put in. And was a hoot to talk to on the phone too.

Hitch is built like a brick sh*thouse, and really straight/dimensionally accurate. Took a bit of grease and a dead-blow to slip it into the frame rails, because it fits snug as a bug in a rug :)

Sat Sep 29, 2012 12:52 pm

Since we're waaay off topic on a waaay old thread, I'll ask....

why did you guys go with the Burley hitch and stock bumpers instead of new bumpers with an integrated hitch? the cost for a bumper was not that much more...wanting to keep it stock?

I need a hitch and have been planning to go with the RMW bumpers...

Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:35 am

isotopez wrote: Reviving an old thread with a question on stock ecu placement. I have an 84 an the ecu is on the driverside near the taillight and coil. I'm doing my conversion right now and am thinking about placing subi ecu under bench.

Everything I've read puts my 1.9 ecu passenger side... Do I have a special circumstance or one of a kind van or what? Lol...

The later Vanagons have the ecu mounted to the side wall of the rear seat cabinet on driver's side. Excellent place for it,doesn't take up much room and keeps it clean,accessible . Extend the wiring,cut a hole in the rear bulkhead and mount. The original Subaru rubber firewall gasket is reused to keep the wiring clear of the metal edge.

Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:12 am

That is exactly how SmallCar did mine, and it is a very clean setup. It's out of the way but easy to access, and doesn't take up much space in the little cubby next to the heater box.

Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:57 am

tarandusVDub wrote:
why did you guys go with the Burley hitch and stock bumpers instead of new bumpers with an integrated hitch? the cost for a bumper was not that much more...wanting to keep it stock?

I need a hitch and have been planning to go with the RMW bumpers...

Not that I love the original bumpers or anything, but... I don't need anything more than the stock bumpers really. Aftermarket bumpers add weight, and honestly I am not in love with any of the current offerings (the canasync (sp?) units come the closest - but the receiver is non-normal). The Burley hitch adds a mere 10lbs over the bolt on hitch setup (between the tow hooks) that I had, but is ROCK SOLID.

I couldn't buy just a rear bumper either (I hate mismatched bumpers) so the price goes up considerably with a F/R setup.

Not sure that the RMW or GW bumpers would be as solid as the Burley hitch either when hanging 3-4 bikes off of it (but I could be wrong on that).

I'm still thinking designing of my own minimal AL bumpers (someday, maybe...) but I can integrate to the Burley hitch when/if I do that.

At this point, if I'm going to add any weight in the protection arena it would be sliders (Das Mule). I think not having sliders when you need them would be worse than not having beefier bumpers when you need them. I can buy a replacement stock bumper and some new end caps...

my .02

Wed Oct 03, 2012 12:23 pm

Those reasons all make sense, and I agree with you on not being totally crazy about the aftermarket bumpers, but the main reason I have been considering them is the added protection from the steel construction; the original bumpers do absolutely nothing...so I'm trying to figure out if the additional weight is worth it for the additional protection...thoughts on that?

One thought I've had, since I hate mismatched bumpers too, is to reduce cost and weight by buying a RMW rear with hitch, and then do the black treatment on my front so that they at least match in color...

Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:23 pm

Another thread ruined by photobucket