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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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 Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2024 6:33 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Abscate wrote: |
See your Doctor and get a Tetnus booster if you aren’t up to date , with all that scrap metal pieces.
Dr Abscate |
I’m definitely up on that one, otherwise I’d definitely have tetnus by now  especially in the rust belt, a lot of rust
A lot of work done this weekend, I didn’t stop working till late the last few nights and didn’t have many pictures of work.
Friday I got the clutch cable hooked up, I had to mess with it to get the adjustment right, the Bowden tube isn’t right or the cable is too long, I didn’t care too much as it’s all coming back apart soon and it will need to be a bit longer for the 6 rib. I then got a little work done on the transmission. I got the KEP engine sprayer, flywheel and clutch on. There was also some cleaning involved as well as other stuff which I forgot what I did I got the bus out and did a lap of the block and burnt some cardboard boxes
Saturday was a big day, I finished building the 3 rib for the 72, I got the new seals installed and all the parts needed on it.
After I finished that up, I stuck the cross over tube and intake onto the Subaru engine and hooked some stuff up. I switched bus around and got to work on the 72, I got the 6 rib yanked out and the “new” 3 rib in it and the engine back in, I left the CVS for Sunday as one boot needed replacing. The 6 rib was still covered in mud from my adventures, there were some twigs stuck on it even
Today, I finished getting everything hook back up on the 72, replaced the cv boot, and fought the shifter adjustment, turned out to be a bad coupler. Then I got the 6 rib onto the subie engine and it’s looking good 
And the bad paint blend attempt
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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airschooled
Air-Schooled
Joined: April 04, 2012
Posts: 12742
Location: on a bike ride somewhere
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| Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2024 10:37 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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The rattle can stuff will fade well before the skids marks.
Robbie
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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| Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2024 9:11 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| airschooled wrote: |
The rattle can stuff will fade well before the skids marks.
Robbie |
With it fading a bit and some polish on the patina it will hopefully match better, either way I can make it prettier later on if I want. Right now I just got to get it ready for some miles 
Today I got the radiator mounts fabricated and figured out how I wanted to do it. I used some square tube for the frame of it and got some expanded metal for a projector/ guard for the underside. I’m mounting the radiator tight up but I’m planning on making a good scoop for it and sealing the sides well so I can keep the radiator farther from harm like big bumper eating rocks It’ll be a bit heavy but I’m liking the looks of it so far, I cut out some sheet metal panels I’m going to bend at work tomorrow to fill the gap between the radiator and frame rails.
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 22685
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2024 1:06 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Very nice fab. That’s a serious radiator mount.
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2024 6:55 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| Very nice fab. That’s a serious radiator mount. |
Thanks! And it gets better, I added the side panels on it today after I bent them up, and then I welded them into the expanded metal, I think the radiator will be safe now
I also got the starter bushing turned down today at work, the OD was .5mm too big, way off. It fit in tight after turning it down a bit.
Then I decided I’d bleed the brake, oh did that do wonderful 
I pressed the pedal a few time and then it stuck down. Then I pulled it out and it didn’t sound good, then it was no longer pumping fluid. Then I found this
It was stuck all the way in. I decided to take the snap ring out to see if I could get it unstuck, it came a little bit out, and then I pulled it out and the whole internals started pulling out and then the entire reservoir decided to empty onto the floor. Turned out I had gotten a splatter of paint on the shaft and that jammed it  I cleaned the paint off and put it back together and it’s working fine again. I’m happy I didn’t discover this issue out driving and stop and not be able to go again.
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 22685
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2024 2:55 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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That’s the karma of craftsmanship. When you detected something wasn’t right you dug in and put it right.
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2024 9:24 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Yesterday I got the brakes bled on the Fitz, took it out shopping to pick up some parts for itself Stopped and drove good. I also found it cool the rear hatch is sized perfectly for a 4x8 sheet to go in flat
I got the vacuum plumbing figured out on the Subaru engine, I removed a few extra vacuum lines out of the system. All I need to do now is hook up the crank case breather and brake booster and that’s all the air lines.
Then today I started on the wiring harness. I got 2-3 hours in and had the wiring pretty cleaned up and thought, this isn’t that hard or take that long. Then I got to finding where the last few wires go and depining and I found why it takes so long. I was reading the pin out backwards to start so that took a minute to realize why none of it seemed right
I basically started by taking off one main auxiliary harness, unplugged a lot of the unnecessary stuff and chopped out wires. I got a big section of the random controls out and then started on the main parts of it. It’s crazy how much comes off.
What’s interesting about this harness is that it’s a 95 impreza harness and it has plugs mid harness. The ECU side only has main engine connections on it and the rest of the random stuff like relays are on the other side. So that means the ECU side of the harness to the main engine connection doesn’t need any modifications. Then I can depin the extra wires at the connector on the other side and leave the wires going to the ECU on the other side of connector. I took out the AC wires and AT wires after going through the harness pinout. It doesn’t seem you need to do any grounding to tell the ECU that it’s a manual car. It’s got a few things that seem different from most of the harnesses I’ve seen done, and for the most part it’s nice.
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Shonandb
Samba Member
Joined: January 12, 2019
Posts: 1211
Location: Vancouver, BC
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| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2024 11:27 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Nice work! Although my donor had a manual transmission, the target pin on the ECU was not grounded either so it seems Subaru did things differently with different models and years.
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76 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru SOHC + Vanagon (010) Automatic Transaxle
Build & Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=758760
Previous 1973 Panel Bus:
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2024 8:51 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Shonandb wrote: |
| Nice work! Although my donor had a manual transmission, the target pin on the ECU was not grounded either so it seems Subaru did things differently with different models and years. |
Thanks! They definitely did some weird things, the 1995 Impreza is the first year for OBD2 and it still has the other style test port. I found there is not much information on this harness and the general layout of it is very different than the regular one. All there really is for information is the pinout and a few other comments by people. There’s no videos on it and I didn’t find any other comparable ones.
Yesterday was mostly electrical work. I got the wiring a bit more cleaned up and hooked it to the engine and tried it and got nothings, I spent a bunch of time searching and trying to figure out the issue.
Today I found out I needed to have a keyed ignition power line spliced in  After that I got it to run  I tried rigging up a fuel system into a can but I’m not sure there was enough in there. I sprayed some starting fluid into the engine and started up and idled for 15 seconds and died. But it sounded good so ignition and belt timing are good at least.
Later in the day today I did finished up cleaning up the harness, it looks pretty good in my opinion, I’m happy with it. I’m thinking of mounting the controls in the spare wheel well. There’s a bunch of extra wires at the plug for the transmission control module that I removed. I took a picture and of the labeled wire ends.
Then today I also picked up an alternator bracket, PVC and a few other misc parts from a Co-worked that had a 98 parts legacy. Well those parts came with a EJ2.5 DCOH engine, wiring harness, intake, and headers all included So part of today was spent stripping a Subaru harness since I missed taking it out of the car first time around There will be pictures of that tomorrow, it was too good of a deal, I’ll just save those parts for something down the road or just to play with
Then I also pulled the old power plant out. The only issue I had was the shift linkage pin was siezed in place. But then I had to get some side my side shots of the “new” vs old
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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airschooled
Air-Schooled
Joined: April 04, 2012
Posts: 12742
Location: on a bike ride somewhere
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| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2024 10:41 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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I love these updates, keep it up!
Robbie
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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| Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2024 9:18 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| airschooled wrote: |
I love these updates, keep it up!
Robbie |
Thanks! I’m almost excited to not be updating this and just driving  I’m enjoying the Subaru swap, it’s a fun little challenge. But I have to have the swap done my Friday and ready to be my daily for the next week and then it has to be ready for a few hundred/ thousand miles in the following weeks.
Today was a lot of little things. First I had to get the alternator/ brackets and PCV valve off the 2.5L and onto the current engine. I took all those off, cleaned them up, went to the store to buy some hose for it and assembled.
Next up was getting the motor cycle Jack freed up from the 1600. I had to set that on Jack stands and patio pavers. Then I had to get the subie and 6 rib onto the motor cycle Jack, and the subie doesn’t go on there’s as well. I got everything moved around so I could stick the engine in. I got the engine in and it looks like I can get away without the throttle body reverser, I just got to find a low profile boot. Also the EGR valve fit in too. The early bay has a bit more clearance and the 6 rib moves the engine back a good amount too 15-20mm (?)
I had first order 95+ engine mounts for it, I realized I had -94 motor mount brackets so I order that style mount. Then it turned out that they sit at a different angle so they wouldn’t sit flush on the engine bar. So I had to pull the mounts from the 2.5, in doing so I tilted the engine back and turns out it was full of oil so the floor of the yellow bus got coated in quarts of engine oil 
Then I did a bunch of small things, I did a quick paint on the inside frame rails of the engine compartment and battery tray. The left battery tray was in surprisingly good shape, when I bought the bus there was about an inch of decaying stuff on it. I also cleaned the engine compartment and made it look a lot nice overall.
In the engine compartment I mounted my cheap overflow tank, I don’t know if it’ll last super long but it’s a start. I also trimmed up a bracket for the vacuum controls for the subie engine and mounted it in the corner by the wheel arch.
I mounted the fuel pump to the old air cleaner bracket that got cut off today. I thought about leaving the bracket but realized it’d be super hard to change plugs on it. So I screwed in a bracket that was for the subie ignition to column into the old air cleaner bracket, used an old piece of radiator hose, and then an old clamp and mounted it all together. It’s a little ugly but I can say I’ve never felt such a solid mount for a fuel pump, it’s complete isolated in rubber but barely moves.
On another note you can see the wonderful wood board for the battery tray and the wire strap they came up with, it had to be put in, in the 80s and the wood is solid and the wire strap is solid so it’s getting left, the wire keeps the battery in place good, maybe one day I’ll replace the tray
I ended the night by installing the shift rod with new boots on each end. I have it a good amount of grease too. I also took out the front section and replaced the front shift bushing. That thing was toast, it already feels way tighter. It’s gotta shift good with all this new found power
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 22685
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 2:55 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Just make sure that battery can’t walk the positive terminal anywhere near that wire, Luke. Keep the Force strong.
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W1K1
Samba Member
Joined: March 04, 2004
Posts: 4925
Location: Southern AB
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| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 8:55 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Ceckert64 wrote: |
| airschooled wrote: |
I love these updates, keep it up!
Robbie |
n. I got the engine in and it looks like I can get away without the throttle body reverser, I just got to find a low profile boot. Also the EGR valve fit in too. The early bay has a bit more clearance and the 6 rib moves the engine back a good amount to 15-20mm (?)
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That looks pretty tight, some have put a box section cutout in the firewall for clearance. I used the reverser on my swap.
It’s coming along, the increase in HP is going to be lots of smiles per gallon
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php
1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 10:03 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| Just make sure that battery can’t walk the positive terminal anywhere near that wire, Luke. Keep the Force strong. |
By some fate I think it is the most secured battery in any of my cars, it doesn’t move, very deceptive
| W1K1 wrote: |
| Ceckert64 wrote: |
| airschooled wrote: |
I love these updates, keep it up!
Robbie |
n. I got the engine in and it looks like I can get away without the throttle body reverser, I just got to find a low profile boot. Also the EGR valve fit in too. The early bay has a bit more clearance and the 6 rib moves the engine back a good amount to 15-20mm (?)
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That looks pretty tight, some have put a box section cutout in the firewall for clearance. I used the reverser on my swap.
It’s coming along, the increase in HP is going to be lots of smiles per gallon |
I was a little ahead of you on the sectioning of the firewall, though mine involved a much uglier process and result, it gives and inch of clearance from there. You can see it a little bit in my pictures.
I’m excited for the power, it’s a 2.2 but it’s about the most robust subie engine it seems. Also, it should get the same or slightly better mpg for double the power, I’m excited to drive this thing
A long day today, I went and picked up the radiator and they put 1-3/4 outlets on it, I may have said what I wanted backwards but that was a little annoying. They did a great job welding it and did it super fast so I’m happy with it for the most part, I don’t blame them for the outlet size, I think that may have been me.
After that I went to a junkyard to get header/ manifolds and an intake. It was a pretty big yard. They didn’t have subies and didn’t even let me go back to look for an intake manifold saying they had nothing like that The other junkyard I called and they said they weren’t sure if they had any Subarus and they’d call me back  how do these places not have a Subaru.
Anyways, big thanks to my friend Liam that is letting me use his turbo exhaust manifold. It’s a rarer one and I have to find another one for him but it’s sitting in my basement and will work perfectly for the swap. That simplifies exhaust a lot
From there I clearance the firewall. I took it out and cut a slit along the rib. Then I pounded it flat and then started pounding it in. I went till it touched the tank. But I gained about an inch. I welded the slit shut and hit the welded spot with primer and put it back in. Ugly but functional and didn’t take an entire day to do.
After that, I had to make a throttle cable setup to work with the subie, I played around with a few ideas and started messing with an old throttle cable tube off the bus. I realized I could bend it back around and get it so I should have full throttle range. I just bent it into shape and angled it right and added two brackets onto it. It bolts onto the engine and transmission and turned out sturdy. My one concern is it wearing out over time. I may carry a spare cable or put some sheath to protect the cable. Eventually probably upgrade to a bearing style turn like a sync link (?) wheel.
Then I worked on installing all the wiring, I’m really happy how the engine compartment turned out, overall the wiring in there is pretty clean for all things considered. All I have to do is the alternator wiring harness and a main power feed to the fuse panel and the wiring should be done. I also added grommets for the fuel lines and electrical. I was hoping to get the engine in but electrical took a while and I wanted it to look good. The spare tire well looks like a rats nest and I’m honestly not sure what to do with it. Maybe just cover it up and forget about it
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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Shonandb
Samba Member
Joined: January 12, 2019
Posts: 1211
Location: Vancouver, BC
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| Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2024 10:47 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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It's coming together fast and looking good! Nice work.
Inspect your CV boots and give the jounts themselves a re-greasing if you haven't touched them yet while you have the space and time before installing the engine and trans.
My CV boots split one after another over the course of the first few months once I started driving the Bus regularly. Get greasy once.
_________________
*******************************
76 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru SOHC + Vanagon (010) Automatic Transaxle
Build & Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=758760
Previous 1973 Panel Bus:
Click to view image |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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| Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:19 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Shonandb wrote: |
It's coming together fast and looking good! Nice work.
Inspect your CV boots and give the jounts themselves a re-greasing if you haven't touched them yet while you have the space and time before installing the engine and trans.
My CV boots split one after another over the course of the first few months once I started driving the Bus regularly. Get greasy once. |
It is! It shows how an engine swap is way less time consuming than metal work.
The CV boots aren’t too bad, there is one small tear in a boot but that’s it. I will go through them over the summer but for right now they don’t look bad. I just stuck some new grease in the flange cups and put it back together.
Last couple of days were a bit of a blur of work but Tuesday I got the engine and transmission back in and started hooking everything up. I found out that I ended up with 2” outlets on the radiator and needed 1-1/2” outlets  with no luck finding reducers/adapter, I had to take the radiator be and re-modified, got that done same day.
I found out yesterday that the turbo header hit the thermostat housing/ coolant outlet  I’m going to go buy a STI turbo header today and see if that fits right, otherwise it will get modified. I didn’t want to mess up my friends one and cut chunks out of that.
I also found out my throttle cable reverser doesn’t quite work. It give the pedal proper range of motion but the cable binds in the tube, could just be a kink in the tube but I need a different one and I may try a bearing of sorts.
I also got the shifter hooked back up and I used the bad coupler out of the yellow bus that was spot on itself but heavy gauge steel. I just welded it up so it wouldn’t spin.
For the intake boot, I ended up taking the original one and slicing it up to the bend wasn’t as big and then epoxied it together. It seems strong and works good and fits good. It should do for now.
I got the radiator setup with the 13” spal fan and covered the fan with screen to stop it from getting rocks in it.
But the big thing of yesterday was I got it to run and it ran good for it missing the O2 sensor (that comes in today)
Link
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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superman73
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Joined: December 21, 2006
Posts: 2032
Location: Crystal Springs, Mississippi
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Shonandb
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Joined: January 12, 2019
Posts: 1211
Location: Vancouver, BC
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W1K1
Samba Member
Joined: March 04, 2004
Posts: 4925
Location: Southern AB
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| Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 9:36 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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what is your ground clearance like with the stock oil pan, and exhaust?
my Busaru engine hanger is still the lowest point under mine
_________________
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php
1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 1966
Location: Manitowoc, WI
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| Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 4:30 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| superman73 wrote: |
| Wow! good work. |
| Shonandb wrote: |
| Well done! |
Thank you both!
| W1K1 wrote: |
what is your ground clearance like with the stock oil pan, and exhaust?
my Busaru engine hanger is still the lowest point under mine
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I can measure it definitively at some point but currently the oil pan hangs 1-2” lower than the hanger bar and the exhaust 1/2” lower than the hanger bar. I’m not sure exactly the dimensions though. I will work on a shortened oil pan soon but the current one should be fine to start.
No pictures but I ended up picking up an STI exhaust off Facebook marketplace for cheap and trimmed down the flange and put that on. I also got the bus out and did a quick drive up the street. It was surging and acting weird but I think that’s because I don’t have the O2 sensor yet.
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop |
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