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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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 Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:45 am Post subject: |
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| 16CV's wrote: |
Where is your locker controller ? The blue and black vacuum unit mounted to that gold cad bracket .
Good time to put on a De coupler and replace the plastic coolant union with S.S.
Put you finger in the aluminum shifter boss and see how bad of a ridge in worn into it . That along with new bushings will greatly improve your shifter feel . I've rebuilt both of mine from front to back , it makes a huge difference .
Oh the spending has just begun .
Stacy |
The rear locker vacuum unit was broken so the PO had pulled it off and disconnected everything. I'm hoping once I fix all the lines it will also cure the vacuum leak I have on the engine. I've already bought a new vacuum unit to put back on, that is sitting in one of my boxes full of new parts.
One issue I haven't sorted out just yet, is the PO managed to break the knob on the vacuum control on the dash. I haven't taken that apart yet, to see if it's fixable. I also haven't been able to find new ones either. Hopefully someone makes reproduction ones or something similar if I can't fix the original unit.
As a side note, it's going to drop down to 26 degrees tonight here in FL, and I don't like cold. Meaning I'll likely not get much done for the next day or two once it gets that cool.. 
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86 Syncro Build - Ecotec Motor Swap - Pop Top Conversion - Camper Build & Syncro Conversion |
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goffoz
Samba Member
Joined: May 09, 2007
Posts: 1486
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| Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 8:02 am Post subject: |
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| DAV!D wrote: |
One issue I haven't sorted out just yet, is the PO managed to break the knob on the vacuum control on the dash. I haven't taken that apart yet, to see if it's fixable. I also haven't been able to find new ones either. Hopefully someone makes reproduction ones or something similar if I can't fix the original unit.
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Its just a threaded knob,
http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=23464&category_id=363&category_parent_id= |
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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Been a few days since a update and well things are going to start getting more interesting. After getting the WBX out I found the pesky vacuum leak that was making it run bad.
Still I just did not like the idea of putting a WBX back in my van if I'm going through so much trouble to rebuild everything else. After kicking it around and locating a 2.4 Ecotec out of a 2006 Pontiac Solstice, I pulled the trigger.
I the engine only had 28k on it and I was able to get the entire engine harness as well as the computer and some other stuff to go with it. Because the engine is out of a Solstice it was set up as a rear wheel drive, which gives me some very easy motor mounts to work with and a very trick looking power steering pump set up, that isn't on the front wheel drive cars.
I've ordered a adapter plate from KEP, but once I get that I'll start working on the engine mounts. I'm going to make a separate topic on the actual ecotec swap once things get underway as I know it hasn't been documented for a vanagon.
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86 Syncro Build - Ecotec Motor Swap - Pop Top Conversion - Camper Build & Syncro Conversion |
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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vw7266
Samba Member
Joined: April 28, 2004
Posts: 3038
Location: the point, ohio
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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| how much was your ecotec? |
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:39 pm Post subject: |
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| vw7266 wrote: |
| how much was your ecotec? |
With the harness and ECU it was $600 with 28k miles. You can find newer mid 08 and up 2.4's cheaper but not as many guys seem to know how to program them, so I picked up a 06-08 model. 2.2's are also a bit cheaper, but I decided to go with the 2.4.
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86 Syncro Build - Ecotec Motor Swap - Pop Top Conversion - Camper Build & Syncro Conversion |
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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I decided I'll keep doing my basic updates to this topic as I move along with the engine swap, then once I have it in working order I'll make a second topic with the specifics on doing the swap.
It's been pretty hard for me to find much detailed info and next to nothing on converting the wiring harness outside of the ECU pin layout I posted above. hopefully this will help others whom are interested in a swap later on.
Today, armed with the 06 Solstice ECU pin layout I started tracking down each and every wire in the harness. First I marked every necessary sensor and it's matching plug with colored labels. White is not needed or optional and the various colors are things I need to keep.
I then moved on the the harness it's self and started with the ECU connector 1 plug and a multi meter and traced/labeled each and every wire using the same tactic. White is "not needed" random colors are required and white+ random color is optional.
I'm not cutting anything until I get the entire harness labeled.
This is what I have so far..
It appears the con 1 plug has a lot of the basic relays like Fuel pump, fan, ignition power ect..ect.. Meaning most of the wires on this plug are not needed and will be removed leaving the handful that will wire into the van.
con 2 & 3 plugs seem to take care of the actual engine sensors, fuel injection and engine ignition.
I'm also going to be using the GM Drive by Wire for the throttle, meaning no broken throttle cables for me!
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86 Syncro Build - Ecotec Motor Swap - Pop Top Conversion - Camper Build & Syncro Conversion |
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xoo00oox
Samba Member
Joined: February 11, 2010
Posts: 2672
Location: East Nassau, NY
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| Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 3:11 am Post subject: |
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 7:29 am Post subject: |
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Awesome XooOOooX, I was having a hard time figuring out where all the 5v & low reference wires go. Those will be a big help. 
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 8:49 am Post subject: |
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So I accidentally bought a westy..
After deciding to pull the 2.1 from my Syncro and put the ecotec in I was casually trolling the classifieds and craigslist for a deal on a van with engine problems.
I didn't expect to jump on anything, but wanted to see what was out there and wouldn't you know it.. I pulled into the driveway last night with a 84 westy in tow.
It has a 1.9 in it and the idea was originally was to shove my 2.1 in there and use it for a bit while I finish up the syncro. However it came with just about everything to rebuild the 1.9 and it has AMC heads.
The van it's self, while it has a few small dents, it's pretty rust free. There is very small amount of seam rust in a few spots and the only bad place is under the camping plug ins on the lower body seam. It needs work there but other than that there is very little rust. (it's a east coast van so there is always some rust)
The inside of the van is in pretty good condition and all the camping stuff works. The cushions need cleaned but if the van was running it would be ready to go camping..
This means I'm going to side step the Syncro for a short time and get the Westy on the road. I'm actually starting to think that I may just take this westy on my road trip and not do the camper conversion on the syncro right now. I might just leave it with the rear bench seat for now and put my solar and 12v fridge in this westy.
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 4:50 pm Post subject: |
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I'm still waiting for the adaptor plate to show up for the ecotec swap..  In the mean time I've been making steady progress on the new westy. After toying around with various options I decided to use my 2.1 block from the syncro and put the AMC heads on it for the westy.
To make the swap as easy as possible I opted to use the 1.9 cooling system, fuel injection and ignition. Everything was pretty much bolt on with only a small amount of modification to the intake mounting needed.
Everything is ready to put the engine in tomorrow and with any luck it should be ready to go sometime Thursday or Friday. I guess this westy was a good side project as I'm likely going to be done with it and still waiting on my adaptor plate and flywheel to be shipped from the way it's looking..
Edit.. I wanted to mention, that I defiantly found the vacuum leak on the 2.1 when I pulled the intake off. As I lifted the intake off the engine, the intake tubes that go to the heads pretty much fell off. The old rubber was so loose I could just slide them on or off, which is why I was having a hard time finding the leak. They felt ok while it was all bolted together, but pretty much fell apart once everything was unbolted.
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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Roughly two weeks after picking up the 84 Westy the 2.1 swap is for the most part complete. After a few topics here on the Samba and a lot of fiddling, I now have only a few minor issues I need to work out with the Westy. The good news is the van survived a 100 mile drive today which included about 70 miles on I-95.
I'd have no issue jumping in it and driving another 100 miles from the way the westy drove. Just not on a hot day, as for some reason the defroster is stuck on and I had hot air coming from the dash the entire trip and of course today it was 80 degrees in FL... 
The speedo is also not working, so I'll have to take a look under the dash to see if I can figure out what's up. The van however is good enough to drive and will now be my daily driver.
Getting back to the Syncro, my engine adaptor has finally shipped and should show up sometime next week. The only draw back is I have to do a few things and will be away from the Syncro for a week or two before I get back to the ecotec swap.
Anyway here is a picture of both of my rides. The Syncro which has no engine at the moment and my now running and driving Westy.
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SCP_Austin
Samba Member
Joined: November 04, 2009
Posts: 366
Location: Tacoma, WA
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| Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Love IT!! Keep after it. |
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Jake de Villiers
Samba Member
Joined: October 24, 2007
Posts: 5911
Location: Tsawwassen, BC
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| Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:29 am Post subject: |
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| DAV!D wrote: |
Anyway here is a picture of both of my rides. The Syncro which has no engine at the moment and my now running and driving Westy.
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Nice! Is that your old pickup under the canopy, too? 
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'84 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX
'86 Westy Weekender Poptop/2.5 Subaru/5 Speed Posi/Audi Front Brakes/16 x 7 Mercedes Wheels - answers to 'Dixie'
@jakedevilliersmusic1
http://sites.google.com/site/subyjake/mydixiedarlin%27
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
www.thebassspa.com |
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:48 am Post subject: |
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| Jake de Villiers wrote: |
| DAV!D wrote: |
Anyway here is a picture of both of my rides. The Syncro which has no engine at the moment and my now running and driving Westy.
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Nice! Is that your old pickup under the canopy, too? |
No that's my dad's 50 ford that he is restoring. I don't have a shop to work on stuff at the moment so I'm borrowing my dad's shop to work on the vans for now.
However yesterday I borrowed a local parking lot to fix the Westy.. It had a vacuum leak at the gasket between the intake and throttle body. Being I didn't have another one handy I put some loctite 518 as a temp fix and it worked ok until yesterday.
The van was having hard start issues, so I replaced the temp II sensor with a new one I had already. Turns out the new one was bad, so I bought another. After fixing that it was running too good, so of course the intake vacuum leak decided to come back.. 
The van could barely run, so I pulled into the nearest parking lot and took it all apart and used some permatex the right stuff and temp fixed it again.. Only took me 30 mins to tear it all apart seal it and have it running again and I even stuck a timing light on it to make sure it was ok after changing everything..
While I'm still clueless on a lot of things with these fans, I'm at least getting good at tearing it apart and putting it back together... 
Anyway, I still have a week or so of driving around the Westy and fixing it's little problems, before I head back to my dad's place to stick the ecotec in the Syncro.
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raoul mitgong
Samba Member
Joined: July 05, 2009
Posts: 1338
Location: Denver, CO
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| Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:33 pm Post subject: |
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So weird. I too have a Savannah Beige 86 Syncro tintop with CLKs and an 84 westy with a 2.1l. In my opinion, you and I have the best looking driveways possible!
-d |
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BrownBertha
Samba Member
Joined: February 01, 2006
Posts: 115
Location: Carlisle
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| Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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Do you mind doing a quick overview of what you had to do to put the 2.1 in? I plan on doing this in a few weeks to a friends van and want to make sure I didn't miss anything. I too plan on running the 1.9 components.
thanks
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85 Westfalia, Auto, 2.2 Subie |
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 3:15 pm Post subject: |
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Raoul, that's pretty funny having next to identical vans. 
| BrownBertha wrote: |
Do you mind doing a quick overview of what you had to do to put the 2.1 in? I plan on doing this in a few weeks to a friends van and want to make sure I didn't miss anything. I too plan on running the 1.9 components.
thanks |
Well I swapped heads when I did it, so it was a bit more involved. The 1.9 had brand new AMC heads, so I swapped those over to the 2.1. It ended up being a good thing because I found out the 2.1 was missing one of the O rings that go around the outside of the cylinders. That likely would of been a water leak at some point,
As far as the swap, if you plan to use the 1.9 cooling and injection/ECU then you will need to swap out the water pump set up as well as the intake/throttle body.
The water pump set up is pretty straight forward it's just a matter of swapping the rear mounted 2.1 system to the front mounted 1.9 system. You will need to keep the block off plate from the 1.9 on the drivers side head. On the 2.1 the thermostat housing was mounted there but on the 1.9 it wasn't used and I needed to add the block off plate.
The intakes were slightly different. The 1.9 has mounting points for the cross over water pipe that sits on top of the motor. The center section of the intake is also different. The mounting tabs are wider on the 2.1 meaning if you swap over the entire 1.9 intake you will need to bend the tabs to allow it to fit. Otherwise you need to use the 1.9 intake runners (the round tubes) and then use the 2.1 center section of the intake.
If you plan to use the 1.9 ECU then you will have to use the 1.9 throttle body and distributor as well. I tried to do this with mine, but something was bad and I ended up swapping over to the 2.1 ECU and distributor.
If you go this route, then you will need the 2.1 ECU and wiring harness and you will have to do a little surgery on it but it's not too bad. If you do that, I can tell you how I did mine.
Edit.. If you think you will pull the throttle body off the intake, then order a new gasket. Both of mine were very old, dried up and cracked. I had to seal it with the right stuff sealer.
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BrownBertha
Samba Member
Joined: February 01, 2006
Posts: 115
Location: Carlisle
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| Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 6:20 am Post subject: |
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thank you for taking the time to type up how your process. It was just what I was looking for.
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85 Westfalia, Auto, 2.2 Subie |
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DAV!D
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2013
Posts: 979
Location: EL CAMINO
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| Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:08 am Post subject: |
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I wanted to update this topic.. My Syncro build is officially on hold until after my road trip this year. When I bought the Syncro I intended to give it a good work over and make it ready for my road trip, with out doing too much to the body.
As someone from the east coast, I'm used to a bit of rust, so the rust on the Syncro was acceptable for what I was used to seeing. When I picked up my surprise Westy I realized the difference from a east coast van vs something that hasn't seen the rust belt..
This has made me question the idea of pouring lots of money into my Syncro as it sits now. I've decided that part of my road trip out west, will be to source a rust free van to convert into 4wd using my syncro parts as I want a much nicer van to start with than what my Syncro is.
This means my Syncro build will be put on hold until I get back to FL from my trip sometime before next winter.
In the mean time I'm going to start a separate topic for the westy to show it's relatively quick build that I've done. The Westy is now my primary focus as I'm trying to get it finished up to leave FL sometime around the 1st of March.
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