And so it begins - Subaru EJ22 in a 1984 Transporter

[ChesterKV]

[ChesterKV]

Although my plan is to keep the starter that's on the van I noticed it's a South Africa unit. I tried searching a bit to figure out if it's the same as the weaker 83.5 to 85 starter or a different version of the stronger 86-91 starters. My years are probably off but I believe the weaker unit is 3/4 horsepower and the stronger unit 1 horsepower. Anyone know ? It is a Bosch unit according to a sticker that's not visible

Thanks in advance....

_________________
1984 Wolfsburg 7-passenger stock sunroof
1992 Subaru Legacy EJ22 boxer motor installed.... van is now sold.... currently playing with a 1987 Toyota MR2 with 1.6 liter twin-cam motor. Better than the Subaru boxers....... I'm impressed. Well, okay, in an "apples and oranges" kind of way.

[ChesterKV]

Update # 7 July 4, 2007

Dudes,

What better way to celebrate American independence than by working on Japanese and German vehicles....

With the GoWesty 2.2 motor sold and GONE......I have decided to remove to the wiring harness.

Step 1. Remove front driver-side fender

The driver-side fender in a 1992 Subaru Legacy has to be removed because the bulk of the wiring leading from the engine to the fuse panel under the left-side of the dashboard travels underneath the fender. One how-to article says it's just a matter of removing a few bolts and the fender pops right off.

Mmmm, not quite...

The first thing I did was to unscrew the plastic wheel liner. It's pretty thin and after you remove the few obvious screws you can push it, tear it, cut it out, whatever you want to do to expose hidden areas where some of the bolts are hiding. With the wheel liner removed you can disconnect the side marker light as it is attached to the fender that is being removed.

Next, remove the obvious bolts found in the engine compartment with either a 10mm socket or a Philips-head screwdriver. Now, at the bottom rear of the fender there are two bolts. One is plainly visible, the other is behind the mud flap. You have to remove the mud flap or at least rotate it upwards to expose the hidden bolt.

Next, I removed the somewhat hidden bolt that connects the front fender to the front bumper.

Now there are three bolts/nuts that are not obvious at all at the front of the fender. Remove the left signal housing via the single screw inside the engine bay (surrounded by a white bracket...it's obvious). You should be able to wiggle the signal housing out and leave it hanging by the cable. One bolt is accessible from outside as shown by my crescent wrench. The other two are accessible by using an extension on a ratchet behind the fender towards the front. Removing the signal housing allows light to illuminate the area, making it much easier to see. They are not difficult to reach but it took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on.

Finally, off comes the fender and the main wiring is exposed.

A close-up showing the wiring sheathed in plastic flexible lines heading towards the dashboard/driver's area of the car.

_________________
1984 Wolfsburg 7-passenger stock sunroof
1992 Subaru Legacy EJ22 boxer motor installed.... van is now sold.... currently playing with a 1987 Toyota MR2 with 1.6 liter twin-cam motor. Better than the Subaru boxers....... I'm impressed. Well, okay, in an "apples and oranges" kind of way.

[remraf]

Keep it comin! I'm not real far behind you. You're already saving me time. I know what to do on a vw, but subies are new to me. Now that I've seen those pics I'll be pullin the wiring harness by the end of the month.

thanks

[ChesterKV]

I'm only half done pulling the wires but I'll finish tomorrow (Thursday) and post some more fun photos...

It's a bit of a bear....but certainly doable..
_________________
1984 Wolfsburg 7-passenger stock sunroof
1992 Subaru Legacy EJ22 boxer motor installed.... van is now sold.... currently playing with a 1987 Toyota MR2 with 1.6 liter twin-cam motor. Better than the Subaru boxers....... I'm impressed. Well, okay, in an "apples and oranges" kind of way.

[GeorgeL]

I'll bet that there are a lot of lurkers like me sitting back and watching this thread. Keep up the good work!

[iceracer]

Yes , I admit I am a lurker. Almost had a free Subaru this winter to dismantle and do what you are doing with my 86 syncro but the dude gave it to another guy. Bummer. So I built my own version of the gowesty 2.2 WBX. I like it but can see doing a Suby in the future if I find one cheap. Keep up the great detailed work.

[Rhinoculips]

Freakness,

My Westy is most likely nearing its time for a heart transplant and I have been seriously contemplating a GoWest 2300cc replacement. I am really curious to why you sold your GoWesty engine after only 7,000 miles and went for a Subaru engine?

[ChesterKV]

[dhermanesq]

[quote="freakness"]

[ChesterKV]

[quote="dhermanesq"]

[Dharma_Bum]

I am curious about this....

<<Mine (referee) pulled out the whole book of diagrams (mostly looking at the emissions) for the kennedy conversion and from what I could tell only really wanted to see the vanagon vacuum container (glad I had not used the subie like most everyone else is doing now) and lines as per the kennedy approved conversion. Getting the diagram helps, not sure what you have to buy to get it.>>

I just went through this a couple weeks ago and decided to use the Subaru canister, but we don’t have emission standards here in KY. The Subaru evaporative emission control system is a much simpler and cleaner design and the canister mounts right next to your Vanagon fill tank in almost the exact position as in the Subaru engine compartment. All I had to do was purchase a few longer pieces of rubber hose and the system is set-up exactly how the Subaru engineers designed it.

Intuitively you would think that this would be cleaner / better system.

No one could ever give me a definitive answer on how to connect the Vanagon canister (and all of those tiny plastic hoses….) to the Subaru system. I have heard of the “Kennedy Diagrams” but have never seen them.

[GeorgeL]

[vntgbus]

I have been lurking over this thread from time to time...I hit this when I was deciding to do the conversion. Anyone considering this conversion should not hesitate one second. I started the conversion about the same time that this thread had started and about a week ago was my first drive. I have found in reading this that it is somewhat discouraging. After finishing mine I thought well let's take to have it smogged and just see what happens. They opened it up looked twice, I answered questions, and gave no more answers than what they asked for half hour later I am driving away with my certificate.. I have to say I am 100% sold on the conversion. I will never put another wbx'r in a vanagon!!

[kenmag]

As you, I had a very similar experience with the first emission testing. This was a couple days after the conversion was done. Nervous as hell from the time I left the house to when I had the certificate in hand. It was fun to watch the VW tech (had the test done at a dealer) jump in fire up the bus to get it in to the bay. He rolled down the window and said "It's so responsive!!" Then I thought "oh no they'll know now its not stock". In hindsight now thinking what the fuss was all about.
_________________
87GL Westy/suby ej22
87GL tintop/suby ej22
05 Golf TDI
95 jetta GLX

[Alan Brase]

[ChesterKV]

Update #8 - July 8, 2007

Mmmmmmm wiring harness. Not the funnest work but as long as you mostly turn off your brain..it's ok...

For the engine bay area it's smartest to actually remove everything on top FIRST, before trying to remove the wires. That means taking out the alternator, power steering pump, a/c compressor, intake manifold, coolant manifold, metal fuel-rail lines, ignition wires, etc. There are many twists and turns and tight spots that interfere with the removal of the connectors. Now...that's not how I did it...

At the very least remove the alternator to allow the still-difficult removal of the wires feeding the fuel injectors and sensors on the passenger side of the engine bay.

The photo here shows the alternator removed allowing me to pull the harness towards the driver-side of the engine bay (towards the right looking at the photo)

This photo shows why it's better to remove everything on top of the motor before trying to disconnect the wiring harness. Those solid metal fuel-lines and the intake manifold teamed-up to really slowed me down and I ended up loosening and prying the solid-lines to get all the wire connectors through...NOT FUN

Eventually you will have removed a short two-foot section (it disconnects where the fuse panel next to the battery is) of the overall harness that goes across the engine. Put it aside and NOW the party really begins.

Inside the car, I began by removing the lower panels that cover the fuse box and various connectors. On top of the dash and around the sides are obvious little square plastic covers that you simply pry-off to expose the screws that hold the dashboard.

The instrument switches to the left of the steering wheel come out easily and reveal more hidden screws holding the dashboard

Remove every single exposed screw that comes to light. Remove the glove box.....two screws at the bottom....easy

Before the dashboard can be removed you'll have to remove the instrument cluster cover and the actual instrument cluster. A couple of screws at the top of the instrument cluster cover and a couple at the bottom hidden behind the radio cover (remove cupholder and you'll see the screws) and out it comes. Pull-off the heater and a/c sliding control knobs before you pull the cover off.


The removed instrument cluster cover

The instrument cluster removed......another easy couple of screws. The speedometer cable simply slipped out and I unplugged anything electrical I found.

Now, there are still a couple of bolts at the bottom of the center console that hold the dashboard in place. You'll have to loosen the center rear console (the one that goes between the front seats) and pull out the cover that holds the shift boot and you'll gain access to the two hidden bolts. A bit of a pain but easy enough. I forgot to take pictures of this....oopsies.


Now before the dashboard can come out you'll have to remove the steering wheel and the signal indicators; otherwise, the dashboard will get hung-up on them and you won't be able to pull the dashboard out. Don't forget to disconnect the engine hood release lever at the lower-left corner under the dashboard.....really easy actually.


Steering wheel horn cover removed...again...self-explanatory

Loosen the single nut holding the steering wheel and with some "persuasion" pull the steering wheel off. There are a bunch of screws holding the signal indicators and some plugs to undo but it'll be obvious


No more steering wheel and the signal indicators are about to go

Pull the dashboard forward a foot or so and begin disconnecting EVERYTHING (tons of connections) you can see under there

At some point you will have disconnected everything there is to disconnect and voila

There are SO many things to unplug in the lower left corner of the passenger compartment but whatever you do....don't toss this !
For it is COMPUTER BRAIN .....all knowing; behold it's presence

At this point things start to get a bit interesting. The wiring from the engine bay mostly goes around the driver-side fender into the interior compartment to the main fuses underneath the steering wheel. However, another important set of wires leave the engine bay and travel directly into the center of the dashboard area DIRECTLY behind the heating and cooling system. Nice.

The directions I had said, "remove heater core, fan, a/c..." etc., but I had a problem. I hadn't drained the a/c of it's refrigerant so removing it meant harming the environment and making the Baby Jesus cry.....so I had to figure something else out.

The problem is circled in red here. This is where the secondary set of wires passes from the engine bay to the interior of the car right behind the heater core. Inside the red circle you can just see the two aluminum heater tubes. Behind those tubes is the rubber grommet allowing the wires to pass through

So my solution was simple; Smash, bash, tear, and pull out anything in the way of my getting to the hidden wiring. Luckily it's all brittle abs and although the heater core made things slow going.......I accomplished my mission AND PULLED THE SECONDARY HARNESS FROM THE ENGINE BAY INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE CAR

This photo shows the engine bay portion of the wiring harness above (I'm holding it in my hand out of frame) and the left and right sections of the interior portions of the wiring harness. You can see in the center of the photo the exposed heater core and the smashed abs plastic bits in the lower right corner

All there was left to do was pull the main harness from the exterior fender area through the opening under the left dashboard area. You'll have fun unplugging even more plugs, and fighting/coaxing the various runs of cable through but eventually it will all end up in your dirty little hands.



A hard fought battle filled with much peril........

The image of VICTORY

_________________
1984 Wolfsburg 7-passenger stock sunroof
1992 Subaru Legacy EJ22 boxer motor installed.... van is now sold.... currently playing with a 1987 Toyota MR2 with 1.6 liter twin-cam motor. Better than the Subaru boxers....... I'm impressed. Well, okay, in an "apples and oranges" kind of way.

[ChesterKV]

Idea of the harness in relation to position and orientation to the donor car

Left and right sides of the harness explained

I placed the subaru cover amongst the wiring to show where the wires come together in the engine bay. The harness does not interconnect underneath the cover as the photo MAY imply.

Now I can farm-out the wiring to Tom Shiels in Canada and begin the process of removing the motor from the donor car. I spent around eight hours pulling all the wiring and that's fine with me considering I got the entire car for $ 400.00. In my final analysis I would prefer to buy an already pulled engine with a complete engine harness already removed from the car. That would be worth the usual $ 1,000 asking price I've seen.

But, that's for my next conversion . . . .

Time to play some video games
_________________
1984 Wolfsburg 7-passenger stock sunroof
1992 Subaru Legacy EJ22 boxer motor installed.... van is now sold.... currently playing with a 1987 Toyota MR2 with 1.6 liter twin-cam motor. Better than the Subaru boxers....... I'm impressed. Well, okay, in an "apples and oranges" kind of way.

[drizzle]

This is a great write up and will be VERY helpful to all that come after you. I really appreciate people taking the time to document stuff like this.

Have a beer on me!
-drew

[Dharma_Bum]

I agree with drizzle - great write up and tutorial!

I had / have a brand new Subaru engine and I bought the harness (and all electrical part) from a guy for $200. I had no idea what he went through to remove it! Looks like a good days work. I asked for the cruise control with the harness. He was not sure what I needed so he brought me the entire dashboard and instrument cluster. Odometer read 273k, the car and engine were still running strong but had been involved in a rear-end collision and totaled.

Amazing.

I found the harness thru http://ultimatesubaru.org/ . This is a good site for Subaru tech info, used parts etc.

I fabricated and installed all of the plumbing on mine this weekend. Save all of your Vanagon hoses. They can be cut to make most of the connections with the Subaru engine. I was able to fabricate the entire system with the WBX hoses plus an assortment of 1.25" / 1" / and .5" copper pipe and fittings, and a 4’ section of 1.25” Marine Hose.

I have really been enjoying watching your progress. Great to see some SubaruVanagon discussion (and pictures!).