Subaru 2.5l turbo conversion into a 91 syncro

[T3 Pilot]

Hey mike,

After all the detailed images and posts of the action in the engine bay it is really good to see the van out in the wild full of smiling people and happy looking Dogs. I know the feeling.

I'll leave it to you to explain the "Timmys" question; that is a very deep topic.

Great Job.
_________________
1988 Vanagon

The most important part in every vehicle is the nut behind the wheel......

[dobryan]

On a hunch I googled and found this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timmys


_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[Syncromikey]

Some people drink, some people smoke ... My vice is drinking coffee from Tim Hortons. Kim hates the first part of the trip and always gives me a hard time but I've always gotta have a Timmy's coffee with me when I start the trip. Check the tires, fluids, fuel, pick up my coffee and some snacks, settle in and hit the open road. Once everything is in place and I put the van in gear all of my stresses just melt away and all that matters is moving forward. I'm sure we can all relate.
(The coffee cup is on the windshield wiper in the photo)
... Mmmm, I'm going to head downstairs and pick up a fresh one now.

Cheers,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[1954AfrikaOval]

We were so sorry to hear about all the flooding in Calgary.
Our trip from Utah to Vancouver and across Canada, Banff, then back home with our 87 Syncro was a delight.

I am amazed at some of the talent people have when restoring these wonderful vehicles. Yours is unbelievable!

[Farfrumwork]

[Syncromikey]

Well ... I guess it's time to start getting back to work on the van. Up until now I've been taking some shorter trips around our neck of the woods and have racked up around 1500 km and one speeding ticket. Man this van just hums along now! I can't believe she just doesn't slow down for anything. We've got some pretty steep hills that I used to have the throttle pinned to the floor in second gear to hold about 60km/hr on it. Now I'm heading up with only about a quarter throttle and I'm having to let off because I'm accelerating at 110km/hr. What a difference. I'm really happy with the results. I've still got to do a bunch of tweaking with the air intake and have it tuned once again cause she's still running a bit rich. Currently I'm getting about 16 to 17 mph which is a bit much but at the moment my foot has been a bit heavy so once I get that under control I suspect the mileage will get a bit better. The plan now is to head south to Oregon for our long weekend (next weekend) for a bit of a run. Honestly, I'm a bit nervous. It'll be by far the furthest trip I've taken with the new engine. Fingers crossed. I've got the exhaust in right now getting a ceramic coat applied to keep the heat down a bit. It was just getting a bit too hot back there and after a half decent run I could smell the paint on the licence plate warming up. Going to get the new grill and lights hooked up this weekend and go through all of the nuts and bolts ... Fluids, tire pressure etc ... Check the codes on the computer, get a tool kit and some extra parts packed ... Just make sure everything is ready to go. Maybe take her out for another run one evening to the mountains next week.

Here is the exhaust at the coaters ready to be brought in for the treatment. Hopefully they'll be able to get it back to me soon. Debating on whether or not to wrap the cat again with heat tape. Not sure if it'll need it after the ceramic is applied.

Oh and if anyone in my neck of the woods happens to have an extra mattress for over the hatch please shoot me a pm. Mine went missing during the flood and I'm looking for a replacement.

Cheers,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[Syncromikey]

One of the projects I need to do before we hit the road for a longer trip is putting the front grill on so I decided to tackle that today. The van is out at my dad's place right now cause I'm borrowing his truck to make some trips to the dump, (and I have the exhaust off) so I headed out there to do the work this afternoon. He's got a much bigger shop then I have so I can just drive it right in and there is lots of room to work. I was thinking about just putting the old grill back on but figured since I have the SA grill I may as well just install it instead. Since there are quite a few builds already out there describing the install process I didn't think anyone would like me to repeat it. I must say though it's much easier then I thought it would be. The big lights screwed right into place using existing holes and the drilling new holes for the smaller ones only required three hands to do it ... Fortunately my dad just got back from holidays about a half an hour before I got there so he was able to give me a hand. I must say I really like the look of the new grill. Unfortunately, the brand new headlights are missing a bunch of the reflective coating on the inside. I suspect it's due to the water issue we had last spring. It looks like the had filled with water in the shop when the water came in and i suspect someone may have used a pressure washer to clean them out and it probably wore some of the coating off. Looks like I'm going to have to pick up some new ones at some point soon. I didn't wire it up though since I forgot the new relays and plugs in my shop so I'll have to do that either tomorrow or one evening next week.

Anyway ... Here are some pics.

This is a before shot with the old square headlights in and out.

Here is a picture showing some of the mud on the outside of the lamp casing. Lots inside too which I cleaned out.

Here are a couple pics where you can see the silver coating is gone ...

And here is my girl with the headlights and grill installed. Looking forward to getting the wiring and plugs hooked up so I can see how much better the lights are from the way they were before.

Going to dig up the emblem tomorrow morning when I head over to our house ... Will be removing some concrete and tile to prepare for the rebuild ... Gotta remember to bring out the bumpers for installation again ... Man I hope I still have them. So much stuff went missing during the big clean up. Anyway ...

Have a great night all!

Cheers,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[fleet_maintenance]

Hey! Nice to see the updates. I followed your build religously, and enjoyed every post, right up till the flood. I'm glad to see it's serving you well, and still being tweaked. Nice work. Keep periodic updates coming.
Thanks again.

[Syncromikey]

Just took at the last response on my build. It's been a while for sure. Time has just been flying by and I haven't had much time to work on the van. Work on the house is going slow and it looks like it won't be till the new year before we are able to move back in. I think the hardest part for me is not having access to my shop. Didn't realize how much of a release it actually is. I'm sure you can all attest. We're heading out with her for her first long trip in mid August so I've got a tonne of work to do. Kinda started tinkering around with the wiring and I think I've caught the bug again. Moved some of my tools to the place we are currently staying and have started working out a plan of attack. Still have a couple bugs to work out with the way it's running. It's doing pretty good but when i let off the gas it still sputters a little bit. And it's using a bit more fuel then I figure it should. Going to fabricate a proper air box, bring it back in for a final tune and I think that should pretty much be it for the engine stuff. Must have blew a seal in the power steering rack as one side is leaking a bit. Will have to pull the boot off to see if it's going to be an easy or tough fix. Anyone have experience with leaky racks? It's brand new so it shouldn't be too big of a deal ... I hope ... Ordered a set of Cibie E-code H4s to replace the damaged Hellas along with some Lava exhaust wrap to finish off cooling down the exhaust under the hatch. Need to hook up some headlight relays I picked out from the bone yard out of a Subaru and a couple of new horns along with their relays. Will likely get a bunch of that work sorted this weekend. Put some of the stock stuff back on and she should be ready for her first 3000km road trip.
Updates soon.
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[Syncromikey]

Hi all, well ... I've got started again with the van. With the exhaust so close to the back body panel, and the upper hatch I was concerned that the heat may be a bit too much for extended trips. It's been ok for short trips but still gets pretty hot. I had mentioned earlier that I brought the exhaust system in for ceramic coating and that worked really well. The hottest part of the exhaust was the catalytic converter. Without the coating it was hitting temps around 900-1000 degrees, with the coating it was getting up to around 700 degrees so it helped quite a bit but even though it seemed as though it may be ok I figured the smell coming off of the licence plate due to overheating may be a sign I should heed. Here are a couple picks of the ceramic coated exhaust installed.

As I hate that fibreglass wrap I decided to try a heat cover which wraps around the exhaust. It's a soft material, which is still made out of fibreglass and reflective material. It worked pretty good and got the temps down to a more reasonable 350 degrees, which lowered the licence plate and body temp to around 75 degrees. Unfortunately, the material ... In specific the shiny reflective stuff couldn't handle the heat and started to burn. Although after a while the burning (not sure if that's a correct description cause it didn't really burn just disintegrated) stopped and the material didn't give off any odd smells I really don't like it and will change this out now to my last alternative. Here are some pics of what it looks like right now.

I'm going to go with another wrap for the exhaust. This time I'm going to stay away from the fiberglass wrap and try the lava wrap instead. It's worked really well for the turbo (made out of the same material and you can almost touch the turbo when it's hot because of the blanket) really nice stuff. The wrap came in yesterday so I'm going to try and install it this evening to see how it works. It'll be a good time to test it now cause it's going to get to over 30C here in the great white north. If it's going to overheat ... Nows the time.
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[fleet_maintenance]

Glad to see you're gaining momentum. Interested to see how lava wrap does for exhaust.

[insyncro]

The silver backed blankets are mostly a top dressing for race parts like starters and are designed to keep heat away from them, hense the reflective outer layer.
What I have done with many vehicles is use double wrapped DEI header wrap, the product with the lava rock in it, I believe it is the titanium version of the wrap.
Starting with a 1" wide wrap and wrapping with a 1/4" lap.
The second layer of wrap, the 2" wide version with a 1/2" lap.
Than the silver backed fire blanket over the two layers.

We have seen high temps along firewalls just as you have and the wiring really doesn't like it.

There are some other products available for wrapping, but the price is so high that even I steer clear of them.

Having both the internal and external portions of the pipes Jet Coated or similar, with two wrapped layers and the final blanket should do the trick.

Having an air gap between the outer wraps and the inner blanket is a good idea if the space will allow for it.

Hope this helps.

[tschroeder0]

looking at this I wonder if an exhaust hanger like RMW uses would help...it brings the muffler/cat more towards the engine but with a stainless plate to block heat and then you would have a wider air gap to the rear of the engine compartment...may require a reworking of pipes though?

[Syncromikey]

I'm getting a bit tired of that space shuttle look under the hatch.
Was thinking along the same lines of making another aluminum heat shield that would wrap around the top of the exhaust pipe, then down the side a bit to protect the rear body panels. Will have to wait until the new year for that though. We should be back in the house by then so I'll be able to work in my shop to do some fabricating. I've got the RMW exhaust clamps on the muffler attached to the engine heat shield to suck it away from the body. Really like that ... Nice and clean look for sure. Thinking about it ... I probably have enough room to put that heat shield down there and I think it would work really well in combination with the lava wrap. It's pretty tight in there though. The exhaust pipe is 2.5 inches diameter and the cat is about 6 inches. Not sure if I have any wiggle room to move the exhaust around at this point. The Turbo kinda limits places where I can route the exhaust. Not to mention it's tied to air intake system ...
I'll try to get the wrap done this afternoon and take it for a run this evening. I'll measure the new temps and report back.

Hey Dylan, any thoughts on the temp the engine should run at? It's running right now at the top of the heat range. The flashing light in the dash comes on quite often. Once the thermostat opens up it cools off again quick so I know the rad is good enough. In your experience does the Subaru engine run a bit hotter, is the VW gauge reading hot because of the Subaru temp sensor, or am I using a thermostat that is a bit too hot. I'm thinking that it may just be the thermostat. I can't remember for sure but usually when I change the thermostat I usually go with the hotter one because of the winter temps we have up here but since I rarely drive the Westy in the winter I would have thought I would have put the summer thermostat in ... Not sure, going to have to go back and read this my own build.
Also, now that I'm talking about lights in the dash ... My alternator light stays on all the time. Initially I had it wired and the alternator light was off but the battery went dead so it wasn't charging. I fixed that, so now it's charging but the alternator light won't go off. Any thoughts regarding which wires I've got crossed?

Cheers,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[insyncro]

Mike,
I haven't looked back through the thread yet to answer my own question, but how is the cooling system laid out bypass wise?
The thermostat should be fed by this loop to allow for instantly heated coolant to bath the T stat even while the engine is in warm up.
My experience with the turbo charged four cylinders is limited.
Is the manifold reversed on yours?

My EG33s run on the cooler side and my EZ30Ds and EZ36R run on the hotter side.
These H6s have similar remote oil filtering and cooling as your motor, so to answer your question, I would expect your engine to run a bit hot and due to the turbo and exhaust layout to have a hot engine bay.

How much boost are you currently running?

The flashing light on the temp gauge is for coolant level.
When flashing air is in the expansion tank.
Making sure an overflow tank is plumbed and if your cap is working properly it should allow the system to self bleed.
Try manually bleeding to see if any air can be removed and keep the expansion tank at the max level.

The alternative light can be tricky on Westys and especially once converted.
The Waterboxer alt had a blue wire that fed the dash pod alt light.
Not sure how you are wired, but will look back to see if I can see anything in previous pics.

D

[Syncromikey]

Well ... I removed the heat shield blanket and replaced it with the lava wrap stuff. A bit of a pain in the butt. It's pretty tight in there and it's really hard to wrap a cat that is shaped like an egg. The wrap just wants to keep sliding off. I ended up wrapping the cat twice and the rest of the upper portion of the exhaust only once. Ran out of wrap. I'll take it for a run to see how much that helps with regards to the temps. I can't seem to find this stuff anywhere around here so I'll have to order more from out east if it needs another layer.

Also checked the coolant reservoir and it was a bit low. Filled it up and topped up the overflow and found that it is leaking a bit so I suspect that is where the coolant is going. I'm going to look into putting in a different reservoir/overflow all in one unit in there to replace what I have. Got the idea from Syncroserge. Was wanting to do that for a while now but haven't had the time until now. Will be near the bone yard this afternoon so I'm going to stop by and take a look to see what they've got.
I'll get back to you regarding the questions this evening. There are a few places I could tweak that are likely adding to the warmer temps. I'll check the running temps of the engine today as well.

Cheers,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[insyncro]

Try using the blanket over the CAT before purchasing anything else if the heat is still too high on the license plate door.

Looks good from here

[Syncromikey]

Well... That got the temp on the cat down to about 515 degrees. Still pretty hot but it seems to not spread to the surrounding metal as much because even with that large increase in temp at the exhaust from when it had the soft cover on it, and license plate isn't getting crazy hot. Only about 130 degrees ... I think what I'm going to do, instead of using the blanket that was on there before, I'll just pickup a bit more of that aluminum checker-plate and make a small shield to protect the body and the hatch above a bit more from the heat. Should have done that right off the bat. It'll look much cleaner and will be easier to remove. Not to mention a lot cheaper then that wrap.

_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[Syncromikey]

Sorry about the delayed response on those questions. The temp with the lava wrap on isn't all that bad. It's still pretty hot under there but the the back panel and the license plate doesn't get all that hot anymore. I think, before I make another heat shield out of the checker plate I'll take your advice and put that heat wrap back on to see how much that'll help. It may be just what the doctor ordered. As for the questions ... I'm running about 10 lbs max boost right now. Typically just going down the highway at about 65 mph I'm sitting at about zero boost maybe even a bit in a vacuum. Going up a normal hill will bring me to about 5lbs and if I'm climbing a large hill ... Something like a mountain pass, and I'd like to keep the speed at about 65 mph, I'll be about 10 lbs of boost and 1/4 to 1/2 throttle. I still have not hooked up the liquid to air intercooler just yet so that is likely contributing to higher temps and I suspect I've got the hotter thermostat in. I checked the operating temp in my STI and it's running at about 212 degrees on the head, the van is running at about 240 which would make sense since the car likely has a mid range temp thermostat. Haven't got around to finding a new overflow container or switching over to the other VW coolant reservoir. One or the other will likely be next weekends job.
Yup, got the reversed manifold and I'm using RJES' stuff for quite a bit of the conversion including the bypass system.
As for the alternator light ... It's not too concerning. To be honest, I didn't put as much time on that as I should have. I'll have to take a closer look at that when I shut it down for the winter in a couple months.

Thanks,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954

[Syncromikey]

Well worked on the lights today and got the high/low working on the 7 inch H4s. Looks really good and I'm pretty glad they are working well with the new relays. Now I just have to wait for the new headlight casings to come in from the states. Hopefully I'll get them before we head out on holidays. I'm going to work on wiring up the small high beams tomorrow if I have some time. Would be great to have them going when we hit the road.

Ended up starting to wire a relay in for a double horn system. Had a bit of a hard time figuring out why I wasn't getting any power to the horn switch in the steering wheel till I figured out that it's not positive that's going up there it's negative. Anyway ... Got the wires run and put in the new horns. I picked a couple up from Subaru a while back and it's nice to have a chance to put them in. Could have used them today a couple times. Will have to finish that off tomorrow morning. Was going to work on it after dinner but it began to rain and I didn't end up going back out. Glad I got it all hooked up and tied in out front so now even if it's raining I can finish it off tomorrow inside the van.

Here I'm pulling the wires into the dash from the front of the van. At least this time it didn't pull the grommet out when the wire was going through.

Yay, it's through and I'm not struggling to get the grommet back in.

Horns hooked up and wired in.

While I was wiring I figured I'd try touching up the paint a bit. So at least it's close to the same colour. Can't get a paint job now for a while since our funds are tied up on other things so I'll just try to keep the rust at bay. It was tough to find a paint that is fairly close. Managed to find one that wasn't too bad but one I got it on the van it seems that it's a bit redder then it should. Could use a bit more blue or purple in the colour to match ... Maybe just a bit darker. Have to go pick up a couple more spray cans to finish off the rest of the van so I'll see if there is something out there a bit closer. Has anyone found a good match they would like to share!
Here is the rust paint I had put on before to try and keep the rust at bay.

Here it is with a layer of primer ...

And here it is painted ...

It doesn't look all that bad in these pics but when you get direct sun on it you can definitely see the difference.

Cheers,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...


My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954