1989 Doka Tristar

ajdenette · Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 5:43 pm Post subject:

Have you looked at using a different Subaru Starter that might give you more clearance easier?
_________________
1985 2wd Westy with 2000 Subaru 2.2 current driver
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=685635
1986 Syncro Doka Project next in line
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=732777
1990 Vanagon Syncro Base awaiting body work

specialev · Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 6:06 am Post subject:

specialev · Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 6:29 am Post subject:

specialev · Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 1:36 am Post subject:

Yay! Progress!

I ended up just making a new cross over pipe. I picked up some weld on pipe tits on Amazon Prime and hacked up the original pipe from this motor.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

I did sandblast before welding.

I had to adjust the fuel line a little to get the heater hose line to fit.

Hole for the linkage to get the shifter through the cross member. Per Dave Clymer, the hole is 1.75 on center up from the lower surface online with the inboard row of holes in the passenger side.

Not too rusty on the inside.

Installed the motor. Rmw kit fits up pretty easily with the modified transmission and Dave/Subie gears gestalt mounting system.

In process installation.

Done.

narendra.vw · Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 7:49 am Post subject:

Sand blasting is the best before aluminum welding. No blow hole.

My knowledge is limited with Subaru engines for vans.
The way I see the engine mounted pic one word, perfect. Gearbox mounting?

specialev · Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 11:14 am Post subject:

Hey Narendra, how's it going man? Here's some pics of the 5speeddubs/subaru gears mount.

kustomizingkid · Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 1:09 pm Post subject:

Link to the weld on tits from amazon?

narendra.vw · Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 11:25 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the pictures. Gear ratio will be better from the first to fifth(same family).
Gearbox mount, is it from a small car?
The hole made for shifter rod access in the cross member is right above the GB mount. From my point of view, that area needs some reinforcement.

Any Plans for the air filter & IC selection & placement. Using a open air filter, noise will not affect since air filter is isolated from the cabin(my thoughts) .

specialev · Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 9:55 am Post subject:

specialev · Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 10:13 am Post subject:

specialev · Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 10:18 am Post subject:

I've got the motor in and I'm having trouble getting it to run. The motor will start but it won't run and kicks and back fires into the intake like it has either a couple dead cylinders and/or the timing is way off. OBDII is telling me that I have the following codes:

P0336 Crankshaft position sensor A circuit range/performance.
P0341 Camshaft position sensor A circuit range/performance
P01518 Starter Motor Switch Circuit malfunction

I've done the following in attempt to isolate the problem:
The motor has a new timing belt and it's installed correctly.
I shot continuity from the Cam/Crank angle sensors to the connector on the ECU and checked resistance along the wire and it's acceptable.
The motor has a good engine ground.
The motor has a good fuel supply and spark.
Compression is not great, I'm seeing b/t 120-145psi but it should run even at that. It get's better with some oil in the cylinders which to me indicates worn rings and not a valve problem.

I haven't checked resistance/functionality of the cam/crank angle sensors. I'm planning to do that this afternoon. I'm also going to grab a couple used ones from my friend and try those in lieu of what is installed.

Other culprits or circuits to isolate?

wesitarz · Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 2:28 pm Post subject:

Ignition coil pack primary and secondary? I have a no start and the primaries test open, secondaries were OK. Looks like a new coil from Subaru tomorrow.

specialev · Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 6:09 am Post subject:

Ok the good news is that I did the wiring harness correctly and self doubt made me thoroughly check the harness again. This gained me nothing but wasted time unfortunately.

I should have gone with my original gut instinct that there was something wrong with the timing. Looks like the LH cam pulley was put on incorrectly, exactly 180 degrees out by the person that put the heads and timing belt on. Luckily this didn't seem to let the valves clash with the pistons, as I think the motor would be seized if it did. Being 180 degrees out meant the pin that clocks the pulley on the cam was not in it's groove and caused the pulley to wobble eccentrically. This caused the cam pulley to hit the cam position sensor causing damage to the sensor and also damage the pulley.

I thought I'd save myself some headache by getting a shop to provide me with a good used motor that had a fresh head and timing belt. With the time I have into this I would have been money and time ahead if I did it myself. The shop that prepped the long block for me says they will provide me with replacements for all the above parts and a new long block if necessary, thankfully.

kustomizingkid · Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:35 pm Post subject:

specialev · Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 8:46 pm Post subject:

No problem. Definitely build your own and save money where you can. RMW won't let you delete the crossover pipe from the kit though.

In other news, I now have a running and not driving Tristar. Motor fired right up first try once the stupid pulley was installed right. Oh well, at least I'm bitching about someone else's small mistake rather than hushing up about my own fuckups. Never happen....except for that one time I didn't install the oil slinger in the motor I rebuilt...and the other time I used paint stripper instead of decal remover on the nicely painted OEM MGB....and the time I caught the tow truck on fire.

I need to install the linkage that Dave Clymer dropped off, install axles, bleed brakes and clutch, fill the gbx, buy tires, torque the rear hubs with it on the ground, and some other little stuff for sure, and it will run and drive.

61Scout · Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 11:10 pm Post subject:

Fantastic build and beautiful clean work! Really cool to see the new transmission mount. Do you plan on taking it to some meet ups? I'd love to check it out in person someday. Isn't there a show in Leavenworth soon? Be fun to get all the local 5MT vans together.

Kevin
_________________
1986 Westfalia Weekender Wolfsburg, RJE 2.3
1985 Tin Top, Subie 2.2 + 5MT
Floppy Mirrors no more: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=653018&highlight=
Remove the front spindle nut with ease: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=679567&highlight=
Remove the rear wheel bearing housing without messing with the big 46mm nut: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=679507&highlight=

-Nec Spe, Nec Metu

specialev · Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 9:39 am Post subject:

I'm on the home stretch to getting this done. I'm waiting for some drive flanges to show up in the mail from Subarugears and I need a set of front wheel spacers and I should be on the road.

Not a lot of new stuff to show but I thought some of you may find this interesting. I picked up my tires yesterday and I'm getting ready to torque the rear hubs now that I can set it back on the ground. I was questioning how to get these up to proper torque and was thinking about winging it as my biggest torque wrench only goes up to 220FTlbs and the nut needs 360ftlbs.

I remembered a maintenance document I'd used in my old job that described a technique to amplify torque values if your calibrated tool won't go high enough. I took a piece of 1.125” square 1/16” wall tube and bored a hole to pass a ½ inch drive spark plug socket through and fillet welded both sides and used that to make an extension to attach to my 40" 3/4 drive breaker bar. We’ll see if the chunk of steel I used to adapt to the handle is strong enough.

specialev · Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:13 am Post subject:

Waiting for my new flanges from Subarugears is giving me a chance to try and bring some other little things to a higher level of completion other than just getting to 98% and calling it quits like I usually do.

I only got a couple of hours to work on truck this weekend due to family stuff going on and having to go into work but I got a good thing knocked off the list.

Here's how the final placement of my ECU turned out. It's in the LH side of the treasure chest with the wiring running through the bed stiffening chord. This turned out almost perfect although I could have taken another 3" out of the harness.

Something that I think is pretty cool that I started using on my syncro is a bluetooth OBD2 scanner. That's the blue thing you see in the above pic. I run the Torque app ($5) on my mobile phone and I have a full suite of diagnostic crap to use totally wirelessly.

Here's the bluetooth dongle:
http://www.amazon.com/Vgate-Bluetooth-Scanner-TORQ...D49X6HA66C

The main thing I got to do this weekend was I added this cover made from some Al sheet to protect the ECU. I put a couple of riv nut inserts into the bed chord and one more little thing is done.

specialev · Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 10:37 am Post subject:

So I was supposed to get an alignment last week on the running and driving doka. I'd left work early and picked up a trip permit and I got home and I drove the truck down to my shop so I could try and fix the speedo before I left. I got to the shop and noticed I'm now spewing a ton of oil from b/t the head gasket.

Called the guy that did the head job and let him know what was going on. Fortunately he's a pretty decent guy even if he did hack this motor and he more than stood behind it. He had a brand new fully rebuilt motor (OS pistons, rings, bearings, sti oil pump, new valves, etc) that he didn't touch in any way on the shelf (I made sure I asked) and he brought it over within about an hour. He wanted another $1200 bucks (which I can defer till next month) which means I have $2900 into the motor now. This is still less than his cost on the motor which is very decent of him. I've spent probably 48 hours fucking around cause his first motor was bad. This is what happens when I shop stuff out and next time I'll just do it myself.

I was up till ten the night this happened, which is exceedingly late for me, and I stripped the motor in the doka and built up the bare long block that was delivered and with the wifes help we pulled the bad motor+trans and reinstalled. The next afternoon I replaced all the accessories and intake and it fired up first try.

I got the stamp from the customs office on my paperwork the next day and that still didn't satisfy the DMV ladies that now insist I have a WSP inspection of the vehicle. I wish I'd known that about a month ago as I could have made my appointment then. I may try a different DMV office and see if I can get a worker that's a little more helpful.

I did a tape measure and bubble level alignment and put about a 100 miles on it and took it in for an optical alignment and they set it to approximately factory settings. The alignment was funny, I had to show the guys in the shop how to set camber and toe on the rear wheels. They'd never even seen a Vanagon in there. It drove good before but drives really nice now.

The Subiegears swap is bad ass. I'm turning just about 2950rpms on flat open FWY and hitting 75MPH (according to my GPS) in fifth gear. The positraction diff I picked up seems to work really nice too. I've got some gravel on a hill on my property that my syncro will get stuck in if I don't have the center knob pulled out and the doka just grinds up it with both wheels spinning.

Sitting next to my Syncro. The GW zero lift springs actually make this sti up a bit higher than my Syncro. I like the ride height but may consider the stiffer springs when I restore the Syncro.

gl98115 · Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:08 pm Post subject:

Great job with the TriStar and the documentation!
_________________
'87 faux-Syncro Westy w/ 2.3l GoWesty WBX


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