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Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap)
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:29 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

panel wrote:
What's next for this thing.......power windows Laughing . I love this thing and your updates!


Thanks Panel! No power windows in the works Laughing

Been testing the heater the past few days. Yesterday it seemed to work pretty well, but I never had to back off the valve to knock any heat out of the air. Made me think that maybe output was a little lower than I expected/hoped. So last night I jacked it up and made an adjustment to the cable at the control valve to make 100% sure I was getting it full open. When driving it in again today I was plenty warm, and eventually ended up throttling the valve back to knock some heat out of the air. I also haven't run the fan any higher than low speed, as even at low speed it moves plenty enough air. With where the cable is set right now, I can effectively control the action on the control valve from ~50% to 100% full open. I'll try to improve this in the future to get a better/full range on the valve, but I wanted to make sure I could get it all the way open to test overall capacity, so I really over adjusted it (I have some dead-band on the control now at full open).

I will say that Skills description of "central air" type feeling of warm with a rear mounted heater is pretty accurate. Its comfortable, but not particularly hot in any one area. You don't get that warm air blast feeling like you might in a modern car. If I drop my hand down between the front seats with the heater running, I can certainly feel warm air. It actually feels deceptively cool to some extent, but considering my hand is a good 2-2.5 feet away from the heater outlet, there is plenty of cold air mixing before I can feel it at my hands. If I stretch and reach further back, you can certainly feel more heat as you get near the heater itself. I would like to stick a thermocouple or something there and actually read duct discharge temperature while driving around just to see what it is. Regardless of that actual number though, the heater seems to do just fine making the Bus very comfortable to drive in.

Interestingly, now that I have warm air in the Bus while driving, I can now feel where the drafts and leaks are in the Bus. Never could tell before Laughing Need to probably refresh the seals on the fresh air flapper up front I think, as I'm getting a steady small flow of cold air out of the dash vents even with the lever "closed".

All and all I'll call this a success. If I make any other adjustments to the setup, I'll be sure to post up here!
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danfromsyr
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:40 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

that's not really any different than my Astro van operates with it's rear heater.
there's alot of air volume and glass back there.
and if I mix the front heater it's only blows how @ 90-100-red on the temp knob. Astro coolant is ~205*

IMO if your engine coolant temps are @ or below 180*f you're not going to get splendid heat no matter. back in the old days of old cars (with poor/inefficient cooling systems, we'd change the T-stat for winter/summer temps.
but that shouldn't be necessary in these modern car systems.

we don't hear any of these complaints in the vanagon forum re; heater performance on swapped vans, and they have the same long runs to the front..
though the actual core and flow path differences have alot to factor as well.
but it's not because it's a long run and the waterpump can't push it.

my 1980 1.8T swapped vanagon I'll have to open a window because I've never hooked a cable to my coolant valve.. it's either open or closed. but that's some different apples and I don't run @ 180*f
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 11:07 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

danfromsyr wrote:
that's not really any different than my Astro van operates with it's rear heater.
there's alot of air volume and glass back there.
and if I mix the front heater it's only blows how @ 90-100-red on the temp knob. Astro coolant is ~205*

IMO if your engine coolant temps are @ or below 180*f you're not going to get splendid heat no matter. back in the old days of old cars (with poor/inefficient cooling systems, we'd change the T-stat for winter/summer temps.
but that shouldn't be necessary in these modern car systems.

we don't hear any of these complaints in the vanagon forum re; heater performance on swapped vans, and they have the same long runs to the front..
though the actual core and flow path differences have alot to factor as well.
but it's not because it's a long run and the waterpump can't push it.

my 1980 1.8T swapped vanagon I'll have to open a window because I've never hooked a cable to my coolant valve.. it's either open or closed. but that's some different apples and I don't run @ 180*f


My coolant is certainly sitting right at 180F with the cold weather. That's just where the stock t-stat regulates too given ample cooling from the radiator (regardless of outside temp). So perhaps that is a factor to some extent, but not one I intend to mess with. I'm a big proponent of using the factory subi tstat, as aftermarket ones don't work well on these engines. I also certainly don't want to get into changing tstats with seasonal changes. Just hypothetically speaking, if the coolant temp was running +20F higher around 200F instead of 180F, I would expect to see a pretty similar increase in actual output temperature at the heater too (not 1:1, but quite a large jump).

It would be interesting to me to see actual coolant temp AND flow through the heater core lines under a range of conditions. Not something I intend to mess with, but I do think there are some influences from the t-stat action and engine speed that plays into how much water volume/flow you actually get in the heater loop.

Also, from looking though some of the vanagon info, it seemed to me that how most folks are plumbing in their heaters with are a little different than using the "normal" heater core inlet/outlet on the subi engine. Not sure what impact that might also have too.
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:54 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Figured I'd better pop in here and give an update on this thread. Haven't really done a whole lot to the Bus except drive it (that's how its supposed to be!). I've got something like >6k miles on the swap since it was "finished". Been "done" for a touch over a year (~Nov 2018 I think?). Clearly not a daily drive, but we get out and drive it every chance we get. Tons of smiles and miles so far.

Heater Update: The heater continues to work brilliantly! I've been meaning to get another thermocouple setup mounted and take some temps while cruising down the road. Pretty confident that actual discharge temps are quite a bit warmer when driving around with some load on the engine, than what I initially measured in the garage with just it idling. It will flat cook you right out of the thing. I only ever use the fan on low speed, as it moves PLENTY enough air. I've been out a few times in wet ~30ish degree weather in just a t-shirt comfortable as can be.

Sliding door: I FINALLY tore into my sliding door and went through all the latches, rollers, and slider mechanism. It had always been finicky, but one of those things that never seemed to get to the top of my list. Since its been running so well and I haven't had to do anything else to it, the slider finally crept up to the point where I took one Saturday afternoon to attack it. Pretty simple process, just time consuming. Slider works like brand new again though.

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Link


Front Seats: I've also started in on another small project for the Bus. I'm a pretty tall guy (6'5"), and the stock front seats have always been only marginally comfortable to me. The biggest issue being, once I get the base of the seat far enough back to give me some leg room and make it somewhat easy to get in/out with my right foot & leg past the column, the backrest of the seat ends up being far too vertical for comfort. For this reason (as well as me always keeping the idea of wheel tubs in mind for "someday"), I've kept an eye out for a used set of 914 seats that I could swap in. 914 seats are probably about the thinnest factory style seat your going to find, and being of that mid 70's vintage, still look the part with some basket weave vinyl. My hope has been that the thin backrest would allow me to slide the seat back just a touch more and give me a better backrest feel without feeling like I'm sitting straight up. I managed to pick up a set locally from an old Porsche shop. They need to be re-covered, but the were priced OK, and I could pick them up without having to deal with shipping. I'm just now messing around with how they will fit. Below are a few pics that show the differences in the seat thickness. My plan is to mount them at the same elevation level as the current seat. That ends up putting the seat ~2" higher than the current wheel tub height, so *IF* I decide to go ahead and tub this thing someday, I've got room for them to come up without pushing me up any higher. For now I'll just likely build up some brackets to keep the seat in the same elevation as stock. I'll keep yall posted how this comes together

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Random photo dump: Beyond all that, here are just some other random photos from the past few months.

First up from my deck rebuilding adventure. What do you do when you forgot to order some 16' 2x10's after you've already had the bulk order for the rest of the material delivered to your house? You use the Bus of course! I've got a truck, but its short 6' box was no match for the 16' timbers. The Bus however handled it like a champ. Before the project was finished, I hauled several loads of boards back and forth from the big box store to home, as well as half a dozen 16' wire hog panels for my deck railing. This thing is handier than a swiss army knife!

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Lastly, a sight for sore eyes after a LONG day at work. Drove it in one day a few weeks ago since the weather was going to be extra nice. Thought it would make for a great ride home. Things went sideways at work when I had an engine failure on the dyno, which then kept me there late getting a replacement instrumented and swapped on to not interrupt the next days testing. After pulling into work almost 14hrs earlier, it was sure nice to see the Bus waiting for me in the dark empty parking lot. Still had a nice drive home Cool

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All for now!
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Convoy
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PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2020 10:11 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

HI Adam,
Any progress on the seat and end results. As you are, I'm also of the tall stature and these seats are killing me after a long drive. Do you sit noticeably further back into the seat and lower? Worth the effort?
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PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2020 10:48 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

I mounted 914 seats in my 78 a few years ago. I had a 914 when I was much younger and the seats are very comfortable.
They fit in the Bus nicely, mounted easily, I don't remember what I did but I didn't change the Bus seat rails, just clamped the seats to them somehow.
Once mounted they did provide a lot more room and looked great.
But...
They were mounted directly to the rails, with no springs at all, so even with front Koni shocks on full soft and front tire pressure reduced to 32, you could feel every imperfection in the road. You could drive over a dime and tell if it was heads or tails. Potholes were boneshakers. Orlando has a lot of brick streets and they would make my eyeballs rattle.
I used them for about a month and got sick of it and switched back to stock. I have since found Vanagon camper seats, which are a little lower than stock Vanagon seats, they slide right in and they are (almost) perfect.
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 9:56 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Convoy wrote:
HI Adam,
Any progress on the seat and end results. As you are, I'm also of the tall stature and these seats are killing me after a long drive. Do you sit noticeably further back into the seat and lower? Worth the effort?


Hey Griffin

No real progress on the seats. I played around with a few ideas, and bought some off the shelf seat brackets in hopes of getting them mounted up, but ultimately didn't like how things were laying out, or the modifications (i.e. holes/etc) to the seat stands/wheel tubs to mount them. So ultimately they are still sitting in the corner of the shop. I think the best way to mount the seats (or at least the most non-evasive way) would be to start with a stock seat frame and build some sort of 914 mounts off of it. My stock seats have been reworked and are in excellent condition, so I didn't want to cannibalize them just to mount the 914 ones. For now I ended up changing the positioning of the stock seat front/back which helped the angle of the back rest, without making it too difficult to swing my leg across the column getting out. Past that, I've been knee deep in other projects, so I haven't dived back into the seats on the Bus since. Just been driving the wheels off of it.

Adam
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 9:59 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

LeeE wrote:
I mounted 914 seats in my 78 a few years ago...


Thanks for chiming in. I do think they would offer more room with the limited space available. The limiting factor really is the bulkhead panel behind the seat stand. It ultimately limits how big of a seat you can install, and how far back it can go. So to get more leg room, you have to find a seat that has a pretty thin back, while still having some sort of angle for comfort.
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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 12:58 pm    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

I like the look of those 914 seats but they don't appear to be very comfortable for long drives.

I assume you've seen the stow n go caravan thread? I've been thinking about trying those out but don't think there will be enough headroom as I'm 6'4". There isn't a lot of options out there for a tall driver.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=649464
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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 1:23 pm    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

I've currently got the SNG seats in my '78. There are some pics in that linked thread, within the last couple pages or so-I installed them in late August last year.

They do seem to sit a bit taller than Bus seats, though probably not much taller than the Vanagon or Eurovan seats I've previously had in there.

I do like that being able to fold them flat makes the Bus feel much more open. Also makes putting up the child cot a simple matter.

Edit: as soon as I posted that, I remembered this is a '74, so you've got the bulkheads, so I suppose being able to flatten the seats isn't as big of a benefit.
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2020 6:26 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Sloride wrote:
I like the look of those 914 seats but they don't appear to be very comfortable for long drives.

I assume you've seen the stow n go caravan thread? I've been thinking about trying those out but don't think there will be enough headroom as I'm 6'4". There isn't a lot of options out there for a tall driver.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=649464


Yea, I've seen info on those before. They look comfy, but not quite the "vintage" look that I was hoping to keep. That's one of the cool things about the 914 seats, is that they still really look period correct for the Bus. But also, I wasn't sure I would gain enough room with the stow n go seats to justify the cost. I'm sure they would be a lot more comfortable though.
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2020 6:30 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

vwwestyman wrote:
I've currently got the SNG seats in my '78. There are some pics in that linked thread, within the last couple pages or so-I installed them in late August last year.

They do seem to sit a bit taller than Bus seats, though probably not much taller than the Vanagon or Eurovan seats I've previously had in there.

I do like that being able to fold them flat makes the Bus feel much more open. Also makes putting up the child cot a simple matter.

Edit: as soon as I posted that, I remembered this is a '74, so you've got the bulkheads, so I suppose being able to flatten the seats isn't as big of a benefit.


Yea, the bulkhead really is the limiting factor. I have considered removing it and making it more like the 78/79 year model Buses, but so far that is as far as its gone. Part of me hates the thought of modifying the Bus that much, the other part of me realizes that this is my "forever Bus" and I'm above average in the height category, so why not make it fit better?

Who knows... I've been spending all my extra time lately getting my Beetle back on the road, and doing some upgrades to my new tow rig (3rd gen Ram w/5.9 cummins). Hopefully I start shifting back to the Bus and getting the AC project moving, and maybe revisiting the seat/legroom project.
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:58 pm    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

I'm following this and others and maybe someday, I'll put a Subie in a type2. Seems like a good idea.
I know it's been 9 months since you were talking about heaters, but. I used to have a diesel Vanagon. It came with the DA-6 but that locked out at some point and I never got round tuit.
Had that thing since 1990, and early on, I put a new (FRONT) heater blower and cleaned out the heater core with some kinda acid wash HVAC stuff. Wow, that stock 1982 Vanagon dash heater would put out the heat. (only under load, it's a diesel thing).
I once checked the hose temps and inlet was over 190F at speed. When it was really cold out, too. Of course, this is with the tiny diesel engine running at 4000 rpm, so there was probably a LOT of velocity.
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 6:28 pm    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Alan Brase wrote:
I'm following this and others and maybe someday, I'll put a Subie in a type2. Seems like a good idea.
I know it's been 9 months since you were talking about heaters, but...


Thanks for following! I'd highly recommend the swap to anyone interested. Its hard to really understand unless you've driven a well sorted swapped Bus, but it just completely transforms it. Night and day difference.

As far as the heater goes, I've made no changes since my last post. It keeps the Bus quite toasty so far. The next step really is to get rid of a few more drafts that are letting cold air back in. That will be up on deck in the coming months as things (at least hopefully) start cooling back down.

Also likely going to do a wheel change. Just time for something different, and I've got a new Squareback project that needs these 17" Fuchs. Cool
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 8:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Door gaskets would be a big one. WRT heater box selection, does anybody know how the factory water cooled Mexican/Brazil one fits?
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:47 pm    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Alan Brase wrote:
Door gaskets would be a big one. WRT heater box selection, does anybody know how the factory water cooled Mexican/Brazil one fits?


I don't believe those have heaters at all, unfortunately.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:55 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Been a minutes since I've done any updates. Thought I'd jump in quickly today and share a quick project I did on updating my ARB Awning mounts. I originally the GoWesty gutter mount brackets for the awning installation, and while it was OK, it never was my favorite. It tended to creak and make noise on me, and it was rubbing into the paint in a couple of spots. Full transparency here, I didn't actually drill and install the captive nut in the B & D pillars to bolt the bottom part of the bracket. That *might* have helped, but a lot of folks run without that bolted, and I didn't want to drill any holes into the Bus. My other issue was height, and the ability to reposition the awning if desired. I'm a pretty tall guy, and my Bus is lowered, so as I moved up close to the Bus with the awning out, I always had to duck down some. I have a full length rack up top, so I wanted to make some sort of brackets that would allow me to attach the awning to the rack to 1) get some elevation out of it, and 2) allow me to quickly move the awning from one side of the Bus to the other if I wanted to move the shade, and couldn't reposition the Bus. Here is what I came up with:

Cut these out on the CNC plasma table. Made from 3/16 stainless plate. Bought the quick release pins off of ebay from some govt surplus reseller.
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Tig'ed them up
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Test fit on the rack
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And reinstalled with the awning
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For reference, as it was before with the gutter mounts:
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Some more pics of the new brackets
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Now I already have a few idea on how to improve the design. I made the fit up on these WAY too exact, so it took some fiddling to get everything just right for it to come on/off easily. I'd leave some more "slop" in the side plates for better misalignment tolerance, and to allow some room for a piece of rubber to be slid in to protect the pain on the rack. I've got some touch up to do on my rack, as I scratched it to heck while getting the fit just right Laughing

But in the end, I accomplished everything I was after. It comes off and on in a matter of a minute or so. So I can leave it behind, or move it to the other side if conditions require. I also picked up about ~6" of elevation on it. I still have to duck up near the Bus, but not quite as bad.

I've got some other big changes coming up on the Bus in the next week or so (if your on Instagram, I've been posting some teasers already). Got a few more parts I'm still waiting on, but I should be making all the changes this coming weekend and into next week. I'll be sure to update here as I get things wrapped up.

All for now!
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 7:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Ok, time to update this thread for my latest set of changes...

As I have mentioned before, a front brake upgrade has been on my to-do list for a long while now. I finally got that project checked off the list over the past few weeks. For a long time I had been looking at offerings from Wagenswest, and had always sort of intended on going that route in the end, but kept dragged my feet because I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick with 5x112 wheel or change over to 5x130 (Nate offered both PCD's as an option). I've always had the thought in the back of my mind that I'd like to run some Porsche Twists (or similar) instead of the repro Fuchs, so it was a decision that I had to make before I could move on the brakes. Needless to say, that kept me sitting idle for a long while.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and I ended up chatting with Lanner at VDubEngineeringCanada. We got on the subject of brakes, and he really opened up my eyes to a world of other options to consider. I like what Nate at Wagenswest had available, but I wasn't particularly fond of Willwood calipers as a whole, and his lead time can be a little on the long side. Lanner was a SUPER guy to work with. He provided a ton of information and options to consider. After talking with him for a bit, I opted to go with a Porsche Cayman setup running on some early offset 944 hubs, and thus moving to a 5x130 wheel.

Lanner provided me with the machined 944 hubs, bearing spacers, and caliper brackets as a kit. From there I picked up all the new goodies to go along with it (rotors, calipers, new bearings, grease seals, brake lines, etc). The overall setup is comprised of a drilled and vented 298mm rotor (~11.75"), and OEM Porsche 4 pot monoblock calipers, all lifted from late model base Boxster and Caymans. IMO, the Porsche caliper is FAR nicer than the aftermarket Willwood offerings. Its a significantly more rigid design, and includes dust sealed pistons like all other OEM calipers. Not a "race only" deal like the Willwoods are really aimed at. Since I'm running 17" wheels, I could also afford to run a little more rotor, and the large Porsche caliper. The body on that monoblock caliper is pretty beefy. The hubs are early offset 944 front hubs. With just a set of bearing spacers, they can be run with stock Bus bearings bolted right up to the stock spindle. An easy way to get the 5x130 PCD, and with a touch of machining, are ready to accept the Cayman rotor.

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


Install of the brakes was as easy as installing stock stuff. If you're so inclined, I made a YouTube video of the whole deal (As an aside: I follow a lot of automotive channels on YouTube, and have gotten interested in trying my hand a making a few of my own videos. Its a fun process, but legitimately a lot of work).


Link


Here are a few pictures of the finished install:

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


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


Since I obviously elected to go the 5x130 route, I had to get the rear switched over too. I originally tried to go with just a set of adaptors that were right at 19mm thick, but had some issues with tire rub on the rear fender lip (the rear wheel and tire combo is pretty large, more on that in a sec). So instead I just bucked up and had the rear wheel hubs machine for 5x130, and installed them with a 13mm spacer that leaves me with just enough room inside and out on the wheel/tire. Used a local machine shop on the hubs. The 5x130 PCD is drilled about 20* off of the original pattern. This is SOP when redrilling Bus hubs, as you can't go the full 36* due to the v-notch in the hub. With a quick redrill and spot face, new longer studs were pushed in and ready to go. As for the drums, I did those myself with my drill press using the adaptor as a template. Those were drilled the full 36* off, as the adaptor was my template. Pretty quick and easy process.

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


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


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


As for the wheels, I ended up picking up a set of Boxster wheels off a local guy from craigslist. I believe they are called Razor Twists, sort of an update to the old Twist wheel. They are 17x7 et55 up front and 17x8.5 et48 in the rear. They were nice and straight with no curb rash, but the paint/overall finish was starting showing its age (they are from an early 2000's Boxster). Since I was going all in, I went ahead and dropped the wheels off at the local powder coater to be blasted and then recoated. Color is Bengal silver with a clear on top. They came out looking fantastic!

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


As far as sizes go, the fronts were easy, as I was replacing a 17x7 wheel with another 17x7 wheel, just with a little more offset (55 vs 40). But at the same time, I was gaining ~16mm offset from the 944 front hub, so it was a net zero deal, with the wheel/tire sitting in the exact same spot.

The rears however were A LOT more difficult. At 17x8.5, its a LOT of wheel to get tucked under the fender. The stock Porsche tire size was a 255/40, but some test fitting with that quickly identified that that much tire was a non-starter. With a lot of measurement and a solid guess, I settled on a 235/45, which was giving me about another full inch in width from my previous 205 tire, but still keeping the same rolling diameter. As I mentioned before, I stared with a 19mm 5x112 to 5x130 wheel adaptor. It looked like it was JUST going to work, but the outside sidewall of the tire was REAL close to the inside of the outer fender lip. All was OK when sitting and I thought it would just be OK, but my first test drive yielded some rubbing on the drivers side with suspension articulation, so it was back to the drawing board. This is what led me to re-drilling the rear hubs, as I was able to drop down to a 13mm spacer, which gained me ~1/4 of tire clearance to the fender lip, and still just kept the inside of the wheel off the suspension pieces. Miles of clearance now LOL I did consider a thinner adaptor as well, but I couldn't find anything skinnier than 15mm, and even those were going to need machining of the center bore to work, so re-drilling the hubs was the best option.

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


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


Obviously switching the PCD impacted the spare tire situation as well. To fix that, I scooped up an OE Porsche spare from a car being parted out on eBay. Its a nice and compact temporary spare. Not something I would want to drive on for a long time, but enough to get me off the road if I have any issues. And yes, it has an adequate load rating.

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


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


Without further ado, here is the finished product:

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


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


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


If anyone is interested a similar brake setup, I'd highly recommend working with Lanner. He's super knowledgeable on VW and Porsche brakes, and generally just and all around nice guy. Look him up!

All for now!
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Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2006

67 Beetle (TBD)

74 Transporter (EJ25 Swapped) - Build Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

See all my VW pics on Instagram @ vee_dub_nut


Last edited by Vee Dub Nut on Wed Oct 14, 2020 9:38 am; edited 3 times in total
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richparker
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 7:56 pm    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

Daymn...looks hella nice!!!
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Vee Dub Nut
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2020 9:35 am    Post subject: Re: Vee Dub Nut's 74 Bay Transporter (& Subaru EJ25 Swap) Reply with quote

richparker wrote:
Daymn...looks hella nice!!!


Thanks man! Not everyone's cup of tea (especially in this forum Laughing ), but I dig it...
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Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2006

67 Beetle (TBD)

74 Transporter (EJ25 Swapped) - Build Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

See all my VW pics on Instagram @ vee_dub_nut
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