RMW Subaru Conversion kit. The rumor is a reality

[Rocky Mountain Westy]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I know there have been rumors over here for quite sometime about RMW releasing a complete Bay Window conversion kit. I probably even started some of them. The reality is that we started working on it over 5 years ago. It would get attention, then get sidelined. Then it would get tested and never it would fail the criteria. Then it would get re-engineered and blah,blah,blah. It just took a long time to get it right. I want to start this link to help answer questions and support for the kit. So if you have questions, fire away.

Our goal was to develop a kit with minimal body modification that you could drive at cruising speed without running the electric fans or overheating. We tried different variations of the belly radiator and it always seemed to have drawbacks, whether it was ground clearance or heating up the floor or just not getting enough cooling efficiency to make driving comfortable without staring at the temp gauge. After a few renditions and lots of testing, we ultimately moved on to working on a in bay twin radiator set up. We found this to work really well. I think a lot of people are skeptics here. I will share the secret though. All the air that comes into the rear vent needs to go through the radiator. if there is air gaps around the radiator, the efficiency drops quickly. So we spent the time to make a full block of plate kit that uses weatherstrip to seal each radiator to the cavity. The next key is the efficiency of the fan. Putting a round fan directly on a square radiator leaves quite a bit of surface area that doesn't get cooled when the fan is on. This naturally creates issues with the duration and duty cycle of the fan system. So we made Aluminum fan shrouds so that when the fan is on, the entire radiator surface is getting cooled. This make the fans runs less frequently and for a shorter amount of time.

We made a custom Air box too. The engine bay can get toasty. The cooler your intake air, the better your engine will perform. So our Airbox slips into the round hole in the passenger side of the engine bay. The air is then sucked into the engine through the stock ECU hole. This is in the sealed off area before the radiator. This cavity is significantly cooler than the engine bay itself. We also have a mandrel tubing bender. We made custom coolant pipes to run all the plumbing in a nice neat layout. Nothing looks worse than corrugated flexible hose in the engine bay.

Our kit also includes a battery relocation kit, an electrical wiring harness to run the cooling fans. The battery is relocated underneath the rear seat. We have found that while this does take up a little bit of storage space, it is has it's merits in this location.

We also have a 250 page manual with lots of pictures. We anticipate our customers will drive most of the editing in the manual. We did our best with version 1 but we aren't necessarily technical writers and you don't know what you don't know. So the manual is a great guideline to follow but common sense and some basic mechanical knowledge and understanding will really go a long ways.

We use a similar exhaust to our Vanagon conversion. It is all stainless steel and hand TIG welded in our shop. We also do all the bending and parts processing in house for the exhaust. This has been a proven system on over 1000 Vanagons and we rarely have warranty issues.

Our engine support bar is very solid. It ties into the upper unibody where the upper trans attachment points are and also ties into the rear bumper bolts. It uses the stock square rubber Subaru motor mounts.

Our shortend oil pan that we use on Vanagons is a direct fit here as well.

We make our own throttle body reverser. We also have a simple throttle cable set up that is very smooth and crisp.

We acknowledge that there are a lot of DIY solutions to getting this done. We encourage it. Our goal here is to not compete with that. We understand that people can spend there time sourcing things from all over and spending less than $3k in parts. Often times there is lot of figuring out time and a lot of time spent creating little or big solutions. We are looking to help the person that doesn't want to figure out all those things.

Admittingly I have been driving my Bay Window a lot more since the conversion. It is a pleasure. We are here to help. Thanks so mush to the Samba and the VW community.
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Rocky Mountain Westy Inc.
www.rockymountainwesty.com
970-310-3441
[email protected]

The Splitzgauer build (when I have time to work on it and update the thread)

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=497133

[ivwshane]

Omg! Yes!!! What’s the price? And what is the transmission I used? What about all the wiring? Gauges? Etc? What bus model is the kit available for, early? Late?

And when can it actually be purchased?
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77 westy 2.0 FI
69 ghia coup 1600dp
70 single cab

[Rocky Mountain Westy]

[alman72]

air thru the orig ECU hole.… what do non FI busses do in that case?

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[SGKent]

Since a lot of bays that will want these are in western smog states, have you submitted the package to say CARB for approval? Anything 2002 - 2004 would require it because the bus would then be treated at the engine YOM.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[ivwshane]

That was my next question: will these pass smog or will a 77 need to be smogged if the engine is from a 2000 forester?

Also, with all that air coming into the engine bay, how does it get out?

Your kit lists a new clutch option, is that just a stock clutch for a bus or a needed accessory? My 091 transmission was just rebuilt including new flywheel and clutch.

I also tried to add it to the cart and it said it was out of stock.
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77 westy 2.0 FI
69 ghia coup 1600dp
70 single cab

[SGKent]

[Rocky Mountain Westy]

[Rocky Mountain Westy]

[Rocky Mountain Westy]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[RalphWiggam]

Damn it why couldnt this kit come out before I dropped > 6k on my basement T4 rebuild?

Can't wait to see some installs and testing data.

[ivwshane]

[SGKent]

cabin heat would be easy. There are a couple Vanagon conversions who explained what they went thru to get past BAR. It was more than a conversion in another state would be.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Rocky Mountain Westy]

[Abscate]

In NY the focus is on Diesel emissions from commerical stuff - nothing in the works for passenger cars. We stopped smogging when engine management became so good that if it doesn't code, its clean.

Good BG conspiracies are fun to speculation, but eventually, as the 'ET' line goes...."This is reality"

Focus of new admin will/should be repairing international relations, first.
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.ssS!

[RalphWiggam]

[SGKent]

[earlybayjim]

Is there an early bay kit in the works? Are you going to sell any of the parts separately, like the engine mount?

Its cool that this finally happened. Good job.
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1971 Chianti Red Westfalia x2
1985 Westfalia
1984 tintop