Piecing together a Subaru kit using RJES Bellhousing

[Howesight]

I used the SmallCar cast aluminum oil pan in my SVX conversion. I like the fact that it is wider, by almost 2 inches all around, which allows me to have greater oil capacity without an excessively low oil pan. It is strong, but it is not rock-proof, (MOAB rocks are rather hard ) so I would recommend that you make a skid plate to go right under the pan (you can connect it to the SC motor mounts) or fasten a small skid plate directly to the cast aluminum pan with, say, six or eight of the oil pan retaining bolts. This will require you to purchase some longer M8 bolts.

Even a steel oil pan on a Vanagon shouold have a skid pan under the oil pan, in my opinion. If you never go anywhere that a pan strike might happen, then disregard the skid pan suggestion.

The RJES bellhousing is a better-designed and better-executed item than the SmallCar unit, but my SmallCar unit has served me well. You will be thankful you went with the RJES unit.
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'86 Syncro Westy SVX

[pbrown]

[Sodo]

Very good info ^^up there^^ pbrown!

[16CVs]

How does the Subaru Starter interface with the locking mechanism on a Syncro?

I have a Ken Welter built 2.2, Ken is a great guy and always picks up the phone. Last time I talked to him he said he will no longer build a Subaru for a Vanagon with a KEP flywheel as he does not like the flywheel so far from the crank and is concerned with longevity with the engine.

I like the fact that with a RJES bell you are not captive by KEP when you need a flywheel.

Does anyone know the current costs of the Bell Housing with all needed parts and is there any problem with shipping out of G.B. after Brexit.

Stacy
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1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread.

[Sodo]

[pjn_wyo]

I bought a bellhousing, transmission input shaft and cross shaft modified for a turbo style clutch from RJES in August 2020 for 755 GBP shipped. It came fedex global in 3 days or so to NW Washington.

I have not purchased a starter/flywheel/turbo clutch yet as the project will be awhile until it gets off the ground and am in the "parts accrual" phase.

[shagginwagon83]

[shagginwagon83]

Smallcar is out of stock on both mount and header til mid march. I didn't get a response from the local ceramic coaters on estimate to coat header.
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan

[16CVs]

So if going from an adapter plate to a bell housing would you also convert the input shaft and use a Subaru disc or just stick with the VW disc? Any plus's or minus's either way?

Does having a Bell Housing make it any easier to install a Transaxle on over the adapter plate? I put a Syncro trans in my van with the adapter plate a couple of times and it seemed really hard, way harder than it should have been.

I am trying to get together a parts list for this, so that when I do it I do not have the van tied up on a rack while I am missing one piece.

Stacy
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread.

[dobryan]

Stacy fwiw I find it no harder to mate my subie with adaptor plate to the VW trans than a stock system. Done it several times in over 13 years. YMMV.
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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

[connorsvw2]

Be careful with your shortened pan and make sure the oil pickup is modified to stay near the center of the pan. On my early SC steel pan from 2003, the pickup was simply shortened, which placed it near the rear corner of the pan; with a flat-bottom pan and no baffling to speak of I saw rare oil light flickering under hard braking. On my Burley shortened pan, Burley shortened but also redirected the pickup towards the middle of the pan. I've never seen any flicker or pressure drops on my OP gauge. I did mod Burley's pickup to support the end of the pickup by welding on a steel strut to triangulate it, similar to a stock Subaru pickup. I was concerned about resonant vibrations leading to pickup cracking which could be catastrophic.
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'85 Westy Wolfsburg camper/2002 2.5 Subaru since 2003.
'85 GTI 1.8L 1-owner 8v-gave up on 9A 2.0L 16v transplant. Keeping her stock!
'99 Passat 1.8T Variant-AKA "The Money Pit". Still limping along...
'09 Subaru Outback XT 5-speed, 245 hp rocket (wife's car)

[shagginwagon83]

Woah!! You guys were not kidding about this CDROM. Very awesome information and installation guide. This CDROM answered so many of my questions/concerns and I am very confident in doing conversion now. So many part numbers too.

Due to popular demand (and me drooling over pbrown's header/exhaust earlier in the thread, I went ahead and bought Stan's headers. Having them ceramic coated for an additional $200. I think 3-4 weeks is what he estimated - which is about same time Smallcar will have their mount ready.

I'm reading the CDROM right now. Again, I'm new to this but damn if these instructions are not amazing.

I guess because I'm going to be offroading, and possibly giving the clutch a hard time, I should go with a single mass flywheel. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm really new to everything in between the engine and the transmission.

1346 Clutch Disc - 228mm - Need to buy. Chris at T3 Technique used this on a couple of vans and likes it.
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan

[Beakerflo]

I have had so many issues in my conversion to a Subaru EJ25 engine from a DJ engine. Most of them are due to unreliable companies.

But one thing that never missed a beat was the RJES bell housing. My recommendation would be for future builders;

* RJES bell housing
* RJES cooling system cooling hoses
* Tom Shiels cooling hoses routing

If you want more information about the bell housing, the product was provided with this help (the cd-rom):
https://beakerbus.nl/files/bellhousing/blhsg_insts_frames.htm
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regards,
Floris van Enter
http://beakerbus.nl (Dutch)

[shagginwagon83]

Update:

-Stan's headers were made earlier this week and are in the process of being ceramic coated
-Purchased Outfront Motorsports for roughly ~410 shipped. I did not have a core and also wanted them to modify a new oil pan - so this was an additional $110 to the $270 price.

I actually might be working out a deal trading my 91 OBD1 (CA smog friendly) Ej22 harness for a 98 EJ 22 OBD 2 harness!

Note I'll have to swap the whole top manifold, harness, and ECU.

Small car motor mount is suppose to come back in stock mid march.

Pro internet tip: I setup custom alerts using a Chrome extension called "Distill.io". Basically you can set 'watches' out for page changes. You can set it to check for changes every minute if you want. Anyhow, I have setup alerts for small car engine mount and Slaughterhouse Customs electric steering.
I used this method to help many friends secure PS5s/Xboxs during Christmas.

Oh yeah - so Slaughterhouse customs electric steering coming
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan

[shagginwagon83]

Stan's headers came in. My dad is a welder and the first thing he said was 'a new guy must have made these'. Besides that I think they're high quality and worth the investment. The ceramic coat looks nice.

Installed EPAS steering and it's incredible. Highly recommended.

I'm still waiting for my OBD2 harness/manifold, small car engine mount to be in stock, and a couple other pieces.

After talking to Richard at RJES - turns out Exedy KSB04 clutch kit has the pressure plate and the release bearing I need. I already have a new VW Sachs I bought 'damaged box' for $50 shipped off ebay two years ago. That clutch disc will work.

I still need to find a starter. Thinking of trying to get a new 'oem' starter from the junkyard. Also need a flywheel. Luckily I'm not under a lot of pressure to get these Subaru parts as they are so common
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan

[markswagen]

i have found, it's much easier to use bolts instead of the upper studs into the adapter plate.
also, the lower studs, i have loctied nuts to the studs, so they can be drawn out of the adapter plate, again makes it MUCH easier, to remove and refit, as long as care is taken.
i'm putting pieces together to do my syncro conversion next, i'm considering putting timeserts into the adapter plate.

[shagginwagon83]

OG bellhousing has been removed. Everything visible to the eye seems okay.

Removing the release arm off the end of the shaft required me to buy a new tool. 2 ton, 2 arm puller - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KJ29Q4

There was no way to salvage this original piece. Luckily Van Cafe sells a factory VW cross arm bushing kit for all Vanagon's 1980-1991 with a manual transmission.

https://www.vancafe.com/KT-1984101-p/kt-1984101.htm

For my EJ22, I decided to do head gaskets, timing belt kit, oil pump, new covers. I'm basically 1k into parts for the motor.

I took the heads off, took them to a machine shop to get cleaned and checked. They told me everything looks good, paid $132, when I got home upon further inspection I had one head that had cracks around the spark plug.

I took them to a 'subaru specialty' shop who will swap everything over to a new casting and give it a valve job.

I believe my harness is almost finished too. I'm ready to go camping. It sucks being nice out and not having a van.
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan

[pbrown]

Consider replacing your cross arm shaft with the HD version. The originals can fail at the weld. Alternatively, you can add another bead of weld to the other side of each fork arm.

https://www.vancafe.com/091141701HD-p/091141701hd.htm
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Patrick Brown

1986 Westy Syncro EJ25
Flickr --> https://flic.kr/s/aHsmQNUXEF

[shagginwagon83]

Thank you for the recommendation! Since my dad is a welder I will just reinforce my original. I'll post a picture once it is reinforced
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan