ShawnW

Cold they are kindof rough sounding but once they are warm they sound real nice.

Couldnt blame ya for that on a Jetta. This is just a fitting upgrade for my van cuz its an 81, the main year of the 3rd eye. I also thought it needed a little Subaru styling for the front end and originally intended to put the eye in place of the VW emblem but it just wouldnt fit up there so I put it down low so the van will have the VW emblem in the stock spot and the Subaru emblem down at more of a Subaru height....except for you guys with LIfted Soobs. The grill is an 83 GL one that wasnt a 3rd eye grill. I cut the top and bottom rows off to make it fit in the body where the Water cooled Vanagons have a grill. The top of the 3rd eye frame had to be cut off, and the bottom mount bent. Also had to grind metal out of the VW frame to get the emblem/door to clear.

If you were turning it the wrong way it would actually do a little good. What that does is turn the retaining part of the nut around the edge of the tooth notched into the end of the axle. Then turn it the correct way (counter clockwise). Its meant to be unstaked with a punch but really can be done without unstaking it. If you have an impact wrench use that. If you don't, break out the replacement breaker bar, and a 3' length of pipe. Then put the spare tire on and stuck the socket thru the wheel center with the wheel on the ground.

Gentle tap on all surface area of the valve cover doesnt work that means somebody took RTV and stuck it to the cork or just put a large amt of it in there at one point. Bust out the prybar and gently pry em off.

Mounting the carrier bearing mount isn't perfectly easy. It has to be perfectly mounted or it will wobble and you will get vibration in your steering wheel or body. I highly recommend the 1 piece route. Its not a matter of the lack of welder either you have to have the shaft balanced anyway.

Id like to see ea81 headlight washers.

Started soldering the 1.5" pipes for the cooling system. Time consuming but looking good so far. Somewhere I have to figure out where to decrease the pipe size as the VW radiator is 1/4" smaller inlet and outlet than Subaru's cooling system. Another setback is the parts car I was aware of is now scrap metal.

Jerry has always been a "do-er" around here for sure. Awesome again.

Syncros are pretty awesome vans, next time it needs head gaskets go for a Subaru engine conversion.

The front heater box is out and the new one is positioned ready to be bolted in tomorrow. This van fortunately had the fresh air fan setup in it or I would have had some wiring to do and possibly a problem mounting the water heat box. So far I have only had small PITA problems that add up fast but no major snags other than feeling pretty crummy.

Started adding the heaters this week. The rear heater core is very easy. The front is a total PITA as you have to take the whole dash out obviously but its way harder to deal with than a Subaru dash. I got sick and that slowed progress but I hope to trudge forward again tomorrow. Once the heaters are in i can position the main cooling lines and put all the t fittings in for the dual heat. This thing outta cook your rear.

Using 1 quart of Rislone in place of one quart of gear oil doesnt hurt it but it does clean the snycros. I have done it to 3 tranny's already with success, a 5spd dual, a 4spd single, and a legacy 5 spd AWD.

At least they dont say "Coke"

Rislone for around 500 miles then drain and fill with synth fluid.

Vote Subaru, it can only be good Karma.

This code would come up if you just happened to have a malfunctioning or disconnected speedometer as well. Don't ask me why I know that.

Update: Trying a 2nd wiring harness as the first one seems to have a problem in it somewhere. Thats always a chance you take when you get the harness out of a junkyard. The harness for attempt 2 is a parts car I drove back so at least I know I am starting out with something fairly decent. It did however have a dead cyl so hopefully that won't burn me. In the next few weeks I will be installing the cooling system conversion.

Subaru couldn't pay me to put that stuff in my engine cooling system. Im sorry but its a snake oil solution and only an attempt at hiding the real problem.

I have a feeling there isnt a dealer in California that will put an ej22 in place of the original type engine cuz of the engine laws and smog rules there. Almost anywhere else, great suggestion.

You would be a lot better off money and durability wise going with a rebuilt engine for that price. It sounds to me like the timing belt broke, probably due to re-use of the belt tensioner. These tensioners are re-useable but they cant be slammed into a vise and pressed back to position and pinned like the old ones would tollerate. If that happened you likely need more than a head gasket job, including a valve job and new cams and possibly a piston or two. A head gasket failure doesnt smell like oil, it might smell like coolant and a sweet nasty smell but not oily. Oily smell indicates something inside the engine broke and in a bad way. This engine is interference meaning if the belt breaks, internal parts collide. In this case the valves and piston kiss each other and it usually screws up the cylander walls, rings, piston, cams, etc. Its probably going to be cheaper to get a rebuilt engine from www.ccrengines.com and pay the dealer to remove and replace your bad one with the fully rebuilt one. They give ya a brand new timing belt, valve job, head surfacing, etc for about what you are expecting to pay for the engine work and won't be giving you a 3 year 36k warranty or replacing every part in the engine like CCR does. This would also help you avoid the chance that the dealer is going to be saying "now we found this wrong with the engine its going to be X more" cuz the repair becomes a cut and dry case of remove old and install new.

The EJ rods are all longer than EA rods are. Further, the EA pistons have longer skirts typically, and don't tend to have the piston slap issues that EJ series engines are famous for....some being better than others obviously. The Compression of the pistons in the ea series is pretty diverse already as well so mixing or matching within the ea or ej engines should be sufficient for most builds. Otherwise like Shadow indicated you could get special pistons like any other import engine.

You should be able to unbolt the y-pipe from the rear section and just let it drop down to the floor (assuming jackstand car height lol) and that would allow you enough room to drop the trans out. It may however be a neusance on the way back in so unbolting the mid pipe completely may be smarter. On a lift I don't take the midpipe off but its easier to manuver around the pipe on the lift.

Drive backwards in an empty parking lot and hit the brakes hard. Should self adjust... or the brakes will completely fail and you will hit something that naturally stops you. Sorry couldnt resist. I would be another person that recommends disc brake conversion.

I agree, if you strip it right down to the frame rails it slides pretty decent. Like a flat bottom boat on land. "Loyale" even sounds like a boat to me.