1989 VW T25 - Journey to anywhere

Fitted the headgaskets last night. Quite a lengthy process torquing scooby gaskets. One side is done and went smoothly however I put my hands up and say I cocked up the other side Basically like the muppet I am I didn't notice I had the gasket in slightly the wrong orientation...which meant removing the head again rendering the now compressed gasket useless. Doh!

Never mind, new gasket on order, just glad I noticed. Note to self, don't work on cars with minimal sleep and after a taxing day at work.

Starting to bolt bits back on though which is nice 

Quite haha, never a good idea! Nevermind, no serious harm done other than a dent in the wallet

Hope the result on the porka engine wasn't too catastrophic!

Thanks, she's no looker at the mo though! More Rusty McNoface

Things have been a bit quiet on the van front recently, largely due to waiting on some replacement head gaskets after my cock up above. However, I’ve been putting the odd hour in here and there where I can.

The converted loom is back from RJES and I have to say it looks an awesome job! Laying it out on the floor, it looks slightly less daunting than when it went away. I’ve got an extension loom to run up through to the front of the bus as well as a separate loom to run the OE Subaru cruise control. It wasn’t cheap, but my god am I glad I’m not lost in wiring diagrams - should largely be plug and play.



The dog looks as confused as I do.



RJES also reversed the coolant pipe that runs under the manifold. As the rad is now behind the engine rather than in front, it’ll mean less complicated coolant pipework, less potential leak points and a tidier install.








Whilst on the top of the block I bought this little adapter to allow me to run an additional oil temp and pressure gauge up on the dash. Overnight parts from Japan yo









As it wouldn’t be a Subaru without some form of crackle paint I thought I’d have a go on the fuel rail covers. Not 100% sold but they look presentable enough.



Rocker covers got a cleanup and lick of VHT:



and the alternator is now back together with fresh bearings and a paint freshen up.



The ol’ Legacy has now moved on to pastures haha. The lad that bought it wants to turn it into a rear-wheel drive banger so guess it’s going out in a blaze of glory. As said before, I always feel guilty breaking cars but this one was a bit of a snotter really, more patches than grannies quilt.



With that out of the way I could unearth the Golf, quietly waiting for some track days. Poor thing has become a bit buried!

Love this build and your attention to detail. Have a subaru powered bay window and mk1 golf so similar tastes to you it seems! Thanks for updates.

Faffing about with the engine a bit this week as the parts trickle in. Progress feels slow but it’s dictated by funds (lack of for the big parts) and the fact I can’t get up to the van because of lockdown. Just got to make the best of it. Everyone still awake at the back haha?

Almost ready to button up the engine build. Planned on using a Gates timing kit but after reading they use Chinese bearings I skipped that and managed to source separate components the same as OE.



It appears on Subaru engines cooling is really key with them - take everything you read with a pinch of salt but I figured some extra cooling help wouldn’t go amiss in the form of a small external oil cooler. Running this on a themostatic plate will allow an extra 1/2 litre and should help it shove the brick on wheels up those hills!

To do this I need to upgrade the oil pump to cope with a bit of extra volume so in went an OEM EJ25 turbo spec pump. Stock is 10mm, heavily modified engines require a 12mm so I went bang in the middle with a 11mm. Should do the trick. Nice knowing it's a new component too.





Everything cleaned, new seals and ready to go back on:







These EJ's are messy engines, certainly no looker no matter how much you try and run things cleanly, but as the bus won’t be running the Subaru power steering or A/C it seemed a bit daft to bolt all of the bulky bracketry for it back on. The problem being the power steering one also supports the alternator. Hmm...

A bit of threaded stainless bar soon solved that. I can adjust the length to suit the belt. Job jobbed.









P-clipped the oil sender holder up out of the way:



Onto the cambelt which was fairly easy to time up albeit a tad fiddly! You've got to be so careful with alloy blocks! I'm not going to lie, it's rare I use a torque wrench, tend to rely more on feel, however everything on this engine is indeed torqued to spec. Not air quote 'torqued to spec'   

Not done one of these before so hoping it’s all correct! Turned over a few times and everything seems to line back up again without any crunching of the pistons/valves haha. Handily the belt has white lines on it to help you line up the 3 pulleys, but once you've done a few revolutions around 6 odd tensioners of different sizes they don't mean a lot.

More experiments with Bilt Hamber potions - left the heater box soaking in Deox-C for a few days and it's come up pretty well.









A wire brush got the remainder of the grot off followed by a few liberal coats of Hydrate 80. Once it's cut to size and welded on to the van I'll zinc primed and epoxy'd it too.





The last few items to finish off the engine arrived this week so I'm super happy to say it's finished until it finds its way into the van

Cambelt guide tool made sure all was correct (this bracket just stops the belt jumping a tooth if you slip the clutch/stall)



A shortened sump is now fitted to help with ground clearance in a lowered van. It holds the same capacity as stock but in a different shape. I just need to mark the new max and min fill lines once fluids are added. Bit of a sh1t to fit as one of the bolt holes wasn't in the correct place but got there in the end!







Made a couple of engine stickers noting numbers from the donor should I ever need them in the future





and here we are! One finished EJ25 destined for a brick-shaped engine bay!












Will it run?




Hopefully more soon!

Nothing noteworthy I'm afraid!

I've had to reluctantly let my E46 330 go so have been tidying up my new cheaper to run daily (Clio 182 cup but doubt anyone is interested in that).

Now that lockdown has lifted slightly I'm hoping to be able to get back up the workshop again and show some updates soon!

Wow ... reconstructive facial surgery.

Please remind me what’s involved in terms of an adapter betwixt the engine and transaxle?

A great thread. Here we call them Vanagon’s and I always stop and look when I see one.

Cheers, John

Thanks John! Haha yes, botox at the ready!

It looks like major surgery, and I guess it is, but the construction of these is quite basic. If it's available, it's actually quicker to replace some of the entire sections than it is to repair interestingly. Largely just spot welds!

Whilst Luke is doing the skilled work (I'm just on the grinder chugging underseal off and digging holes ), I'm really enjoying learning the process as he's great at talking me through it all as he does it. I definitely want to invest in a MIG welder and attempt some smaller jobs in the future.

RJES do a complete bellhousing swap to get the Subaru engine to mount up with the VW gearbox. This is probably the way I'm going to go however I need to check what code box is actually in the van and whether the ratios will be ok.

The other option is having the Subaru gearbox from the donor converted to work in the van. I've kept it just in case but this is expensive...although looking at the prices of 30+ year old vw boxes and then the adapter plate, it may work out more cost-effective. For now though it's happily tripping me up every time I open the garage I'll make a decision once I get the van back and vw engine out of it and out of the way.




Thanks James! The standard radiators are quite large in these and dual cored so it should be up to the job. I'll be fitting a new one however seeing the cost (vw van tax yo! ) I may look at other options. Think the system takes something ridiculous like 18 litres of coolant!