Hi everyone, I've been using this site a fair bit over the years but never put up my projects. I've got a full build thread running on pistonheads but thought I'd share some of the more scooby specific stuff on here as I didn't find all my answers and it may help out some others..

I bought a standard beetle cabrio with plans of doing a fairly simple early WRX engine swap and just enjoing it..


Unfortunately once I started to get into it there was no way ANYTHING quick was going to happen so I decided to go all out and do the job properly with Porsche gearbox, brakes etc etc and future proof for a bigger subaru powerplant for later on.
Inside the heater channels (sills)

Rear quarter needed replacing

Radiators built in to the front end while it was all apart

Body mods for new wheels

More space for the engine

Air intake built in to the rear wing

Panel filter built in to the inner wing

Just about squeezes in!

Painted in my single garage


Back on the chassis


Some pics of the complete chassis, some serious modifications were required for the Porsche G50 transmission (fitted with LSD)


OBP pedal box to tune the 996 brakes and provide the trans with a hydraulic clutch

All ready for the body

 

Fair play fella, that is a very good job I must be honest I quite like the look of that, it has a good stance about it, bet that will be a good bit of fun, and a reall head turner with that boxer rumble

 

I tried to cut and shut a subaru dash in but I don't think it really looked right

so ended up modifying the stock dash for some Porsche gauges

a few days work to strip down the subaru loom to something more suitable

road legal!

I fitted a new sonnenland roof

Before farming out the only bit of the build, the sewing!

The original early RA engine, stripped and painted

wrinkle cam covers & intake manifold


coolant manifold flipped around to better suit the cooling line layout

sump cut up to give me a bti mroe ground clearance

maintaining capacity

exhaust manifold DIY ported

and wrapped

stainless 3" bellmouth turbo back exhaust system


just about ready to go back in

Legacy air/water intercooler

fuel tank cut up and modified/baffled for subaru internal pump

 

I then blew the engine! A crack opened up on the oil pick-up pipe so I bought another one which I also blew up on track (detonation).

I popped over to see David at API who are local and went through some options and decided to go for a 2.5 conversion.

I found a rebuilt shortblock on ebay and bought that

It was supposedly rebuilt due to a failed ringland but the pistons all looked the same so we stripped it down to be sure

It has the later good rods & black crank so a pretty good basis

API honed the block for some forged supertech pistons

I checked all bearing clearances and replaced the big ends with ACL

pistons ready to go in, all rings gapped

all going back together!

shortblock all ready

Seemed a shame to put back early WRX heads so I rebuilt some V4 sti versions


ARP head studs

coolant manifold modified again for the extra block breather

RCM sump baffle plate

I also decided to make up a larger bore crosspipe, similar to the grimmspeed ones


some phase 2 fuel rails modified to fit, along with a set of 740cc Nismo injectors

All pipes were cut and re-flared to convert to reverse parallel feed at the same time, it only took a simple bracket to correct for the different manifold mounting positions
New toys arrived! SC46 billet turbo & Aeromotive FPR

Intake modified for my air filter installation


Back together and roughly running, jus to get some oil circulating and make sure all was good!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/rBhGtrmA_TE

I'll update with a couple of other pictures later. Next step is to get the ESL fitted and Bob Rawle up to re-map it. I'll try not to blow this one up!!

 

Looks great, nice to see something completely different

 

Cool as hell.

 

Id be worried going up against this ! Got my eyes opened before

 

Amazing project, nice to see something different.

 

Here's the engine as it stands now, brackets made up for FPR and oil catch tank.


I've just been for a quick run around the block to make sure it's all working. I wound the pressure right down to minimum to compensate for the fact that the injectors are twice the size of the old ones that the ECU thinks are still there but also the additional capacity of the 2.5 to balance things out a bit. I doubt the injectors were atomising particularly well as it didn't drive particularly well but it idles great..

Waiting for a 97-00 MAP sensor and then it's time to get Bob up to work his magic for a running in map!

 

Cheers for the comments guys, it's more about building something different for me, I like a challenge!
The gearing really isn't right for the 1/4 mile but I'll be giving it a go. From my engine spec the rods will probably be the weak link to protect, from what I've read on here and been told these rods should be good for 450bhp road use so that will be my upper limit. I may have to upgrade the chargecooler to get there but have a plan for that already:

 

Bob mapped my wagon recently & did an amazing job, you won't be disappointed.

 

Fantastic. Looking forward to hearing how the map goes!

 

Great project Richard, any chance of more pics of the bug?

 

Here's the full spec I compiled for Bob:

EJ257 2.5l sti shortblock
ACL big end bearings
Late hawkeye rods
Forged supertech pistons (99.5mm), NCP rings
Shortened oil sump
RCM oil baffle plate
Reversed coolant manifold
External thermostat on engine outlet
Rebuilt V4 STI cylinder heads, hard edges smoothed
Subaru 1.6mm metal multilayer head gaskets
ARP 11mm head studs
Black wrinkle finish cam covers
Phase 1 inlet manifold, spare bosses removed
O-ring sealed tuffnol inlet manifold spacer/insulators (Advanced Automotive)
custom turbo inlet from cold air intake
Nismo 740cc/min injectors on modified phase 2 fuel rails
Aeromotive FPR on reversed parallel rails
HRC 310 lpm fuel pump
Scooby Clinic SC46 billet turbo
New-age subaru coilpack conversion
Ported exhaust manifold with custom 2" stainless crosspipe, all wrapped
Oil breather tank system, split from intake
Subaru Legacy RS chargecooler with Bosch pump, pace radiator
Stock recirculating dump valve
Gizzmo EBC
3" bellmouth turbo back exhaust system, single 3" straight through magnaflow muffler

 

Here's one of the back end:



If you want all the details the full build of this (and my previous cars) is on my website: http://www.ricola.co.uk

Once it's back running properly, I'll be able to sort out the photoshoot for a Volksworld magazine feature..

Rich

 

Cool

 

Very nice

 

I don't normally like Beetles but that is cool as hell!!

 

Real nice build! Nice colour too, What is the paint code?

 

Excellent job .boy that will be a fast car

 

Very nice work, I love the suby/porsche/old vdub conversions.

 

As the number plate says FKN L

 

I didn't notice that in the number plate for ages, kind of suits it though!

Can't remember the paint code off the top of my head but it's the original colour, 'Schwartz metallic'. It was also used on Mk.1 Scirocco Storm special editions in the late 70's..

 

Excellent work can`t wait to see what it produces and great write up

 

In one photo you show the coolent manifold you have modded to miss what you call a breather union, its not a breather its a balance port between heads & block, with your heads it has nowhere to connect, its best blanked off with a bung or core plug, you can't use it as a breather as its unbaffled, & will pump large amounts of oil into a breather system.

Must say its the best Subaru engine into a beetle i have seen, a proper thought out conversion, top job.

 

Cheers! I've done a subaru swap before, probably one of the first in the country in about 2000 on my old speedster replica with a MY98 uk turbo lump so have learned from the experience.

If you look carefully you can see that I have blanked off the central 'balance port'. I did consider adding ports to the cam covers but didn't bother in the end.

 

Yes i can see it now, no point adding the cam covers to the system, i have some core plugs that delete the union if required, makes a nice neat job, the union removes easily with bit of heat.

 

Thanks, it's all out of sight and done now, I did try some gentle heat on it before but it didn't want to budge.

 

Oil breather tank hanging off the back, there wasn't much space anywhere else! I also made up a new bracket which supports both the oil pressure senders and the Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator



I was advised by my mapper that the old Legacy chargecooler would be limiting my performance so it was time to upgrade. I considered an air/air using enlarged ducts built into the rear wings but I don't really think I've got space for it. I eventually found a very good thread on using a frozenboost type 14 chargecooler. It is apparently good for 700 CFM / 600 BHP and one person reported that when running 22psi he sees a maximum of 10 degrees above ambiant but normally only about 5 degrees which is pretty efficient in my book!

2 weeks later and this arrived in the post:


I wasn't satisfied that the system would be working well without trapping air so I decided to drill and tap a bleed point. I drilled on a tilted table on my pillar drill very cautiously as I didn't want to wreck the core! Turns out the end tank isn't completely solid as it looks but cast and it hollowed out a bit with extra clearance to the air core so wasn't too bad to do. A small M6 bolt with O-ring will serve as a manual bleed.



The turbo pipe I made up to join to the chargecooler inlet. 2" going up to 2 1/2" with a fitting for the reciculating dump valve. I had off-cuts of stainless lying around from old exhaust system build so I'm sure it will do the job fine. The 2 1/2" end joins to the chargecooler with a 3" to 2 1/2" silicone reducer elbow.


You can see a strap supporting the weight of the chargecooler off the frame above via some rubber washers to isolate it. Just in sight is a filler cap from a Suzuki motorbike which has the correct size fittings for the water pipes.


Finally I had to some some re-shaping of the bulkead panel to clear the end tank.


Now it's ready for the running in map on an ESL daughterboard, just hope the recent snow doesn't delay things...

 

Update from the mapping session..

The engine runs really well, nice and smooth with very good early turbo spool. By the end of the run the new chargecooler was still stone cold so all in fairly happy! The downside is that the clutch can't take the torque, we were limited to just under 1 bar boost pressure which is fine for running in but I'll have to sort out an uprated one before getting Bob to do the final map up to full boost.