Tony's Subaru Conversion Thread Options

[TonyAKAVW]

Well, I figured since there has been some pickup in momentum on this project that I would start a thread on my progress. Not to mention its a good way to share whatever ideas I pick up along the way.

The project started in January 2003 when I picked up the silver roller pictured below. Its a '74 and was pretty much stripped. It had a suspension and a few other parts but was missing a lot of major things like and engine, transmission, glass, hoods, gas tank, interior, wheels, etc. etc.

The story of my acquisition of this roller is in this thread:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=...&f=2&t=7991&hl=

After arriving at home:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=...&f=2&t=8963&hl=

This project got a bit of a slow start. I had to first part and chop up my first 914 and dispose of it. It was badly rusted and where itwasn't rusted it was bondo'd. This was going to be a replacement body for that car.

Then last summer I picked up the yellow '70 roller that is now my daily driver. Since then I've spent most of my 914 time fixing it up and getting it ready for WCC. Now that its in a pretty much stable state and WCC is over I can concentrate on this car.

The current plan is that it will get a Subaru 2.5L naturally aspirated engine in a conversion very similar to Scott Thacher's. The basic timeline is like this:

1. Fix up the body enough to make it roadworthy.
2. Put together the drivetrain (engine, adapter, transmission)
3. Install drivetrain and remaining parts
4. Install an exhaust system and wire up the engine, make it ready to drive
5. Install enough interior to drive it.
6. Drive it around a bit, fix whatever things don't work right
7. Flare the fenders (GT flares)
8. body and paint
9. Finish the interior
10.Performance mods - cams, etc.

I'm hoping that I get it at least roadworthy within a year, and the rest of the stuff within a year after that. Its possible I could get it done faster but we'll see. This is a big project.

Here's the car as it was when I brought it home:

[TonyAKAVW]

Here's a detail picture. This is the weather channel on the passenger side front fender. Something funny going on here.

[TonyAKAVW]

First job I decided to tackle was taking the interior down to bare metal. Work from the inside out.

[TonyAKAVW]

Some more ugliness on the front fender.

[TonyAKAVW]

Well, the fender was junk, so I removed it.

[TonyAKAVW]

Heres the floor, stripped to metal.

[TonyAKAVW]

Another messed up fender. I have since found and prepared replacement fenders for both the front and rear damage.

[TonyAKAVW]

The whole interior got treated with metal etch and the POR-15.

[TonyAKAVW]

Here's the engine that is going into the car:

[Dr Evil]

In the first pic your cord is lying in some fluid where the plug is (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/ohmy.gif) (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif)


The last pic is where I am heading right now. Nicely done.

POR-15 (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/smilie_pokal.gif)

[TonyAKAVW]

The motor came with the ECU, wiring harness, and a bunch of other stuff. Its currently with Jeff up in Mountain View but will be coming down in June thanks to Jenny's kind offer to bring it down with her on a trip to Long Beach.

Its a 2001 2.5RS motor, puts out 165 HP stock and has 41,000 miles on it. Turns out that the previous owner of the engine had bought the engine from a wrecked 2.5RS. The really wierd part is that the wrecked 2.5RS belong to Jeff's roommate. So the engine started in a car in Jeff's garage, got wrecked, was sold to a guy in San Francisco, and then came back to its original garage. I wonder if this engine is cursed. Maybe its like the tape in the movie The Ring.

I'm working now on getting an engine adapter plate and flywheel to get the drivetrain put together. I have a good transmission that I bought from Glenn of D&G a while back.

-Tony

[Rotary'14]

Congratulations on getting off your ass Tony!! (I am having the similiar problems)
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/beerchug.gif)

A slow start is better than a "no" start. You should get to work because it would be a shame to have all the metal (that you stripped) start to rust again.

How goes the drive train plans? While working on the body I'm sure your paying attention to the needs of your cooling system.

Post more pics soon so we can watch progress!

Good luck on your project/adventure (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)

[TonyAKAVW]

QUOTE

In the first pic your cord is lying in some fluid where the plug is   The last pic is where I am heading right now. Nicely done.

That fluid was runoff from a sprinkler from hours earlier. Not very deep.


Stripping the interior down to metal was a LOT of work. I live in an apartment and so I have to do things quietly. I did manage to use the angle grinder with the wire wheel for a while, but finishign it off required a ton of work with chisles and so forth to get seam sealer out of the corners.

I'm pretty happy with the results though. I should probably rough it up and put a second coat on.

-Tony

[AndyC]

Another scooby doo conversion, I have a friend who works for a company called Prodrive building Subaru WRC rally cars here in the UK so if you need some very expensive performace parts let me know. He is still trying to convince me to scooby mine, his last argument was 500bhp from a £500 engine (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)

[Scott Carlberg]

QUOTE (AndyC @ May 19 2005, 12:58 PM)

Another scooby doo conversion, I have a friend who works for a company called Prodrive building Subaru WRC rally cars here in the UK so if you need some very expensive performace parts let me know. He is still trying to convince me to scooby mine, his last argument was 500bhp from a £500 engine (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)

Prodrive, that's cool! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/smilie_pokal.gif)

Same company that ran the Ferrari 550's & now the Aston Martin's in the ALMS/IMSA series.

[Aaron Cox]

nice ring ™ reference (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)

very cool. you are going to have a beasty mobile.... whats a 2.5rs motor spin to safely?

and...as always. get'r done!

[lapuwali]

QUOTE (Scott Carlberg @ May 19 2005, 01:32 PM)

QUOTE (AndyC @ May 19 2005, 12:58 PM) Another scooby doo conversion, I have a friend who works for a company called Prodrive building Subaru WRC rally cars here in the UK so if you need some very expensive performace parts let me know. He is still trying to convince me to scooby mine, his last argument was 500bhp from a £500 engine  :confused: Prodrive, that's cool! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/smilie_pokal.gif) Same company that ran the Ferrari 550's & now the Aston Martin's in the ALMS/IMSA series.

Believe me, the WRC stuff is WAY cooler...

Prodrive doesn't just build ANY Soob WRC cars, they build the FACTORY WRC cars, and have won several World Championships. One of their drivers is running second in points right now.

If any parts could be obtained from that place, they'd be the best available. I'd love to know the recipes they used to build engines even 5 years ago. 300hp/500ft lbs 2.0 turbos with wide, smooth powerbands, which could easily make 500hp if you removed the required intake restrictor. You'd be able to break 901s at a dizzying pace. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wacko.gif)

[scotty914]

one of the biggest pluses of this conversion is the radiator and cooling are in the engine bay so no cutting

tony the car look good and is you want more hp go to cobb tuning, he has the suby motors down pat

edit for aaron the suby motors have a hard redline of 7 k and the tachs ahave a redline of 6500. i have hit the rev limiter a few times, one of those was at willow i hit first at 45 or so mph opps

[scotty914]

arron here is the 2.5 ltier torque curve, the thing that amazes me is they have the stock intake and exhaust over 100 % ve

[TonyAKAVW]

All that horsepower sound fantastic but it comes at the cost of one of the key things I like about this conversion and that is to have the radiator in the engine bay. I like having two trunks, and using the front for a radiator kinda sucks. With 500 HP I seriously doubt you could get enough cooling from an engine bay radiator. It would end up being more like a V8 conversion in many ways.

As far as rpms, I've seen people saying 8000, but more commonly I've seen 6500. I'll probably keep it conservative for a while.

Scott: I agree Cobb is the way to go. for my engine (SOHC) the cams are $500 and give you something like 15-19 HP. There's a guy on the NASIOC board who has a 225 HP naturally aspirated 2.5 engine. He's using the Cobb cams, and has bumped up the compression ratio. It seems like getting above 200 HP is going to be very doable. Oh, btw he's going to put this engine in a 914. Although he said he's going to ditch the EFI and use webers. I don't really understand why, but he claims it will give him even more horsepower. I've never heard that carbs give you more HP than a proper EFI system, but whatever.

-Tony