EJ20G into 67 Bug

[surfbeetle]

I took the car to the San Diego Sports Arena Kobey's Swap Meet for the 1st Annual VW show. I was only one of three Subaru powered VWs there. Also picked up a new to me interior (seats and panels) for the car. I've never had matching front and back seats. I cleaned up the wiring in the trunk and hooked up the heater which by the way worked great heating the car on a cold morning. It will better once I duct it into the car's heater channels. Also at the Kobey's show, I bought an air tank and pump for the air ride. The tank's installed in the front trunk and I'm putting the tank behind the rear seat since my fuel pump is on the pan opposite of the master cylinder. Hopefully this weekend I'll get that plumbed and wired up. At some point soon, I hope to replace the front beam with a 4 inch narrowed AirKewld beam. My front tires are rubbing bad on the fender lips if the air is low so I want to tuck them in some more.

[surfbeetle]

I've been driving the car at least once per week and noticed a few things. The axles are still leaking (more on this in a minute) and the cooling fan runs alot because I have it set to come on at 180. The temps never get much above 190 so I'm re-thinking my design and wondering if I need to have more openings on the exit side in the fan shroud to allow more air out when on the freeway. If you remember from several pages (and years) ago, it's only a $25 baking sheet from Amazon that I used for the fan shroud so not the end of the world to try another design.

Now for the axle leak... I got to the San Diego Air Cooled East County Chapter meet last week my right rear wheel had that lovely oil spread fanned out all over it. On Saturday, I went to Vee Parts and bought three new seal kits so I'd have a couple of extra. I have found that I'll only have one extra since both sides are leaking. The right rear side was finger loose in the big axle nut and the axle slides out far enough that I could see the inside edge of the wheel bearing so something isn't right. I ended up pulling the axle cover off of that side to check the trans internally to make sure it's okay. From what I can tell, it is ok. I've decided to put it all back together and get new wheel bearings and an axle spacer kit and see what happens. I'm really wanting to go on the Christmas Toy Run on Dec 8 at Herman Cook VW in Encinitas. Hopefully that takes care of it. The transaxle was rebuilt over 25 years ago and maybe has 20,000 miles if that, I'm guessing. But it still performs great except for the axle leaks.

Here's a couple of videos of the side of the transaxle. Video 1 Video 2

[GS guy]

Surf - I'm not that well versed in the swingaxle trans set-up, but I believe the axles are "retained" from in and out movement by the outer axle bearings (at the wheel hub end), when is then retained by the axle housings themselves by their fit at the spherical "cup" built into the axle side covers? Once the axle housings/side covers are installed onto the trans and outer bearing & cover installed, the axle should have very minimal in & out play, at least from my recollection? What your'e showing in the videos might be normal? Time to delve into the tech manual.

BTW, how did your fuel pump noise issue work out? Still noisy during general cruising and operation?

Cheers,
Jeff

[surfbeetle]

Jeff, from what everyone says over on the Facebook Dubriderz Worldwide page, what I have seems correct. I’m putting it all back together and replacing the wheel bearings and spacers. We’ll see what happens when I get it back together.

As for the fuel pump, moving it to the flat part of the pan down by the front beam made it much quieter but I still can hear it from inside the car.

[surfbeetle]

One other thing to mention, my trans was rebuilt back in the early '90s. I knew it had a Super Diff but not the exact specs on it. Apparently, I have a threaded Super Diff which means that I don't have a C-clip holding things in place. It's a collar that is threaded in place. I got the car back together last night with the exception of putting the tire back on. I used some gasket maker in the assembly process and it wants 24 drying time before exposure to oil. So I still have the car angled up to keep the oil away from that. I get to change the driver's side wheel bearing over the weekend and seal that side up as well.

[surfbeetle]

I had to change the driver's side seal one more time... It got pinched during assembly but I think that now I have it solved. I cruised in a Toy Run last weekend. Total Mileage for me was 133 miles from my house, then the cruise and back to my house. I checked for leaks last night and didn't see any oil. Here's a link to a youtube video that one of the guys on the cruise posted. My "subaru" first shows up at the 30 second mark. I had been towards the rear of the pack and punched it going up the hill... The cruise was a ton of fun, I brought a radio controlled microbus for the gift. The only issue I had was at one point we were in a muddy parking lot. I went through a dip and picked up some dirt into my radiator scoop. I realized too late that I needed to air up the front end higher than it already was for that. With that said, I have the air ride, (tank, pump, gauge and switches) installed and mostly working. I'm getting some binding when raising up. The beam has rubber bushings around the trailing arms where they go into the beam. I'm thinking that I need needle bearings or ? to resolve this issue. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[GS guy]

That looked like a nice cruise Surf! Sounds like you've finally got the axle seal issue licked - don't know about you but any oil leaks, no matter how small really bug me! Also sounds like you need a "High-Jacker" button on your air-lift for those off road excursions!
Not sure about the front end binding? Does it run the standard trailing arm seals between beam and T-arms? I've never fully understood how the through-rod type front beam set up works with controlling side to side movement of the trailing arms. Stock, the center grub screw does it - but no center grub on the thru-rod? Not sure what could make it bind when raising up?

Still, sounds like you had lots of fun putting her through her paces after all the hard work! How's the power?
Jeff

[surfbeetle]

Jeff,
The power is incredible but I'm looking at getting the turbo rebuilt or may changed out. Boost is set to max at 11 psi. The car is very drivable in today's traffic. As for the beam, yes, it' running standard seals. I think that it may needle bearings which is currently doesn't have. I'll do some more research and see. Side to side movement is just held in with a through rod.

[H2OSB]

I have a friend who is a Subaru master mechanic. Recently he was given a '69 Beetle as part of payment for a side repair job he'd done. He sold the car, but got the VW juices flowing for him.

He was over at my house this past weekend, look at my 2 Supers and asked if I'd ever considered doing a Subaru swap, which I have. He asked why people doing swaps don't just turn the intake around 180 degrees. He said there's a wrx factory bracket that offsets the alternator to the right (as you're looking at the engine), giving plenty of room for the TB. Course, the ac compressor must be relocated or deleted, but I'm curious if anyone has used this bracket, or if there reasons to not use it?

H2OSB

[surfbeetle]

H2OSB There are many who have used that bracket with no issues and they have written about it on other threads. I’m planning to install AC so I have kept throttle body and manifold in the stock locations. Moving the alternator only requires that the belt is the correct size and the wiring reaches, assuming the bracket holds it properly.

[H2OSB]

Ok, I had never heard of it before. I kinda got out of the Subaru swap idea when I acquired my pristine '74, which I'm unwilling to cut up for a radiator. It's been a couple years since I looked at any swaps, and most were using either adapters that flipped the TB or custom intakes.

H2OSB

[surfbeetle]

The other day, I hooked up the laptop and was looking over the settings after it was tuned. I noticed that the lambda sensor (O2 sensor) setting was turned off. I think it was off so he could tune it but doesn't it need to be on for normal operation?

[GS guy]

Surf, unless your ECU constantly self-tunes, I don't think it needs or would use any input from the O2. The stock ECU, as I understand it, only uses the O2 sensors for a) checking that the cruise O2 content is very close to optimum (if not, something's wrong with the engine or computer system/sensors) and b) verifying the cat is operational (post-cat sensor). Aftermarket ECUs - depends on the brand, I think some use it, other's don't during normal running. Like my Megasquirt, unless autotuning I think (my understanding anyway) it could care less what the O2 readout is. More for user monitoring and tune tweaking. Not sure about yours?
Jeff

[surfbeetle]

Thanks Jeff. I really have no idea. I’ll have to ask Outfront.

[surfbeetle]

I’m enjoying this car a lot. I’m planning to bring the car to the Air Cooled Fiesta in Imperial Beach in May. I love it when I open the decklid and people are trying to figure out what I have done.