my slow progress towards a subaru powered KG

[Hegel]

This thread is to document my progress towards adapting my karmann ghia to run with a subaru motor. at the moment I don't have a lot of spare income so progress will be slow but I plan on updating this thread as I move forward.

I have had my karmann ghia for quite a long time. At an early age I saw one and decided that they were my favorite car.

when I was probably 15 or so I found a 69 karmann ghia about 2 hours away from home, my dad and I rented a car trailer and at the end of the day and $400 later we had the car at home.



It's a bit rusty and hacked up. but I love her.





I tinkered on it for a few years here and there but being not very mechanically inclined at the time and having my dad busy with his own projects I never got the car to a point where I could drive it. A few years later while at a swapmeet we scored 1600dp. I was on the road. it didn't look good but it ran and I loved it.

fast forward to 2012. by this time I've become somewhat of a mechanic and can do everything that's needed on my cars. I had seen the subarugears website and projects as well as the popularity of the Subaru swap increase and decided that this was the route i wanted to take with the car. this was made an easier decision for two reasons. 1) the back end of the car has been hacked up by the previous owner pretty badly, and 2) a friend of the family had a 1997 legacy that had recently had the transmission break.

Pictures of the donor car and the harvest. these were all taken 2 years ago.
























These photos are all from my dads house in western Washington, My home is in eastern Washington and within the last month I've brought the engine down to my home to get it ready for the swap.

[Hegel]

So now the engine is at my home and the fun can begin



first order was to organize a bit, I started by seperating the wiring harness from the engine (leaving the engine harness installed.







I then removed the transmission and discovered this.





not a good sign for the clutch. I removed the pressure plate and found.



not so bad i'm thinking



ohhh... so that's where the insulation material came from ... lol.


Good news is that the trans is probably good. bad news is that I don't want to cut the starter area off anymore to make a bench tester. like this





Now the engine is all up in the air waiting to be bolted to the engine stand. I have to get some longer bolts to do that since the lower bolts are too short to catch the threads when its on the stand.

[turboedbug]

Hell yeah buddy, get that shi!t going

[mack00]

Nothing wrong with slow progress. With work / overtime / house / golf / beer-cigars / wife / travel / life / other cars, I'm amazed I make any progress.
Looks like you have made a good start. That engine looks to have some miles on it. Are you planning on Subagears or vw transmission? You doing the harness or sending it out?
Keep at it.

[Hegel]

Nothing wrong with slow progress. With work / overtime / house / golf / beer-cigars / wife / travel / life / other cars, I'm amazed I make any progress.
Looks like you have made a good start. That engine looks to have some miles on it. Are you planning on Subagears or vw transmission? You doing the harness or sending it out?
Keep at it.

the build will be in 4 phases.

Phase 1 ) ej22 + vw trans

phase 2) ej22 + Subaru trans

phase 3) sti engine + Subaru trans

Phase 4) phase 3 + mendeola at all 4 corners.

the car had... i think 180k I think. I will be modifying the harness myself while trying to retain the obd2 port for use with diagnostics and the torque app (monitor all sensors with it). using the torque app i can keep my dash looking stock but have all the gauges available via my phone or tablet.

[KR250]

Very cool, glad to see another local Ghia conversion! Slow progress is still progress, at least that is what I keep telling myself. I'm doing a similar set of phases as well to try and keep momentum in the project. It's an overwhelming amount of work if you don't split it up into smaller milestones like that.

Keep the updates coming as they happen.

[lil_azza]

great progress so far il especially be looking out for the wiring part

[Hegel]

Looking around for a service manual to aid in my wiring harness conversion I came across this

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... ual_scans/

figured i'd post to help anyone else who is having issues

[Buggin_74]

That engine looks to have some miles on it.

I've seen engines with less than 50K that look worse than this, live by the coast and it happens before your eyes.
All the metal goes rusty, the alloy goes all white and powdery etc.
By the same token I've seen engines that looked in great shape but were totally shagged from owner neglect.


Hegel, if you are planning on running a VW trans then swapping to a subi trans later just take into account the subi trans lifts the engine 2".

When I looked into it for mine that meant my muffler system, coolant pipes, intake system and A/C lines would all need redoing as they would interfere with the body and the A/C compressor clutch would hit the decklid.

There is merit to holding off and saving some $$ and just doing it all once the first time round.

[Hegel]

That engine looks to have some miles on it.

I've seen engines with less than 50K that look worse than this, live by the coast and it happens before your eyes.
All the metal goes rusty, the alloy goes all white and powdery etc.
By the same token I've seen engines that looked in great shape but were totally shagged from owner neglect.


Hegel, if you are planning on running a VW trans then swapping to a subi trans later just take into account the subi trans lifts the engine 2".

When I looked into it for mine that meant my muffler system, coolant pipes, intake system and A/C lines would all need redoing as they would interfere with the body and the A/C compressor clutch would hit the decklid.

There is merit to holding off and saving some $$ and just doing it all once the first time round.

Thanks for the heads up. Yes my plan is to run the vw trans then later swap in the subie trans at a later date. I'm pretty certain that the accessories aren't going to be an issue since the ghia engine bay is so much larger, definitely something I'll have to keep in mind though. thanks.

and as for the engine looking the way it does (honestly thought the earlier comment was related to the oil leaks and such). real estate at my dads shop is slim so I had to harvest everything all at once and the store it next to the ghia.... outside... under a tarp. It sat that way for over a year and corroded everything (except the wiring)... good news is that the oil has no water in it, and the engine turns over freely.

[Buggin_74]

It;s not so much the decklid but more things like the muffler being lifted 2" will probably hit the bodywork etc.

[ttriebler]

Yes agreed, probably better doing it all with the Subie trans the first time. No need to spend money on adaptor plates, weird starters and weird clutches that way.
Having said that, using the Subie trans in place of a VW trans doesn't necessarily lift everything 2 inches.
Cars with no framehorns can raise and lower their drivelines as needed.
Cars with framehorns can run our extended Subaflanges and shorter axles to lower the driveline back to where it was with VW.

[Prtexx]

Been following the thread for a while and felt compelled to jump in. While I would like to use subagears products someday it makes for an expensive set up. I've done 5 swaps this past year using VW transaxles and been very pleased with them. I completed one project (including the cost of the car) for less the cost of a subagears built tranny. Most of us are building on a budget and until there is some competition or the price comes down it will be a while. I believe it's a good product if budget wasn't an issue. Just my opinion.

[mountainkowboy]

Sometime in a galaxy.....far, far, away..........I would like to build one.

[dlamyle]

I think the point is, when he gets to Phase 3, he will need to address the trans anyway so it would be better to do it sooner than later. The "expensive" set ups are the ones you have to repair or replace. You only pay for quality once...
Having said that, I like your Phase approach. Keeps you up and running and you get to look forward to the next phase.