ITS ALIVE!!!!

[pploco]

Can I get a WOOT WOOT!!

Took my conversion for its first ride today and all I can say is WOW!! In many ways it doesn't feel right hitting 65 in 2nd gear with a motor still pulling. The power is smooth and very strong.

My setup:
'73 standard baja ironically painted subaru rally blue
EJ20TT converted to single STI turbo, exhaust manifold, and intercooler.
'79 Bus 091 trans mounted 10* with Laser Innovation mount.
Kennedy adapter and clutch
Walbro fuel pump
stinger ecu
gutted suzuki hayabusa pipe (sounds bad ass!!)
'95 legacy radiator front mounted

Right now I'm only running on 5lbs of boost. I plan to go to 10 right away and will go to near 20 with some new 660cc injectors. Many thanks to Mac at Outback Motorsports and all the "perverts" here for the advice. I will post pictures soon I promise.

[MNAirHead]

woot

[petew]

PICS!!!! we want em!

btw, woot.

[pploco]

So I lost my stupid camera and have been hoping to find it as I didn't want to disgrace my conversion project by taking bad pictures. Too many have asked so here are a few teasers. Ironically, I snapped the pictures in a dark garage after my car had a little rain on it. Story of my life.

I'm running at 10lbs of boost. I have bigger injectors and a better coilpack setup to put in to take it to 20lbs. Honestly it runs so strong now, I may wait. It will pull through 75mph in 2nd before the rev limiter kicks in. I definitely need to stiffen the rear to keep it from squatting so bad when it comes on boost.

I still need to fix the front hood. I took off the first day I had it running only to realize at about 70 how important hood latches are broke a hole in the fiberglass hood. I got a mojave heater for it and it is OH SO NICE having a real heater. I will get some more pics and post them.



This is a pic of the motor with the rear cage installed. It fit so well, its hard to tell the motor doesn't belong in there.



Another shot of the rear from the side. The rear cage ties into a partial cage with a roll bar. Nothing fancy but looks pretty good I think.



Front radiator fabrication. I get plenty of airflow and have no cooling problems sitting in traffic. I would like to fab up some ducting to get the air out of the hood - in the summer I thought I would die when the radiator fan would kick on.




Another shot of the radiator to see the clearance. I welded the radiator mounts on the front bumper cage. Width wise it was a perfect radiator. Height wise I would have liked it a bit shorter - but a budget build requires a bit of salvage yard scoring. With the hood shut you can hardly see the radiator hanging down.

Having it out in the wild has been a blast. I can't tell you how many times I pull up to a light and blow the doors off anything. One guy in a cherry '70 charger made me pull over and show him. I had killed him by about 4 car lenghts and thought he was gonna beat my a$$ at the next light. He could hardly contain himself he was laughing so hard he had been beat by a VW. He made me come show his buddies at work the next day.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Looks very clean. Good joB!

[59Bisquik]

Wooo Hoo!! Lookin good!!

[pploco]

I've decided this thing is not the best car in the rain. At least not with TRAFFIC and rain. Nothing scarier than turning a gradual corner in third, having the motor come on boost and the wheels kick loose at 55 - WHEW! I just about creamed a mercedes this morning.

On a brighter note, I got my heater plumbed into the stock channels and actually have warm feet and a defroster.

[brywisco]

pploco,

Nice job.
I am planning to convert my '69 Baja to Subaru power and have about a million questions for you and anyone else here if you are up for it.

What I am starting with:
'69 Baja bug
Wide eye front end - like your pics
Stock suspension and transaxle
The bug is in the shop now getting new heater channels and pans put in

What I have on-hand so far:
Stock 091 6-rib transaxle (from a '78 bus) and starter
Bleary eyes from all the internet research
Freaked-out wife due to the proposed budget

My first question of many is how did the transaxle conversion go and did you go with a urethane-type or solid mounts?

[pploco]

First of all welcome to the......uhh....sickness...

I did a ton of research on this and decided to go with a 10* mount from laser innovations. I chose this for a couple of reasons. I knew I wanted urethane mounts because I had a bug before with solid mounts and could hardly stand the noise and vibration. I also wanted a 10* mount to keep the shifter in the tunnel - sort of keeping a stock look. I guess it all depends on what you want out of it in the end and how good your fab skills are and the tools you have. My fab skills aren't great, but this wasn't too bad.

Here is a shot of the frame horns cut and with the welded flanges and front mount. My fab skills are okay, this took me about 2 hours to do.


here is a shot of the urethane mount that goes on the bell


i had to cut a bigger hole in the tunnel and bend the bowden tube, throttle tube and fuel line to the left a bit to let the trans move forward a little.


had to cut a bit off the input shaft so the shift rod and bushing mated.


and a shot of how it fit


here's the money shot


I have zero shifting problems. I still do need to brace the frame horns to keep the wheel hop down. Its not bad, but I don't dare do a 4K clutch dump yet. I intend on running a brace from the rear horn flanges up to the shock mount and a bar across from shock mount to shock mount. I do get some transaxle noise, but nothing like the solid strap mounts I used to have. I know I haven't come anywhere close to pushing this motor and trans to its limits though.

[petew]

looks like you've been having lots of fun. Just a thought, might be time to figure how to get a lot more air to your intercooler before next summer.

[brywisco]

Man, thanks for taking the time to post all those pics of the transaxle stuff. I was leaning towards the same mount for the same reasons. I can't find any info anywhere on Laser Innovation, but I believe McKenzies makes a 10 deg urethane mount for about $140.

I am looking at buying a turn key engine pkg. I looks like it would save a bunch of headaches and not cost much more than piecing it all together myself.

[pploco]

Yeah, I'm thinking I need to relocate the intercooler too - for sure before I run 20lbs of boost. If I can get some time before the holidays, I'd like to put it up under rear window, or under the duck tail.

More pics!










I still need to clean up the dash and put the interior together. I need to order some dynamat first to wrap the firewall - its a little loud in the car. Gotta save my pennies for disk brakes and suspension too - I'm super tempted to pickup an A-arm kit.

[brywisco]

Yeah, the details will never end.
Is that the fuel line running down the underside of the car on the driver's side?
Where did you put the fuel pump, and how did you handle the fuel return to tank?
Why are wanting an A-arm setup? Do you off-road alot?
My 091 trans is in the mail, so I need to get a mount system soon. Can you point me to any info on the Laser Innovation trans mount you used?
Thx

[pploco]

Laser Innovations - 714-630-4482

I used the original fuel line as my return line and ran another line down the channel under the car. I braized a larger outlet under the tank and bolted a walbro 200gph fuel pump to outside of the passenger kick panel. I also braized a 1/4 inlet to the top of the tank just to the front of the fuel fill neck for the return. I considered a surge tank for a long time, and may put one in later on in life. The stock tank i had has a swirl pot underneath of sorts, and as long as I don't let the fuel get too low it should be fine.

[pploco]

Still having trouble with cooling. Seems like I get everything dialed in and it runs great for a few days, then it starts to boil over.

My system is not pressurized. My theory is that when I accelerate hard the coolant sloshes to the back and fills the overflow. Then when I brake or turn it sloshes forward and creates bubbles? Any ideas?