Lilchopshop’s Subaru Conversion Project, Making it up as I go Options

[Lilchopshop]

Hi All,
My name is Aaron. I've been lurking on this site for years, learning from all of you who are kind enough to share your projects and the challenges that go along with them. In an attempt to keep me motivated on my project and as a way to create a place for me to ask questions as they come up (which they will, frequently), I decided it was time to start a proper build thread. I’m not a novice when it comes to tools, fabricating and most things automotive, but I’ve never attempted an engine swap before, and most things electrical tend to stress me out. That being said, I love a good challenge and I’m not afraid to fail.

I purchased this car in February of 2020, just before Covid lockdown. I got off to a pretty good start repairing the rust and trying to make a solid chassis for what I thought was going to be a stock-ish restoration (some of that work documented here: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...ty+jack+points). Then, after watching all the great engine-swap builds on this site, I changed my mind. I knew I wanted more horsepower, but I couldn’t justify the cost of an air-cooled Porsche 6-cyl and I didn’t want to lose the trunk to a big V8. For a while, I was considering keeping the original engine from the car and using a tunable fuel injection package, but for the total cost, the bang for the buck just didn’t seem there. So, I settled on the Suby engine. After some research and some purchasing mistakes, I ended up buying a 2002 legacy outback donor vehicle with an EG25 engine. I harvested the engine, the ECU and whatever else seemed valuable. After selling off the old Porsche engine, transmission, all of the FI components and the saleable parts from the donor Subaru, I probably ended up in the black, financially.

Since buying the car in 2020, I’ve gotten pulled away by many other, more important projects, so I’ve only been able to do little stints of work on the car. I’m optimistic this time, that I will be able to finally dedicate some quality time this winter and hopefully make some real headway. I haven’t been great at documenting the little things I’ve done on the car in the last 2 years, so I’ll start this thread off with some of the things I did actually get pictures of and a summary of where I’m at now.

The day we met:
The first attempt at a Suby Engine (EJ22):
The second attempt (complete donor vehicle):
My crazy, home-built cable shift linkage:
My home-built engine cradle:
Shifter from a boxter (slightly modified):
Some suspension ear reinforcement:

[Lilchopshop]

Before I close up the driver’s side longitudinal, I thought I’d install the driver’s door to see if I needed to make adjustments. I’ve had my support bars installed between the seat belt mount and the upper door hinge since before I did any cutting, but the measurement between the roll bar and the windshield frame has always been a lot larger than 25 1/8”. If I really crank the turnbuckle on my support bars, I can almost get the measurement to work, but the inner clamshell of the longitudinal starts to buckle. It’s been so long since I saw this car with doors that I don’t remember what the door gaps looked like. Before I weld anything more to the longitudinal, I thought the better test would be to install the drivers door. I’m glad I did.




With the door installed, I couldn’t use my support bar, so I rigged a heavy ratchet strap to go between the frunk hinge mount location and the roll bar hoop. Cranking down on the ratchet strap, I still couldn’t get the door gaps to look good or the windshield measurement to 25 1/8”. The door does open and close pretty well though.



Now, I know that the sail panels have been poorly replaced previously on this car and there is a shit-ton of bondo around the door handle indent. I intend to replace the sail panel metal again so I’m optimistic that I can close up some of the door gap when I do that. If the gap was the only problem, I think I’d move ahead. But since the windshield measurement is also off by about 1/4”. I’m leaning towards modifying the inner long clamshell before I close it up.



My plan is to make a vertical slice through the inner clamshell about 90% of the way to the floor pan. With this cut, I should be able to “fold” the car with the ratchet strap until the windshield measurement is good without buckling the open longitudinal. If the door still closes well and the gaps look ok. I’ll weld up the slice in the inner clamshell and then proceed with installing the outer clamshell.

Would love to hear from anyone who has had experience with this before I plunge ahead!!

Thanks for looking!