I had a flat radiator on my first V8 conversion. It cooled just fine. I built a shroud to force the air through the bumper and down. It looked like a raised trunk floor after I covered it with perlon.

The down side was driving slow on a dirt road. The fan under the radiator would kick on and blow dust all over the place. If the top was off, I would get covered in dust.

I had a radiator shop add a tall sideways filler neck and the hose connections were under the car. The hose on that car ran through the tunnel and made the cabin really hot.

I did love the partial front trunk in that car. I've got no front trunk now. My next conversion will have Boxster radiators grafted in and a usable front trunk.

What do you mean remote the board? Like plug the subie gauges into stock cans like you did? That would be pretty much ideal.

That's kind of what I'm hoping to do! Eventually a shelf will go in that will double as ducting and the front trunk floor. I am worried about how hot the cabin will get though. My hope is that since the houses are in the longs I'll get a bit of an insulation bonus.

I'm going with a pressurised reservoir (next to gas tank) that will function as a filler, bleeder, and reservoir!

Yep. Run 4 wires from the board to the gage. LMK


If the longs get too warm I'd try to vent the longs. Wouldn't be difficult to do.

Bob was telling me the EG33 at precisionchassis is vented through the floor.

Looks like it runs well:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe_vWc87e1c


It'll cool fine. I only veered away because I want to drive the hell out of my car and could see a dust storm situation happening or some water getting in the trunk. Probably won't happen to you on the autocross circuit. Plus you have TWO 914s .

Yeah! I'll go for that! PM sent!

I hope it cools well! And you are right, having a backup 914 really takes the pressure off!!

Well, it aint pretty, but I think I have an exhaust setup that is good enough to get the car on the road. Its definitely not optimized, and I'm sure I'll get around to a nice exhaust eventually, but this was pretty cheap to fab up. the resonators are Harley pipes from a local bike salvage yard for 30 and they fit perfectly into the OBX 2" SS pipes.

It will be interesting to see how close they sit to the ground when I put the car back down!

those are very cool..
can't wait to hear it in person

loving this thread

Any idea's on ground clearance? Did you modify the length of the down piece off the header flange? SS welding is not in my skill set.

It won't be much. Maybe 3"... I pounded the puppies flat where they passed by my subframe,but other than that no mods. I hadn't welded SS before last night. I used my mig with some stainless wire and some co2-ar mix gas. It welded much like normal steel, but burn through was faster. I can't vouch for the weld strength, but this part isn't structural anyways.

Let me know when you want to come check it out Brant!

when ever is good for you
I want a ride someday too
are you wrenching this weekend?

Ahhhhh! Activity! I'm stuck with painting the house so not much 914 work for me. You da man for trying the SS weld. I guess I'll look into it some more. Honestly, after some recent gas welding again, I'm seriously looking at tig.

Get some ear plugs Subaru's make some noise. The car Chris posted a video of has some long magnaflow mufflers on it.

Speaking of welding and grinding, I had a tiny piece of metal in my eye for a week! No wonder I've been a little irritable. Dang that drove me nuts. I'm wearing goggles from here on out.

Sorry Brant, I was already out of town when I got this! I'm out of town this weekend too for a wedding, but I'll be wrenching every night this week or you can just wait till the weekend after next to come check it out. Hopefully it will be ready to go by then!



I'm looking forward to hearing how it sounds when I start it up for the first time with these exhaust pipes once my O2 sensors get in! Its just about ready to go, I really just need to mount the shifter! Then I can start the long road of optimization hopefully!



I agree, the worst is when you are still wearing safety glasses and somehow the frag finds its way around and into your eye!

I finished up the cable clutch bell crank linage tonight. Its allowing me to use the stock clutch cable to pull on the new subie clutch.

I re-used a pretty stout pulley axle that comes on the back of the transmission before you pull the tail cone. I had to drill a new hole to get it to fit in the right place, but there is plenty of room to drill.
Click to view attachment


I picked up a couple of bronze bushings from Ace and machined the OD to fit into some steel pipe using my mini-lathe. Then I welded the whole bushing to a piece of angle iron and drilled a few holes so I could play with the throw ratios!
Click to view attachment


My linkage from the bell crank to the throw out arm is currently a piece of allthread. I'll get something more official in there eventually, but this will work for test driving!

The clutch pedal has a very different feel to it. The way I have the ratios set up right now it is much softer to push than a stock pedal, which makes it feel kind of weird. I can dial up the pedal pressure, but I think I'll go with it for right now.

Way to go, Ross. Question; which wire off the tranny did you use for the VSS to the ECU. Is it the middle one of the 3 wires? I'm right where you are with your build.

I put the car back on its wheels for the first time with the exhaust installed. The pipes exit right where I want them to, but my ground clearance is pretty suspect, if estimate between two and three inches! I hope my suspension is stiff enough!

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

The engine is remarkably quiet at idle, but it gets throaty pretty quick when you throttle up. Sorry no videos yet!

The issue I'm having now is air in the coolant system. I can't seem to get the last bit out! Anyone have any tips?

I haven't dealt with that yet. Hopefully tonight!

Wow those pipes look mean! Love it! Careful backing out of the driveway !

On the air in the system, can't picture your setup but here are the things I have read:

- Run the car with the radiator cap off to let the bubbles escape as freely as possible
- Jack the car up at different angles, especially if you know where the pocket probably is.
- DRIVE IT AROUND

Hi Ross -
Get a hold of Bob (BIGKAT). He explained to me how his orange car was set up (cooling wise) and how he directly addressed the air issue. It was pretty fantanstic - making it litterally a non issue ever again. Cool stuff.

This is how I purge the air out of my conversion, I used a radiator drain valve.
You open the valve to let out all the air while the engine is running
Click to view attachment

Perfect! I bought a t like that last night, but didn't think it would work. It looks like it just fits onto the heater core hoses?

That could work well. What's the highest point in your cooling system? Then install it there and that should do it.

The way Subaru cools the engine it must be installed there!!!! They use a
close loop system on start up, the air & steam must be removed before the
thermostat opens. Thats why people have trouble with air in the system.

Best way to fill a cooling system and not have air in it.

http://www.amazon.com/UView-550000-Airlift...r/dp/B0002SRH5G

I had a heck of a time getting the air out of my system as well. I have an expansion tank and coolant reservoir in both the front and rear. I tried bleeding it with different combinations grade and radiator cap installations and still could not get the air out.

Eventually I worked it out by leaving both caps on and tight and heat cycling the system several times while making sure that the reservoirs were always full while it was sucking coolant back in.

I am pretty sure that I had a few small leaks initially that were allowing coolant out and air back in also.

Good luck.

Scott

Copper Where were you when I was getting flamed for using copper. I hope you'll be kind enough to take a pic of the inside of one of those fittings. I know you've been running this set up long enough to see the results. My $$ says your good. Ross, 3/4" copper OD=7/8" nom 3/4" tee OD = 1" nom. Highjack over.
EDIT: I just saw it's 1/2" copper so 1/2" pipe OD = 5/8" nom and 1/2 Tee OD = 3/4"

Awesome build. Do you have any more details on the clutch setup? Some close up picks of the linkage or a diagram would be great thanks.

A bit of a setback! I had the car running and driving great and was in the middle of installing some EXCELLENT gauges from Kent, when I smelled some smoke. I lean out of the car and the harness by the left headlight is spewing smoke! Now I have got to weed through the entire harness forward of the firewall and replace wiring!

I do have some good news though! A new toy came up for sale through a co-worker at a price I couldn't say no to! say hello to my new semi-mid-engined daily! a 2003 S2000 with 76k original miles with a red leather interior and the factory hardtop (something of a rarity). I am its 3rd owner!

thats my favorite color combo
I've been looking casually for one
good score!

brant

Pretty productive day today! I repaired the wiring harness and was able to get the car running again! Then I drove it over to a friend's shop and used his scan tool to check the CEL codes listed below:

P0463
Fuel level sensor a circuit high input
P1698
manufacturer controlled computer output circuit
P0691
Fan 1 control circuit low
P0866
Tcm communication circuit high
P0447
Evap emission open
P0037
Heated o2 sensor heater control circuit low bank 1 sensor 2

Doesn't look like anything too serious. My fan still has never kicked on, but the temp gauge is staying right in the middle.

I also did some more dash work. Kent sent me a subie Speedo and a tach already mounted in 914 tach cans which look awesome. Unfortunately the Speedo hole won't fit the tach size, so I put a differentsubie Speedo into the stock Speedo can. It is definitely harder to read, but less cutting.

Looks great, Ross. BTW, re: P0691; in that you are running single speed fans I wonder what would happen if you connected both grounds (hi-lo) together. Maybe the ECU doesn't see that ground. FWIW, I had P0037 code before I dropped the engine from the donor. No CEL's from the missing 3rd 02 sensor? Great job, Ross. Enjoyed your build.

Sweet! How's the power?

You can probably search what those mean on a subie site and see how they handled them. rs25.com has a lot of conversions. I'd check the "high" circuits for sure, sounds like too much juice going through them but it might mean something totally different. Also that o2 sensor connection should be checked...loose or frayed wire maybe. You want that one good so the engine runs right. Did you clear them off and re-run them by chance?

BTW your tach is upside down (I know, I know).

This was a great idea! I combined all three Fan relay grounds so the fan will kick on when any of them satisfy their loading conditions. It works beautifully. The fan kick on fairly infrequently and then kicks back of after a minute or two! Great tip!




The power is intoxicating! I rarely put the hammer down in first because its over too quickly. In second when you mash it the power just keeps coming, with the most seeming to come in the 4-6.5k range!

I haven't done any more work with the codes, but once I ground out the fuel level sender and finish the fan wiring I'll clear them and see what comes back.

The engine has been running flawlessly, I put 50-60 miles on it this weekend with short trips and tweaks in between and plan to continue putting on as many as possible prior to RRC!

On a downer note, the remoted gauges don't work. I'm going to pull them out of the dash tonight and make sure I had them hooked up properly, but I wasn't getting any movement out of them at all. for now I'm driving with the subie gauge pack in the passenger footwell and mostly just gauging speed by flow of traffic!

Just download the ulysee speedometer app on your phone. Works great for temporary speedo until you get yours figured out. Just works off the GPS plus has a HUD feature if you want to use it at night. Just set the phone on your dash at night

Already have it! but how to keep it from sliding across my dash and out the window in high-g turns ?

A diagram with measurements for my clutch pull bellcrank. I also cut about an inch out of the throw out arm itself so it would clear the trunk without cutting.

I ran the stock cable under the engine, pulling it pretty tightly against the bottom of Ian's subframe. With these ratios the clutch pedal requires a bit less force than the stock 914.

I'm running a stock clutch pack out of a 97 base outback and its holding the power fine so far. We'll see how it goes as time goes on.

With my Samsung s5 in it's case. It jams into the space with all 3 vent controls to the right. It will jam in there & not move. Of course that puts your fan on high but I've used that many times. I also had the 3d print mount for my cup holder. That worked great too until I broke it. Then got the little bigger s5 phone anyway. Need to see if he is making that adapter yet. LOL

Sorry that it broke! I'll have to see about printing with a stronger material next time!!

I revise my previous statement! When I was making the speedo I re-positioned the needle, which was giving an erroneous reading! one re-positioned correctly its working (at least a bit). On the tach, one of the pins has come out just a bit and had to be re-inserted. Not a big deal and now all is well!

Hey Ross, anything to report yet on the heat or absence of heat from the longs. Re: your speedo, you said it's kinda of working. Be sure the needle has clearance from the glass. That one bit me.

I can reach down and feel the return pipe from the drivers seat and tell when it's getting got, so far it definitely hadn't been unbearable though. I do think that I'm going to start working on an engine mounted radiator though as I have time. It will make everything so much more convenient!

As far as the gauges go the problem is primarily the pins in the back of the gauges coming slightly undone. The Speedo is working pretty reliably, but the teach is only running to 3k or so before the needle starts moving the other direction (engine goes faster). I also could be more excited about the night lighting color (greenish) but I really can't complain because Kent's work has saved me load of trouble!

YouTube link to some exhaust notes. Not quite as pretty as Kent's I'm afraid.
Exhaust noise: http://youtu.be/CayDApPDJ98

I love it! Sounds fantastic.

I went on a 50 mile cruise with a buddy this evening. We did a couple of highway pulls pitting my subie 3.0 against his twin turbo 2009 335. I pulled away every time . Im seeing 3.5 k rpm or so at up on the highway, and the exhaust note Is a bit droning at that pace.

I'm waiting on another throttle cable. They sent the wrong one, yesterday. Your killing me, Ross. I've only done a partial pull in second, thus far. So, did your friend make excuses or offer to buy your car.

Very impressive! !!!

I could b super happy with that :-)

any changes in handling? ?

Scotty