My beloved 1990 Vanagon has cracked its last cylinder head.

I'll have no more of those shit engines, so it's time to bite the bullet and convert to Subaru power.

Help me choose the right engine and parts for the conversion.

I'm looking at the 2.5NA. I don't want a six and I don't want a turbo.

I want the most basic 2.5. No VVT or throttle-by-wire needed.

Joe, go have a look at small car performance's site. smallcar.com. These guys were way ahead of the curve doing vanagon conversions.

Hey Joe,

Bite the bullet & do a Porsche B32 Carrera tribute conversion, but with an updated WBX-6 from the right wrecked 986-987/996-997 so you can transplant the entire chassis running gear.

I have to wait to win the Lotto big to have it done, but you have the shop & can do it at cost - plus do the IMS fix too!

There've been a few Vanagon Porsche 6 conversions out there, fun & great shop advertizing! .... just think of it emblazoned on the Vano's flanks: "PORSCHE Powered by Series9"


Tom
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I plan to buy most of the parts from Smallcar.

I guess I'm asking about members' specific experiences with different engines and engine wiring.

I'm really surprised nobody produces a "plug and play" engine harness.

It's much easier for me to buy an engine that's already out of the car, but that makes finding an electrical harness problematic.

I'm not opposed to producing one here, from scratch, but I'll need the plugs.

Megasquirt might actually be easier.

Joe,

There are a ton of build threads on The Samba. Something to check out.

Samba Vanagon Forum Link

You can definitely megasquirt it as well. Bob (BIGKAT) is a huge megasquirt fan.

DIYPNP Megasquirt

This allows you to plug the stock engine harness leads right into the megasquirt unit. No mods needed. You do have to build the ECU yourself, but with your skills it would be easy. You'd need J93 or N122 depending on the year.

pm sent.

Yikes. To be truthful, I sleep well at night knowing that I don't own an M96 engine.

I thought there was a shop in CA that did this specific conversion.
You may want to do some heavy searching of the Samba....see if you can find some of the shops that did this...specifically for the wiring and adapters etc.

Rich

I love the NA 2.5 SOHC motor. Mine is built a bit & I use an aftermarket ECU from outfront motorsports. It's a Stinger ECU. They custom make you a harness so it is plug & play. I think the harness itself ran like $375 but will have to look back. Mine Dyno'd at 158hp to the rear wheels. Pulls great & with the suby trans shifts are smooth short & precise . Love it but will either go turbo or get a 6 at some point.

Subaru, ford, VW 2.0T and VW diesel are common conversions.


There's also this group.

vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines@googlegroups.com

Joe, there is a forum dedicated to vw van to Subaru conversions. I'll get that to you tonite. Do you have factory AC? Will you keep the VW tranny as well.

These days there are dozens and dozens of conversion shops, just search "vanagon subaru conversion" or something like that and you'll see pages of them. The group is probably the Yahoo Subaru-Vanagon group Yahoo Subaru Vanagon Group Smallcar is probably the best known, the one Rich is thinking about in California is probably Outfront Motorsports (was Outback Motorsports until Subaru asked them to change it), and even Kennedy Engineering has a CARB registered conversion for the older 2.2 engines.

I have a 2.0 so haven't paid too much attention to the 2.5's, but the best no-fuss engine for Vanagons would probably be the 2.5 SOHC engine, from about 2000 through about 2007, or whenever it was they started using the variable cam timing and drive by wire throttle bodies. That engine is common, cheap and pretty much bullet-proof. You can actually use the later low-mile engines, which aren't much more expensive than the older ones, just by changing to a manual cable throttle body and non variable cams. Not a big deal. The 2.2 engines through about 1997 were the original go forever motors, but they're getting a bit old at this point.

Smallcar is pretty expensive, but they do know what they're doing. You can replicate their stuff by doing a little reading in that Yahoo group and on the Samba, it just takes a bit more time and work. Biggest dollar vs. time issue is what to use for the ECU, stock or aftermarket. Most important I don't think I've heard anyone ever say anything negative about a completed Subaru swap.

I have A/C, but will make the necessary mods to use the Suby compressor. I will be using the Vanagon 4-speed.

I'd like to do a TDI, but that comes with a tranny rebuild because you need to change the gearing for the diesel, and that's not cheap.

I've been mulling it over for years and have decided the Subaru 2.5NA simply makes the most sense.

I would like to know about that. For $375, I would order a harness.