I was to start this project in a couple of weeks but I just went to order my first parts from KEP and found out they have a 5 week turnaround on the adapter plate. Oh well guess I'm waitin. That's ok more time for me to get my stuff together for my mech. If you don't want to wait as long you might want to contact seth down at MasterCraft (H&R). He usually has a stockpile of KEP parts on hand. Questions: 1. You mention the coolant system kit. This is not the manifold I believe. Is this the the hose kit with the SS T as seen on smallcar? ($180! wow that is steep for some hose clamps and a SS T) Actually, the kit I would use is the CHKT kit which runs 285. If you want to cut costs you can fab all this stuff using your choice of metals and hose combinations. I made my first conversion plumbing from copper fittings. Gets a lot of grumbles from the subaruvanagon site folks but guess what? It's still working just fine for the owner. There are approx 2,314 ways to plumb the conversion. Pick one that your'e comfortable with. His kit actually includes both hard lines to tie the radiator lines in 2. What is the black pipe to the left of the Manifold on the smallcar page? Is the something I will need to modify? I don’t see it sold anywhere separately. Every vendor does the coolant plumbing a little different and they all swear by their way. The bypass that smallcar shows coming off of their heater return line provides a method of allowing coolant to circulate out of the coolant manifold, thru the IAC, and back in to the heater return pipe where it will end up porting into the engine behind the thermostat. That allows circulation of coolant even if the thermo is not open. 3. Is the thermostat housing worth getting if I only have a regular van. It seems as if it will improve flow which is always good. My favored setup is to feed the burp tank upper port from a stack on the top of the coolant manifold.. The burp tank feeds out the bottom port (trapping air before allowing coolant out) to the heater line. The smaller line which feeds out of the coolant manifold feeds directly into Tom's bypass thermo flange. I've had good luck with heat and flow and easy bleeding with this setup. 4. Could you please tell me a little about the Hall Effect Speed Sensor. If you've got a 90-94 EJ22 engine, the vss is optional. You will get an ecu code but the engine will run just fine. If you add a vss such as is available thru fabrication or purchase from a vendor, you get rid of the ecu code. It usually operates in such a fashion as to allow the sending of a 12v sine wave with 1 or 2 ticks per rotation of the cv axle. That signal is sent to the subaru ecu, telling it the speed that the vehicle is traveling at. 5. How, now that you have done this a few times, do you feel about the exhaust system issue. I will be getting the KEP header. Can I use the stock J pipe? NO. You don't use a J Pipe with the header. You plumb directly into a cat. My stock muffler is junk but the CAT may be OK. I am a little wary of using the old CAT. Advice? Cats are about 100 bucks. If you're going to a muffler guy anyway, ask him to give you an honest evaluation of how many miles it has left on it and make your decision then. The smallcar clamp and bracket look pretty good. Not for you. Not if you're using the kep mount. If you're using the smallcar mount, you can use the smallcar clamp/bracket. 6. You are not reversing the Water manifold in the future huh? Not worth the labor? The principal reason for reversing the manifold is to clean up the engine bay and make the hose runs shorter. If the plumbing is done cleanly, you can save a lot of work (removing intake manifold and coolant manifold) to leave it as is. It just means a longer hose that will follow the perimeter of the engine compartment. Right? Special hose? If you get smallcars kit mentioned above, you're home free. If you put it together yourself, I'd advise looking at the ways that guys have done it on the subaruvanagon site. Still need to drill and tap for sensors correct? You can save yourself the work of doing this at the coolant manifold by reusing the subaru water temp sensor and putting a 22k resistor inline which'll make it read just like a vw sensor would. And unless you want aftermarket gauges, you're covcered for the stock vw gauges. So replacing the O-rings is still necessary. Nope. Well lots to do, Thanks again for all of your support. I think maybe I will give my van a gender change and name him Brent in your honor. PLease don't do that. You'll find that the van will only run when it wants to and will avoid hard work if at all possible!!!! Hey Scott. Here's the answers. And I don't blame you a bit for being curious about this stuff. I was pretty full of questions myself when I did my first conversion and was glad I had some folks to ask. . By the way what do you not like about Smallcar? I feel that Brian has made some fatal errors in allowing some of his released product go out without the proper amount of care in assuring good finishing touches. He's actually given Eric (a friend of mine) grief for doing conversions as he felt that it was threatening his business. Not a good attitude for someone dealing with the relatively small world of vanagon owners. That said I still maintain that smallcar has a great coolant kit and oil cooler setup at a good value. 1. Your new list does not include camshaft seals and does not clarify which crankshaft seal or both. Is this due to the seals on the engine you were working on were good? Should I replace all? By the way my 2.2 has 140K miles. Yes, I'd strongly suggest replacing both cam seals and both (front and rear) crank seals. And when you have the timing cover off and the idler pulleys exposed, give each of them a good wiggle to make sure that the bearings are sound. Some folks replace the oil pump while they're in there but as the ej22 is known to be sound for up to 300k, I would think that to be a bit premature unless there is known failure. Be sure to torque the crank pulley down when complete with the front end. Subaru's specs are not enough and are in error. 125 (disregard book which says 76-83). I've got other torque figures out at https://www.weidefamily.net/vanagon/Pending_Content/Engine_Conversion/Reference/1992SubaruEngineTorqueSettings.txt 2. Don’t you not like the KEP engine mount? Half the cost of others. I used the kep mount on my first conversion and it worked out great. I prefer the smallcar or h&r mount though. You can use the stock vw cross bar to support their mounts which allows easy reinstallation of the stock heat shielding. The kep mount makes it very difficult to install the side shields and I feel it does not balance the engine weight as well as the smallcar or h&r units. 3. What are the coolant manifold O-ring specks? Or just order the Subaru appropriate. Just order the stock subaru o-rings for the coolant manifold. But only if you're going to remove the manifold. On future conversions I'll not be reversing the manifold even if it does make the engine bay tidier. 4. Air system: What to “fabricate” the Air Intake Duct from? KEP’s not worth the money? If I get the K&H filter what to do about the intake muffler (I’m confused at the difference). I fabricated my intake using subaru intake plumbing from the salvage yard. To be honest, I felt that KEP is asking too much for a piece of shaped plastic. I'm admittedly cheap but will purchase an item if I know it saves me time or if I an unable to come up with a clean alternative. It's just too easy to build the intake plumbing using available bits. Remember that you can find silicone and rubber collars that'll work great for connecting to the throttle body if you need to. Depending on what type of van you have you may very well have enough room between the throttle body and firewall to make the left turn and head back toward the left front corner of the engine bay with your stock subaru intake plumbing. From there all you have to do is connect to your subaru Mass Air Flow unit and into your air filter of choice. Again, don't let me dissuade you from KEP's air intake. He did a fairly good job of working the angles and he gives you the three necessary ports (two for valve cover ventilation and one for charcoal cannister ventilation) to tie those hoses into. As this is your first conversion you have to decide whether you want the ease (and luxury) that you'll get with all kit parts or if you want to be more adventurous and fab your own. Tom Shiels Air Wedge worth the $100.00? I don’t like the idea of cutting the firewall. Where to get “Commercial” flange Shiels is talking about on his system? (This air system is for some reason confusing/worrying me.) Don't sweat the small stuff. And the air system is indeed small stuff. The commercial flange he mentions can be as simple as a piece of sheet metal that screws into the engine bay wall on the left side of your engine bay and protrudes over into the bay to support the mass air flow sensor. Because the mafs bolts up to the air filter with four bolts, it's the perfect place to sandwich a supporting flange in. I really dont like the idea of cutting the firewall either and try to minimize that action as much as possible. Iv'e only cut around where the coolant pipes travel to ensure there was wiggle room there. Many 2wd vans will have plenty of room for air intake. 5. Is the Exhaust mount (for use with the KEP engine mount) @ Tom Sheils site worthy of consideration? I did not see any mention of it anywhere other than their site. Well, you didn't see my site then. I used Tom's support on my first conversion and he did a super job for me. Check out my site and look in the engine/exhaust section. If you don't have access to a welder it's a great way to go. It's one of the few prefab ways to go if you are using a kep mount. 6. Will the catalytic converter be the correct size as long as I use the 2” exhaust dimension? I see you have muffler specifications but not for CAT. The cat dimensions will pretty much be dictated by the diameter of the header you purchase. You'll need something with a three bolt flange and it will look exactly like what you have now. In fact, if your's is in good shape you can reuse it. 7. Could you send me a pic of the fuse holders so I get the correct type? http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103778&cp=&origkw=fuse+holder&kw=fuse+holder&parentPage=search 8. Tachometer Modification; your list indicates DIY. Instructions on your site? I could not find any. Are the gauge overlays necessary because the Subaru runs at higher RPMS? Or are the overlays the modification. Confused. You could do the tach mod. The instructions are out on the subaruvanagon site or here on my site..... https://www.weidefamily.net/vanagon/Pending_Content/Engine_Conversion/12Tachometer/86-91TachMod/2.2LVWTachMod.doc I've done one successfully and one unsuccessfully. Its difficult for me to work on super small things like resistors so I find it easier to spring for the $35 tach from smallcar. The overlays are fancy dress. I never liked the dark background on the stock gauges and appreciate the better visibility of a white background. And yes, I print them out so that the tach runs accurately to 7k. The suby engine does turn higher rpms that the vw ever could. https://www.weidefamily.net/vanagon/Pending_Content/Engine_Conversion/12Tachometer/IMG_2631.JPG Here's a pic of my tach complete with fingernail polish on the needle and home printed overlays applied with two sided tape. 9. Temp sensor; do I need to get an older style threaded sensor? If so part #? Yes. Either that or you can use your stock subaru coolant sensor and throw a 22k resistor inline (probably the easiest thing to do.) I don't know the part number but if you get one from an 84-86 or so van, it'll also do the trick. The thing to remember is that the later model vans use a non-threaded coolant sensor so they're pretty easy to tell apart from the earlier, threaded models. Gift certificate on the way. Thanks, Scotty. When do you start on this project? Have you ordered your parts yet? What year and model van? All the best, Brent Hey Brent I got some more questions. 1. I am trying to cross reference your Engine Conversion list with your Engine Conversion Pricelist so I can figure out where to get all my stuff. I want to make sure I get as much stuff ready for my mechanic as I can. Is the pricelist info up to date? Omissions? Additions? Changes? I've attached my latest parts list from a 2.5 project i finished last week. It's as fresh as they come. There are three pages to the spreadsheet. If you don't have excel, holler and I can send it in a different format. 2. The transmission cooler looks cool. How necessary? My transmission is not getting rebuilt. Where to get the parts. Above the trans. working out? I would say that the tranny cooler on an automatic transmission is a necessity. Especially if you modify your shift points which most folks end up doing. It works terrific above the engine but from now on I'll mount it suspended between the frame rail and the side of the van. Easier to get to there. If you want to go with a kit, go look at smallcars parts site. If you want to do it yourself with new parts you still have choices to make. You can drill and carefully tap the threads of the transmission to a standard SAE thread or you can leave them metric and pick up some fittings to get you to 3/8" tranny oil hose. Below I've listed some part numbers you can find online to help you decide. Here's a link to a tranny cooler at summit racing: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2DG4960A&N=4294888847+115&autoview=sku You'll need two fittings that screw into the transaxle body like these..... http://fittingsandadapters.stores.yahoo.net/maljictomalm.html Male Metric Adapter Part Number 816MM-5-12 Male JIC 5/16 JIC ThreadSize 1/2-20 Male Metric M12x1.5 Sale Price $15.60 (OR, if you like bling) http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=AER-FBM2246&N=400274+304784&autoview=sku Part Number AER-FBM2246 Type Fitting Straight Desc AN Flare to Metric -6 AN to 12mm x 1.5 Male Metal Aluminum Color Blue Price Each $9.95 You'll need two fittings that take your adapter to the 3/8" hose like these..... http://store.yahoo.com/fittingsandadapters/puslochosto9.html Push Lock Hose To 90° Female JIC (Swivel)(Steel) Part Number JF-90-6-6 Hose I.D. 3/8 Female JIC 3/8 Female JIC Thread Size 9/16-18 Sale Price $6.47 (OR, if you like bling) http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=AER%2DFBM1532&view=1&N=700+400274+0 3. How far back to mount the Vanagon engine cradle? If you're using the smallcar mount, you can find their instructions on their website. Here's an extract.... "After the mount is attached to the engine and the and crossbar is bolted up, new holes will need to be drilled where the crossbar bolts to the frame rail. The new holes will be about 2 5/8" behind the original ones. The holes formerly used for the rear of the crossbar will be close to lining up with the front holes. " 4. Muffle where in town did you get it? Catalytic converter? I checked out a lot of alternative mufflers before deciding on a non-vw, universal muffler which was installed by a local muffler shop and came with a lifetime warranty. I'm very pleased with the sound level and performance. Final cost was $99 including parts, labor, and warranty. I got my muffler and had it installed in a shop over on Cornell, in Hillsboro. The name escapes me now but it is right next door to Clays. Here's Clays address.... Clay's Auto Service | 503693860 1929 Ne Cornell Rd, Hillsboro, OR, 97124 5. In your photos did you install the engine with the old oil pan then bolt on the shorter one? Just curious. Yes. The reason I did it that way was because I don't yet have a motor stand which allows me to easily flip the engine. Plus, I don't want to scratch up that pretty new pan sliding it under the car. You sure you don't want a free meal at my restaurant? Now wait a minute. I didn't turn any free food down. I'd love to come out and get some good food. Let me know how to go about it. If you are there, and have a few minutes, we can peak under the lid on my vanagon.