Ho, ho, ho...Merry ...Radiators?

So Thanksgiving rolls around and we're all tearing into the bird. My Father-in-Law asks about the Bus and hears that I'm switching to Subaru power.

For an Old School Volk like my Pa-in-law (who rebuilt Type1 engines over weekends in college to make his ends meet) this is just daft. Of course, he was rebuilding them in 1970 when factory parts were plentiful, and he was doing this work in San Bernadino, California. Not exactly expensive parts, or expensive machine services. He would get the car on a Friday, pull the engine and disassemble, take the heads in to be worked by the local machine shop. He would then rebuild the whole bottom end, new bearings, P&Cs and so on. Then he'd get the heads back late Saturday, put the whole thing back together, and have it back in the car Sunday, test drive, and return it to the owner for a fist-full of bread.

Well, that's the way the story has been told to me. When I described the travails of just SOURCING parts for a Type4 rebuild, he shook his head in bafflement. When I mentioned the L-Jet EFI he spat. He had been plagued with L-Jet in a Fiat Spider he had owned out of college, which had its EFI system replaced twice, once by the dealership, and once by him. "POS" was his estimation.

So to hear that I was going from an Aircooled VW product with outrageously expensive parts of marginal quality and a plain awful EFI system (his perspective) to completely replacing the entire power-plant with a Subaru....madness!

But the more I talked, and the more I was able to show worked examples, and the more I explained that this was not 'new ground' but just execution of 'prior art' the more he warmed to it. He had seen me pull the engine from the donor 97 Impreza and it didn't scare me at all. Even the EFI (which leaves him feeling baffled and incompetent to this day) didn't scare me. So he offers to chip in, for Christmas, the cost of the radiators.

Thanks, T. I appreciate the vote of confidence. I did not buy the most overbuilt all-aluminum tank system I could find. I just bought a pair of standard Mk1 525mm radiators, because I don't think it's nice to bleed my in-laws.

When they arrived...holy crow, they're light-weight. Blow away in the breeze, light. And very, very fragile. Not something to be torqued or shoved on while fitting, unless I wanted to immediately have them spring leaks when pressurized.

So I broke out the electric meat carver. (That usually gets people worried.) I brought home some hard cell foam from work, and cut a dimensionally accurate 3D mockup of the radiator. I stiffened it against torquing by adding hard foam core to the top and bottom with spray glue. (Don't sneer. Super77 will hold a race-car together in a pinch if you know how to apply it and let it flash off a little first.) Now I can see how stuff lines up (or doesn't) and what I have to correct to make the parts fit. (Or whether I can just leave it alone.)

Hint: I do NOT expect to get to leave ANYTHING alone. Without a good airflow and gasketing system, I expect these radiators are going to fit like socks on a rooster: Too tight here, too loose there.

That's why I'm using the consumable mock-up method with the hard foam radiator mockup. A quote from Steinbeck explains it perfectly:

“For many little errors like this, we have concluded that all collecting trips to fairly unknown regions should be made twice; once to make mistakes and once to correct them.” - John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Furthering the Art

I've been following the work of several pioneers in the field of conversion, and picking up tidbits from each of them. The earliest work on conversions out of Australia and New Zealand put the radiator underneath, which is still a popular method.

My dilemma is that I saw what I can only call the 'next generation' of conversions with dual radiators mounted in the engine compartment. All nicely modulated and hidden and contained. The major problem with these jobs is that they seemed vastly more likely to overheat than even the under-belly style were, not really any better at keeping the engine cool, and frankly, a pain to work on because everything was stacked together like it had been put through a car crusher, reducing everything to just a cube of equipment in the compartment, glowing hot.

Of course, these early jobs said absolutely nothing about their build theory, did not show progress shots, and offered no strong data upon which to form an opinion about the viability of the design. All anecdote. And maybe one picture of the finished hackage. And then complaints about how it overheated.

In 2012 & 2013, there was a step up in interest, both because of the drying up of usable and affordable engine parts, but also because a long time Type4 hop-up mechanic stated that he wasn't doing any more development on the aircooled engine. He's all about Subaru and Porsche now.

Others didn't wait: installations came out of Central California and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Now, there's mine in progress as well. All of these are better documented than the early attempts, but neither were done with the intention of being reproducible. Mine is.

From Las Cruces came an installation from an Aerospace grad, which held a lot of weight with me until I discovered that, for the Late Bay, his solution requires cutting on the chassis that I was not expecting. This didn't make me happy, but I used the method because it was the only way that I could get where I wanted to go at the price point I was willing to pay. The rest of this entry is to document and notate the chassis mods 'JMSkater' made to his 1973 model, and which I will have to do, too.

Fig. 13-A: 1972+ Engine compartment style. Subaru EJ series engine installed. Note the already trimmed stock air seal flange (just below the black cylindrical fuse holder) to permit the rotation of a stock VW Mk1 radiator into the small gap. The air flows down from the intake above (top left) pressurizing the entire left hand enclosure. Also note that the
spare tire well which usually protrudes down into the space has already been removed. Stock firewall missing,
so the fuel tank is visible. Note the metal plate with the two grommets in it just right of center in this picture. While it looks like there is plenty of room, this plate will have to come out.

Fig. 13-B: Same left hand area visible as above. A piece of 14 gauge mild sheet metal rough cut and inserted into place. When the center of this piece is removed, will eventually act as a gasket to force all incoming air through the radiator and not let it take the 'path of least resistance.. 

Fig. 13-C: Gasket / Radiator mount in place, with holes drilled for mounting the radiator to stock points on the tank bodies. Bear in mind that this is merely roughed in work at this point. Note in the bottom right of this picture that the two grommets have disappeared. The plate has been removed.

Fig. 13-D: Radiator propped up into the space it will occupy when fastened to the gasket. 

Fig. 13-E: Detail of the section where the wiring harness grommet plates were removed. To fit the stock, 525mm Mk1 radiator, both of these will have to come out. They are only spot-welded in and seam-sealed over. As such, they're easy to remove, and if kept in good shape, easy to reinstall by welding if you wish to reinstall the air cooled engine. Also, most of the wiring routing to the tail lights and engine electrical is going to have to move, anyway, so this is a ACTUALLY not a horrific loss.

Invisible Mods

A classic vehicle (or any work of industrial art, be it toaster, building, or a stick of furniture) which has been updated should not show it. This is against the 'keep it stock' crazies who would prefer to accept the limitations and maintenance headaches of keep all portions of the technology in the past. I wish them well. I don't intend to emulate them, but they're off having fun with their wheels, so why should it worry me?

When you provide material or functional updates to a vehicle that improve its power, reliability or maintenance cycle, they shouldn't stick out. Otherwise, you're either building a Frankenstien's monster, or a Hot Rod. Men who have hair transplants don't part their mop so you can see the scars. The same goes with breast augmentation: avoid showing the scars, because the scars say: "This isn't as all-natural as you think it is. It has become a pastiche of past glory and present functionality."

The VW has been a frequent target for augmentation. Perhaps that is a good thing, because it certainly means that they're often still on the road, and options exist for keeping them on the road when stock parts no longer exist for them. Still, there are technology improvements which are useful, desirable, increase safety or comfort and do not rub the viewer's nose in the fact that the vehicle has been augmented.

So here's a nice one to keep in the back pocket: If your wiper assembly has the extra contact for Intermittent, a Vanagon part might be in order. See the following:

Vanagon GL models came prewired for intermittent windshield wiper operation. If this feature was fitted as original, the wiper switch will click into a 4th position and relay #19 will allow the wipers to wipe at a fixed interval.

However, if the intermittent relay was not fitted as original, then a small plastic tab will be found in the wiper switch on the steering column stalk which prevents the lever from entering the intermittent position.


The intermittent feature is great, but there are times when the interval needs to be shorter or longer than the preset. Fortunately there are relays available (used from other vehicles or new from suppliers) which will plug right into the relay panel in place of the original #19.

Orderly

Since my wife has been sick, I've been watching the rotten children all weekend, except for when they're at their grand parents. Thank God for the grand parents.

In four days, the only three things I have done successfully are

1. Complete stripping the Impreza of usable parts
2. Get the power to the plasma cutter running
3. Haven't burnt down the garage.

Considering both my mood and the frustrations, I actually quit when I got the plasma cutter going, so I could say I ended on a high note.

I also realized that I'm gaining access to resources too fast, and its making me stupid. And distracting. So here is my official list of 'things that have to come first.'


1. Copiously document the power cable arrangements in the molex plugs for the double relay
2. Remove all wiring from the engine bay, backing out through rubber grommets, surgically removing from molex.
3. Remove tail light housings and all wiring.
4. Use disc cutter to remove:

• Air filter mount
• Unused Diag mount
• vapor rails
• cut out as much of the ruined battery tray as possible
• portion of air vent lip by the VIN

5. Remove ECU and store
6. Spraybomb the engine compartment in gloss white for contrast
7. With occlusions well removed, start mocking up for radiator supports