Lie to Me

It is with a sick feeling in my gut and a bitter tang in my mouth that I write this.

I've been had. The VolksarU 0.1 design, as described here over the last 18 months, is not sustainable. In short, if you've been pursuing a solution based on the VolksarU 0.1 work to date, you're in the same hole I'm in: Wasted time, skull sweat, useless products, squandered money, and hours of my life that I'm not going to get back.

It is the hours that I'm the most pissed about, because they're the only currency that matters. You get a certain number of them when you're born, and like a unmarked gift card, you redeem its value one heartbeat at a time without ever knowing what the balance is left on your account. When you run out, you're done. Kaput. So I resent the hours lost more than anything else.

So I'd better define 'not sustainable.' The reasons that I started down this path, not just of a liquid cooled engine but of the dual, in-bay radiators were numerous:

• In-bay offered more protection
• In-bay leveraged the use of common stock VW components that are still in production
• In-bay leveraged the cooling intake already built into the body of the T2B (73-79, aka 'Late Bay') 
• In-bay offered the greatest potential for an inexpensive solution that could be accomplished by the owner/operator with only common home tools and very few inexpensive, specialized services.
• Most of all, in-bay had several 'worked examples' which advertised themselves as 'working solutions.' So in-bay was prior art and not especially innovative. Making the installation simple was what required the innovation, and that's what I set out to do with VolksarU: make it simple.

Instead, I've been had by builders who have done in-bay installations, crowed about it to the world, put up videos, shown off their work in pictures and forum threads, and claim 'it just works!' The most important details were left out: What are your coolant temperatures? At what speed? What fans are you running? How much are you running your fans? Under what load? At what mph? What RPM? What gear ratio and final drive? Early bay with small intakes, late bus with large intakes...etc? There's a saying in science: If you can't explain it using numbers, it is opinion, not data. Or put another way, (this one's mine) "anecdote is not the plural of data." So lots of chest beating out there, but damn little data.

This is common among whirly-gig shade-tree mechanics: Make it work just well enough to say "It runs! It's Miller Time!" This makes engineers scream and start pulling hairs out of the back of their hands. The blame is shared: The shade-tree mechanic over-represents the work and the claims are accepted at face value by other "shadys" and by a few engineers who unwisely let the contagious optimism get the better of their natural pessimism.

There's a saying that has been around in various forms since the 18th Century (and probably longer) that sums up this Murphy's Law-esque phenomenon: "Never blame intentional malice for what is more likely unintentional carelessness." I'd say that sums up what's happened here pretty well.

What caused this fiction to topple was when D.W. in Connecticut (who I'm acquainted with and who does dead clever fab work that would make NASA proud) finished restoring his 1970 low-light Bus, did the dual in-bay VolksarU 0.1 style installation: and Voilà, Instant Overtemp Conditions! When he properly started asking the engineering questions, some facepalm inducing facts came to light:

1. No one had built a test harness to see what the true temperature in the engine bay actually was.
2. No one had instrumented what the coolant temperature differential (the ability to cool) was under various scenarios. No one at all.
3. No one actually knew how often their fans were running.
4. Critically, there are no worked examples capable of sustained freeway speed without overheating. (There are reasons for this, which I'll get to.)
5. But most important, until D.W. 'put his hand up' publicly to report the design failure, no one who had spun these tales of inexpensive functionality had ever reported 'what the final results were.' Not one of them. (Though props to BoxerMick in Colorado, who was discovering and truth-telling the limitations of his installation about the same time (August 2014) that the rest of this all came to light. To date, he's still running at temperatures that would cause a production engineer to give a thumbs down for running without a safety margin.)

All of the shadys eventually justified their half-truth one way or another: "It's good enough for in-town driving."  "I drove mine cross country!" (And your engine blew up less than 6 months after you got to your destination, a fact you failed to report until someone ratted on you.) The haters & purists (which are usually synonyms) came out in force to laugh and make personal attacks...against those who had uncovered the fraud! These are the types of detestable vermin who cheer when someone fails.

Viewed in retrospect, there are several show-stoppers, all of which are addressable if you spray enough money at it. So if you've been following VolksarU as 'cheap speed,' then you missed the whole point the first time around. Stamp 'CHEAP DREAMER' on your forehead and then go back and read the FAQ, specifically the part about priorities: Reliability, Cost Control, DIY Friendly and Longevity.

The VolksarU 0.1 design fails for the following reasons:

1. A Subaru 2.2L engine / transmission pair makes 65MPH for 2700RPM in 5th gear. The VW engine / transmission pair makes 65MPH for 4200RPM in 4th gear. We have a fundamental collision of assumptions here. If you're turning a Subaru at 4200RPM for mile after weary mile, you're wearing the engine at a tremendous rate by combination of more heat, more friction, more wear just to keep up with traffic in an already cooling limited environment. Result: short lifespan for the engine in real-world use. Fail.
2. A traditional Subaru factory installation puts the top of the engine about even with the top of the radiator. The coolant pump only has to be able to lift a 'head' of 6 inches, then it's out to the radiator inlet, and falling with a free gravity return the whole way. Also, counting all of the turns the coolant must take, I count 4 turns (stock) until it is back at the engine. By comparison, using dual scirocco radiators creates 11 90° turns. All of those turns require pressure and power; they're not free. If a stock Subaru configuration lifts the coolant 6 inches before gravity takes over, the scirocco radiators require a head of 18" from the pump because they are completely above the top of the engine! 3x the lift? That's crazy. The majority of the pump's energy goes into getting it pushed up the first hill, just like a roller coaster, and then has to keep pushing it through the labyrinth of turns of those two radiators. That's bad news when you're beat'n the dog at 4200RPM just to keep up with traffic. Fail.
3. Finally, and most damning, the engine compartment was only ever designed for active cooling, meaning when the engine's running, there's a fan running, too. Nothing short of body surgery is going to change that. Fail.

There are fixes for each one of these, but if you think I'm going to test them all, you're nuts: I'm already a year over-due on this project. Some of the things that might be done to change the game are:

• Have your VW transmission rebuilt with a different 4th gear and final drive gear. Now put the biggest tires that will fit on it: 27 inches tall. All of these changes mean that you won't have to turn the engine as fast, so you won't be making as much heat. That won't make your transmission any more tolerant of the much greater torque and horsepower from the engine, but it will lower your RPM. Another alternative is to replace the VW transmission with the proper Subaru one with a flipped ring & pinion. That will make the engine very happy. But will that fix the overtemp problem and allow you to keep the radiators in-bay? I look forward to someone else being the first to spend their dough to find out.
• Active cooling: When the engine turns over, stone-cold in February, start the radiator fans on high. You might not overheat before you get where you're going. So do you feel lucky? What's your travel range in the dead of summer in Galveston? You might get to the grocery store. Or not.
• Change radiators: something that doesn't require as much work from the coolant pump. I cannot fathom how you would do this successfully in-bay without murdering the exterior aesthetics, but again, I'm letting someone else figure that out. I'm done with trying to make 10 lbs. of bologna fit in a 5 lb. bag.

Instead, I'm revisiting one of the alternatives based on actual documented success. VolksarU 0.2 "Pot-Belly Pig" will use an aluminum radiator with a small scoop between the frame rails.

So the moral of this story is three-fold:

1. Don't trust. Politely verify. 
2. If it sounds too good to be true, it hasn't been measured enough.
3. Don't be an optimist. They may enjoy their lives more, but they make lousy engineers.

And finally, to the liars (not telling the whole truth is a lie): Your personal pride interfering with sharing the whole truth has cost a lot of people a lot of money and their more valuable currency, time. You've made yourselves and the rest of us look ridiculous to the haters. So take a lesson: When your 'Miller Time' engineering goes wrong, don't just sit on your hands and hope something magically gets better. That is the logic of a 5 year-old.

Be an adult: Put your damn hand up.

Two Radiators, One ECU

So typically, in these scirocco radiator installations, the logic for fan control is um...dumb. I mean that literally: The thermistor (coolant temp sensor, aka CLT in Autogeek terms) that screws into the radiator turns the fan on at 196°F and off at 191°F or thereabouts depending on which CLT you buy.

For a dumb, un-coordinated system circa 1974 (when it was designed) it works. One radiator, one fan, one thermistor (CLT.)

But when you put two radiators in a series coolant loop, yet still hand over simple minded fan control to separate uncoordinated CLTs, you've got a case where your cooling fans are not working in concert with each other: they still think they're each in their own single car and they manage cooling their radiator independently.

As an example of bad things that can happen: the coolant exits the engine past the factory CLT probe, but since we don't use it for fan control, it can't help us. The coolant enters the left radiator, and does one full pass before the thermistor CLT (LEFT) gets hit, giving an artificially low reading. If the artificially low reading is still hot enough, CLT (LEFT) turns on its FAN (LEFT.) RAD1 (LEFT) cools better for the help of the fan. By the time CLT (RIGHT) sees the temperature, we've already done 3 passes through the scirocco radiators. That means that CLT (RIGHT) may read just cool enough not to turn on its FAN (RIGHT.) So the left hand fan gets a work-out, and the right hand fan gets...less action.

Instead of trusting these blind switches that were not designed for this engine, let alone this daffy application (A Subaru in a Bus?!?) I'm keeping all of the control with the Subaru ECU, because it is using a HELL of a lot more sensor information to determine cooling requirements than just simple thermistors.

Look at the diagram below, and then read the description at the bottom.


There are two types of fans available for these housings: single speed and dual speed. They get two speeds by having two windings. Power one winding: low speed. Power both windings: high speed. In the factory scirocco applications, the low speed winding was connected to the AC compressor; When the compressor comes on it automatically switches on the low speed winding to cool the condenser (inline with the radiator) as well as to slightly over-cool the engine, since running the AC produces more load and more heat. The high speed side still operates for coolant over-temp situations triggered just by the screw-in thermistor. Cars without AC had only a single speed fan, triggered by the thermistor.

With its stock fans and radiator, the Subaru ECU controls two single speed fans, a smaller fan (AC ON and/or low heat load) and a larger fan (over-temp conditions.) Unlike the blind thermistor however, the Subaru ECU uses multiple sensors to determine conditions: the CLT sensor measures coolant temp at its hottest point where it exits the engine, and the VSS which measures the Vehicle's Speed and can take into account how much ram air the radiator should be receiving and therefore whether to trigger the small fan, the large fan, or both for maximum cooling.

If you follow the diagram, you'll see that I'm only just twinning the number of relays that FAN1 & FAN2 low amp circuits control. When the ECU triggers for slow speed cooling (FAN2, in blue) then FAN2A & FAN2B are both energized, cooling the flow through both radiators concurrently instead of relying on the blindly independent control of the thermistors screwed into each radiator.

The Subaru ECU can compute needed cooling based on load (MAF data vs MAP & BARO correction,) plus the vehicle's speed (VSS) and the CLT temperature value all at the same time. If FAN2A & FAN2B aren't doing the job, the ECU will add FAN1A & FAN1B (the green circuit) for maximum flow. In this way, the ECU waves the baton for all four circuits on both radiators concurrently. No chance of two different thermistors deciding to do different things with their fans.

That's the concept in a (very verbose) nut-shell. The wiring is actually very simple (which is good, because I'm sort of rubbish at wiring) and Jeff Robenolt fabbed up a fuse and relay box for me from Subaru parts based on my design. It all works, and spending 60 seconds with it would allow the idea to make sense to someone who can't follow my ersatz wiring diagram. I'm going to do a slightly higher end build using new Cooper-Bussman fuse panels and relay blocks to really clean up the appearance and make it very simple to mount and diagnose. It also removes the need to harvest the mounts, fuse panels and relay blocks from the donor Subaru which always look bodged together when hacked into a new vehicle. Better to spend the extra $50 on an off-the shelf solution of common industry parts than unnecessarily harvesting brittle old plastic from a 20 year old Subaru.

One!

I came wobbling back home from my first Monday back at work since vacation. I say 'first Monday' and not 'first day' because I was corporeally present during the previous Thursday and Friday, but I was not present mentally. And the week coming up isn't shaping up too well, either.

I figured I'd get back from vacation on Thursday, bounce through catch-up stuff at work, come home and start applying all of the pent-up Bus-buildin' & fabricatin' enthusiasm that had been building while I was on vacation. (Clarification: My employer considers this vacation, since I book time against it, don't show up and get paid anyway. I do not personally consider it vacation because I am an introvert and this trip was to share one house in San Diego with most all of my wife's relations living in California. (15 people: some elderly, others senior, middle age, young parents, children and toddlers) for a week straight, plus assorted dinner guests occasionally raising the population to 21 for meals under one roof for six days. All lovely people, but we don't really go anywhere, we just sit around sweating (no AC) with occasional relief dips in the pool.

Nuts. That wasn't vacation. That's the relational equivalent of Chinese Water Torture. There isn't even anywhere to hide to read a book. The closing weekend, my wife and I were scheduled to decamp with my kids (still not a vacation if I have to ride herd on them) to Los Angles/Thousand Oaks with her brother and his family, who are all introverts, thank God. The relentlessly close quarters finally got to my son who had a grand-mal freakout which disqualified him from going, so my wife and I did the sensible thing when two parents have two children: each take one kid and go to opposite corners. I went to LA with my daughter and my wife stayed in San Diego.

Don't get me wrong...I love my daughter, despite the congenital defect of being an extrovert and a delusional (even for a 7 year old) narcissist. I love my brother-in-law, his wonderful wife, and my delightful nephew. But this still isn't vacation in the 'I get to do what I'd like to do' sort of way. Since every single vintage VW shop in the state (most of which are in LA) was closed for the long Federal Holiday weekend, there wasn't any place I could go that fed my vintage vehicle habit; even the perpetual car shows that seem to run from March to November in California were all shut down for the time I was in state. In lieu of being able to move my much delayed project forward, I decided to push sight-seeing for my daughter, who fancies herself an adventurer. So I gave her some adventure. (Cue fright music here.)

We drove South on Rt. 23 over the Santa Monica Mountains, what is considered to be one of the more notoriously dangerous roads in the state, as its mere 12 miles is repleat with wicked twists and mostly unguarded drop-offs into deep canyons while climbing and weaving up and up to a height of 2200ft. With foothills aplenty and near the ridgeline, you can see clearly to the Tehachapi range about 50 miles North-NorthEast, or 180° to the South and see the Pacific Ocean stretching out to the horizon.

Absolutely...blew...her...mind. Her biggest sense of scale previously has been driving the Walt Whitman Bridge over the Delaware River into Philadelphia. Mind officially blown.

Of course, that only used up about 90 minutes. So we continued down the mountain to the Pacific Coast Highway, parked by the side of the road, slipped on swimsuits, and went in the Pacific. At a surf beach. Bad idea. Bashed against rocks, my prescription sunglasses are swimming with the fishes, and I just about lost her (and she, me) to the ferocious undertow. Nobody said "Adventure" was safe.

So for ten days of declared 'vacation' I got one day off my leash, but with the proviso that whatever I do, it has to be safe enough, interesting enough, and mundane enough to justify taking my easily bored seven year old along.

When we returned home, I was chomping at the bit to 'do the next thing.' But things were broken, or that needed fixing, and nobody feels like cooking, and could I PLEASE clean up some of the jetsam in the bedroom. In a foul mood, I slogged through the piles in the bedroom and found the long ago ordered oil separator plate (and the weirdy-special 5.5mm broached button head bolts from Subaru) all of which replace the stock plastic (PLASTIC!?!) plate which is prone to leak like a wicker basket. Having lost the evening cleaning, I set the parts aside for installation, as the one thing I have learned in spades is to never go out to do delicate work when you are tired, angry, and stressed out. That is a recipe for broken pieces, ruined tools, and psychological meltdown. It can wait ONE night.

Except it was the same drill last night. Seeing that I was starting to look a little crazed, my beloved told me I was off my leash for the rest of the night and I scooped up the parts and headed for the garage before she changed her mind.

The oil separator plate replacement is about as idiot simple as they come. 6 screws & plate removed and tossed, clean the mating surface of old sealant, then Permatex Ultra Gray for the new seal, then apply 5 bolts randomly and one 'special' where the arrow points. Torque to 5ft/lbs.

I cleaned that mating surface until it was a narrow, curvy mirror letting all of my pent-up OCD out on it because the spot is a notorious leak point which cannot be accessed in situ, so the plate must be installed before I can transfer the engine to the hoist or add the flywheel or anything else. In project management speak, this was a 'blocking' procedure that prevented any other move to be made.

Having buttoned everything up, I marched back into the house and announced "ONE!"

"Sorry?" My wife looked up from the game on her phone she was noodling with while not attending to a baseball game on the TV. Both are there for her distraction, the same reason that I work on old cars.

"ONE thing is done. After weeks of immobility, I just got ONE LOUSY THING done."

One. Yet, it was the next one upon which all others waited. So in the totality of the project, it is a barely a pimple. But in this moment, straining at the leash before beginning major work to install the engine, it was the next thing, even if it was the only thing I've been able to shift in a month. Between nothing and something...I'll take one.

The Time Draweth Nigh

I went to a lovely show this past weekend, having just gotten back from vacation. The Deutsche Classic is one of the premiere 'all-emblem' shows on the East Coast, offering anyone with any vehicle from Germany to get together and see what else is going on with other vintage cars from the same era and region. It's fascinating to see how many parts are shared between Mercedes, BMW, VW, Porsche, etc. It also tends to pour cold water on the 'my marque is best' fatheads who believe that if it isn't a Benz (or VW, or Porsche,) it isn't anything. It lets you see other people having equal passion for their hobby, too.

One of the nice parts for me was to see at least two VWs (Vanagon's, I'll grant you) who had experienced engine conversions, one to a Ford Zetec (conversion by Bostig) and one to a Subaru (using SmallCar components.) The Subaru has already had (no joke, though my jaw fell open when I heard it) 140,000 miles on the road pushing the Vanagon around. The owner bloody loves it, though he is dis-satisfied with the quality of the parts from SmallCar. Still, it was nice to see a worked example even if it isn't my model with my additional challenges.

While toodling around, I met Jeff Hickens, one of those 'pillars of the community' who gives freely and has a good time doing it. He donated his old windshield to my Bus project to help get me on the road when he wanted new glass for his 1979 restored beauty, but he saved the old one when it came out and donated it to me. So nice. He was presiding over a stack of literature for the forthcoming All Aircooled Gathering in Flanders, NJ late in September. This is a great bash, and I was planning to make it, because they've got a great swap meet and every year they feature a specific model vintage VW to help encourage preservationists to bring 'their precious' out to share.

Oh dear heavens. This year the feature is the late model T2B Bay Window Bus. In other words, MY model.

10 weeks. 10 ruttin' weeks until the big hooha. If I poured all of the time, effort, money by the metric butt-load necessary into this, could I have it ready to make the 90 minute trip? Just douse myself in gasoline, set myself alight and work like a nutter until I burned down to a small pile of ash.... achievable?

No. Not because I don't have the will, but because I have neither the buffers of cash or time, at least not all at once. This a home shop fabrication project: The dance steps look like this 'one step forward, twelve steps back, twenty steps forward, eight steps back' and that's when not interrupted by family crises, illnesses,  frighteningly astronomical doctor's visits, relationship stressors, employment boondoggles, failing appliances and other quotidian chores. Having performed a regular some-assembly-required installation of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) parts the way the Big Green Book (Bentley Factory Manual) says to, I'll confess that fab and engineering solutions are a exponentially greater challenge than just assembly. 2014 has not been kind to my family, with fisgigging pops and crackles of radically unanticipated setbacks, and that usually means I come home from work, not so much to relax or retire or even have relationships with my family, but to ride in to the rescue and fix the next thing (or person) that has fallen off the Christmas tree. My wife succinctly (and without humor) refers to this as "Waiting for the other shoe to explode."

So even if I were able to integrate and assemble all of the bits and bobs that I already have at hand, then add everything else I know I need which I haven't sourced yet (fan housings, fans, dual circuit fan power control, preformed coolant hoses, expansion tank, exhaust system, air intake piping, air cleaner solution...) Even if I could make all of that happen, there's still a big, big list of items that are open questions that I have yet to explore their functionality:

Do the brakes even work? Master Cylinder? Calipers? Slave cylinders? Brake Hoses? If I get this thing going, am I going to be able to stop it, or am I going to wind up in the creek at the end of the block? If I turn the steering, will the tie rods move, or just take my suggestion to turn 'under advisement?' Turn indicators? How about that shifter? Or am I going to lose two shocks right off the back after the first pot hole?

This is the vehicle that has been in the worst condition that I've ever purchased (from a neglect standpoint) and it means that even the most mundane element must be validated, including components that are long term consumables (battery, tires, brakes, fluids, shocks, suspension components) to find out if they are even in serviceable order. Tires, batteries, brake fluid are all on 'replace regardless' list. That will be about $500 just there. Brakes? if I do everything from the spindles out (bearings, backing plates, drums, shoes, discs, calipers and dear God please don't let the brake vacuum canister be bad!) that will be another $400 minimum. Essentially...I'm having to plan to build the Bus all over again and hoping that statistics (and blind Providence) will mean that I won't have to replace EVERYTHING.

So full speed ahead on the really important stuff: the work that has to be done before the snow comes. (Do I think this far in advance in August? Hell, yes!) The money comes, the money goes, so I have to grind forward whenever the bucks bob to the surface. It means a fits-and-starts relationship with the project, but the only way to finish is to keep doing it.

Yay, me.

As an example, here's the breakdown of the anticipated "if it all goes wrong" cost of doing the brakes, bumper to bump, every component JUST of the brake system. That will be $1099, thank you. Gawgk!

Rear Wheel Bearing & Seal Kit (#211501287K)  Unit Price $39.95 $79.90
Brake Drum (#211609615)  Unit Price $55.87 $111.74
Rear Wheel Cylinder (#211611047F)  Unit Price $14.95 $29.90
Front Brake Pads (#D195S)  Unit Price $24.95 $24.95
Rear Brake Shoes (#421)  Unit Price $33.95 $33.95
Front Brake Backing Plate (#211405593)  Unit Price $24.95 $24.95
Front Brake Backing Plate (#211405594)  Unit Price $24.95 $24.95
Brake Hardware Kit (#17178R)  Unit Price $12.95 $12.95
Brake Shoe Adjuster Nut (#113609205A)  Unit Price $5.86 $11.72
Bearing (#211405625)  Unit Price $8.65 $17.30
Front Wheel Bearing (#211405645D)  Unit Price $6.86 $13.72
Brake Backing Plates (#211609425PR)  Unit Price $79.95 $79.95
Brake Master Cylinder (#211611021AA)  Unit Price $199.95 $199.95
Brake Hose (#281611775BMY)  Unit Price $12.77 $25.54
Brake Hose (#211611775BMY)  Unit Price $13.16 $26.32
Front Brake Caliper (#251615108X)  Unit Price $63.99 $63.99 Deposit: $27.00
Front Brake Caliper (#251615107X)  Unit Price $63.99 $63.99 Deposit: $27.00
Power Brake Booster (#211612103AX) Unit Price $199.95

Fugue for Engine Carrier and Wiring Harness

As I get dragged kicking and screaming away from my tools for two weeks to go on vacation, I have a couple of pleasing events to report:


My wiring harness is off to Jeff Robenolt in Wisconsin to be worked over and turned into a harness adapted for use in a Bus. Jeff is a good egg: a real thinker about ways to improve the art, not just crank out monkey copies of what has gone before. In my case, I'm specifying certain modifications that would have gotten me turned down (or laughed off) by some of the other folks who do the conversions.

The most significant modification is for the circuit and their fans. This isn't actually to make it more exotic or specialized, it is to more effectively use the programmatic intelligence of the Subaru ECU to manage cooling a relatively exotic and specialized cooling environment:

The Scirocco fans are dual power, that way cooling could be increased without adding an additional fan. There are two circuits to drive the same fan: a 250W and a 150W. Put on the AC, and the 150W comes on constant because the AC condenser is sandwiched in with the radiator. AC needs a lot more air volume passing over it (and a guarantee of air volume, when slowed or stopped) to ensure that the AC system will work correctly.

The 250W circuit is to pull air through faster if the coolant got to hot. It pulls a steep 20 Amps at 12 volts. This is not a circuit you want closed all of the time: this is for when you're in the bad spot of Dallas asphalt in August at 110°F in the shade, and you're stuck crawling along, stop and go at 5mph in first gear. The pitch of the blades is so steep, its clear that this fan is designed to come on, waste no time pulling your coolant temperature down out of the danger zone and then shut off again. It shouldn't ever be running all of the time.

The Subaru also has two circuits for fan control, but it is for two different fans. In this case, I'm getting Jeff's help to rework the circuit so that the FAN1 signal from the ECU closes the relay for the 250W pair (40A total draw!) and the FAN2 signal closes the relay for the 150W pair (20A total draw.) The fans themselves will be tapped directly off the battery, for the shortest power path.

Here's the interesting question that Jeff is going to be working on: Does Fan2 only come on in a Subaru application when there is air conditioning? Does the ECU ever trigger BOTH fans even without the AC circuit being closed? I don't know. HE doesn't know. So we're going to find out, and what we learn will help guide the continuing evolution of the VolksarU design.

Those of you who pay attention to power draw may note that, if it were even possible for both fan circuits to be engaged at the same time it would constitute a load of 60A just to run the fans. (Are these fans designed to run at an additive wattage? I dunno. That's what we're testing.) The Alternator on the EJ22 is only designed to put out 75A, which is more than enough to push a 5 passenger car with power-everything down the road. I'm actually hoping that the 150W circuit is AC only. But we won't know until the test is complete.


The second piece of happy news may be documented in a somewhat blurry picture, but it is a beautiful sight to me:

This is the EJ22e engine rotated 180° (upside down) and the beautiful Rocky Mountain Westy engine carrier bar bolted on to the engine with new vibration dampners. On the left you can see that I've mocked up the extension arm that reaches to the rear and bolts to the factory carrier bar chassis holes for the 1972-1973 Type4 based bodies. This is the only design I've seen that does this, and it's brilliant: It locks the carrier into place in three degrees of rotation, and does so without requiring any cutting or welding on the body, re-using as many stock mounting points as possible. In it's own way, it is the perfect demonstration of the VolksarU ideal: Installation is DIY friendly, no body mods needed and is compatible with two decades worth of Subaru EJ series engines. If you decide to trade up to an EJ33 or a Subaru H6 engine...they just fit. A lot of smart engineering, jig and fab work went into this carrier.

To my knowledge, only two other companies offer carrier bars "cash and carry" rather than a custom fabrication each time, but they're both in the UK. (RJES & Fellows Speed Shop.) Both are good products and have the merit of being weld-in compatible with many different models, but require someone to do the welding, so they aren't as DIY friendly (unless you already weld.)

With that, I'm closing up shop and going on vacation. See you in mid-July!

Divine Intervention?

So I'm officially broke. This project hasn't beggared me.  Everything else has. It isn't 'the expense you weren't expecting' that wrecks you, its when 5 or 6 expenses you weren't expecting all kick in the front door in the same week.

Blown controller board in the refrigerator, AC drops dead in your commuter car (At the start of summer, dammit!), wife needs new lenses for her glasses she has put off buying for a year, your son needs a replacement tablet you've put off buying for four months....etc, etc, etc. It all landed at the same time.

My wife, who has great sympathy for my trying to move this along tells me, sorry, you must pause until the end of the month. We go into low consumption mode on everything we can until the next check clears and we can breathe again. Don't even buy beer. Yikes!!!!

So imagine my frustration when I see that I need to spend a lousy $120 to execute a series of steps which must be done in dependent order to take the the project miles down the road toward a running engine:

Start with:
'firewall permanently installed' which leads to
     'chassis electrical installed' which permits
          'cooling system permanently installed' which then allows
               'engine off of the stand' to
                    'install flywheel and transmission adapter' so I can
                         'replace engine support mounts' then
                              'add engine support bar' so I am able to
                                   'crane engine into compartment' to permit
                                        'bolt engine, adapter, and support bar to transmission & body' and then
       'Drink a beer!'

Unfortunately, I'm stuck at 'chassis electrical' without the ability to buy a couple-of-few parts. Which is just ridiculous. Once I pass 'cooling system permanently installed' everything else is downhill requiring barely any additional purchases or even much work: It's just bolt-in, then. It is a classic: "For want of a horse shoe nail."

Then I had my divine intervention moment last night.

Exposition: I was gifted with some cash for my recent birthday, and at church on Sunday I felt the prompting to pitch 1/3 of it into the offering plate. *I don't ever put anything in the plate.* All of my family's contributions are transferred right to the church's account.

Now why would I do this? I'm already broke, and this money was *mine* for my birthday. But I felt the nudge, and though I'm slow and stupid in spiritual matters, I took the hint and put in.

That night, I had my epiphany, and I know who sent it.

The dilemma with getting hung up on 'chassis electrical' is that I have to wire up the tail lamp housings again after having moved it all out of the way while the engine compartment was under heavy rework. Once it is back in...but that's where I have to stop: The tail lamp housings have been completely ruined by UV; literally crumbling away, so they have to be completely replaced.

The lamp housings are held in place by nuts INSIDE the body that thread on to bolts embedded in the plastic of the housing. Once the 'cooling system permanently installed' is done, I can't get to those nuts. To gain access there, I have to take the whole cooling system apart, which is a seriously pain, and also the Achilles' Heel of my design. But how often do you REALLY need to get in to those battery box compartments once the battery is moved to under the rear seat? Almost never. Still... It would really ease the mind and make maintenance a lot easier if you could get in there. But the lamps are held on by nuts on the INSIDE. Again, the bolt heads are locked into place by having the plastic cast around it.

Bolt holes for tail lamp assemblies which are nutted on the inside. What if it could be nutted on the outside?

This seemed ridiculous to me. Why COULDN'T I find some way to make the parts switch ends? Flip the bolt head and nut ends....No. That still won't work. Either end is still locked by the plastic cast around it, whether it is the bolt head, or the nut. Either way, you'd still have to get to the INSIDE to remove the fastener that is still free to turn.

I took the UV damaged units I have (if they get banged up with experimentation it doesn't matter since they're being wholly replaced...when I can afford it again) and brought one over to the bench. I used a sharp utility knife to trim away the plastic flashing that keeps the bolt in place in the molded hex socket in the lamp housing. Then I flipped it over and with a nailset and hammer, drove out the hex head bolt. If I rounded out the hex socket in the plastic housing, the bolt could turn. But the nut would still turn inside, so that's no good...



That's when the Spirit whopped me with the epiphany bat: I have ALREADY BOUGHT the solution to this problem: Nutserts aka Fastenalls, e.g. aluminum rivets that have a threaded inside diameter. Install the rivets in the lamp housing mounting holes in the vehicle body and now you have a nut that WON'T TURN on the side that you can't get to when the cooling system is installed, but you can drive a bolt from OUTSIDE into the nutsert. Remove 4 bolts from the outside, the whole lamp housing comes out. Free access to areas previously inaccessible.

At first, I thought, "Well, that let's me move ahead to the next step! Hot Dog!" Then I got whopped again coming back the other way: This doesn't just let me make the next step, it fundamentally changes the maintenance character of the entire design.This single $4 retrofit changes everything, both during the initial installation, and during the all subsequent installation steps, as well as any maintenance that needs to be done in the far future.

After having re-laid the tail lamp wiring harness back into its original clamps, I've discovered that there is enough slack on the cable that when you pull the machine screws, you can pull the assembly out of the hole and reach in and not even strain the cable or bulb fittings.

This was a trivially inexpensive change that produces an enormous butterfly effect. Talk about a 'Still, small voice...!"

malgré tout (Despite Everything)

I just dropped $1100 on the carrier bar, flywheel, transmission adapter, and throttle valve reverser from Rocky Mountain Westy. They are still in 'limited Beta' on their solution, which is hung up on going production flushing bugs out of what is going to be big jump forward for underbelly radiator solutions. So the carrier bar and throttle reverser I'm getting are from the initial production run. Same jigs, so no worries there, but it is a little scary to realize that there is no tucking your tail between your legs and scurrying away. I now have serious skin in the game, and will not be allowed by TPTB to back out now.

I completely understand this attitude. I've failed and failed to come through on lots of things. I DNF more than anyone has any right to. I'm going to finish this because it is, in my mind, my own personal salvation that lets me look at myself in the mirror in the morning. It is proof that I can finish. So at the same time that I am moving this forward, I'm also going back and killing the DNF records off for things that I've flaked on. It will probably take me all year to move the Bus forward, clean up DNFs behind me, and do new items like refurbishment on my daughter's bedroom and repaint of the front rooms of our house. And anything else that falls off the Christmas tree in the mean-time.

At the same time that I made the Rocky Mountain Westy order, I also ordered the jegster radiator and fan solution from JEGS. It arrived this week. I had pursued it because getting a straight answer on what fan shroud fits which VW A1,A2,A3 radiator is like pulling teeth. I'm convinced that the boners who play with these all the time are vague on it, which is pretty sad, come to think.

The Jegster arrived and a opened the box *carefully* since I wanted to retain my option to return it.

I'm glad I did. In theory, there is nothing wrong with the shroud for the kind of race-track life it would lead. But I would not consider it 'elegantly' put together, and is seriously not optimized for this application, e.g. completely terrible airflow in a less than optimal physical environment. I need every trick I can get if this is going to work out. This solution is an expensive HACK. So its going back.

The other matter that has garnered attention today is the oh so very LIMITED amount of space there is in the engine compartment. for 'ancillaries.' From the bottom deck to top deck and generally from side to side the space is 13.5"H x 32"W x 24" D. I'm attempting to think of ways to reuse as many Subaru parts from the original pull to support the need to put the ancillaries in that space. I'd like to use the factory intake with the resonator on it, just rotated 180* so it will line up with the relocated throttle valve. Maybe suspended from the ceiling?