Time attack beetle

[Mr_Zed_ZX20]

Yeah, the S2 setup is a bit spendy. I bought mine last year with the money I had set aside for my ex's engagement ring after she broke up with me, lol. Needless to say, I think the S2 was a better choice (less complaining, etc). Unfortunately, its STILL sitting in my garage waiting for me to install it along with my Boxster S brakes. If all goes well I'll be starting on it in a few weeks.

[Humble]

Overdue update:

I've been crazy busy with vacations and work since the end of June. I was either out of town or running around with friends who were in town. I was able to work on the trans here and there, but made it more difficult than it needed to be.

When I got the aluminum Aasco flywheel I didn't know there was a difference in the STI and WRX parts. When I did some digging I saw that you could clearance the bell housing to make it work. Not really....







I trimmed the webbing around the bell housing to clear the flywheel and clutch and did my first test fit. the bottom inspection opening isn't big enough and the clutch fork pivot is too close. It clears on one side but as I ground a hole in the bell housing near the starter boss to make it fit on the other side I saw it wasn't going to work.

Ambryn came to my rescue and welded up the hole for me, but I didn't get any good pics of it before the repair work. I had to grind the starter boss flat again, and profile the area where the clutch fork pivot shaft plug goes in. I needed to re-tap the hole as well since the threads melted a bit from the filler work.







Now with the trans cleaned up I can put it together

[Humble]

Things went together easy enough when I remembered to include things like the vss drive gear and shaft :P After cleaning the case halves to remove all the aluminum dust I dropped the driven shaft in to do the shim measurement. You put it in without shims first and use the subarugears tool to find out how many shims to add.







The pinion depth shims are cheap so I ordered a bunch in different thicknesses ahead of time to have them on hand since every dealership I talked to didn't keep any in stock.

Next I turned to the bearing races and seals for the differential. Just mark then loosen the adjustment cups on either side, the bearing will probably fall out while you are doing this. Replace the o-ring and the axle seal, make sure that the seals are the the "wrong" side. Left goes on the right and vise versa, that way the oil grooves are in the correct orientation for the reversed R&P.







Quick note about the differential. I got an OBX LSD and replaced the washers and bolts "just in case". Before i put the ring gear on, I tested the output shafts and they were too tight to go on. I used a dremel to run the grooves on the diff splines until I could get the output shafts on. This is fairly common with OBX diffs it seems, when I tried the output shafts on the stock diff they slip on nice and easy.

Time to put it all mostly together. Put the case halves together and tighten it all up, but leave the nose cone/center diff housing off. Those differential bearing cups need to be adjusted now and rather than go through the pics (which I was too busy to take :P ) you can watch the subarugears video which was hugely helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSWPKmA09ng

Once I did that, I took it all apart, greased up the ring gear and put it all back together again to check the pattern. You don't have to do this but I was really curious, and it came out fine.



Let's talk about RTV. Let's talk about you and me. Let's talk about all the good things but mostly bad things that you see. Let's talk about sealant. Let's talk about sealant...

Just a little line and spread it out with your finger, it should be a very thin coating meant to fill gaps. I'm tired of seeing half a tube of liquid gasket, RTV, or permabond used to seal surfaces.





I got all excited and forgot to get a good shot before the nose cone and axle stubs went on so BAM! built transmission ready for install. I did the common trans fluid mix of 1qt. motul 75w90 and 3 qt. redline shockproof synthetic gear oil, which gets great reviews on nasioc.

[Humble]

I mentioned earlier about difficulties with the STI flywheel & pressure plate. I went and got a whole new WRX setup to use on the car instead but took some shots side by side while I had all the parts.

Right side: STI Aasco 11.5 lb aluminum flywheel, Exedy 15803 stage 1 clutch and pressure plate

Left side: WRX ACT 9.5 lb chromoly flywheel, Exedy 15802 stage 1 clutch and pressure plate











Basically the WRX parts are the ones you should be using with the 5sp. Your life will be a lot easier if you do. For a street bug using this swap I'd go with a heavier 12-15lb. flywheel, but in the race bug lighter is better. The WRX stuff is a bit smaller in diameter, which reminds me of the bug vs bus flywheel/clutch/pressure plate questions when running my old type 4 motor.

[Steve C]

Hi

Thanks for the write up. How good is having gearbox split in 1/2 so you can more easily check the bell housing clearance.

Steve

[Humble]

No kidding right? This week the first test fit of motor an transmission should happen, as well as some more clean up on the body, old wiring, and plumbing.

[Humble]

So I WAS going to try and test fit the motor and trans but sent the oil pan off to get modified instead. The awesome, bug@5speed pan doesn't clear the stock subaru mounts, so I need to run a shortened stock sump. There's no shortage of work to be done though so I continued stripping the bug. I finished pulling the fuel system, and fuel cell out of the car to make room for the radiator. I got everything out and started cutting before I realized I hadn't taken any pics :P



The radiator is for a 95 rx7 turbo but it fits perfectly in the bug. The bottom mounts attach to a lower radiator support welded to the forward body mount points. The top of the radiator is braced to the body on either side, and it's pretty sturdy. You can also see the new fuel tank that is loosely resting in the stock location. It's a 15 gallon RCI tank, and I wish there was a better place to put it, but for now it has to sit up high







As I was test fitting everything, I grabbed the air/water intercooler setup and started placing parts. The heat exchanger is an upgraded Ford Lightning part, water pump also comes from the Lightning, and the tank is a simple 1 gallon cell. The heat exchanger fit perfectly behind the stock grill opening, but finding a good spot for the tank and pump was a bit harder. I' worried that filling the area behind the radiator will kill the air flow, and I don't want to heat soat the water tank. Between the tank, pump, heat exchanger and lines, the extra weight adds up. I've been thinking about doing an air/air setup out back but now it'll probably get serious consideration.



After a bit of a break I started working on wiring. I pulled out the race dash and switch gear, and started trimming back the harness. I wasn't happy with the location and routing of the stock harness, so with all the new parts I'm re-doing the wiring again to clean it up and simplify the circuits. I'm also going to go with a more modern fuse/relay box relocated to the glove box area for easy reach. I'm going to go back to the stock dash, and use a digital dash in the stock location which should be a little easier on the eyes.

[Humble]

Got my shortened pan and pickup back from Jeff who did an awesome job. Got them bolted onto the motor so I can get a trial fit of the motor and trans in the next few days.

[Steve C]

Hi

I hope you don't suffer oil surge with that sump mod, I had wings fitted to mine.

Steve

[volkdent]

Originally Posted by Steve C

Hi

I hope you don't suffer oil surge with that sump mod, I had wings fitted to mine.

Steve

[Steve C]

Hi

Just noticed that my sump has a more elaborate windage tray, maybe because its a STI or just a different model motor.

Steve

[Humble]

Mine is US spec Sti and I've noticed that the pans and pickups are different. The Sti pan is more narrow than the wrx and forrester pans. If you use equal length headers they won't fit if you have kickouts or a non-Sti pan. I'm going to supplement the oil system with an Accusump until I get a dry sump pan and pump. The section that was chopped was so smal l it only lost a quart or less of storage. When I refill the motor I'll mark the new high point on the dip stick and be good for the moment.

[vw1303]

I'm also running the accusump in my shortened sump arragement.

Need more $$ for drysump!

[Steve C]

Hi

The Accusump is a good plan, I was going to fit one to my motor, I've kept it for an Oxy Boxer I'm building for my sons car.

I've only run my car hard on a track for few laps but I suffered no surge with my sump, talking to Subaru owners they often have oil surge issues. I'm probably not getting the same Gs as them or yourself

Steve

[Humble]

Yeah, oil starvation is a big problem for subaru motors and they spin bearings very easily when the pickup goes dry. I know 2 guys locally with subaru swaps, a buggy and a beetle. Both of them have spun bearings more than once under autox conditions. I figure an accusump is cheap insurance, but a dry sump is the real fix.