spikedbeetle

Here is a much better runnung car. Still a little rich I think. But worlds better! Gloyale, Kennedy adapter plate and flywheel. Stock VW pressure plate and clutch. I fabricated the rest of what I needed. Intakes, filler tank...

Well, It runs a lot smoother with the plug wires going to the correct plugs. :-\ I still think I have a fuel delivery issue. I will remove my regulator and pressure gauge to see if that will clear any blockage if that is even the issue. I thought I was almost done. I think I am just getting started. Once I get it running half way decent, I will have to tear it down and fix the couple of leaks, get it all done up nice and put it back together again.

Well, I got the tdc thing figured out I think. At least it isn't 180 out. Do I time it at idle to the notch in the pulley? I am pretty sure I had the plux wires out of order. I will see once my battery is charged enough to fire it up again.

Thanks. I think it's cool sound is mostly because it may only be running on a couple of cylinders. I think I may have some of the wires mixed up. The whole engine in the wrong end facing the other direction is messing me up. Or I may have the distributor 180 out. How do I know that one? I drove around the block, but all I could do was idle it. As soon I stepped on the pedal it would bog. I think I may need a better fuel pump. I also found a couple leaks under pressure That I should be able to fix fairly easily.

And now begins the fine tuning process. But it runs!

Well, Indrid, It worked! Thanks! I don't know how my brother's car is running. Maybe the hitachi will run wired backwards. I will probably wait 'til Monday to start it, time it, and drive it for the first time in almost two years.

Thanks for the comments. To answer your question; The VW engine runs the same direction as the Subarus. The gears in the tranny are just opposite from a subaru. It makes a simple swap. I JUST GOT SPARK! I was getting different responses regarding where the black and yellow wires were to go. I was getting no spark the way it was, so I figured if it's ruined already, why not try it the other way just to see what happens. I got Spark! I had my wife crank it over a couple of times. It popped like it was going to start! I decided since there is no muffler on it at this point to call it a night since it was 10:30pm and the neighbors have two week old twins. Tomorrow being sunday, I don't know if I will start it up or not. But Monday for sure.

Black to neg. doesn't seem to make common sense, but the yellow to the neg. does since it runs the tach. Thanks. I'll try that. What are the chances I could mess something up if I have the wires switched?

Connections are good. I used a test light to check every way I could think of. I pulled it from a motor that was run with no oil and siezed. The disty. was supposedly remanufactured approx. 100 mi. before I got it.

I believe the one in the car is ND. I also belive I have a hitachi on the shelf. Both seem to have the same problem. I checked my wiring. I have the black-to-neg. Yel-to-pos. Still no spark. I checked 2 coils and 3 coil wires. and no spark. This leads me to think the problem is in the dist. The ND was supposedly remanufactued and the car I got it from had less than 100 mi. on this dist. I really don't want to spend any more on this project. Where would be the best place to get a pick up coil or new dist?

I have an ea81 engine I put in my car. I hooked up the distributor exacly like my brother's running car. I have power to the coil in the run and start positions. The black wire from the dist. goes to the neg. side of the coil the yellow to the pos. I checked with two coils and three coil wires. I cannot get any spark. The distributor is supposedly newly rebuilt. Does anyone have any suggestions? If part of my distributor is bad, where can I find an innexpensive replacemnt part? When I got the engine, it had no distributor in it. I put it in and the static timing looks close. Would having it off a little make no spark? Even if it were way off, It should still spark even if at the wrong time right?

I tried starting it again today. No spark. The wiring diagram I have for the subaru says my positive wire should go through the ignition module. I thought that was just a run position of the ignition switch. Is the module something else? Do I have to get one for the engine to run?

Okay here is a question. My lights are all still bright. I tried turning my engine over this morning. It turned over fine the first time then did the same thing where it seemed to lock up and only do a partial turn. Could this be due to the hydraulic lifters not having oil in them yet? Should I turn the engine over for a while with no spark plugs to give the lifters time to fil up?

I tried starting it tonight, but the battery is dead and I am not 100% sure where the black and yellow wires on the side of the distributor go. I have the black hoked up to the neg. side of the coil. The yellow I think is supposed to go to the pos. run position somewhere. I have it hooked directly to the pos. side of the coil right now just for testing.

Thanks for the positive responses. You can see the radiator in the first pictures hiding in front of the engine. Here are a couple more shots of the radiator. I used an aluminum radiator for a jeep chrokee and had the outlet moved and resized. I think it was 11" tall and 36" wide. I raised the luggage compartment area behind the rear seat about 5-6 inches to have a place to put the radiator above the tranny. I wanted to make the diehard VW guys scratch their heads. Which is why I used VW parts on the engine. These carbs are supposedly good to handle up to 100 hp. I took them off of my old VW motor as well as the generator and generator stand. I made a small adapter to bolt the vw stand on. one of the holes actually lined up perfectly with the hole in the block that was used to hold the bracket for the suby alternator. Yes, a Kennedy adapter for the trans.

Here are the intake manifold about half way done. If you are going to try this, have someone cut your flanges. A dremmel tool takes way too long. I port matched everything before I assembled and welded. If you have any specific pictures you would like, I will try to take and post them. I myself am very excited and anxious to find out if the dual carb setup will be any more powerful or not. If it is, I could make kits for subaru aplications. It looks like it should all fit in a suby too.

I can almost start it again! Just a few wires to solder and few bolts. Hopefuly this week.

There is some info on this site if you search for it. I looked through some of it. I may not be the answer, but it wouldn't hurt to look.

I heard there was a dual carb version of the ea81. I don't remember where I saw or heard about them, but supposedly the intake manifold would need to be replaced along with the carb. I also heard those engines put out closer to 100hp. I will try to find this info again and post it. It shouldn't be much more difficult than a weber swap.

I drove a '59 beetle for several years and had a blast. I had a lot of fun racing it. Due to overheating on 100+ degree summer days wore the motor out. so My car has been sitting for almost two years while I slowly made progress on my subaru EA81 engine swap. I picked this engine for the slight ower improvement, but mostly for simplicity and style. It looks very much like the original vw engines, especially after I fabricated my own intake manifols and adapters to use the VW generator and stand.

Thanks guys! with your advice I was able to determine that it was a vacuum leak elsewhere. The previous owner had "modified" the aircleaner to breathe easier, but screwed up the vacuum. This engine is in the back of a '72 beetle. It just smoked the tires and left a pair of black stripes on the road.

I'll try that. I was also thinking I could take the module off and rev the engine to see if the arm on the other side moves.

I have an EA81 engine with a vacuum advance dizzy. I had a similar issue with zero advance. I had a spare distributor that looked to be in good shape, but had an electrical issue. I swapped the vacuum module/diaphram over to the dizzy in the car. It still gets zero advance. Everything inside the distrubutor seems to move like it should. I pulled the hose off to check by hand that it is pulling vacuum. It is pulling under throttle, but doesn't seem to pull real hard. I don't know how hard it is supposed to pull. Are there any tricks to figure out what is going on? I thought about drilling a hole in one of the caps to look inside while the car is running to see if anything moves. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I hope you don't mind me throwing my question into the mix. I am doing a lot of my own custom fab on my EA81 and had the same questions on the exhaust size and length. Some of my questions have already been answered in this thread. The actual port size on the head is 1.75" I have some 1.75" tubing and mandrel bends. Will there be a problem if I have a smooth exit for the exhaust or should I have a step in there? My plan as of now is to build the exhaust with 1.75"tubing from the heads 32" or so into a nice collector into a 2" x 29" glass pack. Then I want to separate into dual exhaust maybe 1.25 or 1.5 inch tubes that will be about 80-90" long. It will run forward then back. This picture was in the mock up stage. It is now being finalized. I am hoping to drive it in a week or so. - THANKS