I'm finishing this up.

 

 

73 automatic

 

the heads needed replacing... I looked inside and the crank needed to be reground too...

 

I looked at prices. This is a 1700cc engine. heads $500 apiece. compare that to my usual vw: $120 for new head for 1600cc. So it's gonna be at least $1000 for heads... grind crank is about $100. new bearings $100

 

my neighbor had a 83 subaru GL wagon as a parts car. He only needed some stuff out of the dash, and the carb. He sold me the ea81 engine for a reasonable price. I put new bearings, rings in it. new gaskets. I used the milling machine to make an adaptor to a VW carb. It ran horribly.

 

then I read about SPFI conversion, and found a few SPFI cars at the junkyard. I converted the EA81 to SPFI. Runs great.

 

I had to put an extender bars on the engine, so the stock rear engine crossbar on the VW could be used. an adaptor from KEP (still don't know if it's good... I don't think that they'd fabricated an EA81 to VWautomatic adaptor prior to mine). Also had to make a frame for the radiator to hang in.

 

Tomorrow: test drive

 

Rich

How'd it go? A friend of mine wants an old VW bus, and I am trying to push him towards the subaru powered version.... an EA81 isn't too fast in a subaru... must be pretty slow in a VW bus. But then again, a VW bus isn't going to fast anyway. Probably as fast as my '76 Mazda pickup (which makes my EA82 subaru feel downright quick)

 

Zeke

Sounds cool!

 

Where are you going to mount the radiator? Front or Back? I'd be interested to hear how cool you can keep the engine? I've always thought an EA81 would do well in a "Bay Window" Bus:headbang:

 

Cheers,

Chris

Sweet project. I am really glad to see more people doing the old VW conversions with pushrod Subaru engines.