'68 Westy and a K20a swap...I ain't right ;)

[supaninja]

The title says it all, but every story has a back story:

This bus sat in a barn for the last 30 yrs. Only working weekends, I got it road worthy and it's shakedown drive was a 200+ mile trip to Austin, TX for the VW Harvest show. Only two issues popped up, a wore out drag link, and discovering 2 large cracks in the case. I am not a bus person, infact I'm the polar opposite of a hippy stink foot, but I wanted a vehicle to deal with the inevitable SHTF, so I have dubbed it the Zombie Response Vehicle.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... 6c849d.jpg

So here I am, junk motor (runs like a top but it literally pisses oil out) do I A) build a bigger type 1 based motor, B) build up one of the various type 4 motors I got stashed w/ a upright conversion, or C) stuff a Honda K20 into it? I'm a logical type so the bottom line is what will give me the best bang for my buck. I guess I should also mention that my daily is a newer civic si and I was in the boosted scene. I realized 2 things, the honduh scene is not my thing and the K20 is an absolutely amazing engine.

$1200 shipped got my this baby

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... ee2f24.jpg

got rid of that lame power steering pump

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... f98b23.jpg

here's the management, MS3x w/RTC, DKC, and mapdaddy plus harness, relay board, and quad spark. All courtesy of Mario at The Dub Shop (I can't say enough good things about Mario, I'm one of his biggest fans).

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... 414ec6.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... 6961_n.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... 1587_n.jpg

The plan is to use MS3 to control VTEC, VTC, and the variable length intake on top of the fuel and spark needs of the motor. VTC control has been accomplished with MS3 but I got some learnin to do to figure out how to do that.

Some of the things needed to make this swap work:

cooling- this is the big one, looking in the bay engine bay I'm pretty confident I can squeeze 2 rabbit radiators, one in front of both battery trays sealed off. While moving, there should be enough airflow from the big air scoops on the rear quarter panels. A couple of small SPAL fans will insure everything is the proper temp. A little research came up with this motor likes 200F coolant temps.

exhaust- I'm going to use the stock manifold (honda made them tubular, it will flow plenty for my needs), and weld up some mandrel bent 2.5" pipes to a Dynomax Super Turbo muffler. Nothing fancy but plenty of flow.

rear hanger- I'm lazy so I'll just bend up some 1" tubing and weld some thin plate that I will bent or weld to match the shape of the OG engine hanger to body mounts. There are some bosses on the block that I can run some angle iron to.

Adapter- KEP of course, they already make one but it's called a RSX adapter. The RSX uses a k20a2/z1 or a3 depending on model. I'm going to go with a mild clutch setup, this motor doesn't make stupid torque and I'm running a stock early 002 trans. Should be good as long as I don't act the fool and drag launch this thing.

fuel- AN black line and fittings is my signature with a walbro and aeromotive fpr. There is no plan to boost this thing so I will be using the stock rail (which has a bolt on dampener) and run it in a modified returnless configuration.

misc- I am going to weld in a rear shelf with a engine access panel so I can check the oil on this thing (dipstick is at the top of the motor). I'm still on the fence if I'm going to go with a speed density tune or a mass airflow tune. One last issue, the TB hangs out a bit over the bellhousing. Worst case I need to put a pocket into fuel tank to clear it.


Well that's the plan, the goal is to be able to easily pull my notch to shows, be able to cruise easily at posted speed limits, and get good gas mileage. We will see if I can accomplish this.

[Zander]

Heck yea! Can't wait to see the progress

[crankwalk]

Nice!

[RonW]

supaninja dipping into the coolaide at the the water cooled conversion punch bowl, RIGHT ON! and way to rock the megasquirt. this is gonna be interesting. i keep bugging mario to put a suby in his bug, maybe after enough time not having a motor, he'll head over here too heh. i will look forward to you figuring out the VTC stuff, one of the things keeping me from considering the ms3-pro

[ambrynmc]

NICE!!!

What do you think of using a Corvette pressure regulator/filter for your return-less fuel setup? The LS engine guys use them a lot. Easy and they are a reasonable price ($40!)

[56SemaRag]

Very cool. Subscribed!

[supaninja]

Ahhhhh thanks guys, I feel so luv'd

Ron- I'm trying to get Mario to go K20, completely stock internals are good to 500whp (with the stock 11.1:1 cr) and they love love love boost

Ambrynmc- never thought of that, I already had a fuselab filter laying around (it's purple too!), and I really like that aeromotive fpr, but dang it is a lot more then $40 for that stuff.

56SemaRag- I have been reading your build as well

[capsoval]

Nice to see some else finally doing a k swap into a VW. Look forward to seeing the progress.

[capsoval]

So which engine code did you get?

[supaninja]

I can't let you be the only one having fun

It's a K20a, it's got the crappy economy vtec like the a3, which is just fine for the bus.

[Vee Dub Nut]

Less talk, more progress

This is gonna be a killer setup!

[supaninja]

Here is the KEP adapter, damn that flywheel looks nice

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... G_0024.jpg

[supaninja]

I spent the day working on the k20.

first I labelled all the harness plugs and pull the harness off the motor, that's going to be a lot of fun figuring what wire is what...not:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... 8d70d3.jpg

Then I pulled the flexplate:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... 2a3047.jpg

of course one of the flywheel bolts decided to be a a-hole and I ended up stripping it, nothing a welder and a broken breaker bar couldn't fix:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... a61615.jpg

so then I mounted the KEP adapter, I had to clearance one spot, my head has a boss that was in the way, no biggie:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... 728818.jpg

After that the flywheel, starting to look like a motor again, I still need to torque the FW, couldn't find my FW lock:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... ae178c.jpg

Here is a profile shot, shows the thickness of the adapter:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/ ... 1346b8.jpg

I'm getting really close to firing up this bad boy, talk about being excited. I found a sweet all aluminum rabbit radiator, I'm going to try just one of those guys first, if it's not enough then I'll add a second one. http://www.cachassisworks.com/p-113-hea ... iator.aspx

[RonW]

im getting excited seeing this thing come together. cant wait to see the ms and harness start making its way in there.

double post on the photo with the kep btw.

fix the photos, im a lazy fucker and dont want to have to keep clicking links back and forth

[supaninja]

LOLOLOLOL, good catch Ron, it is now fixed. I'm a lazy fucker too, and haven't bothered to learn how to post pics on here with the new size limit.