Beetle radiator and looking stock

[Meresider]

Over winter fitting EJ20 and obtaining all parts beforehand. With a non turbo what is the smallest radiator anyone is running, also is there an option to keep as much of original wheel well as possible as want to keep it stock looking. Planning on cutting away at rear of radiator adjacent to fuel tank as recommended but would like to have the minimal scoop on the front. Cheers...

[vw1970]

I may hold the title as smallest radiator in a Subaru type 1. Basically a $60 honda cicvc ebay radiator turned on its side and chopped down a bit to be about 12"x 12" of cooling area. Ive been testing this over the last few weeks and it seems to work well.

IMG_20230623_160156 by Travis L, on Flickr

[MikeGyver]

Looks like an interesting Bug. Can you post more pictures of the whole car? How did you run the coolant lines? I'm working on a JDM EJ20 N/A conversion right now.

[vw1970]

yeah, I'll grab some more this weekend as the radiator setup has changes slightly since the previous picture.

Are you using the JDM ecu and harnesses?

[MikeGyver]

I'm using the Speeduino standalone....I hope! It's a few football fields out of my comfort zone.

[vw1970]

The car has a weird 2005 legacy "PZEV" DBW ej2.5 SOHC engine that originally had 5 o2 sensors. I didn't like that so i swapped the ECU for a forester DBW ECU which I can run one single o2 sensor now. Being the engine itself was in a PZEV car, it has an unusual oval port on the heads that you can see in the photo of the header here:
IMG_20230910_130409 by Travis L, on Flickr

Here is the front shrouding setup after adding a final piece to span to the hood and a few holes cut in front for air into the radiator.
IMG_20230910_130305 by Travis L, on Flickr

here are the coolant lines under the car:
IMG_20230910_130355 by Travis L, on Flickr

[vw1970]

here are just a few more pics if you are curious.
IMG_20230910_130225 by Travis L, on Flickr
IMG_20230910_130155 by Travis L, on Flickr
IMG_20230910_130213 by Travis L, on Flickr
IMG_20230910_130518 by Travis L, on Flickr

[MikeGyver]

Right on! Thank you for the pictures. How loud is it with that muffler?

[vw1970]

its pretty loud but no louder than an air cooled bug with a "phat boy" side exit muffler. Has a nice throaty note.
As far as using the speed-uino, there will be a pretty big learning curve to get it work right coming from someone who started with a mega-squirt back in the day. But if you have the patience and know a bit about tuning then you'll have a great time with it.
What car are you putting the ej20 into?

[MikeGyver]

I'm aiming for a more quiet ride. This will just be an ugly around town cruiser. It's a '63 Bug.

My hope is that the TunerStudio auto-tune feature will be able to do most of the work. My goal is to have it running by next summer. The transaxle is the hold up at this point. It was a nightmare trying to find someone to build me one as the one that came with the car was toast. The builder said the lead time was 4-6 weeks, and this is week 6.

[H2OSB]

Perhaps this is a bit late, but Scott from MetalCraft Motorworks in Sangar, California does great work and can rebuild any year box. His prices are incredibly fair as well.

He's MCMScott on here. He rebuilt my IRS box and while I was there to pick it up, I watched him work on a SA box out of a desert race car. He ships all over the world, too.

H2OSB

[vw1970]

MikeGyver, a better muffler and or a resonator would help my setup for sure. If you plan to build a system i'd recommend a same side inlet outlet muffler as they seem to drop the growl quite a bit.

When start getting it together definitely document your build for the forum her, we'd love to see it!