My 79 Westy Bus to Ford 2.3 Conversion Log

[itlives]

I have metropoj's conversion kit and a 2.3 L now. I'm going to start a new thread- I'll put a link in as soon as I get it going (in a few minutes).

[fastmc25]

Mikes Pickup is on the road... runs great and very nice driver...

Here are some pics....

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[chazz79]

Here's my .02 so far.

All the misc bull crap aside, this makes for a decent conversion. You are maxed at engine size constraints and there are more powerfull options available. The overall height puts the valve cover close enough to the deck that factory fuel injection systems won't work without body mods. The water pump will hit the engine lid if you slam it...it's so tight that I had to find small button head-allen screws to hold the pully on. The extra 1/8 inch that normal bolts stick out do self machine the engine lid. I used a stock 091 trans with the deeper bell housing so that may be the reason the engine sits so far rearward.

I ran this pretty solidly last year and even had to daily drive my bus through the winter while my vanagon took a crap on me.
My engine kit was a pretty old Pinto beans piece. I believe that's the official name before esslinger bought them out but I'm probobly wrong on that too. The flywheel is set up for a bug 200mm and god knows what type of ring gear. I'm thinking my gear was a 6v tooth count because it never started well from the beginning. I trashed several autozone starters before going with an IMI starter. The IMI worked well but the clocking bolts (you can rotate these starters for better clearance) kept working out even when lock-tited. My starter held up fine but eventually the ring gear gave out. SO it's dead in the water again. The old ring gear needs machined off and something correct put on. The power is awesome and I get 20-22mpg out of it.

I have a good deal of miles behind me and quite a few trophies too. In Ohio you just don't see busses at all so it's not uncommon for the green monster to get peoples choice or most origional....(the wierdo awards, but I'll take them)
People love the thing more than me. The hot rod guys take interest in the mechanical aspects even if they aren't import folks and generally the only people that stick their noses in the air are vw folks.

The 200mm clutch has been a problem. I started with a stage2 but kept breaking clutch cables, driving home twice with a busted cable is 2 times too many so I switched to stock. Stock is fine as long as I don't beat on it. It's not very hard to overrun the clutch. If I apply the power smoothly it outpaces most modern vehicles. All in all- it hauls ass.

I did blow a head gasket in late 2011. My 2012 revisions were to build a coolant tower. This item is taller than the head of the engine. It's a piece of 2x3 rectangular tubing standing upright with both ends capped. Up top is a spigot attached to the upper radiator hose (you see a rad cap fill adaptor in itlives set up). Down low is another spigot with a hose heading towards the radiator. The very top of this tube has a 5/16 barbed fitting that feeds steam to a MK3 jetta coolant ball. The bottom of the coolant ball feeds the middle of my coolant tower. So this tower creates a self bleeding loop. If the tower is full, the coolant ball will reflect that. The coolant ball also has a level sensor that can be wired to a light. I haven't done that yet, but it'd be nice to have something to let you know when you're in trouble. Since this item was added to the system I've had no boil overs or any reliability issues at all. When you have a tall engine with a low mount radiator you will need a self bleeding coolant system.

All that said... I had fun rebuilding the WBX from my vanagon. It was expensive but the little sucker makes decent, reliable power. It's smooth and has that vw chirp that I remember all my air-cooleds having. It's a kind of soul you just can't replace. My wbx also had 250,000 origional miles without ever being opened up. If not for a whupped cam lobe I never would've touched it. I kinda like the WBX and think I'm going to get one together for the green monster.

I've got maybe 2000 miles on this sucker if anyones interested-pm me.

[Fiatdude]

Contact Kennedy Clutch -- they just redid my 6v flywheel to 12v and shipped and had it back to me in a week -- I always use the starters from a VW automatics they just seem to work the best and last the longest even on BIG High compression engines --

[itlives]

Long time.... I've been driving the truck for awhile now. It cranks great, accelerates great and gets BAD gas mileage! I'm talking a little better than 15MPG. I guess I'll have to get rid of the Holley 350
One thing that drives me crazy is a vibration going up the shift tube/linkage. The problem is you have to take the engine and trans out to get the shifter out. So, I've been living with it. It's really bad at the 2500-2700 RPM range, then smooths out.
Thinking about taking the radiator out (between the frame rails) and cutting the whole darn thing out and fabbing up a different one. Chazz- did you have ANY vibration issues with your 2.3?
Speaking of radiators (well, I am now) it cools great also! The fans will come on if sitting in traffic but stay off if moving -just the way it's supposed to work.


Oh yeah, I have a stage 2 Kennedy clutch and it works just fine. Haven't broke a cable yet -but I have an extra just in case!

[panel]

Any pics of where the rad is mounted now ?

[itlives]

This site pretty much sucks when it comes to resizing pictures (it doesn't), so I'll just 'splain it for ya. I made the "cage" out of an AC cover off another bus. Hell, let me see if I can put up one pic at a time-

Ok, that worked. So, I have more room at the back than I need. That's so I could put a bigger radiatior in if needed - it isn't needed. So I blocked all those louvres off so no air can get through.
The pipes go to the rear.

[itlives]

Here's one from the back (before paint) where I blocked the air. There's still some air circulation going on in there that could be stopped but it cools fine as is.

[itlives]

I'll get some better shots from the side and front. I've been remiss in keeping this thread or the one I started up. Mainly because of the resizing thing, now that I know I can put one pic up at a time, it's all good.