2wd Vanagon >> Ecotec swap >> 4wd conversion >> camper build

[DAV!D]

A bit over year or so ago, I bought a rusty but somewhat nice looking 1986 Syncro Vanagon to use as the base of my Vandwelling life style. Perviously I had used a Class B camper van and then a very minimalist Tacoma set up eventually narrowing in on the Vanagon Syncro.

The van looked very nice in the pictures but up close I knew it had rust and needed a lot of work. The plan was to get it running decent and rebuild the front end and go through all the basics for the time being. Well one thing leading to another I decided to do an engine swap for a modern engine (we will get to that later)..

While waiting on parts for this engine swap and having the stock WBX engine sitting there, I randomly looked on Craigslist for a cheap Vanagon which needed a motor. As luck would have it, I scored an 84 Westy for a song and a dance with lots of new parts but a dead 1.9 wbx..

2 weeks later I was driving it with my Syncro's 2.1 wbxer.. the intention was to sell it, profit and continue working on the Syncro.

After looking over the Westy and driving it a few days, I opted to put the Syncro on hold, jazz up the Westy and hit the road.. I added a full solar system, 12v fridge, 16 inch wheel tires and gave it a small home brew lift..

I drove it all over the Southern US finally staying in Denver for most of the summer and about 8 months later with winter fast approaching I sold the Westy and picked up a beater 86 2wd Vanagon to drive back to FL where my Syncro was stashed away..

The 2wd needed tires and I happened to score a set 16" Oz rims with some snow tires which was a good thing because my last month in Denver was during the first Arctic Blast of this year.. I finally drove back to FL in the newly acquired 86 2wd with the intentions of getting to work on the Syncro.

After getting back to FL and doing a once over on my Syncro, it started to become apparent that the rust was much worse than I wanted it to be. I had much debate on do I fix it or use it as a donor van to convert the much better 2wd van to 4wd. I had a lot of mixed thoughts for several days..However..

The pictures...

Should..

Speak for themselves..

Anything is of course repairable, but the time involved as well as the money was not something I was going to spend when I have a 2nd van with a nice solid body sitting in the driveway..

 

[DAV!D]

My problem is that the 2wd van which I intend to build is also my current transportation. With this in mind I had to come up with a solution to keep the van on the road as much as possible during this build. What I came up with, is to to my build in 3 phases..

Phase 1 is to do the engine swap with the Syncro trans-axle including the gas tank and other items needed to convert the rear half of the van to the Syncro driveline.

Phase 2 Is to build out the camper van interior to make the van usable for vandwelling if I need to hit the road for a bit, I'd like to have it livable.

Phase 3 is to do the front half of the conversion..fully converting the van to a 4x4 syncro.

 

[DAV!D]

Phase 1 being the engine swap and start of the Syncro conversion is what I'm doing now. I opted to mock the engine up in the Rusty Syncro body, get it running and work out any bugs, then swap it all over to the 2wd body.

The engine I opted to use is the GM 2.4 Ecotec. Mine came out of a Pontiac Solstice it's an engine that is very solid and used quite a bit by the dune buggy guys, but not so much by the Vanagon crowd.. (I'm working on changing that..)

This is a picture of the engine bolted up to the Syncro transaxle using a Kennedy adapter plate and flywheel.

For the motor mounts I opted to do something I didn't really like which was to build to separate mounting brackets rather than a cross-member. It's very secure but I'm still not 100% sure I will leave it this way so I may go back and redo this later on. For the mounts them selves, I used mounts for a jeep CJ7.

The first go at sitting the motor in the van.. very tight at the front of the motor but still enough room to get by with.

A picture of the passenger's side mount in place..

A picture of the driver's side mounted in place..

 

[DAV!D]

After getting the engine mounted into the van I started working on the plumbing situation and computer harness..

This was early shot at sorting things out...

The wiring harness.. I knew nothing about it at the time.. When I first bought the engine last year I started trying to decrypt the harness and where this wire went and that one.. It wasn't pretty and I had no idea what I was doing. This was about the time I picked up the Westy so I put the harness in a box and opted to think about it later..

When I came back from Denver and first restarted my built, my thinking about the harness was a bit clearer.. Pay someone else to do it.. :sombrero: .. and that's what I did. I will say now that I've seen a converted harass, if I have another go around I'll do the next one my self. I've learned a lot about it since then.

In the meantime I had been ordering various goodies here and there as I sorted out my fuel delivery situation..

For the fuel pump, I've opted to go with a Ford e2000 electric pump that was used in a large variety of v8 powered cars, trucks and vans in the late 80's early 90's. Mine came out of a 1990 Ford pickup.

One of the issues I had, was trying to find a exhaust flange which matched my manifold. Due to my engine coming from a RWD car, it's exhaust manifold was different from every other car the 2.4 or 2.2 was used in. None of them matched, but out of dumb luck I happened to notice it looked a lot like a flange from a set of headers off a v8. I made a quick cardboard template and headed to the auto parts store and sure enough it matched a standard hear collector perfectly..

Putting it all together.. On Monday I gave my self a crash course on making stainless steel fuel lines and hooked everything up..(in a very shady and temporary way) Eventually I had it all together, hooked up a battery and after 2 or 3 tries the engine fired right up.. However it would shut off after only 5 seconds.. No matter what I did, the engine would always shut off after a few seconds..

After talking to the guy whom did my ECU tune & harness rewire he came to the conclusion that he forgot to turn off the anti-theft VAC system.. I had to box up the computer and ship it back to him yesterday. :smilies27

 

[DAV!D]

Moving on to today and getting everything current on the build..

Knowing that the engine would run, I pulled it out of the Syncro body, so I could start getting everything prepped for the transfer to the 2wd body. I have a goal to have Phase 1 of this build done by Jan 31st. The computer is a slight set back, but it should be shipped back in time to stay on goal.

There are a few things I need to do to the 2wd van in order to swap in the Syncro transaxle. One of these things is to build new mounting points for the new transaxle the problem being the transaxle bolts directly to a completely boxed cross-member using pre-inserted thread inserts from the factory which my 2wd van doesn't have. The way I've decided to get around this, is build mounting plates which I'll weld to the cross-member. On the plates themselves I welded nuts to the back side which will go up into the cross-member allowing the plate to sit flat and be welded to the cross-member.

This is the driver's side transaxle mount bolted to the first plate I made.

These are my horrible looking welds holding the nuts in place. They aren't pretty but they hold and no one will ever see them once the plates are welded to the cross-member.. I still have to make the passenger's side mount, but it will be a little more tricky. It mounts onto a curved section of the cross-member so the plate will require a slight bend to mount flush. I'll probably sort that out in the next day or two, but I still have several other things to keep me busy while I wait for the computer to come back..

 

[Jb1rd]

Did you happen to buy that Syncro from a "strange" fellow in the Clearwater area???? It looks just like one I drove across the state for because he said it had "minimal" rust, I would hate to see what he qualified as rusty!!

 

[DAV!D]

Did you happen to buy that Syncro from a "strange" fellow in the Clearwater area???? It looks just like one I drove across the state for because he said it had "minimal" rust, I would hate to see what he qualified as rusty!!

Ha, yea he lived in a trailer that looked like a boat.. Had to be the same one.. I too drove over and orginally opted not to buy it due to its obvious rust.. Then lack of finding anything else got the better of me, so I talked him down and got it for what all the Syncro components were worth.

I figured it was worth the parts at that point assuming I'd later do what I'm doing now with a body swap. It ended up having a good running 2.1 once I swaped the heads and put it in the Westy. The bottom end was pretty fresh I believe.

 

[tgreening]

Having done something like this on more than one occasion I can understand the hurdles you run into and must overcome. It's not everybodies cup of tea. Now after saying that, I find those engine mounts highly suspect and would not trust them to serve me well in any capacity what-so-ever. That is an awful lot of leverage they are being asked to deal with and bouncing and jouncy down the road or trail fills my imagination with an alarming number of catastrophic failure events. I would seriously reconsider that design.

 

[DAV!D]

Having done something like this on more than one occasion I can understand the hurdles you run into and must overcome. It's not everybodies cup of tea. Now after saying that, I find those engine mounts highly suspect and would not trust them to serve me well in any capacity what-so-ever. That is an awful lot of leverage they are being asked to deal with and bouncing and jouncy down the road or trail fills my imagination with an alarming number of catastrophic failure events. I would seriously reconsider that design.

I agree with what you are saying, but I've had a difficult time coming up with a decent cross-member like solution. The problem I have is the location of the mounting points on the engine for the motor mounts is directly above the spot on the oil pan which dropped the lowest. Meaning if I run a cross-member under that point I lose a good bit of ground clearance. there is a raised spot on the oil pan, but it's back toward the transmission. (previous picture for an example)

If I put a cross-member under that point, I then have to build some sort of mounting points which reach back to the motor mount locations and that still kind of hangs the motor out there and potentially interferes with the exhaust.

Alternatively I tried to come up with a cross-member across the front of the motor and using the front wheel drive motor mount location but it's all so close to the back of the body that I had no room for that and then it would only have one mount point with nothing to keep it from twisting.

I'm not really happy with the mounts but it's what I came up with to hang the motor in the van. but I do know I need to come up with something better. A lot of the buggy guys seem to hang the motor off the transaxle.

Here is a some pictures I found of an install in a drag car.. which give a better view of the problem about building a traditional cross-member set up. His obviously looks much nicer than mine but it's the same non cross-member design. I do like this one much better than what I have and I'm thinking once the engine and trans are swapped over that I'll revisit my mounts are put something together like this.






Keep in mind the cross-member in his last picture is for the suspension and it's not tied into the motor mounts. However I was thinking maybe I could build something like that but connect the cross-member to the engine mounting points where they connect at the frame rails. Like use a longer section of angle having them both tied together at that point.

 

[tgreening]

Is your frame boxed or C-channel in that area? Given your limitations this is what I would try to do. If it isnt boxed I would box it. Next I would change the frame side mount from angle to C-channel which would slip around the frame from below, wrapping the frame on 3 sides instead of two. If possible, when drilling for your mounting bolts I'd sleave the holes. Next I would run a nice long triangular gusset from the inside of the frame mount to as close as you can get to the motor side mount. All welded of course, to the frame side bracket and to the top of the square tube you used. Hopefully this makes some kind of sense.

 

[DAV!D]

Is your frame boxed or C-channel in that area? Given your limitations this is what I would try to do. If it isnt boxed I would box it. Next I would change the frame side mount from angle to C-channel which would slip around the frame from below, wrapping the frame on 3 sides instead of two. If possible, when drilling for your mounting bolts I'd sleave the holes. Next I would run a nice long triangular gusset from the inside of the frame mount to as close as you can get to the motor side mount. All welded of course, to the frame side bracket and to the top of the square tube you used. Hopefully this makes some kind of sense.

It's boxed but the top of the frame rails are not accessible due to the firewall being extended on each side of the motor. The only mounting access is from the sides or the bottom. The stock VW engine mounts from the bottom only.

I don't have any example from my own van, but this is what it looks like. random pic I just found. It's from a Doka the truck version but other than the rear hatch door the engine compartment is just about the same. The only access to the top of the frame rail is in front of the engine or behind it where the mounts would be.

 

[Jb1rd]

Yep, that was him, crazy small world


Sent by magic, I mean come on really, pictures through thin air, MAGIC!!!

 

[tgreening]

Access to the top of the frame wouldn't be needed with what I'm trying to describe. You know where you used the angle to bolt to the frame? Instead of angle you would use C-channel, and it would slip up onto the frame from below, and be bolted pretty much the way you've done now. The square tube you have welded to the angle would have the gusset welded on top and to the angle (C-channel in my version). The gusset would start off as high as your angle/C-channel and taper down to zero as close to the motor mount as you can realistically get it. I think this would give you a much stronger result, using pretty much everything you've already built by just adding to it. Does that make any better sense?

 

[DAV!D]

Access to the top of the frame wouldn't be needed with what I'm trying to describe. You know where you used the angle to bolt to the frame? Instead of angle you would use C-channel, and it would slip up onto the frame from below, and be bolted pretty much the way you've done now. The square tube you have welded to the angle would have the gusset welded on top and to the angle (C-channel in my version). The gusset would start off as high as your angle/C-channel and taper down to zero as close to the motor mount as you can realistically get it. I think this would give you a much stronger result, using pretty much everything you've already built by just adding to it. Does that make any better sense?

Yea I'm toying with a new way on how to do it. I'm thinking of building a cross member set up with a skid plate that runs under the motor and have the motor mounts come up from the skid plate. The engine would then be in a cradle that would be tied into the frame rails in 4 places. This would give a lot of strength to the rear of the van chassis and protect the oil pan from rocks. It would also make it very quick to remove and install the engine if need be.

As far as my build.. I've pulled the Syncro out of the shop and tomorrow I'll be doing the body mods for the fuel filler then start the tear down of the 2wd. I'm hoping to make my goal of finishing the rear half of the syncro swap by Jan 31st.. Lots to do, but I think I can get it done by then assuming no snags.

 

[DAV!D]

Moving forward with the swap, I was waiting on my ECU to get back before I started tearing down the 2wd van. I cut the fuel filler assembly out of the 4wd van..

I then measured everything about 50 times before cutting the body on the 2wd van..

finally doing a test fit. It's all held in place with a few spot welds and sheet metal screws until I mount the gas tank.

Monday my ECU finally showed up, which was the green light to start my tear down of the 2wd van.. It was fairly fast in the tear down with only a few hic-ups.. Some bone head stripped out 3 of the CV axle bolts. Luckily I was able to hammer a star head allen socket on to each of the bolts to get them out.. Trouble averted..

Today I moved forwards with cleaning out the engine compartment of un-necessary wiring, cooling hoses and fuel lines. Then moved on to clean the area where the new fuel tank will be mounted. (on the Syncro the fuel tank mounts above the tran-saxle.

Once everything was cleaned real well, I painted 2 coats of POR15 in all the hard to get to spots where the gas tank will soon be mounted.

Tomorrow I will mount the gas tank then tac weld my trans-axle mounts into place to test fit the engine and trans in the 2wd van. Once everything fits well, I'll weld it all up and do a bit more POR15 to a few more spots before the motor/trans are mounted back in for good. I'm hoping I will stay on schedule to have the engine and syncro trans half of this build completed by the 1st. I will have to take it to an exhaust shop but as long as I'm that far by the first I win!! :sombrero: