VW / SUBARU CONVERSIONS

                                                                                                                 The peace of mind that you will be rolling down the road with modern day fuel injection and computer controlled ignition, goes a long way. Below is an outline of what you can expect with one of our conversions. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out!

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We have spent an extensive amount of time designing what we would consider the best functioning setup available, that truly gives off a factory presented appearance. Not only will your conversion perform far above the original VW powertrain; but it will do so effortlessly without the typical 50 year old Volkswagen headaches over time. One main thing that truly sets us above our competitors is our attention to detail and strive for nothing but the best. Unlike many, we will not use lower quality parts to boost our overall capital gain. Everything we use that isn't made in house, has been hand picked from the best companies in the game. We put together a package that has been tried and tested with one main goal: ultimate customer satisfaction.

Our take on engine options:

There are many types of engines created by Subaru dating back to the 80’s that can be used. We will discuss the more typical EJ series engines that are the more preferred and used in these swaps. They can be found in most vehicles made since 1990.

Information and history on the EJ series engines can be found here: Subaru EJ engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The most common engines used for these conversions are the following:

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• EJ22 SOHC

• EJ25 SOHC

• EJ20 turbo (WRX)

• EJ25 turbo (STI)

Naturally Aspirated Engines
     The EJ22 and EJ25 are naturally aspirated, fuel injected engines and should work well with a VW transaxle. They are lower on power (peaking around 160hp) than their turbo charged cousins, but still equate to more than 3 times the power of the stock VW engine.

If your choice is a turbo engine, more will need to be considered and we highly recommend reaching out to consult. For now, we’ll continue talking about non turbo engines.  

      A few things come to mind when deciding on which motor to go with. First and foremost is reliability and ease of maintenance, second comes power, and thirdly would be the cost effectiveness of the options. Typically, we recommend the SOHC EJ25. The EJ25 offers roughly 160hp, OBD2 engine management, and easily sourced maintenance items. It is a fairly decent bump up in power from the EJ22 (2.2L with 130hp) - which we have found to also be a good option, but can tend to lack the "oomph" for heavier vans and busses when ascending a hill or otherwise course terrain. (This info is in regards to vans, busses and most later model beetles - for a swingaxle beetle, we lean more towards the ej22, which we are happy to go in depth on - feel free to inquire more)

There certainly are plenty more points to discuss on Pros vs Cons, in regards to which Subaru engine is for you. We will save that for a later discussion; as we highly enjoy getting to know our customers one on one, to help decide which engine fits each customers specific needs and goals.

Subaru engines: 

• Reliability (low maintenance) 

• Average to high power 

• Economy 20+ 

• AC potential

• Power Steering

• Liquid based cabin heating potential (safe) 

• Turbo engine option 

• Electronic Fuel injection 

• Parts spares (common and inexpensive) 

• OBD diagnostics (make troubleshooting easier) 

VW engines:

• Reliability (requires more maintenance)

• Low power output (typically <100hp)

• Economy 15+

• None but AC kit option 

• Power steering None

• Exhaust heat exchangers(can be dangerous when worn through)

• None but Turbo kit available

• Carbureted 

• Parts spares (getting more expensive as they become more scarce)

• OBD None

Remember, early VW's were produced for decades and sold more units than any other car in history. However, most air cooled VW's went out of production in 1977, and in Mexico in 2003. Thus, good spare components are becoming increasingly more scarce every day, and due to that; components will continue to increase in price as time goes by.
The Subaru engine represents an evolved version of the VW engine to many. This makes the Subaru engine an ideal candidate to replace the VW engine.