Reversed Coolant Manifold

admin

So i agreed to do a motor swap for a guy, taking out the stock 2.1L voltswagen engine and putting a  3.3L SVX into his 1986 Voltswagen Vanagan Weekender. now i figure not that hard, just a lot of man hours and a good time to give one a shot. plus my mechanics proffessor put a 2.2L subaru motor into his Vanagon Camper (dont remember what year) and gets around 25mpg@ 55mph, i didnt believe it at first until i saw the numbers, and its very impressive. so one of the hardest parts of this conversion is the reversed coolant manifold. i had no clue at first until i finally got one in my hands. basically you take the oriniginal outlet from the coolant manifold and turn it around on the manifold, placing it at the back of the engine instead of the front. looks better and makes more sense than running a bunch of hoses everywhere.fortunatly ive got references to work from. i found a website a while ago where a guy put in a 3.3L SVX into his voltswagen Doka (a 4-door light truck with option syncro (4-wheel drive)) and has a great build log of what he did. http://www.primafoundry.com/cars/Doka%20SVX.htm some really great stuff if your into voltswagen.so below ive posted the images he sent me showing his reversed coolant manifold. im planning on taking his design and alter it slightly. im going to add a 90 elbow and try to lower the angle of the inlet.ill be doing all this hopefully tommorrow night, my buddy who works in a welding shop is coming in to help me with the welds. we'll probably do some tests and compare and let the better welder do the first bead, then probably let him do the second to give it a clean finish. here is the stock inlet cut off. ill put a cap and potentially an outlet for another sensor should we decide on alternate aftermarket water temp gauge, which im pushing for.here's the hole i have to cut. note how close it is to the ecu sensors. that along with the placement of the screw makes me concerned. we all think that if it fails or leaks, thats probably where it will happenand placement of new inlet, making it "reversed".and the final product. where the pipe connects to the manifold is where i plan on placing the 90 elbow, hopefully adding some space between the sensors and the pipe, as well as lowering the angle to the pipe to the radiatoril have finished product pics tommorrow, as well as other project pics. im also going to have to modify the engine mount a bit and should make for another good post.. And just incase nobody saw it above, i wanted to again thank the guy from Prima Foundry for his help and his pictures showing me how to do this..I break things for a living...
Reply:Aluminum or cast iron?From the pics it looks like cast aluminum.  TIG welders will be able to guide you on the weld process.MarkI haven't always been a nurse........Craftsman 12"x36" LatheEnco G-30B MillHobart Handler 175Lincoln WeldandPower 225 AC/DC G-7 CV/CCAdd a Foot Pedal to a Harbor Freight Chicago Electric 165A DC TIG PapaLion's Gate Build
Reply:yup, cast aluminum. my buddy is going to bring a bunch of different quality rods over this afternoon and were going to try and knock it out. ive never welded cast aluminum before so this should be funI break things for a living...
Reply:Update:So today my buddy came over to the shop to help with the manifold, we didnt complete it but i made great headway. he also brought multiple thicknesses of aluminum elbows he made where he works. as far as cutting the whole we opted for milling it out with our drill press/light duty mill. came out better than i had expected.here's just before we startedand during the workwe had a problem with the table being to low and dropped the whole unit down some (i almost got hit in the head with a 100+ pound drill motor). once we lowered the unit it was nothin but smooth sailing.heres halfway through and the completed first weld. next i have to cut the original inlet and trim down the piece we welded, then weld them together, then the cover piece for the original inletim gonna take a crack at this thick metal tommorow and see what i can do.I break things for a living...
Reply:a holesaw would have made a better hole.  The slug could have also been used to plug the original hole.My name's not Jim....