Subaru 3.6 / 5MT into '77 911

[Shuskie15]

Hi all, figured i'd finally start my own thread. I picked up a '77 911 Targa roller (from forum member Bender706) that had a slant nose/widebody conversion started but not really finished ( fuel filler not plumbed, front valance with headlights not installed). Hassle of getting it transported from QC to VA aside, it was a leap of faith buying a car out of country sight unseen, other than Marketplace pics.

I picked up donor rollover 2015 Outback from Copart and started pulling the 3.6, and found a TY758 5 speed on FB into which will go a Subiworks conversion.

Current state: Engine is out, engine bay harness is out, dash harness is out (holy cow THAT was a job). Trying not to destroy too much of the Subaru so i can sell off whatever is good. I did run the engine before pulling it... the challenge will be to reassemble the harnesses on the shop floor and run it again before i start to peel them apart and discard the parts I don't need.

I haven't really touched the 911 yet, but I need to start pulling the remaining pieces that were left for the original engine / trans. And then get back to Chris at Subiworks and get that kit ordered.

[Shuskie15]

Delivery day on the 911:
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Rolling (pushing with the tractor) in the 2015 Outback:

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Confirming Subaru runs:

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Cleaning up the TY758 5speed manual a bit:

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Starting to cut up the Outback:

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Engine loose, dragging it out:

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Gutting the interior for the dash harness:

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Spiders!

[Shuskie15]

Continuing to strip the donor for harnesses... it appears that there are more and more bits to the immo system. The diagrams on subaru's parts sites are next to useless... and actually show three different systems with different components.
So now I have the engine bay harness out and connected to the engine, the manual trans bolted up, the dash harness out and connected, and just for giggles about everything with a plug from the dash hooked back up. That's steering column, radio, hvac control, lighting control, console, etc. This past weekend I pulled the pass side harness out all the way back to the tailgate, including another keyless module hidden above the subwoofer behind the c pillar. Right now the harness wakes up, the throttle body twitches... but still trips immobilizer. 🙄

[Ryan_Cunningham]

I want to swap my SBC to a LS motor but that electrical you just posted scares the ***** out of me.

[koilnzel]

The LS electrical is nowhere near as complicated. A standalone LS harness for about $600 takes about 5 hours at most.

[Shuskie15]

Quick update: Ive pulled ALL of the harness out of the subaru. The engine and dash harnesses would wake up but would shut down with the message "keyless access system disabled". So i carefully removed the rear harnesses from the car that included the other fob antennas, but still nothing. Then I figured out what I missed: the BRAKE switch. The harness now wakes up and does not trip immo when I press the button a second time for engine start. It still doesn't start, but that's most likely because the AT has been removed and it doesn't sense park/neutral. So that's the next task.

[walfreyydo]

Would it be better just to go full standalone with the Subie motor? That way you can bypass all the issues with the OEM engine/interior harness, stock ECU/immobilizer, ABS, AT trans sensor, traction control, wiring mess, etc.

[Shuskie15]

That may very well be what happens, but before I make the investment in a standalone, I'd like to get as far as I can with the factory harness and ecu, if only for proof of concept.
EFI fuel pump and regulator showed up today but I ate too much pizza to get off the couch. ����*♂️

[Shuskie15]

It lives! After fighting and finally satisfying the immobilizer, I had to figure out the shift interlock to convince the ECU it was in neutral, even though it wasn't hooked up to the original AT, but instead the MT from the 08 Impreza. Finally got it. With an aftermarket fuel pump and regulator running out of a 5 gallon can, it fired right up.
Now I get to start figuring out pinouts and bypasses to delete the shifter assembly, inhibitor module, brake switch, etc etc.
Have vid but haven't sorted how to do it on this forum yet.

[Matt at Pelican Parts]

This is awesome! Glad to hear you've got it running! Please post up more pictures as you progress! We would love to see more of this swap and the beautiful 911 Targa its going in!

-Matt

[Shuskie15]

Thanks Matt.
The car looks like it was started as a project and then left alone for awhile. It was painted, and then must have sat for a while, as there's some bubbling starting under the rear window. Otherwise, it's a pretty rust free car. Ive been trying to find a set of 930 fenders to replace these 935 (non headlight)fenders, and I'll pull the trigger on something soon.
The interior needs a little love, but at least the dash is in great shape. I'll probably throw a set of cheap race seats in here as the leather on the originals is shot.

[Shuskie15]

Another day of progress with the harness. Again with the cycle of remove-a-part, start the engine, repeat. Narrowed the necessary bit of the driver's side harness down to one plug, then stripped the harness back to snip out what I didn't need.
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Second pic: the bits I removed today on the right, only bit that had to stay on bottom left.

[MrRPJ]

You will blow that box to pieces, ask me how I know. Don't waste you time or money on it. get a g50 short or even a 915 with an adaptor plate

[BrianVA]

Looking good man. Excited to see the new wheels on it when you get the electrical and other major issues sorted.

[Shuskie15]

Cmon Brian, you think I didn't put the wheels on right away?

[MadMaks]

Any plans for the engine cradle yet? I am planning to fit an EJ207 in a 911 shell I have recently acquired and am trying to get some ideas.

[Shuskie15]

Update: This has been back-burnered for 2023 due to my going back to school full time to finish my mechanical engineering degree. Watching it collect dust all year while I try to maintain my GPA and have zero income has really burned my ass, so I finally went ahead and ordered the Subarugears kit along with the LSD, which should be here next week.

I'm not particularly interested in paying 3-4x what a reversed Subaru trans will cost for a G50 (an that nearly exceed my cost of this roller), or just finding a 915 that will still cost more... and still be a 45-year old transmission. I would have considered a G96 trans and adapter kit if someone were willing to make it available, even in Beta. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be in the cards. The other option was a UN1, but those are hen's teeth unless you can find one out of a Delorean... which I did, cheap ($1500 on FB Marketplace), the day after I paid for the SG kit. Maybe on the next one.

I'm slowly selling off the takeoff parts from the Outback and have now recovered enough that I'm ahead of what the engine would have cost me alone. The folks in Six Swapped Subarus on facebook seem to have the 3.6 ecu figured out enough to deter me from needing a standalone, but I'm not quite at that bridge yet. Once I'm done I will of course lay out a full BOM for the 3.6/TY758 conversion.

Maks - I don't have all the mounts figured out yet. So far all I've got is the timing cover mount at the rear chassis 'crossbar'. The very loose plan is to tie in the 'front' (i.e. center diff housing) of the trans to the orginal chassis mounts somehow, and then tie in the top of the bell housing somewhere up around the rear upper shock mounts. We'll see.

[WonkoTheSane]

I've been really curious as to why there hasn't been more looking into by others to use a 5spd Subaru transaxle. From what I can find on there boards, it seemed to fit without too much fuss, and only needed a fairly small hole made in the tunnel hump for a exposed linkage bar to fit through. That one person that used the subaru trans, told everyone to not bother using because it was weak and breaks, but at the same time he seemed to have a rather large and torquey LS behind it too. Doubt most people will be clutch drop launching ~600ft/lb's behind the trans.

[Axel84]

Posting in an epic thread.

Really chuckled at "satisfying the immobilizer" lmao

[Shuskie15]

@ Wonko -
Yeah, I'm probably going to be about half the power of that guy, and still be right in the middle of original 930 numbers.

Plan is to have motor mounts completed this weekend and then pull everything back out and crack open the trans, as the SubaruGears parts arrived in a hurry. 4 days / 13000 miles from Perth to Virginia. Kudos to DHL is something I'd never thought I'd say.