88HatchMonster

+1 I made a set last year.

Hey Doug, glad to see another upstate New Yorker on the board! Also glad to see you're not scared off by a little debate vitriol. Don't take it personal and feel free to continue to contribute to the discussion. The more knowledgeable folks with real experience sharing tips on the board the better. And good luck with the Outback (yeah, "Outback" is fine). I think you'll really love it when you're done. They're just awesome up here in the Winter, not that we're getting much of a Winter this year, haha...

Actually, it's DOHC. Bigger than an EJ22. You'll have to carve out the frame rails just a bit, but it will fit.

"2. The bolt pattern for the flywheel on the EA cars is a bit smaller than the EJ, and is also asymmetrical so that the timing marks are aligned correctly. The EJ series cam timing marks are on the crank pulley, and since the ignition timing is computer controlled, there's no need for the ignition timing marks. so the bolt pattern is symmetrical. The ideal way to do this is have a local machine shop weld the holes shut, and then redrill them (should cost about $30). 1" Just take out the "should cost about $30." Someone had a machine shop do this and they charged them like $250! Just leave it without a price estimate. Only skimmed the wiring section so far but it looks awesome...

Sure, a flywheel will work to mark the pattern. The flexplate is just more convenient being thin and lightweight... but if you have a flywheel handy it's not worth pulling a flexplate.

Yeah, just use an auto trans flexplate or spacer to mark the pattern.

Definitely DO NOT try to put new holes in between the old holes, you'll be weakening the flywheel too much. The "egg shape" IS what you want to go for. Just do it carefully and accurately so that there is no play once you bolt the flywheel up. It's not going to happen with a drill bit, though. You'll have to use a dremel or die grinder to enlarge the holes to the new pattern. This is a tried and true method at this point, starting with Subarino at least two years ago. To date, no one has come back to the board with any stories of sheared bolts, and plenty of swappers beat their rigs very hard.

It looks like you're making the process a little harder than it need be... There's really no need to strip anything from the brat harness. Keep it intact and you'll have all your wiper/lights/etc on the stock harness. When you pull the harness from the EJ donor, that's where you strip it down to the bare essentials (basically the ECU, engine harness, and relays). And then you basically just connect that to power and ground on the brat. There's no real "splicing" or integration of the two harnesses. And if you want to put in a different EJ motor down the road, as long as it was wired right the first time, the wiring can stay, just swap in the long block!

Turn the rearmost seats around to face the front so the passengers in the back can all talk or whatever. Also just nicer to ride facing forward. Might help with leg room too.

This is how I set up my EA81 EJ conversion. Battery stays in stock location. Intake manifold is from a '93 Legacy, flipped upside down so it points to the other side and a cone air filter was fitted to the MAF. Stock scissor jack and holder were removed. Not running a charcoal can, but there probably would have been room.

I've got mine behind the back seat. Still room for a sub and toolbox.

I don't have part #'s but with the different lifts and EA81 vs. EA82 etc. it's best if you just tape together a mock up out of old hose and bring that in and try to match it. My local Advance Auto was really cool about letting me dig through their shelves for about an hour and a half.

Wow, looks really comprehensive, well edited and readable as well. Great job! Here are my notes (mostly stuff I said at one time and since rethought): Section 2: I may have been high on crack when I said you could get a flywheel welded and redrilled for $30. It's likely gonna cost a lot more than that, so I wouldn't put a price on that service. BUT, I would estimate about $60-80 to simply have your holes milled out to the EJ pattern by an auto machine shop. Also in section 2: I would say that a lighter XT6 flywheel would be preferrable for the street, but a heavier regular 4WD one would be better for offroad (more spinning mass, harder to stall). Section 5: I talked about the possibility of needing a surge tank on an EA81. This was what the AU guys said, but my personal experience has been NO SURGE TANK, NO PROBLEM. Feel free to scratch that or ammend it if you want. Section 6: Solution 3 that I offered about the muffler pipe adapters for radiator hoses is not worth mentioning. ShawnW's suggestion of using preformed hoses with different size ends was a much better solution (which I'm not sure you mentioned, I'm talking preformed hose for different model cars not the universal stuff, just go in the back at the part store and dig). To that solution I would add to use those grey plastic plumbing couplers from the hardware store to join two different preformed hoses to get a perfect fit. Here's a pic of that (on a 4" lifted EA81): I saw you used one of my pics, feel free to use any, I have a few more EJ swap ones up in my gallery: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showgallery.php?ppuser=6078&cat=500

I've had good dealings with them in the past, but will be wary of using them again in the future. They charged my card for a clutch kit that was supposedly in stock, never sent anything and three weeks later I'm in customer service hell with their terrible East-Asian customer service dept., simply trying to have my money refunded. What pisses me off is that their sales # is staffed by Americans and then they hand you off to the overseas labor when you actually have a problem. I will most likely just be disputing the charges just in case they can't/won't get their act together and give me a refund before the bill is due. Be careful with these guys.

If you're careful and take your time, you can drill and tap the holes in an aluminum adapter plate to take two bolts without using helicoils. The plates I sell are steel so stripping the threads is not an issue there, but on my personal EJ swapped hatch, I'm running an aluminum prototype plate which was built in the same way, for two bolts and no helicoils. The holes are really really close, but if you punch and drill accurately there's just enough metal between them to cut solid threads. At any rate, I wouldn't worry about drilling out the threads in your engine. Down the road you can always just put that EJ trans on with a nut and a bolt.

The 5's def. are nicer for their gearing, but I built my own linkage (it's absolutely perfect, wish you could feel it) and I'm using a bigger Nissan truck throwout bearing to run an XT6 pressure plate. So I'm pretty happy with the setup overall. Course, if I had a 5 lying around I probably would have used it. I'm running 28.5" swampers and I had 115k on the trans before my EJ swap. No rebuild.

It's perfect. 6 mos. 5K mi. and not one hiccup, whine, grind or missed shift. So far so good. I think these trannies are stronger than people think.

Mine ran for a couple of miles idling erratically and threatening to stall out before I realized something was up, remembered, got out and plugged it back in. Anyway, MAF, good thing to have either way.

You can get a pod filter with an adapter that takes the place of your airbox on eBay for about $20. Look hard enough and you will find it, it's just an adapter and pod filter, not those cheapo "cold-air" kits. Oh, and your engine will run without the MAF, just not that well...

Z was talking Legacy, not EA82. Completely different, but even EA82 susp. onto EA81 is a pretty hairy swap requiring lots of custom work (on the front end especially).

Ummm I doubt it, you don't wanna know how many hours I have in those things!

I think legacy suspension on an EA81 would be a step in the wrong direction for an offroader (which I'm assuming it would be if you're talking 2-3" lift and 5spd D/R). The legacy suspension is VERY different than the EA81 setup, and actually has inherently less ground clearance due to its lateral links and diff cradle. It would also be a nightmare fab job. Several board members have attempted it (even starting years ago) and none have yet to finish theirs as far as I know. There's no straight path to success and it would definitely require advanced fabrication skills. I'm only being so discouraging because I think the end result would not be superior to the same EA81 wagon with a 4" lift, 5spd D/R, Rear disc brakes and a 6-lug hub conversion. Throw an EJ22 in there and you're even better.

You're lucky they still make repair panels for your vehicle! I had to fab my own for my '88 hatchback. I built them as a one-piece channel, with no pinch-weld. Material used was 22-guage steel. Before installing them I painted the insides with rust-bullet automotive paint. They are held in place underneath by spot welds about six inches apart. Afterward I drilled 1/8 inch weep holes along the bottom and treated the holes with rust-bullet. On a unibody car, the rockers should be as strong as possible (within reason) as they do add structural support. I think that your body failing had more to do with an over-all too rusty vehicle to begin with. Before repairing my rockers I fully repaired and reinforced my floor-pan and main frame rails. For a lasting repair, you need to sand all the rusted surfaces down to bare metal and then cut back at least an inch past the rot. Laminating untreated or already rusty surfaces will create the perfect conditions for more rust. So keep overlaps to a minimum. Realize that you can rarely ever get anything air-tight and that trying to do so may only create an area that will trap moisture and create rust. So treat your surfaces and allow for drainage where any moisture may collect. I think you'll be fine for inspection purposes... Here's some pics of my repair:

Lack of lower gearing options, lack of real lockers, limited susp. travel, these things hurt subies as far as being hard-core ORVs. I think the engines on the other hand (EJs especially) are potentially great for off-road use and abuse. Very respectable HP and torque, light weight, reliable, fuel injected... I don't see a problem with the engines, rather the above mentioned drivetrain issues. Oh and wiring's easier than you think guys! Just gotta resist the urge to cut all the wires and figure out what they do later.

It will be at least $150 to replace the bearing. Consider replacing the CV axle on that side as well, since what usually causes wheel bearings to fail in high salt use areas like VT is a rusty outer CV cup tearing up the seals allowing dirt and water into the bearing. If the other side is still good, leave it.