leone/loyale FWD EA71 toAWD EA82T

[-tombba-]

So the title says it all. I'm going to swap my FTAWD technic to my FWD EA71 chassis. I've been searching around a lot of info from this operation but really did not find any good thread that has info from this kind of swap (might be my bad search skills too:) ).

 

So my problem is that I don't know is there any major modifications to do into my FWD chassis to fit FTAWD tehcnic in ? I would thought that my FWD chassis has all the same mounting brackets etc than FTAWD ? If not what might I expect to do myself ? Since I got a full donor car it should not be a problem but it is just nice to get ready for the job before I start it.

 

My FWD chassis is a '88 leone coupe and donor car is '89/90 leone with FTAWD and EA82T with only 120k miles on it.

 

So I know I have to change the whole technic including:

 

-Engine and engine electronics

-Gearbox, diff and other drivetrain parts

-Front and rear brakes

-Rear subframe

-Fuel tank with fuel pump

 

But is there anything else I need to do ?

[rxleone]

I wouldn't bother swapping all that gear without dropping the EA82T and replacing it with an early EJ20D or EJ22. Even an early RS turbo EJ20 could be done. Seems like a lot of work for not really much gain.

 

What are your plans? What are you trying to achieve? Is the body of your original car rusted out or are you going for speed?

[-tombba-]

I wouldn't bother swapping all that gear without dropping the EA82T and replacing it with an early EJ20D or EJ22. Even an early RS turbo EJ20 could be done. Seems like a lot of work for not really much gain.

 

What are your plans? What are you trying to achieve? Is the body of your original car rusted out or are you going for speed?

 

EJ20 is an future plan. Just not possible right now with my budjet (would need at least 2,5k€ and since the cars has cost like 500€ now I can't justify that price). My plan is to get the EA82T to around 160bhp that should not be quite easy since the engine is 134bhp @stock and has already got some mods in it that are:

 

-Top mount GC8 intercooler

-MHI TD04L13T turbo

-2,5" exhaust from turbo

-New exhaust manifold

-etc. etc.

 

The thing is my donor car is pretty badly rusted from down below and would need a quite a lot of work with it and ofcourse a new paint to it. And it is a wagon with lifted roof that isn't also as light as teh 2dr coupe. I do like the ea82t engine and since I have it already it's the easiest way to get my coupe going with AWD transplant. And just to mention the wagon is not registered so I can't drive it on the road. And a last note I live in finland so getting parts isn't cheap or easy in any means.

[rxleone]

EJ20 is an future plan. Just not possible right now with my budjet (would need at least 2,5k€ and since the cars has cost like 500€ now I can't justify that price). My plan is to get the EA82T to around 160bhp that should not be quite easy since the engine is 134bhp @stock and has already got some mods in it that are:

 

-Top mount GC8 intercooler

-MHI TD04L13T turbo

-2,5" exhaust from turbo

-New exhaust manifold

-etc. etc.

 

The thing is my donor car is pretty badly rusted from down below and would need a quite a lot of work with it and ofcourse a new paint to it. And it is a wagon with lifted roof that isn't also as light as teh 2dr coupe. I do like the ea82t engine and since I have it already it's the easiest way to get my coupe going with AWD transplant. And just to mention the wagon is not registered so I can't drive it on the road. And a last note I live in finland so getting parts isn't cheap or easy in any means.

 

If parts are not cheap in your country I wouldn't even bother upgrading your EA82T. It's not a good platform for building on, and it will grenade if you try to push it too hard. I'd save my money for an EJ20G - over 200HP completely stock, reliably and relatively economically. EA82T is just not an ideal platform to use.

[-tombba-]

Well since I already have my EA82T with the mods it's virtually free to do the swap with the parts I already have. I've never had any problems with my EA82T that had 150-160bhp. It's only a 20% increasement in power if I push it to 160bhp since the engine has 134bhp stock. I have the las gen EA82T engine so it has gen3 heads and already has been modified from the most restrictive parts like exhaust manifold and turbo etc.

 

But my original guestion was about the drivetrain. I assume there is mounting places for rear diff and driveshaft etc in the FWD body but I am not sure about it. I anyway have to install the AWD drivetrai stuff to my coupe so it's no a big job to swap the engine at the same. It might even be easier to swap the ea82 to it after the AWD conversion than the original EA71 that sits in FWD gearbox.

[6 Star]

You will need to do a lot of custom work to get the suspension to fit.

The front and rear strut/shock assemblies have different mounts.

The rear driveline will need to be shortened because the coupe is shorter in length.

The cv axles will have to be shortened because the coupe is shorter in width.

The tranny tunnel might have to be enlarged to fit the ea82 tranny.

The ea82t itself will be a very tight squeeze in the coupe's engine bay.

I've heard of people having to cut the unibody for it to fit.

The crossmember will have to be modified as well.

Etc...

Just to name a few, not 100% sure as I have never done this work but these are issues that come to mind.

[Ibreakstuff]

My FWD chassis is a '88 leone coupe and donor car is '89/90 leone with FTAWD and EA82T with only 120k miles on it.

 

Is the 88 leone coupe the same as the USDM 3door? You said EA71 is that referring to the body or the engine?

[-tombba-]

You will need to do a lot of custom work to get the suspension to fit.

The front and rear strut/shock assemblies have different mounts.

The rear driveline will need to be shortened because the coupe is shorter in length.

The cv axles will have to be shortened because the coupe is shorter in width.

The tranny tunnel might have to be enlarged to fit the ea82 tranny.

The ea82t itself will be a very tight squeeze in the coupe's engine bay.

I've heard of people having to cut the unibody for it to fit.

The crossmember will have to be modified as well.

Etc...

Just to name a few, not 100% sure as I have never done this work but these are issues that come to mind.

 

That sounds like suprisingly lot of work to do. I've always thought that the driveline is all the same in STW-Sedan-Coupe. I've been usng parts from a coupe in my ex sedan and STW:s. Engine bay of the coupe is identical than my SWT so that should no be a problem. Also one thing that I already checked is that the shocks at the rear and back are with the same mounts than my STW.

 

Well I just have to check these things next time I go to the car. That will clear a lot of things after all. Also forgot to mention that the rear axle has rusted and is now in two pieces so to get the coupe even running I need to change rear axle.

[-tombba-]

Is the 88 leone coupe the same as the USDM 3door? You said EA71 is that referring to the body or the engine?

 

yes my 88 coupe is the same as USDM 3door. and the EA71 is the engine (being the 1.6l then) . It's basicly the same body than RX coupe without the bodykit.

 

This is the body style and actually my car also: http://image.nettiauto.com/extra/carimg/4982501_4982600/subaru-leone-4982578_b_483eef1c2eaa7b40.jpg

 

And just to make sure my donor car is the same generation but just STW. Front of the cars are identical. And this body style has got the AWD EA82T option from the factory too so it shouldn't be that difficult in my opinion. My fault if you guys thought I was swapping EA82T to the older gen coupe. So the cardrivetrains are different.

Edited November 14, 2012 by -tombba-

[rxleone]

So what he's getting at is he has an EA82-style coupe with an EA71 in it. I'm not sure if the US market got these. In NZ we got a DL Leone wagon with an EA71 in it, with the dual headlight setup.

[6 Star]

Whoops

I was thinking of the 1st generation leone coupe.

Since its a 3rd generation then;

Need to swap in a 4wd gas tank to make room for the rear diff.

Is the wheelbase shorter on the 3 door coupes vs the wagons? If so you will have to shorten the rear driveshaft.

[-tombba-]

Whoops

I was thinking of the 1st generation leone coupe.

Since its a 3rd generation then;

Need to swap in a 4wd gas tank to make room for the rear diff.

Is the wheelbase shorter on the 3 door coupes vs the wagons? If so you will have to shorten the rear driveshaft.

 

I'm not sure about the wheelbase but I think it's the same. I've used a driveshaft from coupe in a stw without any mods so it should not be a problem. Carfolio states that the wheelbase is the same in estate and coupe (2464mm). I did know that I have to change the gas tank due to the rear diff.

[Ibreakstuff]

I am in the process of swapping my 1990 fwd loyale coupe (same chassis as yours).. so we are in the same boat.

 

The only 2 things that are not plug and play are the driveshaft (carrier) bearing mount and the mustache bar mount. My chassis had holes for neither, yours probably won't either.

 

!! You don't need a different gas tank, fwd tank should have the dimple (same tank as awd?). And the drive shaft is the same length on the wagon/coupe.

 

I made a carrier bearing mount out of 1 inch square bar. And drilled out/bolted in the mustache bar mount. You could have a 1 piece driveshaft made to avoid fabricating a driveshaft bearing mount.

 

I started a thread on my swap but I have not posted any updates or pictures yet. I'm going one step farther and swapping to 5 lug + rear handbrake. I'll post up some updates/pictures soon...

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=134242

Edited November 16, 2012 by Ibreakstuff

[-tombba-]

 

I started a thread on my swap but I have not posted any updates or pictures yet. I'm going one step farther and swapping to 5 lug + rear handbrake. I'll post up some updates/pictures soon...

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=134242

 

I did notice that thread a while ago but since it did not have more images it did ot quite answer my question. I'll be waiting for the photos what I need to do for the carrier beargin and mustache bar mounting.

[Ibreakstuff]

I'll take some pictures of those in the next week. The mustache bar mounts are on the car already, but the carrier mount won't go on until I get my gearbox figured out. I'll take a picture of what I came up with tho.

[-tombba-]

Just thought I would add some pics of these cars so here they are:

 

The coupe (notice the race like rear camber due to axle brea down :-p) :

 

 

 

And the STW (looks way better in pics that it really is):

 

[Ibreakstuff]

Nice, the white with black trim looks good! Lol yea that rear camber might cause some problems.

 

Its always nice to start with a whole parts car, every single piece of my recent swap came from a different car!

[-tombba-]

Nice, the white with black trim looks good! Lol yea that rear camber might cause some problems.

 

Its always nice to start with a whole parts car, every single piece of my recent swap came from a different car!

 

Yep that helps a lot when I can have the whole car in front of me. Especialli when I know what parts have already been changed to the parts car since it was the daily driver before and after that it has got a lot of new parts in it.

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep that coupe in it's original coor since it need a bit paintwork anyway. The rear camber is horrible because the rear axle submember "pipe" thingy that has rotten into two pieces. Hopefuly I got one as a spare part and one from the donor car in good shape.

[Ibreakstuff]

Yep that helps a lot when I can have the whole car in front of me. Especialli when I know what parts have already been changed to the parts car since it was the daily driver before and after that it has got a lot of new parts in it.

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep that coupe in it's original coor since it need a bit paintwork anyway. The rear camber is horrible because the rear axle submember "pipe" thingy that has rotten into two pieces. Hopefuly I got one as a spare part and one from the donor car in good shape.

 

Definitely, if I didn't live in the city I would be collecting parts cars lol.

 

Yep, you needed to swap out that fwd rear subframe anyways.

 

Good luck with your project! I just need to bleed the brakes on mine and she's back on the road. I'll get some pictures when it stops raining everyday.

[-tombba-]

Got some parts sorted out already. These I did find from my own inventory

 

The most important parts for now:

 

Rear axle crossmember doing some electrolysys bath (it's a bit rotten from other end but will be sorted out with some reinforcements tomorrow:

 

 

Rear diff mounting bracket and brackets to sit between crossember and trailing arm:

 

 

Also got some other parts ready including:

 

-Both rear trailing arms

-Rear CV axles

-Rear diff (3.700)

-Driveshaft with bearing mount on it

[Ibreakstuff]

Nice, if its too far gone you could always fab up a rear diff bracket on a 2wd subframe.

 

That mounting bar, we call it the mustache bar. I assume it got the name when some drunk subieholic put it up to his face and looked thru the 2 bolt holes.

[-tombba-]

Nice, if its too far gone you could always fab up a rear diff bracket on a 2wd subframe.

 

That mounting bar, we call it the mustache bar. I assume it got the name when some drunk subieholic put it up to his face and looked thru the 2 bolt holes.

 

 

The part that I found was nearly paper thin from the inside of the mounting brackets (the tube part I mean). Thought I would weld some 3mm thick square bar inside the tube and close the ends after that. Then was going to put also a 3mm thick square tube parts top of the tube (this only inside the end brackets). Think that would stiffen it up nicely Well see how it comes when I have time to make it since I did not have enough time to do it yesterday. But if the plan fails I do have a spare subframe in my wagon so that will sort it out if the other plans fail

 

Ahh I didn't know that this was tehe menioned mustache bar. Well Ialways learn something new

[-tombba-]

It's been a while since I've even done aything to this car but some updates been done in the summer.

 

The ols rear subframe was like this on both sides. Someone had already tried to fi it by welding it:

 

 

So in goes the new improved one with some mods including 3mm thick square pipe inside the ends and some

supports to the inside of the brackets:

 

 

It got a wirewheel cleaning and some paint+stoneguard onto it:

 

 

And it sits straight again:

 

 

As can be seen from the last image the rear arches has been welded too. I only cutted the rusty part away and welded the inner arch to the outer arch and its still waiting for the repair parts to be fitted. But it's now driveable. I also did a lot of rut repairs on the rear end and some small places around the car. It got a new front fenders from the donor car and that's about it. Haven't have a lot of time to do anything to this but maybe it will be ready some year Oh and it will be painted after the rust proofing has been done.

[86 Wonder Wedge]

Nice job! Sometimes you have to do what you have to do when parts are in short supply...

 

Make sure you look for the mustache bar mount bracket (the triangle piece that mounts to the frame rail) mounting holes in the body. My MY92 Loyale had the holes, but I haven't confirmed if they are tapped yet (there was factory undercoating clogging the holes). But there were not any holes for the drive shaft bearing mount.

[-tombba-]

Nice job! Sometimes you have to do what you have to do when parts are in short supply...

 

Make sure you look for the mustache bar mount bracket (the triangle piece that mounts to the frame rail) mounting holes in the body. My MY92 Loyale had the holes, but I haven't confirmed if they are tapped yet (there was factory undercoating clogging the holes). But there were not any holes for the drive shaft bearing mount.

 

I've got the mustache bar mounting brackets sorted since I took them off with the mustache bar from my parts car. I already cutted the original driveshaft mounting brackets off from the body too so I will be welding them to their place when I get to sort it out. They were basicly just metal brackets welded to the body. I've got basicly everything covered but the time to do the swap. The winter will probably go just by gathering some needes parts like gaskets etc and cleaning the already available parts.