The 2nd EA to EJ swap, trials and tribulations.

[Scooner]

What is up everyone?

 

I wanted to make a post of my latest swap, I started with a 1992 Loyale Wagon with a 4" lift kit homemade, 27" tires, 6 lug hubs, Datsun Turbine aluminum 14" wheels, it had a 1988 GL EA82 which ran amazing and had a surprising amount of power, it also has the dual range from an 88 GL as well, not one of those funky pushbutton deals the loyales had. On a trip back from Golden,CO to Cheyenne, WY where we moved to the EA started to knock really really bad. Maybe it was a rod, maybe it was a valve? Who cares it was a gutless EA82. So I began shopping for a donor...

 

I found a 1990 Legacy down in fort Collins the guy had wrecked, he spun it around and slammed the rear end into a concrete barrier. Needless to say it was destroyed, I still opted to drive it all the way to my house from his though which was an hour away. The car ran awesome it just kinda leaned and drifted to the right a lot. This all started around Labor day and I just now finished yesterday, I contribute this to having a wife who is 8 months pregnant and we have a 2.5 year old boy so time was hard to come by. Also coming up with money to spend on the project is also very hard to explain to a preggo who needs things for a new baby as im sure some of you guys know haha. Anyways lets get into it, this is what I did that has worked great so far.

 

I used the radiator from the legacy and it fit perfectly where the old one was, all I did was grind off the little metal studs that were on the bottom of the EJ rad so it would sit flat and I used my grinder to cut the sheet metal of the loyale so that the radiator would not lean into the engine, the only real issue I had was the radiator hoses but thanks to smart phones I just took a pic of the inlets/outlets and went to advance and grabbed a couple of hoses that looked like I could make work by cutting them. Thinking of it I had to cut a small piece of metal out from the inside of the hood so the rad cap wouldn't hit, worked great using the existing overflow reservoir.

 

Exhaust: On the first swap I did I basically just bolted up the EJ header to the engine and got rid of the rest of the exhaust that bolted on with those spring bolts about middle of the car. At this junction I welded a 2" inlet 2" outlet cherry bomb then welded on a 45 degree 2" and straight out in front of the wheel tire. Makes for a badass Subaru sound and I mostly drive around with no music cause I love the way it sounds.

 

Adapter Plate: For some reason I had it in my head SJR charged $400 for just the plate, then I wanted to look again the other day and that was for all of it including the drilled flywheel haha wow. I opted for a 16"x16" 1/2" thick plate of steel from metal distributors which ran me $90. This was just a plate mind you, I spent so many days grinding torching and welding to make it right, when I could've just paid $185. well well worth the money. The first plate I made I used 1/2" aluminum from Alreco in brighton, Colorado. Aluminum is much easier to work with that steel. I didn't have many issues with the plate at all actually and it is super strong, no issues at all so far.

 

Wiring/Electrical: Yes, the most amazing part of the swap. If you are considering doing this swap and have never done an undertaking like this just do it stop being a wuss. Theyre just wires. On the other hand I am an elevator service tech and I deal with electricity and mechanics every day at work so it didn't bother me to dive right in as I have to read and figure out electrical systems on elevators when they break. This is what I did with my big stuff like the fuel pump relay, ignition relay, fuel pump yada yada.

 

For the constant 12v power I used the fat white 12a going to the ignition switch in the steering column, I tapped in and then attached my own inline fuse, for the switched 12v I used the fat black 12ga wire going to the same switch, I also used an inline fuse for this as well. From there I wired up the fuel pump relay on the top as your looking down at it from the top there is a smaller green/blk wire that goes directly to F47#23 or D23 this is called Fuel Pump Control in the prints. The small yellow wire is attached to the 12V switched power that I tapped into, The blk/red wire goes to the positive side of the existing fuel pump, I tapped in the existing one that was under the dash on the pass side. the FAT yellow wire gets tapped in the 12v constant after the fuse I installed.

 

The Ignition Relay: The light green wire, oh man this caused me many many hours of grief freezing in the garage. When you tear out the harness DO NOT disregard the diode. What is the diode you may be asking, well it is half grey and half black and has 3 wires coming out of it, I light green and 2 yellows, I disregarded this little gem at first, geez why wont this POS cranks?! Well lo and behold after doing a lot of research I found a Volkswagen wiring diagram where a guy transplanted an EJ22, that's when I saw the diode. This time I kept ALL of the wiring I removed from the legacy and with some digging I found it! With about a foot of wires sticking out of it still, I attached it with the light green wire coming off of the ignition relay with one end going to ECU point F47#5 Self Shutoff Control, one to one of the diode green wires, and one to 12V switched power. Boom that thing fired right up! Okay now to the rest of the IGN relay, the black on It goes to a ground, the 2 FAT yellows go to 12V constant and one of the FAT yellow/red wires goes to the O2 Sensor, the other FAT yellow/red goes to A2 and A13 (B48#2 B48#13)

 

Tuning and testing: The thing would run awesome just idling, however when I drove it would backfire and sputter and buck and sneeze. Over the last 2 weeks ive been scratching my head and freezing trying to figure it out, was it a spark plug? No. Was it the plug wires? No. Oh Oh maybe a bad injector? Trying to pull one out I broke the top off...argh. another couple days later got 2 used ones, I had pulled the fuel injector next to it to compare when I went to find new ones at the junkyard, well I put the new ones back in and what do ya know it ran...terrible! spitting gas out the exhaust burning white smoke, what the hell? I pulled those two plugs and they were soaked in gas. What? Well more research and more days and random hours I found that when most people replace fuel injectors they don't pay attention to replacing the O ring which basically just allows fuel to literally pour in! I was able to get FI O rings at advance that were universal and it fixed that. Of course this 2.2 has the black top injectors and not the reds because I have 3 extra ones of those. Then came the eureka moment, after that incident I cleaned the plugs and wanted to test some more, my god it still backfires and sputters and cant hardly drive. Then the next day I figured id give it another shot and it had snowed the night before, I got in while it was warming up and turned on the wipers to get the snow off and as soon as I turned em on the car died. My head started to hurt, why did that happen? that has nothing to do with the engine! WTF. Then it hit me. Grounds. I remember attaching the ground of the ignitor and the MAF to the ground on the outside of the windshield wiper motor. Why I did this I don't know, I remember from the first swap a common ground is needed for all the grounds for less complications. Needless to say I took these ridiculous grounds off and attached a black wire and ran it to the common ground located in front of the battery. Then boom the car ran just the way I wanted, fast and loud. Holy crap what a relief!

 

Forgive me for such a long post but I felt it was necessary and hopefully it helps some other poor sap like me someday. If you've got any questions feel free to ask, have a good one and good luck!

[Tsuru]

If you are asking for forgiveness, you shall not receive it from me.

For your posting needs no excuse, it stands as testament to your experiences, and for you to share is a noble and forthright undertaking.

many bear the headaches without a guide of rational understanding, it's all trial by error and "hmm, this looks like it (BANG) should (gruntSLAM) fit. (prypryprySNAP!)

 

you just may have saved someones sanity.

 

Your request for absolution is hereby denied.

The findings are that no apologies are neccessary.

 

Carry on...

 

Respectfully,

timothy

[Scooner]

Haha well said friend! Thanks, it took quite awhile to write and post as I had thy young man child Gage pressing random keys and exclaiming their significance, ie W!!! He loves that letter. But what was I supposed to do the kid loves letters, I suppose its better than meth. But not better than heroin, heroin rocks. Especially after cheerios in the morning, its kind of our thing. Cheers!

[el_freddo]

Top effort mate - especially having a little man child to deal with too!

 

Hope you get many years of happy trouble free motoring from this conversion!

Regards

Bennie

[Scooner]

Thanks Bennie, I haven't been able to drive it much as we are a family unit and take the new outback everywhere and my wife is about 8 months pregnant and does not find the thrill in horizontally opposed subaru fast and fun thrill rides, and we are looking at houses to buy as well. This summer is going to rock though and I can't wait to take it on many camping adventures, especially up to vedauwoo.

[Scooner]

Well here we are 10 months later and not one single issue aside from the stuck thermostat that happened in Teton national park in Aug. I drove it over 1000 miles loaded down with camping supplies and it never even hiccuped. I absolutely love this swap and i would not hesitate to do it again.

 

My car gets about 25 mpg on the highway and maybe 20 in town? I don't drive conservatively though, i shift around 4k because i love the sound and the feel. Can't wait for the snow so i can have a little more fun in 4WD!

[Gloyale]

Good job!

 

The only thing I would add is that you should not need to add any grounds to anything in the harness except the Fuel pump relay.

 

All the other grounds needed should be already contained in the engine intake wiring.

 

You want the ECU, and all engine sensors to ground to the same place...at the engine.  Which they do in the factory setup.  Only the fuel pump relay ground goes to car chassis.

[Scooner]

Thank you sir!

 

Yeah, those grounds. I think where i should've just used the factory harness and stripped it down i ran all of my own wires which left me with about a foot of grounds off of the ecu ha. So i ended up tying all of the grounds together and running a 14 ga wire to the engine bay where it grounded to in front of the battery on the body and also the ground coming from the engine so it is all tied together.

 

See that's what you get when you have ALOT of new wire laying around and don't feel like stripping a harness properly haha! Oh well lesson learned, and hopefully for other people who attempt this swap.

 

Gloyale, you must be a subaru service tech? Cause you have quite an impressive knowledge of these cars. Furthermore put a avatar up already, i want to see your ride!

Edited October 12, 2014 by Scooner