EA82 engine in BRAT series - fitting experience?

[jono]

Taking a break from 100F degree temps (in a little white shaded, double vented temperature sampling box or whatever 54C is in Fahenheit in the sun!! )

 

Been trying to explore the term shoehorn - shoving an EA82 engine in my Brumby/BRAT

Some years back I did a trial fit with another body, no clutch or flywheel on engine to ease things, no engine mounts. It dropped in nice and neat with 3 - 5mm to spare either side.

Now, I am at the point where I am ready with all the bits I could need to do the conversion - the EA81 is out and the EA82 is in, but stuck

 

The engine crossmember was modifid years ago to take an EA82 with mounts and been tried out of car  -resulted in elongated mounting holes and a turbo scallop for good measure.

What my mistake was, was not to retain same mounts, or at least mark them as "fits nice"

 

I have just painted up a set of mounts and bolted them in place. Lowered the engine in place and she is lined up, bolted to gearbox and jamming dizzy side against chassis rails.

 

Rather than dismantle a beaute clutch align - I have removed engine mounts just to see how things look.

OK, bit close but it fits wide wise

 

Just remembered last time I thought would not hurt to remove the fin from the rear of the rocker cover dizzy side to gain a smidgeon of extra clearance. Now wished I'd taken notes of just where a lfh might have been handy on the rails.

Still trying not to undo nice clutch align

 

Anyone got any tips on their own experience of EA82 fitment to EA81 series bodies?

I am thinking need to elongate the hole in the plate that is bolted to the engine mount to get a bit of adjustment, and may also try fitting engine mount to engine cross member first, then bolt up to engine block. Small hands would be desirable with this in mind.

[TomRhere]

My '82 BRAT had an EA82 engine in it when I bought it. Pulled engine for reseal, and had issue with the mounts during the install. Mostly a side-to-side problem with the studs fitting the slots in the crossmember. I loosened the bolts holding engine mounts to engine, dropped it in and tightened those bolts back up. Wasn't easy to do either.

 

Have had some mount studs wanting to hit the crossmember slightly forward of the slot, maybe the size of the studs diameter difference in where stud is and slot is. I  just shoved, pried, forced engine rearwards until studs dropped in where they belonged. 

[silverhelme]

Had the same problem when I put the ea82 in my 84. I slotted the frame about 1/2 inch on each side to solve the problem but I still had it hitting the drivers side frame. I loosened the mount to engine bolts and centered the engine using wooden wedges then tighten the mounts back up and it no longer hit the frame. 

 

Mine is a 3at so all I had to do elsewhere for clearance was move the proportioning valve back about an inch. To make things easy I even moved the battery to the drivers side to install the breather (SPFI) in the stock location.

[jono]

thanks fellas, no mention of chassis bashing then ??? The ute is an 84, the test fit ute years earlier a 92, thought there may have been a difference at first. Arr ys, the stud size of the engine mount itself is next size up I think. I elongated the slot in the engine cross member as far as it should go based on where a nut and washer below would have even flat surface to mate up to. It is cooler now, had breakfast, going out to file off the rocker flute and try assemble things from underneath about the mounts. The wedges sound like a good ida - got some ceramic tile wedges about

 

Any more experiences and tails still appreciated

Edited January 18, 2014 by jono

[jono]

Woo HOO!

 

Success ! And, someone call the Guinness Book of Records, done the spline align fit nice first try second time in a row - ever !! The secret might be in wire brushing the input shaft splines, some nice red Timken wheel bearing grease and a cut off input shaft aligning tool

 

OK, looks like the secret is in at least a few things.

 

A test fit to see where the soft chassis rails are looking for a mild pummel,

 

second was that I separated the metal mounting plate from the engine mount rubber, worked out to elongate to the lower side of each plate to give less distance between the bottom member studs AND

 

bolted the babies to the block/bellhousing with about 3mm freeplay short of tight - what this did was allow the studs to naturally fall closer to each other due to gravity and the 'balance' of a free hanging engine mont/plate combo. Just lowered the donk by block'n'tackle so easy was not funny - they went in, aligned without human intervention. Pulled it out again off the engine cross member to try it again (and coz I forgot that flywheel 'inspecton' plate below between engine and gearbox )

 

I now have about 5mm clearance both chassis rails - heaps ! Might also be partly due to me filing the fin/flutes down to flush with the main body of the dizzy side rocker cover, and a little off the turbo side. Also discovered I forget the water plug for the turbo side head, given she is NA at the moment. Just had a thought...I could have retained the water hose off the thermostat housing, normally to turbo- direct it to an extra coolant cooler and back to the head ! Actually water flows other way .....?

 

might as well use size 48 while it is there

[TomRhere]

Nope. No hammering of frame rails needed. It's a tight fit, but you'll have some clearance between the rails and cam covers once engine is centered up.

 

I did move the hill-holder (silverhelme's proportioning valve ?), towards the firewall the distance of it's mounting holes, IE; front mount hole bolted to rear hole in frame. Gives a bit more room around disty.

Speaking of disty, I left it out until engine was installed, helped getting engine past the master cylinder. But, you may not have that issue with a RHD vehicle

[jono]

thanks for adding comment - should help others if search function works  - RHD exactly and don't have a proportioning valve there either

 

Just got a washer bottle to shift further back and maybe remount heater tap a little of the make a nw back hole use old back hole as front kind of thing

 

The clearances are even better once engine is in at its correct height with engine mounts in place, was too low on trial fit I now find :oops:

 

Got some new problems

 

cut/paste

 

I have no clutch

 

Just measured between the forward most face of the clutch fork where the cable sits - on two cars

 

The problem car is 118mm from the front face to the bellhousing join.

The L Series EA82 with five speed is 105mm

 

I have used a flywheel and clutch from a FWD EA82T Vortex XT4 coz it was all new, swapped in a same as clutch fork as was used with my 5 speed 4WD EA82 box already in use last 9 years.



a look into the timing aperture of the bellhousing at the top, the flywheel looks the same sort of position for ring gear.

 

Just checked that there is only one part number for a clutch fork, so rule that out.

There was a change of lever pivots from 85 to 86 on ....

and a few different throw out bearing combo's but all I have look the same

 

Wll, I can confirm this has not happened.
Never found this before, with cable out of the way, rubber dust boot
(30542AA000 - one for Wayno) slips up and off, some light on th subject
and can see as clear as day that everything is nice and in place. Just
been comparing things. Pivot ball and shaft on several L 5MT 4WD and one
2WD 5MT-T boxes and getting ~35mm and ~40mm total lengths ! 5mm further
down the leverage point could be the difference ?



There are also 4 different flywheel part numbers with 4WD and 2WD being
different.

 

Maybe 4WD thicker and heavier recall someone saying to use a
2WD flywheel for more zippy, so maybe if I find a short pivot, swap it
for longer and shove that in.

 

But, found difference in pivots from a
3.9:1 5MT 23 spline to a 3.7:1 5MT 25 spline, another totally shagged

        
        
        
        
        
            
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Edited January 19, 2014 by jono