Another ea81-ej22 swap

[Twisty147]

Hello, I’ve got questions about doing a swap. I’ve found a bunch of info but I’m wanting to go a little further, and being new to Subarus, I feel like I’m missing a bunch of information do to my inexperience.
The plan: I’ve got an 82 gl wagon 4x4 ea81 4sp manual, tomorrow I’m picking up a 1990 Legacy LS wagon ej22 5sp manual. I’d like to modernize the drivetrain, swap engine, tranny, rear diff, axles front/rear, and brakes front/rear. And I’d like to be able to get this swap done relatively quickly. So if there’s anything you would do different, please don’t be afraid to tell me.
from what I’ve read, I need to modify the crossmember for the motor/tranny to mount up (read that the EJ member just wouldn’t work.... but power steering would be great) may need to transplant trans tunnel, need to shorten drive shaft, I’m assuming rear diff is simple swap since most Subarus use a 160 diff. I’m not worried about track width, eventually I want to build a tube chassis, and long arms, build it into a cool AWD buggy (I’m sorry to all the purist, but I’m at least breathing new life into an old disheveled Subaru that was already abused by prior owner, and was about to go to crusher) I’d like to Frankenstein as much as I can between the two cars, instead of sourcing more stuff. if I could cut the body of the 82 and drop it on the 90 pan I’d do that. 
Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance! Also, more of this will make sense once I have both cars side by side as well

[DaveT]

You will have to swap all of the engine systems wiring, ECU, etc. also.  Having the entire doner car is a good idea.  Quick?  This is a big project.  Get copies or scans of the FSMs [especially the schematics] for both cars.

 

 

[Twisty147]

4 hours ago, DaveT said:

You will have to swap all of the engine systems wiring, ECU, etc. also.  Having the entire doner car is a good idea.  Quick?  This is a big project.  Get copies or scans of the FSMs [especially the schematics] for both cars.

 

 

Yea, I’ve seen a couple of threads on here that go over the wiring harness, and some have schematics and such too, so that will be a big help. First thing I will be doing is getting the wiring figured out. Once that’s done I’ll pull the motors and start working on putting the puzzle pieces where they need to fall. I understand this won’t be a weekend project, but hope I can get motor and tranny swapped over in a month (not including wiring.) but I will keep scouring these forums, collecting as much info as I can, and try to prepare myself as much as possible for this endeavor. 

[el_freddo]

You could do this in stages. 

Start with the engine and gearbox conversion.

Gearbox will need custom crossmember, tail shaft and possibly gear linkages (I’m about to do this and find out in the next few months)

Wiring is “easy” - after you’ve done one or two loom cut downs:

Basically you work out what’s the ECU plug wiring, what goes to the engine, O2 sensor, AFM, starter motor, ignitor etc, then cut away the rest. If there’s a splice in the wiring, cut out the one that branches off from between the ECU and it’s respective plug at the engine end. There are several wires you’re looking for as well - VSS (vehicle speed sensor), check engine light, main power with ignition, permanent power, back up permanent power, coolant temp and oil idiot light wires. The last two can use the factory EA81 wiring to keep it simple. 

If you want the EJ instrument cluster it can be done and fitted with minor mods (from my understanding) unless you have the long cluster arrangement. Wiring stuff I’m not sure about for the cluster as I’ve never used the donor’s cluster but have seen it done on other forums.

The brakes will need front EJ knuckles/hub which means a strut swap and a custom driveshaft too. Rear gets complicated with the need of a custom hub that adapts the EJ stud pattern to the EA stub axle. Once you have this the EJ brake backing plate needs to be drilled to fit the EA swing arm. Then bolt all the EJ brake setup onto the swing arm and she’s apples. Next up is working out the hand brake arrangement. Using the section of EJ trans tunnel where the cables enter under the floor mats would make this much easier. That’s about it for brakes. 

Widening the track width to that of the legacy is another project in itself. You will end up with almost half the tyre outside the guards and you will need to graft strut towers into the rear of the wagon - and brace this to make it last the distance. 

I hope this gives you some insight as to what you’re up for. Personally I’d stop after sorting the brakes to EJ. 

Cheers 

Bennie

[Twisty147]

On 12/7/2020 at 12:00 AM, el_freddo said:

You could do this in stages. 

Start with the engine and gearbox conversion.

Gearbox will need custom crossmember, tail shaft and possibly gear linkages (I’m about to do this and find out in the next few months)

Wiring is “easy” - after you’ve done one or two loom cut downs:

Basically you work out what’s the ECU plug wiring, what goes to the engine, O2 sensor, AFM, starter motor, ignitor etc, then cut away the rest. If there’s a splice in the wiring, cut out the one that branches off from between the ECU and it’s respective plug at the engine end. There are several wires you’re looking for as well - VSS (vehicle speed sensor), check engine light, main power with ignition, permanent power, back up permanent power, coolant temp and oil idiot light wires. The last two can use the factory EA81 wiring to keep it simple. 

If you want the EJ instrument cluster it can be done and fitted with minor mods (from my understanding) unless you have the long cluster arrangement. Wiring stuff I’m not sure about for the cluster as I’ve never used the donor’s cluster but have seen it done on other forums.

The brakes will need front EJ knuckles/hub which means a strut swap and a custom driveshaft too. Rear gets complicated with the need of a custom hub that adapts the EJ stud pattern to the EA stub axle. Once you have this the EJ brake backing plate needs to be drilled to fit the EA swing arm. Then bolt all the EJ brake setup onto the swing arm and she’s apples. Next up is working out the hand brake arrangement. Using the section of EJ trans tunnel where the cables enter under the floor mats would make this much easier. That’s about it for brakes. 

Widening the track width to that of the legacy is another project in itself. You will end up with almost half the tyre outside the guards and you will need to graft strut towers into the rear of the wagon - and brace this to make it last the distance. 

I hope this gives you some insight as to what you’re up for. Personally I’d stop after sorting the brakes to EJ. 

Cheers 

Bennie

Thank you Bennie! I’ve now got the donor car, 1990 Subaru Legacy. I didn’t know just how much bigger the Legacy is compared to the gl wagon. However, my girl is now partial to the Legacy, and wants me to keep it instead. So if I can get the title and everything figured out (prior owner went through a nasty divorce, so the titles all tied up) I’ll be keeping the Legacy. If I can’t get the title, I’ll be doing the swap. Now if I could get this EA81 figured out in the meantime.... I’m hating the hitachi carb and all the emissions crap and vacuum lines running everywhere.... think I may have swapped some of the vacuum lines around when I rebuilt the motor, and a carb rebuild wouldn’t hurt.

[Numbchux]

Extremely tall ask, especially for someone asking such basic questions. I'll slide my bet onto "this project never happens".

You have a big list of things there, it's not going to happen quickly. I'd guess multiple hundreds of hours of labor to complete that list. Maybe with hundreds of hours of research/parts gathering, you could have the car out of commission for one hundred hours of work time.

However you slice it, that's an enormous amount of labor to bring it up to 30 year old technology. The early EJ22s are reliable and fairly simple, but not fast. If your target is a long travel thing like the Subaru version of Caswell's Baja Pig. You'll be looking at turbo platforms, or H6s, or both. You'll need a better transmission and rear diff. And custom suspension and axles. All of which means any work you do with the Legacy parts will get you no closer, and have to be completely un-/re-done.

 

 

Sure, swap the engine/transmission. Keep the suspension stock and serviceable. And it'll be a fun, reliable little street car.

If you want to offroad it, get a D/R 5MT to go behind the EJ22, redrill the hubs to 6-lug and a 4" lift. And you'll have a fun, reliable little wheeler.

 

If you want any more than that, you're starting with a rough platform, and definitely have the wrong donor to get there.

 

 

 

Really think what your budget (money AND time) is, and what your goals are. 

[el_freddo]

12 hours ago, Twisty147 said:

However, my girl is now partial to the Legacy, and wants me to keep it instead.

So get a second one  

Cheers 

Bennie

[Twisty147]

On 12/9/2020 at 10:46 AM, Numbchux said:

Extremely tall ask, especially for someone asking such basic questions. I'll slide my bet onto "this project never happens".

You have a big list of things there, it's not going to happen quickly. I'd guess multiple hundreds of hours of labor to complete that list. Maybe with hundreds of hours of research/parts gathering, you could have the car out of commission for one hundred hours of work time.

However you slice it, that's an enormous amount of labor to bring it up to 30 year old technology. The early EJ22s are reliable and fairly simple, but not fast. If your target is a long travel thing like the Subaru version of Caswell's Baja Pig. You'll be looking at turbo platforms, or H6s, or both. You'll need a better transmission and rear diff. And custom suspension and axles. All of which means any work you do with the Legacy parts will get you no closer, and have to be completely un-/re-done.

 

 

Sure, swap the engine/transmission. Keep the suspension stock and serviceable. And it'll be a fun, reliable little street car.

If you want to offroad it, get a D/R 5MT to go behind the EJ22, redrill the hubs to 6-lug and a 4" lift. And you'll have a fun, reliable little wheeler.

 

If you want any more than that, you're starting with a rough platform, and definitely have the wrong donor to get there.

 

 

 

Really think what your budget (money AND time) is, and what your goals are. 

Yea, I’m realizing the long travel buggy idea is far fetched for this. After driving the Legacy for a while, I’m seeing that the motor wouldn’t be the best for this. So I think I’ll just end up swapping the motor and transmission over, swap over the stuff for 5 lug, and drive it like that. My goal wasn’t to build it into a buggy in one sitting, i was gonna start out with just the motor and tranny, and then later on build a cage and tubular A-arms with coil overs. Wasn’t expecting it to be fast, just able to mob in the dunes or desert in something different. I’ve built prerunners, drag cars, and rockcrawlers in the past, but I don’t know anything about Subarus. (Which is why I was excited to dip my toes in something new) so for now, I’ll tinker with these until I get a better understanding and maybe build something crazy later in life

[el_freddo]

https://ausubaru.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=4919 

^ many pics missing early on in the thread but last time I checked the later pics are still there  

This is to show you the sort of effort required, even then it’s limited to certain design aspects of the Subaru. 

Cheers 

Bennie