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ej 22 swap ?'s


Rebello240zx
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Ok I'm in california first off so smog legal is a must.

What Exactly is involved in a ej 22 swap? I have a 92 loyale wagon with a d/r 5 spd aa lifted 4/3 inch.

 

The wiring is what scrares me, how hard it to do and where do i find how to do it?

 

From what i can gather, I need a trans adapter plate, a custom flywheel done by mudrat or something and the entire ecu and harness for the ej22.

 

Does this motor bolt in or do i have to fab mounts or what? any thoughts help or ideas are greatly appreciated,

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The wiring is intimidating at first, but really not that hard to do. The Chilton's manual has good enough wiring diagrams to get you through.

 

The motor will bolt right in, all you have to do is slot the motor mount holes in your crossmember outward about half an inch or less.

 

You can get an adapter plate from me or Mudrat. Mudrat usually sells a flywheel with his kit, whereas I redrill your old flywheel. You could also opt to have a local machine shop redrill your flywheel, or even ovalize the holes in your flywheel with a dremel to bolt up (a lot of people have done this and it works fine believe it or not :rolleyes: ).

 

Search for subarino+ej22

 

That should get you the thread on one of the first swaps that was done... should explain a lot.

 

 

Ok I'm in california first off so smog legal is a must.

What Exactly is involved in a ej 22 swap? I have a 92 loyale wagon with a d/r 5 spd aa lifted 4/3 inch.

 

The wiring is what scrares me, how hard it to do and where do i find how to do it?

 

From what i can gather, I need a trans adapter plate, a custom flywheel done by mudrat or something and the entire ecu and harness for the ej22.

 

Does this motor bolt in or do i have to fab mounts or what? any thoughts help or ideas are greatly appreciated,

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Can someone brief me on the intricacies of integrating the EJ22 harness into the stock EA81 (or '2) dash guages?

 

Either a chiltons or a FSM will tell you what wires are the ones that go to the dash to control the gauges. as far as the stock EA-81 everything on the rear of the dash will tell you what goes where, so you can just cut and splice into the harness there.

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well since your car is pre-OBDII i say it should be too hard, it just has to smog as a 92 loyale, and not much better. the wiring is a pain, its not hard, its just VERY time consuming, take breaks every hour or so to get your eyes back into focus, you'll know what i mean. i reccomend using steel for an adapter plate, oyu can use an acetylene torch to cut it, unlike aluminum you dont HAVE to use a plasma cutter to cut it. basically, for the wiring, every wire that comes off of the ECU, go wire by wire and find out where it goes and if you need it. like A/C wires, do you have A/C, if so keep those wires. Another is the Power brake Unit, your car already has brakes, you dont need the wires for that. there is alot of info out there, i didnt know crap about how to do this, so i searched and found out most of the R&D was already done for me. there will be fabrication needed along the way, so make sure oyu have access to a welder and grinder and drill bits, etc. good luck.

 

 

 

 

~Josh~

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Can I get by w/ using the EJ wiring harness only as far as the firewall and mesh it w/ the EA dash wiring at that point?

 

By the way, thanks for knowing and sharing all this info. It helps us all sort things out before we're chest deep in an engine bay. :drunk:

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to keep it real easy just make the motor run on the ej harness and leave everything on the car side alone, then when your all done link the ignition switches(wires), or do it like a boat, dual keys-my brat was like that for a few days... wiring turn signal and headlights into the ej harness is very possible, just like everybody says it's time consuming.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Alright thanx everyone. turns out that unless I have a smog buddy, it wont pass because it is an older engine in a newer car thus making it illegal to swap in california.

 

Oh well time to make new friends :grin:

 

Huh? Isn't this going into a 92 Loyale? The "desirable" SOHC EJ22 with the pre-OBDII computer was produced through 94.

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ya man you have 2 whole years of subaru EJ22's to get your hands on. and you can always run the EJ25 off of the EJ22 harness, they're both maf-based systems. if your worried about HG's, when it blows, put in the new 4-layer all steel construction gasket. if your looking for more MPG's, i say go EJ18. it has less power, but it gets better mileage. remember, you can get any EJ22......just swap the engine harness over to the newer EJ22's intake manifold, that means all you have to do is get the car harness from a car that is newer than yours......see what im gettin at? thats what i did, i got a motor from a 96' impreza, and ran it off of a 1990 legacy sedan's wiring. now the impreza motor didnt have an EGR port on the head, but it had the port for the vacuum solenoid on the intake manifold. so i blocked off the intake hole. and i also had to swap throttle bodies. wiring, dont sweat it. i was anxious about it also, not a big deal. take your time and label all the wires coming from the ECU. after that, trace each wire INDIVIDUALLY to where they end up. i cut them and marked each end with white elec. tape and wrote numbers and letters on both sides. after i got all the wires traced, i spliced them back together. only about 50 splices for the whole harness. make sure to save your alternator wiring plug. figure out what wire on your car is the(battery charging wire) and the car harness wire, and finally, the "power is on sending wire" but please search, this post is already too long.

 

 

 

~Josh~

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm sorry guys late night dreams of flat 6 power made me not reply right

I wasn't thinking ej22 but of er27 I don't know why... and the er27's last year was 91 i believe so a 91 engine into a 92 chassis is illegal here :banghead:

 

And i did search But maybe not long enough or not the right keywords, sorry for the annoyance.

 

going wheeling now testing the new lights :D

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as far as the ER27, your screwed if you need to be smog legal. but honestly, i have too much power for my grip right now anyway, that can change though. cant imagine what 2.7 liters of subie power would do to my wheels.............you really dont have anything to worry about, lots of people will help you out on this. ive done it and im a dumba$$!!!!!!! my best piece of advice is take your time. unless it has to happen by monday morning so you can drive to work or school, its not that important.

 

 

 

~Josh~

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It is my understanding that in Caliphonia, to be smog compliant, you must maintain all devices/equipment for either the engine or the vehicle of that year, whichever is newer.

 

To clairfy: A newer engine in an old car must maintain all emission equipment to that newer year engine. An older engine in a newer car must maintain the newer car's emission equipment for the same engine.

 

This of course is apples to apples. The engine must be offered in the car line of that year. When you vary engines between manufacturers, then you must apply to the ARB for a custom vehicle registration and smog compliance. You will still have to maintain emission equipment for the newer of the two.

 

It can be done through a quagmire (OH YEAHHH - OW!) of paperwork.

 

r/PK

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  • 2 weeks later...

After some research the er27 is out, to much hassle with california smoging.

 

I think that the ej is the way to go. newer, easier to install, and plenty of power, at least for me. Now whether it will be a 2.2 or a 2.5 is the question

 

I need to swap the ea82 with something, because 4 friends, plus snowboarding gear, up hill, at 6000 ft. is too much for the ea82

 

thanx for all the info guys this is helping me out alot (because i definately need help) :grin:

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thats the main reason i wanted an EJ22 in my car, for more power and fuel injection. i too like to go camping and snowboarding. it just was hell trying to get that EA82 up those hills, with 2 other people and gear it was hard as it is. now when i go boardin this year it shouldnt be a factor AT ALL!!!! just be sure to use the EJ22 header and exhaust piping, my stock EA82 stuff chokes the hell out of that EJ22 under the hood, or better yet, go 2.25'', but you still need to have all your cats, unfortunately.

 

 

 

~Josh~

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thats the main reason i wanted an EJ22 in my car, for more power and fuel injection. i too like to go camping and snowboarding. it just was hell trying to get that EA82 up those hills, with 2 other people and gear it was hard as it is. now when i go boardin this year it shouldnt be a factor AT ALL!!!! just be sure to use the EJ22 header and exhaust piping, my stock EA82 stuff chokes the hell out of that EJ22 under the hood, or better yet, go 2.25'', but you still need to have all your cats, unfortunately.

 

 

oh! glad you told me that, i was gonna use my stock system, not anymore.

got a good exhuast shop here if i need one made.

How much did it cost you for the swap and how long did it take? I know it's all relative but a ballpark figure would be awesome!

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the wiring should be very simple as long as you have the engine harness and ECU to work with, might end up having to run custom wires from the ECU but thats easy if you have an ECU pinout. now if you were wiring a turbo motor then yeah... thats hard haha. i cant figure out my EJ22T wiring, i should go work on it now.

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as far as how long it took, i would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 175-200 hours of work, for wiring and everythign else. if i were to do it again it might take me about 50 hours less, thats how much time is used in R&D and test fitting stuff. as for total cost, it was about $850-$1000 to get it all done, that includes the adapter plates and paying a machine shop to cut them out of the aluminum sheet i bought. i did all the work by myself with help from my dad and this board. like what has been stated before, this swap is not for the faint of heart. many times i ran into dead ends, thats when i posted to find out where im screwing up. im just glad i didnt pioneer this swap. all the info is out there, most of the hard stuff is already done so all you have to do is follow other people's advice. if you have any specific questions feel free to ask. if your worried about the cost factor, think of it this way, the EJ motors are more reliable and parts are more readily available than older cars. and since its EFI you wont have to worry about " is my car going to start in -10 degree weather," what it all boils down to is how much you like your car, and if you consider it advantageous to do this to your car.

 

 

 

 

~Josh~

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I really like the car, it's a 92 loyale with almost zero rust, which is nice. It's lifted 4/3 inch AA. and 27" bfg all terrans. It just dosen't have enough power to do what i want so, motor swap time!

 

I appreciate all of your replies

 

Time to acquire parts! Thnx to all!

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Why are the cats required? For preformance or for DEQ? Courious as I'm gearing up for this swap my self and would prefer no cats or muffler if it doesn't affect preformance. Thanks, Stumpy

just be sure to use the EJ22 header and exhaust piping, my stock EA82 stuff chokes the hell out of that EJ22 under the hood, or better yet, go 2.25'', but you still need to have all your cats, unfortunately.

 

 

 

~Josh~

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thats because he lives and is going to register the car in Cali. Cali is dumb like that:) anyway, if you live in a county that doesnt require it, yank those damn things outta there. if your car is running good, a cat or two will help the fumes but it sucks power like no other. i plan on going 2.25'' custom header-back and ditch the last cat. luckily i live in a county that doesnt require DEQ or anything like that. farther north is a different story however. if you do this swap, please follow our advice, it is well earned. we been there, done that, tried to cut this corner, and that corner here and there. but in the end its in your best interest to heed our advice.

 

 

 

~Josh~

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Thanks for the input ballitch. I have a complete donor car so the exhaust headers are no problem. I live in Multnomah County but not in the DEQ Zone. Have never dealt them folks.:grin: Ran my built 350 Blazer for 13 years with straight pipes (3") poking out right in front of the rear wheels. Yea, every one in town knew when I was leaving.:lol:

 

I'll be picking up my lift kit and EJ22 adapter from AA Monday. No garage so I may not get in done untill the weather gets a bit friendlyer!! :rolleyes: Haven't even got around to pulling the stock engine and trans yet. Have d/r5sp ready but not the donor engine. No shortage of Sub's to drive while that project is in the works. Latter, Stumpy

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