Brumby conversion: EJ22, hybrid AWD center lock, SUCCESS!!!

[Numbchux]

honestly, I don't remember what I did with the alt. it was the LAST thing to get done, and I was in an uber hurry....and I've had zero problems with it since. so I haven't pulled the tape off.

 

I know I wired it so the EJ loom gets it's power straight from the battery, so the EJ alt just gets wired to charge the battery, essentially.

 

my alt/charge/whatever light doesn't work....

 

and one wire went unused.

 

 

I soldered them. they're thick, but it can be done, just takes longer. I wouldn't think about using crimp-on butt splices

[Phizinza]

I got the alt wired up. My 40watt switching iron just couldn't get hot enough, so I used a flame and that did the trick. I fixed up my lower radiator mounts (kinda screwed it all up when fitting the Nissan radiator to the point where the Brat one wouldn't go back in. So I welded some plates to the bottom chassis rail with cut off bolts sticking up out of them for the radiator to slot onto. I tell ya, I'm not a great welder, I'm glad I got my brother around for welding the exhuast and crossmembers...

 

I'm working on the diff lock switch now. I'll have pictures in a while I hope. You know where the standard "warning" sticker for the 4WD lever is? Well I got the switch and two LED's in there. yellow for lock, green for open. I also have the diff lock sensor in the gearbox wired to the 4WD light on my dash, but I have no idea if that light even works. I've never seen it on.

[Phizinza]

I got the diff locker switch in. Looks like this

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ft4wd_difflocker_switch1.jpg

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ft4wd_difflocker_switch2.jpg

It's a DPDT, one poll runs the LEDs and the other the solenoids under the hood. Both the LEDs have 1800ohm resistors soldered to them too, btw.

 

I have also sorted out the rest of the wiring. I've got the gauges wired up (execpt the resistor for the temp gauge.)

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_wiringloom_gaugecluster.jpg

 

This is a picture of my fake kill switch. And also my new start button.

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_wiringloom_fake_kill_switch.jpg

The start switch in my ignition key is half screwed up and needs WD40 offen to work. So I wired in a extra start switch so all you have to do is put the key on ignition, and hit the start button til she run. I'll have to find a better picture of the start button.

I also got the EJ looms power sorted into the ignition too. I wasn't sure if the ECU needed the start wire from the loom wired in or not, so I ran it anyway. Then there was constant, ECU backup, and ignition. All seems to work good, and it does that little primer thing with the fuel pump.

 

After putting the passenger seat back in I found that the ECU wires where a little vonrable. So heres a bracket that helps.

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_wiringloom_ecu_airvent_guard.jpg

 

Throttle pedal has been welded up and the throttle box is back in. In this picture it doesn't show the second cut and weld that my brother did to the top part where it connects to the cable. It needed to be about and inch further back and also more inline with the pedal. I might get a picture of it now that it's in the car.

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_throttle_pedal.jpg

Aren't my welds just lovely. I also used a 86 Mazda 626 throttle cable. I'll get a pic of that too.

 

My EA81dc oil pressure unit is in, I hope it works now, first time I put it in it was a little loose and leaked. But I reckon it's good now. Time will only tell.

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_oilpressure_unit_adapter.jpg

I could of just gone out and bought a elbow with the right threads, but I figure this will do and it saved my an hour and a half driving. Well, it took about half an hour to braze it up, and another to bolt it all togther and in.. It works... maybe.

 

And now to the radiator fans. I used two Air con fans (because they bolt to the front of a radiator and blow the right way) from two Mazda 626's, yes, we do have a few wrecked cars here.

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_mazda_airconfan_stock.jpg

Each has the blowing power of maybe 2/3's of the original electric EA81 fan.

Another note here is my EA81 only ever over heated when the cap died. And that includes driving in 35degree C heat.

A bit of cutting here, and bit of cutting there. Some bending and drilling here, some more cutting there. And....

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_mazda_airconfan_fitted.jpg

 

And of cause... The most important thing in this type of modification.

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_fire_extinguisher.jpg

 

I'll report back after the first test drive, I hope it will be today. Only a few things left to do.

 

But for now, enjoy the pictures.

[86BRATMAN]

Ya know. If I ever get to sydney to visit my aunt and cousins. I'm paying you a visit. I wanna go through some trails in that...

[Phizinza]

It drives..

 

But..

 

I'm un happy with the power.

Just say if my brothers EA81 is 78hp, and my EA81dc would of been 90hp on that scale, then this EJ feels like 105 tops maybe.. :-\

Keep in mind I have never driven a EJ22 on the road execpt this one.

 

So I tried to read the ECU codes thru the CEL wire. But when I plug the CEL plugs in the light doesn't come on, but the fuel pump comes on repetitively in intervals of say 1.5seconds. How weird? I'm going to look at the code reading info I have and see if I can figure this out. One thing I done with my loom when cutting it down was take out that SELECT MONITOR plug (I didn't mean to, I SWEAR!) I was just cutting wires off the loom that go to it and then I found out what is was, by then I only had 3 wires from the ECU going to it.. So I cut those out too.

 

The gearbox has a little noise in it. Sounds like a bearing or something. I don't think it's major so I'll leave it alone and keep my eyes on it.

 

Another thing, the temp gauge. When I started the car up the first time with water in it the gauge got to half way up before I realised my fans weren't working. So I pluged the fans straight to the battery and the gauge stayed at half way. When I was driving it it was half way all the time. I kinda got worried that I was cooking it, but it didn't boil or overflow, and it is only running rain water ATM. Then my brother brought up something when I took his car down the street. He said, are you sure the resistor/difference in temp sensor is for EA81s as well as EA82s. Cos he runs a EA82 sensor on his EA81 and the gauge reads 1/4, it used to be 1/2. And at 1/2 he says it boils. I'm going to see if I can get a thermometer in there somewhere to see how the temp is, or maybe borrow a mates laser one. But at the moment it looks like the EA81 gauge (in the tacho dash) works with the EJ sensor.. Hmm, weird. Any thoughts?

 

Diff lock works too, but I am already missing that locked rear

[Numbchux]

not sure what to tell you about the power....I noticed a HUGE improvement over the EA82, which is theoretically about 90hp. the biggest difference was in the lower end torque, the 22 pulls 100% from 2k rpms than any of the EA82s I've had did.

 

you've got the wrong connectors connected. the test mode connectors will cycle the fuel pump on and off, you need to plug in the read mode connectors (I believe they're green).

 

what temp setup are you using? stock sender?

[Phizinza]

Last night I took it for a drive and let my brother have a go, because his driven a auto EJ22. He says it's better then that one, but I thought it would be more then better being that autos suck power and I've got a coupld of hundred less KG's. I have now noticed it pulls from 2K a fair bit better then my dc EA, and it's power is a LOT smoother upto the rev limiter (just under 7K, is that right?) I've also noticed it's getting fuel starvation when going up hills and around corners.. Yes, I only have a quarter tank of fuel. Looks like I'll be in the market for a surge tank.

 

Yeah, I read the test code thing I saved ages ago and I figured out what I was doing wrong. But I have had no time to check it out since then.

 

Stock EA81 coupe dash gauge with stock EJ sender. And I'm running plain water, no over heat, over flow or boil with the gauge half way up, and it didn't move above that. I'm going to plug the fans into the EA81s radiator thermo switch and see if it will turn the fans on, and where on the gauge it will do that.

 

But now I have to fix my muddy wheel bearings and my really heavy steering (look in old gen for my new thread.) I need this fixed within 24hrs :-\

[Phizinza]

And for those of you who are going "fake kill switch, how would that help?" It's a discration away from my real one... ... And sorry, but I'm not saying where that is. What I can say however, It's a SPDT swtich and when it's in the "off" position if you turn the ignition on a piezo alarm. I am hoping if anyone looks under the dash to either pull the ignition plug out to hot wire it, or find out why it's just screaming at them they will find the fake switch, switch it and nothing will change, so they will give up... I hope. Or by then maybe someone would of found them.

 

So, more on the temp gauge.. I tested it with the radiator fans plugged into the radiator thermo switch and they come on at the same place on the gauge as they used to. So the EJ temp sensor in my EJ22 (out of a 89 D/R Liberty) is the exact same as my EA81 coupe dash gauge.

And the fans seem a fair bit better at cooling then the original EA81 electric fan. I didn't run the clutch fan, only 1 electric.

 

But theres another thing that is puzzling me now. When she was just ideling (warming up to test the radiator fans) her idel would sit constant for a good few minutes, then drop and raise, and just all over the place within 650RPM to 1250RPM. And then it would go back down to 900RPM and sit pretty good. Also she seem to have a stutter if you floor it from idel without load (just sitting there.) I think I noticed this taking effect when I tried a clutch drop start on a gravle road. Could this be caused by air in the fuel line? I'm not sure how much or when the fuel line is pumping air. I'll fill her up with some premium 95oct fuel tomorrow.

[Phizinza]

I found some more ponys in the barn... Or is that horses under the hood? Anyway, when I was trying to find a rough idle problem I found that 1 out of the three plug leads didn't change the engines idle. It did however effect reving. So, we swapped that lead with another plug and it was definitely a problem with the lead. But then I was looking at another one and it had dirty water all over it. So after using the air comp to blow it all clean and dry, we put it all back together, started it up and it was smooth. Took it for a test drive and theres at least 5 more horses, maybe even 10 in the "butt in the seat dyno." But now theres a problem of any driving that isn't straight and down hill it runs rough, I'm pretty sure I really need a surge tank now..

 

WARNING TO ALL BRAT CONVERTERS:

I'm very sure you will need a surge tank, I'm very sure you can't do this mod and keep your 55litre tank without a surge tank. My brother alos warned me that if it's getting that much air it might do damage so I have to go get fuel in the morning...

 

And of cause.. This wouldn't be a conversion if I didn't still have problems.

My idle is really weird. When I start the car, it runs at 1600RPM for about 4 seconds or so, then drops to 900RPM. Then, once it's heated up and just before the fans kick in it goes upto 1200RPM and stays. After a 10min drive I pulled up and it was at 900RPM again. And the fans had stopped working properly so the heat was going up a little high.. I play around with the thermoswitch on the radiator and the fans start up. Then 3 seconds later, back up to 1200RPM or so.. What gives??

 

Oh, and I also got my 150mm x 92mm UniFilter foam filter.. I'll show pics of it tomorrow maybe. Does the US get UniFilters? Good ol' made in Australia

[the_postie]

re rough idle.BAC give it a clean.Check ignition relay,without going into to much detail one side can play up[powers the o2 sensor, bac and purge sol] by not letting enough volts thru and cause havoc on idle and even cause the engine to run on 3 cylinders sometimes shows as code 24 or 35 or both.Then it will come good and then................

[Phizinza]

About this CEL light. I have my red CEL wire out of the loom wired to a 2watt light and then and the other side of the light is earthed. It doesn't light up, so that either means it's not working or theres nothing wrong. But seems I don't have the purge solenoid in at the moment and no resistors in the wires or anything I would lean towards to light not working. I'll see if I can get it to show some codes tommorow moring, now that I know how to do it. But I was wondering, is the wire out of the loom a positive or negative? And is 2 - 5 watts of light too much for this wire?

[Numbchux]

other side of the CEL needs power. the ECU grounds it.

[Phizinza]

More pictures:

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_mazda_throttle_cable_underhood.jpg

That's under the hood, showing the use of my mazda 626 throttle cable and another return spring.

 

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_mazda_throttle_cable_footpedal.jpg

And another picture of the throttle pedal, sorta showing the extra cutting and welding we had to do.

 

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_exhaust_mod.jpg

This is the little bit my brother had to do to fit my old 2" exhaust on. One day I'll get a better exhaust setup from the heads to the back of the car. But for now I like the sound of this and it's nice and quiet

 

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_first_test_drive.jpg

The beast out of the garage.. This is just after her first test drive

 

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_garage_after_conversion.jpg

The mess I left my brother garage in, I have to clean it up on Monday...

 

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/ej22swap_temporary_unifilter_placement.jpg

And my new pod filter. I plan on changing it's position some day soon up into the spare wheel well. And I may add a snorkel.. But for now it will work. It sounds pretty awesome when it revs up with that on it

 

 

other side of the CEL needs power. the ECU grounds it.

I had a feeling about that... I just assumed red was positive again.. That has got me in trouble 4 times now with the wiring.. haha.. I'll go check that light out.

[Jerry DeMoss]

http://offroadingsubarus.com/images/...test_drive.jpg

The beast out of the garage.. This is just after her first test drive

 

I love that picture!Looks mean with no hood/bonnet on your brumby!

 

Really nice work.

[Phizinza]

Cheers Jerry.

 

Ok, so I ran the codes off the ECU and came up with this...

 

22 Knock sensor craps out the fuel maps it says

 

24 Air Control Valve, that would explain the idle.

 

And 35, which is the purge solenoid, which I have unplugged as it doesn't work. But the info I have says that won't do anything to the running of the car.

 

So. Could I get some help fixing these? I have no idea where to start. I'm looking into it right now, but I'm at a friends house with limited tools. So we'll see how it goes.

[Brumby Boy]

Hay man good to see you have your beast running, cant wait till i get mine done. few questions tho, would it be possible to make it into a non return system like the new mazda 6 and 3's it would save all the mucking around with the return lines etc. also what made you go with just the engine loom and not the entire front loom out of the liberty and use the instrumen cluster and steering colloum and switches for the lights and wipers? also why go with the vacume solinoid to switch the centre diff lock? why not hook the cable to the original 4wd lever to enguage the difflock instead of 4wd hi range and then when you pull it up again it selects low range?

 

Also since you went with just cutting the loom, what are you doing with the liberty instrument cluster and wiper/indicator switches? would you be willing to sell them?

 

cheers,

ian

[Phizinza]

Hey Ian..

 

I like my tacho cluster and steering wheel. Also I reckon it would be a right ol' pain in the you know what to use the Libs cluster. I didn't want to use the lever and you can apply some great pressure to that locker and I didn't want it to grind and break. The original vacuum switch stuff does an awesome job too. Plus now I have low range AWD, which is fun. Although you have to be on the ball with shifting as it goes through gears so quick. And with the 27" tires its still a pain in the you know what again to take off from the traffic lights, I hate slipping my clutch that much, so low range helps a lot.

 

Yeah, I still have the cluster and switches if you want them, I'll have a look at how much they will cost to post to you (btw, where are you know?) and get back to you.

 

With the cut down loom all you have to wire into the old loom is oil pressure , water temp, tacho, constant power, ignition power, and I also wired in the start wire which goes to the ECU (which isn't needed I am pretty sure.)

So when putting the loom in it is SUPER easy I'm just so thrilled that I didn't have to trouble shoot the wiring and it worked first go... Or did it??

 

Now I have those codes, I am not sure if it's the ECU, loom or the sensors. I didn't read the codes when it was in the liberty, so I'm not sure now.

 

Any idea how to wipe the memory code things from the ECU so it can start again and tell me if those things are really wrong? I think I'll do that before anything else on the quest to find out whats wrong.

[86BRATMAN]

They are probably new codes. I had some old ones on my legacy from who knows when. I had to pull the battery to put in a car I was selling. And when I got the new one in and moved the leg into place to be stripped it cleared the codes. I'd try pulling the battery cables overnight and starting fresh in the morning and see what she does then.

[Phizinza]

Ok. Cool, so leaving the battery unplugged for a "certain" time clears them. I'll unplug here, then read the codes to see if there are any once it's plugged back in then run the engine and read the codes again. I'll get back about this later, tomorrow maybe.

[Numbchux]

theoretically, disconnecting the battery at all should clear the codes, but I think there's a little residual power that might require a few seconds at least. when I've wanted to clear them, I leave the neg battery terminal disconnected for a couple minutes while doing something else, and that's been enough.

 

long story short...the codes aren't left over from the liberty. whatever codes it's throwing, it's found them since the install in your brumby.

 

 

when I originally started my swap, I had planned to completely replace the EA harness with the EJ one.....I spent about a month trying to get that to work, and in the end, it was easier to backtrack (including pulling another loyale harness from a junkyard to replace mine) and strip the EJ harness to just run the motor.

[Phizinza]

Yeah, I think the minimal amount of the "other" loom you can use to run the engine is the BEST way to go about it.

 

BTW Ian, I gotta get the cluster off a friend because I lent it to him but it wouldn't work in his Lib because it was an auto. So when I get that back I'll check it all out for you.

 

Thanks for the help Bratman and Numbchux, You've pretty much had a 80% roll in helping me build this rig. You are the guys to talk to for helpful friendly advice! ROCK ON

[the_postie]

22 replace knocksensor.

24 clean out with upper cylinder cleaner sprayed into the bac where the air lines connect.

35 put a resister inthe wiring and block up the connection at the throttle body that goes to the cannister

[Brumby Boy]

Cheers man, if i could have that cluster and the switches it would be greatly preicated, i broke mine cos i was lazy when i pulled them out , im currently in Townsville but ill be in sydney in two weeks for about 2 maybe 3 weeks so if freight will be cheaper i could pick them up form my uncles place in sydney, let me know how much you want for them if i can have them,

 

Cheers,

ian

[Phizinza]

Code 22 and 35 are gone now. I put that resistor in. And reset the ECU. Now all that remains is code 24. I'll give it a clean out but from what I have read that is just about pointless. Oh well, we'll see.

[Phizinza]

I put some cleaner through the IAC, still no better. Car is running pretty sweet now execpt for that idle and fuel cut. Do you reckon the fuel cut may be un related to the idle valve? I guess I need to fix that valve then see how she goes. I just don't want to shell out half what I paid for the engine for a new valve. Or should I say I can't shell out that much.. Time for more research on these vavles.