92′ Loyale Beginning Days

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8 September 2009

I decided to start a thread on my project car: ’92 Subaru Loyale. I want this to be a daily driver for work and be a fun trail rig.

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So far I’ve done a 4″ lift, added a set of 14″ pugs with AT’s, skid plate from Rallitek, Warn Industries brush guard, (originally made for the Brat), the 5SPD D/R swap, and XT6 front seats on it as well as adding all of the little interior bits that came on the GL’s but not on the Loyale, (proper door handles, front map light, rear cargo light, etc…) Still looking for an LSD to put in as well. I also have all the bits to do the 5-Lug swap from an XT6 except for the front knuckles and axles, but this can wait a bit because…

Now I’m gearing up to do an EJ-22 swap. After seeing other EA wagons at the show with the EJ swap done and reading through Numbchux’s excellent write up I had to go for it. I recently got a motor from http://www.mttechsuba.com/ Mountain Tech Subaru in Oregon City that has 90,000 miles on it originally from a ’92 Legacy wagon. :banana:
http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1627
here it is all put back together after I went through it…

Motor is in great shape and VERY clean but I decided since its on the stand I might as well go through it and put in new seals, belts, water pump, and gaskets all around so I know its 100%.
http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1628

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1630

It will be nice to replace the EA-82 with the EJ and finally not be a gutless slug on the highway and trails.

I just got an XT6 clutch kit from Baxter’s:

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1629
Hopefully it all fits. I also got an adapter plate and flywheel from SJR. http://www.sjrlift.com/

Just waiting on my harness from Numbchux http://www.numbchuxc…ns.com/home.htm who I’m sure is insanely busy with his poor XT :(

12 September 2009

I picked this up from Perrin Performance the other day:

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1638

Here’s the link to the product: http://www.perrinper…gory=4&model=33

I think it will work great to plumb in the oil pressure sender unit from my EA82 as well as a oil temp sensor for the EJ swap. :)

13 September 2009

This just showed up on my doorstep today! :banana:

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1654
New SJR Re-drilled Flywheel and Adapter Plate. :clap:
Thanks Scott for getting this out so fast. Build looks clean and solid, well done. Now Just need my harness…:slobber:

16 September 2009

I was getting tired of the power steering leak coming from the rack after being told by someone that my car was burning. It was spewing ATF onto the exhaust and making some nice James Bond smoke screen!:brow: So I grabbed a replacement power steering rack to swap in from Mountain Tech. I also noticed that the rack bushings were toast. Apparently the nice stiff poly AVO bushings for the 1st gen Impreza fits my Loyale power steering rack perfectly.

http://ep.yimg.com/c…5_2072_16306128

So I picked some up from Rallitek today to replace crappy worn out factory ones. This should get rid of the slop in the steering a tad better. Here’s a link to the AVO bushings that fit the Loyale/EA82 power steering rack: http://www.rallitek.com/avostrabu.html

5 October 2009

Today I made a bit of progress.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1702
put in a new rear crank main seal and the SJR re-drilled flywheel

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1703
Then the XT6 clutch and pressure plate as well as the SJR adapter. It all fit real nice. :clap:

12 October 2009

It has begun… I got home from Subiefest a day early (late last night) so I decided to start the EJ22 swap.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1728
got the EA82 engine out.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1729
got a little bit of clean up to do and need to put in the new power steering rack. Old one leaked all over.

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EJ22 ready to go in and the EA on the floor in the background. I’m going to get the EA82 on the stand and rebuild it this winter with new seals, gaskets and belts all around.

Still runs great so if anyone is in need of a freshly re-built EA82 complete long block including the one of a kind Perrin intake on it, I will have it ready to sell this winter.:brow:

More pics of my progress to come, this is all I could do today.

14 October 2009

Today I got the engine in and all bolted up to the transmission

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Fit in there just right and lined up perfectly. The EJ motor mounts dropped right in the EA engine cross member perfectly.
http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1737

Tomorrow I’m picking up the EA radiator with the EJ inlets brazed on. Then I’ll see what my fan situation is looking like. Lots of work to do still in between work days. I still have to hook up all of the vacuum lines, fuel lines, intake, power steering, etc… and also remove the old wiring harness and splice in the new one. Hopefully I’ll get to start this up by Sunday!

17 October 2009

This afternoon I started pulling out the old EA harness and sorting what needs to stay and what needs to go. Also began hooking up the EJ harness to everything.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1744

Tomorrow Scoobyclimbs is coming over to lend a hand. Hopefully we’ll be able to fire it up by the end of the day!:slobber:

20 October 2009

I have the engine in and all hooked up now. But the stupid wiring is killing me.:mad: I haven’t been able to start it up yet because the wiring is taking for ever. I am having a hard time finding the right wires on my Loyale to tie in the EJ harness to. Also the EJ harness seems too short to go around the fender well to under the dash. :banghead:

If anyone in the Portland area that has done a similar EA to EJ swap on a Loyale/GL EA82 etc… is available to help out I would greatly appreciate it. I just need to know which wires to tie in to on the EA harness, where they are located specifically in the mess of wires under the dash, and how people have routed the EJ harness in to the firewall and under the dash. Also EJ ECU mounting ideas? (lots of zip ties I’m guessing). I’ve tried reading the pin outs and wiring diagrams but its like reading Chinese. I’m willing to learn so if anyone has any helpful suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

21 October 2009

Thanks to Numbchux I figured out what needs to be removed and what stays to be spliced into.
http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1749
The wires on the left all stay (mainly headlights, corner lights, horn, turn signals, etc…). The wires on the right are all from the EA harness and need to be removed. The hard part is finding what goes where under the dash so I can pull the un-needed wires out. Then I should have enough room to push the EJ harness through here and hook it all up.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1750
Also the spot in the upper right of this picture has some wires (green and yellow plugs on the left) that need to be taken out so I can thread the other half of the EJ harness through. Its a small hole behind the strut but should work if I can get all of the un-needed stuff out.

Getting closer to having this all hooked up. I should have it all working by this weekend. :banana: Then off to get an exhaust put on…

21 October 2009

Tonight I got the wire harness in the car and routed properly. It took awhile to make room through the fender and behind the strut but I got both halves in and under the dash. Just need to splice a few wires before starting it up. If it runs then everything will get put in its place and bolted back on.:banana:

23 October 2009

I made a lot of progress today. I got all of the wiring hooked up under the dash, got the air intake installed, radiator fans mounted up, and cleaned up the engine compartment wiring.

So I hooked up the battery and turned the key and…… nothing, no fuel pump coming on, no lights, nothing. Okay, so maybe the optima battery is dead since its been sitting for a couple of weeks(yeah right), checked, as expected 100% good. So i have spent the last half of the afternoon today checking my connections, correct wiring, etc… nothing. I’m out of ideas… :banghead:

:confused: Is there anyone in the Portland area that has done an EA to EJ swap that could come over this Saturday, Sunday or even Monday and double check my work to see if I have missed anything? :confused::confused: I can offer food, beer, even some cash for your troubles. PM me if you can. Thanks!

25 October 2009

IT’S ALIVE!!:banana::banana::banana::banana::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::clap::burnout:

I was missing a couple of relays and also had the wire from the fuseable links grounded instead of hot. (Duh). It fired right up first try! The only thing now is it won’t idle so I’m thinking it needs the O2 sensor and a cat on or the maf sensor is bad. I’ll try swapping these out to see what’s up. Scoobyclimbs was a great help today in helping me problem solve the mess. I have video and will post it up a little later along with some pics as soon as I finish putting it all back together. Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. I would still really like to see how you guys kept A/C with this EJ swap so if you have any pics please put em up. I just don’t see the room for the condenser and radiator fans.

26 October 2009

Here’s a few pics:

Engine in and running
http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1758

Using the EA lower half of the air box with tabs welded on to accept the EJ top part of the air box and a K&N panel filter inside.
http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1759

Also just used a small tube bender to mate the EJ power steering lines to the EA lines on the engine cross member. They hooked right up perfectly.

26 October 2009

I can hear the Fuel Pump turn on when the key is on. So I know its working. The power for it is coming off of the old EA ECU harness. I’m pulling it from a wire marked Ignition Switch, pole 38 on the large plug for the EA ECU pinout sheet.

All of my vacuum hoses are hooked up and fluids are perfect. There’s just something that I can’t seem to find that is keeping the motor from running more than a couple of seconds. :confused: I’m keeping at it all day but if anyone has any other suggestions or is available to call me please let me know. It’s frustrating when you’re so close…

26 October 2009

that’s for the HVAC control. not sure what the point of the canister is, but you need to hook that line up to a vacuum source on your EJ22 in order to select from heat, defrost, etc.

code 12 is indeed for the starter switch. if this is not hooked up, it will not effect how the car runs once started. but it will make it very difficult to start in the cold (I daily drove my car for a year without it. battery died many times trying to crank it. but once it fired, it would run wonderfully).

it is possible that it’s getting 12v all the time, effectively leaving the choke on….this could make the engine stumble. I marked the starter signal wire (red with yellow stripe). make sure that’s getting 12v only while cranking. There are a few wires going to the starter, a large one going from the solenoid to the + battery terminal, a large one going from the bracket to ground, and a smaller one going to a tab on the back of the solenoid (this is what mellow65 is referring to). Anywhere between that tab and the ignition switch will give you the signal you need.

it does sound like a major post-maf air leak. all PCV and IAC lines connected?

try un-plugging the MAF and IAC valves. this should throw it into a default mode that would allow it to run well. but I’d check into that starter signal first.

26 October 2009

k, so I’ve re-wired the starter signal wire to the black wire with the red stripe coming off of the starter solenoid. I tried to start it up again and nothing has changed. Still dies after a couple of seconds. Also I checked the codes again and now the CEL just flashed constantly…:banghead: Just FYI there is no exhaust on this except for the headers, no cat/O2 sensor, nothing. But that shouldn’t make a difference here…

I’m running out of ideas other than the IAC is toasted or out of adjustment even thought the factory paint on the screws hasn’t moved. If the timing were off would it react like this? Any other thoughts?

29 October 2009

Lewis from Mountain Tech Subaru came over after work last night and sorted out the fuel pump issue. Yes, I had it hooked up wrong and the fuel pump was switching off after cranking. Anyway we got it going and this morning I drove it down to Exhaust Specialties in Tualatin to get the exhaust made up. I’ll post up some detailed finished pics later on today.

3 November 2009

Ok here are some updated pics of the finished EJ22 swap:

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1814
EJ22 motor is in and working great!

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1818
I’m using the EJ top half of the air box and the EA lower half so I can retain the factory mounting position. There are some tabs welded on the EA lower box to allow the EJ top to be bolted up nice and clean.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1817
I used the EJ power steering lines from the pump down to the EA hard lines on the engine cross member because it routes best (obviously) on the EJ motor. I used a tube bender to make the fit. Bolted right up and is in the factory position.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1819
I had to get the EJ sized inlets brazed on to my EA radiator to make a proper fit. Then for hoses I used the EJ top and bottom radiator hoses and added another hose for the extra bend both top and bottom. I connected these with a section of exhaust tubing acting as a coupler.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1820
The EA throttle cable bolts right up to the EJ no probs.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1821
The SJR EJ adapter plate has two tabs on top for a pitch stopper. Scoobyclimbs fabbed up a bracket to bolt to this and then shortened the EA pitch stopper to fit. Turned out nice and clean. With the EJ22 you definitely want to have some kind of pitch stopper other wise you are putting unnecessary stress on your mounts and drive line from the motor moving around under acceleration or letting off.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1823
The main part of the EJ harness that hooks up to the motor I ran in the factory EA position through the drivers front fender.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1816
and the other half of the EJ harness that has the igniter and MAF cables I ran through the hole behind the drivers side strut tower. It sealed up nicely and looks clean. Of course take the time to wrap everything with split loom and tape so you don’t have problems later on.

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1815
For exhaust you need to use 2 1/4″ all the way through to keep decent flow but not loose too much grunt. I have a high flow cat and a Magnaflow muffler nicely tucked up and out of the way. It sounds great with a nice low Subaru rumble but is not obnoxiously loud like a Honda wet fart can. (yes that is a torn axle boot piece hanging on the axle.):rolleyes:

http://www.ultimates…&pictureid=1822
I put two pusher radiator fans up front, one wired up to the ECU and the other on this switch here. Good to have it on for hot days or slow driving in city or on trails.

Overall this swap was not bad. And now after doing this I can see it being done in a weekend if you have everything set aside and ready. The hardest part for me was the wiring mainly because its not my specialty. However, Numbchux labeled everything great on the EJ harness and there are plenty of resources here to get it done right. Asking questions and getting an extra hand helped alot. It was a great learning experience for me because of the wiring. I am no mechanic by trade, just a do-it-yourself guy with the proper tools.

I would highly recommend this swap to anyone that can do it. The EJ motor runs so smooth and is way easier to work on. Everything seems so much better designed over the crappy, gutless EA82 motors, (that’s why Subaru fired everyone that designed the EA motors and started with a fresh team on the EJ). My Loyale has tons more torque and power. I can cruse smoothly on the freeway up hills in 5th gear with a fully loaded car and still accelerate if needed. Never experienced this before with the EA82, as I would have been in 3rd or 4th gear at 5000 rpms just screaming along at a slow pace.

So quit putting it off and do the swap. It so worth it and makes for a happy driving experience! The EJ22 breathed new life into what was once a tired, gutless, poorly designed turd!:banana::banana::banana::banana:
Also feel free to ask me any questions about the swap. I figure that I can pass on what was shown to me.

-Chris

Thanks to Scoobyclimbs for some sweet fabrication and good help, Numbchux, Mellow65, and Pooparu for your help with my questions. And thanks to Lewis at Mountain Tech Subaru for fixing my fuel pump wiring that I screwed up and for a sweet EJ22 motor! I hope I’m not forgetting anyone!

4 November 2009

The last thing I need to do is to figure out the temp gauge. Has anyone wired in the 275 Ohm resistor to make the temp gauge read accurately? I tested an EJ thermistor and it read about 2000 Ohms versus the EA read at 800 Ohms. Any thoughts on this? I know Numbchux put in the write up that it could work on paper.

9 March 2013

UPDATE:  the Subie has been passed on to a new owner who is taking it to the next level.  I’m sure hes on here so I’ll let him introduce it when hes ready.  It went to a perfect home and will be around in the community.  Just wait till you all see the new upgrades!

 





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