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I just got an 89 dl and was wondering if anyone has done engine swaps in these? The ea82 in it is old and ticking its way to blowing up lol. Thinking of ej22 or maybe a newer gen swap if possible. Don't wanna break the bank but I know it takes money so looking for functional and as cost efficient as possible. Also if like to see some pics of cars people have done please.

Edited by Greasemonk3y
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Hey Greasemonk37 welcome to USMB. If you'll do a few searches through the forums I think you'll find the information you're after. This question comes up pretty frequently and quite a few members have contributed a great deal of information on the EA81/82 swap to the EJ22.

Edited by ebarb
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Does the engine have rod knock, or is it just a loud lifter tick?

If the latter, search for "tick of death", you'll find numerous threads on how to re-seal the oil pump and replace cam tower o-rings to fix the problem. It's actually pretty hard to kill an ea82, likely yours just needs some work and it'll be happy again.

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An ej22 swap is going to cost you at least the engine and wiring harness, machine work for a flywheel, bellhousing adapter plate, and probably $100 in little miscellaneous stuff the parts store will nickel and dime you on. That's assuming you can strip the wiring harness yourself, fabricate exhaust yourself, etc. If you pay someone to do those tasks, it's going to cost a lot more. You're probably looking at $500 give or take a bit to do a good job unless you just happen to have a lot of the parts laying around.

If it's a daily driver, you'd probably be better off just buying a car that already has an ej22 under the hood, if you want that. If you want to have a project, build a wheeler, etc. Sure, go ahead and do it, the car is going to be down for a while. Your best bet is try and figure out what's up with the ea82 and repair it.

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That would take *lots* of planning I'd think.  Lots of researching other members who have done it, how they dealt with all the details. I've swapped an engine in a weekend.  I haven't worked against a deadline like that in a long time, I have 3 cars 2 drivers, in part to avoid such stress.

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There have been some companies who have made custom heads for the ea82, mostly for aircraft use. You may be able to find some if you look hard enough, prepare for the price tag to knock your socks off, though.

 

Otherwise, no. You have to use ea82 heads on the ea82. The multi-port injection heads probably flow slightly better, those aren't super common, though. If you want a daily driver, fix the thing and drive it.

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What milling and work do you want? Help in which way? I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish.

The ea82 is pretty reliable if you do the basic maintenance, however you really aren't going to squeeze much more power out of it. They do their thing well at the power they were designed to make. That's about it.

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I was talking about having the shaved off a little bit on the surface.

If you do it enough to matter your cam timing will be advanced because the extra slack the tensioner would have to take up.Then you would need adjustable cam gears to dial out the advance so it runs right.Bump the compression up and run higher octane gas for all of 5-8hp.

 

EA81/EA82 heads DO NOT FLOW.In fact they are so bad they could be used as an example on what not do do.If somehow you overcame that issue with cubic dollars or forced induction the cooling passageways in the block are far to small for the engine not to get hot,especially the coolant crossover in the block.

 

Then the crank and connecting rods become weak...

 

 

An EJ22 will make more power STOCK than an all out custom race ea82 NA or FI not to mention it will be way more reliable and get better mpg.

 

 

You could do an EJ22 swap over a weekend IF you had a complete running and driving EJ22 donor.It needs to be running as good as a daily driver before you start pulling it apart so you only have to deal with issues related to the swap.You don't want to be chasing your tail and running over every inch of the wiring because something like a cam sensor or O2 sensor was bunk before you started.

 

Then go and strip and label the wiring harness of the donor car and find and label all the wires you will need to tap into on your car ahead of time so your not burning up time in the weekend finding 12V switched power or the tach signal.

 

It would be a good idea to get a spare flywheel EA82 flywheel to modify to fit the EJ22 before you start the swap to minimize downtime.

 

After a bunch of prep work and internet research it will finally be time to do the swap.With all of the extensive prep work before hand everything will be more or less or plug and play affair, except that the engine mount holes on the crossmember will need to be slotted outwards by 1/2".You will also need a shim to correct the slight angle difference between EA mounts and the EJ mounts.After that a new exhaust will need to be made because trying to run that ej22 through EA sized exhaust pipe will kill all the power  your gaining from the swap in the first place.

 

After a long weekend swinging wrenches and a couple months of prep work you will have an EJ powered car,and its awesome.Like broil the tires off at 30 MPH by just standing on the gas pedal awesome.

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I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but in light of everything you're asking, and some of the things you've said, I'm going to offer you some realistic advice. 

 

If you want to restore/upgrade/modify your EA82, buy something else to drive in the meantime. What you are contemplating "in a weekend" is not really realistic. These are fun and easy cars to play and tinker with, but it becomes awfully stressful when it's the only thing you have to drive (I have a fleet of three, so no matter what happens, I can get in something and drive to work.) 

 

Just a thought. 

 

Good luck in whatever you do. 

 

Dan

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