rxleone

vod?

Hey guys, started a thread the other day (that can be seen here) about my possible head gasket failure. I don't think it is that anymore - went to go and buy a radiator, got home, turned it off and left it for about 2 minutes... Then came back outside to this: Pretty big leak from the left hand (US Passenger, JDM Driver) side of the radiator. Split side tank, I'm sure of it. Anyways, going to throw the new rad in tonight or tomorrow, and see if that doesn't clear the problem up. Then I realised I haven't even shown you guys the car. Picked it up last week, 236,000km on the clock, purrs beautifully. As you can see, it needs a new front bumper, rear bumper, and possibly front left fender. I've cracked into cutting-and-polishing it, and I've done the bonnet and the front left door and fender so far. I did a test patch on the heavily oxidised boot. Check out the difference!! Just waiting for a decent day to get the rest done. So far on the list of things to do; - RADIATOR! DONE! - Fuel Tank Sender fluctuates wildly and drops to zero consistently depending on how much gas you have in there. Gonna pull those suckers and inspect. - New bumpers, one fender, and get a red reflective garnish for the boot (I hate it looking so bare with just the number plate on!!) - New CV boots on the two front axles. All pretty shot. - Fix the annoying rattle (think it might be heatshields) DONE! - Give it a good clean inside and out, including the underbody and engine bay. Then one day maybe I'll get a nice large-bore exhaust for it, a slight lowering and some bigger 17 or 18 inch mags. Will look sweet.

Will keep an eye out

Extremely common in New Zealand. TBH I found them sluggish and unresponsive, but it was an auto I drove. They've got some weird turbo lag issue at 100kph (60mph) where the turbo's cross or something and they guzzle gas. But cool to see one done in the States good job on it!

Could this trapped air be forced in in the past by the split side tank of the radiator? If it's been leaking somethings gotta fill the space right? It does have an awful amount of bubbles. It's almost like foam, and from previous experiences (not with Subaru) a head gasket that bubbles like that would be missing continuously. It's night over here but I'll see if I can get some reasonably decent photo's for you guys.

Nope - Oil is clean as. Not a hint of water at all. Not carbed - MPFI. I've heard the EJ22 doesn't blow head gaskets very often - that sound about right? Also, the bubbles are more continuous and steady-flowing, not related to engine RPM. Does that mean anything?

Hey guys, just picked up my 89' Lego with the EJ22 the other week. I noticed when I bought it that it had a slight radiator leak on the left hand side (that's passenger to you US guys - split side tank I think), but didn't run hot or anything, didn't miss, etc. Just been keeping the fluids up till I get the new radiator this weekend. Anyways, my old man (who's a mechanic) was looking it over and noticed bubbles coming from the radiator - and the waters going somewhere, but doesn't look like its leaking as much as it's losing from the radiator. Now it's running smooth - but looks like steam is coming out of the exhaust, and has a VERY slight (I mean barely noticeable) miss occasionally at idle. Still doesn't run hot in the slightest (around just under the halfway mark on the gauge) etc etc. I was wondering what you Subaru guru's think this might be? I am replacing the radiator this weekend, so that might cure it, but the old man thinks it is head gaskets. Also, do the EJ intake manifolds still have the coolant running through them... or is that just the EA's? Because that would make my life very easy if it were only them. 1989 Legacy EJ22e 236,000km (146,000 miles) 5 speed manual

They came out as a factory carbed EJ18 in NZ - 89" - 91" Legacy. Yes, carbed. People would probably get run over in the states because those big dumb-muscle V8's can't stop in time!

Are you at a complete standstill when this happens or still rolling? Subaru's don't like to go into first until you're almost at a complete stop. Pretty common for all EJ manuals to graunch when put in first while moving. Mine does it. If you keep forcing it into first while you're moving you'll probably end up bending or breaking the selector fork.

85' to 94' I believe.

Too messy? How do you guys change oil? Buy a new engine? Seriously though, I don't know why you Stateside guys don't just get new joints and reuse the axle. 99% of the time that's how the mechanics over here fix axles - It's very rare to see the actual axle break under normal road conditions. In fact, I didn't sell even one axle during my time in parts. Sold countless CV's and DOJ's though. Plus, it's not exactly a difficult job.

Sweet! Get some pics up. Bet it sounds pretty mean

They did make an EJ push-button dual-range 4x4 in some countries, as seen here. Just for some reason they didn't send them to the states, like the standard Dual Range EJ box. Bit of a shame really. Consumer demand is always going to win out. Subaru's these days are nice, safe, powerful, stable touring cars, because that's what the majority of the market wants. Long gone are the days of Subaru's being cheap cars to run - a lot like your aluminium-accordian CRX (no offence, thin metal on Honda's has always irked me). Even Hondas these days are just normal cars - they used to be lightweight over-powered playthings Unfortunately for us, we get the raw end of the deal - which is why the majority of us are stuck with 20 year old cars - because we love them

Seems I'm moving back to EJ gear after a long time spent in the EA world - picking up an 89' EJ22 Legacy Sedan on Thursday. It's done 236,000km (that's 146,000 miles) and I'm getting it for $500 NZD ($360 USD). It's roadworthy too! I took it for its warrant (NZ's *safety testing* *ahum*) and it flew through. Engine started up fine with a jump pack even after sitting for over two months without starting. I'm pretty stoked about this thing, EJ22's are getting a bit harder to find over in NZ and apart from some pretty-evenly oxidized paint this thing is mint. Seems to be almost as powerful as my DOHC EJ20 89' Lego was. It does need a new front bumper though, plus it has a weird rear garnish on the boot, which is just straight blue instead of the regular reflector, so I'm going to see what I can do to change that So yeah, hopefully you'll be seeing and hearing a lot more from me around this forum. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I get this thing and give it a good cut-and-polish. :banana::banana: (Some banana's for good measure)

What about the really early first generation Legacies - the ones with the cat as part of the headers? It doesn't look like those would match up.

Simple? Boring two or three mils out of an engine block isn't very simple. It won't be simple to fix when it grenades because the sleeves are too thin. Import a used EJ20 block. It'd cost you less in the long run. Also - I wouldn't even bother splitting a block to gain 15HP. Why not just slap a turbo on it?

Elaborate.

You're not an rump roast, that post was just structured in a way that pretty much made it impossible to read.

More efficient, more powerful. The strongest Subaru block we ever got in NZ with efficient heads. I'm not "attacking" anything, as I stated it is merely an idea, to see if it's possible. You know, trying new things? As I have had this happen on my 89' EJ20 Legacy - I know the dangers of DOHC heads. However, as with anything on a car, if you keep the maintenance up, there's no problem. As you would have to buy a new belt for a DOHC set-up anyways, I don't really think it has any effect, at least not for 80,000km or so.

wat

Good point - I need to look into that. Anyone have any manuals in PDF online that have these specifications? Also - The body harness - do these differ in the 89' - 92' Legacies? EG. Can you swap the engine harness and engine from one engine (say an EJ20 or EJ22T) into a Legacy of the same shape and style, but different engine, can you just plug in the engine side of the loom, and the computer into the other end? Or does the body harness differ depending on the engine?

Sweet, that's good to know! Now I just gotta buy the thing

So I'm looking at buying a N/A EJ22 Legacy, 1989 model. Typical EJ22, EFI, SOHC, etc. I was wondering if there is any way of putting DOHC heads onto this engine with minimal loom work? I'm not too confident with the EJ series, having only owned one EJ20D-powered 89' Legacy before, most of my time being spent on old-gen Scoobs. Hence, I'm pretty much a tool when it comes to EJ wiring/ECU work. So obviously, being a DOHC setup it would have a different Cam sensor setup, other sensors etc... So.. 1 - How difficult is it to change a loom in an early Legacy? Would be most likely taking heads from an early EJ20D N/A DOHC engine (think 1st generation Legacy) and transplanting them. Would the loom be theoretically plug-and-play into the EJ22-engined vehicle of the same year? Or would there be serious cutting-and-splicing involved? 2 - Would I also need to bring the intake from the EJ20D over to go on the heads? Or is it possible to run the EJ22 intake? 3 - What sort of power/economy gains would you most likely be looking at with this change? 10HP? 15? 20? I know the EJ22e is 135HP stock, while the EJ20D is 150HP... surely must be in the heads? Sorry if I'm all over the place, trying to brainstorm and I get like that Any help would be appreciated. Cheers guys.

Good to see there's people out there helping out one another. Hope you enjoy your new discs! And hey... is that a 4x100 or a 4x113 setup I see there?

ECU? Did the 86' even come out in SPFI? I thought they were all carbed untill 87' or something along those lines.