el_freddo

Sweet wagon mate! A friend of mine had the same colour as yours. Only the touring wagons of certain years got the digital dash over here, other wise it as vase model spec instrumentation like the brumby/brat. He offroaded it, more so after putting a 2 inch lift and slightly larger tyres. The thing was mint off-road! I wish he still had it. It went everywhere anything else we came across went - except for those bloody comp-spec off-roaders. Anyway. All the best with maintaining this lovely wagon. Cheers Bennie

Would be worth a crack. I once had two dead driveshafts on the front of my L series. On the freeway they would cancel each other out, then have a small vibration then they’d join forces anencephaly create a large vibration until a curve in the road put them out of phase again. Very annoying! New shafts sorted that one as well. But the brumby driveshaft the would lock actually moved the steering wheel, no matter how hard you tried holding it (even with power steering!). That is why I put drive shaft on the cards with this issue. But as 88SubGL said - if it happened after new tyres, it’s probably the tyres! Cheers Bennie

I put an EJ alternator on my brumby. Works well. You need to cut down the bush on the EA alternator to 8mm thick, fit this to the EJ alternator then shave the EJ alternator housing until the EA pulley is clear to spin freely. I plugged the EA plug into the EJ wiring with some spade connectors and upgraded the charge wiring with a fuse - and ran a second wire to the positive cable at the starter. Worked out well and completely reversible if I ever feel the need to go back to something stock. Cheers Bennie

A dead driveshaft can have some bad steering wheel wobble to it. I had one that would lock at one point in the rotation cycle, it was enough to vibrate the steering wheel, even at a crawl! New driveshaft sorted it for me. Cheers Bennie

That’s an epic project to be taking on! I’m spoob at welding exhausts. Got a crappy bottom of the ring MIG welder to go with it. Can’t vary amperage other than two settings via a switch. Not fun. Can complain since it was given to me. Cheers Bennie

Nice one Kiwi! Certainly one to keep out of the snow! Factory cruise, that’s something I’ve never seen before! NZ gets all the JDM goodness! I’d love to have an RXII coupe. If only money would grow on trees... Cheers Bennie

Or blow compressed air from front to rear with the fuel cap removed. That might dislodge something in the fuel return line. Only do this from the return line that disappears into the firewall. DO NOt try blowing compressed air through the inlet fuel lines before the regulator Cheers Bennie

With the brat there’s a six pin plug above the driver’s feet behind the kick panel. This plug should have a corresponding mate that has a single yellow wire that loops back into the plug and into the wiring loom. Without this loop, the wipers will never self return. Cheers Bennie

First three I disagree with. Once you do this conversion you will see this is how the L series should have come from the factory! There is nothing boring with an EJ22 under the bonnet ECU and harness addition is well documented. Extra engine weight is a non arguement - the EJ22 more than makes up for any extra weight it brings with it! “Handling” isn’t effected. The custom machined parts are only needed if you go the adaptor plate way. In the US this is most common as you guys don’t have the dual range EJ gearboxes. The EA82 is the black sheep of the black sheep of the Subaru family. There wasn’t much retained from the L series to the Gen1 EJ platform other than general gearbox layout. Over here the dual range box even went back to the brumby/brat style pull up/backwards low range lever in the EJ. If I had the option and didn’t care about period correct, I’d drop the EA81t in with the EA82t engine management. It won’t be any quicker but it will be the reliable option of the two if you keep up good maintenance on it (as you need to on either option). Cheers Bennie

Can be done. My mate ran his EA81t converted brumby using the hotwire EA82t engine management no worries. He also used the EA82t exhaust from heads to turbo as the ones he had were a dodgy home made abomination. Correct sir. Cheers Bennie

Woo! Me too! That’s why I don’t have any in my L series (other than parts bombs)! Don’t worry, after the HGs, it will be something else! Cheers Bennie

Mate, love the coupe! I’d have one if they were available here. I think there’s five in the country if we’re lucky! All are personal imports so there’s no chance of me picking one up anytime soon - it would have to be an RXII coupe Sounds like some good plans. They almost always take years! Cheers Bennie

Grab any parts you can get your hands on. Others will tell you what’s particularly hard to find. Oil pump would be number one from what I read on here. If you can get one body and interior in good order you could drop a wrx drivetrain in it and power on from there Cheers Bennie

These Hg part numbers is what I was referring to (badly!): Subaru Head Gasket 11044AA642 Subaru Head Gasket 11044AA770 Thanks to @forester2002s for sharing in another thread Cheers Bennie

Awesome and clear info there @idosubaru!! Can I use the MLS EJ25 head gaskets, end of part number being 664 and 774 (going badly by memory) on the EJ25D block with EJ22E heads? Or do I need to use the factory EJ25D head gaskets? Cheers Bennie PS: side note for those playing at home, in AUDM land, we didn’t get the single port EJ22, all of ours are dual port. Fun fact

3: are front diff mount extensions (four bolts that clamp the diff to the bracket. Seems more bolts are needed here. As for the others I’m not 100% sure as there seems to be bits missing from the kit. One piece that’s missing in my mind is a steering extension for when the engine crossmember is dropped. That’s one of the joys of buying second hand when you don’t know what is exactly involved with the whole kit. Cheers Bennie

Got any issues with the crank angle sensor in the dizzy? Just putting it out there. Cheers Bennie

I bet mate. That’s an epic amount of work! Cheers Bennie

Thanks Idosubaru. I have an Gen1 series 2 EJ22E, from about 1991-1994 Australian Domestic Market model. Injectors are red units, not the earlier grey ones. If it’s as simple as sliding the EJ25D under the EJ22E manifold, or just plugging in the engine harness from the EJ25D to that of the EJ22E management, this would be the easiest way to go. One of the reasons for this is because I have an immobiliser imbedded in my cutdown loom that I really don’t want to try pulling out (over here an approved immobiliser must have wiring all the same colour - black). If I need to swap pistons IF doing the frankenmotor, I would rather be doing the full EJ251 engine and management conversion instead - is what I meant to convey in my previous post. This may see a new immobiliser, or at least a kill switch The ultimate plan is to finally get my L series engineered - and if I’m going to do that I might as well engineer it with the EJ25 conversion of some sort rather than the EJ22 (which is still a great engine). I need the vehicle to be engineered to be eligible for club registration (costs about 10% of full registration). And over here, it should be anyway... All of this work comes down to time and a little bit of money. With a relatively young family I’m finding my shed time is smaller than ever which is frustrating. And needing the L for a big trip in September makes it tricky when I still need to be completing work on my brumby (small resto stuff), the RS turbo project (Gen1 Liberty, you guys got the SS) and the other maintenance on our daily drives. Not a great shed to work in either, but it’s better than nothing. The idea came about because I have an EJ25D at my disposal. It ran well when the vehicle (also an L series) was retired. Wiring is there but not in a great state, no ECU. It would be interesting to plug in an EJ22E ecu and see if I can get it going (after a bit of other work for power etc to the wiring). The EJ251 idea comes from experience with my sister’s RX liberty and my MIL’s SG forester. I hope this sheds some light on where I’m at Cheers Bennie

Thanks gents! Looks like it’s a bit more involved than I first thought. So EJ22E ECU will run the EJ25D with its factory DOHC heads, but not at the best it could if I was running EJ25D management, correct? If that’s the case it would probably more beneficial for a complete EJ251 swap with matching management. Thinking I’ll just be happy with the EJ22 ;) Cheers Bennie

Check the charge cable pole on the alternator. Mine was lose and things smelt hottish - on my volt metre it wasn’t charging properly either. The nut was beyond finger tight but the charge wire could be wiggled easily. Cheers Bennie

Thanks @idosubaru and @heartless I’ll have to swap the HGs before it goes in. That will be the decider I reckon. Cheers Bennie

As title suggests - can the EJ22E engine management run the EJ25D (with original heads)? The EJ251 with EJ22E combo becomes a frankenmotor if I’m not mistaken - works well? Asking as my L series is EJ22E converted. I reckon the extra torque of the 25 is desirable but to get the 251 in I don’t want a rewire job as that’s basically another whole conversion I can be bothered with. I haven’t done much research on this recently as it’s a bit of a spur of the moment idea before a mate heads over from the west to do an epic two week trip over my way... though an engine swap might perk Ruby Scoo up a bit more again. I have a complete EJ25D at my disposal. The EJ251 would need a parts yard run and I wouldn’t be particularly confident in one of those unknown engines. And I can’t see my sister killing her Gen3 RX Liberty anytime soon for me to nab the engine from it. Cheers Bennie

Next mod, EJ it Cheers Bennie

The only thing I can suggest is dirty fuel clogging the new injectors so they’re stuck open. I hope you have an EFI rated fuel filter after the fuel pump. Is it hard to start when cold and hot? Only way fuel can be getting into the sump is via the injectors and the cylinders on shut down. Even then, the correct inlet valve of the leaking injector(s) needs to be cracked open enough to let the fuel past them. After immediate engine shut off, are all injectors also shut off or is some sort of residual power getting in there and activating the injectors (extreme long shot!)? How long does it take your oil to be fuel contaminated, and what makes you think you’re getting that amount of fuel in the sump? Cheers Bennie