el_freddo

Thanks mate, already noted. I totally forgot about the wedge, like much of society!

Fingers crossed that this is the end of your issues mate! Cheers Bennie

Isn’t an XT tank the same as an L series EFI tank? I always thought the Vortex/XT4 were all based on the L series chassis/floor pan design with the changes being the body construction and styling. I don’t know the availability of the L series/Leone’s over your way @davepak. And certainly in this case, an EJ conversion would not solve this issue as it would do the same thing! Very lucky you didn’t burn through all the fuel pumps you tried out. Now, what about putting that turbo back on? Go on, you know you want to for that extra reliability factor! Cheers Bennie

I know where to go from here. Boat anchor the EA82, do an EJ22 conversion. Win win. Cheers Bennie

Awesome! Glad you got it sorted! No other issues now? Cheers Bennie

Need to swap heads for that. The NA MPFI runs the same dual port heads as the MPFI turbo. Cheers Bennie

Running a switchable and fused wire to the fuel pump would be a good test. If that proves successful, I would keep those new wires and put a new relay in that’s activated by the ECU ground wire. Pull the positive voltage from a known good source, or if it’s 5v, find and use the corresponding ECU positive wire. See if that setup works. Sounds like you’re onto a good thing there though! Cheers Bennie

What came of the mass air flow sensor “lead” that you had? You haven’t fully ruled this out. Also see if you can find a trouble shooting table that references engine runs with MAF disconnected. Long shot, but in our 2000 VT Holden commodore V6, it was gutless to drive at one point. Pulled the MAF/pressure sensor (I forget what it was exactly) and it would run ok, not all power was there but you could drive it easily. The issue turned out to be the fuel pump dying. Dunno how the sensor disconnect trick changed anything. Car ran awesome after the pump replacement. No random stalling, no stuttering or loss of power issues with load or acceleration. As I said, long shot with it being the fuel pump - could be an electrical issue at a joint that’s got high resistance or an issue with the fuel pump relay. Some easy things to check out there anyway. Cheers Bennie

Go through and clean up all your earth connections - and find any that are not strapped down, get them sorted too. Your thermo fan should kick in at a bit above the half mark on the temp gauge. What sort of voltage is the alternator putting out? Cheers Bennie

@Loyale 2.7 Turbo - we got the four door sedan Royale in the later stages of the Leone model. It had the MPFI EA82 and everything electric you could throw at it other than a digi dash. I too am keen to see pics of the vehicle in question We love pics! Cheers Bennie

I believe the USDM got SPFI or MPFI turbo. There’s no NA MPFI over there AFAIK. So it’ll be the SPFI heads. Cheers Bennie

And Australia - the small forgotten island in the Southern Hemisphere I don’t think we ever got the 1600 down here... Cheers Bennie

Swap the lines, pump, bracket and reservoir out from another model. If there’s a sensor in the pump, get a pump that has a fitting for, or a sensor fitted. Swap them out and off you go. Subarus are Lego. You might not be able to replace just the pump with another, but with the other bits the replacement pump uses from factory, it’ll fit up no worries (unless Subaru did something funky with the Steering rack fittings). Cheers Bennie

Awesome. Look into boosting the 3.6L H6. Been done a few times and ppl are getting good results from these builds. A sand rail could be fun Cheers Bennie

No to you. Some ER27 die hard might wet their pants over it. @Eric4 - if you’re new to this, look into an engine that doesn’t necessarily require specialist knowledge and a stash of parts for the odd Sunday drive. More fun and reliability would be dropping in an EZ (correct GD, I’m not gear with the 3 and 3.6L engines) with aftermarket management. Then your gearbox becomes the issue, and your brakes on the EA platform. What’s this purchase going into anyway? All that said, conversions aren’t for novices unless you have a good, knowledgeable mechanic and very deep pockets! Keep researching, ask appropriate questions that you don’t find answers to in your research. Keep the links of good info for reference Cheers Bennie

Ooh, this changes things! The vacuum advance device in the distributor is different between NA and Turbo on the old flapper AFM units. This is to take into account when on boost. As stated, cam profiles are different and the mapping of the ECU will be different, especially when it expects boost and it’s not getting it. I’m not sure if these RCUs were that advanced or if they just threw more fuel into the cylinder when it expects boost to be present. Switching to the NA ECU probably won’t work either as wires maybe different and there is most likely more wiring for the turbo ECU for the knock sensor and boost readings. Why was the turbo removed anyway? With the NA compression and modern high octane fuels you should be ok running the factory boost on those pistons if you can go back to the original boosted setup. Cheers Bennie

Also, any play in the distributor shaft? Cheers Bennie

Try using some metal glue or permanent locktite on it to fix that ring in place. Cheers Bennie

Are you sure it’s 25 degrees before TDC? I remember my MPFI being 20 degrees BTDC. Might be worth adjusting and seeing if the behaviour changes. Cheers Bennie

Reversed fuel lines is a good suggestion. Quick way to check is to disconnect the fuel hose from the filter in the engine bay, put a container under each hose and prime the fuel lines. Which ever container has fuel in it is the direction the fuel is flowing from. It should be coming from the filter Cheers Bennie

Go the L’s! The cheap ones are the best and end up costing a lot more for all the right reasons! My $500 L series (back in 2004) is still kicking but not much in her is original! And she’s been all over the place in my part of the world. Got any other plans for your L? Cheers Bennie

I once did an MPFI conversion on my L series before I found forums and saw the light in the EJ conversion world. Mine would surge sometimes when accelerating, other times it would pull like an EA82 freight train. Didn’t matter about the load or throttle position, sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn’t. I recall that if I took my foot off the throttle and back on when this was happening it would clear up. I never found out what the issue was but I suspect it had something to do with the smaller carb fuel return line that my conversion inherited (this was swapped out when I did the EJ conversion). It could be worth removing the fuel cap and blowing compressed air back to the tank through the fuel return line to remove any restrictions in the system. The other thought is that it’s some solenoid that’s sticking - probably one to do with the fuel tank ventilation system, definitely in the emissions control stuff! Shame you cancelled the inspection, I was hoping it would be there to pass and live on, even if it limped over hills for now... Cheers Bennie

And they’re better than a carb, even though it’s a “Stone Age” EFI system... Cheers Bennie

No. Only when changing gears if the clutch isn’t used properly. Thus a low mileage gearbox could have a crunchy gear or two if it lived in a city driven vehicle - lots of gear changes for that amount of distance. A country driven gearbox with high kms could have very good synchros due to few gear changes for the distance driven - many kms at cruise speed in top gear. At the end of the day it all comes down to the driver and it can be a gamble. Certainly the choice of oil, it’s condition/age (what’s already in there) have an impact on what the gearbox feels like to change gears. Cheers Bennie

Fair call. Use whatever you can fit. Easiest to fit is a replacement unit with two inlets and one outlet. Probably harder to find. Hardest to fit is the much more widely used single in/out port units. You need to modify the Y pipe to make it a 2 into 1 then fit the cat converter. Probably easier to have a shop make new extractor pipes to replace the stock Y pipe. Cheers Bennie