I have a carbed ea82 that I want to put into my 89 wagon. From my research it's my understanding that my spfi intake will bolt on and I just need to plug the EGR ports down by the exhaust ports. I see the carbed engine has slightly lower compression but not enough to make much of a difference. So that is all OK but then I read this thread on nasioc:

 

 

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1286747

 

This guy toward the bottom insists that the cams are different enough to cause problems. Do I need to swap in my old cams or should I just toss it in as is?

Edited May 11, 201411 yr by wakingtowinter

youll be fine, ive run both combos

You may want to run your base timing a bit more retarted like would have been in the carbed car.

 

That's where the difference in the cams comes in....

 

Vice Versa.....that's why 87 models with carbs need to run at 20 Deg. timing....not 8 like older carbs.....that's because they swapped to the SPFI cams in the 87 Carbies.......

 

So yeah....timing will need to be optimized for that combo and 20 deg may be too much.  If you get pinging retard it.

Awesome, thanks

Just a note for anyone who might come across this situation in the future, the tip about timing was right on the money and I couldn't have gotten it running without Gloyale's advice. I had a no start for three days. I had spark and fuel so I was sure it was timing and I redid the timing belts to no avail. Then I remembered this advice and tried putting the distributor in at about 20 degrees after TDC. Had to redo it a couple times to get it right on but now it runs great. With timing set at 0 TDC I could not even get a sputter.