Carb to inj. swap?

[N.W.DarkstaR]

Hello guys I have a 1987 GL wagon that is now a carbureted vehicle I have a 90 low oil fuel injected engine I also have an 86 fuel injected with a turbo my question is is it possible to swap over the injection off of my 90 onto the 87 engine and adding the turbo off the 86 my idea is to eventually have the 87 a 4 wheel drive turbo vehicle but I don't know if it's possible with the things that I have or if it's even worth the time any pointers or info would be greatly appreciated if there's another thread that I've missed please direct me to it thank you ahead of time

[el_freddo]

If you want the proper turbo setup from the 86 you’ll need to swap the heads and cut down the wiring loom for the engine management system. Or reloom the whole vehicle with the turbo loom. 

The 90 - mpfi or spfi? If spfi, you could both that directly onto the 87 and run the engine management system from the donor car. You could add the turbo, but it won’t last for long - those that have done it end up cracking the NA pistons. 

Cheers 

Bennie

[idosubaru]

Yes but it’s not practical for average car duties. Depends on your goals and needs  

Youll need to do a ton of wiring work.  Other than that it’ll all bolt up and install easily.  Install entire instake manifold harness and intake snorkel/exhaust onto the NA engine and you’re done. Basically all bolt up stuff.  So mechanically it’s relatively speaking, easy.  

Taking a 30 year old rather archaic engine (by design and history) and putting an equally archaic turbo system on that high compression thing, is highly risky with a high potential to not go well. 

EA82turbos are labor intensive to keep reliable and without imploding anyway, adding them to a high compression EA82....

as a project and learning experience you might get to drive - have at it. 

as a daily driver, only necessary vehicle, or for a good performance-risk-cost ratio it’s a poor choice 

Edited April 14, 2020 by idosubaru

[el_freddo]

Isn’t the turbo setup a twin port head with a matching MPFI intake manifold? 

Over here in Oz anything MPFI - turbo or NA requires the matching heads to the MPFI intake to make the multi port system to work. 

You can’t bolt MPFI to carb heads - it just won’t work! Unless there’s something majorly different with the US spec turbo setup but I think it’s the same as it is here. 

Cheers 

Bennie

[N.W.DarkstaR]

Right on I appreciate the input guys when I pick these up I got them for dirt cheap wasn't sure if it was a feasible project for not however I'm hearing from Friends basically the same thing you guys are saying it's kind of a pain to do and the odds of it going disasterously wrong at some point are pretty high due to the high compression engine not accepting the turbo very well so I think I've got my answer not really a problem to swap the injected engine into the carbureted car just have to swap over the engine controls computer and all that good stuff that won't be a problem so much as it would be the turbo will destroy the engine I appreciate your guys this time thank you very much one other quick question if anybody is still listening what about swapping a manual engine into an automatic car can that be done relatively easily or will they not interchange IE by swapping out flywheels Etc

Edited April 14, 2020 by N.W.DarkstaR

[idosubaru]

7 hours ago, el_freddo said:

Isn’t the turbo setup a twin port head with a matching MPFI intake manifold? 

Over here in Oz anything MPFI - turbo or NA requires the matching heads to the MPFI intake to make the multi port system to work. 

You can’t bolt MPFI to carb heads - it just won’t work! Unless there’s something majorly different with the US spec turbo setup but I think it’s the same as it is here. 

Cheers 

Bennie

oh right, intake has to match the heads - there is single port and multi port, and i think turbo is always multi port?

if they're different, then swap the heads to match.  or swap the entire long block and have the turbo pistons or swap the turbo pistons into the non-turbo block (don't have to split the block to do this), and swap heads at the same time. 

if you keep them low boost they can do fine, but they won't be forgiving at all with any cooling, oil, or turbo bearing/boost issues.  the second you have issues, shut it down.  they're really low output for a turbo as well, so it ends up being a lot of work for low performance old school turbo. 

[idosubaru]

1 hour ago, N.W.DarkstaR said:

what about swapping a manual engine into an automatic car can that be done relatively easily or will they not interchange IE by swapping out flywheels Etc

doesn't matter.  engines are the same, minor vacuum hose differences, and i think all, or most, US EA82's have EGR but even if they did't that's a minor work around.