I know people have put EA81s into an EA82 chassis before but I have a few umm questions.

 

I have a fully resealed EA81 solid lifter from an '81 2wd wagon sitting in my garage. My '87 coupe is an EA82 SPFI. I want to put the EA81 into the coupe while using the SPFI that is stock with the car. I know it can be done but what all would it take? I know there's a mod to the disty that has to be done, and the power steering bracket will bolt to the engine I believe (saw an EA81T with an EA82 power steering setup on it). I'm going to disconnect my AC as well since after I move, I'm going to do the EJ20 swap into it. I don't think it'll be that hard but what problems would I run into? I'm also swapping the engine crossmember with a turbo one (the one from the RX which has been modded for the 5-lug), swapping my whole 5-lug conversion, and swapping in the RX 5-speed as well. Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? It'll be driven on the freeway from Laramie to Seattle!

Bellhousings arent 100% swappable so make sure you have one that fits the trans type on the car you are dumping it into.

 

I think its a good swap. Not a fast one but a reliable one.

Bellhousings arent 100% swappable so make sure you have one that fits the trans type on the car you are dumping it into.

 

I think its a good swap. Not a fast one but a reliable one.

 

What would cause it to not be swappable as far as the bellhousings are concerned? Its the side mounted starter EA81, not the top mounted starter EA81s that came in the '81 Brats.

Bump...

The EA81 has two different size bellhousings according to the size of their flywheels. I don't know the year of the change over, or if the 2wd bellhousing is any different. I do know that the automatics had the larger of the two to clear the TC.

This EA81 was bolted up to the original FWD 5-speed and was also bolted up to a d/r 4-speed in a '85 Brat as well. It had the 4wd flywheel on it from the Brat also... I dunno if that helps.

Bump bump. Engine "might" be going in either today or tomorrow but I have to get my car back into the shop... *sigh*

ok so here's the main plans for the car before I move. The car is going to have the EA81 engine, the complete SPFI setup that is originally in this car, my RX 5-speed, turbo engine crossmember since its modded for the 5-lug and I'll need it later down the road when I do the EJ20 swap into it, plus all the 5-lug crap that I have. This also means that I'm going to be putting the full RX rear suspension setup into it, rear LSD, and the 5-lug in the back. I'm basically setting it up for my EJ swap in the future but for right now, it just needs to be driveable. So, in all reality, this is more like an SPFI onto an EA81 sorta thing. I believe that the engine will bolt to the tranny but I got a spare EA82 tranny laying around that I can test it on if need be. So besides the disty, what other mods would I need to do to put the SPFI onto the EA81 thats going into my coupe?

So all these people viewing it and not a lot of input on it. Oh well. Time for a couple questions. First off, I've seen an EA82 powersteering setup on an EA81T but what should I do? The car stock has PS and the RX rack has PS as well. The AC compressor I'm just planning on taking out, along with the lines because I don't plan on using AC in Washington. Heck, I never used AC in Oregon! So any thoughts, comments, opinions on if this setup is going to work or not and how I should do the PS because its something I'm NOT getting rid of, I'd like to have it when the EJ swap comes around....

The EA81T uses an EA82 Power Steering setup. The brackets look mighty similar too. I also know that theres a red EA81T Wagon in Pull N' Save (was still there last weekend...). Maybe rob its brackets, crank pulley, and water pump pulley as ALL of those are different. That should let you bolt the EA82 power steering.

 

If not, you may have to compare the EA82 racks with the EA81 racks, and see if you can use the EA81 pump and hoses.

Thanks Mike, I'll have to figure out where all these yards are again since I'm probably going by myself...

Ok just a little bit of an update.

 

Since I found that I cannot use the solid lifter EA81 that I have, I decided to start on the hydrolifter EA81 that I have as well. Reason for not using the solid lifter EA81 was because since it was such an early block, it did not have the bosses on top of the block to put my EA82 powersteering setup on it and I'll be a politician if I want to drive it 18 hours to Seattle with no powersteering on the interstate. The hydro block does have the bosses and 2 of the 3 holes already drilled and tapped. So tonight, I stripped the hydrolifter engine down to the shortblock and the oilpan, then went to work making sure the powersteering setup is going to work. I basically bolted the PS bracket onto the block, then the pump, and then the pulley. After all this, its a little chilly outside and I smacked my f***ed up finger pretty bad so I called it a night. I did however get some pics of it on the engine and what sort of spacers I'm going to have to use on the pump to space the pulley out about 1/4", maybe less.

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2914969060067339125zEiyyS

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2950891080067339125FPRfXN

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2027434530067339125nxMlJV

on the interstate is where you won't notice the lack of powersteering.....its around town that it'll be "hard". I drove my RX around for awhile with no powersteering and I liked it everywhere but parking and autoXing.

yeah I have it and so I might as well keep it.I'll be driving it with this configuration for awhile until I get the EJ20 in there so might as well keep it comfortable:grin:

So I thought of a problem last night while laying in bed. In my pics that I posted of the powersteering pump mockup, the bracket sticks waaay out and the belt for the alternator would rub on the bottom of it. Then I realized that it sticks out way far is because on the EA82, it has to clear the timing belts, DUH! So I have to use a EA81T PS pump bracket but lucky for me, there's a spare EA81T that I can go scavenge one off of:grin:

 

If you've seen my post in the older gen forum, I found some missing freezeplugs out of both heads so I'm going to be running the hydrolifter block, hydro pushrods, solid lifter heads and rockers just in case I might need to do some valve adjusting for some odd reason, then I won't have a hassle. I'm going to hopefully be mating the engine up to the crossmember and tranny this weekend if I'm not too drunk/hungover. It IS St. Patricks day on Saturday and all...