EJ 22 into an L Series in a weekend ?

Checkers · Post by **Checkers** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:53 pm

Hi Guys,

Well I have an 85 RX Turbo which I want to upgrade to an EJ 22. I have a complete 92 Liberty, adapter, flywheel and clutch and of course an RX Sedan.

I have read a lot on here and a few other forums and I can't see any reason why I would not be able to do the upgrade in a weekend, do you think this is realistic ?

I figure I need to do the following:

Remove Radiator
Remove engine from liberty
Remove Dash from Liberty
Remove Loom and ECU from liberty

On the RX.

Remove Radiator
Remove EA82T

Then

Fit adapter and flywheel to EJ 22
Fit tappet gaskets, cam belt, water pump
Modify Engine mounts to suit RX
Fit EJ 22 into RX
Fit EJ 22 Radiator into RX
Modify Loom, fit ecu, ignitor AFM.
Make new exhaust
Plumb it all up
Re-Fit battery

And that is about it.

Did I miss anything I should be aware of ?

I have a few tools and a welder etc so making stuff can all be done easy enough.

Am I kidding myself to think I can drive in Friday arvo and drive out Monday morning all sorted ?

bluesteel · Post by **bluesteel** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:25 pm

short answer... yes

mechanicals, easy enough if you have all the right stuff, especially some fabrication stuff for anything that dosent line up properly

electrical side of it is fiddly and time consuming

get as much of it done beforehand, try and get the loom chopped down and all marked ready to chuck in, and try and get all the fiddly bits and pieces sorted.

its always the little things you forget that end up taking the most time

Checkers · Post by **Checkers** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:34 pm

Yeah I might do the Liberty stuff before hand. I can't see an EJ 22 loom taking more than an hour or two so by the time I do teh change over I am guessing around 4 hrs maybe 5 if I have to pull the RX dash to get in there as well.

Not sure how much loving the engine mounts will need and also how much modification the headers will need to clear.

Looks like having the lift kit will make life easier.

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:48 pm

You can, but thats a rush job to do that. If you want to do it properly then it takes about 3 days.
Cheers
AP

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 12:10 am

If you've done a loom quite a few times before and know precisely what you are doing it takes a good few hours.

Some points
- what mods are you planning to the engine mounts? Usually they just drop straight onto the crossmember. To help them you can make small wedges to bring the angle out to the correct angle
- Fit EJ22 radiator - beware this will require a fair bit of your car hacked to pieces to make it fit
- Fit the adaptor, flywheel, change gaskets and pump etc all in advance, no reason to leave it to the weekend

I think you are kidding yourself tho....I know technically it could be done but really you'd need a mate or two to help, and theres always stuff that happens or you don't think of that slows things down. Sometimes a bastard bolt won't come undone and takes 2 hours for example.

Best of luck tho, I love the quick conversions!

GOD · Post by **GOD** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 1:29 am

As a guide, it takes me 6 hours to remove and refit an EJ in my car, and that's with plenty of practice. Add another couple of hours for a major service on the new engine, and about a day for electrics, if you know what you're doing.

Some other pointers:

The exhaust will need a couple of slight bends to meet the EJ header.

It can help to slot out these holes on the engine mount plates, to get the mount sitting closer to the back of the engine. And as Andrew said, it's a good idea to make little wedges to sit between the mounts and the crossmember. I used three lengths of 50x3mm steel, 75, 35 and about 15mm welded together like this. Don't make them too thick or the exhaust will touch the crossmember. You'll also require the engine stay rod bracket on the gearbox, like this, rather than on the engine.

Making an EJ22 radiator fit requires significant butchering.

You also need to file or drill out the holes in the EA flywheel to suit the different bolt pattern on the EJ crank.

Replace all cam and crank seals while the engine is out.

I can save you about two minutes - the battery doesn't need to come out of the car.

Good luck.

Dane.

Checkers · Post by **Checkers** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:14 am

Cheers for the feedback guys that was exactly what I was looking for.

Looks like I don't need to modify the engine mounts which is good so I will just machine some wedges.

I guess I will prep the engine first which should save a heap of time. Having never pulled an engine from an L series before I guess the extra time might be needed.

Do I need to do any mods on the fuel system ? or will the EA82T lines be fine ?

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:37 am

EA82T fuel system will require zero mods to run the EJ. Just grab some EFi fuel hose to use in the engine bay, you may need it.

Checkers · Post by **Checkers** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:10 am

AndrewT wrote:EA82T fuel system will require zero mods to run the EJ. Just grab some EFi fuel hose to use in the engine bay, you may need it.

Cool, one less thing to sort. Will the carbon cannister marry up as well ? It looks to be the same sort of size etc.

Checkers · Post by **Checkers** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:44 am

What are people doing with speed sensors for the EJ 22 ?

Does the EA82T have one that I can tap into ?

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:57 am

it's not essential for the EJ22 but is best practice to do it still.

I *think* there is one in your car inside the dash you can tap into given yours is ECU controlled already - you'd have to check the pinout diagram for your existing ECU to find the wire.

Otherwise people with carby cars need to reconnect the L speedo cable and fit a VDO 412009 speed signal generator inline in the cable. The box comes with everything you need to do it.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 4:52 pm

To show you what you're up for check out my thread on an EJ install into an L series.

Here's the wire for the speed sensor at one of the ECU plugs for the 4 plug MPFI system:

If this is your first conversion I'd recommend getting as much outta the way as possible before you pull your L off the road. I'd pull the wiring from the liberty, cut it down then see if you can run the motor while its still in the liberty - this will let you know if you're wiring is good or not. Then pull the EJ etc out and do all the maintenance bits on it making sure you use the little lines on the edge of the cam gears and NOT the arrows when you do the cam belt

Have everything you need for the conversion sitting there ready to go and you'll piss it in. The hardest bit I reckon will be running the EJ's loom through the firewall and mounting it under the dash while its still in place - I took mine out when I did it.

Other than that I'd also like to say all the best with your weekend conversion! Prep work will be the key to the mission

I've heard of the WA boys doing two conversions at the same time in a weekend - that included the wire cut down I believe, but they had a team of experienced EJ'ers

Cheers

Bennie

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:48 pm

nah that didn't include the cutdowns, just putting the looms into the cars. That was a fun weekend tho. Unfortunately one of the cars has now been crushed and the other one parted out but possibly still kicking somewhere minus it's driveline.