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Gday,

(Cant believe im even posting this but I feel compelled!)

So with a successfull lift kit out of the way and very happy with it naturally my thoughts have turned to an engine conversion.. Dangerous thoughts I know.

Specifically Im wondering about the gearbox, after trawling a lot of threads on the matter of gearboxes it seems you either use an adaptor plate or can mix & match the EA and EJ gearboxes for a perfect fit to the L series.

Has anyone posted a detailed thread on this process? because I believe thats the route I would probably take. I like to think im a pretty reasonable home mechanic so given a reasonable set of instructions I would be happy to have a crack at the modded gearbox. Have never worked on one mind you, so i wont get too ahead of myself. Well the closest ive come is rebuilding 2 stroke bike engines and having all the gears out and putting them back in but i dare say thats easier?

Anyway feel free to point me in the right direction or even post up a quick list of things to do! Or if you have that box sitting there and want to sell it drop me a PM

ratters wrote:Gday,

(Cant believe im even posting this but I feel compelled!)

So with a successfull lift kit out of the way and very happy with it naturally my thoughts have turned to an engine conversion.. Dangerous thoughts I know.

Specifically Im wondering about the gearbox, after trawling a lot of threads on the matter of gearboxes it seems you either use an adaptor plate or can mix & match the EA and EJ gearboxes for a perfect fit to the L series.

Has anyone posted a detailed thread on this process? because I believe thats the route I would probably take. I like to think im a pretty reasonable home mechanic so given a reasonable set of instructions I would be happy to have a crack at the modded gearbox. Have never worked on one mind you, so i wont get too ahead of myself. Well the closest ive come is rebuilding 2 stroke bike engines and having all the gears out and putting them back in but i dare say thats easier?

Anyway feel free to point me in the right direction or even post up a quick list of things to do! Or if you have that box sitting there and want to sell it drop me a PM

El Freddo did that job - have a look at his threads.

Basically its pretty much swap the internals from one to other housing - they all do line up (I think!). El Freddo will be able to help.

You mightve notice my thread about 1.59 low range conversion in EJ box.
Cheers
AP

AlpineRaven wrote:El Freddo did that job

Got that right! It's an awesome mod that keeps the clutch etc all stock EJ

AlpineRaven wrote:Basically its pretty much swap the internals from one to other housing - they all do line up (I think!).

Yes they do line up, all you need to swap is the front cases of the EJ dual range gearbox, everything will slot in without any issue. I used an early set of cases, the input bearing housing fits perfectly. I believe the later model boxes changed the input bearing housing size so you have to mix and match like Alpine Raven has in his low range conversion thread - you don't need to do the shaving down of bits as you'll be using everything L series in the EJ casing

Gearbox build pics etc in my build thread, the start of which can be found here.

Another thread you might be interested in is this one about the EJ conversion into the L series that I made after my conversion - loads of info in there

Start a build thread so we can all enjoy your progress

Cheers

Bennie

OK thanks El_Freddo, good starting info for sure!

I think this will be a project for the new year, and will probably get a kick start when I find a suitable donor car. Probably would be looking for a liberty or Foz i reckon? See if any good rollovers come up at the auctions in the next few months, otherwise I will likely buy a cheap running liberty of some kind and steal its bits.

Now, an older nut, who loved and played with our old Subes and built a wicked WRX/RS lib drivetrain Brumby a long time ago tells me now if you pull a box apart you need to redo all the tolerances - meaning buy a rebuild kit from Subaru for many hundreds - is anyone else doing this or just whackin' the boxes back together. I mentioned this to him and his concern was longevity...

RSR 'd be a good one to comment ?

What does "redo all the tolerances" mean exactly? As in make sure they are all factory...do gearboxes have bearings and shafts to hone and replace like an engine?

Silverbullet wrote:What does "redo all the tolerances" mean exactly? As in make sure they are all factory...do gearboxes have bearings and shafts to hone and replace like an engine?

Really suppose to have spacers and it needs to be aligned correctly because when it wears it wont match or seat in correctly and you either remove or install spacers. I didn't do that with my gearbox because I didn't want to spend too much plus i was putting in redline oil in the box and worked like a charm. You dont hone in the gearbox. Same goes for the front and rear diff.
Cheers
AP

steptoe wrote:if you pull a box apart you need to redo all the tolerances - meaning buy a rebuild kit from Subaru for many hundreds - is anyone else doing this or just whackin' the boxes back together. I mentioned this to him and his concern was longevity...

"All the tolernaces" are really two things: the diff backlash and preload settings. Basically this is matching the position of the pinion gear with the crown wheel.

Longevity? I've had mine going without any issues for about 70k km now. I didn't measure anything, just dropping it all in and made sure the diff rotated without any rumbling etc. Maybe I got lucky. My current gearbox is being built by a fella that's done loads of them. Two reasons why I didn't do this: 1) I wanted the diff setup properly and 2) a few "trick" things are being put in this box that requires machining and the ability to weld aluminium.

A new set of seals and you're sorted. The most expensive bit is getting all the bits together. Even then my build was done for about $300 I think once I got the two boxes together. I reused my seals as they were not very old.

One thing this came down to was that I went out on a limb to cut costs with the "slap it together" mentality. I was also prepared to put new internals in it if something went pear-shaped with my original build.

Can't wait for this new box!

Cheers

Bennie

backyard stuff is what I like (and fear )

steptoe wrote:backyard stuff is what I like (and fear )

Im the same lol
Cheers
AP

steptoe wrote:backyard stuff is what I like (and fear )

What's there to fear??

Cheers

Bennie