EJ20 Turbo - EA82 Dual/R Elec D/L

Gravel911 · Post by **Gravel911** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:02 pm

Hello

First post on this site......but have been checking the forum with interest.

The current vehicle I have is an 87 Leone SW with a EA82 Turbo engine, Gearbox is a Dual range with the electric diff lock. It has been a great vehicle but the engine has blown the head gasket and the body is stuffed. Have been looking for some time for a replacement but these are getting hard to find.
Just picked up a 1991 turbo Legacy SW, EJ20 Engine with the 5 speed manual gearbox.

Questions that I am sure someone can help me with.

I would love to have a dual range and electric diff lock gearbox in the Legacy. What’s the best way to go about this?
Is it possible to take the current EJ gearbox out and install the EA82 D/R gearbox?
Do the EA D/R gearboxes differ from turbo and no turbo?
How does the electric diff lock work on the EA82 Gearbox?

Note: Vehicle is only used off road.
Cheers
PS: Some of these questions might have been asked before so sorry if they have.

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:14 pm

Gravel911 wrote:Hello

First post on this site......but have been checking the forum with interest.

The current vehicle I have is an 87 Leone SW with a EA82 Turbo engine, Gearbox is a Dual range with the electric diff lock. It has been a great vehicle but the engine has blown the head gasket and the body is stuffed. Have been looking for some time for a replacement but these are getting hard to find.
Just picked up a 1991 turbo Legacy SW, EJ20 Engine with the 5 speed manual gearbox.

Questions that I am sure someone can help me with.

I would love to have a dual range and electric diff lock gearbox in the Legacy. What’s the best way to go about this?
Is it possible to take the current EJ gearbox out and install the EA82 D/R gearbox?
Do the EA D/R gearboxes differ from turbo and no turbo?
How does the electric diff lock work on the EA82 Gearbox?

Note: Vehicle is only used off road.
Cheers
PS: Some of these questions might have been asked before so sorry if they have.

G'day
Welcome..
Yes you can do that but you'll need 12mm plate (adapter) between engine & gearbox. with EJ box you won't need it but EA you do. Search on here there is a few threads about it..

Turbo'd dual range from EA82 are normally 1.19:1 ratio low range which isnt really that low..> if you like you could open up the gearbox and put in l series low range which is 1.59:1 low.
Cheers
AP

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:46 am

You can also pull your EA box with the locking centre diff, split the box then:

Split an EJ gearbox and put all of its internals aside. Get the EA split box and put the internals from this box into the EJ gearbox casings. The rear housings stay with the internal gears that they match. I might not make much sense now, but it will when/if you get into it. It would be an advantage if you swap in the NA L series low range. I havn't done this but it shouldn't be too hard to do.

You will need a longer tail shaft as the EA boxes are shorter than the EJ unit...

Luck you - Those L series AWD boxes are hard to come by over here as we didn't get them from factory...

Cheers

Bennie

MY_STI · Post by **MY_STI** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:14 pm

EA turbos (and mpfi's) have a 1.192:1 low range gearset and have 25 spline cv stubs. NA carbie box's have a 1.592:1 low range and 23 spline cv stubs.

If you do swap the front casings then you can use an ej clutch/flywheel. Big win straight away imho.
Though it will have to be NA, the only useful part from your engine/box combo is the friction plate.

Since your using the EA rear extension housing nothing external will have to change. Shifter linkages, tailshaft, gearbox mounts are all good to go in stock L form. You will need to use a lib dual range front casing though. Your turbo box is no good for this. Also if you do split the box's then the 'decent' low range set can be fitted. Virtually a straight swap. As an added bonus subaru were good enough to keep the mounts for the vac solenoid on the ej casings so that bolts up as well. Meant to be.

You end up with something much better (again imho), it just requires more initial work input and is more of a pita to fix if it breaks.

Never seen this mentioned before. but..... the awd ea centre pinion can be swapped into an ej gearset.

Insert awkward silence...

This means that you don't really have to worry as much about breaking gears (well 1st to 5th and rev anyway) For those who still haven't figured it out this also means single range ea awd box's can easily be changed to dual range.

There are two such box's (ej case, ej gearset, ea centre diff, 1.6 lo) that have been running for a long time in tassie and have seen quite a bit of abuse, though behind ej22's admittedly.

And I wouldn't stress about asking a question that's been answered before, such action seem mandatory if you've over 1000 post anyway.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:13 pm

I am running an ea awd center diff lock, dual range box with ej cases, 1.59.1 low range , 4.44 crown wheel and pinion with front LSD behind a version 4 STi in a brumby and it handles it fine.
However i am not a boy racer

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:18 pm

Jeff wrote:I am running an ea awd center diff lock, dual range box with ej cases, 1.59.1 low range , 4.44 crown wheel and pinion with front LSD behind a version 4 STi in a brumby and it handles it fine.
However i am not a boy racer

*drools*

Sweet setup! But the centre diff lock would be a waste unless you use it for offroadings (I'm hoping!)

Cheers

Bennie

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:28 pm

Yes i do. There is pics of the car in members rides

Gravel911 · Post by **Gravel911** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 6:20 pm

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Didn’t realise that the turbo and non turbo L series had different low range gear sets. I do have a couple of L series non turbo wrecks with dual range...so will have to take a look at one of them for a donor.

So the perfect set up looks like the following:

L series Non turbo low range gear set (1.592:1) into an EJ dual range box, L series electric diff lock into the same EJ box.

What’s the story with the rear diff if you make this change?

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:34 pm

Gravel911 wrote:So the perfect set up looks like the following:

L series Non turbo low range gear set (1.592:1) into an EJ dual range box, L series electric diff lock into the same EJ box.

What’s the story with the rear diff if you make this change?

With the gearbox, you're only going to be using the EJ's front outter casing. The internals that match the lockable centre diff rear housing will be the one fitted in the EJ casing. This will give you an L series AWD with centre diff lock in an EJ casing that will bolt straight to an EJ motor. If you're running 4.1 or larger diff ratios you'll need to shave the crown wheel (ring gear) to fit the L's NA low range. To fit the 4.11 or 4.44 ratios to the L box = a cut and shut on the pinion shaft...

Also, the diff lock is mechanically operated by a vacuum diaphram. The only thing electronic about it is the soleniods that switch the vacuum lines.

Cheers

Bennie