2" lift kit on L series with ej20t engine?

rerty · Post by **rerty** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:09 pm

G'Day,
Is there any problems with putting a 2" lift kit on an L series with an ej20t out of an rs liberty turbo? I also have the crossbred brake kit to put on with 16" wrx wheels, will this create any problems?

Fatz · Post by **Fatz** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:02 am

as far as i can see.. the only headache you will encounter is all the paperwork require to get it engineered

Post by **TOONGA** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:33 am

In WA engineering isn't needed until you get pulled over by the police

the only problems I encountered when I put my lift kit in was lining everything up the steering knuckle and cutting the brackets that hold the brake lines to the front struts so I didn't have to bleed the brakes

as for the crossbred kit no idea sorry

TOONGA

rerty · Post by **rerty** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:00 am

The car has been registered in WA for 4 years with the liberty rs turbo engine, gearbox and 4.11 vlsd diff.
I know I have to get an engineer to approve the crossbred kit(which is supposed to be a formality, according to the kit), just that I remember reading somewhere that if you have the ej series engine the lift kit needs to be modified slightly?
Thanks for your replys much appreciated:D

Fatz · Post by **Fatz** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:08 am

if you are running an auto box you may need to make up 2 lift blocks and possibly a new xmember... but if you have it all in there atm, i cant see any issues..
i have also done what toonga mentioned in above post re castor plate and strut brackets (from memory, i used a hacksaw to cut a slice in the strut brake line holders, and used pliers to fold it back to slide out the lines, and i hacked off the castor plate handbrake tabs becasue i had alignment issues with the lift kit with them on)
as for the ej gear in the L body, i cant see any issues with the standard L lift blocks as they both run the 3 bolt strut tops. i had used outback struts and L strut lift with no worrys.
should be all bolt on... mine pretty much was.
here is my thread from a while ago showing the tabs on the castor plates i was trying to describe..
showthread.php?t=5971&page=8

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:34 am

Should go together like lego. I had 3" in my wagon with EA82 and went to EJ20turbo no problem. just have to make a couple of extra blocks for the rear gearbox crossmember mount.
Can't imagine and issues related to the crossbred kit.

Only issue I can think of would be maybe standing on the brakes too hard and having the body separate from the lift kit.........by increasing the power of the engine and putting big brakes in you are most likely going to be stopping way harder than the L series was designed for. And with a body lift kit added to the mix those weak little captive nuts are much more likely to rip out of the body. All comes down to how you drive really.

rerty · Post by **rerty** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:38 am

Is there a better fix for the captive nuts issue?

Fatz · Post by **Fatz** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:41 am

not really unless you put in some reinforcement brackets

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:49 pm

It's something people with L series have to contend with - inbuilt weak point unfortunately. It's mostly just the 3 where the radius rod plates mount. The radius rod pushes back on these when you stand on the brakes, or when you drive into a rock with the front wheels. With the longer bolts you get with a lift kit they are more susceptible to flexing. The captive nuts are literally just tack welded in at the factory.
You could get somebody who is good with welding to cut them out and weld in some stronger plate with more substantial nuts welded in properly but this is a fair bit of trouble.

It won't be so much of an issue with 2" kit, but something to be aware of when your hooning around.

Fatz · Post by **Fatz** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:22 pm

i dont have any pics on me at the moment, but what i have done is welded a piece of square tube approx 1cmx1cm from my caster/radius lift blocks up to my engine/cross member lift blocks.. there is no apparent issue of it ever folding or causing any issues... apart from the fact that if i want to remove either the radius arm lift or engine lift, both would have to come out, i have thought about putting in some sort of quick detach system.. but it doesn't phase me too much at the moment.
if you would like a picture because of my horribad description.. let me know and ill post it up.
Cheers

rerty · Post by **rerty** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 3:12 pm

Would love to see what you have come up with!
thanks for all the help guys.

Post by **Alex** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 3:19 pm

to contend with captive nuts i cut out the original ones(what was left of them anyway) and rewelded them to some nice 5mm flat bar. then rewelded the flat bar back up there. and rewelded all the other original platework for strength.

Problem with this is that the original bodywork around my beafed up stuff started breaking and cracking. The best way i could see to contend with it was the weld all the three radius rod lift blocks togehter to spread the load out abit.

This problem however, ultimately was the begininng of the end for my wagon. After fixing it up 4 or 5 times i had enough of it.

Big bit of advice is to reinforce the whole area before you lift it, and stop the problem before it occurs, which is what id do if i was ever to lift one again.

alex