outback twin turbo conversion

tmh983 · Post by **tmh983** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:56 pm

Day 2 progress:

Spent the day removing the engine from the outback. The ej25 is much much simpler than the ej20tt and took about a third the time to remove.
Got started removing the wiring loom from the outback, I am going to transplant the entire loom from the halfcut into the outback.

By the way, if anyone wants any parts from the outback, let me know, otherwise it will all be going to the tip in about a weeks time. I have an enourmous pile of stuff left over, wiring, trim panels, connectors, pipes, radiator, ecus, etc etc etc

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:12 pm

Looking good

and yep.. use the whole harness, makes it a lot easier

tmh983 · Post by **tmh983** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:21 pm

yeah, changing the whole harness over is the best way to guarentee everything will work properly, but fark me it is a lot of work!

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 10:30 pm

Looks like thirsty work!

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 12:07 am

Yep.. lots of work but I'll tell you now, it will all be worth it

and like Steve said.. keep the fluids up

bobbyjimmy · Post by **bobbyjimmy** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:25 am

How much do you want for the front bar reo off the 1/2 cut?

tmh983 · Post by **tmh983** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:34 pm

Progress for day 3 and 4:

Finished stripping the entire dash on both the outback and halfcut. Massive job this, there is just so many things that need to be dissasembled to get the loom out. Anyway, got it done and reinstalled all the ej20tt loom into the outback.
Whoever chopped this halfcut up, cut the wires that go to the doors, instead of finding the plug that would have been just a few more cm's down from where they cut it. I had to chop the door plugs off the original loom and splice them in.
Also discovered the keyless entry unit is completely different between the outback and gtb. So now i have a key which works the ignition, and another one that's button opens the doors. Will have to look into reprogramming my old key to the new control unit.
Also discovered that the a-piller harness that goes to the roof lights is different, and also the brake light switch is different for some reason.
The only other incompatibility between the 2 looms is the abs sensors for the front wheels are a different plug, had to cut the original plugs off the loom and splice into the gtb loom.

I hooked up the battery and everything lights up ok, although there are 2 problems: 1 is the air from the fan doesn't come out the vents any more. I can hear the little servo motors working behind the dash, not sure why the air isn't coming out. Must have done something wrong when I put the dash back in.
The second problem is that when I switch the key off, everything remains on still. I can take the key out of the ignition, but everything is still lit up as if the it was still switched on. I discovered I can turn it off by switching on the foglights... Weird. Too tired to solve this one now, that can wait. All the engine plugs are still disconnected, hopefully its just missing an earth somewhere on the engine.

Bolted up the vacuum tank and remote filter for the auto trans.

Spliced the old door plugs into the gtb loom cos they were missing. There are quite a extra wires left over, no idea what they would be foor, but everything seems to work ok

gtb loom installed

heat and air-con bits installed

dash all back together

tmh983 · Post by **tmh983** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:48 pm

Day 4 Progress:

Very frustratingly slow progress today. Started by swapping over the turbo cross member, steering rack, alloy control arms and sway bar, which was pretty straight forward.
Then came time to put the tt motor into the car. What a prick of a thing that was. There is only about 5mm clearance to the chassis rails to the exhaust maniflold, so it is difficult to 'wriggle' the engine around a bit to help it find its way home. I ruined the 02 sensors cos it snagged on something and the end snapped off. Also the angle of the engine must be perfect for it to fit through the gap between the chassis and cross memeber, ended up taking the cross member off and resting it on the floor to get it through.
But the biggest headache was the dump pipe off the primary turbo. The outback has 2 big brackets which bolt to the firewall and the other side bolts to the chassis rails. The dump pipe wouldn't clear this bracket. The gtb halfcut doesn't have these brackets. I wonder why they went to all the trouble to give the outback extra strenght? Anyway, out came the engine again.
I drilled out the spot welds on the heat/noise sheilds around the dump pipe and ripped the sheilds off. Then a little creative angle grinding removed another couple of mm of metal from the seam in the exhaust pipe. Bolted it back together and swung the engine back in again. With much swearing and yelling we eventually managed to get the motor onto its mounts, with about 3-4mm clearance between the dump pipe and the bracket. Success.
Hopefully tomorrow i'll get to here this thing fire!

Shows half the factory heat and noise sheild, and where I ground away some of the pipe seam.

Hard to get a photo of, this is the gap between the dump pipe and the body

Motor in its new home. I was wondering if they old japanese owner of this car would ever imagine its engine would end up in an outback in australia?

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:35 pm

Nice work and not sure why you have no air but my 100 Series L/C leaves everything on (lights wise) until I've got out of the car and pushed the 'lock' button on my remote.

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 11:18 pm

The fan output I *think* will resolve once the engine is running - as well as the servos, it uses vacuum as well.

You have made very good progress to date. Faster than most!

Good luck on the test fire

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:10 am

tmh983 wrote:

Good work so far but I think you should paint your woodgrain bits. Mine are getting done in Gloss Black very soon.

tmh983 · Post by **tmh983** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:34 pm

Day 5: no photos today, but most importantly, IT RUNS!. Have only taken it for a short drive around the paddock cos the exhaust isn't connected and it has bits of trim hanging off everywhere.
Have a few issues: the power windows are not working, the indicators don't work anymore, the transmission ecu is throwing codes, the shifter has a little solenoid that doesn't allow it out of the park position and I can't get the airbox to close properly.

The fan still blow air in the right places... Bugger, i guess the dash is coming out again

The weird not turning off behaviour seems to have fixed itself now the engine loom is connected.

Also, the gtb ecu doesn't directly control a relay for the fuel pump, instead it drives a pump speed controller which i'm guessing throttles the fuel pump back at idle and cruise? Anyway, i don't have this controller (it is normally mounted somewhere in the boot) and the fuel pump continously runs when the key is on. Normally the ecu would switch the pump off after a couple of seconds if the engine isn't running. Not a huge issue, but a bit of a safety problem if i crash it...

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:59 pm

the power windows are not working

Have you got the white circuit breaker that is attached to the trim under the steering column?

the indicators don't work anymore,

Have you got the hazard switch plugged in?

the transmission ecu is throwing codes

What codes? The transmission is the sportshift type and needs the associated loom and TCU to work. Did the half-cut have VDC?

the shifter has a little solenoid that doesn't allow it out of the park position

You need to have your foot on the brake to move the lever from park. There is an electronic interlock

tmh983 · Post by **tmh983** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:40 pm

i've fixed the power windows, u are right it was just that little plug under the dash.
The indicators i have got working by putting 12V onto the blinker unit, for some reason there is no power coming from the hazard switch supply. Not too sure why, maybe i forgot to plug it in.
Havn't had time to figure out what codes the transmission ecu is throwing. I used all the gtb loom and transmission ecu and it all seems to be functioning perfectly. The power light is blinking all the time, which i'm assuming means it has an error code stored.
For some reason the shifter solenoid doesn't engage when I put my foot on the brake, will have to look into that one.

Took it for a good drive today, still a bit paranoid that i've got the wrong diff ratio in it. But it was driving ok at 100kph, so it must be right, there is no way the wrong diff ratio would drive ok at that speed???

khanacross · Post by **khanacross** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:39 pm

pm sent

tmh983 · Post by **tmh983** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:06 pm

still haven't had time to install the new walbro pump, so i'm not keen to push it too hard on the factory outback pump.
I'm getting about 0.7-0.8bar of boost by about 2200rpm which is awesome, and throttle response for the single turbo guys to envy! I haven't really pushed it past 4000rpm so can't really comment on the top end power of it yet.
While its not really an explosive ball of fire in acceleration, its more of a big fat lazy thrust that comes on when you give the throttle a push. If I use the sportshift to hold it in 2nd gear through roundabouts, it punches out the other side with impressive speed. If you just leave it in drive, you have to wait for the auto kick back before you get any useful acceleration. Although in the time it takes the box to downshift, it is up to full boost ready to go when it finally does find a gear.
It almost feels (and I know people will hate me for saying this) like a big aussie six. Just a big lazy torque curve from low in the rev range. I guess the difference is, when a big aussie six tops out at 5000rpm, the ej20 has just warmed up the 2nd turbo ready to go again.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get this fuel pump installed, and then I can see what its really got!
Also tomorrow, i'm going to try and get the error code out of the gearbox ecu and see what its problem is.

Sometimes the idle is not very smooth and it seems to have trouble holding a stable rpm. Its not a big problem, but every other subaru i've been in has had a perfectly smooth and steady idle. Maybe there is a vacuum leak somewhere, or possibly its a side effect of not having a functioning o2 sensor?

bobbyjimmy · Post by **bobbyjimmy** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:32 am

If you still have problems give Al or Miles at AM Auto a call.
http://amauto.com.au/home.html

tmh983 · Post by **tmh983** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:40 pm

managed to fix both the indicators and the heater/air con blower fan all in one hit today. Started pulling the dash off, but didn't need to go to far, cos i discovered that the hazard switch wasn't plugged in, and there was another connector for the heater box unplugged.
Duh... In my rush to get the dash back together I must have overlooked both these plugs. Anyway, at least its an easy fix!