Engine help

Rowdy555 · Post by **Rowdy555** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:48 am

Hi all,

I've got the urge to put an EJ20 motor in my 92 Brumby, have searched the net with little success as to cost and requirements to complete this project. I am by no means a mechanic so I understand a lot of the cost would be in labour.

Apart from engine what else changes, gearbox? driveline? etc Need to find out so I can work this project within my means. Just after a ballpark figure.

Cheers

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 10:38 am

Didin't look very hard did you ? There is a whole forum section on here for precisely that topic : forumdisplay.php?f=74

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 6:05 pm

With this his 3rd post he may not even be aware of the search function and how it works. About the only thing you won't find in here is how much

subybrumby · Post by **subybrumby** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 9:38 pm

Very tidy Rowdy and great colour...where bouts are you???

Rowdy555 · Post by **Rowdy555** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:37 pm

G'day mate I'm in the Townsville area

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:57 pm

What style mags are you using there? They look a bit different from what I can see in that photo!

As for the cost of the conversion there are many, many factors that influence this! The cost of the parts can vary greatly, the maintenance you put into the engine can vary from just a water pump and timing belt kit to a full rebuild if you want to go that way.
Wiring - cost of it initially plus the cost to have it cut down and possibly installed as well.

The more you can DIY the better it will be for you.

As for your gearbox question you can use an adaptor plate to mate the stock 4 speed to the EJ or upgrade to the EA82 5speed box with a little more work or even better, drop the EJ AWD box in there with probably as much work as the EA 5 speed box... maybe a little more. Huge benefits with the EJ AWD - stock EJ clutch, no adaptor plate - it makes getting new parts easier!

There's a lot to think about here. Also - buy the parts separately or buy a donor car? Older EJ or newer EJ series engine??

Cheers

Bennie

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:21 pm

About 2000-3000 depending if you do the work yourself and the price of the doner parts. For example you can buy just a ej20 with or without the wiring loom for about $500-700. But about a month ago i've bought a complete 99 forester for $400 from the auction as it was completely destroyed in an accident. I replaced a pulley and a timing belt as it had suffered a severe front hit and everything was tested and ran fine. This gave me, the engine with all accessories and AWD dual range gearbox for $400. BUT, auction cars can be tricky as you can only test them when you get home and have the risk of buying a blown engine, gearbox etc.

Also the price depends on what gearbox you want to run. Its cheaper to stay with your EA81 4 speed brumby gearbox as you only need to mod an Adaptor plate and the Clutch but its only 4speed which is shit.

You could go with a EA82 L series 4wd dual range gearbox. Thats a bit more money as you need to buy the box and you have some mods to do, mainly Adaptor plate, Clutch, gear sticks, bolt holes for the L series tail shaft as you won't be able to use you brumby tail shaft and modded gearbox mounts. But thats only a 2wd box that when off-road you engage the 4wd. This box and the brumby box have a much better lower range than all the subaru boxes.

Or You could use a EJ AWD dual range gearbox. This eliminates the need of an adapter plate and no need to mod the clutch as you can use a std heavy duty clutches and you now have the much better AWD system and low range. but its a much bigger box, it would need a liftkit to fit with ease, you will need to make a new gearbox cross member support, gear leakages, custom tail-shaft, tail-shaft bolt holes and thats it. However these boxes don't have a center diff lock like the EA boxes. Also the forester gearbox has the better low range compared to the outback or liberty EJ AWD dual range boxes.

And finally you can make the ultimate EJ AWD box with either a mechanical or clutch plated center diff lock, with front LSD diff or not, similar to what El freddo, Venom, RSR555 and myself are building, planning to build or have built:)

Finally, If you really want to do a conversion, id aim for the bigger better parts as i know a few people, including me that have gone with EJ20 or 22 that wish they had went with the EJ25 or a EJ20turbo.
Your car being a brumby, fitting a EJ20 turbo or a Ej25 quad cam would mean you would have to cut/mod the chassis rail for the quad cam to fit.
I personally would go with a EJ25 single cam and a AWD dual range gearbox from a forester.

If you want more but still an economical engine than maybe stay with the EJ20 N/A and buy a forester as a doner car. Also with the doner car you can sell what ever you don't use and this way cut down the cost of the build.

Anyway, hope this helps
Guy

MTB92 · Post by **MTB92** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:21 am

if you stick with an ea gearbox, dont listen to guy on the bigger motor thing

. driving in the wet with an ej25 or higher in fwd would be terrifying! an ej22 is bad enough.
would make an awesome machine to have one matched up to an ej gearbox though.

but the rest of it he is pretty much spot on.
and yeh, it costs a lot. i found the biggest cost was on my time, not money. but well worth it for the learning experience!

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:44 am

MTB92 wrote:if you stick with an ea gearbox, dont listen to guy on the bigger motor thing . driving in the wet with an ej25 or higher in fwd would be terrifying! an ej22 is bad enough.

I suggested only to use a EJ25 with an AWD box..., never said to use a Ej25 and a Fwd brumby or L box

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:38 am

so guyph the ball park figure of $2000-$3000 would that include labour seeming he doesnt want to do most of the labour himself?

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 10:25 am

na thats if he does it himself. Labour alone would cost 2000+ i recon if you would pay someone to do it.

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:17 am

ok just thought i would clear that up. unless your willing to do it yourself or have some willing friends i would just stick with the EA or buy a brumby thats already converted- although this isnt very common

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:53 pm

guyph_01 wrote:And finally you can make the ultimate EJ AWD box with either a mechanical or clutch plated center diff lock, with front LSD diff or not, similar to what El freddo, Venom, RSR555 and myself are building, planning to build or have built:)

There's no centre diff lock available for the EJ gearbox - you have to get the L series AWD box for this! And on the L series AWD box there's no centre LSD - it's all open until that dog clutch is engaged to the lock position!

Thought it a good idea to have this corrected before it got out of hand

And my L AWD gearbox has finally gone in to be built - but lets not hijack this thread about it

I'll also add that you don't have to go for the "bigger better" engine - set up on what you want and stick with it. These fellas have got the "I wants" of a bigger engine - most likely due to a heavy right foot that's not giving the seat of your pants driving feel that they're really after. My thoughts anyway

Cheers

Bennie

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 6:49 pm

Rowdy555 · Post by **Rowdy555** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:50 pm

Much appreciated for the idea on costs. There appears to be many ways to skin this cat but I've certainly got a better idea than I did a week ago. Possibly more cost effective to purchase another Brumby complete with conversion. Have searched but cannot find an answer to this one: Is the indicator lever suppose to reset after turning or do you have to manually reset it, Like to know if mine is broken or not as I always have to turn them off after turning a corner.

Niterida: Thanks, did search, no joy on costs.

El Freddo: The rims are standard sunraysia

Regards

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:29 am

Rowdy555 wrote:Possibly more cost effective to purchase another Brumby complete with conversion.

Every couple of months they show up on fleabay. I'm sure there's still one on there for 14G that's got the complete WRX drive train in it... And I think it's engineered - all the hard work's done apart from shelling out the hard earned coin for it

Rowdy555 wrote:Have searched but cannot find an answer to this one: Is the indicator lever suppose to reset after turning or do you have to manually reset it, Like to know if mine is broken or not as I always have to turn them off after turning a corner.

From memory it's usually one of the two plastic pins on the back of the steering wheel that breaks off. Sunnie the Brumby is self cancelling on the right hand indicator but is manual cancelling on the left hand indicator, I'm sure this is the reason why.

I've not looked into replacing that pin - yet!

Cheers

Bennie

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 1:40 pm

on the MY /Brumby it is a white nylon plastic lump on the steering column that usually gets worn out or through. I should see if available new - have been manual cancelling for nearly fourteen years with one, my auto cancelling one gets cancelled manually out of habit