'97 EJ22 gutless after head swap

delemonte · Post by **delemonte** » Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:04 pm

G'day,

So I'm a newbie seeking help. I have just helped a mate replace the passenger side head on his 1997 Liberty EJ22 SOHC 16 valve. Due to availability, the donor head actually came off a 1999 Liberty EJ22 which turned out to have solid lifters so we swapped the HLA assembly over from the old head and put the solid lifters to the side. Now, since starting her up again, she's very gutless below 2300rpm. At about 2300rpm, it almost clicks and becomes a lot better - but I suspect still not 100%.

It felt like the valve timing was out and we had just fitted a new timing belt kit at the same time so I have since checked the timing belt twice now and am quite certain that I have it fitted correctly but the engine is still gutless.

We transferred the HLA system over from the original head but did not change the cams over. Are the '97 and '99 EJ22 cams different? I know that compression was increased but my understanding was that this was done by means of different pistons. I would contact Subaru but they don't want to talk to me unless I have a VIN number which I do have for a 1997 Liberty but not for a 1999 Liberty to compare with.

There are no error codes whatsoever and the engine seems to run very reliably albeit slow. The plugs are brand new as well and have since not changed appearance much but have a very clean and white insulator, clean electrodes, and a small amount of black soot on the outside. There is a slight difference between the two heads and that is that the spark plugs from the passenger side head (the one that was replaced) have a slightly more tan tinge of colour on the insulator.

I did do a compression test and the passenger side cylinders read ~20PSI higher than the driver side but all cylinders were within spec (yes, I realise it's best for cylinders to not differ from each other so much).

Otherwise, is there something else that I should be looking at? I think I would probably see similar behaviour if the mixture was off. Unfortunately I do not have a spare MAF or O2 sensor to swap out. I did a test with the O2 sensor using a MAP gas torch and multimeter and it appeared to pass the test with flying colours. Does anyone know approximately what voltage their MAF reads when their EJ22 is at idle so I could compare?

Any help is appreciated. If I have left the wrong cam in the car, that's fine so long as I know what the problem is. At this stage, it's just frustrating not knowing and also not having an OBD2 port to interrogate sensors with.

Thanks!
Glen

PS. Not trying to complicate it all further, but the entire engine came out during the process which opens up a world of opportunities for us to have messed up so any other ideas that might explain the sudden gutless behaviour are welcome. I haven't leak tested the intake but I cannot see any disconnected/forgotten hoses anywhere!

555Ron · Post by **555Ron** » Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:13 pm

I think it will be the cam. I am not 100% but I believe the lifter profiles are different on a camshaft for solid vs HLA. You may also run into trouble with oil galleries not being correct to pump oil to the HLA's in a head designed for solids. My knowledge of EJ's is very limited. Someone with more knowledge will chip in but that is my 2 cents for now...

delemonte · Post by **delemonte** » Wed Aug 07, 2013 6:56 pm

Thanks for your fast reply!

Yeah, I've been quite scared for a while with regard to the oil feed as it has quite a tick on that one side even though we set the lash adjustment when we put the head on.

If someone can confirm or deny the cam and/or oil feed issues by looking up part numbers or something, that'd be great!

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Thu Aug 08, 2013 10:31 pm

555Ron wrote:the lifter profiles are different on a camshaft for solid vs HLA.

I believe this to be true too.

As for the oil galleries, I hadn't thought about this but it could also be true. That wouldn't be too hard to compare I wouldn't think, just need the gear off the head to compare with the old one.

My other concern would be that the combustion chamber could be different on this later model head. Best practise is to replace both heads from the same source so that both sides of the engine have the same specs up top that should result in the same compression results in general.

Also re check your timing on the cam belt - but I think you've got it right as it runs. The correct way to time these is to line up the little | mark on the cam gear, NOT the arrow on the cam gear - this catches up so many out it's not funny. I don't even know why those arrows are there in the first place...

Sounds like you've almost got it sorted!

Cheers

Bennie

delemonte · Post by **delemonte** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:09 pm

Ok, so I took the valve cover off and swapped in the rocker assembly that came with the new head and cam and power has definitely picked up but it's still not 100%. I have confirmed the oil feeds are all the same as well. The next plan is to source another stock '97 cam (or two replacement aftermarket cams) as the original cam was traded in with the original head..

I wonder if EJ18 cams would fit and give a little extra lift..

Thanks for your help guys!

nncoolg · Post by **nncoolg** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:43 pm

Does anyone know what engine codes these 2 different (~97 & ~99) EJ22's are and if either has siamesed exhaust ports?