EJ20 donor version - diagnostics and BUILD

[slowcoach]

HI all-
im about a month away from having a conversion to an ej20, and have a prospective donor lined up. Its a '99 forester with good documentation and is well vouched for by the breaker (HDC subaru), who used to own it. its 115k and will have the idlers, water pump, belt, seals and intake gaskets changed (not sure on whether to do head gaskets). my only concern is that its not an OBD system, which i was quite looking forward to since im 'a bit nerd' like that. its subaru's flashing light system. it has the ECU bolted straight onto the head, instead of by the donor footwell, and this forester model is a bit of an oddity in this sense.

think its anything to worry about? given that this donor engine is in good shape , would you go for a later OBD2 ej20 if you had a choice? i dont want to spend all the money on loom and fitting, if its so bespoke to this model year of subaru..
cheers!

[syncroandy]

My 2.5 is a 2000MY and also pre-OBDII. However it does have a ISO9141 ('K-line') wire and a 'normal' OBD port, and there are several quite good Subaru-specific bits of software that can be used for diagnostics, via a cheap Ebay USB cable. The only significant drawback is they won't work with generic OBDII displays such as the Scangauge.

[slowcoach]

Thanks for the reply andy- I think I'll go with it after talking to rjes today. That ECU and management was used for 4 years with the forester, so should be plenty of heads and blocks put there if things go south. I'll just have to live without the live diagnostics

[syncroandy]

Did you establish if the long-block is the same as the 2l Legacy of the same vintage or is it in some way specific the Forester ? Do you know the full engine code ? The Legacy one is EJ201NJDAE.

PS. You can get 'live' diags if it has an OBD port using 'ECUexplorer' or 'FreeSSM'.

PPS. Hmpf ! I've been through the '99 forester wiring diagram. It would appear to have an 'OBD' port (aka J1962) designation B40. ISO 9141 K-line should be on pin 10 (Subaru pin 10 that is, they label them back to front, VW follow the ISO numbering and K-line is pin 7). Annoyingly, the turbo ECU has a connection to pin 10, but the n/a ECU does not ! It just has the SSM1 Tx / Rx lines, on pins 4 & 5. Sorry to get your hopes up. If you can seek out an SSM1 hardware interface, the above software *should* work.

[slowcoach]

Did you establish if the long-block is the same as the 2l Legacy of the same vintage or is it in some way specific the Forester ? Do you know the full engine code ? The Legacy one is EJ201NJDAE.

PS. You can get 'live' diags if it has an OBD port using 'ECUexplorer' or 'FreeSSM'.

PPS. Hmpf ! I've been through the '99 forester wiring diagram. It would appear to have an 'OBD' port (aka J1962) designation B40. ISO 9141 K-line should be on pin 10 (Subaru pin 10 that is, they label them back to front, VW follow the ISO numbering and K-line is pin 7). Annoyingly, the turbo ECU has a connection to pin 10, but the n/a ECU does not ! It just has the SSM1 Tx / Rx lines, on pins 4 & 5. Sorry to get your hopes up. If you can seek out an SSM1 hardware interface, the above software *should* work.

hi andy- i can find out the exact engine code hopefully, i imagine its tied into the VIN number of the car? ill have to re-read your reply a few times i think with some research till in understand it! k-line / diagnostic terms etc are all new to me. all very interesting though

[slowcoach]

So i know its an EJ202 now, which i believe is good news, a fairly simple but refined revision. the ej20 sounds like a really strong engine, the blocks having been designed to facilitate the turbo versions with monster HP. Im collecting it tomorrow, and will then start to dismantle and clean it up, and send the loom off to RJES. my DH 1.9 injection will be up for sale in some form or other, together with the speedshop exhaust (minus back box).
fingers crossed eh

[slowcoach]

Well its in the van! Sort of

[Dazco]

[printmonkey]

Well its in the van! Sort of

That looks exactly like my van at the moment. Good luck with your conversion.


Sent from my iPhone while I should be working!

[slowcoach]

Thanks monkey. Thinks are gearing up now. I've spent 3 days unwrapping the loom and cleaning up the engine. Hit a snag when I snapped the head off a coolant manifold bolt, but its not as bad as I first thought. Bit of a spanner in the process though :-\





Yikes! 11kg of wiring and relays. Rjes is sorting it out from here thank god.



All cleaned up. I also took off and painted some of the ancillary brackets and harmonic balancer pulley. I also and gave the throttle body a good cleanup. While access is easy.



The block with the coolant manifold still attached. The thorn in my side.

Still, its all back together and is headed to the garage soon. I'm v impressed by the engine so far though, some beautiful engineering here!

Onwards and upwards...

[slowcoach]

It's up and running! More due to Andrew at campershack than myself update to follow..

[slowcoach]

Just completed another long ish trip up to Edinburgh from West Yorkshire and back via the north east. The vans a real blast to drive, it feels like being back in the game with the rest of the traffic on the roads. It'll cruise with no problems at 70, and still leap forward with a squeeze of the peddle. High revving rolling in 3rd at say 35-50 creates a really eager and fun response to the throttle, plus it also sounds great I've not got a rev counter yet. I dont like loud exhausts, but a good rumble is nice.

cant think what a 2.5 would be like, the 2.0 is very nice. Admittedly I very rarely drive a modern car and havn't owned one myself for 10 years or so, so im perhaps a little swayed by the improvement here. In contrast to the 1.9 WBX though its a revelation.

Props to campershack, it's ran flawlessly, no leaks no squeaks. Andrew's done a really neat job on it all, and i cant fault the attention to detail

I've not got the lambda connected yet so I expect better mpg once that's done. Currently getting 26. 2mpg over 550 miles, driving with spirit couldn't be happier with how it goes.

I need to look at the throttle cable as it's stiffer than it should be, but no biggie. Ive a knock sensor error code, which i believe is raleted to running rich from having no lambda.

Here's the heath Robinson temp exhaust, lashed on with lots of jubilee clips. a ratty look to the posterior



Next on the list is an exhaust from Dai Williams and at some point a sump. Good stuff!

[Dazco]

Nice to hear your up and running , love the exhaust

[slowcoach]

Nice to hear your up and running , love the exhaust

I don't! The can has popped off a few times now, I got 3 rivets through last night though so should keep it attached

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

[ajsimmo]

Just to be clear, I understood the brief to be something along the lines of "can you mackle me up an exhaust that will get me to the nearest custom exhaust place?", that being about 30 miles I thought the old bike can would just about do the job. It was never intended to go to f$%&ing Edinburgh !!!

But anyway, I'm really glad to hear it's living up to all other expectations. And thanks for the compliments! We enjoyed doing the job. It was our first Subaruin, and all credit to Richard Jones for providing the excellent conversion kit. It really is pretty much plug and play if you use his bellhousing kit, engine mount bar and wiring looms!

Now if only there was an off the shelf exhaust solution...