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1981 DL Hatch 4WD EJ22 Swap

Sooooo I found this car when I was looking for a pressure washer on the Facebook marketplace right when that feature was added for $200 over a year ago, the things that sold me on it was not the fact that the motor would barely stay running and smoked like no other car I've ever seen and a brand new Weber... It was the mounds of spare parts it came with, spare FWD tranny, EA71 block, complete spare EA81, Boxes of brand new parts, wheel bearings, balljoints, brakes, etc..

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It sat in front of my house for a long time I started it every now and then and played with the carb alot which didn't do alot, still smoked, still wouldn't stay running..

So I found a donor for $175 with a bad tranny, tried to part out what I wasnt gunna use, sold absolutely nothing

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Stripped anything and just about everything out of the 89 Legacy to swap into the DL.
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Well since the legacy had 265k on the odometer, I'm guessing the motor was original, judging by the symptoms of blown headgaskets and oil leaking out of every seal. I pulled the heads, got them resurfaced and ordered a gasket kit and timing belt kit, still need a few more odds and ends
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Motor reassembly will happen soon
 
Got 1 head on yesterday, gunna get the other on soon, after the intake is back on I'm gunna pressure wash the long block and the engine bay of the DL.

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Got your work cut out for you there but the looks of it!

(Would be good if you could resize your pics)
 
Since photobucket went tits up for image hosting it's kinda hard to find a good site for that, that is available through. Every other site they are on are not this big
 
Nice one mate!

A good friend of mine has a hatch over here in Oz. EJ22 swapped too.

We'd love to get a donor body over here to help out with some rust that's popping up but that's near impossible to do on a small budget!

While you've got your intake manifold off it's a good idea to replace the O rings in the crossover pipe. And while that's off it's a good idea to have a plate tig welded in, drilled out and tapped to fit the factory EA81 temp sensor. This is something I wished I'd done with mine when I did the HGs.

Cheers

Bennie
 
Thanks for the advice on the coolant temp sensor, I'm just gunna trim the dash and shove the legacy cluster in it. The dash is cracked to hell and that will just simplify the whole process. I'll probably do those o-rings though. I don't really wanna find out those leak later. I'm doing just about every other seal so why skip those.
 
And both the heads are on, might do the water pump and timing belt today too. We'll see how motivated I get, definitely gunna put valve covers on though..

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So, I'm gunna be pulling this EA81 out soon, it's basically just sitting in the engine bay, everything is unbolted. Planned on using the flywheel for the swap, but I'm not sure on what clutch kit to get...

From what I've been reading the Xt6/ea82 kits are basically the same nowadays. But will they bolt On and work correctly to a ea81 flywheel and in the ea81 d/R 4spd?
 
Well pulled the EA81 today, pressure washed the engine bay real good and found out that thing had a brand new luk clutch attached to it, so now I don't have to buy one.

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Some minor stuff today. Removed the water pump and cleaned the gasket surface, the paper gasket was torn in the box so waiting on one from amazon.. crossover pipe o-rings, new coolant hoses from the block to intake, intake bolted on.

Just need a rear main, rear block seals and the flywheel resurfaced and I think I'll be good to go.

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Got the EA flywheel resurfaced, and hammered the EJ pilot bearing out a little, the EA and EJ pilot bearings are the same diameter so used the EJs as a guide and then painted where the EA flywheel holes need to be messaged.

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Pressurewashed the bejesus out of the of the long block, busted out the timing belt, timing covers, test fitted the adapter plate and changed the rear main.

Just need to finish the flywheel, open up the crossmember holes, and get the rear block plates off to reseal them. Slap the flywheel and clutch assembly, drop the motor in then start wiring, get a fuel pump, and change fuel lines. Just a small list lol

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Picked up these 15x8s with 4" backspacing today for $50 was gunna get a carbite bit to get the flywheel going but the hardware store was closed already...

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Hey Andy, good score on the rims!

When you post pics, pls change the size setting so we can look at the photos more easily. You'll find it on the host site, usually when you hit the share button.
 
Hey Andy, good score on the rims!

When you post pics, pls change the size setting so we can look at the photos more easily. You'll find it on the host site, usually when you hit the share button.

What's a good hosting site since photobucket pooped on everyone I've been looking for one, been using imgbox which is easy to use but for some reason pics show up huge on this site, they're fine on any other site.. But there is literally no customisation with that host
 
The second one is always better than the first attempt. But the holes are open and should work just fine for the motor mounts.

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