99 liberty off-road capabilities

raynman1989

Forum Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2015
Messages
31
Location
Australia
Car Year
1990
Car Model
L series
Transmission
Manual
So I found a nice 99 liberty with I believe an ej20tt or something like that, its a 2.0l twin turbo from a legacy, it's also got all the running gear from the legacy as well and I was just curious of they are any good good off road or not? I realize they dont compare to a real 4x4. Would it be worth getring a 2" lift with bigger tyres?
 
DON't do it.
the TT is an evil piece of garbage, and most conversions are done poorly.

Buy a GT/ XT Forester or WRX wagon if you want boost and offroad
 
Well that idea got thrown out the window haha might have to look into a forester xt or gt.
 
a 99 Liberty with a H6 + Auto from a wrecked Gen3 outback transplanted would be awesome though...!
 
Robbks said:
DON't do it.
the TT is an evil piece of garbage, and most conversions are done poorly.

Buy a GT/ XT Forester or WRX wagon if you want boost and offroad
Click to expand...

speak for yourself.

I did a TT conversion on my dual range Gen3 outback and love it.

The conversion is straightforward - as long as the whole front loom was swapped, everything is OEM. No crazy loom splices, and no low reliability conversion hacks.

That being said, I wouldn't be using a stock lib TT as a base for a 4x4 machine.
 
How did you find the TT's handled in low range? Did you manage to tune out any issues?(e.g. valley of death as i mentioned?)
 
ALMOSTunseen said:
How did you find the TT's handled in low range? Did you manage to tune out any issues?(e.g. valley of death as i mentioned?)
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I haven't done much crawling around in low since the conversion.. but I can't say I ever rev'd or planted it much in low range anyway, so I'd expect I'd stay in the primary turbo range ( < ~4500rpm). There's a whole heap more torque from about 1500rpm upwards than I ever had with the ej25.

I reckon the real test would be in sand - which I haven't much experience in.

VOD is noticeable, but I find only really an issue when you go through it with lots of throttle, then backing off to partial throttle opening around the changeover point. eg: upchange into the VOD at partial throttle, or back off and coast back down into it. Its more about driving around it than anything else. I'm still to get around to playing with the ECV to see if I can reduce it a little.

Around town, I'm rarely into the secondary turbo. There's more than enough torque with the primary to have any need to venture above 3000 or so.

The greatest benefit is on the open road when loaded up with people and gear - it is now a comfortable high speed cruiser, when it really used to struggle with any load. I did a long trip around NSW (Mildura, Mungo, Broken Hill, Mutawinjti) soon after the swap loaded up with the kids and gear, and it was night and day compared to the old engine.

Overall, I'm very happy with it.

DSC_0579.jpg
 
Mine was a JDM Legacy GT, Auto.
Lots of mods to help it breathe on both the intake and exhaust sides,
ECU tweaks to lessen the VoD and the VTD auto was an excellent box,

With the Torque converter operation you essentially had a 7 speed auto.

But apart from having very good flow in the >5000rpm range,
a single turbo with say a VF35 or even a TD04 was/ is torquier in the low and medium rpm ranges. without the hassle of driving around the VoD
I had a GT forester with 4.44 gearing and TD04 and it was a very torquey and quick car.

The idea of the TT is good, but a poorly and overly complicated designed intake and exhaust setup really hinders them compared to a simple, single turbo.
Especially now with twin-scroll turbo's, AVCS and even the Variable Geometry Turbo's found on the Boxer Diesel
 
Robbks said:
The idea of the TT is good, but a poorly and overly complicated designed intake and exhaust setup really hinders them compared to a simple, single turbo.
Especially now with twin-scroll turbo's, AVCS and even the Variable Geometry Turbo's found on the Boxer Diesel
Click to expand...

I agree completely. Turbo tech has moved a long way in the last ten years.

The system is also hampered by the layout of the boxer; the wrong cylinders are paired for each turbo in twin mode and the exhaust manifold is just a bunch of random lengths and can't easily be tuned.

I opted for the TT swap into my outback mainly due to the simplicity of the conversion. Everything just bolted in from the JDM front cut, including wiring harness. There was absolutely zero hassles with it all.

A swap to a single turbo (WRX, foz) engine would have required loom splicing - either mucking about with the spaghetti myself, or > $1k to get someone else to do it.
 
Leaving aside the engine, Libs are limited offroad by their long overhangs and low front lip. Having said that, one of the most capable Subies on the forum is a Lib with Outback springs, 2" lift kit, H6 conversion & brilliant driveline :lildevil:
 
I've been looking into a tt engine myself stateside, as they are rather inexpensive. $600 US for the mechanicals. I can then replace the tt's with something more reliable, perhaps a variable geometry turbo if I get really brave in the tuning, lol.
 
no need for VGT wizardry
a 2.0 with TD05 is a well worn path to success,
ample power, good spooling characteristics not too fast or too slow
 
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