legacycentral bbs

I finally got my Loyal together and the first place I took it was a wheeling party. I beat the crap out of it and got hung up on some rocks and had to winch myself out but I didn't break anything. After that I hopped on the highway and did 80mph all the way home ( sounds slow but remember this is a Loyal with 30'' tires and no sway bars) God I missed having a turbo , and just having the extra power of the 2.2L is awsome. I never used to be able to use 5th except for down hill on the highway, now I can use it crewsing back roads, but the car is a little to fast for it's own good. I keep having to remind myself that just becouse it's faster it still dosn't stop or turn any better.

I have been taking it easy on the boost runs untill I get something to monitor A/F or EGT, but so far it has good power and no audiable pinging. With the wastgate run right to the manifold pressure it makes about 5psi most of the time and will rise up to 7psi if I really get on it. I might stick an intercooler under there after all.

Anyway thats what i've been up to, my next prodject is to lift my 90 Legacy and install my spare LSD in it so I can make it up my drive way this winter with 3ft. of snow on it.

Rock on! Limited slips all the way around!

Yeah at $3K a peice!

Hay the Loyal has a center locker and a rear LSD that might as well be locked.

Cool, so this was an originally naturally-aspirated EJ22 that you turbocharged? Are you using stock engine management?

Yeah it's a stock N/A ECU and it seems to like boost, but I need to get some monitors on it to find out how much it's likeing it.

Do you have the part number of the ECU?

Why?

It's out of a 92 FWD manual wagon.

If you can get me the part number I may be able to help you read the OBD parameters from the ECU with a few dollars' worth of parts and a laptop.

Sounds cool but I bet it requires the read monitor plugs that I eliminated from the wireing harness Less wireing the better.

It would require two wires, yes: pins 7 and 8 on the 16-pin connector. It might be worth it. Carbureted engines with points ignitions had much less wiring than the EJ22, but that wasn't better.

HA, Ha good point on the carburated thing, God I hate carburaters Anyway so your talking about just splicing in to some wires to monitor the goings on? I have a Snap-on Vantage that I can tap in to it with, I just have to find a little more time to do it.


Hey, wile were on the subject, What do you suppose would be the rason for it throwing on a CEL on a long down hill coast in 4th gear. There is this one hill I roll down every morning and as I coast down useing 4th gear for engine braking the CEL comes on at the bottom of the hill and when I push in the clutch and it idles really low for a second then goes back to normal and the light goes out, thats the only time I have anything wired happen with it.

Way cool!!! I wouldn't mind finding an older Subie (a RX perhaps) and swap an EJ22T in it... But you went so far as to turbo an N/A EJ22!! Wow!

I'll bet the ECU is detecting something boost-related it doesn't expect going down the hill...

I figured the higher compression would be usefull for the low speed wheeling the vehicle is going to be used for, and it does seem to build boost alot sooner than it did in my Legacy turbo.

I'm thinking the CEL might have some thing to do with the purge canister or something.

Oh, if you already have a scantool then you should probably just use that. I'm just working on some homebrew hardware.

You didn't even leave the read and test connectors? You really should hook those up and find out what the CEL code is. No point in guessing.

I left the test connectors, just not the leads that plug in to the special Subaru only scan tool. I suppose I could check the memory but it's like a 30step prosses to get anything out of that computer unless the light is just staying on.

30 step process? All you have to do is connect the read memory connectors (the black ones) and turn the ignition on without starting the engine.

To use the Subaru scantool you really only need four of the wires going to the yellow 9-pin connector (and 2 of them are +12v and ground). The interface I'm devising actually only requires you to connect the computer directly to two of the ECU pins and to ground.

Oh yeah...I knew that... I was just checking to see if you were paying attention. It's erasing the codes that is a 30 step process. The important thing is thats it's stupid fast now and maybe after I get a few other things wraped up on it I'll start playing with making more power

Hehe... It seems like erasing is easier on some cars than others. On mine I just have to put it in read mode and test mode and then drive for a minute or two.

You really should find out what the CEL is about, though... 'specially if you want to start playing with more power.

I think I just found something. The speed sensor is sometimes called a reed switch? Guess what I don't have hooked up yet. The only other thing thats not hooked up is the neutral swtich. What the hell does the ECU need a neutral signal for? I'm suprized the CEL isn't on all the time with no speed sensor signal. I'll have to get that hooked up.

Yes, I believe the speed sensor is based on rotating magnet and a reed switch. It cycles on and off every meter or so. The ECU must just think the car's not moving.

I don't know all the details of why the ECU needs the neutral switch signal, but I do know that on manual transmission cars the ECU manipulates ignition timing at idle when in gear but not when in neutral. So it does something... My guess is that the missing neutral switch is causing your check engine light.

What transmission are you using?

It's got an EA82 full time duel range with diff lock 5mt in it. I guess I could hook up the neutral switch but It seems to run good with out it. Maybe it's the whole reason it does run so good under boost?

I don't think missing the neutral switch is a big deal... I don't think it's the reason you're doing well under boost; I think that's just because the ECU is adapting. What kind of fuel are you putting in it?

The primary reason (in my opinion) to hook up the neutral switch is just so that the CEL goes away. That way the light remains a useful tool to tell you when your engine management is having trouble.

I'm running 94 octane in it,and yeah that probly helps alot. The CEL isn't on all the time it only comes on for like 1 second after a long decel down a hill but I will probly hook it up anyway just to have everything going.

Good ol' Sunoco stations. :) Yeah, 94 is probably helping you out a lot.