Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:55 pm Post subject: EJ20 Twin Turbo engine electrical system help needed
Hello all,
My first post, been reading all night, as I finally found a site dedicated to engine swaps for VW's.
Thanks to all whom made this possible.
I have a very rare (in the US) VW based kit car called a Sterling (AKA Nova in the UK).
I have been spying the EJ20 Twin Turbos on fleabay for a couple of months now and am ready to jump on one with its tranny included.
The ECU's dont typically come with them, however they dont seem to hard to find, and worst case megasquirt offers what I need so no worry there.
However, given these are JDM motors, for RHD cars, the wiring harness is not possible to get in the states. VWKD offers to modify the loom, but not offer as far as I know whole looms, if I cant provide one.
Now the next problem is wiring schematics.
I have seen plenty of people using and running these engines on Youtube, and forums, but no responses on request for electric schematics, or info.
Any help here?
Lastly, I do have a 1990 legacy wagon with an NA EJ22
(blown head gasket) in it in my back yard.
I do not intend to use the legacy nor the EJ22, so Im wondering, since so many of the 4 cylinder subaru's through even 2005 seemingly have what looks like the exact same wiring harness and connectors etc, could I strip the harness from my USDM legacy, get it down to the engine only items save CEL, and data port, and cut and adapt it to the JDM ECU, or megasquirt ECU? (provided I could get a good ECU pin out for both)
I know I would be short the turbo controller electric bits, but they could be wired into the ECU and added to the harness, right? Or maybe an after market boost controller instead?
Any thoughts, help on this?
The EJ20H, R seem to be the electrical B@st@rd children of the subaru world. At 240 to 280HP, strapping one into a bug pan, would effectively stretch that grin on my face till the corners touched.
Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 778 Location: newmarket
Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:32 am Post subject:
im thinking you picked the worst case scenario .a twin turbo with no loom ,ide back away from my credit card right now if i were you _________________ vwdrc class rep
Im surprised their isnt more support for these motors, given they are so plentiful, cheap, high HP to engine size, etc.
Im about to retire, and so money isnt plentifull, but I have about a good solid 15 to 1700 USD to spend on a motor and trans for my car. If I could only get the ECU and wiring harness for this motor, it would be perfect.
Anything else comparable does a triple back flip out of my price range.
Im not scared of this motors complexity, its just the shear lack of electrical pieces for it. And buying half a car, and having it shipped in from japan isnt an option either.
Are their any companies that make wiring harnesses?
Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 88 Location: The Netherlands
Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:35 pm Post subject:
Have you tried the stand-alone aftermarket ecu's?
I know a Dutch company who sells them and give solid support as well, not just around the corner though
This is their website; http://www.bs-autotune.nl/
They sell DIY kits, so if you're willing to make the effort you can do it yourself depending on the technical skills you have.
Try to make contact and ask their opinion on the matter, who knows...
I'd also check in your country and try to find such companys, if not i'm with Doppelganger. _________________ convertin' a VW T2 t1 '69 15 window "splitty" into a daily driver, to be continued.......
Thank you !
At last some progress. Two weeks of emails and finally 1 person whom has one.
I hope this link you gave me has someone whom can speak or at least type english.
As far as techinical ability. This is my second component car, third car Ive had to totally re-wire, one was completly from scratch (MG midget).
So yeah, its a pain, yes, but not, difficult. Just keep a notebook of your progress, and work one system at a time wire, by wire. Oh yeah, and be patient, and triple check all of your work.
Joined: 06 Sep 2007 Posts: 76 Location: West Aussie
Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:10 am Post subject:
Nice Sterling we used to have one on a '69 chassis(They're called Eureka's here in OZ)....
If you want an aftermarket ecu try http://www.microtechefi.com/, I've used these on heaps of cars, they are a top quality unit. Pretty easy to wire up compared to the stock ej20h ecu too. _________________ The V6 Lowlight. See the full build here - http://osp.metrohosting.info/kombiv6.html
Whilst the EJ20 twin turbo is a great motor, it is a difficult motor to get running nicely, mainly because of the complexity with its sequential twin turbos. Not only do you need the correct ecu and harness, you also need the vacuum canister and the solenoid box from the car so that the operation of the turbos and various valves works correctly.
For this reason, most twin turbos are converted to single turbos or people just purchase single turbo wrx motors instead - far less complexity and frankly, better performance. With the roller bearing turbos these days there is fast spool up combined with top end.
I have all these items for my twin turbo motor and even I am considering just going for a wrx single turbo setup to reduce the headaches.
regards
Todd _________________ Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 apeed to your rear engined car
www.subarugears.com
Yes, Ive heard of people dropping the twins and scrapping all the solenoids etc, and just making it an honest twin turbo. They buy two matched turbos and get rid of all the electrical garbage.
Where I would love to drop a 300HP USDM WRX STI in this car, finanacially it will never be possible to spend 3 to 7 thousand on the motor, and another 3 to 5 on the trans.
I ve had one response thus far confirming they have a complete harness and ECU for 700. So their out there, it just a matter of fiunding one. But Im also aware if I play stubborn and get it, anyway, Ill be doing all my own troubleshooting, as the suabru techs will have no idea what they are looking at here in the states.
Thanks for the compliments, I love the car, I just want her to act as good as she looks.
Most of the engines I have been looking at have the solenoid box included, as its mounted on top of the motor. Ill have to do some more research, I found tons of information, but nothing specific to the H or R models yet, well at least not for those 93 through 96 legacy's.
Too bad your on the other side of the pond, I might think about buying your whole setup if you really have everything.
Now on a side note:
I do have a USDM EJ22 NA from my 60 dollar 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon.
Its a vast improvement over the VW lump. However it blew a head gasket, needs the heads welded, and machined to get rid of the pitting, and be ready for reinstall. Im curious if anyone would know what it would take to get that motor up to specs. If I had 150 to 1700 USD to drop into it minus the cost of a trans of course (about 500).
I wonder how expensive it would be to get the EJ22 up to about 200 or so HP. I could live with that, provided I could do it for about a grand.
The EJ22 is a closed deck model so its stronger and I hear preferred to the open deck design.
Any thoughts? Ive worked in rebuild shops on heavy construction equipment, with large companies that large budgets, AND that was 20+ years ago. So I am familiar with the process, its just been a long time.
Hey Yaughn,
Regarding the EJ22, you would have to bump up the compression real high, run high octane gas and some big cams to get to 200hp from an ej22. The n/a EJ25 runs around 175hp on pump gas and that has 300cc's more.
Closed deck and open deck really only makes a difference when pumping a lot of boost through these motors - doesn't really make a difference as an n/a.
You could probably achieve your power goal with the ej22 by fixing the heads and fitting standard comp pistons like 9.0 or 9.5 to 1. Put a low to medium boost turbo setup on it (easy and cheap) and you would easy have 200hp at around 6 to 8 psi boost.
That's my 2c. _________________ Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 apeed to your rear engined car
www.subarugears.com
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we used to have one on a '69 chassis(They're called Eureka's here in OZ)....
