keltiks EZ30 manual 5 speed swap thread

[keltik]

most of the time it is more cost efficient for you to sell the automatic car and buy a manual one than it is to do the swap.
Problem is they didnt make the H6 in manual form untill 2004...and my pockets definately cant stretch to a B-Spec BP/BL

Well people i finally decided to do this! I wanna get it done and proven before the ClubSUB track day in march so last weekend when a cheap manual BG came up for sale...i bought it.

So i am now also the proud owner of a 1994 BG twin turbo wagon. The only thing its missing is the engine, but thats ok as the twin turbos are devil spawn and it makes ripping the transmission out so much easier.
A big problem is that the car is 700kms away from where i live. So im going to be driving down to pick up all the parts i need this weekend.

Not an ideal situation but hey it was el cheapo. About $100 USD for the whole car and another 100 USD for the gas to get there and back.

So heres the official thread where im going to post my progress with a few photos. Might even turn it into a little write up.
Ive done a manual swap before on a BC single turbo and the car was awesome afterwards. It also didnt break! Which i like and inspires confidence.

Lessons learned the hard way from last time;
Transmissions are heavy - Bend at the knees when lifting them
Bell housing castings are sharp - avoid rubbing fingers down the edges of them
Gearbox oil smell REALLY bad and NEVER comes out - dont roll around in it or allow it to spill over the carpet in the trunk of your good car

Anyways, 2 more days to go untill i have to make the drive from hell. Im taking a good mate with me so labor is sorted. Ive got the car full of tools and most of my plans are finalised.

Parts i need to get:
Clutch slave/master cylinders
Clutch pedal assembly
Stop/GO pedal assembly
Transmission with all mounts
Center driveshaft and carrier
Shifter and the little bush that bolts to the body behind the shifter that i missed last time
Front seats (for a friends BG)
Wheels for mounting some cheap track tires
Any other parts that might be of value to recoup costs.

My concerns at this stage are;
Finding time to do the swap before i move in 3 weeks
Making all of these parts fit the EZ motor and BH shell
Buying a clutch kit - just over $400 is the best price ive found so far
Getting it all nice and reliable
Modifying the H6 ECU to make it think the car is a manual trans
Fitting all this crap in the back of my BH

Any comments, id be glad to hear them.

[Huffer]

can you just rent a trailer and haul the whole parts car?
Be a lot easier?

[keltik]

well a trailer would cost me another $100....and i dont have easy access to a car with a hitch. Also my flatmate will murder me if i come home with another car lol

[Okin DaVanh]

Does it have a Momo steering wheel? If so, can I call dibs? :grin:

[rougeben83]

Search on rs25.com and NASIOC for guys that converted their auto's to manuals for the ECU issue; I think you need to just ground some of the ECU pins where it used to be connected to the auto tranny control module.

Don't forget to get the right center console, leather boot and shift knob (last two, you may be able to reuse from the donor car).

Also get the matching rear diff for the manual transmission.

But physically, the transmission should drop straight into your body; subaru transmission cases haven't changed at all for the past 18 years or so :lol:

[keltik]

ive converted an auto BC before and did the ECU pin grounding thing.

Finally got a service manual for the H6 so thats going to help.

Im just going to modify my dash cluster and center console rather than pay silly money for these items off a BH.

Have chatted to a mate with a manual EZ30R in his BG so i know the flywheel/clutch combo ive chosen will bolt up well.

Progress has been delayed one week as i cant get down to the capitol this weekend to pick up the donor parts

[Huffer]

Getting the bits from Wellington huh? If I still lived there I would chuck it all in the back of my wagon for you and bring it to Aucks. :)

[keltik]

Just realised theres a bloody TCU in the way of the clutch pedal!!!! Great..now im gonna have to move that somewhere else too.

Also realised theres no way in hell the clutch lines from a BG will fit into a BH so am scouring the land to find a wrecked manual BH to borrow the pipes out of.

Hoping the master cylinder fits

[keltik]

Ok updatey time!

7th Feb - drove 6 hours to Wellington, stripped all the parts i needed off the wagon. Drove 6 hours home

8th Feb - dropped the auto out of the GT30. Discovered a VERY irritating piece of design with the EZ motor. You either need to have wrists of steel and an awesome ratchet to undo the torque converter bolts...OR you take the intake manifold and fuel rails off. I chose the latter.

The new box fitted nicely. Working to a deadline i was running on adrenaline for a quite a while. Started work at 7am and blasted through to 1am next morning.

9th Feb - Put the exhaust back on - only to discover it didnt fit very nicely around the manual trans crossmember. Will look at welding up a new pipe for it in the near future, but for now just used a bit of hammer-time and got it on there.
Bled the clutch, discovered BH brake pedals are very different to BG so just left the auto pedal in place.
Re-mounted the TCU up next to the steering column so it can keep the ABS and ECU happy.

Took the car for a drive and it has a few small issues i need to resolve.

1. Engine stalls coming back down to idle at stop signs. Idle is also too low. I suspect...well actually i KNOW that this is down to the neutral switch. The ECU thinks the car is in neutral full time so doesnt regulate the idle correctly.

2. Fueling isnt quite right. I think this is because of the VSS not being hooked up yet. Shes running a little bit rich just as i punch the throttle. Also acting a little shitty on gearshifts. Not a nice clean change. Theres a sort of hesitation on gearshifts - like what you used to get on older cars with the ignition timing set wrong. I think this is also connected to the lack of the vehicle speed signal.

My old GT had all the same issues after its conversion untill id got the wiring sorted out. So im not too stressed.

3. Clutch pedal is just about touching the brake pedal. Will do some creative welding to make up a new brake pedal. I could of course just buy a manual pedal from a BH but that costs more than fabricating one.

4. Need to make up a leather cover for the shifter

Im very happy with the swap so far. The car sounds bitchin' and is a pleasure to drive. My only small concern is the final drive ratio. Its a 4.111 and that seems a little too low for this motor. I can sit in 4th and 5th gears almost everywhere. Might look into a different gearbox with different ratios in the future.

[keltik]

Well today i hooked up a relay for the neutral switch - so that bits working correctly now.

Drove 600kms with her and discovered a couple small issues i need to look into but overall the car proved reliable and made it all the way to my new home-town without any parts falling off.

Next issue im going to address is the speed sensor.
The one in the box works with the system now that i figured out how to wire it up but it seems to indicate double the speed im actually doing. So shall be trying a different newer model speed sensor to see if that fixes things.

Still loving the sound of that 6 purring its way around town at 1400rpm

[keltik]

Speed sensor fixed. I still have a check engine light for some unknown issue but its not affecting the cars performance.

Im consistently getting 600kms from a tank on open road driving and anywhere between 400km and 550km around town.

Solved the speedo issue by fitting a correction kit that effectively halves the speedo signal. Can be bought from Jaycar electronics and assembled in about an hour or 2 if your slow and trying to watch tv at the same time. It allows you to adjust your speedo in 2% increments from +99% to -99%. Works well once its been set up correctly.

Ive made up a shifter boot which looks nice and the whole system now looks factory. Will post up a pic at some point.

Ran the car on a dyno to make sure the manual conversion hadnt done anything strange to the engine management and it kinda hasnt. The car ran exactly the same power figures as last year (124kw at the wheels) and had a nice smooth torque curve EXCEPT for a strange dip at 3700rpm. You can hear a change in the exhaust note at this RPM so the tuner suspects the dip is from either the variable intake adjusting itself or this model actually has AVCS.

Driveability is still awesome. The car is a pleasure around town and will happily bounce into the rev limiter in 5th gear on the track. The gearbox is whining a little (thanks to Mr Stupid here driving 400k's with no oil in it) so when it eventually goes bang im going to try n find a new transmission with a longer ratio set in it. The clutch also doesnt bite as hard as i'd like, so i will be swapping in a new pressure plate when the gearbox eventually goes. It does bite hard enough to destroy the rear diff bushes so thats next on my list of crap to fix.

Thanks for reading
Keltik out

[keltik]

Went to mr dealership man and borrowed a select monitor for 5 mins. I want one - they are seriously cool!!! :shock:

My check engine light is triggered by 2 codes;
TCU unit communication error
Torque cut signal error

TCU communication is a waveform signal and with the torque cut hooked up all kinds of weird things happen.
So not a lot i can do really. Will be taking the CEL bulb out as its useless and annoying with these constant codes. Will re-route the CEL wire to a bulb next to the ECU - so its there in case i ever need it.
Transmission specialists have confirmed its the crown and pinion in my box getting whiny and i shouldnt worry for a long while as long as i keep oil in it :lol:

Im now considering my swap finished! Theres a few housekeeping items id like to do such as new trans/engine/diff mounts - but other than that its all go. Im a happy camper....well i hate camping but you know what i mean

[keltik]

Couple of pics for good measure; From last weekend gravel autoX

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/08/2009_0726July0029-1.jpg
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/08/2009_0726July0026-1.jpg

[97Scoobyl]

Thats awesome!

[daleyswanson]

sweet write up

[csweston]

Engine stalls coming back down to idle at stop signs. Idle is also too low. I suspect...well actually i KNOW that this is down to the neutral switch. The ECU thinks the car is in neutral full time so doesn't regulate the idle correctly.

I know this thread is a year old, sorry to bump it, but hopefully this can be answered. I'm curious as to how this was solved?

[kalins1]

Did you have to swap the wiring harness or were the wiring harnesses from the 2.5 and the 3.0 the same?

[chuckthefuk]

This is bad ass. EZ30 with information!

-Chuck

[httrdd]

Did you have to swap the wiring harness or were the wiring harnesses from the 2.5 and the 3.0 the same?

I am guessing he just ran the bulkhead harness as a standalone. That is what I did with my H6 swap.

[kalins1]

So, you basically ran a second or piggyback ECU to manage the engine?

[kalins1]

I'm weighing an H6 swap for my 03 Baja vs. a supercharger on the current 2.5.

[Yamazaki]

Did you have to swap the wiring harness or were the wiring harnesses from the 2.5 and the 3.0 the same?
He has a GT30. It's a 3.0L to begin with. His swap was an A/T to M/T.

[httrdd]

So, you basically ran a second or piggyback ECU to manage the engine?

The LGT ecu is on my shelf. Lol. I am running the ecu from the Svx (eg33 engine swap) as a engine management control and the rest is running off of fuses and relays. I have all the options in my car except for ecu-cooling fan control (using temperature solinoid) and a/c is deleted. A couple of wires are spliced into the ecu from the LGT harness. Car is still in project stage, but drives me to work daily.

[Triple T]

Good work and info to boot!!
Would like to know if an H6 - 3.0R and ecu will be a near plug and play into a 2000 Legacy GT? Providing the 3.0 is also from 2000???

The neutral start switch splices into the start circuit.
Not sure about cross member similarities.
replace front springs with Outback H6 sedan parts if needed From 2002 model
New flywheel. will 2.5l one work?
Stage 2 clutch.

Also, contrary to all the threads that I have read (and there are a few very good ones out there)
http://www.rs25.com/forums/f128/t84339-official-h6-swap-thread.html
I want to keep my ABS and A/C.

Have not found a thread yet on the same year to year swaps as to what is compatible.
Any ideas, thoughts or direction will be appreciated.

[httrdd]

Harnesses are not similar. They would have to be merged.

[keltik]

Hey guys, i know its been a while but ive learned a lot and want to update this thread with some more information for anyone else who might look at converting a 6cylinder early EZ30 to manual. Be it in an Outback or a GT30 or even when swapping the motor into another car - a lot of this information will be useful for you so pay attention!

Issues you will have and how i fixed them:

1) BHE and BEE chassis has a different brake pedal mounting to any other Subaru. The standard manual trans Subaru pedal will fit if you use a couple of crush tubes and longer bolts for the top mounts. When you get it in there youll see what i mean.

2) Weird gearshift response is caused by the ignition timing control in the stock ECU. The ECU expects to receive a load and shift timing signal from the trans control unit. Therefore - when you make a shift using a manual trans, the ECU is 'caught off gaurd' and you get a little bit of hesitation. This is impossible to avoid so just put up with it.

3) Check Engine Light. This is also unavoidable. You will get a code for 'TCU communication error'. This is because the ECU expects to receive constant data from the trans TCU and if it doesnt get data it likes (because you have a manual trans in there) you will get a code.

4) Rich spike at 3700rpm. This is the exact point when the variable geometry intake manifold switches from low rpm mode to high rpm mode. During this switch, the volumetric efficiency of the engine changes fairly quickly so the factory have programmed a rich spike in to avoid any detonation during this changeover. There is no way to remove this when running the factory ECU.

If anyone has any questions about the EZ30 motors, please feel free to flick me a message, Im happy to help. Now i'll go update my garage thread - have a read, its enlightening.

[Huffer]

^^ so basically, the best way to drop an EZ30 into a MT vehicle is to go with a standalone ECU that will not require any inputs from a TCU to function.

[chuckthefuk]

Very good info.. now I have some thoughts.

3) Does the EZ30 ECU have EEPROM capabilities.. I.E. flashable... a skilled tuner can work out the com-link issues..
4) Is not possible to modify the intake manifold to remove the variable geometry system and just use straight runners?

[keltik]

Very good info.. now I have some thoughts.

3) Does the EZ30 ECU have EEPROM capabilities.. I.E. flashable... a skilled tuner can work out the com-link issues..
4) Is not possible to modify the intake manifold to remove the variable geometry system and just use straight runners?
3) Yes it does, the drawback is that because nobody fettles with these engines much - there are no definitions files available. Also, the factory ECU relies on the A/F sensors, so unless yours are good you might as well go aftermarket.

4) Yup you could actually fit an intake manifold from a 2004+ EZ30R....but then the factory ECU would still be duming in extra fuel. Plus the variable geometry intake really does make for a better torque curve. There are huge differences on the dyno with it disabled. With my Link and a bit of fine tuning, i have a perfectly flat torque curve during the changeover and good AFR's.

[httrdd]

Interesting.

[CORVAIRWILD]

Can I join the fun and watch this thread???

[chuckthefuk]

of course :D click the "subscribe topic" button top left above the 1st post on the page

[keltik]

Will be replacing transmission number 5 this weekend. This one was a dud from day one and is still under warranty. Will take some pics of the process if people would like that?

[chuckthefuk]

Of course! More specificity the bell housing / studs.

[keltik]

Of course! More specificity the bell housing / studs.
Identical to any and all EJ/EL/EG engines. Flywheel bolt spacing is also identical. Starter motor is the same. Will get pics for ya anyways.

[CORVAIRWILD]

Good, I've subbed this thread! I'm in the USA/Canada border Rrrrust belt. We normally get a fair amount of snow, except this winter we've hardly had any, and it's been warm enuff to rain!
In any case, all cars older than 10 years old are RRrusted junk, so I travel to the western US and buy essentially rust free classic cars and 4x4 Chevy Suburbans, all with the (Detroit) Diesel engine. I also have a '93 Hyundai Excel hatchback I use as a spare car, and I will be replacing it with a '98 Subby Outback 5 speed I've bought locally. Once I go get it, it's 400Km's away, I'll see if I like it, and find one out west without any rust.
I've been told to go with the H6, so this's why I'm following this forum, as I would like to convert whatever H6 I buy to 5 speed