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Which rebuild kit for ej22 and estimated cost.


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So It looks like my current engine has a rod knock so I am planning on doing a rebuild. I am rebuilding a ej22 from a 94 that got tboned with 135k on it. It used about 1 quart of oil every fill up. I took the heads off and the cylinder walls still clearly have cross hatch patterns in them so my guess is the motor didn't get broke in properly. So I plan on doing my first rebuild. I assume I just need rings and bearings and seals. I see a bunch of different prices online and I'm not sure whats considered good and what not. Does anyone have a recommendation? I'm on a budget so I'm not wanting any high end set. Also I'm wondering if anyone has a ball park on what it will cost to get the valves done along with valve stem seals and whatever work may need to be done to the crank plus my block will need a hot bath. I have the tools to hone the cylinders myself. Thanks

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This combination - first rebuild. On a budget. EJ22.

 

The only reason to ever rebuild an EJ22 is purely for fun. They fail so little and the cost and labor of a rebuild are both so much higher than a used motor.

 

You'll be so much better off sourcing a known good used one. If you shop around a bit, you can often find one from a dismantler that hasn't been pulled and can hear it run before you buy. A wrecked car is also a good bet as it usually has to drive itself to the accident.

Edited by AdventureSubaru
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I have bought 3 engines from 3 wrecked cars. 1 from a junk yard I couldn't hear running, one from a car I did hear running and one from a car I didn't hear running but did a compression check on before buying (hooking up a big drill to crank bolt) and all 3 engines were junk. All 3 had between 112 and 124k on them. I really don't want to do this for fun but I really can't afford to keep buying crap engines.

Edited by gravitate
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4th times the charm maybe? If you're set on a rebuild, go for it. I've not done one due to time and expense. Only time I've ever gotten a bad EJ22 was when a guy lied to me about one that had jumped timing and trashed the valves. Doom on me for trusting his word.

 

But otherwise bought used motors from 88k-340k and never got a dud. Pick n pull, dismantlers, and a few craigslist buys. One was a complete unknown, sight unseen that the guy had got on an estate sale with a bunch of VW parts. Turned out it was rebuilt. Best $200 motor ever. Been running in my buddies outback for 2 years.

 

You'll pay a little more in freight shipping, but may want to see what members on here have known good motors. Folks who have been around here for a while wont steer you wrong. Most of the time spent on these forums is because we sincerely want to help people keep their Subarus on the road and on a budget.

 

Or if you're going for a rebuild, guys/gals who have done it will chime in somewhere. Speaking of gals - maybe PM Emily with CCR. They've been in the rebuilding business for a while and have a great reputation. If anyone can tell you what's best for rebuilding, she can.

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I have bought 3 engines from 3 wrecked cars. 1 from a junk yard I couldn't hear running, one from a car I did hear running and one from a car I didn't hear running but did a compression check on before buying (hooking up a big drill to crank bolt) and all 3 engines were junk. All 3 had between 112 and 124k on them. I really don't want to do this for fun but I really can't afford to keep buying crap engines.

You still don't know that there is anything wrong with your last one, I think you jumping the gun a bit.

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I found a ring, gasket, and bearing set for 282 shipped. It's Topline Rings and gaskets and I forget the bearing brand something like TCS. Anyone heard of either of those or if they're any good? a valve job would be 175 and an extra 60 if I get my heads resurfaced but I doubt I'll need that. Engine cleaning is 60 and crank polish is 25. So it looks like I can do what needs to be done for around 550 which is better than I thought it would be but thats assuming that Topline is good and I don't need something else. Now I know there is a big debate on whether or not to use OEM head gaskets on 2.5s but I wonder if it matters on the 2.2 seeming as how they aren't as problematic as 2.5s. Any thoughts?

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You still don't know that there is anything wrong with your last one, I think you jumping the gun a bit.

Well I'm pretty sure it's not something good that would make that much of a knocking noise. If its piston slap and it still slaps that bad even after it warms up I doubt I would have that good of compression. I was about to go on a road trip to Arizona yesterday but that noise got me worrying. I wouldn't want to get out there and have it completely fail on me especially since I live in my car, that would extra suck. I figure if I rebuild something I would feel a whole lot better about it.

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Well I'm pretty sure it's not something good that would make that much of a knocking noise. If its piston slap and it still slaps that bad even after it warms up I doubt I would have that good of compression. I was about to go on a road trip to Arizona yesterday but that noise got me worrying. I wouldn't want to get out there and have it completely fail on me especially since I live in my car, that would extra suck. I figure if I rebuild something I would feel a whole lot better about it.

I get that

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The ones you have picked out must of been ran hard, starved for oil, or extremely over heated. The current ej22 block in my ej swapped hatchback has a little under 195 thousand and is running strong. I picked up a whole 92 legacy for $200 for the engine then parted the rest out so i have made money off of it. The crank pulley key was sheared off and it had blown head gaskets otherwise it ran fine in the legacy after replacing the stripped timing belt. I've heard the dnj kits off rock auto are pretty good from some people i have never tried it. I haven't tried it since if i go through the trouble i'm going to build a high performance ej25 block with ej22 heads.

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My 1st engine must have been ran hard cause it used 1 quart per fill up and eventually smoked. The Second one was driven by a 80 year old lady from day one until it got t boned. It is the one I'm rebulding and it still has the crosshatches so it probably just didn't get broke in properly and she lived in the mountains so it was put under immediate hard use, it also used a quart per fill up. The third one was in a front end collision and who knows what happened to it but it has a knock but 180 compression on all cylinders (check out my video in the post "ej22 rod knock or piston slap"). Just seems to be my bad luck I guess.

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Yeah I feel like they must have been over torqued because they were a bitch even with a breaker bar. There was a lot of pressure behind them because everyone made a pssshhh sound and let off some horible smelling gass or something when I finally got them to break loose but I don't know maybe thats normal. But the heads look great. I was about to get a set of bolts online, are the cheaper ones really that bad?

post-26324-0-53494000-1455340629_thumb.jpeg

Edited by gravitate
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The cheaper ones are more prone to breaking.

But I forgot, there is a way you can tell if the bolts are original (if they aren't too rusty) you should be able to see paint marks on the top of the bolt heads. Those are the inspection marks for the factory after they torque the bolts.

If they were the original bolts and broke, I would definitely think someone has been in that engine before.

 

The head bolts on these are pretty tight. A breaker bar is necessary to get them loose, but if they broke its because the threads seized the end of the bolt in the block. That could come from moisture getting in and causing it to rust. That's normally only a problem if the heads are very rusty though.

If the bolt heads are clean I would think someone has had the head off before and galled the threads or overstretched the bolt.

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Well one head was stuck on for a day and after soaking it over night and beating it carefully over and over I finally got it off. Seems that the alignment sleeve got rusted and that got rusted to the bolt. Thats actually what happened on the other side too but unfortunately that broke off  inside the motor. I'm wondering if the gasket leaked and allowed moisture up in there cause otherwise I'm not sure how water would get up in there. I found that I definitely have a bad bearing in that motor though so I'm just gonna trash it and put the heads on my rebuild. 

I'm really quite amazed at how easy it is to rebuild these things now that I've got one split. I'm actually enjoying the process. I just hope I didn't screw up the head somehow beating it so much. I beat on the corners where there is about a half inch of non mating surface.

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So I got my crank back from the machine shop and they said after polishing it that it was well within spec but after putting the halves together and fully torquing everything my plastigauge reading on my all 5 main bearings are at .002. From what I see from what the manual says, that reading means I'm definitely out of spec. The shop said they think I might have the same issue if they grind the crank because if it was already in spec before they grind it. What do you guys think? Is .002 for my mains bad? The Rods are .0015

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