LeoneTurbo

Is it turbo or non-turbo? Non-turbo EJ20 SOHC had the plastic manifold for a while in the mid 90s, turbo with plastic manifolds came in 2004, first on the Legacy TwinScroll Turbo. Those engines are very sensitive to tune and break easily.

The EE series also has five main bearings, I have the factory service manuals for that engine

Nice project! See if you can source a set of wiring diagrams for your car, then you can figure out what signals the transmission ECU is looking for from the engine ECU. If the transmission ECU is only 'asking' for rpm, throttle etc then it won't be a problem matching the OBD1 engine ECU to an OBD2 transmission ECU. On another note: the SVX also has a 4-speed slushbox, why not use the SVX transmission ECU aswell? After all, you have the wiring... Keep us posted!

If you have the time and skills to make a few modifications I would highly recommend using the EJ series 5-speed transmission aswell. You will have to fabricate new transmission crossmembers and extend the prop shaft. It also involves fabricating the shift linkage, possibly you will have to 'make' some space (ie. hammering the transmission tunnel).

My next Frankenmotor I'm going to build is a hybrid build using JDM EJ15 cylinder heads and block (cylinder bore 85 mm) with a Phase I EJ25D crank (stroke 79 mm), displacement 1.795cc. It will be breathed on by either a small TF035 turbo (used on EUDM Forester 2L Turbo) or a TD04-13G. Custom made pistons and Pauter small big end rods. This should make for a nice torquey motor. I will be running it on a JDM Version IV STI ECU, which on a 2L makes 255 lb-ft and 280 HP. On my hybrid motor I hope to get 200 lb-ft and 210 HP at 5500 rpm.

I doubt anybody has a (factory) closed deck 2.5L, I was referring to the USDM Legacy 2.2 Turbo block I've got quite a lot of experience building hybrid Subaru engines, mainly turbo though. I've tried all sorts of combinations and generally 2.5L heads do not work on smaller bore blocks as the diameter of the combustion chamber in the head is bigger than the diameter of the cylinder bore.

I just finished the assembly of the adjustable top mounts for my EA81 wagon. I bought a set of new strut tops off Yahoo! Japan Auction, had new plates cut for my EA81 and this is the result:

Agreed, except the oversize. Factory max is 0.5 mm but generally 1.0 mm is considered the maximum oversize on stock liners. Re-sleeving introduces all sorts of problems as the block is not designed to take sleeves, it is not stable enough to support the bottom of the sleeve which causes head gasket issues sooner or later (but probably within a few thousand kilometers - if the sleeving has been done well). Stay away from sleeves unless you are willing to spend the time, money and effort re-sleeving and re-decking the block time after time. Why don't you try to source a set of EJ22 block halves and fit the pistons you have? The EJ18 crank is the same anyway. In the long run it will be much cheaper and easier.

Any EJ head bolts up to any EJ block. But make sure that when using a closed deck block, the coolant patterns of block, gasket and head match. Also check if the head combustion chamber matches the cylinder bore of the block you intend to use if you plan to run a head of a bigger engine on a smaller block, extreme example EJ25 block and EJ18 head. Always use the head gasket that matches the block (due to cylinder bore).

Won't work, liner thickness is only 4 mm so you really can't bore more than 2 mm in total.

Stock EJ22 has better torque over the entire rev range, compared to stock EJ18. I bet you 100 bucks on any dyno

As a bad coil (I used coil on plug) ruined my built EJ22 DOHC engine, I swapped in a USDM (yes, out of a 2-door 1.8 AT that was imported last year to be fitted with a proper engine) EJ18. I blocked all EGR stuff on the heads, gasket matched the EJ18 intake ports and I'm running a EJ20/EJ22 SOHC intake manifold. I also fitted Delta torque cams for the occasion. It's running on 1994-1996 Legacy wiring loom, currently with a JDM 2.0 DOHC ECU which allows it to spin to 7.2k rpm. The cams do cause the EJ18 to have a lopey idle, I guess the EJ22 with those cams will idle more smoothly. It really comes on cam at 4000 and pulls hard to redline.

Thanks for those pics, especially the EA81 DOHC ones If you are bored please take off the valve covers and take more pics, I'm curious what valve train they used (rockers or direct followers).

The EJ22 SOHC heads have bigger ports and bigger valves than the EJ18 SOHC heads. The EJ18 heads make more torque in the low to mid rev range but obviously won't flow enough to make more power in the upper rev range. However, you can only use EJ22 SOHC heads on engines with a bore of 90 or bigger, ie. EJ20 (92 mm) or up as the combustion chamber has a diameter of 90 mm in the heads. That is a bad match on the small EJ18 bore of only 87.9 mm.

I guess that's the engine in Jackie's CBR ride?

If you source an engine you 'only' need a matching wiring loom (uncut, best) including ECU and all sensors to make the engine run.

I searched for the catalogue but it is nowhere to be found, must have been lost during our two moves over the last few years I'll see if I can get hold of one in Japan though.

I will see if I can find it and scan it at work next week, sure no problem. But that red Estremo (there also was a white version, same car just different color) clearly shows the H6 turbo engine (2L, 250 PS) with air to water intercoolers above each head.

Great stuff... But that 4-cyl engine is not the Estremo's, that was a H6! I have the original concept catalogue

I'm in the process of doing the same with my now 82 Wagoin (the 84 was too rotten). When going with the EJ trans (I am) you need to fit the EJ outer cups of the DOJ tranmission side to fit the EA81 axles to the trans. You will also have to lengthen the propshaft, I've been told by about 80 mm but I haven't had the chance to measure yet, the 4-sp EA is still in the car, I hope to remove it by the end of the month.

In general terms, you have a good point. However, the main bearings of the EJ engines are big (60 mm) and the crank is very short, so there really isn't a lot of movement. FHI designed the EJ series engine to rev - hard. It just failed to design in in such a way that the rod bearings would last - blame the conrod design. Using STI/Eagle/Carrillo etc on a high revving EJ series and you'll be fine - reliably.

So true. I currently run a 2.2 open deck block with custom made high compression (11:1) forged pistons and a set of those early DOHC heads. The engine runs very, very strong above 5k rpm right to the ECU limiter at 7.2k rpm. There isn't a lot of torque in the midrange though. I'm running ARP rod bolts for better bearing life/stability and a small 7mm oil pump to prevent oil foaming at higher rpm's. I've built the engine early this year and so far it's just cracked 50k kilometers. It is starting to use quite a bit of oil though, about a litre every 1.5k kilometer. But then again, it's been running most of it's life at around 5k rpm in fifth gear on the German Autobahn...

And for god's sake if you really want to run a 2.5L block, get the deck resurfaced unless you want to replace head gaskets every 10k miles or so.

I just received the CrossBred kit for the 5-lug swap on my EA81.