tricked919

...sorry, thinking about too many things at once. Im pretty sure i went with NGK ...almost positive they arent Bosch ...and i know they arent platinum.

OK - good to know on plugs. That could cause it? ...yeah, "intake" meaning plastic. I'm using the EJ22 manifold that came on motor - the plastic is from the EJ25

When I did the swap, I R&R'd plugs, wires, coil, belts, and also a TPS because of an immediate TPS code. I put all new vac lines as well - every inch. I'm getting about 24mpg on a long road trip - and 20-21 in town. We have an '03 Impreza OB that gets about the same. (Not NEARLY as rich) Yes, its run rich since the first crank. I absolutely notice its way worse at cold start. The rough idle was actually a bigger concern that I linked with the "rich" condition - maybe? Since the swap, the only code I ever got was an EGR, but that was because the little metal tube from the TB to the EGR modulator clogged. I never have replaced the upstream sensor ...AND I'm also running the EJ25 intake with MAF. I have the EJ22 intake, but its in awful condition. Could that be it?? ...I just would have sworn that this level of "richness" would have thrown a code at some point. There are mornings that this thing smells like its spitting raw fuel out the pipe. I was just curious if there was anything I could do to manually fool it into leaning.

so its been WELL over a year and about 15K since I replaced my toasted EJ25 with a 96 EJ22. I've been CEL free with no shortcuts on anything, but the motor has been running rich ...and we get a bit of a rough idle when warm. It also feels WAY underpowered compared to the EJ25 - that's understandable from it being a weaker motor. Someone recommended finding an EJ22 auto/EGR computer and that would have the proper parameters programmed into it - right now I have an EJ25 ECM running the show. On all the swap homework I did beforehand, nobody aver said anything about grabbing the ECM... Exhaust just smells awful and I don't want an 0420 because of a bad cat if I can help it. Thoughts??

...so... anything I need to be looking for - besides residue along the head/block seam?

absolutely... many have done it (self included). The EJ22 is a pretty straight forward plug-n-play. Do a search - there's a bunch of caveats. Be sure that the EJ22 you can get has the Y-pipe - that's imperative. Here's another proposition... I have a pair of heads from a 98 EJ25 that are in excellent condition that will serve as another solution.

I got baptized by fire last summer when I bought a 98 OBW that had an impressive list of recent repairs (incl. new HG's). Long story short, despite the quality of repair, toasted main bearings snuck up about 500 miles after I got the keys. Rather than get another EJ25, I opted for the 2.2 swap. I did it myself and low and behold, I fell in love with the car and its new simplicity and the reliability reputation of the EJ22 ...its since been all over the country and the car is doing awesome. SO... I'm in the market for another Subie to add to the family. I'm thinking a bit newer this go around. For some reason, I'm leaning towards an '02-ish Forester or Impreza (non-WRX). I'm curious if any of the overheat issues ...blown head gaskets... are much of a problem outside of the infamous early Outbacks? Thanks ...and I still have a pair of 98 EJ22 heads in AWESOME condition.

Hey guys ... long time! I've now put close to 5K on my '98 OBW since swapping the 2.5 with a '96 2.2 I used a 96 motor with EGR. The EGR is definitely toast but the car has been running great. I've had a CEL on since the swap regarding this. I'm also now getting a code for TPS. Two questions... 1.) will running with a bad EGR hurt anything? 2.) I'm assuming that the TPS is in the throttle body. Can I swap the TB off my old EJ25 with the EJ22 TB? They look identical. Is there another easier fix? The car runs great... mpg is mid 20's. The only issue I notice is that the exhaust smells a little rich. Possibly related to either? All the miles since the swap have been local, so I haven't had the urgency to mess with it. I'm getting ready to put about 2K on it next week and if it needs to be fixed, I will. Thanks guys.

Yeah, I'm tempted to just pull the heads and sell them. Are we talking $50 or $350 ?? I looked all over and there's nobody selling an EJ25 with just a bad bottom end. Most of them have toasted heads, amongst other things. yes they were machined. The guy who put the heads back together is about as good as it gets.

So my EJ25 from my 97 OBW has been sitting in my garage now for over a month since the swap. I swore I was going to tear it down and rebuild it but I don't have time. I'm trying to post it on CL but I have new clue what to ask for it. The motor blew a headgasket at 148K. The repair was done very well (valves shimmed perfectly) and the car drove great. Apparently when the motor overheated it did a number on the main bearings because roughly 1000 miles after the HG repair, the motor started knocking. Before it got too bad, I pulled it and swapped an EJ22 motor in the car. During the swap, there were some parts that I used off this EJ25 that were bad on the 22 (I used an idler pulley, fuel psi regulator, and a couple vacuum lines. For the most part, this is a complete motor that is great for parts or a rebuild. This would be a great motor for someone who needs heads for an EJ25 - the heads are perfect. The motor is probably the cleanest motor out of a 97 car that 's available (only it knocks :-\ ) ...ohhh and I live in western NC ...land of a million subarus. ideas?

I had the absolute exact same problem ...only my knock started about 1000 miles after the headgaskets were done. Apparently the heat got to the mains. I did a EJ22 swap from a 95 lego sedan. I had never pulled a motor in my life, let alone swapped one with a different motor. I can turn a wrench but this was way beyond any task I'd taken on previously. The 22 I found was a mess. I spent a couple hours every night for a week cleaning it and changing all the gaskets, seals and a new timing belt. I also took off a lot of the newer parts I had on my 25. On a friday night I prepped the 25 to come out - on saturday morning I went and rented a hoist and by roughly 1pm I had an EJ22 in my 97 Outback and running great. I had a few minor issues with vacuum lines. There was vac solenoid for the fuel evap system that was on my 25 and not on the 22 and I had to find a way to bypass it. The one word of advice I have.... MAKE SURE YOU GET THE DOWNPIPE!!! The EJ22 head is a single port exhaust. The 25 has a dual-port. I got my EJ22 from a junkyard and I made it crystal clear I needed the Y-downpipe. They told me they couldn't sell it because there was a catalytic converter in it. There is no converter in it - that's BS. So anyway, they pulled the motor the day I was to pick it up and apparently the tech ignored the orders and cut off the pipe because he couldn't break the studs off. They spent a week trying to find me a single port Y-pipe for an EJ22. So make sure the EJ22 you find has a Y-pipe and do whatever you have to do to get it.

I put a billet flywheel and a carbon clutch in my SC'd 350Z and I DEEPLY regret it. It made the car's throttle and rev response as fast as a motorcycle ... with a quick throttle blip, it would wind up to 6K and drop to idle in less than a second. The performance gains were nice ...however they weren't worth the poor drivability and NOISE. I did my homework after and found that its common for these set-ups to cause a lot of chatter. I had a VERY difficult time selling the car because everyone who listened to it idle thought the car needed a valve job or I dropped a coffee can full of beans in the bell-housing. In my case, the clutch and flywheel was hardly more expensive than OEM parts. It was a no-brainer at the time. The car was still INSANELY fast w/o the set-up - I would have rather had it sound good and rev like a normal car. Just my opinion. I think they are really overrated

sooo.... he's got 225+hp going straight to the rear diff? ...I hope he has a shelf of salvaged diffs.

Thanks again guys ...you were correct again. Yesterday afternoon the lifter noise went away !!! The motor still has a heavy piston slap right at cold start, but sounds like a million bucks a second or two after. Once its warm, it runs even better. It has some spontaneous vibrations and rpm flux at idle, but we're talking about a 13yr old car with a 15yr old motor. It has all new plugsm wires and a clean throttle body. If anyone can suggest anything, please do. I'm leaking a little oil from the drain plug, but that was expected. I used the original crush-ring because I planned on changing the oil in a week or so. If keeping a qt of tranny fluid in the motor all the time is OK, I'd like to keep doing that. It doesn't thin out the viscosity too much? I had a CEL come on last night and when we restarted it to head home, it was off. I have a vac line under the manifold that needs to be replaced. I'm going to eventually re-do all of them.

not sure if I'm too late on this... I never thought I'd have anything to add. When I got my EJ22 for my swap a couple weeks ago, the salvage yard accidentally crushed the Y-pipe. Fortunately they found a replacement for me but the plan was to have a pipe made. I took a template of the single-port exhaust gaskets and the cat connector gasket to my local machine shop to have flanges made. They were going to charge me $100 to make 3 flanges out of 3/8 steel and the local muffler shop said that if I provided flanges they would custom bend a header for me for $150 and weld the flanges to it. So for under $300 I could have had a custom header. Unfortunately, the salvage yard found a pipe for me just before they were going to cut me a check for the custom pipe

I'm hoping this doesn't bite me in the arse, but no. The oil pump was one of the only things not leaking and I didn't have the o-ring to go back in if I had yanked it. I decided to leave it alone. Was that a bad call? If its any consolation, I left the t-belt covers off and everything is very easy access in case it needs to be done.

thanks John - is the oil set up I'm using OK?

Yeah, I used castrol 10-40 with a qt of tranny fluid added in. Using a factory Subie filter too.

So the motor went in on Saturday and fired up ...yay!! I didn't have exhaust gaskets (dealer was out) so I used Ultra-Copper. It immediately blew out a tiny hole on the passenger side port. It was making a ticking sound that was consistent with spits of exhaust coming out between the flange and the head. Well, I pulled the Y-pipe, resealed it and let the gasket maker cure for a day. This morning was the first real fire-up and drive. On cold start it piston-slapped really bad. It went away after a second. The motor sounds awesome, but the ticking I heard is clearly valve train tick - the exhaust is sealed perfect. Its pretty loud. I didn't think the EJ-22's had piston slap problems? This is initial knock is almost as bad as the EJ25 I took out. The difference is that this one sounds tight after a second. As for the valve tick ...its pretty bad. What are the easiest things I can do do cure this w/o pulling this $&@&@! motor out again and yanking the head off to do a valve job?

$1800 tells me it needs work. That's a $5000 car if its running right. How many miles? What's the story on the head gaskets? Does it run hot? I thought I was landing a deal on a '97 (same motor) about 2 months ago. I knew these particular Subarus had really bad head gasket issues. I saw lots of post that said if you're looking at one with much more than 100K, make sure it had the head gaskets replaced, along with everything else. Well, mine just had all that stuff and ran AWESOME. Unfortunately, when it ran so hot that it blew the head gaskets, it also did internal bearing damage. About a month later a tap started that quickly became a major knock. Long story short - I just got done putting a new engine from 95 (2.2L) in yesterday I did it myself and I spent $1000. Paying someone else to do it would have been double or triple. So, the moral of the story... In my short time as a Subaru owner, I've learned to never buy a 97-99 2.5 (EJ25) unless you are prepared to do a lot of work to it. Not saying ALL have these problems, but its a very high likelihood. ESPECIALLY if you're getting a loan to buy it as is - that tells me you don't have the cash to put into it.

it should work. I know the Y-pipe flange mates up. I just put a 96 EJ22 with its Y-pipe in my 97 OBW with the 2.5. It mounts up to the 2.5 cat just fine. I'm sure the mid-pipe is no different.

I have the long block hanging on the hoist. I'll be tearing it down this week to get the heads off. I'm thinking I'll sell the heads and keep anything that I can use that might fail on the 22 - there are tons of identical parts. ...as for the shortblock ??? I'm torn. I'd like to think that I'd rebuild it but I know myself better than that. The block might head to salvage. Anybody who wants the heads ...PM me. I have no clue what they're worth. I have a UPS account that yields pretty good rates.

First off thank you, thank you, thank you !!! I owe it to MANY of you. John, thanks for finding my motor!! You and grossgary were my saving grace MANY times. at 3:05pm EST the 22 fired up in my '97 OBW. I have a little exhaust leak. The dealer here is out of gaskets and I couldn't wait. I tried some Ultr-Copper and it failed. Its a left port tiny leak, but its ticking. I'll get some soon. Other than that, the motor sounds great. I put the old EJ25 in front of it so it could see what a real motor sounded like ---you know, humiliation works sometimes Anyway - thanks again guys. Any questions for future swappers ...feel free to pester me. OH ...and the most important thing - NO C.E.L.!!!

I are here. Yes, I am doing an EJ22 swap at this very moment. I own a 97 OBW that I bought from a very good mechanic who bought it with bad HG's to flip it. He did an outstanding job on the heads, and replaced everything under the sun associated with it. He even let us test drive the car for 500 miles to make sure it was OK. Less than a month later a tick came that turned into an AWFUL knock. No doubt we're a week away from throwing a rod. I bought an EJ22 out of a 95 Legacy Sedan (thanks to John). I ended up finding a couple other options, but this seemed like the best (lets hope so). I can tell you that from what I've seen, the EJ22's might be bulletproof but they leak oil like that cluster down in the Gulf. Every seal and gasket on this motor had puked, so I have been spending my nights for the past 10 days burning up cans of carb cleaner and replacing seals and gaskets. I would HIGHLY advise that you just plan on getting a seal kit. The only 2 I did not need were front and rear mains. If your EJ25 is in working order with exception to the head gaskets, you have the benefit of comparing lots of parts and taking what the best of both motors. The tensioner, EGR, fuel psi regulator and a couple other parts on my 25 were in MUCH better shape and they swapped over. On that note, you need to make sure you find a 22 out of an auto car that has EGR. Apparently a handful of 22's in manuals did not have EGR systems. I think they will work, but you will have a CEL and no way around it. And I needed the Y-pipe (single port vs the EJ25 dual port). I do not have the motor in yet (hopefully Sunday) and I am forecasting problems with my vacuum lines. THere's a couple solenoids that my 25 had that are missing on the 22 and will not swap. I'm sure they can be bypassed, but I know my ECU will be looking for them. It'll take some faking out. I'll post what I do. As for the feasibility of this job... I've never pulled a motor in my life - let alone swapped with a different motor and I'm coming a long pretty well. Its a fairly easy job if you know how to use tools and you have a decent selection of 10, 12, and 14mm sockets. The guys on this forum are insanely talented and good at checking in to give advise. I've never waited longer than a night for an answer - and better yet have never been flamed for the MANY dumb questions I have asked. I have been plugged in heavily to the top Jeep and 350Z forums and this blows the doors off anything I've seen as far as technical resources from posters. Good luck!

I've got an EJ25 motor that you could eat off of but has a rod knock. Heads just got re-worked less than 1000 miles ago and are in awesome condition. ...in case anyone is interested to try this out. I've lost my appetite for the 25