Nad_1990245

I have found an ej22t for sale locally for $350. A friend of mine has it. It's in a 1994 legacy that is whipped to hell. The motor has 222k on it and it runs well. Is this a good candidate? Any engine I buy will be getting a full rebuild anyway, so miles don't really concern me as long as the bores look ok. It certainly is cheap enough, but I am wondering if I should be looking for a later (post 1995) engine with an eye to the future as far as having the OBDII ports available to be able to troubleshoot and read codes.

Bratman, I applaud you for coming forth with this info! On the other hand, I curse you because I now have a TON more reading to do . I'm not new to subarus, but anything made past 1990 is new to me lol. I used to do alot of work on ea81 and ea82 engines, having owned a GL hatch and a GL-10 wagon in the past. My father was an agricultural diesel mechanic and as such, alot of farmers used to drive subarus as they liked the 4WD and having a roof to go fix fences with. Because of this, I got to be known as "that kid who's good with these crackerboxes and their weird engines" lol. Anyway, your suggestions look fantastic and should be a perfect fit for the GL hatchback's "personality". I'm going to keep this thread going as I progress and as time goes on, will put build details in here which should make a neat chronological record of this project from conception to finish. So, to that end, feel free to contribute whatever you wish!

Yes, the more I read the more I am leaning towards just using the ej22t as is - the money spent on buying the heads could instead be used to port and polish the 22t heads or just a bunch of dremel bits and just port match everything I was fine with drilling and tapping oil feeds and I already had a plan to cut the flange off of the uppipe and weld it to a custom pipe. The coolant issue would be a little more annoying, but as you mentioned could have been dealt with. All in all, it is alot of extra work/fail points. I do like being different, but not at the expense of longevity/reliability. I don't have the wallet for that . So that's the end of that particular road...off to investigate thicker headgaskets!

I like the idea of the thinner gasket as I believe that that would put me somewhere in the neighborhood of 8:1 versus 7.59:1 (calculations done with data found online plugged in to the static CR calculator found here: http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/compstaticcalc.html

shiny......

Sweet, so the bore "mismatch" seems to be a myth. Bratman, I've come across some other posts you've made on these frankenmotors and they were very enlightening. Do you have knowledge of or an informed opinion about about the cooling passge "problem" with the closed deck ej22t block and the ej25 SOHC heads? Is it nothing to really worry aout so long as the cooling sytem itself is up to par, or is there little room for error? I tried to see how the gasket sits with the ports in relation to the head and the only place I can see in that extremely helpful pic is that upper hole inbetween the cylinders looks a little off, but it may just be the pic. Thanks for that, it was very helpful, all of the reading I had been doing was leading me to say screw it and just run the ej22t as is, but I like to be different when I can

I read that earlier today, it was helpful but still not specific enough to satisfy me Particularly the part about the bore mismatch since we have headgaskets being made for these swaps plus the fact that the car will be turbo-d. My main reason for the 2.5 heads is the lower compression, the superior flow is just a nice bonus. And yeah, I would kill for your hatch but I don't have that money right now. I was going to start looking in earnest next Jan/Feb @ tax time...if you still have it then (highly doubt it!)....then maybe! PS - that car...is it a 4 or 5sp D/R?

Hello all, Disclaimer: This is a benchracing/build list thread for now until I actually get the ea81 hatch that I want to put this beast into. My idea is for a modern drivetrain for an all-weather sporty hatchback with an admittedly heavy emphasis on sport. I've been doing alot of reading and I haven't seen any threads pertaining to these specific questions I have about pulling the trigger on starting to collect parts for this. I'm very interested in building an ej22t "reverse" frankenmotor with 2.5 SOHC heads. My idea is to gain the strength of the closed deck block as well as combining this with the lower compression, better flowing roller rocker SOHC heads for the ability to run some real boost! This would be paired with a WRX TD0516G turbo as I feel this would give both quick,relatively lag-free spool and a nice boost curve with this engine. I would like, if all possible, to stick with the SOHC heads so as not to have to mod the framerails on the EA81 car. While DOHC is not completely out of the question, I would rather try to spend the effort to use the SOHC heads rather than cutting up the car, if possible, but if DOHC ends up being the "answer", then I would do that. Questions: 1. I have read that the SOHC heads coolant passages do not match the closed decks at all and should not be used. I have also read that they match well enough to be used. Has anyone out there tried this or definitively know an answer to this? 2. In the event that the 2.5 heads are a no-go, could a thicker headgasket be installed on the 2.2 heads to lower compression instead? 3. Which intake should be used? 2.2 or 2.5? Thanks in advance for any answers!