Hello im trying to help a friend he has a 89 subaru wagon and it blew the motor and he wants more power is there a bigger motor that will fit the same tranny or maybe sugestions or mods he is kinda a poor kid so not a ton of funds but id like all the advice possie thank

EJ18 wont give him that much power, and its essentially the same amount of work as the EJ22. You will still need the adapter plate and custom wiring...

How hard is it i mean i am pretty good with cars but not wiring how bad is it to do

There are many threads on the EJ swap. Several can be found in the Subaru Retrofitting section.

 

Personally, I will pay for my EJ swap because I dont think I could handle an EJ swap... Nor make it as clean/stock as I would like it to be.

Mechanically it's a decently easy swap. You just have to fabricate an exhaust. Wiring is a bit more complicated. Numbchux on here will sell a full labeled harness ready to run standalone. You just hook it up to your fuel pump, gauges, etc.

 

If I was doing an ej swap, I'd be tempted to do an ej18 over the 2.2. If you want a 2.2 in the future you just swap it in. Direct swap. But the ej18 has 25hp more than the stock engine, much more reliable, and you'll still get great gas mileage.

Yeah, the EJ18 has a small jump in power, but an increase in reliability and efficiency. So, he won't have to work on the engine as often and get better mileage to boot!

Yeah, the EJ18 has a small jump in power, but an increase in reliability and efficiency. So, he won't have to work on the engine as often and get better mileage to boot!

 

I do agree, he will get a small bump in power, but for what its worth, if Im going through all the effort to do an EJ swap, Im gonna go with the EJ22 AT LEAST, if not the 22T

when you jump into the ej22t ( which is hard to come by) it gets a lil more complicated and costly because of the turbo.....you hafta have something to run the fuel/air ratio correctly or you'll definitly blow the engine.....not to mention it would be more fabrication involved..... sounds like a ton of fun to me though!!!!

 

i have the ej22 ( 95 ) and it is a great engine.... it does good and is quick enough ( for now) hehehe it gets ok gas mileage.... bout 25 highway if your not in the throttle too much.....im happy with it....if your gunna do the swap at least get some displacement out of it lol..... ej18 just seems too small for me.

Or you could swap the other way and get an ea81.No timing belts, and reliable as hell. Mine runs awesome and gets well over 30mpg on the highway.

yea but i think he wants a lil more oomph outta the car too.....theres no replacement for displacement..... just stay clear of the ej25's.... total headache

yea but i think he wants a lil more oomph outta the car too.....theres no replacement for displacement..... just stay clear of the ej25's.... total headache

 

That's not entirely true, actually. Well cared for they do pretty well.

Mine made it just fine till 240k miles when someone overheated it to the point of seizure... twice. 240k on any engine is pretty good. And it would have kept going.