I picked up a project a while back - 1998 Impreza OBS with a rod knock. I found a guy on craigslist that sold me what he assured me was a good Ej22 from a 98 Legacy. I did the remove and install on the motor and when I did the timing belt, timing was off. Crossed my fingers and reset the timing but no dice. Turns over with a ka-chug that tells me things are not right. So it seems I got taken by this guy for a few hundred dollars and the time of swapping the motor.

 

The simple solution would be to take the good heads from the original motor and the short block from the motor I just put in there to make a runner. Looks like there are two headgasket sets for the model year 98. One for 06/30/98 and earlier and the other for after 07/01/98 ( A month earlier for legacies 05/31/98 and 06/01/98)

 

I can see the physical differences in the gaskets. I'll split the block and see what I've got this weekend but if both motors are not identical, do I follow the pattern of the heads, the block or am I going to be cutting gaskets/doing something else.

 

hadn't seen this before so I'm hoping someone has done it that can give me the answer.

Late 98 was the switch to phase 2 head design for the 99 model year.

 

You probably have phase 1 heads if its a 98 model year, so will need the early gasket.

 

Bent valves are a good bet. Not hard to fix but if you have good heads its an easy swap and you can fix the heads later and sell them.

Thanks. It's what I suspected. As i looked over it the later ones were MLS gaskets. So these would both be earlier. Glad that it stayed simple.

Its actually a moving target. As subaru rectifies Hg issues, they update and superceed previous ones. 

Mostly glad that i could figure out which gaskets to order and nothing further. I was wondering if there were a different head design. Was picturing the hybrid cometic gaskets for frankenmoters and was wondering if it would require modification. Happy that it does not.

 

I ordered the gaskets and they should be here in the next couple days.

 

Sucks that I can't trust people to be honest on whether a motor runs or not. Craigslist or junkyard motors are a bit of a crapshoot. Although this is only the second time I've been burned, so in the long run it's well worth it.