There is a place on CO that sells used Subie blocks and wanted to sell a buddy of mine an EJ25 block to bolt up to his EJ22 heads. I was leery of this plan and called them, and also talked to some people I know about it. Now, I'm getting the view from this board on what you think of this plan. I do not like it, because I do not trust them to match up, but the company says that it bolts right up and if you use an EJ25 HG, there are no problems. I still do not trust it and talked a few of the guys that I'm working with who transplant EJ22's into Vanagons. One has a buddy that has done this and says that the compression ration goes from 9:1 up to 14:1 and there is dificulty starting unless you get a gear reduction starter. The guy does not do his own repairs, so he is in need of something very reliable. His original engine should have been (93 Legacy wagon bought with 60K miles on it, and it had the knock then), but I suspect abuse level neglect by the original owner, who all but stopped driving it several years ago. . . (I wonder why. . .). What I'm guessing happened is that they went to Idjit Lube and they didn't tighten the drain plug which backed out on the highway as they were driving. Then the Oil light comes on and they say "that can't be right, we just got the oil changed" Right up until it started clattering. . .

 

So what should we do to keep from breaking this guys bank? I'm thinking that we can lift the engine (without pulling it from the car) and drop the oil pan and replace the bad berrings from the front rods, and go from there. Other than that, the best option I can see is an EJ22 short block.

Check this link out. It will "bolt up", but there are a host of other issues to deal with. Probably not worth it.

 

http://www.legacycentral.org/library/literature/headswap.htm

 

 

There is a place on CO that sells used Subie blocks and wanted to sell a buddy of mine an EJ25 block to bolt up to his EJ22 heads. I was leery of this plan and called them, and also talked to some people I know about it. Now, I'm getting the view from this board on what you think of this plan. I do not like it, because I do not trust them to match up, but the company says that it bolts right up and if you use an EJ25 HG, there are no problems. I still do not trust it and talked a few of the guys that I'm working with who transplant EJ22's into Vanagons. One has a buddy that has done this and says that the compression ration goes from 9:1 up to 14:1 and there is dificulty starting unless you get a gear reduction starter. The guy does not do his own repairs, so he is in need of something very reliable. His original engine should have been (93 Legacy wagon bought with 60K miles on it, and it had the knock then), but I suspect abuse level neglect by the original owner, who all but stopped driving it several years ago. . . (I wonder why. . .). What I'm guessing happened is that they went to Idjit Lube and they didn't tighten the drain plug which backed out on the highway as they were driving. Then the Oil light comes on and they say "that can't be right, we just got the oil changed" Right up until it started clattering. . .

 

So what should we do to keep from breaking this guys bank? I'm thinking that we can lift the engine (without pulling it from the car) and drop the oil pan and replace the bad berrings from the front rods, and go from there. Other than that, the best option I can see is an EJ22 short block.

The 2.5 liter engine's generally agreed upon weak spot is the engine block itself, not the heads. The linked article while offering a good insight is looking at a reverse situation with a 2.2 block. I would not personally consider an oil starved engine to be optimum for a rebuild starting point, because every part of it has been stressed, not just the one bearing that failed first. If it was mine, I would look for a used 2.2 identical to the original, even a bargain one with high miles sounds more favorable to me.