What kind of problems would I have if I swapped my engine from my rusty 1994 Legacy wagon to a 1995 or 1996 wagon? Assume I will be working with two whole cars originally equipped with 2.2 engines. Legal problems are not part of the question, just technical problems.

Areas of concern are the wiring (massive changes there), sensor types (not sure how much they changed in that time frame), and the exaust connection to the heads (IIRC, the porting changed during that time). It may be easier to find a not-rusty 94 from one of the salt-free areas with perhaps a dead engine/tranny to swap into.

I would check the possibility of using the 94 intake manifold ect on the new engine.

 

Just about all the sensors are located on it.

 

Stop by

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/

 

and ask the same question, those boys know their Legacys

Assuming the intake and exhaust manifolds match, I would likely just keep the old intake manifold with the wiring harness and switch it over to the newer engine. That avoids the wiring pitfalls.

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like if I use the intake manifold from the new car and use the header pipes from the old car, it could work. It just so happens that my car is the last year of OBDI. Swapping that engine into an OBDII car may not be worth it.

 

My preference is to sell the old car and buy a newer one from outside the rust belt. If the old car attracts no new owners I may go the swap route.

 

edit: I sold the '94 and bought a '96 - thanks