nighthawk Posted April 2, 2006 Share Posted April 2, 2006 New to USMB Live in PA bought a 98 2.5 DOHC outback for my son at U of Vermont, from a guy on ebay (Casey) in Montpelier VT. Long story short, the guy was a sleeze, car went about 1000 miles before engine started to leak from from and rear seals, bad clutch, stopped running on the way back to PA. Nasty clunking and grinding inside block. Anyway I gonna pull engine to check heads and see inside condition. Here's my question, if I need a new engine, I read that 95-98 will work, but will any more current, lower mileage engines work? Has anybody done this before? What needs to be changed? Is an Impreza or Forrester 2.5 DOHC engine the same? (Have done VWRabbits before where all blocks are basically the same). Any help would be great!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballitch Posted April 2, 2006 Share Posted April 2, 2006 all the DOHC blocks are the same. you can swap in a SOHC block and use it just fine. only thing is your compression will be a little lower, since the SOHC blocks dont have pistons that go outside the block at TDC. if you look over on nasioc.com, you will find alot of answers if you search. ~Josh~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted April 2, 2006 Share Posted April 2, 2006 This has been done a lot. The ideal option would be a phase 2 sohc 2.5 engine, but the are rare to find. as much as i love the 2.5 (i have 180K on my 97OBW) you would have to replace the head gaskets before installing the engine (to be on the safe side). Not a big deal since the engine is out of the car. The popular option is to put in a 2.2L. you will loose some power, but get better gas mileage. No matter what you choose, do replace the main seals, timing belt, tensioner, water pump and cam seals. Go with OE for the timing belt. If you replace all these you will have 100,000 trouble free miles from the front of the engine. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted April 2, 2006 Share Posted April 2, 2006 all the DOHC blocks are the same. you can swap in a SOHC block and use it just fine. only thing is your compression will be a little lower, since the SOHC blocks dont have pistons that go outside the block at TDC. if you look over on nasioc.com, you will find alot of answers if you search. ~Josh~ Josh out of curiosity what do you mean by "go outside the block" nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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