how hard would it be to put a ej22 into a forester out of a mid 90's legacy? what year would be the most reliable and easiest to adapt? would the tranny bolt up? thanks

Jon

bump

You'd have a hell of an issue going from OBDII to OBDI.

 

Any particular reason why you want to do this? Is this a 98 Forester in question, with the Phase I EJ25? I'm a huge fan of the EJ22 too, but I still dunno if it's worth it to put a less-powerful, older engine in place of the current one.

 

Besides, some emissions-testing states say it's illegal to swap in an engine that's older than the car.

another thing is that it is a weaker engine from a power output point of veiw.

 

nipper

the reason i ask is because my uncle is on his second set of HG's and this time he warped the heads, so he offered it to me for $500. i wouldn`t mind sacrificing a little power for reliability. i'm always hearing success stories with ej22s, so it seems like a good choice of engine. i know a good inspection guy, so as long as i got the motor out of a 96 or so car, it would probly pass fine....

 

 

oh and yes, its a 98 forester....

how in heck did he get on a second set of headgaskets? thats unheard of. unless he over heated the car then blew the gaskets. just get a 2.2L form the same year and yould be good to go.

Personally i love my 2.5, but with that track record even i would switch to a 2.2 of the same year or generation

 

nipper

 

(and yes there is alway somone around to say its happened to me so hush...)

i thought it was unheard of too. he has 180k on it, the first set went at 100k. this time they went because of a hole in his lower rad hose (not sure how that got there?), i guess he must not have been watching his temp guage.

 

would a 2.2 from a 98 be non interference? would the flywheels be the same?

i don`t even know if i can even trust the tranny in this forester though, my uncle didn`t really baby this thing. he does alot of high speed driving, jack rabbit take offs, and down shifting to third with an auto. if someone has ever wanted to race him, he'd run it right up to a buck-ten when the fuel cut kicks in......

A 98 EJ22 is interference.

 

I've heard of a single DOHC EJ25 engine going through THREE sets of headgaskets. It is a serious problem, there's no doubt about it.

 

The swap can be done mechanically, for sure. The saying that ANY EJ engine can bolt up to ANY EJ transmission is indeed true. If you're getting a later EJ22, then at least you're swapping OBDII to OBDII, so that won't be near as rough as far as wiring goes.

with the later ej22s, are they dohc? any HG issues?

 

 

would i be better off just finding a 95 leg 5sp 4wd instead of the forester? i have seen some go in the $1k range, and they still seem like a reasonably nice car.

No DOHC EJ22's, not in this country anyway.

 

There is NO Subaru that is 100% immune from HG issues, but it seems so far that the DOHC EJ25's are the only ones that have actually blown them by no fault of the owner's. The EJ22's, you at least need to overheat them first

i don`t even know if i can even trust the tranny in this forester though, my uncle didn`t really baby this thing. he does alot of high speed driving, jack rabbit take offs, and down shifting to third with an auto. if someone has ever wanted to race him, he'd run it right up to a buck-ten when the fuel cut kicks in......

 

sounds liike my kind of driver

 

i suspect hes the reason the 2nd set went bad, and who in thier right mind would race against forester?

 

nipper

if you saw his driving style, you would know why people race him:lol:

would i be better off just finding a 95 leg 5sp 4wd instead of the forester? i have seen some go in the $1k range, and they still seem like a reasonably nice car.

 

This may be your most practical approach, unless you're wildly in love with the Forester.

 

And yes, the '95 is a very nice car!

 

If you do decide to go for the swap, the '95 2.2L is the best candidate from everything I've read here.

 

Good luck.