A buddy of mine picked up a nice 99 Forester that needs a motor(2.5).When he looked up blocks in his parts books(he is a mechanic) he sees that its listed as 99 only. Was wondering what the difference is in 99?

A one year bit of a nightmare. I may have a thread here about my recent experience - but it may have been while the site was having issues.

 

They seem to be really prone to bearing failure. Last one I did took 3 engines to get a good one. I also had someone show up here last week with one with 80k that had pretty decent bearing noise - not rod knock - but bearing noise.

 

A lot of folks already avoid 99 OB's due to the kinda rare auto tranny's.

 

This Forester you can't do a 2.2 swap on - the electronics don't line up. Two plugs where the 2.2's have 3, etc.

 

Happy hunting. I have a fella locally who contacted me who thinks he removed a good one fro someone's Forester because the customer had run it hot.

 

If you do get an engine might as well do the HG's while it's out. Those 2.5 SOHC's leak externally typically on the drivers side.

 

Good luck.

Edited March 22, 200917 yr by davebugs
typing abilities

You can easily use a 99-04 SOHC engine. Just move over the intake and all the sensors and your good.

 

The one year refers to the 99 as being a SOHC with a MAF sensor and ECU. The 2000-2004 were MAP engines. But the engine itself is a clean swap.

 

2005 and up get into drive-by-wire and ACVS ( intake valve control ). So to use one of these, you would also have to swap heads.