imprezza ej20 swap

[jin240sx]

to make a long story short having a kid, need four door, probably going to get a brand new car in a year or two, probably gonna have to sell my 240. want a car with potential once we get the new car and the 240 is gone.

sourced out a 99 impreza (auto) for $8000.
95 imprezza $3000.(manual)
also sourced out 98jdm ej20 front clip for $1000.
ok got two questions for you subie guys.

1) how difficult is it to change an auto trans to a manual. in these awd cars?we're talking 99 impreza to 98 jdm ej20.

2) anyone have anyinfo like ecu pin outs of jdm ej20 and 99impreza/ 95 imprezza.

oh got another one, as far as front end conversions go anyway to fit a 00 and up front end onto a 95?

[teh DIRT]

you came to the right place.

Heres the deal. The ej20 into GC (93-01 Impreza) is a bolt in job as far as mechanics. You will need either a jdm WRX (GC) crossmember or a USDM turbo-legacy crossmember. This is to accomodate the turbo headers.
As for the transmission, and EJ series engines transmission will bolt up to any other EJ series engine. For auto to manual you will need a few things. Including-Clutch master cylinder, MT flywheel, MT Starter, MT pedal box, MT Transmission Control Unit (TCU), MT driveshaft, MT differential. I think thats about it. This would be a great time to look for a junkyard with these parts. If you need help, ask me....i know of atleast 2 junkyards that have GC manual imprezas.
Now that the engine and transmission are taken care of, lets move onto the wiring. You will need an ej20 ecu along with all the harnesses. Then you will need to mate the harnesses together to make them work. This is where my knowledge ends, it is a very long (more than 20hrs of work) process that take a lot of knowledge about this swap.
Your best bet is to do everything that you can as far as the mechanics. Get the engine and transmission in and secure. Then take it to a shop that knows a lot about this swap. There are a few in the tri-state area that have done these before and would gladly help you with all of the wiring for a price (close to 1k).

Hope i helped.

-pete

[teh DIRT]

sorry, i forgot about the front end.

To Fit an RS (98-01) front end on an L you will need one thing, a RS front bumper beam or a JDM WRX bumper beam. Once you do that you can put the bumper cover on with ease. THen you will need an RS hood, 97+impreza lights, RS grill.

[jin240sx]

thank you so very much. that was great info. i'm going to look at a front clip this weekend from the people i bought my sr20det front clip from. the clip is great because it comes with most of those things you were talking about, including the crossmember, wiring, ecu, bumper support, etc.
as far as the wiring goes. i'm going to talk to my friends tonight. they are known in philly for first their honda transplants, and now their nissan sr20's and rb's into 240's. if i can convince them this will be a hot swap coming soon we can put our brains together and research enough to figure out the wiring for this.
i think i'm gonna buy the engine first. i have a feeling the price of these will be going up shortly. like the sr used to be 1000 and all of a sudden its 2500 to 4000 depending on where you go.
i hope this all works it has me like when i first decided to do the complete silvia swap.

[the mike]

If you feel overwhelmed, try the guys at Rallispec. They have done a ton of these swaps.
Might be easier to drop off all the parts and let them have at it.
Just a thought.
www.RalliSpec.com

Also try www.NASIOC.com or www.scoobymods.com for wiring.

HTH,
mike

[jin240sx]

ok thanks for the info guys. well my friends at 5 stars motorsports are really excited about this idea and were pondering it already when i brought it up last night. me and this guy that works there are looking up wiring diagrams and such. he's pretty good. wired up my s13 engine in about 3 hours. and if it gets to the point where i say f it then i'll just put all the mechanicals together and take the wiring to the professionals.

i'm really excited.

by the way the 240 is freshly primered black. will have new tires and wheels on the 16th and hopefully i'll make it to a meet sometime in february.

[teh DIRT]

Originally Posted by jin240sx

ok thanks for the info guys. well my friends at 5 stars motorsports are really excited about this idea and were pondering it already when i brought it up last night. me and this guy that works there are looking up wiring diagrams and such. he's pretty good. wired up my s13 engine in about 3 hours. and if it gets to the point where i say f it then i'll just put all the mechanicals together and take the wiring to the professionals.

i'm really excited.

by the way the 240 is freshly primered black. will have new tires and wheels on the 16th and hopefully i'll make it to a meet sometime in february.

awesome man. id love to be a part of this, let me know if yous need any info.

good luck.
-Pete

[OWENthatsmyname]

yea i was thinking about doing a swap. THere are a few places that will do the swap. check out garage tuninggaragetuning.comthey will do a swap for $5K but they are in CA, you can fly the guy out and itll be the same price.

Also i believe I-Speed is making prewired wiring harnesses.

U can get a turbo older legacy cross member or a junked WRX cross member.

Everything is bolt in besides the wiring as said before.

Also what year is the engine you are getting? full engine code would help.

O and u can use any EJ tranny, but the only one that will hold any power besides a WRX or STi tranny or RA gear set is gonna be a RS tranny with a upgraded clutch.

also check out precision tuning they are relaly good and know what they are doing, they did my clutch

[alachua]

One of my employees is doing a swap right now. He is putting a USDM EJ20 into his 99 RS. I've been helping him along the way with some research and whatnots.

First, I-speed no longer sells pre-wired harnesses. Second, Rallyespec will charge $1k for you to drop off both harnesses and come back to pick up a completed one. Not sure if Precision has done any of these swaps, I would assume they have, but I havn't really heard any feedback. Stay away from Turbo Trix. They tune a mean Utec, but every thing else I have heard about them has been nightmare stories (these are first hand stories as well, not from friends of friends of some dude).

5k for someone to do the swap is pretty steep, unless you have unlimited funds...the hardest part is the wiring, which we have already covered as being 1k. There isn't 4k worth of labor involved in the rest of the swap.

Once you have a car, and source an engine, get yourself a 72 hour log on to the Subaru service manual download service dealie. You will be able to get the complete wiring diagrams for both pieces you are about to put together. If you get a manual RS, I would reccomend keeping that tranny, but plan on changing to a different clutch. If you plan on modding the WRX engine, find a blown tranny upfront, and spring for the RA gear set, it will be cheaper than putting in a tranny, blowing it, pulling it, and doing it.

I think the key to this is time. If you can be without the car for a while, then just slowly work on the harness yourself. Most accounts claim 40-60 hours worth of wiring. My friend claims to have everything laid out and labeled in about 15 hours or so. It only took them a night to get the engine out. It won't take that long to get the new one in, once he solves his clutch dilema. I'll let you know how it goes (ie: if it starts) when he finishes the swap.

-Cliff

[Black_Rain]

does anyone want to donate an ej20 or ej22t and about 4000$ of labor along w/ a complete harness?...if so...call me...

[teh DIRT]

no but i can tell you where to go for an ej22t under 800$.

[alachua]

Shhhh...don't tell him.

He needs his NA training wheels for a little longer.

;)

-Cliff

[teh DIRT]

any updates on this?

who were they guys you were talking about before, the ones with the honda swaps.

I was talking to some kid today with an RSX, he wants to drop in NA (skunk2 i guess) cams and get a hondata ECU, only problem is that he doesnt know a tuner. can these guys do hondata?
_pete

[alachua]

Well, here is a brief update on my friends car:

The engine is officially in as of last night. Mechanicly, he only needs a set of power steering lines, A/C Lines, and a Fuel pump controller.

As for the wiring, he just recieved the SMJ yesterday. He claims to be semi completed on the wiring side, as everything is labeled, the excess has been cut, all the plug are where they need to be, and he has an '02 cluster to put in. He is hoping to have the car completed by next week. As his boss, I have given him three days off in a row to complete the project during the first week of march.

He went with an exedy stage 1 clutch for the car, and had the flywheel resurfaced. He has also picked up an '04 interior.

My advice to him right now is to call someone who has done the swap, and have them come over to look at his setup. He has great faith in his wiring job, but enough long nights, helper beers, and color blind friends assisting are bound to have left at least one loose end. If you know anyone in the P-burg/Washington NJ area who has done the swap, let me know. I really want scott to get this setup running with minimal problems.

-Cliff

[teh DIRT]

if he feels like driving to kenilworth, NJ he can goto the AZP shop. Those guys have done many swaps and would be able to point out any problems. If youd like i could ask them when i go to get the ford probe tommorow

[alachua]

well, I suppose the issue would be that, if he could drive the car, then most likly everything is fine. I am more concerned about him putting it all back together, and then gettin a big heaping dose of nothing when he turns the key.

-Cliff

[teh DIRT]

im sure hell get it started and running unless he REALLY messed up. Itl be little things like sensors and such that will cause problems. nothin will ruin your spirit more than have the ecu read things wrong and have the wastegate never open.

Anyone remember when SCC turbo'd some guys civic. They f'd up on **** and instead of running 6 psi then ran 20...until the piston wanted to see some daylight.

[alachua]

words of advice: If you say "I can't believe how fast this feels!" after something, stop, and check.

I will hopefully be there when he finally gets it started, I think I have him talked into V5 STi bumper/spats/wing with the Greddy/Trust lip.

Droooool.

At least I'll be faster

-Cliff

[teh DIRT]

he needs a ver6 front bumper if he wants a lip for it. if hes got the money now tell him to goto www.rs25.com and check the for sale forums. theres a ver 6 for sale

[alachua]

I doubt he has the money for it right now, as he is still working on finishing the swap. It may be a while before he starts doing body pieces.

-Cliff