YASC : Yet another Subie Conversion, She's off and, uh, stalled... Options

[jsteele22]

Two weeks ago I drove up to Denver to look at an engine. An EJ25 SOHC in a wrecked 2000 Legacy w/ 70k miles. Listed as a "parts engine" b/c the front end was smushed and the T-belt broken. Price was $400. Not fantastic, but pretty good, IMHO.

(I paid $500 + $300 shipping for a DOHC EJ25 with only 30k mi last fall, but that turned out to be an EBay scam. I ended up getting $175 back through Ebay.)

Anyway, when I looked at the engine, I bumped my head on the hood. The wheels were off the car, and the hood rumpled in some, so it wasn't where it was "supposed" to be. I checked out a few other engines, then asked to look at this one again. Once again, I bashed my head, only this time I caught a sharp edge. Man, head wounds do some serious bleeding ! This one was a pumper. Didn't get a drop of blood on me, but everything a few feet in front of me got squirted. Righteous, as Hammer would have said.

Fast forward a week. I bought a pair of SOHC heads w/ low miles off Ebay for $150. Scored a batch of goodies (Water pump, t-belt, tensioner, gasket set) for $185 off NASIOC. So obviously, I've cast the die. Borrowed a friends truck, drove up to Denver, and picked up the engine. Got back to the Springs, and went straight to the tool store to pick up an engine stand. I ask the guy if there's one of the cheapest ones set up on display somewhere. Not real clear what he replied. Then I kind of remember the EMT asking me what kind of car i drive. Then the ER nurse is unhooking the EKG electrodes from my chest. Holy Crap ! No, it wasn't a heart attack. Some kind of seizure, but I won't know how/why it happened for at least a month and a half, if at all. Right now, all I know is that after asking about the engine stand, my face went blank, I turned to jello, fell to the floor, started twitching, and turned sorta blue.

So, in its own peculiar way, the project has begun. I've got a builder engine and parts, I've picked out an engine stand. And doctors orders : no driving ! I'm still pretty swamped w/ my day job + consulting job, so I really won't be able to start work until April or so anyways. But I can still ruminate (kind of like barfing up grass, but not really) about what I'm gonna do :

* Replace "questionable" heads w/ good ones.
* Maybe/probably get cams reground by Delta.
* All new gaskets, timing belt, pump, tensioner
* Brew up my own MegaSquirt-II + EDIS system.
* All the other stuff that goes along with an engine swap !

All this should put me on track to have my teener torn apart and undriveable in time for summer. Stay tuned.

[TonyAKAVW]

From the looks of it you will need on the order of $250 in parts for the timing belt on the front. I had to do nearly the same thing on my engine. I had to replace the plastic covers, all the gaskets and seals, etc. I decided to leave the rollers on mine in place but sanded them down lightly to smooth them out a bit. It looks like yours are fairly rusty so you _may_ want to replace them.

I got most of my parts at www.subaruparts.com, they seem to have good prices for the most part. I bought a new timing belt from someone on the NASIOC.

Make sure you get all the right parts for that, there are quite a few.


There are a ton of wires and hoses and stuff on that engine, but once you look at some diagrams and start taking stuff apart it becomes easier to understand where stuff is going and what it does.

-Tony