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Engine Swaps

112K views 29 replies 15 participants last post by  This_Guy!! 
#1 ·
Does anyone have a list of compatable engine swaps i could do with my 2002 WRX? Does anyone have any experience or advice for me on this subject?
 
#3 ·
I like the WRX body and how its awd I guess I'm just looking for a car that can produce around 500 hp or so... I was going to just mod the stock engine but then i figured i could get a different engine thats larger and it wouldn't have to be so hard on the engine. I hope that makes sense lol. Originally I just wanted to get a EJ257 engine but my friend suggested that I get a different engine... I don't really know much about this subject tho as I haven't done anything to other cars, I do have friends that have worked on cars for a while tho. I figured it couldn't hurt to research and ask some guys that were knowledgeable about WRX's what they thought. My budget would be about 3k for the engine.
 
#6 ·
Wow, dont know whether to be amazed or upset. I know the potential of the LS/LT engines. I have a friend that runsan LS1 in his RX-7, its hella fast. I wonder how much of a headache that swap/setup was to do.
 
#8 ·
The 3.0 H6 isn't built to be turbocharged. Even beefed up. Ripped from mosc's words. It totality screws the suspension up. 500 crank HP can be had on a beefed up EJ257 shortblock with beefed up heads. 500 wheel horsepower is going to be a bit tough on a EJ unless your using a massive turbo, spraying some NO2, and using a block that's sleeved.

Edit: Normally swapping in other engines that aren't wired for our dash is really problematic to get everything working right and its down right a pain. I don't like the sound of the LSX swap...pushing that big V8s exhaust down a normal WRX muffler sounds like crap. Just my honest opinion.
 
#14 ·
actually the dash wiring was very easy when you actually know what you are doing.....which most people don't......and the exhaust sounds no different out of that muffler than it does out of any other muffler.....its the headers on lsx engines that make them sound so different....just like on subarus you lose the boxer sound when you have equal length headers on them......!Thumbs Up....my civic has lg longtubes on it and it sounds exactly like a vette.....and it has small magniflow import style mufflers on it.....the subaru has a 4 inch diesel muffler on it:D

and btw....i havent even hit $5000....with my car......including buying the car lol
 
#10 ·
Probably going to need to do a EJ257 short block with wrx heads. Otherwise known as a hybrid build. Unless you want to have all the hassles of switching your car from a DBC to a DBW throttle set-up. Its not that hard and it's been do a couple times. One of the members on here wrote up his whole hybrid build. So, if you search for it. He pretty much layed out exactly what you'd need to do.
 
#19 ·
Probably going to need to do a EJ257 short block with wrx heads. Otherwise known as a hybrid build. Unless you want to have all the hassles of switching your car from a DBC to a DBW throttle set-up.
Why would a full ej257 longblock necessitate DBW? Why not just stick with DBC?

OP: keep in mind if you decide to do hybrid build your static compression ratio will be slightly higher (~8.6:1)
 
#15 ·
actually the wrx rear end was just temporary to work out whatever kinks i had in the swap.....it broke after around 4,000 miles of spirited driving......my car has a nissan r200 in it now.....with a set of driveshaft shop axles......we are turbo'ing it now....this car is actually my daily driver......i got tired of climbing in and out of my elise everyday....and i like having something no one else has......i dont even care about making the car that fast......but it sounds mean sitting at a light....and eveyone and their momma looks twice at it everywhere i go.....
 
#13 ·
Well i have done 3 hybrid builds, and if you want 500hp you are going to spend around 10k to do it right. Expect about 2 grand for the EJ25 shortblock, Then you will have to buy pistons, and also really should buy rods, then you have valvetrain to do, and fuel. A turbo to think about would be a GT35r and 500hp would be really starting to work that turbo even. Then you will have drive train to build up. Just a few things for you to think about.
 
#16 ·
So, is this car AWD anymore? If you changed out the rear end and drive shafts. I'm doubting it... If you only paid that much, that easily means this is a shop car on a shop cars budget.

Edit: Not trying to hate, btw. I love project cars. Its a interesting project, just not my cup of tea on the exhaust note...it might just be the camera microphone distorting it.
 
#24 ·
1st off which EJ20 are you talking about? B/c there is an EJ205 (US spec) and EJ207 (JDM spec).

No can give you an exact number. It depends on a lot of factors including the quality of the build/parts, quality of the gas, what dyno, and quality of the tune.

It would be a better to ask the person tuning/building your engine.
 
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