AdventureSubaru

It's likely your cam and crank pulleys.Get a set from a USDM motor. Driver side cam pulley and the crank sprocket. The hash marks on the back are different in the japanese motors (At least one the 2000+ ones I've worked on anyway) so even though timing is correct, the engine computer is reading it as off.

All this to say - you're in the realm of possibility, but you probably need to be way better than us to start moving forward with this project. You're combining two swaps (AWD and EZ30) that have been done but either one by itself is not cost effective and more $$$ and time than they're worth by conventional wisdom. A 3rd (turbo) modification that to my knowledge hasn't been done, will require a crazy amount of modification and expense, and even if feasible, defeats the purpose by killing the motor it's attached to.

"access to better mechanics" You plan on PAYING someone to do this for you? Or just getting the know how? As mentioned, anything is possible, but you've picked about the most expensive and time consuming job possible. The cheapest part of all this is the car itself as a FWD legacy. Paying a shop to do the swaps necessary just to make is AWD would cost more than 2 or 3 first generation legacies. Not to mention the legwork and cost of assembling all the parts necessary. Just for fun though, let's go through a ballpark rundown. FWD to AWD - You'll need to swap the transmission and crossmembers, front axles, swap to an AWD exhaust and gas tank. Purchase and swap rear diff hanger, driveshaft, differential, rear axles and rear spindles and probably rear suspension as well. Possibly different TCU and sensors. This is usually only an option if you have a whole parts car and lots of spare time. Conventional wisdom says if you want AWD, sell the FWD car and buy an AWD car. There's no way to offset the time and $$$ cost of the swap. EZ30 - been done. As mentioned it will drop in there. I bought one for $1200 for my wife's 06 LLbean last year. The earlier ones with higher miles can be found for about $800-$900. The install is just a tighter and heavier version of an EJ install. Same overall process. The EJ trans can handle it if driven gently but aggressive driving has seen the EZ30 equipped cars trash the transmission inside of 100k turbo - #1. this is a huge undertaking as there is already no room to work with. You may look up the custom intake manifolds and blower covers made to supercharge the XT6 and I think a SVX. I see no feasable way to fit a turbo in there. A superharger and blower cover is the only way I've seen forced induction on an H6. Expect to pay big bucks for it plus the custom work of fabbing the intake manifold to house it. This would also limit you to EZ30 motors with the aluminum intake manifold. #2. forced induction on any subaru motor not set up for it is a bad idea because it leaves you with two poor options. Run it enough for noticeable power gains and very quickly destroy your motor. Or run it gently resulting in very little power gains and defeat the purpose of forced induction to begin with. Doing this with junkyard parts and doing all wrenching yourself, just to slap it together to the point of making it run and move - off the top of my head you're looking at easily $8000 just in the parts needed to start tackling this. If you're paying someone else to do the work to your car, expect that number to triple. I'm rarely one to jump to conclusions, but from what i'm hearing so far... unless you have very deep pockets and a love for first generation legacies (or a very sentimental value on this particular car) or you're a subie gearhead that hasn't let on yet and you actually are connected to some folks who have done some crazy custom work just for the sake of novelty. Unless I missed that, you're what we would call a "dreamer" - maybe it's fast & furious movies that make you think it's a good idea to sink thousands into a beater level car. Maybe you wanna drag race somewhere and this is what you've got for now. I dunno, but without some really slick ideas and a big pile of spare time and money, this car would be a huge waste of time and money. If you like the 93 Subaru, fix it up and make it nice. Takes a lot to ever make an EJ22 powered subaru fast. Just make it a nice stock clean car. If you wanna go fast, buy a foxbody mustang with a 5.0 and take it to the track (Or as many kids do, terrorize the neighborhood until the law catches up) Or I stand to be corrected. Tell us why you or the car merit doing all the work to make it a "boosted" EZ30 AWD 1993 hellhorse. If someone ever did all that to a 93, I'd call them crazy but still love to see the car.

It's not a bad job even for a first timer. A cherry picker can be built with some 2x4s or 4x4s and some steel castor wheels. I've done remove and reinstalls in as little as 5 hours. Most yards will pull the motor for you and help you load it but unless they are partnered with a garage of some sort, wont install it for you. Subaru shops can usually do it (Though some have zero working knowledge of a 2.2 swap and some will wrongly tell you it can't be done. But yes. A 2.2 swap is both the cheapest and most reliable solution for your car. Here's the combos to look for. 1995 EJ22 from a car with an automatic transmission. This will be equipped with EGR and is direct bolt in all the way across. 1996-1998 EJ22 with automatic trans is EGR equipped but single port exhaust. Get the Y-pipe/header pipe from the donor car and swap it as well. 1995-1998 with manual trans - no EGR - single port exhaust on 96-98 - same as above - will swap and drive fine but will result in a check engine light unless you get an intake manifold from a 95-98 EGR equipped intake manifold and use the workaround to remove the check engine light. (Takes $5. worth of home depot hose couplings and 10 minutes to install) 1990-1994 - long block is the same. Requires a 1995-1998 intake manifold and wiring. usually you can find one for around $300-$500. You can install it yourself in a weekend your first time, or pay a shop to do it. (Or take a stab at hiring someone to do it in your garage/driveway.) The two "gotchas" that you need to be sure of if your car is an automatic. 1 - make sure the torque converter is fully seated. Should be 1/8 of an inch spacing between the starter hole on the transmission and the back of the torque converter. There's a writeup on the site on how to fully seat it. Takes 30 seconds once you have the hang of it. 2. make sure to use the flex plate from your 2.5 motor. The one that may come with the 2.2 motor is smaller diameter and wont match the torque converter. Otherwise it's just a matter of pulling the old motor and dropping the new one in

95 and 96 EJ22 and EJ18s were the best of both worlds being OBDII and non interference. (interference being irrelevant if timing belt and components are kept up to date) Going from there both forward and back the comparables would be the EA81 (A dog when it comes to power but as nearly indestructible as a motor can be. Forward would be the 2010-2012 last iteration of the EJ25. Seems that head gasket issues were back to the early EJ22s in reliability and we're back to a motor that will go 300k without much work. the 1999-2004 EJ22s and EJ25s were nearly identical and equal in reliability. The head gasket design was improved but not fixed over the EJ25 DOHC nightmares. Seems due at least once between 100-150k and if done well, will not need replaced again. 2005-2009 - Seems improved again but still not solved. EZ30 - very reliable motor but a very large pain in the rear to work on/find parts for. (No space to work!) Done one EZ30 swap and would do it again, but it's a beast, and should head gaskets or timing chain ever need replaced, it's a bear of a job.

multiple overheats with existing head gasket leakage sounds like you fried the bearings. At any rate, a 2.5 that's overheated is not to be trusted for very long anyway. Very likely that the bearings are failing and you've got a rod knock. Look up the EJ22 swaps. Much more reliable motor that is bolt in for your car. A 1995 EJ22 from an automatic car will require no modification to drop in place of the cooked 2.5. Usually a 300,000 mile motor without head gasket issues and is non interference from 1990-1996

Generally any of the "performance" (fart can) mufflers off of ebay etc. will give you some nice throaty Subaru growl. If you're wanting the signature sound, you don't have to pay much. Performance overall seems to lag more with the big expensive exhausts on these cars. Open muffler will give you plenty of sound. You'll love it for at least 3 hours until the headache sets in and you can't use your CD player anymore.

Generally no, but if you've already got everything, then not as big of a deal. Half the work and all the expense is getting all the parts needed. We're talking trans, front axles, driveshaft, rear differential and mounts, rear axles, gas tank and possibly different wiring/TCU. If it's all coming from a parts car, you've got the parts and template right in front of you so it's a full day or so of wrenching.

Still curious to me that it would throw a code. Standard procedure when swapping a 95 or 96 2.2 into a 2.5 car is to simply cap the lines. Unless one was plugged and the other was open. I've passed two of them through CA smog with lines run back on themselves and never a check engine light. A 15+ year old canister wont really be functional anymore.

Yeah. The differential is internal on these, not separate like trucks. There are some folks who have swapped them, but your best bet is a good used transmission to swap in there.

Throttle body should be the same. More likely that you are missing a connection on a sensor or one of your vac hoses is left open. usually look around with a flashlight under the passenger side. Make sure MAF, coolant temp sensor, IACV and everything is together and tight. Check your vac hoses to the intake, IACV, o2 sensors etc. Charcoal canister tubes can be looped back on themselves or plugged. At this age, the canister doesn't really do anything anymore. I've swapped dozens of motors and more often than not either have a bad idle or check engine light or something to tell me I missed something in putting it all back together. Double check, triple check, take a break and check again before throwing any parts at the problem.

Check your sensors and the small hose routing on the passenger side. An open end, a cracked line or a bad sensor can cause this. Check the Evap hose routing and canister. Common issues resulting in that code is a failed gas cap or filler tube (especially if rusty)

I'm not up on the technical parts, but a friend of mine had a straight piped 1995 Impreza. Sounded mean but was a slug on acceleration. I think the general rule is that you gain a little bit on top speed (Which is usually asking for speeding tickets, arrest and accidents) but lose the low end power. These cars usually don't need much modification. An aftermarket (fart can) muffler will give you sound if you want it. More power usually means motor swap. Guys on Nasioc have documented a few EZ30 swaps into Imprezas. I'm not a fan of turbos 0 NA = reliable and simple. So if ever I wanted more power, that's how i'd do it. "There's no replacement for displacement."

Yes. Folks here will buy them since they are the only other stock option for the 4x140 bolt pattern. If you aren't using them, post them for sale in the classifieds here. Someone is itching to have them and put them to use I'm sure.

KYB is generally best for struts. Re use the springs usually. King springs are more expensive but will stiffen the ride and give about an inch of lift.

Another vote against a turbo. They can be great cars, but at that age and mileage, you're probably asking for extra expense and hassle. Look for the usual signs to suggest the car was well maintained and free of large defects - service records, cleanliness, good fluids. Smooth idle, smooth acceleration, smooth shifting. Look at the back of head seams for significant leakage. Drive it in slow tight circle to feel for torque bind. Those are all solid cars. The supremely reliable ones were the 93-98 Imprezas equipped with the EJ22 motor. Those offer the combination of more reliability and lower price tag. 1999+ was a solid motor but were due for at least one head gasket job somewhere along the way where the older EJ22 was usually good to about 300k+ when maintained.

Sounds good to start with thermostat and rad cap. These radiators can get blockage as well. Those EJ25s are temperamental and known for head gasket failures. (Double check on the motor. If it's a legacy L or LS it would be EJ22. Not likely to have head gasket issues. Legacy GT or outback will be EJ25 and has frequent head gasket issues.) The simple check is to make sure that the coolant is full, look inside the coolant reservoir with the motor running and look for bubbles. Rev it if need be. No bubbles and the head gaskets are probably fine since these almost always fail in the same way. If you have bubbles you can do head gaskets or the longer term solution is to replace with a 1990-1998 EJ22 (Lots of write ups on swapping them in. Easy job. 1995 is the magic year) But hopefully just thermostat or something simple

Sounds like a good plan. At that age/mileage, they'd have limited life left anyway.

the 2000+ developed external head gasket leaks and don't overheat until they run low on coolant. Not relevant to compare them to the earlier motors that push exhaust into the coolant and cause overheat regardless of the coolant levels. They bear a lot of similarities, but those motors are apples and oranges in head gasket failure. no point in comparing the two.

Good stuff! Glad the valves survived.

Unless abused, 115k is just scratching the surface on the life of those motors. They commonly go 300k and beyond with minimal maintenance. Not head gaskets, something small. Look toward coil pack, pinched or chewed wires etc.

I've chatted with the smog shop I use here and they happen to be right next to a Subaru garage, so they see a lot of them. They said they've seen some weird ones where the car will reset the monitors every time the car is turned off. Here's my advice - buy a cheap OBDII scanner. There's one for $15. on ebay and harbor freight has a little nicer one for around $45. (Coupons for $20% off a single item can be found in a google search) Drive your car through the cycles again and check the monitors yourself. Once you get them to the ready, take the car in for smog without turning it off. There may be an underlying glitch somewhere resetting the monitors, but this would be the most reliable way to get through smog.

Just use the old ones. There's never been an issue. Dip the bottom of the threads in used motor oil and reinstall. With the motor out of the car, swapping heads on a phase 1 EJ22 is as easy as brake pads, but with a little more muscle applied.

Ignore the post about replacing cats with CA compliant ones. That's only ever necessary when cats are replaced, which yours very likely do not. It will be something else. Only cats I've ever seen fail on a subaru were at 365,000 miles

No. Transaxle is a front wheel drive transmission. Possibly you're thinking front or center differential? Possibly rear differential? Depending what's bad, the donor trans could be salvageable. Do you know what specifically is wrong with it?