GeneralDisorder

It will run about $1000 in labor typically. That's assuming you drop off a car, a used engine, an uncut wireing harness, and adaptor plate/drilled flywheel. Then there are parts costs associated with timing belt components, tune up parts, etc. If you want to have someone else put an EJ into your EA rig look for the price tag to be somewhere around the $2000 mark for all the parts and the labor. GD

Seems like a waste of effort when you could just drive the BMW instead. I have never understood the point of converting an AWD Subaru into a RWD - there are plenty of RWD cars that are already setup for that. Seems to me that this swap would have made more sense into a 240 or a Skyline, etc. GD

It is best to change the (green) coolant every 2 years. Sooner is not going to hurt anything but it won't do any good either. The new long-life coolant (Subaru's is blue) is good for 5 years. GD

You can stack heli-coils. And you need to use red loctite anytime you are installing heli-coil's for something like a head-bolt, etc. GD

The clutch release point depends on how tight you make the cable. New clutches will release close to the floor and will release higher as they wear. If you want it to release a bit higher than it does then tighten the cable on the fork end. GD

Looks serviceable still. Get a new pin and spring clip from the dealer when you get the cable. GD

You *could* leave the whole harness intact.... theoretically. But it would be a nightmare and a gigantic mess. Those of us that strip harnesses eleiminate things like the SMJ because they take up valuable real-estate and can't be pulled through firewall grommets, etc. Leaving crap like that in the harness is amature and messy. That's not what I look for in a proper swap. It doesn't meet the standards of electrical etiquette. GD

Seals are installed with the cam caps in place. They need to be driven in very precisely and at exactly right angles to the cam shaft. The corners of the caps should be sealed with RTV or Anearobic. The lip of the seal should be lubricated with clean engine oil, assembly lube, or Dow Corning 111 valve sealant. GD

Yep - poor quality aftermarket cable. I didn't like how it felt even after we corrected the routing and that's why I told you to get a cable from the dealer soon..... I don't know how they get away with selling these - they are so bad it's almost a scam. Get yourself an OEM cable from the dealer and all will right - just remember to route it under the steering column and the heater core hoses. Here's my article on clutch cables from a few years back: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/clutch.html GD

About 60 to 80mm in length I would say..... yes 10x1.25 is the thread. They are only about $1.25 each from the dealer - easiest to just get them there. Most dealers stock them. GD

If you want to go that fast - you need a turbo or you need to lose a LOT of weight. GD

Unlikely. The door lock code is written on the passenger door lock cylinder. Have a smith re-key the ignition lock to match. GD

Just a follow up - I checked it over and though the conditioner would likely solve some of the coolant loss (I'm not at all convinced it was all being dumped on the ground), it would not help with the fairly large oil leak from the driver's side head gasket. The leak is large enough to drip on the ground and is contaminating the rubber of the engine mount - not the usual light film on the head/block that I often see from these. Tom decided to just replace the HG's and solve both problems without having to add conditioner and worry about that oil leak getting worse, etc. The car is within 5k miles of needing it's 105k service anyway so that will get done at the same time and it should be set for another 105k. It's a very nice black Forester with only 100k on it and I think it's definitely the right call to do a correct and lasting repair. If it were a junker or had high miles - I would say ignore the oil leak, add some conditioner and drive the wheels off..... but not in this case. GD

The wires I was refering to are going to/from the SMJ (Super Main Junction) - it's a large connector that bolts together and joins a major section of the harness with another major section. I think it has something like 55 pins. Some of which are not applicable to a swap. I don't remember all the specific wires but many are for engine sensors that are required by the ECU and IIRC there's about 27 of them. That's just ONE of quite a few places that need wires cut and solderd to eliminate uneccesary connectors, etc. Off the top of my head: ECU Manifold sub-harness connectors Ignitor Cam sensor Crank sensor Knock sensor O2 sensor MAF sensor Alternator connections Grounds (one's used by remaining components) FP Relay Ignition Relay FP/Ignition power ECU power ECU backup power Power supply diode pack CEL ground wire VSS signal wire Neutral switch wire Start signal wire Tach signal wire I might be missing some..... as I said that's from memory. Very similar. That's not how we do them. We leave the harness as intact as possible - I don't end up with A through K when I do them. I end up with a single harness. . He's done WAY more hacking than needed.... well perhaps thats needed on a bug with the end in the back - but not going from Subaru to another Subaru. GD

And I doubt his engine is long for this world. GD

Drain/Fill your ATF three times. GD

That's a common crack - just weld it back together. I've fixed half a dozen of them on EA's and EJ's. The crack generally isn't from rust - it's just from vibration and from the weld joint being brittle. GD

Leaving the key on till the fan stops does nothing useful - you are only cooling the coolant contained in the radiator. You will not "burn up" your engine if you shut the fan off with the ignition. GD

I listed the comp. ratio for the DOHC - that's the EJ25D. GD

I normally charge $250 for the OBD-I harnesses and $200 for the OBD-II harnesses through '99. I'm not sure how to work much of a deal here - I just don't have the time/space to sit you down with a harness and watch what you are doing and hope to get anything at all done while that's going on. If anything I would have to charge more to run a harness stripping class - it takes up half my garage to lay out a harness and dismantle it so getting anything else done while that's happening is pretty much futile. I don't mind helping with specific and localized questions (that's the point of this forum ) but I'm afraid if you want to strip the harness yourself you'll just have to dig in get your feet wet. Many people have done it with varying degree's of success and you get better every time you do one. GD

There is no hard and fast rules to these questions - you can or you cannot (to most of your questions) and it all depends on how you want to proceed and what is easiest for the given installation. They are each a little different with respect to the model/year the engine is going into as well as OBD-I vs. OBD-II swaps..... etc. It usually comes down to what is most convient depending on where you locate the ECU and what it is closest to - the fuel pump relay for example.... are you closer to the old relay or are you closer to the passenger kick-panel where you can simply intercept the fuel pump power wire and leave all the EJ relay/wireing intact? Personally I prefer to intercept the FP power lead at the kick-panel connector and just connect the lead from the EJ's FP relay. The EJ fans almost certainly will not fit. Also one of the goals of stripping the harness is to eliminate the fuse panel and all it's uneccesary circuits - if you keep the EJ fan wireing intact then you must scab in an inline fuse solution in place of the EJ's panel..... messy. Better to just intercept the EJ's relay ground for the cooling fan and power a new relay through your EJ piggy-back fuse panel solution (I prefer to use Painless Performance universal fuse blocks). The OBD-I harnesses are pretty messy and disorganized - they also have that @#$@#^$#ing SMJ (Super Main Junction)..... which has (last time I counted) 27 wires that have to be cut and soldered to eliminate it from the harness. Not a pleasant job and one of the reasons I charge more to do the OBD-I harnesses than for later models. If you have never done one before - block out about a week or possibly two to get your head around it. There are a LOT of wires and as soon as the tape comes off it starts to get overwhelming real fast. Many times I've had to walk away and get my head straight.... sometimes the most difficult task is just deciding what part of the harness to work on and what wires it's ok to cut and what you need to not touch. Even I make mistakes and have to correct them with solder and heat shrink. If you aren't comfortable with electricity, designing simple relay circuits, and basic soldering, etc - I say just pay to have it stripped. For most people that aren't familair it's probably going to end in frustration and none of us who strip these harnesses will "fix" one that's been half hacked apart already. At least I know I won't - I will send it right back. GD

You MUST use 25D gaskets with 25D pistons or the pistons will contact the head surface. Your compression will be reduced from 9.9 to 9.2 with this combo. It will run but you will lose some effeciency and power. GD

If you are asking weather the frankenmotor is an interferance engine - it almost certainly is, yes. The thicker head gasket is because the piston will hit the HEAD surface not because it will prevent it from hitting the valves if the timing belt should break. Interferance vs. non-interferance is a silly discussion. If changed on time and attention is given to the water pump and idlers the chances of a timing belt breaking are almost non-existant. EJ timing belts are VERY strong. I have changed literally over 100 timing belts and to this day I have not seen a single one come in broken. I've seen seized water pumps, cogged idlers, and other nasty tricks but not one broken timing belt. At this point it's just not a reasonable argument against the interferance engines. The compression ratio of the EJ25D/EJ22E Heads/EJ25D gasket is 10.5:1 The compression ratio of the EJ251(3)/EJ22E Heads/EJ251 gasket is 11.4:1 The compression ration of the EJ251(3)/EJ22E Heads/EJ25D gasket is 10.4:1 25D's are the most common EJ25's right now that are availible used - and the 10.5:1 ratio is slightly better than a 251 w/25D gaskets.... and there has been some reliability problems reported with the 11.3(4):1 combinations so we have stayed away from that one..... though I can imagine it really tears it up before it blows! And to the guy that says a CAI is worth 17 HP - you are most definitely mistaken. In fact the stock intakle IS A CAI and is not a significant restriction. You get more noise with your cone filter setup and your brain tells you it's faster because you really want to beleive it is. It is very likely slower due to being a warm air intake from the engine bay instead of a CAI from the wheel well. GD

Depends on if its high side or low side. The high side runs at about 600 to 1200 psi so patching would likely be impossible. The return side maybe..... But replacement is the best option. GD