Can I put a '96 engine from manual transmission in a '95 AT car?

[nelstomlinson]

We have a '95 Legacy with automatic transmission and a damaged engine, and a '96 with a strong engine and problems with the manual transmission. The '95 has a great body and it makes sense to swap the engine over to it. 

Obviously we need to replace the flywheel with the '95's flex plate. Will that mess up the engine balance?

What other problems are we going to have?

[bushytails]

Just swap over the intake and accessories from the old engine onto the new engine, and it'll work great.  I think the timing stuff is the same, but I can't remember for sure, so you could be safe and swap the sprockets from the old engine to the new engine, since you might as well put on a timing belt, tensioner, water pump kit while you have the engine out, just to avoid having the engine out again any time soon.

[nelstomlinson]

We put a new belt, sprockets, water pump and so on onto the '95 right after we towed it home, and toward the end noticed that the keyway on the crank nose was damaged, and the crank sprocket had been jb welded in place. We think it was glued on a little bit out of time, and the engine won't start. Gave it a whiff of starting fluid and one cylinder fired while we cranked...looks like this engine is done.

We'll pull the engine from the '96 this week, probably, and swap over the new belt, etc and the flex plate from the '95. The timing kit is the same for both engines, per the kit instructions.

You say to swap the intake? Why is that? 

[bushytails]

Auto has EGR, manual doesn't, iirc.  Or maybe it was starting in 1996 so the 95 doesn't...  don't remember exactly when.  But some stuff switched between auto and manual, and between obd1 and obd2.