93 1.8 to 96 2.2 Motor Swap

[korrupt66]

A buddy of mine wants to take the ej22 from my 96 Legacy donor and put it in his 93 Impreza. Anybody done this? How much of a hassle is this going to be???

[idosubaru]

i've done something similar but the opposite. i swapped an EJ18 into another vehicle and used a 97 EJ22 intake manifold to do it.

 

the EJ22 and EJ18 manifolds are different and the EJ22 intake manifold/harness will not plug into the existing harness on the car. at least i don't think it will, didn't look like mine would. so that will be your biggest hurdle. but they are interchangeable in the sense that they swap and bolt up to the other engine with no problems.

 

the easiest way to do it will be to bolt the EJ18 intake manifold onto the EJ22. which is annoying because i find the EJ18 manifolds very cumbersome and annoying. but the EJ18 manifold will bolt to the EJ22.

 

the EJ18 will have a port on the exhaust side of the head on one side that the EJ22 won't have. this will be the biggest trickery to it. i'm not familiar with what this does. since i used an EJ22 manifold and an EJ18 engine all i had to do was block it off - the EJ22 doesn't have it.

 

you will be using the EJ22 engine...but the EJ18 intake - so you'll need to route it somewhere. need to find out what that thing does. someone mentioned it in one of my threads asking questions about the swap i'm doing but i can't recall what it was for and didn't care since i don't need it.

 

the 1996 EJ22 usually has single exhaust ports (a few have dual). the EJ18 is dual exhaust ports. so you'll need to also swap the exhaust manifold if the EJ22 has single port exhaust.

 

the EJ22 will have a knock sensor which your EJ18 will not have, just remove it and you won't use it. i had to do the opposite, install a knock sensor on my EJ18.

 

other than those things you shouldn't have any issues, i'm just now finishing mine up.

if your buddy wants an EJ18 intake manifold to play with i have one to sell, tell him to email or PM me.

[korrupt66]

I have the whole car with the Ej22 maybe we can avoid a couple of things with the exhaust.

[Qman]

I did the exact swap.

 

'93 Impreza 1.8 with 275,000 miles. Pulled motor out and installed a '96 2.2 from a Legacy wagon. Use the intake manifold from the Impreza. that way the electrical just plugs back in. You can run it with the 1.8 ECU. I used the exhaust header pipe from the Legacy. Had the rest of the exhaust built to match. Huge difference in power and only slight drop in MPG. Makes doing the pass to eastern Washington much nicer.

[idosubaru]

hey Q man - what did you do about that auxilliary air line that's bolted to the passengers side head? my EJ18 had one, don't know if they all do? maybe it was just plumbed into the intake and won't be needed? i can't recall if it had any electrical sensors associated with it or not?

[Qman]

I do not recall ours having one. I'll check the block and let you know.

[dome24]

hey Q man - what did you do about that auxilliary air line that's bolted to the passengers side head? my EJ18 had one, don't know if they all do? maybe it was just plumbed into the intake and won't be needed? i can't recall if it had any electrical sensors associated with it or not?

 

i went from 97 1.8 to a 94 2.2 and the 2.2 had what i thought was an egr setup plumbed into the pass side head and intake. I used the 1.8 intake and cut the line and removed it from the bolt on the head and then put a spot weld on the hole in the bolt. That sounds kinda messed up but it makes sense if your looking at it.

[idosubaru]

plumbed into the pass side head and intake.

i don't think that's the EGR. the EGR is on the drivers side rear of the head. it comes out of the head and runs to the EGR valve on top.

 

but the thing you're talking about runs from the passengers side head (right at the exhaust manifold) to some big cylinder contraption and then to the intake. i'm not sure what that system is called or what it is for but i removed it and blocked it off. sounds like what you did.