Having problems with a 2.5L JDM swap

[mmmcelwey]

I hope that I am in the right place... I am new here and having problems with a swap on a 2.5l engine. It is on a Legacy Outback Wago and was hoping someone may have some suggestions.

 

The head gaskets blew on the original 2.5L and caused quite a bit of damage, so we decided to swap the engine instead of fixing the original 2.5. We got a 2.5L JDM with 40k miles. We realized upon installation that the new engine did not have an EGR port on the head, so we used the jdm intake manifold.... now we know that we can not do that. So, we are in the process of changing everything back to the usdm manifold and undoing the changes made to the wiring harness so that we can put the usdm manifold in the car. My questions are....

 

1. Do we have to drill and tap an EGR port or is there another way? I know that some forums say that you will have a CEL and that it will not pass emmissions just by plugging the end of the pipe.

 

2. When we started the car with the jdm intake manifold on the car, it was not firing on the 1st and 2nd cylinder... is this because it needs the usdm manifold or is there something else it could be? We already checked the plugs and wires, all is well there.... but have not yet checked the compression.

 

3. Also, when we started it with the jdm intake manifold it was making a ticking noise. It was not obnoxiously loud or anything, but it was very noticeable and also not something the engine should be doing... is that also related to the manifold or something else?

 

Thanks so much for any help anyone can offer... just very frustrated at this point. (if any of this does not make sense, please forgive me... I am a woman so I do not have the technical knowledge or verbage to explain most of these problems... : confused:

 

Thanks again for the help!!!

 

Michele

[davebugs]

Michele (with one L),

 

Welcome.

 

Lots of folks here have done JDM swaps.

 

I have not. I either fix the 2.5 or more likely do the 2.2 swaps.

 

I will say that when installed/reinstalled both 2.2 and 2.5's are often really noisey. Either JY engines or the same engine with new HG's. Marvel Mystery Oil and a good enthusiastic drive will usually quiet them a bit within 20 miles or so.

 

I've heat cycled as part of burping 2.5's by letting them run for an hour - twice and still the "extra noise". The drive solves it.

 

Folks here firmirliar with JDM's should help you out.

 

If the wireing gets too bad I have a 97 OBW I plan on parting next week that runs/drives.

 

Dave

[mmmcelwey]

How many miles are on your 2.5L? We may be interested...

 

Just started the engine again with the USDM intake manifold and it is still not firing on the 1 and 2 cylinder..... any takers?

 

 

Michele

[davebugs]

You'll sort it out. I wouldn't be shopping for another 2.5 just yet.

 

If it weren't a JDM (since I have no experience with those).

 

I'd be looking at the coil pack connector, the coil pack, spark plug wires, ignitor.

 

If you don't have extra plug wires I'd swap them (front to back) to see if the issue is solved, or follows the wires.

 

I hope we're talking about Suby wires and NGK Vgroove plugs? BKRE5-11's or whatever they are - I'm not in the garage.

 

What brand of coil pack?

 

What parts that I mentioned are known good from the old engine?

 

What parts came with the unknown JDM?

[mmmcelwey]

Dave,

 

The coil pack and connectors were switched from the original engine. When we take the cover off of the 1 and 2 cylinder, you can see that it is getting spark, but not firing the cylinder. (if that is how you would word it ) My husband did switch the wires on the 1 cylinder and it did not make any difference so he did not go any further with that. The only thing we used from the JDM was the block and heads, we put everything else on it from the old one except the EGR pipe since there is not an EGR port. We just plugged it temporarily until we knew that the engine would run correctly.

 

Thanks for your help!

Michele

[davebugs]

I'm not understanding what a "coil cover" is. Please describe it better or better yet post a pic.

 

Change BOTH wires front to back. Search here on wasted spark ignition to understand more. A break in EITHER wire could show up as a code for both cylinders.

 

Please confirm Suby wires and NGK plugs.

 

This will help check out the electrical part of the fireing. I'm not an electrical expert at all but these are common sense steps to help diagnose.

 

Others here may be able to help with if the spark has enough power, etc. that are more electrically inclined.

 

Have you pulled the plugs from both cylinders to see if they are wet after cranking? To confirm that those cylinders are getting fuel?

 

What are the actual code #'s

[johnceggleston]

since you have spark, is there a chance the fuel injector wiring was re-connected wrong??

 

this has caused headaches for others.

[idosubaru]

i've done JDM swaps - you did right by using the US manifold. keeping that in mind, i would suggest keeping everything USDM as much as possible.

 

there are probably some simpler things you can check first but: since you're having problems with cylinder misfire you may end up needing to swap the crank and cam sprockets, cam sensor, and crank sensor. since you used the JDM block you probably retained the JDM sensors and cam/crank gear.

 

i would say to swap the sensors first since those are easy, take one bolt and 5 minutes. but i also don't think you will find your problem there. it's more likely to be cam/crank gear related (though i'm not sure).

 

which brings up a related point - you really should install a new timing belt anyway. with age and not knowing how long this engine sat without running, you really don't want to risk the timing belt on an interference engine. if the timing belt breaks you will incur at least valve damage - maybe piston.

 

it's really not that hard, just pull the timing belt and swap the cam gears and the sprocket on the crank.

[mmmcelwey]

Thank you for all of the suggestions, and we will definately try them. My husband works out of town, so we will have to wait until tomorrow evening, but any and all suggestions are appreciated.

 

I have not actually pulled the codes yet... but did see that there is a way to do it with the green and black plugs under the driver dash, so I was going to try to do that myself this evening to see what codes it is throwing. We do not have an OBD reader.

 

The cam sensor had already been switched and we switched out the crank sensor last night, and it did help some, with cylinder 1, which started firing part of the time, but not consistent at all. Cylinder 2 was not affected at all by this switch. We also checked compression which was great, so we know that it has plenty of compression to fire.

 

We already put in a new timing belt and water pump with the engine, but thank you for the suggestion.

 

Last night he did say that he was going to try the crank and cam sprockets so that will be the first thing we do tomorrow.

 

What about the O2 sensor? I guess I'll know when I pull the codes...

 

Thanks so much for the ideas!

[davebugs]

For the money a cheap ODBII scanner is 50 bucks and will save you a ton of time on this project and in the future. But you'll only get codes if it actually tries to run.

 

Not to mention no frustration with finding and plugging in those goofy wires.

[idosubaru]

I picked up an OBDII scanner off ebay for $30-$40, absolutely worth every penny.

 

The O2 sensor won't be causing any of this. Subarus run perfect, with no noticeable change, with the O2 sensor completely removed.

 

There is a way for the O2 sensor to cause problems, but it's not what you're experiencing. If the O2 sensor wiring gets the plastic sheating warn off and grounds against something metal it can cause flakey things to happen. But to say that's rare is an understatement.