looking at replacing the engine in my my00 classic, found a good my97 engine. what are the differences and what problems may i come across?

cheers

 

You will need to use your own clynder heads and inlet manifold

 

Welcome. I wouldn't bother with this engine if I were you, especially if it's a complete long unit with heads, and a drop-in, plug and play replacement is what you are after.

As above your own inlet manifold simply won't fit the phase 1.5 heads, and you can't run an MY97 manifold/injectors/idle control/etc on your MY00 loom and ECU, so if you're determined to make it go in, you need to involve yourself in some potentially costly work.

You could, as has been suggested, strip the donor '97 engine down and use your existing heads. However you will then run into a (fiddly, but solvable) compression ratio issue, and it also volunteers you (or someone) for a stack of work doing the swap. Figure on a good £800 in labour if you pay someone to do it, and that could quickly turn into money down the drain given you're talking about a 13 year old replacement engine here. This option may not be any use to you if there's possibly a problem with your current heads anyway.

If you want an easy replacement, you need an MY99/MY00 EJ205 engine. MY01/02 WRX unit will do at a pinch. It might also help us to help you if we knew why you wanted to replace in the first place. Is your current one damaged/blown?

 

hi thanks for info chaps mine decided to spin its shells on number 2 so i got complete engine in bits at mo pondering which way to go dont really wana go any further than 450 for engine or rebuild so weighing up the options at mo keep missing out on my00 stuff

many thanks again
Dan

 

hi sorry to go on but what are the compression differances and what would be needed to change as i say i have everything apart from crank and one rod ?? im not shy of a bit of work (garage next to house )

cheers lads for any info
Dan

 

Phase 1/1.5 engines are quite different in detail design to phase 2 (i.e. MY99 onward). The principal difference as far as compression ratio is concerned are different deck height, piston and head volume. The older engine will use a 1.6mm head gasket, your MY00 one a 0.5mm one for example.

If you're adamant you want to carry on down that road then I daresay someone's already worked out the detail differences so Search is your friend.

Part of your problem you're dealing with is that £450 isn't really enough money to buy a decent replacement engine. You're greatly increasing your chances of ending up with an unwarranted piece of sh*t if that's your limit. As it is you're facing a stack of ballache trying to make a 97-00 chimaera work properly, even assuming the donor engine is tidy.

Under the circumstances, if you already have the original engine stripped and that money's as much as you can spend, and can do it all yourself, I'd suggest that the best way to spend it would be to leave the '97 unit alone, strip your own totally - bottom end and heads, clean ultra-thoroughly, examine carefully, and rebuild it with whatever new bits it needs. You're already looking at something like £130 for an oil cooler, possibly £100 for an oil pump, around £120 for bearing shells, so you will need the crank, pistons and heads to be undamaged for it to be possible within your budget.

You also need to put some thought/exam time into trying to determine the cause of the failure. Is it simple wear, for example, or was the bearing failure caused by det damage? If it was, what caused the det? The problem with doing all this yourself is that if you don't answer questions like that, it's far from unlikely you'll end up in the same boat in unfortunately short order.

 

thanks splitpin for the advice i just love soaking up others know how, i was only asking about the my97 so much cause i found a wrx import with 50 000 km on clock (not sure how true mind) in my local scrappy complete with vf series turbo etc but as its soo much work ill stay away i think, i know 450 not really enouth for one of these! only thing is only just paid for the car its self so dont have alot of cash at mo but am soooo desperate to get it going, as for the cause well im not overley sure at mo cause i brought the car like it but the chap i got it from had an uncontolalbe large right foot and think total ragging may be the answer ?? low oil may have been the other but will see the car pre f**ked was meant to have been pushing 340 bhp again how true ??? has gota few nic nacs on it like uprated hoses what looks like recon turbo or uprated (painted gold) ported headers full extust sys should be mapped ecu not sure sti intercooler magner thinggy leads not sure on what else as of yet but the engine was changed in 2004 by api and i did notice the clutch friction plate was worn down to rivets ill start taking bits to work and super cleaning/inspecting them next week i know you wont like me asking but what about regrinding the crank on just that one part if i could super clean it when back and also try get a custom made shell just to suit ?? sounds a bit rad but would think possible (not that im an expert engineer or anything) aslo if anyone knows the car would like to find the history if poss ?? uk spec wagon in dreaded but coming round to it met green plate W82 SRX many many thanks again just hope to get out of my boring passt est and into scooby soon

Dan

 

regrinding cranks is a frowned upon subject, but i for one would have mine done if the engine was for my own use, subaru themselves supply oversize bearings so i'm sure that they wouldn't supply them if you weren't meant to do it?