I don't even own this car, yet.
A guy I know was driving this car and it just died, and I posted it up here. I helped him list it in some local Subaru groups and while it generated interest, nobody bought it.
His apartment complex is putting a bit of pressure at him to get rid of it, even though it's still tagged and insured.
He told me if I show up with $100 and make it go away, it's mine. It may be my first Challenge entry.
That's him going to unlock the car.
More details as they happen.
that'd sure give you a decent amount of money too spend on upgrades, will definitely need to drop some lbs.
I will help you in any way I can.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Thanks! I'm going to follow the "build it so I might want to keep it after the Challenge" philosophy you told me about. The goal is to get it running first; I'm hoping it is just a timing belt kit.
That's my favorite generation of legacy. I hope for your sake that a timing belt kit and a little TLC is all it needs. Regardless you have plenty of budget room left for the $2,000 all-in class!
That being a plain legacy L, it should have the SOHC EJ22, which is a very stout little engine. The early DOHC EJ25s found in the Outbacks and Legacy GTs were not, and were the origin of the Subaru head gasket memes.
In reply to flat4_5spd :
Yep, the VIN indicates it's got the 2.2. It's why I'm willing to take a chance on it.
In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :
If the 2.2 is garbage how bad is it to Flat 6 swap it
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
That's... exactly what I was planning to do.
It looks like I may be picking this up next week.
I always regarded this gen of Legacy as the "before they got ugly" generation.
It's sure not much of a risk at $100.
This POS is now sitting in my driveway. Other than move it from Point A to Point B, no work has been done on it besides the following:
1. Putting air in the tires, so it could be moved. Each tire was at about 12 PSI.
2. Checking the oil, which is is a half a quart low.
3. Hooking the battery to the charger. It's now sitting at a whopping 1% charged!
Total budget so far:
$100.
I have spare 5x100 wheels and round, black treaded tires for you if needed.
I may, the tires aren't great.
This morning the battery was fully charged. I didn't have much time at all, so grabbed the key and cranked it. The starter engaged very briefly and all the lights went out until I returned the key to the run position. I tried to crank it a second time, same thing.
Not sure if there is a short or what. I'm going to reseat the terminals later today and see what happens. If reseating the terminals doesn't improve things, I may also grab a breaker bar and see if the engine turns. Being a non-interference engine, I can't see why it wouldn't, but hey, I can do it without getting dirty.
That issue for me was a corroded out ground cable. Check all grounds and connections, particularly at the battery and starter
In reply to camopaint0707 :
Not yet, maybe never.
I have stumbled onto a Subaru deal. I'm contemplating if I want to figure out the different phases of 2.5 engines or look elsewhere. Michael Crawford has expressed interest in going halvsies on it for interior and body parts for post-Challenge Baja beautification.
I should chime in, as I'm exactly the kind of idiot that would Phase2 swap a Phase 1 car.
I had a 98 Outback Sport with an EJ22EZ that munched the valves, and I swapped that over to a EJ223. Basically all the sensors are different, and you can't just swap over the intake manifolds. So I wound up rewiring ~75% of the pins at the ECU.
It was by far the most amount of work for the least amount of horsepower I've ever done, do not recommend. 
Do double check years on your EJ22, the later Phase1 motors upped compression to be interference, and I think most Phase 2 motors are: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_EJ_engine
In reply to rallyxPOS13 :
This is a 96, so it's an oddball year with the non-interference engine. The Phase2 swap would likely be a full engine/ECU/wiring harness swap if I do it. Labor is "free," parts are not. =)
mitch5
New Reader
10/31/23 1:02 p.m.
I have a bit of experience with the ej22 due to my vanagon swap and a few subies
Your engine should be a phase 1 ej22. Good news is they are non interference, bad news is you can't reuse you fuel injection for a newer engine without major modifications.
the issue is the intake, it's a different length so you cant just drop it on a 2.5 block ect without modifying. One popular option though is to build a Franken motor, where you build a high compression engine using the smaller ej22 heads on a ej25d block. If you find a good block this is a cheap option
that being said if the ej22 is thrashed and a good deal comes up on a ej25 then you can just rewire. All the Subarus before 2005ish? When they started encoding the key to the ecu are very simple to wire up.
mitch5 said:
One popular option though is to build a Franken motor, where you build a high compression engine using the smaller ej22 heads on a ej25d block. If you find a good block this is a cheap option
BINGO!
The parts car I mentioned above has a good 2.5 block. Building a frankenmotor is the plan to get it working again. If that doesn't work out, I'll have the ECU, wiring, etc. out of the parts car to use to figure something out.
mitch5
New Reader
11/1/23 12:37 p.m.
BINGO!
The parts car I mentioned above has a good 2.5 block. Building a frankenmotor is the plan to get it working again. If that doesn't work out, I'll have the ECU, wiring, etc. out of the parts car to use to figure something out.
That's the route I took in my vanagon, Sti ej257 short block with ej22 ported heads. That netted me a safe 9.5:1 compression. The goal in my van is reliability though.
I think with a ej25d you can get close to 12:1. One piece of advice I would give is to buy the cometic franken head gaskets unless you absolutely need a different thickness. To get an oem gasket to work you have to do a bunch of trimming to the hg to get the coolant holes lined up. It's a real pain on mls gaskets.
I will say my engine is real torquey down low but runs out of air above 4K due to the way smaller ej22 valves. If your goal is all out power I would get the ej22 running then sell and swap in a complete ej25 with aggressive cams.
