02-06 WRX or STi engine into 96 EJ22 Legacy?

[USDM96SLI]

I have seen this done before but haven't found alot of information on what was done. I am interested in finding out what was involved in doing this sort of swap. I know the motor and tranny itself is a pretty much straight forward drop in but my confusion comes in with

1) Merging ecu harness's, if its as simple as just getting the matching ecu for the motor your putting in and merging the wires under the pass side dash or if its much more complicated than that.

2) Drivetrain and rear diff. If the stock legacy components can support twice the amount of power, or if the wrx/sti ones have to be swapped in. If so, is it a direct swap to the legacy chassis or not? I know axles have to be changed as well but when the motor/tranny goes in, do the axles bolt up from the wrx to the legacy as well?

I am finding wrx motors and trannys for very cheap, and have always wanted to properly boost my legacy.
Any advice would be great. Hopefully this can be useful information for other legacy guys as well.

thanks
-Nate

[MonstarMotorsports]

Hoookaayyyy. Here we go...

First off. This is going to save you about 2893723429873 troubles along the way.

BUY A COMPLETE SWAP. don't piece it together from here and there... if you cant afford it all at once, keep saving. its going to cost you more in the long run if you dont.

The second rule to live by. the more complete the swap is, and the less mix matching of cars... again its going to save you 3298723487 billion troubles. and take a lot less time.

Lets start with the motor.

EJ205,255, and 257 Will all fit into the car no problems. You just need the turbo crossmember to clear the different style of headers the turbo motors use. anything from a 02-07 wrx/sti will work. The forester XT crossmembers should work as well. (not positive about the legacy GT crossmembers, but good chance they would as well too) and of course, any of the motors will bolt to any of the transmissions. Just make sure you run the correct flywheel and clutch for whatever transmission you use. The problem with switching crossmembers is the steering racks. you can either modify the crossmember to keep your stock rack, or put in the rack that fits that crossmember, and possibly have to modify the tierod ends, or the linkage. or you might get lucky and it will all just fit... Depends on what car its coming out of, and what car its going into...

Wiring:

merging harnesses IMO is the worst route you can possibly go. (although lots of people do it) Not only is it time consuming, confusing, pain in the ass, and not easy for a nooby to do. it makes troubleshooting later down the road a bigger pain in the ass too. When it comes to wiring, pull the entire dash out of the car, pull the entire bulk head harness out of the car, and take the new harness and make it fit in your legacy. Its a HELL of a lot easier to make a wire bend in a new direction than it is to try to look at 2 very confusing wiring diagrams and cut, splice, solder, tape, and merge 200 wires together. Its not fun. Putting in the entire uncut harness is extremely simple. When you finish up, the only rewiring you'll have to do is much simpler wiring for less important things. Door locks and power windows is pretty much garunteed, maybe head lights and radiator fans, and possibly hvac controls and possibly gauge cluster. But again... heres a good example of what im talking about. say you have a wrx harness, but your legacy gauge cluster... more work to merge them... but if the swaps more complete and you have a wrx harness with wrx gauge cluster, just saved your self a lot of wiring work (since now its plug and play) but wrx cluster might not fit well in legacy dash... so more work... but if you have a wrx dash to swap in too... less work making the gauge cluster fit, it becomes bolt in... but making the dash fit takes work.... see where im going with this? at some point you just gotta figure out where its going to be easiest for you to quit swaping, and start merging...
So when you buy a motor swap. make sure it comes with the complete UNCUT harness with all its sensors and boxes, and fuses, ecu, etc...


Drivetrain:
This is the pain in the ass.

Any subaru 5 speed transmission will bolt into your car. (they are all 99% identicle) They all use the same crossmember/mount with the exception of the 6 speed (it has its own crossmember/mount that will still bolt into your car), and the lifted models like the outback/forester. (they are the exact same except they have a 1" spacer on them for the lift) Im assuming your already a 5 speed. so just use your crossmember with whatever transmission you go with.

believe it or not, a legacy 5 speed will hold up every bit as well as a wrx 5 speed. People can argue all they want. But in reality, ALL subaru 5 speeds hold up about the same. (the 06+ wrx's are probably the best 5 speed out there, but they still break) Drive it nice... it wont break. drive it like a douche, its going to break. I ran a stage 2 STi swap on a RS tranny with a RS clutch for 10's of thousands of miles. The USED clutch that already had 40k miles on it, finally started slipping at about 4k rpms under a hard pull after about 20k miles of STi power. The head gaskets on the motor blew before the trans ever had the chance to start grinding. So a drivetrain swap isn't needed. And unless you have the money for a STi 6 speed. I wouldnt waste money putting wrx under it. If your going to break the legacy stuff, chance's are your going to break the wrx stuff too. and a legacy 5 speed is about $800 cheaper than a wrx 5 speed.... even if the wrx is slightly stronger, you can go threw 4 legacys transmissions for the cost of 1 wrx transmission. You'll be coming out ahead in the end if it comes to that... Promise. How ever, put the 6 speed in there, and never worry another day in your life about breaking it. Best money you'll ever spend.

Just keep in mind, If your running legacy drivetrain, its not a race car.... Don't go out launching it, doing clutch drops, or rallying the piss out of it doing cookies (even in grass and gravel.) and then wonder why your cars broken down so fast. Drive it like a normal human being, mash the throttle getting on the on ramp, do freeway pulls, whatever i dont care. It will hold it. The drag racing from a dig is what kills transmissions faster than anything.

Drivetrain swaps are where the rule: "swap everything dont mix and match" comes from.
When it comes to gear ratios, axle splines, hubs, etc, theres SO many variations, it just becomes a huge mess. If you want a 06 wrx transmission, then buy the rear diff, hubs, brakes and axles to go with it. It's going to make life easier down the road. If you start mixing and matching, well good luck. You'll be making post, okay guys i have this this and this.. what do i need for this to make it work?

STi drivetrain swaps again will bolt right in. You just need all the parts to go with it. subframe, crossmember, etc. hell even the controll arms can switch over. Once again the more complete of a swap you buy... the easier your lifes going to be.


Why i say make things as complete as possible from the same car... Troubleshooting, breaking, fixing, it makes life easier if its from everything.
because you will have to fix it someday...

if you can walk into a dealer and say, treat it like a 2004 wrx and fix it... bam, super simple. Its done.
But if you have to say, well the motors a 2004 wrx, the wiring is from 2005 wrx merged with a 98 legacy harness and a 2004 ecu, the trans is a 1995 legacy with 04 wrx axles, and a 02 forester rear end, and a 2.2 impeza clutch with 2.5 outback flywheel, and the brakes are off a 2006 wrx... blah blah blah... see how it gets hard? you have to remember everything and make sure your getting the right shit. and making sure what your going to buy is still going to work with the other component. when everythings from the same... its a lot more simple. less head ache. less guessing.


Part of my business is selling subaru swaps. Just to give you an idea on prices, for when your shopping around:

Motorswaps:
Include Complete motor/turbo/intercooler
Uncut harness/ECU/Fuse Panel/ETC
Crossmember/mounts and a Radiator if its available
tipically the only thing you have to buy to complete the motor swap is downpipe, fluids, and misc nickle and dime stuff (and some times a radiator)

2.0 WRX motor swap - $2,000
2.5 WRX motor swap - $3500
2.5 STi motor swap - $3700

Drivetrain swaps:
Include Transmission, shifter, starter, clutch, clutch fork, master/slave cylinder, flywheel, axles, driveshaft, rear diff, crossmembers/subframes, wiring
(everything you'll need for a 5 speed swap except possibly hubs, depending on what its going into)

02-05 WRX $1200
06-07 WRX $1700
04-07 STi $3700


So hope that gives ya some insight into it.
Any other questions, just ask.

[r3v_v3ng3]

Just like MonstarMotorsports stated. Buy a wreck car and as complete as possible. Also keep in mind that you might have to drop your gas tank and switch it to the one your planning to get. Ex: my bro's car is a 94 impreza and we switched all the wiring/interior to a 99 and also had to use the 99 gas tanks (different sensors inside the tank)

[USDM96SLI]

Thank you for your awesome write up! I have saved it, just incase I ever need to refer to it! It has got me thinking about possible options and keeping them open. Thank you again, I really got the clarification I needed. Im considering many options, but probably not in the near future. I have couple of friends with WRX's and one of them might be parting it out, he got hit so that might be my option.

[NickTej22]

Damn nice write up. And you sell the swap stuff?

Sent from my SGH-T679 using Tapatalk 2

[MonstarMotorsports]

Welcome guys.
I love seeing people swaping cars. And i'll always be there to offer as much insight as possible, and hope to not scare them out of it lol. The swaps only as hard as you make it.
and i get really sick of hearing others trying to talk people out of swaps with stuff like: "sell it and buy something turbo its cheaper" or "swaps are really hard and expensive"
Completely untrue. swaps really arent that hard if your slightly mechanically inclined, or at very least a total noob with lots of time to leave your car down and be able to learn and work your way threw it. My first STi swap took me about 2 months, that was also the first time i ever pulled and re-installed any subaru motor. I was mechanically inclined, but no where near a good mechanic or extremely knowledgeable. I just dove in knowing it was sink or swim. Now granted most of that was 2 months was waiting for money/parts, but some of it was learning and forcing my way threw it and asking questions on forums trying to figure out what worked and what didnt. By the end of that swap, i learned so much my second one was done in 2 weeks. Now i can have em done inside a week working on it by my self.

and they can be done for relatively cheap. Most the time cheaper than selling your car and buying a wrx.
literally anyone should be able to swap a BD legacy with a 2.0 wrx swap for less than $2500. so say you cars worth 5k, swaps 2500, good luck finding a decent wrx for 7500. So blew that argument out of the water right there.

Im at a little bit of an unfair advantage given my resources, but i could literally wrx swap my outback rally car right now, and MAKE money on swapping it. By the time i sold my fresh motor, and everything else off the wrecked wrx i'd drag home for the motor, I'd be putting a good chunk of change in my pocket to drop a wrx motor in. Swaps are just sooo expensive for some people :) haha
Just keep in mind, if you swap while your current stuff is still good, thats money right back in your pocket to help offset the cost.

and yes Nick, I buy WRX and STi's at insurance auctions and part em out.

[98legacygt22]

Welcome guys.
I love seeing people swaping cars. And i'll always be there to offer as much insight as possible, and hope to not scare them out of it lol. The swaps only as hard as you make it.
and i get really sick of hearing others trying to talk people out of swaps with stuff like: "sell it and buy something turbo its cheaper" or "swaps are really hard and expensive"
Completely untrue. swaps really arent that hard if your slightly mechanically inclined, or at very least a total noob with lots of time to leave your car down and be able to learn and work your way threw it. My first STi swap took me about 2 months, that was also the first time i ever pulled and re-installed any subaru motor. I was mechanically inclined, but no where near a good mechanic or extremely knowledgeable. I just dove in knowing it was sink or swim. Now granted most of that was 2 months was waiting for money/parts, but some of it was learning and forcing my way threw it and asking questions on forums trying to figure out what worked and what didnt. By the end of that swap, i learned so much my second one was done in 2 weeks. Now i can have em done inside a week working on it by my self.

and they can be done for relatively cheap. Most the time cheaper than selling your car and buying a wrx.
literally anyone should be able to swap a BD legacy with a 2.0 wrx swap for less than $2500. so say you cars worth 5k, swaps 2500, good luck finding a decent wrx for 7500. So blew that argument out of the water right there.

Im at a little bit of an unfair advantage given my resources, but i could literally wrx swap my outback rally car right now, and MAKE money on swapping it. By the time i sold my fresh motor, and everything else off the wrecked wrx i'd drag home for the motor, I'd be putting a good chunk of change in my pocket to drop a wrx motor in. Swaps are just sooo expensive for some people :) haha
Just keep in mind, if you swap while your current stuff is still good, thats money right back in your pocket to help offset the cost.

and yes Nick, I buy WRX and STi's at insurance auctions and part em out.


I'm in the middle of doing this swap too, it's pretty straight forward except for the wiring. I have been piecing mine together and with the engine, heads, turbo, headers, intake, 3 inch catback I have spent around $700.. so it's def worth sourcing a complete totaled car. The wiring is the only thing that confuses me but I'll figure it out. Car has been in the garage with the engine out for 6 months now.