Redundant Engine Issues

[Gavin_XVI]

I've had a rough history with the engine in my 97 Legacy L Wagon, it has the EJ22 in it. I bought my Legacy with a blown head gasket without knowing it (yeah, I didn't know much about cars at the time), but we found out pretty soon after we bought the car. We had the engine overhauled by a mechanic who had the work outsourced by who knows who. That job took them about two months to do and it worked for about a month then blew up. After the fourth time that happened (it was under warranty), the mechanic we sent it to did the work himself. After that, the car was working good for awhile, but about six months later the engine started to have random misfires, then all of the sudden no power at all then the car would not start after that. The timing belt slipped somehow, so I replaced that, all of the pulleys, and the tensioner, but I didn't see anything wrong with any of those parts. The car started after replacing those parts but idled so bad it was painful to see. After that, we sent the car back to the same guy again to rebuild the heads and install them, but they have had the car for over 4 months now. I don't know why it's taking so long, but every time I call he says "it will be done next week" basically. I don't know what to do, honestly. I can't figure out what is causing all of these problems either, in particular why my belt slipped in the first place. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ctbrighton]

Personally i would source a used ej22 and throw it in, stop wasting your time with this shop

[Go Mifune]

I noticed in one of your other posts that you have 300k on the car. 2.2s are stout engines but everything has a lifespan. I wish someone impartial could take a look. If you can, take it to a Subaru only repair shop. We have several in Denver but then I've been at stop signs where all eight cars were Subarus.;)

[Gavin_XVI]

Personally i would source a used ej22 and throw it in, stop wasting your time with this shop

Yeah, that would be ideal. I'm having a hard time finding an EJ22 of the same year that isn't JDM though, and I want it to be street legal. Do you know if a 3rd generation EJ22 would swap in without having to change the ECU or anything? Or better yet, if an EJ20 can swap in with little work I'd rather have one of those engines I think.

[Gavin_XVI]

I noticed in one of your other posts that you have 300k on the car. 2.2s are stout engines but everything has a lifespan. I wish someone impartial could take a look. If you can, take it to a Subaru only repair shop. We have several in Denver but then I've been at stop signs where all eight cars were Subarus.;)

Yeah, plus it was abused and poorly maintained before we bought it.
I know some people from school that can probably help me and I did find a couple Subaru specialists, but they are all far away.
Haha, that's Subaru meet status!

[Muse]

There's not really a third-generation EJ22 that I know of. As far as I know, the third-gen cars only came with the EJ251 and the EZ30, and you'd need to do a lot of swapping to make either of them work. I'd second the motion to swap in a used EJ22. If you can find an OBDII EJ22 from a '95, you'll get a non-interference motor that should (SHOULD, I'm not 100% positive on this) swap right in. Similar output and everything, but much greater peace of mind.

[Gavin_XVI]

Ah, I see, maybe the engine I was looking at was labeled with the wrong year or I read something wrong.
I would like to install a non-interference engine, but as far as I know, in California you can't swap an engine that is an older year than the chassis.

[Muse]

was it from a Legacy or an Impreza? Pretty sure they used the 2.2 in the Impreza later than they did in the Legacy.

[Go Mifune]

According to cars101.com, 2002 was the last year for the 2.2 in the Impreza. I've also heard that they won't let you use an older engine in California. Admittedly, I've heard thousands of things that are flat wrong. A phase II might not be a plug and play swap but others here will know the real story. There's a guy on the SLi Facebook page Kenny J. Morales that I like and he might help with info. I don't know his name on here.

[ctbrighton]

dumb question, how does California know what year motor you install? Dumb but serious question.

[Go Mifune]

No, good question. Here's the page http://www.bar.ca.gov/Industry/Engine_Change_Guidelines.html
but how do they know?

[Gavin_XVI]

was it from a Legacy or an Impreza? Pretty sure they used the 2.2 in the Impreza later than they did in the Legacy.
I don't remember, it was a long time ago. That makes sense though, maybe it was an Impreza engine.

[Gavin_XVI]

dumb question, how does California know what year motor you install? Dumb but serious question.

Not a dumb question, I'm not sure either.
I think they know because after the swap you have to take it to a "smog referee" who does a full inspection on the engine you swapped in. I'm sure with some engines it's easier for them to tell then others.