wrx engine without turbo / downpipe for $450... get it?

[d1giPhux]

i just talked to someone locally around here who has a wrx engine out of an 02 with 140k miles on it and he said he would sell me the engine without the turbo / downpipe for $450. Seems almost TOO good to be true.. but he says its because a buddy of his sold him another lower mileage engine for really cheap and he just swapped it out.

Would it be worth buying? If I was going to do a swap.. or have someone put the engine in for me.. what would I be looking at in cost?

Dropping the engine in.. i might be able to have someone help me out.. but I'm not sure all that would entail.

Really I'm just looking at this like 'wow.. maybe i could have a wrx engine in the car for under $2k'..

What do you guys think? What else would I need to get? What other costs to consider? Sorry for beating a dead horse. Thanks!

[Reason]

Do you really have to ask this?? You know the answer already.

[d1giPhux]

Yeah, but I'm mostly asking for some ideas how NOT to get burned. If he doesnt have any compression check papers, or anything.. what can i look for? Any suggestions here?

Also, I'm assuming I would need the engine wiring harness, turbo x-member, ecu, full exhaust, and what else to do the swap? Sucks.. i have no clue about doing this stuff myself.. but hopefully I can figure some out along the way.

Would it be wise to dis-assemble the engine / replace all the seals if i DID get it for this cheap? how much insurance would that put on the engine lasting longer? How much you think it would cost?

Just asking general questions / suggestions here.

[d1giPhux]

bump.

[Airgne]

if its only less trubo and pipe, i would get it. after i got it i would rebuild it bottom up.

[Huffer]

I'd recommend a rebuild on it if it's not compression tested. You'd basically be buying a motor to recondition, so it might cost you the same in the end anyway, given that you'd definitely want to check the condition of the vac lines, seals etc.

You'd also want to ask how long it's been sitting...

[StatGSR]

does it have any of the wiring????

[d1giPhux]

I asked about wiring, I'm not really sure yet. He said he swapped another engine into his car.. so.. probably not.

I know I would need to get a full wiring harness, x-member, ecu, down pipe, turbo, gas tank (if i really wanted no codes),

I could probably pick all that stuff up for around another $900 or so.. and then be good to swap it in. Dunno if im missing anything in that list. Only crappy part is.. I need to find someone to help me swap the engine in.. which.. may be hard.

I saw someone on nasioc a while back selling an already merged legacy / wrx harness.. which would be AWESOME to find.. that way i could just do the whole swap with a friend.

If not.. id have to pay someone to do the wiring.

I dunno if its really worth it.. might be a cheap way to get a faster car tho! hah.

[DOOK]

it's not hard to do a compression test and you should be able to rent a compression tester at an autoparts store ifyou don't have one... really simple to do.

[d1giPhux]

^ Thats what I was thinking .. but.. doesnt the engine have to be ran before doing a compression test? The engine is already out of the car.

[decke48]

just spin the crank with a breaker bar. should give you a good idea of the compression.

[rougeben83]

^ Thats what I was thinking .. but.. doesnt the engine have to be ran before doing a compression test? The engine is already out of the car.

optimally yes, but I guess you can do it cold - it may throw off your numbers a bit.

Wiring merges are pretty specific - like certain model years have specific wiring harnesses that needs the same year ECU and such (AFAIK for example, 02-03 wrx harness will work with any ecu for 02-03, 04 wiring harness is specific to 04 and 05 to 05 only, etc) and I'm not sure how interchangeability is with wiring harnesses for the Legacy. Safest bet is to use the wiring harness already on your car (more down time, I know, but sending it off to ECS to do the merge for you would be money well spent).

[pdawg]

do it