Hello. I just recently bought a used 1995 Impreza 1.8L with a 5-speed tranny and, as sad as it is for a suby, a front-wheel-drive drivetrain. The 1.8L engine has a little over 132,000 miles on it. I know that subarus will run until the sun explodes but I'm looking to swap that engine for something with more power. I'm either looking at attempting to drop either an SR20DET engine from the classic Nissan S-15 Silvia or sticking with Subaru and going with the twin-turbo EJ20DETT engine. If anyone has any comments or answers as to if the drop of either one of these engines would be logical/possible/feasable, please respond to this post or email me at TenMinuteSilence@Yahoo.com.


Thank you.

Shane

There is no such thing as a EJ20DETT

And the only twin turbo subaru motors that exist wont fit into an Impreza engine bay.

And swaping in other motors from other companies wont exactly be easy, next to impossible if that.

Subaru twin turbo is not called EJ20DETT, some people call it like that but its a total mistake.

Nobody on the earth have put SR20DET onto subaru and I wouldnt recomend doing it.
SR20DET from S15 will not fit in the chasis if you use Subaru transmission.
As you know Subaru motor is Boxer engine and the length is only 2 cylinder long.
If you use S15 transmission, youll pretty much construct the car from scratch and itll be FR.
If you use Infinity G20 transmission, itll be FWD but It is questionable if it even fits in the engine bay.
Either way, putting SR20DET is a major major work and the result in return is small.

Subaru twin turbo engine can be done with rather small modification.
The motor is called EJ20R and the car has twin turbo set up is Legacy GTB, and Legacy B4 RSK in Japan and some other countries. Twin turbo Subaru has never sold in US.
Once you get the motor, you can still use your FWD transmission, or you can convert to AWD. Its upto you, AWD will bolt on.
The mods you need to swap twin turbo motor is.. wiring, piping (uppipe), and crossmember swap I believe.

Thanks for the input. I know some sites call the twin turbo engine many different names. I found a site that has a very well priced twin turbo engine with a little over 60,000 miles on it. If you have any sites that would have decently priced uppipes and/or crossmember swaps let me know. Thank you again.

What site you purchasing yours from? I'm looking to swap an engine on my car instead of adding a pricey turbo...

EJ22 closed deck turbo motor from a 91-94 legacy with the Dual over head cames from a phase II EJ25. STI six speed. Thats what you want. But then again you have FWD so i would just start over with a new car.

Sounds like we have almost the same car with similar ideas. I'm on a dial-up connection so I can't just retrieve the link real fast. I posted a thread similar to your's about a week ago. Go into the forum index, go into the forums about the non-turbo EJ22 and EJ25 and look for the thread about a 95L Coupe swap, that's mine and some people have posted some good ideas there. If anyone out there has a quick connection, please post a link so it's a little easier to find. Good luck.

http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59613

pretty sure this is the one. Oh yeah i have a 93 L FWD but its a lovable ****ty subaru. worest in the line of imprezzas 1.8L AUTOMATIC!! yeah lowest on the food chain.

Anybody know if it would be possible to take the turbo items from a turbo legacy or wrx and put it onto a 1.8? I'm trying to find the cheapest way to get my car some power.

no, i dont believe that is an option. When i comes down to it, it just would not fit or be worth the trouble.

I wouldn't just slap a turbocharger on an engine with 130k on it already. Especially an EJ18.

Basically, there is no cheap way out of this.. your major options would be:

A) Complete swap to something like an EJ25 or an EJ25T if it even fits in older models (Then you'll probably have to change the entire drivetrain layout too, I may be wrong though)
B) If your keeping the engine and adding FI, you'll want to do a complete rebuild with beefed up internals to handle the boost (I doubt your rings are in good enough shape to handle much, if any boost)
C) Random custom engine swap. Expensive, VERY expensive.

I'd just save up your pennies and be patient till you can buy a WRX, or whatever else floats your boat.

I wouldn't just slap a turbocharger on an engine with 130k on it already. Especially an EJ18.

Normally I would agree with you, until I found out that EJ18's are only $200 from the local recycler :p

you can go to the junk yard and pick up a legacy turbo crossmember

then go to ebay and buy a turbo, intercooler and manifold or just custom intercooler and all other turbo parts needed for a total cost of about 2500

most boosted EJ18s die because of high EGTs or leaning out because of tune and the mileage has little to do with how the motor will handle the boost because at 130k mile is not even half of the life of the motor when they last for 500k before needing to be rebuilt

You could slap a turbo on the ej18 (i have one too), but you would need fuel management and some maintenance extras. I was going to get a new sube, but I don't like the looks of any of em (post 2000), so i figured i'd maybe add FI to the block. I have 130K as well and my lifters are noisy, so I was going to spend a little for a rebuild, but thought; Why bother going that route when i could just swap in another engine. May be more expensive, but I shouldn't have to worry about Inspections, and I'd have more mileage to play with.

Speaking of which, I heard there's a shop that does custom swaps ($$$ for all that wiring), anyone know the name or site?

swaping is cheap if you can do most of the work yourself
as far as the wiring goes i think installing full engine management is easier than put the stock harness in but it is also expensive to buy

i would strongly recommend going to a built awd tranny because the fwd tranny has a smaller input shaft that will most likely twist in half if you put down much more power than stock
i have seen places that give you all the parts of the stito bring it up to spec(ie the engine, tranny, rear diff, brakes and suspension) but the price is high at 5k and up for a v4 sti much more for v7 and v8 because of 6spd and brembos
because that gives you 90% of the parts you need(because your fwd you need different gas tank and rear crossmember and a few other parts)