So I've gotten my car (02 WRX Wagon) to Stage 2 (TBE + uppipe + Accessport), with a few other mods as well as handling upgrades to go with it, plus an RA Gearset in my 5MT. I was looking to to get a VF34 and go to stage 2.5, but it seems that is so last year and all the hip kids are doing engine swaps. My car is a fun daily driver with 60K miles that I also want to take autocrossing more after I get one of the evo classes under my belt.

With that in mind, I'd like to consider an engine swap as an option over a turbo upgrade. I know even after selling off my old engine, uppipe and accessport it still will be expensive, but half of this is the fun of learning right? I think that my transmission will hold up to all this, so I was not looking to do a 6MT upgrade at this point (plus it raises the price from $5K to $10K or so). Oh, and I can't go buy an STi, because they refuse to make a wagon So my question is what engine would be good for me to consider, v7 w/ vf34, v8 twin scroll, US 2.5STi or just stick with a turbo upgrade? I'd want to get the whole thing, turbo, ecu and all.

This is still pretty preliminary and I have been doing searches and reading the forums to learn more. I guess sometimes its easier to sort it out with a direct question.

 

Yeah, I knew there was a big price gap, I am just trying to figure out if the performance gap makes it worth it too. Plus I assume I could get at least $1500-2000 selling my engine, ecu, accessport and whatever bits bits come out of my WRX. So $1110 to $3000. Still a big jump. Anyway, if I were to decide to go the engine swap route, what would people recommend for reliability, auto-x performance and fun? I'd probably be putting the thing in myself with the help of friends and lots of forum postings so at least I'd save on labor.