Sorry to impose on the i-Club boards here, but I am one side of a heated debate concerning the Impreza. I've previously raced a '95 Cavalier in autocross, and some of the best 'crossers out were rollin' Imprezas and were i-Club members. All the guys were pretty cool, and I received no flack at all for driving a Cavalier. I figured this would be a great place to get the information I seek.

Anyway, on to the point... I run a Cavalier owners' mailing list. A guy on the list wants to swap an "import" motor into his '93 Cavalier. At first I thought he was going to use a Honda motor. He then says he's gonna use a motor from a Lancer or an Impreza. I explained to him that the transmission for an Impreza wouldn't fit his Cavalier because the boxer is longitudinally mounted. He claims the Impreza motor he's wanting to buy (for $700) is from a FWD Impreza. Upon being told there was no such beast, he shared this: http://www.cars101.com/impreza_archi...1993%20impreza
Now... I'm not the most knolwedgable person when it comes to Scoobies, but I know they have the best AWD system in the world for one reason: they don't screw around with anything but AWD systems.
Ultimately, I'm not out to "win" this little debate. I simply have to know, for my own self-gratification, if there ever was a FWD Impreza (or any other model of Scoobie for that fact).

TIA

BLAZN
1988 Chevy Caprice 9C1
15.455 @ 87.87MPH
212000 miles, 4 pistons blowing by,
carb badly tuned

 

i believe that there was a time before subaru/fhi made it a policy to only sell AWD vehicles into the united states. i definitely recall FWD legacys at least.

 

in the mid 90s there was offered a fwd impreza L model

that link you posted is correct. As far as I know though, that is the only fwd car that was made by subaru. And yes, I have seen one in person.

 

All Subarus made 96 and later are/were AWD. Before that there were FWD Imprezas, Legacys, and SVX's. However, the engine orientation on those was still longitudinal.

 

As much as i love the horazontally apposed four.... I think he is wasting his time... the only way he will get decent power outta the lancer or impreza motor is if he turbos it.... at that point he would be much better off finding a echotech transmission and finding a wrecked saturn redline and yank the super charged echotech outta that. ....
I think it would be a pain to put an H4 into a cav.. simply because on the subarus they are longatudinal and there is no transfer case running upfront like they do with most awd cars... the half shafts are just located too far back. that would be my guess

 

And welcome, by the way.......

 

Ok, there were tons of FWD subarus. Every subaru is FWD based. There is the xt, the gl/dl/gl10s, the justy, svx, early imprezas, early legacies. Here is the issue though... Not only is the engine longitudinally mounted, but that means the engine also has to be in front of the front axles. it would be impossible to mount in a cavalier. I.e. it would cost thousands. Like others have said, your friend should just drop in an engine that will fit, like an ecotec or the new ion engine. Good luck!


Oh, and, it doesnt matter if the engine is from a FWD subie. It's still basically the same transmission, with some hardware missing, like a rear output shaft and viscous coupling.

 

First, I'd like to thank everyone for being so open and not flying off at the handle because a non-Scoobie driver has jumped onto the i-Club forum. Truthfully, I have a lot of respect for the Scoobies and I would fully enjoy putting a Impreza WRX STi through it's paces.

Anyway... I have definately learned something today. I have honestly never seen a FWD Scoobie. I see I was wrong about that part, but you guys have still managed to help me with my argument. I knew there would be no way a guy could drop a Boxer into a Cavalier.

Thanks again.

 

To all you on here, Im the bright one that wanted to go this swap, thanks for explaining more about this. I knew some about what i was getting into, but when it comes to moving the imagery of the front end im not doing it.

Thanks again

Emmett

"Feel free to give me any ideas about what you'd think would be good for it, this car will be stock on he outside by the way."

 

The Ecotec is a pretty stout motor so I've heard. Didn't Lingenfelter build a 7 second Cav using the Ecotec as a foundation?

 

yeah but you cant realy use that as a comparrison... because when it comes to GM Lingenfelter is as close to god as it gets!!
I have always been impressed with the supercharged echotechs... Im just pi$$ed that they put them in such dogs.. whats with the stupid valocity drive B$ they do in the saturn redlines...
No! its not right i say.. Your are much better off finding a getrag manual tranny with the torsion diff they had in the acheva CSX?? I forgot what model it was but it was one heck of a transmission... I think it will bolt up?... I know the high output quad four engines were close to the echotech.
I kinda always wanted to take an old crappy geo metro and throw a supercharged echo tech in it... i think that would be plain evil!!

 

I used to have a 93 Impreza L FWD auto. It sucked and thats all i have to say.

 

I had a 1990 Legacy and yup it was front wheel drive. While it was front wheel drive the transmission was the same as found on an AWD Legacy, just no drive shaft coming out the back. You would have to do a lot of fabricating to get it to work in a cavalier and the weight distribution would be horrible.

 

I have a 1988 Subaru Justy DL. FWD and 3 cylinder and a hatchback!

 

blazn, there is a hawaii member that has/had a FWD his name is shaggy and his car is currently getting the AWD treatment for info on his car click here.

everyone has touched on some good cars but don't forget the cars before gen-x...
growin up my dad had 3 subies(brat, dl wagon both 4wd) and the infamous GL sedan which was FWD with 4WD model

this pic was found on the subaru high mileage club website



aloha from the summit of *-^-Mauna Kea-^-*