96 EJ22 same as 91 EJ22?

[benjileo]

About 4 years ago I bought a 1996 subaru legacy L for 500, replaced CV joints, gave it a tune-up and all was good to leave on a 200 mile trip. Just before I got home my car shut off at an intersection. I blew a head gasket or worse, I replaced a bad radiator, came to the forums to read any issues. I found a 1991 EJ22 for $100 and swapped it in, it never ran the same, milled a head, replaced a head gasket on one side to make things work.

Now I still have the parts from the 96, my 91 was leaking oil and coolant (not the side I had resurfaced) and I have it apart cleaning the heads. I want to just pull it all apart and rebuild the engine and not worry about pulling it apart again.

A few things I have noticed in my 91 head, the cam shows some wear or pitting in a few places, I used my 96 roller rockers with 91 cam and now thinking about using the 96 camshaft as well. Is that possible? Are there any differences in the short block with pistons, rods, bearings, crankshaft? Also after the head gaskets blew on the 96 I was going to have the heads milled but it looked like who ever had it before used a power sander and made deep grooves on the heads, so I went with the 91.

I just need to know if there are any differences, and what parts if any I can reuse out of the 96

[Legacy777]

Welcome to the BBS.

There are some minor differences between the 91 & 96 EJ22. As you mentioned and discovered the cams are different. Does the 96 have single port exhaust? That year is around the bubble year when that change took place.

As for other parts being different, there's likely going to be small changes here and there, but you can probably swap things around.

[Jessekrs123]

My father's second gen legacy 95 EJ22 has EGR. My first gen legacy 94 EJ22 does not.

[benjileo]

My exhaust was single port. I had to add a bung for the second oxygen sensor, and the 91 never had the egr port in the head so I had to weld one to the side of the exhaust. But for now I want to do a rebuild and use parts from the 96. will the 96 cams fit in the 91 head?

I read from a post that 96 pistons were forged, is this right? if they all interchange I want to check for specs and use the best parts.

[mike-tracy]

Sorry, no N/A EJ motors got forged pistons, only certain STI's did.