1994 legacy ej22t swap to 1997 Impreza L

[Backwoodssubie97]

Hello all. New to the site and hoping offer and acquire any knowledge parts etc. Waited 3 years and finally found a donor for my Impreza. 22b has always been a dream of mine was looking for any information and advice on doing a clean swap. I think I have everything figured out and ready but I'm afraid wiring will cause an issue. I am also going to part out the 94 SS if anyone would be interested in anything.

[mike-tracy]

Welcome to the site! If you're not a wiring guru, you can mail off both the impreza and 94ss harness to Iwire and they send you back a plug and play one. Otherwise you'll be making a spreadsheet of every pinout for both cars, and merging the wires you think you'll need.

I'm not an Iwire promoter, just have seen way too many people mess with wiring for a year or multiple years trying to troubleshoot issues.

Also, do you have emissions checks in your area? The swap definitely wont pass since you're going from OBD2 to OBD1.

If emissions is an issue, or even if they're not, i'd recommend an 02-05 US wrx wiring swap, and you can bolt the 22T shortblock to the wrx heads and not only have a fully tunable WRX ecu (the 22t ecu is not tunable), but the wrx heads flow significantly more air than the 22t heads. Plus the car will stay OBD2 compliant.

[Backwoodssubie97]

I have all the materials and know how to do the wiring but this is exactly the reason I wanted to check here! A few questions though. I am assuming I'll need the whole works from the 02-05 WRX correct? Will i need the heater control, speedo, etc from the WRX as well? Love to have no CEL and no emissions here but I want it right

[Backwoodssubie97]

My goal is to keep this looking as stock as possible. A sleeper I guess you would call it. Also where is a good place to look for the wiring heads etc? Maybe trade some SS parts or something with someone? BTW thank you

[mike-tracy]

You would only be merging inputs/outputs from the ecu, so you'd retain full functionality of all the car's other systems such as power locks, windows, heater controls, etc.

You'd need the whole dash harness and ecu, plus a complete wrx engine. Hopefully you can find one with rod knock or similar.

I understand the desire to use what you have, and so I get it if you still wanted to merge the SS's harness instead. But I guarantee (from personal experience) that the 160hp, to maybe 200hp using all the tricks, the 22t will make on the stock hardware will leave you wanting more over time.

[Backwoodssubie97]

Trust me I'm completely on board with rx goodies! Just ordered how thing would plug in as far as the regular stuff, heater etc. I will need the intake and exhaust also? Thinking maybe the RX o2 sensors in the 94 exhaust might work and curious if the header pipe from 94 will be direct fit to the 02 heads. I've be running and building the stock 2.2 cars for many years. Turbo-chargered and this big a swap is new to me so that is why I come to the experts lol.

[mike-tracy]

When you do the wiring merge, you'll choose to keep the heater control wiring & plugs and anything else on the car you want.

[Backwoodssubie97]

I have an opportunity to buy an 05 WRX smashed bad but runs and drives so I will have all I need. Only concern though. Manufacturer date is 12-04, an 05, but with the different front is it still what I need? Thanks

[originalcyn]

Doesn't the model year for USDM start in like September or something? So a legacy manufactured in October of 93 would be a model year 94 and so on.

[Backwoodssubie97]

I think I'm missing something here. Just making sure that the 05 WRX with the different front end than the 02 03 and 04 will still work for the head and wiring etc swap

[mike-tracy]

Mechanically the 2005 is the same as the rest of the 02-05 EJ205 range. There are a few wiring differences, such as swapping the polarity of a few pins. But if you download the wiring diagrams for the 2005 that won't be an issue.