Why Auto>Manual swaps arnt all that much fun

[Heswe]

I have just completed (Thank god) my lovely swap from Auto to Manual. So I decided I might as well grace these forums with some EJ20T flavour (Living in New Zealand has some real benifits), instead of all this EJ25 stuff. JDM = the best!


Start Car:
1991 Legacy Wagon
EJ20T
VF10 Turbo with air to water intercooler (Standard crap)
4EAT, mostly dead

I had to do the swap as when I bought the car, it was in a bit of a sad state. 200 thousand KM had taken its toll on a car that the previous owners obviously didnt care about enough to change oil regularly and whatnot. So just before I did the swap, the water pump was starting to spit oil and the engine was being roasted.

So, Doner parts!

EJ20T block from 97 Twin Turbo GTB.
Heads from a 1989 Legacy RS JDM (2.0, turbo. Same as the standard EJ20T heads but the cams provide a bit more power midrange)
Standard inlet manifold
96 WRX turbo (TD04), soon to be WRX STi TD05H
96 WRX Intercooler (air to air)
89 RS Gearbox (hydraulic), driveshaft and rear LSD, 4.11/1
STi clutch+400 Pound Pressure Plate


Not bad I thought. Since the engine was a real mish-mash of diffrent cars, I decided to get work done on the parts while they wernt together. So I had the heads ground and valves seated properly, inlet manifold cleaned and slightly enlargened and the block reconed. Worth the time I think.

All in all it took about 2 weekends of parttime work to put the driveline back in the car, less then 30 hours I would say.

It all went rather smoothly, everything lined up (even though it was Sedan parts under a wagon) and then it came time to drop in the engine. Honestly, Im glad I wasnt leading the rebuild, lining up the gearbox pins on the block to fit the box was a mission and a half. But eventually it all went together.

Then came the clutch. It wasnt working right (feeling for the 2nd half only, the top part of the clutch was nothing) so we bleeded it until we ran out of fluid. It turned out the master cylinder was totally screwed, so we swapped it out for a WRX one. STi clutches make daytime driving a bit of a nightmare for a while though, bunny hops were made and many laughs at my expense were had.

On the electrical side of things, it was damn easy. None of this clutch depressed to start thing that the American market have, no need to chop pins off the ECU, just link up the pins to make the car think its in manual and she started right up. These forums helped with the key removal issue, the person who did the swap said I should just go and take it to a auto electrician but I am too cheap for that, these forums saved me quite a sizable amount of money (Auto Sparkies are total ripoff merchants over here).

If this thread actually intrests anyone I can post up some photos of the ordeal, and if anyone is dealing with EJ20T problems, feel free to ask and I will try and help.

[DLC]

Good info, glad everytihng turned out well.

[Legacy777]

Yeah, good info.

Pictures are always welcome

[AWD_addict]

Heads from a 1989 Legacy RS JDM (2.0, turbo. Same as the standard EJ20T heads but the cams provide a bit more power midrange)

Can you give some numbers about this or a link?

Please show us the photos too!