Mesoslow6969's 1994 Touring Wagon EJ257 swap

[mesoslow6969]

Hey everyone. This is my first Subaru and my first Subaru swap. I have a 1994 Legacy Touring Wagon. I just picked up a motor, trans, etc from a rolled 2004 Sti on Sunday. I will be slowly building the motor and transmission while it is out. Once I finish building it with simple bolt-ons, I will drop it in my wagon. My goal for now is to get 300-350 whp. Hopefully I can reach this goal without blowing anything up. i will try my best to have diys with pictures of my progress. All are welcome to voice their opinion or offer any advice while im tackling this project.

Here's a few pics of what my car looked like when i first bought it. I got a set of used 6 spoke wheels and painted them white.

[mesoslow6969]

List of Suspension Parts i bought for my car:

Stance GR+ coilovers (used GC8 rear top hats)
SPC rear lateral links
Aluminum Control Arms
Sti pink rear trailing arms
WRX rear sway bar mounts
all new oem subaru bolts
Ebay Front and rear strut tower bars (GC8)
Anti-Lift Kit: KCA319A – Whiteline Anti-lift/caster kit - lwr c/arm
Steering Rack Mounts: KSR202 – Whiteline Heavy duty steer rack mounts (30mm)
Front Sway Bar: BSF18X – Whiteline Swaybar 22mm-X heavy duty
Rear Sway Bar: BSR19XXZ – Whiteline Swaybar 22mm-XX h/duty Blade adjustable
Front Sway Bar End Links: KLC139 - Whiteline Sway bar link kit-h/duty adj steel ball
Rear Sway Bar End Links: KLC26 – Whiteline Sway bar link conv kit - extra h/d alloy
Toe Lock Kit: KCA377 - Whiteline Toe lock kit
Outer tie rods/ lower ball joint: KCA313 - Whiteline Roll-centre / bump-steer adjust kit
Front Control Arm Inner Bushing: W51709 – Whiteline Front Control Arm Lower Inner Front
Rear Trailing Arm Bushings: W61383 – Whiteline Lower Rear Trailing Arm Bushing
Leggdura Racing lug nuts
Volk TE37 17 x 7.5 +44 offset
Dunlop Direzza Star Spec Tires 215/45/17

When i took these pics, half the stuff was on special order from Austraila... 2 month wait =(

[SiCkSTi04]

I like where this is going :)

[Florin1]

Oh, man, that has me DROOLING! Very nicely done! Please DO document everything. I would like to know what you paid for the STI too please. You can PM me if you're not comfortable saying it on here. Thanks!

[CFK]

That is an epic plan & parts list, all Win, straight to the point . I like.

[kimokalihi]

Impressive parts purchase my friend. This will be fun to wach grow into a competitive 1st gen wagon.

[mesoslow6969]

thanks guys for the compliments. i already did most of the suspension. I still need to take pics of everything so i can make some diys. The only thing getting in the way is money and electrical stuff. I guess i need to start saving or find some sponsorships. *hint, hint* lol =) Suspension DIYs to come!

[kimokalihi]

I would be having money problems after purchasing all that stuff too! Damn.

[mesoslow6969]

ya. I'm just trying to keep my new year's resolution going. The past few years, I've felt like a slave to everything and everyone. This year I promised myself that I was going to do whatever I could to make myself happy. Besides, I'm going to owe money to someone for the rest of my life. I might as well try to enjoy it before I get to old. =)

[kimokalihi]

I like that. That's great. More power to you. I know how you feel in a way. Everyone stresses to you that you need to save all your money and blah blah blah. I know it's a smart thing to do but at the same time you have to do what makes you happy or life isn't worth living. If blowing some money you earned on your car puts a smile on your face and keeps you going through hard times and working shitty jobs then that's a good thing in my opinion. I personally don't see the point of slaving away at a job and saving all my money for some standard of living we're all expected to strive for when in the meantime I'm miserable.

Enjoy your life and have no regrets.

[mesoslow6969]

Amen.

[Florin1]

Haha, well put Kimo. That's why i live two lives!! The one my wife sees, and the one that makes me happy. hahahah (car parts and modding, not other women)

[mesoslow6969]

Today i got some good/bad news. Just to let everyone know, I am a noob when it comes to Subarus, so you guys can yell at me all day long if you like. Anyways... When i bought the swap the guy told me it was out of a 2004 sti.
Obviously I dont know what to look for, so i just made sure the block said ej257, and the trans was a six speed, etc. I found out today that the motor and trans are actually from a 2005 sti, even though the title, vin matched up (title said 2004). I did not know that an 04 sti motor was still a throttle cabled motor. The motor i purchased was a drive by wire system. Luckily, I had the pedals, and all the body wiring included.
The crazy thing though is that the spindle/hubs are 5x100. So i am guessing that this was like a halfway point when they started throwing the 05 sti engine/trans into the 04 chassis?? oh well no turning back now. lol.
This is going to be more fun than I expected... sigh...

[kimokalihi]

Or it's just a replaced engine. 2004 was the only year of USDM STI that came with 5X100 hubs. 05+ is all 5x114 which is why the 5X100 BBS STI wheels are so sought after and hard to find.

[Florin1]

Are you planning on using the sti heads and all? Because if you are, then you will have to go stand alone because that is a phase 2 motor. If you stick with the phase 1, then you will have to use different heads and intake manny. You can still use the sti shorblock, trans, hubs and all the other junk so thats ok, just not the top half of the motor.

[MikeyMeyagi]

all sti's sold here are drive by wire. if you have the body harnesses, get out the wiring diagrams and do a harness merge so you can take full advantage of the avcs heads.
if you swap in older heads from a 2.5 n/a motor that are phase 1, you can keep your stock wiring. although at that point the ecu wont let you run the power that can be had from that block. you can do a standalone to gain the ability to tune it, but that that point you might as well just swap in the sti ecu and harness.....

[mesoslow6969]

hmmm... i have no idea what to think. i googled the vin of the car, and i THINK the guy i bought this from is the 2nd or 3rd owner of the car... i googled the vin and found out the guy i bought it from bought it off a guy on nasioc. the copy of the title shows that the car was purchased july 2010 by the guy who sold me everything.

here is the nasioc link: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthr ... &t=2010986

when i googled the trans serial number: TY856WH3MA it comes up as an 04 transmission.

so i got motor, trans, ecu, ALL, and i mean ALL the wiring that belonged to the car (i have literally around 60 pounds or more of wiring in my basement right now..), spindles w/hubs, brembos, the pedals meant for drive by wire, etc. I really dont think this kid went out of his way to mix and match stuff (i could be wrong tho)... or maybe i'm just not understanding what you guys are saying about the heads... I was thinking since i have all the wiring and the ecu i can just run the wiring and just merge it to my dash.. unless i'm totally in over my head.. a buddy of mine told me about iwire and they can merge virtually anything. anyways, heres the pics from his garage:

[mesoslow6969]

and heres how it sits in my garage after driving an hour and a half in the rain and finally getting it on jackstands. (yes that is a spiderman poster in the back ground... i used to collect comics... yah im a nerd.)

[07Evolved]

drool....

[CFK]

Are you using BBS's as a Engine stand !!!

I hope not, unless there just those stupid 5x114 wheels. If they are 5x100, sell them to ME !!!

[mesoslow6969]

lol that was the guys garage. i think that was the bent wheel when he rolled the car.. when i saw that, i was like "what is wrong with this guy.." lol

[kimokalihi]

Man I want all of that.

[CFK]

Ha, ya that makes a little more sense. Must have been pretty hooped cause being a 04 it should have been 5x100 making those fairly rare and worth fixing IMO. My local wrecker had a set and they wanted $300 a piece. What a joke, I have to pretty much drive to WA if I want cheap parts.

Anyway, excited for progress.

[MikeyMeyagi]

get the dash and its wiring too so you can use the sti cluster. the dash will fit with a little modding

[mesoslow6969]

i was thinking about doing that, but is it worth spending an extra 400-600 on the dash and the cluster? and my dash is mint.. all the 04+ sti dashes i have seen on ebay are all scuffed up, and besides it will kind of add to the sleeper look. i still have time to think about what i want to do.. obviously, if using a newer dash and cluster will make things easier with the wiring, i might just bite the bullet and drop the cash. i'm open to more opinions and suggestions.

Also, by the way, I was wondering what you guys think I should do while the motor and trans are out. For sure I'm going to do a tune up, all the belts, water pump, oil pump, all the seals, etc. do you think i should do head studs and head gaskets?

A buddy of mine told me to just fix whatever is broke or needs servicing and just drop it in the car and do mods later. I agree to an extent with him especially since i'm not rich, but doing tgv delete, porting the intake manifold, uppipe w/ ewg, etc seem tempting while its out of the car. Let me know what you guys think.