Ej20G Swap - What to expect?

[Arbiter]

Hey everyone,

So I just got quoted over $6000 for an Ej20G Swap into a 93 Legacy L.
That's no where near what I was hoping to pay, considering Ej20G swaps into older 1st gen Legacies are supposedly one of the easiest swaps you can do.

From what I know, the actual wiring harness from the L can be used with the Ej20G except for a few wires that are needed to be merged due to the turbo. Can someone confirm this?

I believe I'll need WRX Wagon control arms (Or bushings), WRX Crossmember, an EJ20G/GC8 ECU, and that's about it I think. I can acquire a transmission and low-mileage long block for under $1000, so what makes a swap $6000 aside from labor? The mechanic also stated that Ej20Gs can't be tuned...

I haven't found a list that specifically states everything that will be needed for a swap, so if there's a resource I can follow or if someone can paste a list, that would be awesome.

Thank you.

[mike-tracy]

Sounds like the shop is going to do a wiring harness merge. I can see shop labor coming that high especially if they haven't done these before. Imagine if any parts need to be ordered if anything is broken, old sensors, turbos, etc from wherever you get the engine from.

The ej20g isn't tunable in its self. There's a guy on this board who makes a chip that goes into the ecu and soups it up a bit. I believe that's around $450-500 ish. To have an actual tunable car, you need a standalone. ESL ($850?) and Apexi Power FC ($1000 for the board and controller, long out of production but still purchasable on ebay etc) are plug and play solutions. Megasquirt might be a possibility but no-one has successfully got an ej20g/22t running on them to my knowledge. Then there is wire in stand alone controllers. They start over $1000 and go way, way up. You really need to find a tuner and ask them what they are comfortable tuning. As you don't want to be paying them to learn how to use the hardware for the first time.

Honestly if you want to have a tunable ecu in your car, you should consider an ej205 from an 02-05 American WRX. The ECU is fully tunable with a tactrix cable, and every decent tuner can use it. Also you could plug in an Access Port which has a bunch of tunes already loaded, and even download tunes from the internet.

[Arbiter]

Appreciate the reply. I'm certainly not looking for crazy HP. 300chp (With a Rob tune) on a car that, IIRC, is about 500lbs lighter than an 04 WRX is plenty for me, and an EJ20G is within my cheapo budget. Plus, I think the Ej20G is a bit simpler in terms of plug-and-play application...

[mike-tracy]

If your end goal is 300chp and a robtune then an ej20g or ej22t would certainly fit the bill. Look up how people swapped an ej22t into an n/a Legacy. That covers 95% of the swap.

The last 5% is dealing with using the coil on plug system the ej20g uses.

[Arbiter]

Okay, cool. Again, appreciated!

[MConte05]

Like mentioned above, I'm sure the shop hasn't done an EJ20G swap into an older car before, so they are quoting a typical 257/207/205 swap in a newer WRX. Where it costs about $3-5k for the engine alone, along with some minor wiring.

[Legacy777]

Yeah, I would recommend maybe investigating what other shops are around and ask specifically if they've done this swap. While shop labor can be expensive if they start doing a lot of wiring harness merging I think you could find a shop to do the swap for a bit less than that original quote.

[Arbiter]

It seems like that's where they're hitting me on pricing; the quote basically showed a new wiring harness is needed… I thought for an EJ20G the harnesses are near completely compatible with older 1st gen Legacys, for both N/A and SS models (with N/A requiring a few more wires and sensors ofc)? Speaking of EJ205s, they quoted me on that as well for only a few hundred more.

Considering tackling the swap myself, plus, a lot of close family members actually have done swaps. Also wouldn't mind learning a bit more about these cars as well.