Upcoming swap, I have a few questions

[jamal]

I was down at Prodrive a few weeks ago, and Dan happens to have a 2.2 4eat driveline he said I could have. Yeah, for free. I'm thinking I'm going to hang on to my shitbox for awhile longer, and while there isn't really anything wrong with my car, I do have 176k miles and a leaky, slow shifting transmission so a fresh motor and trans would be nice.

The driveline is from a 98ish impreza and has something like 20k miles. From what I can tell, the transmission is phase 1 and should plug right in and work (although I'll need to swap the rear diff). I think all I'll need to do to get the motor to run is swap my harness on, block off the egr, and get a new exhaust since it's single port. I'm not entirely sure about that though and don't know how sensors or fuel rails and injectors might have changed.

Now I've gotten to thinking that since I'm swapping a motor in and it's free, I might as well spend a few hundred to make it a little more fun. My first thought was some delta cams and EL headers, but the single port makes that second part a little harder. The other day I was at a shop looking for a 4.11 diff (and ended up buying seats and brake rotors), and the owner said he has some SOHC 2.5 heads around somewhere.

I was thinking that would give better flow, have dual exhaust ports, and make doing the cams slightly easier but I'm not sure how feasable it is with my or the newer 2.2 manifold and what it would do to my compression ratio (I'm pretty sure it will lower it). EJcalcs doesn't have any n/a block hybrid comp ratios calculated but it seems like it might work with a thinner headgasket.

Right now it seems like my options are:
1. Just swap the driveline in as is and buy a borla single port header
2. New heads, cams, el headers. Would it be best to look for some older 2.2 heads?
3. Something else?

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this, and anticipate any potential wiring/compatibility problems before we get started. Any comments or suggestions by the experts?

[206er]

what is your ultimate goal for the car? ej25 heads on a ej22 isnt going to be that great a choice NA, but would be an awesome one for boost. hell, they might run better than the single port heads NA even.
youre going to need a manifold if youre putting the 251 heads on as well.
just do some neutral drops before you swap, thats the biggest regret of mine is that I didnt beat the shit out of my old 4eat before I pulled it.
or if you just wanted to improve the value of your car by quite a bit, the 20k mile drivetrain would do that.

[jamal]

That's what I was thinking about the 2.5 heads.

For now I just want put in this fresh driveline on the cheap. I thought that changing the heads might not be a bad idea since I want to put in cams and would prefer to go with dual ports and obx el headers. That combined with 4.11 gears would make it a little quicker at least.

Turbo is not on the menu right now although I'd like to do it later along with a 5-speed depending on how long I keep this thing. I'm probably even going to replace my bent up fender and get some new paint.

And yeah I already went through one 4eat.

[jamal]

Well here's what I'm going with:

Phase 1 2.2 heads w/ delta cams, phase 2 block, using my manifold and wiring. From what I can tell this will plug right in.

For exhaust it seems a wrx first cat and midpipe will bolt right to the first section of an obx header, which will give me a cat, resonator, and donut gasket, all at 2.25" then I'll just get an axle back extended (pretty sure I can get a cheap/free sti one). Now I just need to find some heads on the cheap around here.

I suppose I should put in some fresh motor mounts while I'm at it and maybe do a rallitek transmission bushing. Any other suggestions on things to do with the driveline out?

[jamal]

More searching has revealed the answers to my questions.

Will I have a problem putting phase 1 heads on a phase 2 block?

No, I just need the phase 1 headgaskets so they match the coolant passages in the head (and also to use my manifold, which I had planned)

Compression ratio?

9.7:1

according to the data on ejcalcsand this compression ratio calculator.

So far my estimated cost for a 20k mile driveline with cams and a new exhaust is around $700-800

[gto7419]

You're going to have to change something if you want to turbo later on. That compression ratio will be GREAT for n/a, but you're going to run into detonation big time with boost...

[jamal]

turbo later on would involve another driveline swap, such as one out of a wrecked wrx along with the dash, ecu and harness etc.

[gto7419]

turbo later on would involve another driveline swap, such as one out of a wrecked wrx along with the dash, ecu and harness etc.

Ahhh, that makes a ton more sense.

Sounds like you're going to have a really nice n/a motor...