NEED to know: will EJ25 short block fit in place of EJ22?

[gustavohuber]

Hi everyone, so I found an excellent-sounding EJ254 shortblock from Matt Monson, but when I told my mechanic, he was positive it wouldn't fit/work with my existing EJ22 manifold/heads. Matt really seems to know his stuff, and he was really sure it would plop right in the place of any other EJ shortblock. I NEED TO KNOW, because I can get an EJ22 shortblock from a yard for the same price, but I thought it would be pretty groovy to have a 2.5 in the suby. I asked Matt to hold off on shipping it until I got more opinions, so please be quick. Thanks!

[Matt Monson]

Stupid f@cking book trained mechanics piss me off! Sorry, I just had to vent...

I replied to your e-mail and left you my phone number. It also occured to me that you could have him call Super Rupair here in Boulder. 303-442-6508. It was partly their guys that got me started on it in the first place.

Being a former Berkeley-ite myself, I have put out some feelers to find an independent mechanic that will do the work for you. Hell, if I still lived there I would do it...

[gnuman]

Stupid f@cking book trained mechanics piss me off! Sorry, I just had to vent...

I replied to your e-mail and left you my phone number. It also occured to me that you could have him call Super Rupair here in Boulder. 303-442-6508. It was partly their guys that got me started on it in the first place.

Being a former Berkeley-ite myself, I have put out some feelers to find an independent mechanic that will do the work for you. Hell, if I still lived there I would do it...

Hi Matt. I'm Gustov's mechanic. If this were my car, i would have considered it a lot more open mindedly, as I can fix it again if it blows up down the line. Gustov does not have the tools or the place to work to be able to do this, so a more "rock solid" solution is called for. I have heard lots of opinions on this conversion (including yours), but I do not trust the reliability of this setup. I am neither stupid, nor "book trained" (as for the rest, that depends on if my wife is in a good mood. . .). I learn primarily on the engine itself. My biggest beef with this conversion is the lining up of the oil and coolant lines from the block to the head. Beyond that, there is the higher compression ratio and the dificulty in cranking that with a starter that is not designed for it. I would have a lot less problem with dropping a whole ej25 engine in there and converting the engine wiring to OBD I. I'm not interested in making this a fast car for now, but instead, making this a car that Gustov can rely on for years to come.

[Matt Monson]

Stupid f@cking book trained mechanics piss me off! Sorry, I just had to vent...

I replied to your e-mail and left you my phone number. It also occured to me that you could have him call Super Rupair here in Boulder. 303-442-6508. It was partly their guys that got me started on it in the first place.

Being a former Berkeley-ite myself, I have put out some feelers to find an independent mechanic that will do the work for you. Hell, if I still lived there I would do it...

Hi Matt. I'm Gustov's mechanic. If this were my car, i would have considered it a lot more open mindedly, as I can fix it again if it blows up down the line. Gustov does not have the tools or the place to work to be able to do this, so a more "rock solid" solution is called for. I have heard lots of opinions on this conversion (including yours), but I do not trust the reliability of this setup. I am neither stupid, nor "book trained" (as for the rest, that depends on if my wife is in a good mood. . .). I learn primarily on the engine itself. My biggest beef with this conversion is the lining up of the oil and coolant lines from the block to the head. Beyond that, there is the higher compression ratio and the dificulty in cranking that with a starter that is not designed for it. I would have a lot less problem with dropping a whole ej25 engine in there and converting the engine wiring to OBD I. I'm not interested in making this a fast car for now, but instead, making this a car that Gustov can rely on for years to come.

If you check the time signature on that post, I wrote it before I ever spoke to you and as indicated was just venting a frustration with the situation. Having spoken to you, you obviously know these cars fairly well, and we are all entitled to our opinions. They are like assholes, we all have one. I disagree with you regarding the long term reliability of one of these engines. But ultimately that is a decision that Gustav will need to make...

[gnuman]

On that at least we agree. I was catching up on this board, as it is my secondary board at the moment (I spend more time on USMB), and I have not had a lot of computer time lately in any case. All venting aside, I happen to agree with you that "mechanics" that learned everything they know out of a book, with no real-world experience tend to piss me off as well. as do engineers that put out machines that show the ammounts of crack they were smoking at the time. The Subaru engine (at least the EJ22 Phase 1) is so easy to work on, it is like a breath of fresh air compared to some of the cars that I'm stuck working on. For example: why the fsck would anyone put spark plugs in a place where the engine has to be lifted out in order to get at them, knowing that they *will* have to be replaced. . . that is only one example of the poor engineerng I have seen over the years. and a lot of why I love my Legacy.

[azn2nr]

i think in my limited knowelge that this will work well. subys are like legos. the passages was a concern for me too back when i was thinking of doing swaps. but now ive seen 205 heads on 20g blocks so im sure there wont be any problems

as for lasting long. i read somewhere that subarus are some of the longest lasting motors.

[dzx]

lol, the old 911's used to have spark plugs you had to drop the engine out to replace. I don't know about the new ones tho.

[greg donovan]

there is a guy on the RS board that has a OBS w/a 25 block/22 heads setup for about a year now w/out trouble. his screen name is B-O-B-S.