legacycentral bbs

Hey whats up guys,
Im new to the site and its like i've found the holy grail of subie legacy info. Thanks for making a place like this.
So i have a 1993 Legacy l 5spd. I love the car and have done a little work to make it fun to drive. GR2's 98 legacy gt rims drilled rotors, air intake, catless exhaust. the car is a blast to drive.
But its not enough, my brother has a 98 Legacy GT and i have a friend with a wrx wagon. I want my legacy to be the king of the group. im willing to invest a good amount of scratch to make sure that happens. Im very mechanically inclined and would have no prob swapping a motor. What steps should i take to put in a ej22t. or is it a better idea to try to buy a ss? i just want to get the ej22t for starters then fix it up after its in the car. any info on this would be great.

There is extensive info on here regarding this. Do some searching and you should find what you need.

Legacy777 wrote:
You need the fuel pump. I've actually got just the pump I can sell you, if interested. You can use your existing float and level sender.

You need the pressure exchange solenoid, pressure sensor, wastegate solenoid, turbo legacy charcoal canister & aux purge solenoid (you can rig up a n/a charcoal canister if you wanted..but you'll need a check valve in the line from the manifold.), misc tubing, and wiring.

If you can get some ECU pins, and the connectors for the boost related sensors, you can rig up a harness with relative ease.

You'll also need to swap the pos leads on the cam & crank sensors.

I have not done a writeup for the ej22t swap yet. No time, and not much ambition at the moment. I've got a thread in the electrical forum that deals with the electrical issues. Check that out.

This page has some pics of the boost related sensors.
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... s/ej22t/32

My photo diary of the swap
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... ages/ej22t

Ok well i was reading that i may need a different crossmember, as well as an ecu? Not suer if my 5spd will bolt up. Im not looking to build my ej22 n/a into a turbo motor. Unless it would work. I know i would have to do some work to drop the C/R, as well as some work on the valves. I am trying to decide what the best route is to getting a turbo into my Legacy. Would it be better to buy a rebuilt Engine or to try and get one from a junk yard? is it even worth it to swap the engine in my car or is it more efficent to just buy a legacy ss? I know these are noob type questions but i guess you gotta start somewhere.

You will need a Turbo front suspension crossmember, it has a cutout to clear the exhaust up-pipe that goes to the turbo.
Stick your head under the WRX hood for a while, get familiar with it, it is an evolution of these cars.

As far as the swap is concerned, you have several options, basically it comes down to how much time you have to play around with it...
Obviously the quickest route is just to buy a SS or Touring Wagon, if you're not too attached to your car, drop it and get the real deal... there's a couple recent Craig's posts here in the past few days to good cars as well as members selling their cars. which I would suggest as the best option, a lot of the cars here are already modded, some to a point where it would cost thousands more to reproduce it than just to buy the car.


If you go with converting your car, a EJ22T is probably the least work, but also needs the most mods to make bigger power, which is what this site is all about. Other routes would be a JDM motor from a halfcut early WRX or Legacy/Liberty. More wiring involved, and the twin-turbo motors won't fit LHD cars, generally, so avoid those. You can build a hybrid, using a bigger shortblock and 22T or 20G heads and intake/sensor/throttle assemblies, as myself and several others here have done.
OR... you can go whole hog, and swap in a complete USDM STI drivetrain, wrecked cars come available pretty often, and mechanically it all bolts in straight up, however you must bring most of the new wiring with you, including the dash, but it has been done. The ultimate in sleepers...

Decide how much time, effort, money and time you can afford before you make a decision about the car.

Thanks JC. That info helps. I guess it sounds like the best route is to just but a Legacy SS. I have a feeling thats gonna be tough to find though cause i hate automatics. i read somewhere that the 5 speed in the SS's is kinda rare. If anyone in cali is looking to part with a 93 or 94 Legacy sedan 5 speed please let me know. thanks for the help.

In my opinion, it would be easier to swap a 5speed into an Auto SS than to do a turbo conversion on a 5speed non-turbo.

I'll back up a bit, but again IMO.

If your car is already AWD, AND your not afraid to get your hands dirty AND your trying to outgun a 'stockish' WRX then the best way to get a turbo in your car is to install an EJ20G, Turbo crossmember and either a EJ22T ecu, EJ20G ecu or EJ20G standalone ecu.

Im definintly not afraid to get my hands dirty. I changed a 2.5 in a 98 legacy in 3 days so moving around the 2.2 should not be an issue. The crossmember and the ecu are what scares me. Thanks for the input.

The crossmember & ECU really aren't that much of a big deal if you can swap the motor.

Right on! Im pretty sure im gonna swap for the ej22t then. I would go with the ej20g but i've read on here that there's no replacment for displacment so i might as well go with the bigger engine right off the bat. Is it better to buy one from a junk yard or is it a better bet to get one from the guys in colorado? I know the ones in colorado are built to stock spec. and they are a little expensive. I plan on doing a fair amount of work to the engine and hopefully around $3000 dollars including cost of the block could get me going. I lean toward not getting one from colorado cause that would be most of my investment up front for a mostly stock motor. I also know that its not cheap to import one from japan.
I appreciate the input guys.