2002 WRX project

I found a 2002 WRX sedan Dark blue, with a blown engine for really cheap. the back story on the car is that a kid in the military owned the car and blew up its original engine.He then had his mom pay for a used engine swap. 9 months later the second motor blew, and he got shipped off.

His mother was selling the car because she was moving and had no space for it. I picked it up for a very good price. It has a Spectre cold air intake, and a 3"turbo back exhaust. looks like the up-pipe is stock. The car is a lil trashed but definitley worth putting a new engine in. I plan to sell my1996 honda accord daily driver and another project to fund the motor swap. this car will be a daily driver,so reliability trumps performance.

I fired it up after getting it towed and charging the battery, it has what sounds like a terrrible rod knock. I am new to WRX's and only bought this one because it was a good deal, and i have to drive 300 miles through mountain passes up here in WA state every two weeks. I plan on trying to find a J-spec engine to swap in.

any advice on building this car and what mods are good and what mods could have caused the motor to blow would be appreciated

heres a couple shots.

[URL=http://s890.photobucket.com/user/Celica165/media/2013-03-229517-21-26955831_zps58a80f09.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://s890.photobucket.com/user/Celica165/media/IMG_20130324_145537_zps5a60330f.jpg.html][/URL]

I don't know much about them, but it looks like a nice score. I had a freind with a turbo legacy after he blew up an engine he added a mechanical oil pressure gauge to keep an eye on it.

Chris

Last owner likely made some bad choices with the rom loaded onto the car's ECM. That or he just put a bunch of parts on the car and didn't make any changes to the rom. This can make the car run lean and rich in addition to exceeding target boost.

There are a few issues with jdm engines that you will need to look into if it has avcs. The USDM ECM isn't equipped to handle it. You do have options though. You will need to account for the exhaust, intake, and any other mods in the rom.