Need $1500 WRX buying and fixing advice!

I found a 2002 WRX hatch with 154,000 miles and a bad motor. The price will be $1500 and I have to tow it home.

Here is the link to the ad: http://mankato.craigslist.org/cto/3777252949.html

My buddies dad and brother work at the local Subaru dealer and might be able to source a motor for me or find someone to assist with the swap. I have never done a motor swap before and would definitely need a lot of help. From what the ad says what do you guys think this would cost to repair? What do new motors run? Should I go for this or would I lose money in the end?

Would it be easy to swap a later model motor into this car to get better power or efficiency?

Subaru motor removal and installation is EASY, I can tell you that much. At least compared to almost every other vehicle. I am not sure what WRX motors are going for these days but you should not have trouble making money on it as long as you don't buy everything from the dealer.

Why does te link say $900?

It says 900 on the ad but a bidding war erupted after he posted it...a few people backed out and I'm next in line for purchase.

I wouldn't be buying stuff from the dealer, just using contacts there to get stuff. Is it a plug and play type job? What other issues did these bug eyed cars have?

A bidding war - interesting that happened.

In reply to Datsun310Guy:

Why do you say that?

Joshua wrote: In reply to Datsun310Guy: Why do you say that?

I've never heard of cars selling like that. I have heard houses selling over asking. Still, $1500 seems like a good deal - I hope you do well.

Yeah I was kinda surprised as well, I hope I can do alright with it!

I would check the lower control arms. Wheel bearings and passenger front axle would also be near the top of the list of things to check. In my opinion though any car with obviously deferred maintenance would warrant a very thorough check of nearly every part of the car from headlights to exhaust hangers and heat shields.

As for the engine, yes they are very easy to pull. The most common mistake I see is forgetting the ground wire by the pitch stop under the intercooler. Just about any subaru motor can be made to work without too much trouble. The easiest way to go with a used motor will be an EJ205 out of an 02-05 WRX or 05 9-2x. That will be straight plug and play. You could also use an EJ25 shortblock if your heads are still good. To make that work there is some machining that needs to be done. EJ207s and EJ257s have AVCS and/or DBW, wasted spark, and a few other minor issues so there are additional issues that need to be taken care of.

I watched three kids almost swap a subie engine in about 5 hours total in our autoshop. I would agree it is a pretty simple engine to pull, just make sure you have the right mounts, apparently that was the stumbling block that kept these three from finishing tonight. I concur $1500 seems a fair price if you can find an engine cheap enough.

I had to avoid a bidding war when I bought my Miata. I was working in an auto parts store when a lady came in for a Miata battery. I learned she was selling the car, and asked how much. She said $2000. I figured it would be pretty beat, but went out to look at it the next morning. The car turned out to be a 1995 M Edition in great shape with 100,000mi on it. This was in 2006. When I got there, she said she put it on Craigs list for $2k that morning, and her phone was ringing off the hook with offers. I offered her $2500 cash and still considered it a steal.

As for the Subaru, I'm in the process of building an engine for my '05 Legacy GT. Subaru engines are very to pull. My problem is finding a good machine shop that does Subaru engines. Many people choose to buy a new short block from Subaru rather then deal with the rebuild. I don't know about the 2.0, but I found new 2.5 short blocks for about $1700.

If I found an STI short block would it be possible to hook it up without much modification?

(I found an 07 STI short block, that's why I'm wondering.)

The bore is different between the ej20 and ej25. It will bolt together just fine but you WILL have problems with detonation and these motors cannot handle detonation. The heads, in my opinion, must be machined to account for the change in bore.

Well, you buy it, then farm out basic repairs, then farm out body work, then farm out some hot rodding, then you write a couple of stories about it. I'm pretty sure that's how you are supposed to do a cheap WRX. I read it in GRM. :nutkick:

DILYSI Dave wrote: Well, you buy it, then farm out basic repairs, then farm out body work, then farm out some hot rodding, then you write a couple of stories about it. I'm pretty sure that's how you are supposed to do a cheap WRX. I read it in GRM. :nutkick:

ZING!

Then blow it up?

Yes, then blow it up.

$1,500 for a WRX that needs a motor? Whaaaaaat?

In reply to Sky_Render:

Yup, they'd be spensive yo

DILYSI Dave wrote: Yes, then blow it up.

Then sell it to the newest editorial guy, hah. For what it's worth, everything except the actual machine work on the engine rebuild is being done in my garage.

I wouldn't bank on those heads being good. That's definitely a crapshoot. There are a lot of cracked heads out there, too, so you gotta be careful when you go shopping.

Our WRX had the same problem: split turbo inlet hose. Granted we were running quite a bit more boost than stock, but if I were in your situation, I'd find the first complete, used EJ205 I could and just call it done. Last I heard, Mach V Motorsports has one on hand for about two grand. A built shortblock (either EJ205 or the 2.5-liter STI block) from Performance Race Solutions in Orlando is about $2200, but you're still rolling the dice on the heads. I'm looking at used heads for between $400 and $500 for the pair.

Removing that engine is probably the easiest pull I've ever done. Disassembling that engine was fun. Getting news back from the machine shop about what was broken (cracked heads, bent crank) was not fun at all.

Ojala wrote: The bore is different between the ej20 and ej25. It will bolt together just fine but you WILL have problems with detonation and these motors cannot handle detonation. The heads, in my opinion, must be machined to account for the change in bore.

So since it's a common thing, is there any ECU reflash readiliy available that will just adjust the tune to make up for it?

Alan Cesar wrote:

DILYSI Dave wrote: Yes, then blow it up.

Then sell it to the newest editorial guy, hah.

Yep!

For what it's worth, everything except the actual machine work on the engine rebuild is being done in my garage.

:thumbup:

HiTempguy wrote:

DILYSI Dave wrote: Well, you buy it, then farm out basic repairs, then farm out body work, then farm out some hot rodding, then you write a couple of stories about it. I'm pretty sure that's how you are supposed to do a cheap WRX. I read it in GRM. :nutkick:

ZING!

Now that there was funny

In reply to crankwalk:

It changes the compression ratio, which turbo subies don't seem to like. Also I really really don't like the shrouding of the valves and the edge of the bowl being so far into the chamber when you use ej20 heads on an ej25 block.

You end up chasing detonation all over the place with crazy out of whack fuel, boost, and ignition tables. But you still end up on the ragged edge and you find out that your tables are worthless as soon as you fill up with another tank of gas or there is the slightest bit of carbon, or blah-blah-blah. Can you tell I learned the hard way?

In my opinion "tuning" around a mechanical problem is like putting a band-aid on your elbow because you have a broken shoulder.

DSM guys had chip tuning (Keydiver, dsmchips.com) back in the day for people who went from a 1g motor, or mixed and matched (7.8 to 1) to a 2g motor (8.5 to 1), it updated the timing/fuel maps and took care of the problem.