Long story short, 3rd hand info, associate of a close relative broke a cam on their '06 Forester. Not sure how you brake a cam, but I guess anything is possible. Trying to source a reasonable salvage engine.
I know that a lot of Subarus used the EJ253 (non turbo 2.5l SOHC) other than the Forester, however when doing a search on Car-Part for '06 Forester Engine, it limits the results to 2006 models only, and Foresters only.
I'm slightly better than novice with Subarus, but I've been led to believe that Subarus go together like Legos. Is there any reason I shouldn't be shopping for an EJ253 from a certain year range out of a Legacy, Impreza, Outback, Etc?
Likely they broke a cam belt. Interchange is likely related to how much crap you're wiling to swap around from the bad engine.
Any old EJ251 will do, too. Swap the long block only, keep the 253 intake manifold. Generally speaking, the 03+ was built a bit better.
Somewhat on and off topic. Can anyone recommend a book on building EJ motors?
I thought they went together like Legos as well.
In reply to Kenny_McCormic:
Actually have confirmed that the timing belt is intact, head has not been disassembled yet (I don't think). Symptoms were oil leak & missing, oil found coming from behind "wobbly" cam pulley, miss on cylinder 3 only.
If cam broke, chances are little bits of it found their way elsewhere, tear-down, diag, rebuild will likely be much more cost prohibitive than simply replacing engine.
Again 3rd hand info, coming from what I assume to be an indy shop.
Ojala
HalfDork
7/17/13 8:21 p.m.
The ej253 is a MAF motor so that is probably why the part interchange is limited. Any ej253 from an 05+ legacy, forester, impreza, outback, or baja should plug right in. There were a few from 99 but that's a different issue. And if they find a good deal on an ej251 i would suggest it might be simpler to swap over the longblock since the ej251 is a MAP motor.
m4ff3w
UltraDork
9/5/13 8:29 p.m.
Can a EJ253 from a '99 Forester be used as a long block for a 05 Baja?
