Practicality of an engine swap?

[.CJ.]

I have the option to buy a '93 legacy wagon, 5spd manual, useless engines for like $100.

I was thinking of swapping an ej20, ej22, or ej25 all n/a's into it instead of buying a wrx, forester, etc. If I get it turboed, which I probably would later down the road, I would have to get new internals, a new tranny, and probably a rear diff.

I would probably have to take it to a shop to get it done because I don't have access to a workshop/ larger driveway.

How practical and cost efficient would this be or is it even worth doing a swap?

 

[saskskier]

I would say if you have to pay someone else to do it for you, probably not. If you have the space, tools and know how, a daily driver and want a project, probably.

My brother is in the process of doing an LS1 (Chevy v8, rwd) engine swap in a MK2 Jetta right now. He found a sweet body and then a salvage Silverado and has basically stripped the truck and is going to be putting the good bits (engine, tranny, electronics, etc) in the car and it's going to be fantastic. That said, he has a garage AND a shop (and tools) he can use and he's been working on his own cars since he got his first car, so it's right up his alley.

 

[JGWI]

Is this a project car or a daily driver? And do you have a substantially sum of disposable income? Because there is a good chance your plans are going to cost about 5 times more than you think it will.

 

[corona]

unless you're doing it yourself it's going to cost waaaaaay more than you want.

And if the engine in the car is so far gone that it's totally useless, I'd imagine the rest of the car isn't in great shape either. I'm assuming you'd have to redo pretty much the whole brake system, bearings, suspension, etc etc. Without the cost of labour or the new engine you could easily drop a grand or two into it to make it driveable.

And I don't know what it costs to do an engine swap in a Subaru, but I know the ej20's a popular motors to put in Vanagons and it usually costs ~5 grand in labour. Mind you it's more involved than in a subaru. Maybe you could get it done for 3 grand. Maybe you'd get lucky and find a nice working tranny and engine for a grand. Add on easily 2 grand in all other accessories to make it a decent car.

So my guess would be 6 grand to get it to be a driveable car. Better to spend that much and get a car that's already road worthy.

 

[e.littt]

With the cost of getting everything done and parts you could probably buy a used wrx or legacy GT.

 

[grilled_steeze]

You're looking at a ton of money. You're better off buying a used WRX for around $10-$12k

 

[.CJ.]

You're looking at a ton of money. You're better off buying a used WRX for around $10-$12k

Looks like imma have to go with a legacy, by budget is only about 4.5k

 

[Titus69]

Might as well just use the money to buy an already boosted car. You could get a decent 04 wrx wagon for less than $7k I bet.

 

[garrett.]

Might as well just use the money to buy an already boosted car. You could get a decent 04 wrx wagon for less than $7k I bet.

Depends on where he lives and what you would call decent. Subarus hold their value annoyingly well if your trying to find a used one. And on top of that, a 12 year old car that has probably been driven into the ground might not be the best.

 

[TheBigApple]

Why don't you spend the 5k on something that won't be a money pit?

 

[Lbird]

You should just drop like 3-4k on a nice 1992 Volvo 240 wagon