Burnin' Gas

Yesterday I finished up with installing the used JDM EJ25 engine in the Subaru. The machine shop folks just aren't very fast (or well organized), so I picked up an engine from EnginesUS on eBay. The engine arrived in 3 days and it wasn't too much trouble to get the stuff swapped over on it. It did require a couple of trips to the local Subaru stealership for a throwout bearing ($45) and oil separator plate ($55). This engine had the old black plastic separator that leaked. I threw in some "coolant conditioner" for grins since this engine eats head gaskets. (Bad design since the head gasket sits in coolant/oil all the time on the open deck block)

I read a good bit of garbage on the web about swapping in a JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) into the 99 Legacy and there's a lot of crap out there. "You'll need a JDM ECU"..."You'll have to tap a hole for the EGR return"...blahblahblah....whatever. Do a google search for it if you'd like to see what I'm talking about. I swapped over the intake from the old engine and everything except the bottom starter bolt was good. I tapped the housing for a 12mm 1.5 and that'll fix it for as long as this engine is in the car. I don't know who thought that on the 99 model that you'd just have to tap the EGR on the JDM intake, but they've been smokin' crack. There's a good bit of difference on the driver's side rear of that intake and I don't see it as being that simple. I had to put my flywheel onto the engine since the JDM was an automatic and then it was all over except for the shoving it onto the trans.

It went for a test drive yesterday and held the tach up past 5k, so it's passed the blow-or-go test. The previous owner had a dog or two, so there's still some interior cleaning to do after the 2 hours I already spent cleaning the interior. If your kid yacks on the seats, you clean it up...if your dog does it, then you leave it to soak into the upholstery? I don't understand. Maybe it's a dogs instead of kids thing and is beyond me.

Tomorrow, I'll be off for Donna's title to get the plates set up and make it street legal.