Scubi questions, Motor questions Options

[r_towle]

So, whats the list of decent motors for a subaru swap?
What is the price range nowadays?
If going down this road...is there a motor that can be upgraded to the STI motor over time???

Ideally I would like to figure out if a 2.5 liter legacy motor (or whatever) can have new cams and special head work and become an STI...etc...

Rich

[DBCooper]

Gruppe-S lists all the engines, including the STI, at $3000 or less (www.gruppe-s.com). Also talk with the good folks at Outfront Performance, who sell used motors themselves or can direct you to someone local for your used engine. One of the nice things about the WRX and STI's is that they're racer-boy cars, and those kids tend to run them off the road and into things pretty regularly. That should reinforce everybody's advice to upgrade your brakes if you're going to get that much motor.

Or search for "JDM engine" and you'll see dozens of importers of purported low milage engines from Japan, also all less than $3000 complete. Regular NA EJ25's are all less than $1000 (hint, hint). Nearly all the importers offer warranties for the engines, and I can tell you it's possible to negotiate with some of them to extend their warranty to start when you first fire the engine. Not all will go for it, but some will. Be nice.

Lastly www.car-part.com. A tip is to search for interchange engines so you can get a span of model years in your search. These guys are your local import dismantlers and are almost always more expensive than the options above, but you can usually find one in your town and go look at the motor before you buy it. But hey, remember that compared to some of the alternatives, this is CHEAP horsepower, so if you get a start-up warranty and can check compression and see the motor run then the risk is minimal. And the nice thing about the Subaru's is that once you get it going if you ever have problems with your engine, or do something very stupid, it's not that expensive to just plug in another one.