Subaru Fever, Choices, choices--2.5 or 2.0 T.... Options

[tgbo]

Okay, all you avid Subaru converts, my 914 1.8 is up on stands for rust removal and re-engining...I'm mostly a Fiat guy who has wanted a 914 for years and finally acquired a one owner from a friend who just gave up! Been searching the Suby threads ( wow, some nice work) and made the decision to go with more modern power--sooo, what I have gleaned is this: the 2.5 (ala Scott T., etc) will allow radiator in the engine room, the turbos won't--correct? (Fiid's pix show way more cutting than I want to have to do). The Suby ecu will work fine, with minor fiddling--Fiid, are you willing to share some MS knowledge from your conversion? (yes, I have studied the squirter and may put it on the Datsun, too).

That said, motor mounting--Scott's bar or something like the Downunder bar seems the way to go. Scott, have you decided to make copies for sale, or are you allowing reproduction by members for personal use?

Last question for today: engine vendors -- lots on Ebay, any recs on non-ebay vendors for JDM or NA motors ( and price ranges on recent buys if you don't mind)

Yes, pix will come as the work starts!

Thanks,
John

[TonyAKAVW]

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So it appears that Renegade Hybrids takes the stance that even the NA Subie motors won't run cool enough with the radiator in the engine bay -- or at least cool enough to fit their liking. Then again, they are located in Vegas...

I suspect they also make a lot of money off of their front trunk radiator kit....

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For those of us without the time, skill, or garage to do a swap, one wonders how expensive the Subie swap would get. I suspect $2500 is a pipe dream for all but those who have the space and time to spend doing everything themselves. Probably more like $5000-7000 for the rest of us...and now you're getting into RAT money and options to keep a motor that does a much better job of staying true to the 914's specs.

Any engine swap is a major undertaking. Even if you buy a kit, you still need the space to put things together, and keep the car while its being worked on. My fabrication tools are very limited. Just last night I finished cutting steel tubing for my engine support bar, with a hacksaw. It took a total of three evenings to make measurements, make a mockup, and cut the final piece. I took it to a welding shop not 30 minutes ago and was quoted $40 for that plus some other welding. The engine bar is probably the toughest thing to make for all of this, aside from the oil pan which you can actually buy modified already. Materials cost was about $15-$20 in steel.

I'm not trying to say that this is the right conversion for everyone, but it isn't as hard as it might seem, and with several of us doing (or completed) conversions now, there will be a ton of documentation on what to do, lessons learned, etc.

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Tony, your thread is inspirational to this old retired guy

THANKS! That was my exact hope with that thread, was to get other people to do the same. Scott really pioneered all this stuff, and I'm doing a lot of things similarly, but with my own style. I think everyone has their own style of doing things and its fun to see them.

-Tony