So.... I should probably update this as lots going on....
I've been pondering an engine swap for a long time, but never quite got round to biting the bullet and doing it. Mine has had a hard life, sounded slappy when cold, needed a full cam belt change, had leaks from both rocker gaskets, and generally wasn't worth spending the money on.
A few years ago, I'd been up to Jap Performance to enquire about a JDM STI7 long engine with VF30 which at the time would have set me back about £2.5k, but then it would have brought the extra issues of AVCS on WRX wiring, an ECU swap, immobiliser/key swap etc. I worked out at the time that it would see me in at around £3.5k in parts before I got labour costs added in. I decided to sit on it and not bother.
Anyway, back to this year. In May or June as we were coming out of lockdown, I saw Benji advertise his WRX engine from a lower miles car which had run standard power on a TD04 nearly all of its life. It would be a straight swap and also came with:
- Brand new genuine 11mm oil pump
- New water pump
- New genuine thermostat
- New Gates cambelt kit with all tensioners/idlers
- New twinscroll sump fitted
- Tumbler butterfly valves removed
- Brand new alternator
- Recently cleaned and flow tested pink injectors.
- New later style plastic coolant header tank (my metal one is going rust and looks rubbish)
- Few other new hoses, shiny bits etc.
Basically a drop in engine. I jumped on it, along with a few other nice parts Benji had, and set about planning an engine swap. This is where the fun started...
I wanted to tackle it myself in the garage as I'd never done an engine swap before, but was in no rush. It would also give me the chance to learn a bit more on the spanners, clean everything in the bay up nicely and replace any other tired looking parts as I go, with no problems if I needed to stop for week here and there whilst ordering parts.
Big thanks to CJ for the lend of an engine stand & hoist, plus Dave for another stand for the old engine while I stripped it for parts.
Anyway.... next post will have some photos of progress so far.