Swapping an 98' MT with a 96' MT engine?

[Yani papanicolo]

My 98' Legacy outback recently lost a valve and detonated a cylinder.
The cause of which was a delamination of the main crank pulley (strange
I know). As a result the timing belt slipped.

I found a crashed 96' automatic to swap the engines with. Are there
any known complications regarding the year difference and/or
transmission differences?

Also it was hit in the driver front. The timing belt is intact but I'm
not sure about the engine integrity. The right cam pulley cover is
cracked and pinned.

 

[mike]

Subaru engines /transmissions are quite interchangeable, but you will also
need to get the computer as well. Here in NZ there are plenty of places that
to automatic to manual conversions & they don't seem to have many problems.

 

[S]

Hi Yani!

I found a crashed 96' automatic to swap the engines with. Are there
any known complications regarding the year difference and/or
transmission differences?

This is the 2.5L DOHC motor? Should physically fit w/o problems, but
there will probably be some wiring differences, so plan on swapping
the engine wiring harness, or perhaps (it's often easier) the complete
intake manifold assembly.

Also it was hit in the driver front. The timing belt is intact but I'm
not sure about the engine integrity. The right cam pulley cover is
cracked and pinned.

Beware. If the impact has extended to the cam gear/pulley (as you will
have noticed, the cam gears are very close to the radiator/ radiator
support), there is a very good chance that the cam supports have been
damaged. This is not externally evident, and the engine may well start
up and run OK. For a little while.
Pull the valve cover, and examine the cam and cam supporting
structures very thoroughly. In particular, look for hair-line cracks
at the base of the boss that locates the rear of the cam. I'd
recommend actually pulling the cam when you do this, or ask the seller
to do it for you.
While any reputable salvage yard will warranty a used engine against
this sort of thing, you probably don't want to go thru the effort of
performing the swap a second time.

While the engine is out of the car, you might want to perform the 100K
service (timing belt, water pump, thermostat, oil pump, front ((and
rear)) seals, maybe even some of the new spec. head gaskets), as it's
_way_ easier than with it installed.

ByeBye! S.


Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101