I have a quote from ECS to do a USDM WRX motor (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096044#), harness, trans, rear end, brakes (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096044#) ect (basically full drive line) swap into my Impreza (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096044#) L (~$8,000). I have another quote from Wildcard auto (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096044#) for all the same (WRX trany, brakes, driveline ect) but instead of the WRX motor it's for an '05 STi motor (~$10,500) and all the compenents are JDM (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096044#). I really didn't want to do JDM as I wanted to be able to find parts easily if I ever broke anything plus it is another $2,500 more.


Wildcard Auto is only 20 minutes from my house while ECS is 2.5 hours away...location is important to me for ease of picking up and dropping off the car (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096044#) as well as support after if needed.


Any input from anyone? Is it worth it for ease to stay with USDM and travel (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096044#) further or should I just pay a bit more and go with with the Wildcard quote....??

jdm 05 sti motor or usdm 05 sti motor?

tough decision...finding parts will be much easier eith the USDM vs the JDM. but for...id go USDM and take the 2.5 litres.

Wildcard would be setting everything JDM; motor, trans, rear end, ECU, brakes ect....The guy was saying the JDM ECU from Canada is the same ECU we use here???

ECS; all USDM; WRX motor, trans, brakes, drive line, ecu ect.

The real question is:

Which one will be legal in your state, and which shop will install it properly per those legal requirements?

JDM will not communicate for you to pass emissions. go USDM STi if possible, or WRX it! WRX will be fine, but is slow. newer WRX with a 2.5 may be worth it(moreso than 2.0 WRX). but 05 JDM STi is cool for that price, and a hell of an engine/trans!

rock and a hard place dude!

ultimately i'd go 2.5 if at all possible, otherwise, WRX should be your goal.

--keith

Thanks for the quick replies. I was and still am leaning more towards the ECS swap. They sounded really well organized on the phone and had an answer for every question I threw at them. Hopefully it's worth the extra distance from home. I'm really more comfortable with using USDM parts as I know I can at least find anything I need any where. I guess I was looking to see if anyone could talk me into the JDM besides just the cool factor....and personally I like the idea of reliable and easy to fix over cool.

ECS does amazing work. They did my swap and I have zero complaints. Search through this forum for threads ive started and you can check out photos of my swap.

JDM will not communicate for you to pass emissions.

FYI: 05 Jdm will communicate! And it will pass emissions in NH if wired correctly! I had a 02/03 Version 7 swap that I did, and it passed emissions and comminicated through the obdII port.

Jeremy

it may pass in NH. but some states don't need to meet ALL criteria the scanner reads. this will differ between states. and thats cool to know that JDM ECU's will communicate now. canadian ECU may work too come to think of it.

my V4 sti does communicate with a snap on scanner, but im not sure of all the checks the ohio emissions tests for. but mine is a 95 anyway, so it don't matter for emissions!

i had very few problems finding JDM stuff for my swap. its a mix and match of legacy turbo, WRX, RS, L parts all rolled into one. ECU problems may be the worst thing i can think of. i've had zero problems with JDM quality so far either. and im not exactly nice to my car!

--keith

IMHO, if you go usdm wrx... I'd try to find some RS driveline, for the gear ratios. Really helps alot with the 2.0L Unless you can find some cool jdm stuff with better ratio's. :)

So the big red brick snap on scanner communicated with your version 4 sti ecu? Thats wierd, because version 4 isnt obd2. I tried some generic code readers with my version 5 and they didnt work.

98 is ver4 and is OBDII. 97-98 is ver4. and anything after 96 is OBDII.

98 is ver4 and is OBDII. 97-98 is ver4. and anything after 96 is OBDII.

For USDM, yes, but for JDM, they didn't have an OBD-II plug until the v7's, and even then, to call those engines OBD-II would be a bit of a misnomer. I am not quite sure what you are talking about plugging into on your v4's harness. Maybe I should go out into the shop and look at the harness I have sitting there...

Regardless, your CAR is OBD-I so they wouldn't be testing your car to OBD-II specs unless you went through some sort of legalization process for your swap...

OK,
Just looked at my harness. Check connector and scantool connectors are present. No OBD-II plug...

For the JDM STI motors finding parts are easy because the motor is equivelant to the USDM motor. Like timing belt, water pump, oil pump, gaskets, oil filter etc..

Also JDM motors have much higher compression and a high rev limit.

However as far as passing the OBDII scanner you can swap out your JDM ecu and use the wrx. It will work but there is no use of the avcs.

Mike

OK, swapping out a usdm wrx ecu will not make it pass emissions, because there will be TGV codes, which are emissions related.

As for your Ver4 swap being OBDII, it is not. Becasue my Ver5 is not, and there is no way that they had obdII and then went non obdII the next year.

96+ is obdII in usdm cars stated already, but OBD didnt come out in jdm cars untill ver7 era. And as previously stated it isnt much of obdII, but atleast it will comunicate, which if there are no fault codes, then it will pass NH emissions.

My ver5 car has an OBDII plug, but it is still pre OBDII and will not pass emissions.

So this version4 car can not be OBDII, there is more to the setup than is known.

Jeremy

For the JDM STI motors finding parts are easy because the motor is equivelant to the USDM motor. Like timing belt, water pump, oil pump, gaskets, oil filter etc..

Also JDM motors have much higher compression and a high rev limit.

However as far as passing the OBDII scanner you can swap out your JDM ecu and use the wrx. It will work but there is no use of the avcs.

Mike

That trick only works on v7+ swaps - you can't use a US ECU on the older cars.

Even then, that statement should be qualified. You'll need a way to flash out not only the TGV codes but scale for the larger injectors - unless you swap those too.


In fact, nearly everything in your post applies only to v7+ motors. The older cars are much different. Like Kheff posted, many of the OEM parts have US equivilents - but aftermarket stuff (particularly managment) is another story altogether.

Sorry to hijack the thread...

Brother and I are searching for possible engine swap with our 99 2.5rs.

We were completely stuck on just getting a USDM 2.5l STi motor only because of emissions. Now it seems that it is possible for a v7+ swap with the proper TGV fix/tune and different injectors.

So I guess the plan would be use the USDM ecu for just when my tags are due. Use the JDM ecu for daily driving. Probably have to tune both ECUs when engine modifing.

Sounds possible/practical?

Thanks,
Jason