I am making my way up from the honda world (currently selling my swaped del sol and buying a 01 2.5RS) and looking to do a swap when I get the car. I know that all the mount locations are the same and transmissions are interchangeable, so physically the swaps all drop in (except for the cross memember that has to be swapped for one from a turbo car) however, what about the electronics side?

On honda's, you cant swap a OBDI engine (92-95) into an obd2 chassis (like a 96-01 civic) Does this hold true in scoobies? For example, can I put an V2 sti engine (95 right?) in a 01RS?

You'll need to swap the ECU as well...

yes, i know that. However, are the plugs the same on like a 95 sti engine and a 01 RS chassis?

You need the ECU and harness from the engine you are installing. Also if your state does OBDII scans as part of the inspection process you need to consider that, a JDM ECU may not respond to an OBDII scan. For the same reason an OBDI drivetrain in an OBDII car is a no-go in states that do scans.
For more info on swaps read through the Conversions forum, lots of stuff in there.

1. put location in profile, so we have an idea of your emmissions standards...er.
2. major wiring work, this aint no honda swap. we have full body harnesses, and we need to merge the sti engine harness with the rs chassis harness. the "standard" for the wiring is 50 hours.

1. Alright, I am from Michigan, so I have no emissions (right now I have a gutted cat, along with a non carbed intake and a bunch of other fun emmission emitters)
2. With my studying, wireing looks like it will be the hard part. Is it the fact that the engine harness and body harness are completly diffrent styles of wireing, or is it just a matter of just the plugs not matching up?

Try to put in an engine that is of the same year or newer than your car. You will have much fewer headaches in the long run. Older engines are really hard to get parts for and wiring diagrams for them are hard to come by as well. If you must go JDM you'll want to go with a V5 or newer as there ECM's can all be reflashed, the earlier ones can not be and they are tuned to run on different fuel. USDM WRX wrecks are a dime a dozen and can be quite potent if tuned properly. If mated to the RS transmission they are a lot of fun as the gearing is much better for the 2.0 engine. I wouldn't listen to the BS that people put up on here about the transmissions being weaker because mine is living proof that they can take a beating. Mine has 130k on it and 30k of that is post swap and all of them are Zephyr miles. I use the car for autocross and HPDE's where I run in the instructor group and additionally I am a very agressive driver on the street as well.

Best of luck with your decision.

Z

ver 7 and 8 are obd2 compliant

When getting a GC shell I would opt for a GC swap - meaning JDM ver4/5/6 etc. The wiring is much more compliant (less than 20 wires or so) and you get away with the little things that the newer cars (v7/8/9) have sensors for that bring up pesky CELs for.

If you don't have to worry about emissions go to OBD1 - its sooo much better! Not sure of your max gas but I run my JDM STi on 94 (pump fuel north of the border) and I am not running lean at any revs.

Also, as you will read not all JDM imports are made equal - type R/RAs (sounds honda like...I wonder where Honda got that from??) generally will have uprated diffs and will save you big $$ down the road if you ever try to upgrade. Best bet is to get a clip with the rear-end than just the engine - as the RS has many weaker components that you will end up chasing costing you more in the end.