I just recently bought a 99 Outback Sport, and am very interested in modding it. I believe it has the 2.2l sohc motor in it right now (i think thats stock, if not its the stock motor). I have been reading a lot of the posts in these forums, but am still undecided about which direction is best for me to go. Basically what I would like out of the project is a daily driver street car, in the 300-350whp range. I have looked at the ej20t out of the v4-6 sti's and am leaning towards this direction, but I wanted to see if anyone else had input for me before I made a mistake or made more work for myself than necessary. I don't have an unlimited budget, but when I do a project I like to do it right. Right now my car is bone stock. What should i do??


oh and just to verify, the body on the outback sport is the same as the impreza l wagon, just with extra junk on it correct?

This past august I bought a 130,000 mile 97 OBS. At 150,000 in january, the transmission decided to take dump on me. I searched around and found a 2003 wrx sedan that had been totalled in the rear. 5,000 later, I have a 32,000 mile donor car in the second bay of my garage. With my car stripped out, I just swapped in the whole wiring harness from the wrx, dash crossbar (drilling required), Steering column (drilling and grinding required), pedal box (drilling required), replace all the ends on the wiring harnesses for headlights, tailights, signals, wipers, etc. Drill the firewall and the heaterbox and all that stuff goes in . Use the wrx crossmember, front swaybar, hubs, axles, and brakes all with the outback struts and control arms. The wrx R160 will bolt into the OBS rear crossmember with longer studs. Now I have a 97 OBS with a full WRX interior swap, engine, transmission, rear end, and brakes. I'm wiring the fuel pump, and then I'll be able to put the back seats in, then its off to the alignment shop. hopefully I'll be able to let you know how it goes by the end of the week.

That sounds great man, good luck with it! Let me know how it goes.

OBS is impreza wagon with legacy outback suspension bits basically. Gives you more ground clearance but that is about it. you can swap the springs and it looks like an L with fancy paint work.

i was goin for the V4 sti swap into my 98 OBS, but decided to go with a lighter 95 L that will pass emissions without hassle. the OBS is indeed a tu-tone L wagon with RS hood attached. hope your swap goes good, let us know what is decided swap wise!!

a lot of people rant about how good the ej22 block is, but this block isn't the same block i have is it? i mean it may have the same displacement but just getting a new head and building it from there wouldnt be the same would it? are there differences between the obs 2.2l and the one people always build up?

a lot of people rant about how good the ej22 block is, but this block isn't the same block i have is it? i mean it may have the same displacement but just getting a new head and building it from there wouldnt be the same would it? are there differences between the obs 2.2l and the one people always build up?
yes, a huge difference. yours is a completely different head design and open deck, the ones that everyone talks about are the EJ22t that was in the turbo legacy GT from the early nineties, it had a closed deck and completely different internals and heads.

thought so, just making suree. thanks.