I was also thinking, to my knowledge out front can't close a sleeved block. Which would leave a ej25 block to only pinning with sleeving and you don't have oil squirters.
I feel like a sleeved and bored ej22 would be better especially since it has oil squirters.
But a long rod ej22 can only be a 2.3. I don't believe you can run large enough pistons for big displacement and long rods in them?