JDM EJ205 Swap, troubleshooting, differences, nightmare

[AlexL]

Greetings Nasioc. Long time lurker, first time thread starter. I am a Honda guy, turned Subaru enthusiast, from way back. The WRX is supposed to be my winter warrior. I don't like Reddit and Facebook and social media, so I'm documenting my work here, on a forum, the way it used to be. Forums are dead right?

Before I forget too much, I wanted to show some progress I've made, work I've done, and interesting things I've run into working on my 05 GD Wagon. Mainly, the trials and tribulations I have had trying to get this car dialed in. This is my second GD wagon, my favorite body style, my first one broke my resolve with coolant leaks years ago and I sold it. I regretted it, so despite even worse problems with this one, I am trying, trying, not to give up.

A brief history first:

2024
January: Purchase car, pay too much, smoking all the way home.
February: Replace VC seals, oil cooler seals, suspension, patch a hole in one of the rear shock towers.
March: Go to a localish shop, STI everything, Cobb AP, VF48, injectors, fuel pump, intercooler, dyno tune, 260whp at 18 psi. Probably the dyno pulls killed it, the 140k mile original engine.

A few weeks later engine sounds like a coffee grinder at part throttle. Cut open oil filter, bearing material. Dangit. Chang oil, keep driving it for a few more weeks.

April: Still driving the car even though low oil pressure, on it's way out. 9 psi at idle. Other annoyances, can't get my rear o2 codes P0420 to go off for more than 100 miles with the Access Port. Thats it, ditching it and going open source, can't find a respectable tuner locally because open source tuning isnt respectable (legal?), fine I'll just do it myself. Learn romraider, buy Tactrix cable, cool.

As of today, end of April was the last time I drove the car.

May: Bite the bullet, purchase used JDM EJ205, direct bolt in right? Not so much, not as direct as importers make it out to be anyway. Read lots of threads on differences. Flash my USDM ECU with a stock map, I'll wire AVCS later. Timing belt, water pump, all the seals.

July: Swap the motor, easy enough but from the first start, I have... smoking issues. After months, weekends, troubleshooting, finally definitively can see that passenger side head is weeping coolant, literally dripping out of the head gasket onto the exhaust manifold. I thought EJ205's only spun bearings, and didn't blow head gaskets! At least the oil pressure on this swap was great.

August: Get another replacement JDM EJ205. This one is a DBW motor from a Forester. Lots of differences, worse than first engine but theoretically newer? Have to swap lots of stuff, intake manifold, while I'm in there, add TGV deletes. TGV deletes are for a JDM intake top? Drill out holes to make it line up, sigh.

What's the more annoying part? Water neck is different, so radiator, radiator hoses, nothing lines up. What a pain. Can I swap the coolant neck/crossover? No because the 10mm bolts holding it down are seized, brutal.

Intercooler mounts don't work either. Ok, put it all back together, get a Forester XT radiator, hoses fit better, fans don't. Ok more stuff to swap...

First start, pouring blue smoke. Did my turbo go bad? My turbo went bad. My gently used VF48. Was it smoked from bearing shrapnel? Ok, get a new turbo.

Order VF48 clone, brand new, from Ichiban Engineering. Swap the turbo. Oil smoke cloud fixed. Thank goodness.

September: Still troubleshooting! The problems continue.

I cannot get this engine, my third engine, to stop "smoking" at idle. It's like it's coming from everywhere, headers, exhaust. Not the cloud like when the turbo was blown, but... smoking none the less.

Well, I filed the engine/radiator with water, not coolant, because I fully expected to have to pull this radiator back out when it didn't fit. Now I need to fix any obvious external leaks (I think I'm ok here), compression test again, leakdown test, and determine if the smoke I am seeing is from something burning off, condensation, if indeed I have yet another head gasket leak, from a JDM EJ205. What are the odds?!

What a nightmare.

Ok here's some pics of the saga, a car I've had for 8 months, and have only driven about 500 miles. Thanks for following along.

Pictures:
Work began immediately.


Classic Subaru.


More Subaru problems.


Fun while it lasted.



This is not good.




First swap attempt.




Ok that one didn't work, let's get another one.


Bad turbo! Starting a collection. I have two blown TD04s, a blown VF48, and a questionable Forester turbo (even smaller).


Engine back in, now with pretty timing covers.


More Subaru problems.

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[D-Rodman]

Love the wrb GD wagon, don’t understand why so many engine and turbo problems. Where are you buying those ej205 ?
I know a lot of those engines are very old but it is hard to believe you ran into so many bad ones.
I’ve done a few ej205 and ej207 engines in my driveway. Always had good luck but always selective when looking for and at engines. If you know what to look for you can get a direct drop engine. Obviously avcs will now work if running your engine with the original usdm ecu.



Sent from my iPhone using NASIOC

I did that ver 7 to ver 9 swap about 18 months ago. Still have the ver 7 engine, has a burnt valve according to EFI Logics.

[AlexL]

Yeah I'm either really unlucky or I'm losing my touch.

My current list of problems,

• Coolant neck doesn't line up because forester engine, broken 10mm bolt on coolant pipe preventing swap. I have rigged a forester radiator to fit.
• Running super lean after it warms up, checked my tune, checked injector settings, made some changes with no effect, still suspect a vacuum leak but can't find one.
• When I test drive it, absolute crop dusting smoke show behind the car, oil smoke. I've already replaced the turbo. Running awful, AFRs out of whack. This sounds also like vacuum leak, but the amount of smoke, when it doesn't smoke at idle, seems like... another bad turbo?? It's brand new.

I've been through the turbo inlet, PCV, breather hoses, several times, but I'll go through them again. New plugs, new coils, new o2 sensors, new PCV, no codes.

Motor has great oil pressure, it's not pushing coolant, no coolant mixing with oil, no coolant leaks, no smoke from breathers, so as far as I can tell the 2nd motor is fine internally. These EJs are just baffling to me.

[D-Rodman]

Have you compression tested the engine ?


Sent from my iPhone using NASIOC

[AlexL]

Yes, good compression, 170-180 in all 4. No smoke from breathers, nothing with the oil cap off, so not indicative of rings/sealing issues, no oil leaks. I did the headgasket syringe/liquid thing to try and find combustion gases in the coolant, nothing.

Next I'll take the intake manifold off, again, and audit all my vacuum lines. Going to swap ECUs as well. I can understand the poor running if I have a big vacuum leak, but the smoke under throttle...?

So one problem at a time so I'l start with the easiest which is the lean idle. Just going to take me a bit since I only have one day a week to play with it. I'll be happy if it's done by Christmas, or else I'm getting myself a 207 for Christmas.

[MaxenceGiroux]

Originally Posted by AlexL

Greetings Nasioc. Long time lurker, first time thread starter. I am a Honda guy, turned Subaru enthusiast, from way back. The WRX is supposed to be my winter warrior. I don't like Reddit and Facebook and social media, so I'm documenting my work here, on a forum, the way it used to be. Forums are dead right?

Before I forget too much, I wanted to show some progress I've made, work I've done, and interesting things I've run into working on my 05 GD Wagon. Mainly, the trials and tribulations I have had trying to get this car dialed in. This is my second GD wagon, my favorite body style, my first one broke my resolve with coolant leaks years ago and I sold it. I regretted it, so despite even worse problems with this one, I am trying, trying, not to give up.

A brief history first:

2024
January: Purchase car, pay too much, smoking all the way home.
February: Replace VC seals, oil cooler seals, suspension, patch a hole in one of the rear shock towers.
March: Go to a localish shop, STI everything, Cobb AP, VF48, injectors, fuel pump, intercooler, dyno tune, 260whp at 18 psi. Probably the dyno pulls killed it, the 140k mile original engine.

A few weeks later engine sounds like a coffee grinder at part throttle. Cut open oil filter, bearing material. Dangit. Chang oil, keep driving it for a few more weeks.

April: Still driving the car even though low oil pressure, on it's way out. 9 psi at idle. Other annoyances, can't get my rear o2 codes P0420 to go off for more than 100 miles with the Access Port. Thats it, ditching it and going open source, can't find a respectable tuner locally because open source tuning isnt respectable (legal?), fine I'll just do it myself. Learn romraider, buy Tactrix cable, cool.

As of today, end of April was the last time I drove the car.

May: Bite the bullet, purchase used JDM EJ205, direct bolt in right? Not so much, not as direct as importers make it out to be anyway. Read lots of threads on differences. Flash my USDM ECU with a stock map, I'll wire AVCS later. Timing belt, water pump, all the seals.

July: Swap the motor, easy enough but from the first start, I have... smoking issues. After months, weekends, troubleshooting, finally definitively can see that passenger side head is weeping coolant, literally dripping out of the head gasket onto the exhaust manifold. I thought EJ205's only spun bearings, and didn't blow head gaskets! At least the oil pressure on this swap was great.

August: Get another replacement JDM EJ205. This one is a DBW motor from a Forester. Lots of differences, worse than first engine but theoretically newer? Have to swap lots of stuff, intake manifold, while I'm in there, add TGV deletes. TGV deletes are for a JDM intake top? Drill out holes to make it line up, sigh.

What's the more annoying part? Water neck is different, so radiator, radiator hoses, nothing lines up. What a pain. Can I swap the coolant neck/crossover? No because the 10mm bolts holding it down are seized, brutal.

Intercooler mounts don't work either. Ok, put it all back together, get a Forester XT radiator, hoses fit better, fans don't. Ok more stuff to swap...

First start, pouring blue smoke. Did my turbo go bad? My turbo went bad. My gently used VF48. Was it smoked from bearing shrapnel? Ok, get a new turbo.

Order VF48 clone, brand new, from Ichiban Engineering. Swap the turbo. Oil smoke cloud fixed. Thank goodness.

September: Still troubleshooting! The problems continue.

I cannot get this engine, my third engine, to stop "smoking" at idle. It's like it's coming from everywhere, headers, exhaust. Not the cloud like when the turbo was blown, but... smoking none the less.

Well, I filed the engine/radiator with water, not coolant, because I fully expected to have to pull this radiator back out when it didn't fit. Now I need to fix any obvious external leaks (I think I'm ok here), compression test again, leakdown test, and determine if the smoke I am seeing is from something burning off, condensation, if indeed I have yet another head gasket leak, from a JDM EJ205. What are the odds?!

What a nightmare.

Ok here's some pics of the saga, a car I've had for 8 months, and have only driven about 500 miles. Thanks for following along.

Pictures:
Work began immediately.


Classic Subaru.


More Subaru problems.


Fun while it lasted.



This is not good.




First swap attempt.




Ok that one didn't work, let's get another one.


Bad turbo! Starting a collection. I have two blown TD04s, a blown VF48, and a questionable Forester turbo (even smaller).


Engine back in, now with pretty timing covers.


More Subaru problems.


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While I like the WRB GD waggon, I am perplexed as to why there are so many issues with the engine and the turbo. Can you tell me where you purchased those ej205?
Despite the fact that I am aware that many of those engines are rather old, it is hard to imagine that you came across so many defective ones.
Within my driveway, I have worked on a couple ej205 and ej207 engines before. I have always been fortunate, but I am always picky when it comes to searching for and evaluating engines. It is possible to get a direct drop engine if you are aware of what to search for. If you are operating your engine with the original USBM ecu, it is obvious that AVCS will now function properly.

[AlexL]

Yeah I don't know. I've had two bad turbos, confirmed, an engine with a bad head gasket (weeping water from the gasket, passenger side), and now the most recent engine I swapped is also smoking. I've never had to swap a car twice (or three times!) to get it fixed but here I am. I won't get it done any time soon too busy, gonna have to wait so it's sitting outside at the moment.