I am young (17) and really dont know very much, but im really excited about doing this swap with the help of some friends. (94 legacy ss motor into my 95 ej18) We have faith that we could swap the engine in with no problem, bolt everything up fine, but wiring the thing and getting it running properly could become a problem... How easy/hard is it? if i got online help could i do it? also, what would i need electrically, the ecu and full wiring harness?
also, i know i need a turbo crossmember, and swaybar, along with better cooling eventually, but anything else you can think of?
i appreciate any help i can get!
(i know this prolly has been done alot and ill keep searching around the forums)
thanks!
-nathan

Well, im just starting a ej22 into my 95 ej18. Since all those motors are the same, but in different models, you should be able to just swap and plug into your old wiring harness with an ecu swap for the new motor as well.

if its the wiring your worried about why don't you swap just the block and heads from the 2.2 and bolt everything else from the 1.8 to it.

nope.....some connectors are different, that's why I paid someone to swap mine (and I was in school & working full time).

Some connectors are different? Not only do certain pinouts change, and all the ECU plugs are different, but you have no wiring for boost control.

Anyways, the easy way to do this is how we did Bugman's car. Use the Ej18 engine/intake manifold harness on the Ej22T (The G was found only in the 22B) and it will plug right in. Then, to control boost, timing, and fuel get an E-manage to tune it. This is the simplest approach...

so my answer was in the short form.....

i just put a 2002 ej20 in my 2002 rs. i thought the harensses might be really similar seeing as they are from the same year/body style. ended up having to swap all the wiring. i doubt it will be plug -n-play on the older cars either.

I am in the middle of this exact swap right now. I have the motor, tranny and front brakes in.

For eng. management, I used the stock EJ 18 harness with the Rallitek Perfect power. I have yet to start the car and am still figuring out some bugs.

If you use the 2.2 intake manifold and throttle body, you will have to swap over the TPS from the legacy. Make sure to solder.

Also, the problem I am trying to figure out right now is the wiring for the MAF sensor is slightly different between the two Cars. If any one has a diagram of this( Josh I am begging you!!!!!!!!!) that would help.

If you plan on intercooling, find an old slant style intercooler of of an early european WRX. I am doing it with the USDM wrx inter cooler, and had to cut the metal around the Pitching stopper mount on the fire wall, as well as hammer the firewall in a bit. Finally, I have to install the intake manifold and the intercooler at the same time.

You have to buy a longer hose to go between the turbo and intercooler.

You also need to swap over the entire pedal assembly from the Leg so you can have a hydraulic clutch.

You need the crossmember from the Leg as well as the rear diff. YOu may need the rear dif carrier and I will find that one out on thursday.

You will get rid of cruise control because there are some parts that will interfere with the routing of your exhaust.

Just a few things to think about before you embark. I am also young (21) and took a semester off from school to pay for this swap, and I am doing it my self. I started gather parts, cleaning, and repairing two weeks into september 2004. I put the motor in last saturday!!!! Be patient or beg your parents for some fundage.

the rear diff carrier is the same

so bmxpunk, when you did it did you just swap the longblock? if i was to do just that (use all of the ej18 stuff as i could) would that make wiring it to the legacy ecu easier?
But if i had the legacy ecu then the sensors like the TPS and MAP from the legacy would plug right in i hope.
If i took the car with the engine swapped but not wired to an auto electric shop how much do you think they would charge to wire it? or would they even do it?
also, does anybody know if the 91-94 turbo ecu's are all the same or do you have to get one thats engine year specific?

thanks a BUNCH for all the help guys, im sure ill have more questions as i get going on this.
-nathan

that makes sense, but what ecu are you using then? the ej18?

Can you tell me more about the Rallitek Perfect power? what does it do/cost/difficulty.
thanks

The carriers are the same ? I thought so. A guy at rallispec said they were different. I don't trust them Like I do other vendors.

Any way. To wire the car, again, Rallispec saidthey could splice the harnesses for me to just drop into the car for $1000. I believe that all 91-94 turbo ECUs are the same. In fact I have a guy at autronic looking to see if the pins are the same for the 95 euro wrx are the same.

If you use the Legacy's harness you wont have a problem. I used the 95 Imprzas harness and that is why I had to swap over throttle position sensor and Maf sensor plugs. I am still in some of the inital stages of the swap. I am going to put some mre stuff together tonight. and I will let you know.

I will tell you I have had good luck and received good advice from THe guys at rallitek and Dale at Boxer4racing.

The perfect power is cool. It is a wire in piggy back and you can adjust fuel and timing maps as well as control and extra solenoid (injector or boost controller or water injection, etc). It took my friend and I 40 minutes to spice in the 8 or so wires and it is tunable from you laptop computer. Lots of people have had great luck with it. I will find out once I can actually start my car. Again I will post my results when I have some

BMX punk, the pinouts are the same with one major exception, the early WRX's used coil on plug ignition and a four channel ignitor. There's extra wiring there, and two extra sensor wires into the ECU. OTherwise USDM Legacy turbo wires like an early WRX...

Thats what I thought but also, you have to use the crank and cam wheels from a wrx because our 2.2t triggers are different and the computer wont read it.

In theory, that would be the best way to go. Wire it up using the legacy turbo harness. replace the toothed crank sproket from a current wrx and buy the tunable autronic. I jsut might do that if my perfect power isn't, well, perfect.

this is excellent information, wiring is definetly the most intimidating part. keep me up on how its goin.

so there is no way to use the EJ18 ECU in this swap? even if you got a seperate boost controller and knock sensor units since of course the EJ18 doesnt have?

if i put ej18 intake manifold and heads on the 2.2, then used the EJ18 wires and ECU along with aftermarket boost controller would that work?
thanks a bunch

I was just assuming that one would be using an EJ20G if they were going to go the WRX ECU route. Not much to be gained with a WRX ECU on a USDM EJ22T. But, correct me if I am wrong, but you cannot use the WRX cam gear because it is DOHC vs SOHC. Isn't the tooth count different? I will check this tonight since I do have both engines in my garage...

If you are just going to run a stock Ej22T you can get away with the Ej18 ECU, or just run the turbo on wastegate. Bugman ran his car this way for a while, but the problem is it overfuels a ridiculous amount on the low end. After a few months he picked up an E-manage both because of the fueling as well as the EJ18 ECU is pretty aggressive on the timing up top. But this may not be as much of an issue to you. His set up is a little different with Ej22T heads on an EJ20G block. As such he's got 9:1 CR and .2l less displacement...

Talking to Legacy777, we are thinking my setup isn't going to work. I get the last hoses I need today so I might try to startit first to see whats up, but I may have to rewire the car

Any way the Intake manifold is different between the two cars. THe runners or legs from the 1.8, as well as the throttle body are noticibly smaller!!!! However that setup might work better than mine since all of the sensors match.

I will try really hard to see if my car will actually start tonight.

awesome, that is what i will do then. this just requires splicing wires from the sensors to the plugs into the ecu then right?
at this point, i will just want something that works, and that way i can improve on it later.
running on wastegate, does that hurt anything? what exactly is it doing? just letting the wastegate dump excess boost by itself? and it has everything necessary for that i hope.
thanks guys

I ran a 2.2L turbo for 2 years on a 1.8L ECU, it ran rich, but strong...I now have a Link+.

The wastegate he is talking about is the one on the turbo. It runs off the pressure created by the turbo and has a spring set for a certain pressure. When that is reached it opens the wastegate, which then vents exhaust gas so the turbo stops creating more pressure.

ok thats good to know, so what have you guys done for exhaust?
do you think my junkyard engine will have the downpipe? will i need anything custom done? i was thinking something for a wrx would fit, since i know it fits the hangars and all and i assume it work.
is the ej18 exhaust useable just temporarily?

I have a pieced together WRX exhaust on now...bosal twindump downpipe and HKS cat back.
I got the stock legacy downpipe from the junkyard (for free, they can't sell used cats) and used an aftermarket RS exhaust for a while that someone gave me.
You can use the stock stuff w/some modification, but it will choke your power.