[MikeAlberghini]

Hey guys, I'm starting a thread on my swap to ask a few questions when they arise and possibly answer a few for people doing this in the future.

The car is a 1999 Forester 4EAT, heres a few pictures.

I picked up an EJ205 in august from a guy who builds motors in his basement in Queens. Yeah i know but I got a recommendation from someone who bought a motor from him before and it was great. Especially for the price. It was built with Probe forged pistons ACL race Bearings and was lightly honed. Should be fun.

Just pulled the trigger on a "parts car" although all of my friends consider me an idiot for stripping the car instead of dropping my motor into it.

The motor had a spun rod bearing at 101,000 miles, but besides having an immaculate shell that was recently resprayed, is comes with an invidia 3" full catless exhaust, the oz wheels in the picture, bc coilovers and an accessport.

I'll be finishing up the semester in Albany next wednesday then it's straight home to Brewster to pick up the car and tear it apart. A buddy and I will be doing the swap in his garage and I plan on having the harnesses merged by IWire because yeah no way im gonna try that on my DD.

 

[Braxhammer]

Oooh exciting! Subscribing. Good luck man!

 

[MikeAlberghini]

Oooh exciting! Subscribing. Good luck man!

Haha me too, its really getting in the way of all the papers I have to write that are due tomorrow morning. I have the tow lined up using my friends AAA membership so if all goes according to plan I should be stripping it apart Wednesday or Thursday night!

 

[MikeAlberghini]

got some work done tonight, ppulled the radiator and a few things out.

should have the motor ready to be pulled by tomorrow night. Also found a not so friendly hitchhiker in the driver side wheel well

 

[MikeAlberghini]

So the motor is ready to pull. Took me any my friend about 40-50 beers to strip the engine bay.

Any tips or idiot moves to avoid while pulling the motor?

Also, my wastegate actuator arm is pretty rusty, I will try to get a picture of it up tomorrow. Is that normal? and is it something that's replaceable easily? Haven't looked to hard on Meanioc.

 

[MikeAlberghini]

Progress!

The engine harness is basically out.

New toy:

can anyone guess what this surprise was?

blurry but its out, with a sea of trans fluid on the ground as well

The forester will begin to get stripped down tomorrow. Once the harness is out I will have them sent to iWire, and will then do the front and rear subframe/knuckles/diff swaps while I wait. Need to stock up on PB Blaster for sure...

 

[MikeDrives1]

Who cares what people say. This is a forester forum, and you are loved here.
Keep on keeping on with what your doing. Trust me, you will come out on top.

Great build so far! PM me anytime if you have questions about compatibility or fitment concerns. Chances are, in the messes ive gone through with mine, ive encountered it.


Keep it up!

 

[MikeAlberghini]

Thanks man I certainly will if any problems pop up. Hopefully none will though! And yeah I would MUCH rather have a swapped sf5 then a wrb blobeye wrx.

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[MikeAlberghini]

does anyone know the easiest way to remove the crossmember from the wrx with the most stuff attached? Like with the struts axles and everything? I will be swapping all that stuff over from the wrx and would like to save some time.

 

[MikeAlberghini]

Anyone? Anyone? Im sure it will be pretty obvious once I get down there but im wondering if there are any tips

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[JetRichard]

Noice!

Sorry I'm not much help in your swap but really interested in seeing progress. I have an '04 and would really want to do this too. Can you please continue with pics, tips and progress reports? The more info out there the merrier.

Also if you found some guides or links to other ppl doing the same I'd really love to see em.

Good luck! :Banane35:

 

[MikeAlberghini]

Sorry I'm not much help in your swap but really interested in seeing progress. I have an '04 and would really want to do this too. Can you please continue with pics, tips and progress reports? The more info out there the merrier.

Also if you found some guides or links to other ppl doing the same I'd really love to see em.

Good luck! :Banane35:

already finished and been driving it for a while! the swap is honestly soooo much more intimidating than it really is. Albeit I had my harness merged by Brian at iWire. I have a bunch of pictures lying around of theres anything specific you'd like to see.

The suspension stuff is super straight forward. You only need to swap the front subframe but I did both as well as rear disc brake conversion. Inside the engine bay is also fairly simple. You don't have to cut any holes in the firewall if you reuse y our forester dash and heater core. Everything bolts right in. Honestly the only thing I ran into that I didn't read a lot about is how to incorporate your radiator with the extra upper coolant tank. But even that is pretty simple.

If you have the space, time and money I would say go for it!

 

[Jotech]

What did you do for the rear disk conversion? I assume you pulled it off of the donor car, Also congrats on the build. I bet its awesome!

 

[^pomen_GTR^]

i dont mind if u gave me the imprezza chassis....