maxspeed3

Subscribed! Are you running the LGT heads or STI heads on your build? Sent while redlining all of the gears

Hey all! I recently picked up a 2005 LGT 5 speed with bad rod knock. I haven't torn into the motor as of yet, but starting a build thread and looking for some pointers/ thoughts as to which direction to go. I recently found a local seller with a full running long block (minus turbo) from an 06' wrx (EJ255) with a new gates timing belt and water pump with roughly 80k on the motor (good compression etc). From researching (correct me if I'm wrong here) but engine wise 05-06 LGT and 04-06 WRX/STI are identical except intercooler and turbo. Yes, same long block, but slightly different heads? Or is the only difference just the intercooler and turbo? From reading people have done cross referencing on part numbers between the LGT and STI of these years. and they appear to be the same. So my main question here is...Would it be worth picking up that motor from the 06' wrx, and adding a vf52, with supporting mods, intercooler, tune, etc and swapping it into the 05' LGT or would just rebuilding the current motor that is in it be a better idea? Since Subaru's are basically Legos as far as swapping parts around is it safe to assume that the current ecu in the car should work with the 06' wrx motor, it will need a retune, because the wrx motor has different injectors, heads, and the cast, vs plastic intake manifold, and turbo? The thing that is really tempting with wrx motor is the fact that it is a running motor, that has the potential of being directly swapped into the car so it could be back on the road in a shorter time frame. I'm a firm believer in doing things right and not cutting corners. Just looking for some thoughts on this potential swap if it would be an pain in the *** or fairly simple once the supporting mods are done. Another thought would be if the motor swap as mentioned above would work I would plan to tear down the current motor and rebuild it and sell it on the side or find another Subaru in need of work and swap it into that. Sorry if this is confusing, just tossing a couple different ideas around... Or for a third option is I have an 08' STI short block (with a spun bearing on #3) that I was planning on rebuilding for a forged build for my 13' STI, but it could be utilized in this project too... Link to a NASIOC thread where I found the LGT/STI info. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1594587