CaddyDaddy3

Yeah I’m still using the automatic from the LGT wagon donor. The flex plate I’m using is from the original NA engine, current torque converter is from the LGT wagon donor. I have no clue why this set up isn’t working with the EJ20X when it worked just fine with the EJ255. I’m lost in the sauce lol.

Hey everyone, decided to revisit the long dead and say this.. sorry for not posting pics and updates on this past.. the swap went well, took me a month to do. I joined the Army and broke my phone, losing everything aside what was posted on social media. My wife drive the car daily for two years without issues before the engine failed. Check out my other post to see my next mistake.. an EJ20X swap. Yes, I’m a glutton for punishment. Check it out and by all means, feel free to chime in lol.

Hey everyone, first time posting and could really use some help. I’ve made a mess hahaha. So long story ahead of us here.. I bought my wife a wrecked 2006 Outback about a decade ago. We fixed all the damage, wasn’t too much. The car was originally a naturally aspirated 2.5 with a 4 speed auto. A few years ago, we decided to turbo swap the car. So we did.. took me a month to do the whole swap. We used two different donor cars for the swap. A 2005 legacy GT sedan (manual trans) for the engine, brakes, engine harness, seats, etc. and a 2005 legacy GT wagon for the drivetrain. (Tranny, rear diff, gauge cluster, fuel lines, ECM, PCM, etc) In short, the swap went well. Got it running “reliably” and then I joined the army. My wife drove it daily for a solid year with little to no issues. Until disaster struck. The used mystery turbo engine popped. Big surprise, I know. With me going on back to back deployments for the next couple of years, the car sat. It’s been two years since the engine failed and my wife began to lose faith in the fact that I would be able to return her baby to her. So, I decided to just drop a new (newer) engine into it. Problem is, these engines have went way up in price and soldiers are anything but wealthy lol. So I found a cheaper option.. In comes the EJ20X. I’m sure at this point, many of you are shaking your heads.. now stick with me here.. I did extensive research on these swap and felt confident in my abilities and experience with these cars to handle this job. I arrived home a few months ago from overseas to my wife having already putting the donor engine on an engine stand in the middle of our living room. She’s a very special woman. I did the routine checks on the engine, pulled the pan, timing components, etc, etc. Prepped and painted, did the necessary changes to make it work in the USDM car, bought her a few go fast bits for good measure and swapped it into the car. Now, I’m not making this thread for a “how to” on the EJ20X swap.. though I’m happy to share the steps I took to make it work. The purpose behind my being here is this.. and this is gonna sound like a novice mistake.. but when I cranked the new engine up…… it sounded like the torque converter was going to blast through the transmission tunnel. Ok. Let me give you an explanation on how I got to this point. When installed the engine, everything went very smoothly, almost too smoothly. Until it came time to bolt the flex plate to the torque converter. For some reason, the flex plate didn’t reach the torque converter the way it should have. There was about 5/8” gap between them. Now it had been a few years since I had done a swap in this car and though my gut was telling me there was something wrong.. I bolted them together anyway. When doing so, obviously the torque converter slid forward to meet the flex plate.. not good. I know. And yet, I continued with the installation with the heavy dark cloud of fear and doubt looming in the back of my head. Confident that the engine would run.. well, I’m sure you have lost whatever small amount of faith in my abilities you might have been developing up to this point by now. I screwed up. I knew it wasn’t right, yet I did it anyways. I’ll explain why. I live on base in Fort Knox KY. Now my housing development doesn’t allow you to work on your vehicles in the parking area.. like, not even oil changes y’all. So imagine my fear rolling a cherry picker passed my neighbors houses knowing that any one of them could make a phone call and have my ass fined by Monday morning.. I needed to get this swap done quickly.. like old engine out, new engine in and running in two days max. I had Saturday and Sunday to do everything since housing doesn’t work on the weekends lol. I was successful in that. It runs. Well, for at least the three seconds I allowed it to run before I shut it off. Ok, so that’s why I continued to install the engine even though I knew there might be an issue. I just figured, if something’s wrong, I’ll drive it a few miles down the road to the on post hobby shop and fix it there where I could take my time with it. Nope, not an option lol. I can’t drive it like it is. So now, I need to diagnose the issue and make a plan of attack, order necessarily parts and minimize the time I have it at the hobby shop so I don’t end up spending a fortune on storage fees. Phew.. alright now everyone.. here’s my theory.. so I used the NA flex plate from the original 4 speed auto.. the torque converter from the GT wagon and with the EJ25DET.. it all worked fine. But now we have downgraded to a 2.0L.. my theory is that the JDM torque converter is different and reaches further forward to meet the flex plate because (maybe) the 2.0L block is deeper where the engine meets the bell housing? So if I swap in a JDM torque converter.. it should close the gap and fix the issue? I just don’t know and don’t want to go through the work and money to do this on a hunch. Do any of you have any ideas, theories, experience with something like this? I’ll post a bunch of pics of the swap so that you didn’t read this book for nothing lol. Thanks for any help you can lend and for sticking it out to this point.

Oh and by “custom” wheels, paint and interior.. it’s really nothing crazy.. the car was originally two toned silver and grey, we painted it a dark charcoal grey.. I restored and painted some 2012 Impreza wheels and tossed in some 2016 etc center caps.. and the interior I wrapped the A-pillars in black leather, covered the headliner in black suede, and painted all of the tan trim black. I’ll post pics of everything as soon as I figure out how to do so.

I’ve been taking tons of pics of the process, stripped down the second parts car today for the harness, fuel lines, fuel tank, computer, steering column, etc. all in a days work. When I worked for my local Subaru dealership, I pulled well over 1000 dashes out of these cars for the Tamara airbag inflator recall and the sticky dash recalls.. I’m no stranger to these interiors lol. All that’s left is to tear down the wife’s interior and swap the turbo car goodies in. Hoping to have it running by this weekend. As for the pics.. I still don’t know if I can post any yet..

Lol I understand and appreciate the research you have done for me. I’ll keep everyone posted on the progress.

How much power can the factory tranny handle? I was gonna use the stock drivetrain until something popped then upgrade down the road. But if it won’t handle the extra power, I can grab the tranny and rear diff from the ECU donor car. I found a local shop that has a few GT wagon and XT parts cars. The car I’m getting the ECU from is only missing the engine. Everything else is available.

What about the transmission?

I talked to my local DMV about the swap and the possible complications. The guy explained everything would be fine as long as I swapped all the necessary components and flashed the computer to recognize my VIN. I haven’t called my old boss yet to see if the dealership will do that for me or not.. but I’m sure there’s someone in town with a programmer that will help me out.

True.. I’ve decided to take the road with the “Dead End, No Turn Around” sign posted. I don’t see why it can’t be done.. yes it’s a lot more work than I originally anticipated, but nothing I can’t handle. I’d like to add that I do appreciate all of the advice given and hope my rebellious decision doesn’t keep you from further helping me in my future endeavors.. also, how do you post pictures? I wanna keep everyone up to speed on this foolish adventure and I feel it’ll help other misguided risk takers in the future.

Update.. I’m gonna give it some reconsideration.. I found a local shop that specializes in legacy GTs and outback XTs and has several donor cars available.. so I’m gonna grab the engine harness, main under dash harness and ECU to mate to the GT engine. My question now is, will I need the steering column and any other computer related components? And what about when it comes to passing a state inspection? What do I need to do to marry all of this together to make it legal in NC?

Yeah it’s looking like a factory NA replacement is the best way to go, though I was hoping to make a fun sleeper wagon.. oh well. Thanks everyone for all the input

No worries Gex, I appreciate your apology. Upon further inspection it appears the biggest set back is the fact that I’m trying to convert an engine designed for a manual transmission into a automatic car.. so I’m researching how much would need to be changed to fit it to a AT.. whether it be the engine harness and computer or a complete harness from an auto car.. if that ends up being the case.. I’ll likely keep it NA and abandon the project. I still have hope at this point but we’ll see

Thanks man, I’ll continue my research. But I’m on a tight timeframe as my wife needs her car back lol.. I’d rather her keep the mileage off the ‘51 Caddy. The time crunch being a major player has kept me very open to just going back to stock. However I don’t want to just give up on the idea at the first sign of trouble.

I don’t claim to know everything about these cars.. I’m not a one trick pony and don’t focus on just one make or model.. so let’s not be a dick here, I’m asking for advice, not criticism. If you don’t have any helpful knowledge in the subject, go Troll someone else.

Also.. I have no interest in keeping the GT if I don’t use it for the swap.. don’t get me wrong, I love Subies.. I was a Subaru technician for several years. But I’ve had my fair share of Subaru’s, turbo and non-turbo. I’ve turned a new page and gotten back into classic cars and am now just supporting my wife’s passion for her beloved Outback. This GT has tons of donor parts aside from the engine that her car can benefit from and I would love to get some use out of it. If not, then I’ll likely part it out and go back to stock.

Yeah.. i figured that would end up being the general consensus with this swap.. and I may still take the stock route when it’s all said and done. But I only want to do so after I’m 100% convinced it’s not worth doing. I really just want a thorough list of necessary mods to make a swap like this work so I can accurately weigh the two options. Not to be rude, but it’s easy to say not to do something, what I’m looking for is a detailed reason why. I know it’s kind of a headache to go through all the details involved in such a project.. but I would greatly appreciate your support.

The tranny is locked in third gear.. we have two kids and get a lot of use out of the wagon.. so the sedan just isn’t practical.

Lol well I have the complete legacy GT.. so I can transfer over the hood.. as for the engine fitment.. I know I’d have to make modifications to fit the up pipe.. am I over looking another difference in the crossmember? As for the computer and wiring.. can I not just get an outback XT computer? Buying another car isn’t an option.. I’ve already given the car a custom paint job and custom interior and wheels, I want to keep the current vehicle. What else do you have for me? This is all good stuff

Well I realize they are completely different lol.. but I’d greatly appreciate some details on some of the hurdles I’d have to leap to make it happen.. is there someone out there whose has attempted a similar swap? I’m not some noob who’s never held a wrench.. I can handle the work involved, I’m just trying to prepare myself for the job at hand prior to tearing down a running vehicle. Again, thanks for your support

Hey guys.. trying to dig myself out of the dog house here.. I procrastinated in replacing my wife’s leaky oil pan in her 2006 legacy outback (NA, AT).. developed a major knock and am having to replace the engine. I nabbed up a running ‘06 GT sedan with a manual trans.. wanna swap the engine over and keep the outback an automatic trans.. so far I’ve found differences in the crossmember, o2 sensor wiring and fuel return line.. what other differences are there and should I go through with this swap or look for a factory replacement engine? Note that I got the GT for wicked cheap due to the tranny being stuck in 3rd gear and would be spending about the same amount of money in whichever direction I go. I appreciate your input