wrx swapped rs? from ej205 to ej207

then i decided i wanted more power, driving the car was fun but it was still slow. Working as a subaru tech for the last few years and driving newer wrx ,sti and occasional modified sti i really noticed how slow the car was .
my original goal was to do some sort of ej based swap , but do it in the cheapest way possible (at least that's what i thought ) . The best way i figured was to buy a donor car and part out what i dont use to help with cost .I eventually came across rough 03 wrx had some cool engine mods but was rough .It had a few oil leaks and had oil consumption issues(drinking almost a quart in a 20 mile drive ) .i couldn't pass it up for 2200 which is a screaming deal in the PNW .

I eventually removed the engine out of the wrx and tore down and inspected everything. At this point ive assembled a few turbo engines and wanted to give it a try on my own car
After i tore down engine to pistons found all ring gaps lined up and valve seals not installed fully . I thoroughly cleaned all piston, rods and block measured cylinder out of round and crankshaft run out and loosely checked everything else due to not having measuring devices .

I reassembled block with new oem rings ,king main and rod bearing ,and reassembled block

At this point i was doing research and found out ej have some small oiling issues so i decided to install killer b pickup tube, windage tray and sit oil pan

after I finished assembling short block i did a lil more research and decided to add 11mm oil pump it seemed to be a happy medium from what i read

After i finished short block moved on to the heads . i went to a machine shop and had the heads pressure tested found a few leaky valve and i could see why when i removed them

at this point i just went and bought new GSC stainless steel valves and BC valve spring and retainers . it was cheaper then oem even with my employee discount and just as strong


had th heads decked and rechecked for sealing

got the heads bolted to the block with good old arp head bolts


while i was waiting for valve buckets did a small side project with intake and valve covers

at this point i had to decide if i wanted to use the aftermarket bits that came on the motor or not . i figure since i have them might as well use them and clean them up



when i got to this point i consulted my local tuner since this was the first subaru i built and wanted some extra insight . at this point build went from cheap as possible to lets make it as safe as possible with room for growth . i ended up installing iag tvg deletes,iag fuel rails, 1050x injectors and custom fuel line setup



This was the first time i installed a full custom fuel system on car . the only prior experience i had was making oil return line with an fittings . i did more research and asked a few people i knew in the subaru community and decided to go with parallel fuel setup . i watched a few youtube video to refresh on how to make AN- lines and used iag pfte fuel line instructions as a outline i could follow for my application .i tried to place every line and fitting in a place i could easily excess with minimal removal of parts . so installed power steering pump and ac compressor to determine hose routing .

after this point i went to town and used my imagination to best of my ability and came up with this




at this point motor was ready to go in did more research and found clutch and flywheel i could use that would hold but not kill my leg . found competition stage 2+ should work and not brake the transmission

now it was time to do the swap. at this time had most of the parts on hand to get the engine bolted in .
bought group n engine mounts
bought new oem subframe

from this point installed steering rack control arms and wheels


new engine ready to go in

after wrestling with engine for 15 min finally got it installed

After i installed engine found out fuel pressure regulator would hit hood .after a few swear words and trying 100 different layouts i came to conclusion i had to move the fuel pressure regulator to a different location while i was doing that wanted to come up with a solution for fuel filtration . visited my local american speed shop blood enterprize for some ideas . they gave me a cheap but effective and readily available gm filter with AN- adapters i eventually came up with this .
tested fuel system and fixed a few leaks after a few try's had everything sorted

next task was to sort out power steering lines . the power steering lines off of donor car were old and leaking and new oem ones were 400$ so i decided to try to make full an setup with a stainless steel tank . i looked around to see if i could find a kit but they were all somewhat expensive and i felt i could design something better . i used iag power steering stainless steel pressure line and made a custom return line and used generic amazon baffled power steering reserve tank








at this point i had to move to the interior of the car to get the merged harness in

i was previously able to source a pre merged harness from iwire i decided to go the route to cut the amount of down time so it could be in and out affair
removed dash heater box and old bulk head harness



eventually got everything out and in within a few hours

at this point i was weighing my options on engine management i could run cobb but its truly limited by the ecu and 16bit architecture . cobb tuner was around 6-700 dollars which is not to much but i would limit myself in the long haul .i wouldn't be able to do flex fuel or fuel pressure monitoring though ecu . i started looking into stand alones my tuner was familiar with haltech was good option but with patch harness was pretty expensive over 2000$ range . my third option was link g4x plugin ecu which was around 1400$, it plugs into iwrie merged harness, has expandable inputs and outputs .its capable of motor sports features like anti lag , launch control ,supports can bus and is a 32bit ecu with on board memory for logging . the only things i needed to do was delete maf, move iat sensor and install wide band which added up to around 2000$ said and done (i was sold on that idea )



pretty cool gauge sweep feature after i got the initial set up of ecu

after that point i rigged up radiator , hoses and fans and it was ready to drop off at tuners for base map

Received my vehicle back a few weeks later from tuner and ohh boy does she sound good and also look good after new set of wheels and coilovers

after the car was running and was waiting to brake motor i installed a few different goodies

lamco was kinda hard to read so i installed a defi link gauge


installed skid plate due to at the time was using the car to go snowboarding

after weeks of searching was able to put a set defi cr gauges together


eventually got around to installing them


after the point of all these parts being installed i had the engine broke in and it was ready to go back to tuner

i was able to catch one of the dyno runs and car sounded good
dyno numbers were impressive it was either the highest or highest number they have seen in a while from a vf39 powered ej205

a few weeks after tune i started to dail in suspension and installed iag v3 aos . it will fit if u make some sort of bracket if you have ac. if you dont have ac u can use the bracket provided or u can mount in front of shock tower with custom bracket but have to move aos drain to tee into turbo drain


u can get the aos to work on ej20 jdm or U.S but you have to swap pcv in intake manifold with ej257 sti barb other than that it all lines up


bought new wheels and tires found a second hand set of 5zegin gn+ 17x8.5 +48 245/40/17 conti dws06.
now this was the most frustrating part about building this car trying to get a wide tire and wheel to fit stock arches i had
to use gd sti control arms front and rear sti lateral links to get a good amount of camber . then use camber plates and rear whiteline eccentric bolts to keep tire from hiting coilover





if you convert to aluminum front control arms u have to use sti style front endlinks along with front sway bar

i found that these alignment specs work if front and rear fenders are rolled u should be able to get enough camber to clear fenders but also be able to clearance tire away from the coilover .
i later found out a year after if you use rear camber plates u can achieve a more aggressive alignment and still maintain clearance

with rear camber plate u can achieve




note when you buy these camber plate u have to purchase spring peaches if your coilovers does not come with rear perches. u will need to know spring inner and outer diameter along with piston rod thickness then u can match part number to cusco's parts chart for spring perches then order from there . also make sure to have strut nut cusco has a few to choose from along with measuring both struts i ran into issue where one strut was replaced and shaft diameter was different

example of spring perches (you also need to remove upper insulator


side note u may need to adjust pre load and ride height to achieve desired strut to wheel clearance adding camber plates adds an extra 2 inches of ride height to the rear

around this point i started having oil consumption , burning issues on startup and was getting puddles of oil in intake after i added aos it was alot better but there would still be smoke on start up . at this point i suspected it was the turbo it had unknown mileage and i was told it was rebuilt at some point (but in the back of my mind thought it could be broken ring land )

sourced a new vf34 from clover turbo and a used grimmspeed top mount intercooler


comparison to vf39


after i had installed turbo oil consumption was better and only had minimal smoke out tailpipe . I later sent car to tuner to have touch up tune .Unfortunately vehicle failed tech inspection due to suspected possible compression issue .