Murray

Hello All,

After a big end knock on my 1996 UK Spec Impreza Wagon I have replaced the engine with an engine from an Import WRX saloon (1996 model).

This engine also came with the ECU....can anyone tell give me any advice, I have been told it will increase my BHP if fitted? but I have read that that the saloon WRX run a td05 turbo.....my wagon has a td04.....

Any advice?

Thanks H

Sprint Chief

Is your car pre or post facelift? (96 included both!)

Do you know what the codes are on the front of the ECU?

fwdnutz

hi m8 you need a z4 ecu i believe for import engine and yes you will be running 260bhp with td05 turbo! hope this helps

Sprint Chief

Oops, just noticed you said your car had a TD04...

Not fully up to speed on wagons, but I think the early UK wagons have a TD05, so I guess yours must be a late '96 (one of the early facelifts).

In that case, your car should have sported an 8S ecu, presumably the 96 WRX saloon was a similarly post-facelift model and would have had either a 1S or 3S ECU...

The answer to the turbo question, you should definitely run the ECU which matches the turbo, as the boost control maps will not be right otherwise. If you've kept your TD04 turbo, run the UK ecu.

If you've switched to a TD05 turbo, you should run the WRX ecu, but be aware there is a small difference in the pinouts (the UK ECU has a built-in immobiliser circuit, which will be matched to your key, the WRX ECU shouldn't have). This is a fairly straightforward switch.

Of course if I've got the facelift thing wrong ignore everything I've written

:-)

Bob Rawle

the most worrying thing is that no one has mentioned that Wagons can come with 9 to 1 compression engines in Japan, and that the Japanese ecu fuel maps will be totally wromg possibly causing bore wash etc.

its not just about boost, running the right ecu is sound advice.

there is no imobiliser in either of the the ecu's. UK cars were only key coded from MY01 onwards

bob

Sprint Chief

Bob,

I could be wrong, but reading the head post, I believe we are talking about a UK wagon and a WRX saloon, I don't think there was an import wagon involved.

My only experience with post-96 imprezas is with JDM, so I stand corrected on the immobiliser. There is definitely a wiring difference though (fuel pump / one of the sensors - couple of wires to switch around)

thedrill

My 98 wagon has the chip in the key and has a std imobilizer fitted with a light on the dash, but is a UK spec.

Murray

Hi there, my car is a pre-facelift.....I'm sure it has a TD04 turbo....

The ecu that came with the engine shows the following...

U8 (in big letters) 226.11 AA810
A18-000 RJ2 3209 (It has 4 x big yellow plug sockets for input)

Cheers

H

Sprint Chief

Hi Murray

For pre-facelift cars, there are no wiring issues.

However.... pre-facelift, I thought all UK cars (wagon and saloon) came with the TD05 turbo. The JDM wagon models came with a TD04, and the JDM saloons with a TD05.

What is the number of your old ecu (i.e., the one you were running before the engine swap)? This will help identify your car... Of course, the ECUs could be chipped or remapped, so it might be wise to open them up and make sure there is nothing extra fitted.

Bob Rawle

Ah ok as a saloon it would not be high compression,thanks for that.

Keys may have transponders but ecu's are only keycoded from MY01 onwards.

Yup right re the wiring, JDM's and Eurospecs are different, crank/cam and fuel pump plus the Euro ecu's have a pull on pin for the imobiliser module which is separate.

My MY96 JDM Wagon came with a TD05 turbo but it was an STi, and had a 9:1 compression engine (which was properly blueprinted). I've seen both TD04's and TD05's on early JDM cars of the same model year, bit of a lottery.

For early cars there was a "option menu" if a JDM car giving the customer a big choice of upgrades, not like the MY97 on cars which were the first of the "mass production" models.

bob