I have recently brought a used engine which was sold as from a 1994 WRX. After changing all the bits over from my old engine onto the new one i.e. Turbo, coil packs, ac pump ect im not so sure it is from a WRX.

There are a few things slightly different like the alternator bracket which doesn’t have any of the points for mounting the Ac pump to so I used my old bracket. There is something just behind the power steering pump which is a red brown colour and has a few small rubber hoses going to it which is not on my old engine. Also on the throttle body there are two places to connect the accelerator cable to my old engine had one. It almost looks like its for a manual choke.

How can I check for sure what car it is from.

I have put it in a 1995 WRX running the standard wrx ecu. If say the engine I have brought is from a Uk 2000 turbo will it still work or am I going to have issues with it. Or will any of the EJ20 engines run in a classic impreza.
It is running at the moment but very rough.

 

This is one of the reasons you dont buy second hand engines and mix n match different years
What does it say on the engine block, ie EJ20G etc
Also where did you get the engine from?

Tony

 

I didn’t have any option. Ive just lost my job and don’t have the funds to do it any other way.
I needed to get it done as quick and cheap as I could to try sell the car. But I guess that’s out of the question now.

It came from a breakers who I have emailed and they say they cant be sure what car its from as the break so many. So I asked why did they advertise it as from a 94 WRX and they have yet to get back to me this was days ago.

All I can see is EJ20 on the block.

 

Have a check for the cross hatchings underneath the aternator on both blocks

Tony

 

Sorry what are the cross hatchings

 

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on the block (but joined together)

Tony

 

i will go have a look now. Thanks Tony

 

Cant see on the new engine and on my old one there is something but its so worn you cant make it out.

If it is a uk 2000 turbo engine will it run in my wrx

 

The car seems to idle ok but when you rev it it coughs and splutters a lot

 

If its a uk engine you "may" have issues with compression, I think they run different compression ratio's, if its another JDM engine then you may have another issue there, but what it is im not sure

Tony

 

i had the same problem with it cough and splutter on my 96 wrx, had the coil packs pluged in the wrong way round, swapped them round, ran perfectly

 

How did you plug the in the wrong way mine only fit one way

 

Out of interest what would the code on the cross hatchings be on the wrx block and a uk turbo block

 

Is it possible it could be an engine from a legacy ?

they are near identical to the wrx but differ in small ways as you describe

 

I dont have a clue what its from mate and the guy who sold it to me wont respond to any of my emails.

 

Just as i say that he gets back to me.
He is now saying it is from a uk Turbo 2000

 

Try changing the coil plugs over u may have them plugged in the wrong way From wot i can remember i think the black plug is the back one and white thr front may be the other way thou

 

From roughly remembering,the UK turbo of that time had a 7D ecu,so if you are running a jap spec ECU maybe the maps all wrong,might be worth trying a UK ecu in it,i have fitted a uk ecu to my wrx and it ran o.k but thru up a CEL error as the uk engine has something the jap doesnt,nothing major,just a sensor.

 

ive had the same problem ive just changed my wrx import engine into a wrx uk engine all the wireing loom was wrong so if yours did match up the it is a uk engine.it doesnt matter what ecu you have on the car uk or jap.i would change the spark plugs and check to make sure there are no air leaks.

 

I will check the coils but im pretty sure there the right way.


The loom plugged straight in the only thing I had to change was the alternator bracket so that it would take my Ac pump. Apart from that everything fitted perfect.

So there is a chance it could run fine on the Jap wrx ecu.

I will check over the plugs.
I know about 18 months ago when I had a Power Fc the guys fitted some stronger Denso plugs as the old ones couldn’t keep up with the higher fuelling. Do you think the gap could be wrong. The car was running 1.5bar of boost on them.

 

1.5 bar? i take it your old engine melted a piston?

 

99% sure it did.
Lost about half the compression on number 3 thanks to the guy who mapped it