Need Subaru guru

[Jdog]

I need advice for what years of outback and/or legacy I can interchange with my 04 Outback limited with the 2.5L SOHC. I have been looking for motors and have received several quotes for motors here locally for 146k for $1500 which I know its a boxer motor but still required me to laugh at the guy. So I have turned to are local U-Pull it yards and to up my chances of finding a low millage motor wanted to know what years and makes were interchangeable with what I have.

Thanks

 

[Cheers!]

I had a 2003 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT for 11 years. Best car I owned. Too bad it had the dreaded headgasket failure at 191,000 kms... although it was an external oil leak only not internal. I'm also a long time North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club forum contributor.

Your 04 outback should be based on the BE legacy chassis. Which is the same as my Legacy but in Wagon form.

Double check if you have a MAP sensor instead of a MAF sensor. Your car should have a MAP sensor. If this is the case you have a EJ251 engine.

Subarus with the EJ251 were:
Impreza 2.5RS, 2.5TS 00-02
Impreza Outback Sport 00-02, 04
Forester 00-02
Legacy 00-01 (US, 4EAT)
Legacy 02-04 (US)
Outback 00-01 (US, 4EAT)
Outback 02-04 (US)
Baja 03-05 (US)

Ofcourse if your current outback is an automatic versus a manual there are slight differences.
1.) wiring harness differs
2.) slave cylinder for manuals vs none on auto long blocks
3.) flywheel

are you looking for the entire long block with harness so you pull your old trans, harness, engine and just plug and play it back in?

Or are you looking for just the mechanical bits of the short block and swapping short blocks over?

There are nuances even if you find say an impreza EJ251 for your outback. The harness clip locations, etc... and I'm not 100% up to speed on how plug and play it is.

You can try posting your question over at North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club and get a more detailed answer.

 

[Jdog]

Thanks. Well the plan is to pull the current motor it isn't frozen up but cylinder 1 has 30 psi 2 has 40 psi 3 has 39 psi and 4 has 42. One of the ideas i had was to do a complete rebuild but i dont have a place to rebuild a motor. Another reason for not rebuilding is the motor ran hot and im not interested in machining the block and heads. So because of time restraint i was planing on pulling the motor and dropping newer one in. So yes essentially plug and play stuffs because I'm going to get it to run drive it a few weeks and then sell it. Then get my bad self back into a 4runner.

I was hoping to just find another 2.5 and drop in. That way I could have wheels again. Then make sure it is to my standard and sale. Because I am so not going to sell someone a two weeks later it breaks down car.

One thing I was not for sure about though is how to figure out its a EJ251 or a EJ259 or if that really maters. This tutaru has been a headache of nightmarish perportions. Which I think is just a piss poor taken car of car because all I here about subaru is I loved that car. That'swhat I get for buying with my man bits and not my mechanic spidy senses.