Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't seen any subaru engine swaps. With the hp potential of turbocharged engines, low center of gravity, and a solid manual transmission, it seems like it would be a great candidate for a swap. I'm sure I'm not the first person to want to do it, so there must be some roadblock I haven't seen yet. I took some rough measurements at a junkyard and it looks like it would fit. I know this engine and transmission are used in sand rails, and there's parts to convert the awd to fwd if you don't get one of the earlier fwd transmissions. So, what's the hangup?

It would depend on where you plan to mount the engine.
I once considered mounting a Fiero body onto a complete STI chassis. I think that would be best way to take full advantage of the Subaru parts.

[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 03-26-2009).]

Been playing around with the idea for a while.

If you're going to do it, please plan on spending a lot of money.

In the 3 years that I owned my WRX, it was broken more then I drove it. And I babied it too! The next owner already broke it. SWEET!

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Red 86GT 4 Speed

quote Originally posted by Freshj: In the 3 years that I owned my WRX, it was broken more then I drove it. And I babied it too! The next owner already broke it. SWEET!

I'll counter your anecdote with my own A former coworker of mine has had his WRX for at least 3 years (it's an 02 I believe), and never had a problem. There's lemons in every bunch

quote Originally posted by BustedRide: Been playing around with the idea for a while. If you're going to do it, please plan on spending a lot of money.

But you can "overnite parts from Japan" thats' so cheap to do.

My friend had a subaru justy damn thing only ran on 3 cylinders--------------from the factory.

no really a AWD fiero may be neat cause we drive them in the snow so much.

I had a 2000 wrx, with lots of mods vf23 turbo, unichip ecu, larger intercooler, ect ect, did everything I could to it without getting into rebuilding the engine with bigger pistons and other sti hot bits. I had the car for 3 years from new and did over 20,000km in it and never had a problem except for the clutch.
It was making over 165kw at all 4 wheels compaired to 85kw stock on the dyno. And did 0- 100km/h in under 4 seconds accorging to my G/ teck meter , I cant remember what 1/4 mile was but it crossed the line at 205km/h. I would guess high 11's or low 12's.
Ive also thought about a wrx engine swap for my fiero.

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2004 yamaha r1
1987 fiero gt

idk my subaru runs great no problems ever so i guess im lucky i even have a brat out back still running great as far as a swap it would be a neat idea but plan for a very long venture.

I think the engine might have to be mounted longitudinally with a Subie gearbox. (they make blockoff plates to make it an fwd)

I had a Subie tuner take a quick look at my Fiero once, and he said the engine is too wide for a transverse setup. (he also said that he'd have to measure, he just eyeballed it from experience)

I wouldn't be suprised if a longitudinal setup also put the front of the engine way into the firewall.

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My Web page | The Turbo Super Duty Build.
You know that little voice that says it can't be done? I duct-taped its mouth shut and pushed it down a flight of stairs. (Leader of the Insurgency)

Definitely would be mounted longitudinally, it's the only way to do it. And yeah, blockoff plates are available (this for example). I don't think it would push it too far back. Again from rough measurements since I don't have one, the front output on the tranny is almost right near the bellhousing, and remember being a boxer 4 cylinder means each side is only a 2 cylinder, it can't be that long. There's longitudinal v8s that fit with a stretch, and that's 4 cylinders in a row instead of 2.

Edit:
here's a flickr image showing the engine and tranny from a side view. Honestly that looks like less space than the stock v6 takes up.

[This message has been edited by kwagner (edited 03-26-2009).]

I would like to turbo my fiero some day, and was thinking the best way to mount the intercooler would be a top mount intercooler like the wrx use, Do you think a intercooler would fit under the decklid?? then I would mount a nice scoop on the decklid for air flow??

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2004 yamaha r1
1987 fiero gt

Check out how this one was done by pontiac:
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F.../HTML/085925.html#p9

that engine looks like it would fit in six ways from sunday .gotta try it some time .

Update: I just talked to someone at Autozone (really knowledgeable salesguy *they do exist* ) and he said he has a friend in the military who has a Subaru WRX engine swap into a Fiero. He's supposedly in Florida now and is in the military. I gave him my email, maybe I'll find out more.

That would be wonderful Keep us posted!