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I have an 20 year old Subaru WRX and an 30 year old Ford F-150 (2 door). Honestly, I can't imagine a better combo if you have the space for 2 vehicles. The car is sporty, fun, and can carry 4 people, while the truck can haul or tow nearly everything I would need. Purchased both brand new, both are still running strong, although parts for the Subaru are starting to dry up.
Although I'm not currently shopping to replace either, they're both gas burners. If they die before I do (feels unlikely), I'd like to upgrade to electric. But I haven't seen anything I would consider affordable - which is to say designed to be repaired by the owner. Slate is the only possible thing on the radar, but their trucklet in this weird middle spot where it's too small to be (fully) useful to me as a truck, while also too big to fill my hot hatch/4door car needs either. Hopefully they'll be super successful and bring more models to the market in the future.
Don't tell me parts for the WRX are drying up! I have a 2003 wrx that I lifted, installed a tow hitch on, and replaced the engine with the block out of a 2019 sti.
It's actually become my "I need to haul things" vehicle. The high compression of the 2.5l block and the 2.0l heads from the original motor has given it a healthy amount of torque. Plus I have the tiniest trailer that is exactly the size of a pallet and weighs next to nothing.
I also have a 2001 MR2 spyder. That's my fun, sporty one. Only mods I've done to that are the head unit and installing a LSD after a bearing grenaded in the transaxle and I had to rebuild it.
Pretty much the only thing thing that'll get me to replace either is if they get wrecked and it twists the frame.
Though the car I WANT to be driving is a catterham.
Short answer on the Subaru - needed a transmission and could not find one at any price. Did eventually find a decent one, but it was more dumb luck & word of mouth than anything.
I gotta say that when I started looking, I saw an alarming amount of "Bugeye for sale, Excellent condition, just needs transmission". To Subaru's credit, every other gasket/washer/seal I needed was still available, right up until I got to actually cracking the transmission itself open. So, can't find a transmission, and can't find the parts to fix one either. So, yeah, if you want to try & future-proof yours, consider keeping an eye out for transmissions.
Speaking of, your WRX sounds bad-ass. I did at one point (briefly) consider putting a tow hitch on mine and ditching the truck, but the only hitch I could find was a class 1. Is that what you are using, or did you find bigger, or simply fabricate your own?
Wait, the block from a 2019 STI fits the heads from a 2003 WRX? Okay, that's... you clearly know more about mixing/matching Subaru parts than I do. I knew the 2004 STI block matched, but that's a 1 year gap, you're talking about a 16 year gap. Wow. Perhaps I should be asking you if there's any other transmissions that drop right in? I'm aware that the later (~2008?) Legacy Spec B transmission is supposed to be a drop in - has the right gear ratios & connections for the halfshafts. But the clutch is different somehow and the pickups for the speedometer have changed from analog to digital. Still, supposedly it can be done. I didn't have any luck finding one of those transmissions either though...
Well shit. My trans needs a rebuild. The syncros are all very worn. I haven't looked at what transmissions are easily swapped. But I suspect a good number would be. I've seen people swap out sti trans into them with the electronic limited slip. But that takes some additional wiring. It was fairly common to upgrade the 5 speed the WRX came with to the 6 speed STI transmission, if I remember correctly the 5 speed had a weak 3rd gear that would give out fairly frequently.
I believe you could swap in the Hawkeye (or was it the blob eye) trans without a problem. You might just need to make sure the rear diff is correct. When I first replaced my rear diff with an LSD I accidentally got the wrong one and when I backed it out of the garage to test it made it 5 feet before I felt it start to bind. I immediately stopped and pulled the drive shaft to move it back into the garage while I waited for the correct one. Still have that cusco LSD sitting in a box, unused.
The blocks for almost all the EJ engines are pretty mix and match with only a handful of parts that need to be updated along side them, like the oil pan and pickup. I went with the 2019 block since it was forged and could handle a lot more power that the STI made and I wouldn't have to worry about the internals. I did swap out to STI injectors too, but I'm not sure that was necessary. I had originally wanted to get it tuned for e85 so it could run cooler.
I still have the original block, which I originally swapped out when it had a slight tap after my headgasket blew around 200k miles for the first ej25 block I built. That lasted about 25k miles before I thought I heard a noise in the bearings. I still have that block too that I was planning to rebuild at some point and just have some spares. Both could probably go back in if I wanted to and they'd run fine. Then I have a 3rd spare block a friend gave me that I split with the intention of rebuilding but didn't have the time to finish.
The heads should have a little machining since the bore of the 2.5L block is ever so slightly larger and with the heads untouched, my tuner said they give a very, very small lip where predetonation can occur.
I didn't machine then, but I run a stock turbo and don't particularly care about having high boost or hitting high horsepower.
I do have a class 1 on mine. It hauls everything I need it to, but it definitely has limits. Even with the outback springs/struts I put on it, when I had to move a light tower around a work site I saw the suspension bottom out. Fortunately, I didn't have to go on the streets so it wasn't a problem.
I can't say my bugeye is in pristine condition, she's been beat to hell, but I love her anyway. Always so much fun and she'll take me almost anywhere I ask her.
Besides the multiple exhausts I've put on (and smashed dropping the car onto some big rocks off-roading), she has a catless up pipe and I've swapped the steering rack for a 2007 STI for a tighter turning radius. One thing I really loved about that car is how much was interchangeable with the next several generations of WRC and STI.
I can't say she is the most reliable car anymore, but that's 100% my fault. That's the reason I got the MR2, so I would have something I could rely on when I needed it.
First off, everything you wrote is excellent. And I love the Halloween vids below too - particularly the night shot with the flame bulb!
I did go the bigger turbo route with mine, and was autocrossing & doing track days with it for probably the first 10 years of it's life. So, I wasn't exactly being easy on the trans. So hopefully you've got more life left in yours. Also, good to know that if I ever have issues with the block, it sounds like I have a lot of options.
Only piece I can add is I did also look into STI transmissions. The bell housing side will bolt right to the block, but nothing else fits. The gear ratios are wrong compared to the rear diff, and the mounts for the halfshafts are different as well. In order to do the swap, you need the whole STI drivetrain all the way out to the hub & wheels. Sure you can do that, but finding all those parts is going to require a donor STI. And if you have a donor STI, why aren't you building that out instead...
Ah yea. I suppose you could get the rear diff and find a driveshaft shop to fab up one with the correct mounts so you don't have to completely rebuild the rear end.
A custom drive shaft might be a lot cheaper than going to the hubs. But whatever you do, at least there is a lot of previous work that you can read and learn from before you start.
And I love the look and size of the bugeye. I wasn't a big fan of how large the STIs got. After a while, the ones I saw felt disconnected from their rally cross origins.
Since I have the MR2. I use the WRX as a Halloween prop every year.
https://youtu.be/GfBoTNEPhpc
https://youtu.be/jcZD6O_wdkQ
https://youtu.be/1jjRAADvl-8
https://youtu.be/qQ3b1aW70-8