Beginners first project!! 02 forester engine swap

yeah if i put the commodore in the hilux i wouldnt use it for off road since its a rear wheel, i would just use it as a beefed up road car.

i know im asking a lot of questions but my main goal is to get as close to a durable, reliable, somewhat unstoppable 4x4 as possible without spending an arm and a leg, ive hear a lot about sierra jimnys being unstoppable and keeping up with 4x4 hiluxs. so if i forget about my forester, what would be a fantastic no frills go hard 4x4?
 
because i will definitely raise and put fatter tires onto whatever i have because our property is very hilly and sheer rocks, with the occasional clay patches when its been raining
 
Hilux with the standard engine is a bit of a wild ride. With a V8, well, you'd need to hang on tight even though the Hilux couldn't (hang on tight to the road). You can't be savage with the Subaru- not unless you install an STI driveline. And the rest of the car is not as hardcore. Drive within it's limits and it can a lot of places though and embarrass the big cars at times too.
 
that is true, at the moment with my forester stock with all rounder tires she can get down and up but its a little nerve wrecking sitting on the brakes going down and pushing hard to go back up but she does it and the rest of my family has raised or new hiluxs. so i think putting a GT or an STi in it, raise it, and maybe one or two more things would give me more piece of mind, or i could sell it and get an already worked sierra
 
i found this pretty useful, its a testing video that was shown to salesman (i think) not customers so there is no propaganda and shows that stock the subarus push pretty hard, my top choices for an easy off road would be my forester, a seirra jimny, a jeep or just normal hilux/patrol etc

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7dVFY5CxT0"]Subaru AWD vs. Everyone Else - YouTube[/ame]
 
Jmgt96 said:
also i found this video review where if you skip to 4 minutes in it gives you the good and the bad about the forester and was wondering what your opinions where?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKq_Ot_0YA0
Click to expand...

Gidday JM

I would respectfully suggest that much of what that person has to say is BS ... :iconwink:.

For starters, that is a series 1 SG, made between 2001-2005. Even the engine changed from this model to the series 2 SG (EJ-251 replaced by the EJ-253, with a much wider usable torque range).

Yeah, the Forester is no FJ series Landcruiser (1960-1970s), but the LC is no Forester either! I've owned both.
 
regarding engines -- consider what you want out of it, and where you're going to source your bits.

A 255 should be an easy conversion - same engine went into the Foz XT sold locally. Good for reasonable power, don't go overboard as it will break. This is probably what you want for a good torquey engine, but may be hard to source, as they're only local (not JDM AFAIK). Look for a Foz XT wreck and swap over your bits.

A 205 is not worth pursuing, IMHO.

207 is bulletproof -- and you can get lots of power, but if you want torque, you'll sacrifice more top end for the same result as the 255. JDM options abound. Wiring would require work.

257 - probably harder to source, $$, like a 255 but you can push it harder.
 
ive been looking around my area and there are some already done up forester XT's which i guess i could just buy instead to save some work, also though i did get the idea of buying some 90-00 wrx that has had work done to it for example with an 06 sti dropped into it, could i just buy one of those and go full surgeon on it and just transplant everything??
 
Everything (drivetrain) from an 06 STI can be dropped into the 99 with minimal problems. I've dropped 08 STI into mine.
 
what is the setup on yours and what year?
 
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