2004 NA LIBERTY ENGINE SWAP?

by **mjestyk** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:07 pm

hey everyone, i'm new to this forum but not new to the car world. Havn't come across many engine swaps from a GT liberty motor of the same year into the NA chasis.

It should be a direct swap? and the ecu's to be changed, but are there additional sensors that needs to be wired in i.e MAF or MAP conversion etc etc

or alternatively, a forester ej255 or EJ257 motor in? i'm looking at the cheapest and easiest swap option, i've seen the thread on supercharging the 2.5i.... but i havnt dealt with subaru's much and don't know if the 2004 liberty is a 2.5i????

"stands back at waits for the flaming to begin".... yes yes ignorance is bliss and there is a search bar but i've been roaming through the forums but havnt found what i needed. even google wouldnt bring up these swaps?

by **HoFF** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:20 pm

I think most people find its more economical just to buy a gt instead of doing a transplant...

by **mjestyk** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:38 pm

Yea but the prices are bit high, don't have that high of a budget and more of a slow build progression, and being Darwin the place it is, there's fuck all GTs available here and buying down south and freight wouldn't be cost effective either, there's an NA for 10k, and engine probly 3k.

But seeing if a wrx motor would go in easy aswell, cos I know people who have wrx wrecks, but I wana keep the 2.5 displacement

by **zch91** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:55 pm

If you're doing all the work yourself then it might work out ok.. But there is always more than meets the eye. Much easier to just buy a 07+ GT if you want the 2.5 turbo..

Good luck!

by **mjestyk** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:06 pm

Yea just need to know if the wiring is the same or similar? That's just the worry, mechanical stuff should be ok, but the wiring is tricky, I'll do more research and see how it goes

by **zch91** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:11 pm

Well if you can get your hands on a whole front cut it'd probably make it a heap easier..

by **jacks-GTB** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:27 pm

I know it must seem like a fairly straight through thing....but honestly by the time you spend the money you'll best off buy a 2.5T....then starting from there....

by **mjestyk** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:37 pm

Yea you are probably right, cost stainless dependent in parts availability etc and mechanical knowledge, whats a good price for a gt? If I decide to go down that road,

by **zch91** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:46 pm

mjestyk wrote:Yea you are probably right, cost stainless dependent in parts availability etc and mechanical knowledge, whats a good price for a gt? If I decide to go down that road,

04-06 2.0GT (twinscroll) seem to be going for anywhere between 15-17k lately depending k's etc..

by **mjestyk** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:28 am

Thanks for the help guys, hopefully get started on a subaru build :p

by **turner_822** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 4:01 pm

I know your looking to do a swap but just a note: Don't assume anything about supercharging...unless your talking to someone who does it. Tradewind on this site can give you any info you might need. Everyone told me to just buy a GT because its cheaper; totally missing the fact that I enjoy doing unique things, it's R&R to me! Also there are some huge bargins in the NA world. I got a ROCKIN deal on a MY08 liberty 2.5i and had the time of my life building it up to 170kW at the wheels (stock: 98kW, and i'm still improving). I was patient and it turned out great...some rush and spend tonnes of money and finish with an explosion lol

End of the day it is personal preference so do whatever you want

by **mjestyk** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:09 pm

Yea, that's a good point, that's why I've been doing as much research as I can with the Subaru motors, foresters, wrx and liberty, havnt found much about the liberty stuff, supercharging it sounds like a good idea, 2.5l displacement should hold the boost easily but unsure on the internals if I wanted to increase the boost later on. Been around jap imports for awhile, built an s15, chaser jzx100 and 180sx so thought I'll go Subaru this time and see what the fuss is all about when people tell me subarus are shit. For me it's really the learning curve and end product in the build not the cheapest or easiest option, prefer to learn the hard way then provide advice or whatever.

Just to confirm that the 2004 liberty is the 2.5i motor? Since they took the 2004 off the market to introduce the twin scroll gt? or are the later 2008+ models have the 2.5i? I know early model gt only have the 2l turbo, then 2.5 NA then the 2.5 gt
Am I missing something? There's that my08 supercharger build on the NA, same motor as the 2004 NA?

by **zch91** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:28 pm

mjestyk wrote:
Just to confirm that the 2004 liberty is the 2.5i motor? Since they took the 2004 off the market to introduce the twin scroll gt? or are the later 2008+ models have the 2.5i? I know early model gt only have the 2l turbo, then 2.5 NA then the 2.5 gt
Am I missing something? There's that my08 supercharger build on the NA, same motor as the 2004 NA?

Not sure what you mean by this. The 2.0i, 2.0r, 2.5i are all NA, available in most (all?) years and vary by actual displacement (and trim levels?)

04-06 GT is 2L Twinscroll
07-09 GT is 2.5L single scroll

All other model apart from GT will be exactly as the badge says, 2.5i, 3.0r etc.

by **turner_822** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 3:28 pm

If you talk to "blademaster", he supercharged his 2004 Liberty and is looking at stage II. Both him and I went through Raptor Superchargers (username Tradewind). I did a lot of looking around and found Raptor to be very cheap and have no complaints whatsoever about how it's all going...loving it so far :mrgreen:

Car should handle 9psi stock (with a few bits) without a worry, you can go the works with intercooler + water cooler charger with a nnnnHUGE radiator. Then could go on and on with headers/cat/exhaust, cams/springs/valves, clutch/flywheel/6sp gearbox...that's why everyone says buy a GT but if your like me and in it for the experience and knowledge then you'll have fun and make something unique.

If you have a hitachi ECU you will need a replacement (blademaster had to with his)

by **mjestyk** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:10 pm

Kool, thanks I'll have a look around some more before wasting people's time, but yea, I'll have a look at results on stock internals from those who have supercharged NA 2.5i, looks like I'll be going the NA supercharged path, never had a supercharged car before, shall see the difference between turbo and supercharged and learn something, if motor craps out then I'll throw in a gt motor of some kind