Building a wrx

I am thinking about buying an old (93-01) impreza and swapping the engine out for a wrx engine. I know this has been done before and there are many posts about doing it, but I want to make absolutly sure that I get the right car, engine, and other parts for the swap.
My goal in the long run is to build a powerful rally type car. I plan on eventually upgrading the turbo, exhaust, intake, ecu, suspension, getting a FMIC blah blah blah... long story short, I'm into tuning. My friends and I will be doing all the work on this car at Clarkson University where we go to school, so labor costs will be 0.
First of all does anybody have any reccomendations for a particular year/model impreza for me to buy and what year/model engine would be best for that car? I'm thinking probably the newest ej20 I can afford, but if there's a better idea out there I'd love to hear it. Also, will I need anything besides the engine? If so what would the extra stuff cost? I tried to get an idea from other threads but the prices I saw included labor.
Second, since we are doing this ourselves in the shop, does anybody have any instructions, pictures, notes or even just personal tips and tricks to doing this engine swap? I would greatly appreciate anything you have along those lines.


Any good Impreza part sites you know of would be awesome too.

if you want, you can e-mail me at [email protected]
Thanks a lot - Colin

If I were you, I'd start by contacting/calling I-Speed or Lachute Subaru or one of the other companies with a great reputation in doing these types of swaps.

Generally, they'll be happy to lay out all the things you'll need to reach your goals (especially if you imply you'll be bringing the car to them to do the work), even if they don't give away their trade secrets on how they do them. (check I-speed's site for an almost complete parts list.)

From that point you'll be in a better position to do more of the research yourself.

Be forewarned: the wiring is the hardest part. Swap shops and individuals that have performed several of these swaps still take up to 40 hours, sometimes more, to splice the wire harnesses. Be prepared to get both sets of wiring diagrams (for the car and for the motor), and spend hours tracking down each wire.

Apparently, Subaru is notorious for changing the wiring layouts between otherwise similar model years "just because." :rolleyes:

Awesome. thanks a lot!