My FrankenWagon on the left. '86 on the right.


This subie spent most of it's life in Colorado. Sometime in 2005, it was brought to Minnesota to serve as a daily driver. Shortly thereafter, a valve burned up. The owner at the time started the project of replacing the valves on the passenger side head. After replacing the valves, but before reassembling the engine, he lost interest, and sold the car. A friend of mine picked it up at this stage for $75, engine parts in a box, but being a CO car, zero rust. He assembled it, and drove it for a year or so. It had it's problems, but was pretty reliable. After some time, it's compression began to drop, and it had even less power, and didn't start very often. So, I bought it....and began swapping it.

I picked up a '96 Impreza Lx motor, ECU and harness, and began prepping it for the swap. it got new timing belts, water pump, all new seals, and pulleys. It also received a new, all-metal radiator, as well as XT6 clutch kit.

It also got the rear disc brake setup that was on the Frankenwagon when it was 4-lug.

After the swap, it had wonderful road manners, plenty of power, and as much as 32 mpg in FWD! And with a full exhaust on it, it was very quiet and comfortable.