2.5 sti short block swap

[akaerik21]

OK I am not getting the info I was hoping for on my last thread so I will try new one. I just blew the head gasket on my 2002 wrx wagon, and after doing some research I have decided to do the 2.5 sti short block swap. Now I was hoping that some one could point me to some related sites or forums so that I can educate myself on this subject and not have to ask a million questions. From every thing I've gathered so far this is a very common swap, and I have a feeling there' lots of information out there on how to do it successfully. Thanks

[poly_poly-man]

This is called a "hybrid build" - that'll give you better search results.

It's a fairly good swap - you run a weird CR which isn't good, and you absolutely MUST get a tune, but overall it's a way to kick a little bit more displacement into your car for not very much money relatively.

[EJ257]

Get the heads machined to match; EQTuning offers this service for $400.

[akaerik21]

I am planing on sending the heads out to EQ as soon as I can get around to pulling the motor, and I was also wondering if I should just have my short block sent to them, so that they can bolt it all up, and set the timing. I don't have a lot of money to do all of this, but from what a friend told me, getting the heads torqued down, and the timing right can be very tricky if you don't have any experience with that kind of stuff. And I know I have asked this before, but I was wondering if anyone had an idea what a 2002 wrx wagon with 118,000 on the odo, a brand new paint job, and a very stock 2.5 hybrid in it might be worth. I still owe 4,000 and I will need to sell the car as soon as I'm done to try and recover any of my losses. Unless some one out there knows of a better way to get out of this car without losing a lot of money.