Gotcha. I'm thinking they must have just been fender benders. The car is pretty straight except for the rust and the one little buckled corner. Thanks for the info!

They bought the car new when they first got over here from the Ukraine.

 

I would throw it up on nasioc, the 5sp's aren't very common, someone would probably ****** it up pretty quick, bad motor or not.

 

I thought about that. I'm going to be making a trip around to the three local salvage yards today and see if they have a motor for it and, if so, what it would cost.

*EDIT* Here's a quick video I shot with my cell phone this afternoon:


*EDIT2* - I just got back from one of the local yards. There is a newer Forester there with an automatic trans that has the EJ25 SOHC engine and some pretty bad driver front damage. It appears that the driver side cam may be bent, but it could just be the sprocket. The yard wants $150 for the motor. I don't know the mileage as the dash has a digital odometer.



The VIN for this car is JF1SF65601H748263. It's a 2001 Forester LS.DKSDAD, could you run the numbers on this one to see what the last reported mileage was?

 

that's quite a bit for a motor you're taking a chance on. Is there any kind of warranty if it doesn't work out?

 

$150 isn't bad from what I have been finding... They'll give you your money back if it doesn't work out. All I would lose is the time it takes to pull both engines and the gaskets that I would have to replace in the process.

 

I would try it out, or scroll ebay, theres some good prices on there. I was able to get my 3L I swapped in my SVT for 375 shipped, had 32,000 miles on it. Most are going for 350-500 locally with 90k+ on them. I'm sure you could find something pretty cheap and low mileage on there. EJ25's are plentiful.

 

All of the EJ25's on ebay right now are over $1k!! I couldn't believe that! I'm hoping to find out that the totaled '01 Forester has low miles on it. That would seal the deal. I'm thinking I can rip out that motor in under an hour by myself. Just about everything is accessible from up top!

 

Ohh wow. 1k! I hadn't look prior to posting, now I feel kinda stupid!. The motors come out easy, being a 5 speed im not sure if you need to remove the shift fork to seperate the trans from motor. I know I had to when I did the clutch on a friends sti. Other than that it's a pretty quick process

 

I will take a look at work tomorrow for you.

 

The last reported mileage was 137,835 in August of 2010. Good luck.