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one or two of you may have noticed one or two thread's discussing possible engine conversions to a 90 liberty wagon. i'm starting to get the money together now and have to make a decision on the engine i want to put in. basically i had a late 90's 2.0l wrx or sti in mind but looking on one of the other threads i saw a 6 cylinder engine for sale on ebay and this set cogs in motion in the mind. so on a whole opinions on the best engine to put in for daily driving and 4wd, and for ease of conversion.
cheers

for ease of putting in a motor a 2.0 (ej20) 2.2 (ej22) or 2.5 (ej25) will fit in the best with very few problems. if you go the STI motor you will need all the plumbing the loom and the computer that goes with that motor same with the 2.5. I take it you have a 2.2 in there which would be the easiest as it is a straight swap

the 6 cylinder flat motors are great but make sure if you buy one it has a harness and a computer as I have seen a few sold on ebay bare, which makes it harder to get one to run as you would need to find all the bits and pieces


have fun

TOONGA

IMO the best engine for ease of conversion (including sourcing parts and fitment to your car) then don't look any further than the EJ22. They have awesome power curve being non turbo it keeps your insurance low. This is a tried and tested engine and parts are available just about everywhere.

I would not even think of using a Flat 6 unless you have just won the lotto couple of reasons like intial buy price (with all stuff you need for a conversion) and further running costs whenever the engine has problems (I know first hand with my SVX).

If you're still interested in a turbo then look at buying a 96 to 99 STi EJ20. They are not cheap but cheaper than the 6. The other thing to consider with the turbos is under bonnet heat and if you're going to do 4WDing then it's going to get hot!

There is pros and cons to all but bang for buck stick to the EJ22

being a 1990 Liberty surely it would already have an EJ22 as standard? hardly a conversion in this case...

6cyl conversions have been done but are much rarer so help/information is fairly hard to come by.

The most tried/tested conversion for this car is the RS Liberty frontcut conversion - EJ20G turbo motor. Get a frontcut and it's a weekend job.
These are pretty old though, you would be better off getting a WRX cut these days for something newer.

plus one for turbo. 6 cylinder too rare and lack of parts although it would be awesome. Run a 6cylinder twin turbo! oooooooo yeh :P

alex

+ 1 for turbo. A 6 would be pretty cool and unique, though if you managed to get a turbo half cut you could then take the cooling system, brakes etc and end up with a better ride...