I own a 2000 rx and am wanting to upgrade the engine to a wrx turbo engine. Had a few suggestions to get a half cut from wreckers, but wanting to get more opinions on best way to do this and rough pricing?
If anyone has done this previously please let me know your opinions, full engine swap a good idea? or just bolt on a turbo?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers guys, and girls.

half cut swapover, do the whole loom & engine bay.

so much easier.

might be cheaper though to buy a 99wrx ready made though, i'm not familiar with the current asking price of a 99/00 half cut nowadays...

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Long live the WRC

Will you be doing all the work yourself?

If not sell and buy turbo variant.

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if getting a half cut, get a 207 and make it worthwhile

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96 V2 WRX sedan future track car
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05 WRX wagon daily driven

Sell rx, buy wrx

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WHS^^^^^ or buy half cut with matching diff/brakes

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Beaten up old 98 Gen 2 Liberty, 13.0, stock V3 STI running gear.
07 Transit motor home
69 VF & 70 VG Valiants needing full restoration
Yamaha Zooma 50cc rocket hopefully going with the Transit.

I'm not sure on the 2000 model RX's however the earlier RX's had different g/box & clutch set up to the WRX of a similar year. RX used a cable push clutch and trans without dip stick as opposed to the WRX with hydraulic pull clutch and gearbox with dip stick. If the same set up was used on the 2000 RX, you'd need a complete WRX front cut (inc g/box) and have to install all the mechanicals, complete front loom/ecu, g/box and clutch hydraulics (master & slave cylinder, lines etc) and possibly the pedal box. I'd also at least inspect the clutch & flywheel which may be cactus, replace the fuel pump and have the injectors from the front cut engine cleaned too.
The job is bolt on, however time consuming and like any conversion there are a few tricks.
Easiest way (as Teejay & Pimpreza have already said) is to sell RX and buy WRX.

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would be cheaper to buy a wrx.... and less time consuming
however i do like wasting time on my car

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It is very time consuming,
I would say easier to just buy a WRX unles you have some pretty decent spanner skills.
As stated above everything is a straight bolt up.
But little things make the difference, the fuel pump will probably be different.
The ABS system may be different.
You will need an exhaust, as that is completely different.
You will need to completely remove the interior from the B-pillar forwards as you will need to swap all the wiring which runs through the firewall.
As that is all different.
Also, if the front cut doesn't come with panels, which most don't, you'll need to source a bonnet from a WRX so it has the scoop for the intercooler.

Having said that, I did an RS conversion on my old Lib wagon years ago, it was good fun.

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F.B. Racing
01 WRX (STI badged)
2010 XR5 Focus
06 Impreza Hatch 2.0i

Thanks guys, sounds like it will be difficult, time consuming, and since i wasn't planning on doing it myself, costly.

Have considered just buying a wrx, but can't bear to get rid of my current model, love it to bits. Might have to just nut up and make the sacrifice.

However, is bolting on a turbo possible/worthwhile? or again, just cut my costs and buy a wrx?

Cheers heaps for the advice.