Gearbox
 

Hello
Following a long shot but here goes . After having several subaru's I have decided to try and use a ej22 or 33 engine in a sand buggy I am building . I need to mate this enging to a conventional front wheel drive gearbox ( pref auto ).
I was readig a site that was saying the gearbox has a few problems and that they were the same as the nissan pathfinder ( that I new ) but also the mazda mpv . This is a front engined gearbox that may work for me .
Thus the question is this , would the ej33 bolt up to a mazda mpv gearbox ? Or can I take a bellhousing off a svx box and bolt that to a mpv box ?
Has anyone heard of the ej33 been bolted to any other type of gearbox ?
Thanks
Monty

Re: Gearbox
 

The transmission in the Pathfinder and MPV may be basically the same, but I would bet that the housings are very, very different. Neither Nissan nor Mazda use flat engines, and both of those vehicles use (or used in previous generations, as is the case with the MPV) conventional RWD/part-time-4WD drivetrains.

So my guess is no.

As for the transmission being 'weak' or 'problematic,' it depends on who you talk to. Some people have replaced theirs a half-dozen times, others have had no trouble. Mine's at 129k and working great. My wife's Legacy has 139k abusive (previous owner) miles on it; the 2-3 shift is a little long and the AWD transfer clutches are a little slow, but it still goes.

The real problem is cooling. Cool the 4EAT properly (with an aftermarket ATF cooler) and it'll be just fine. Of course, I don't know how hard you're planning on driving the buggy. You may want to look at having a place like Level 10 upgrade the transmission to take more abuse.