Legacy 1.8 N/A or SPI?

magepaster · Post by **magepaster** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 1:52 am

I have recently become involved in the ownership of a Legacy 1.8GL 4WD.

This is the limit to my knowledge on this car apart from knowing it has the EJ18 engine.

I have also found that the 1.8GL came with N/A setup or SPI setup. It seems I`m not sure which of these incarnations I have

I am disabled an can`t get into work mode any longer to discover this myself.

Now to my point has any kind soul got any pics of either the 90EJ18 1.8 N/A engine and the 90EJ18 1.8 SPI engine so I can discover which is my type before I decide to start looking for tuning bits.

Thanks peoploids

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 6:19 am

Uh... I'm a bit puzzled. N/A means "naturally aspirated," right? And SPI means "sequential port injection?" Or "single point injection?"

In either case, N/A and SPI are orthogonal concepts; they don't have anything to do with one another.

And I'm pretty sure your car is both naturally aspirated and port fuel injected.

magepaster · Post by **magepaster** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 8:23 am

I`ve been informed that with one it`ll have a carb and with the other it`ll have a throttle body.
It has also been suggested to me the European models did not come as a carbed models but with single point feul injection and that the throttle body on such models can look like a carb when surrounded by all the other crap under the bonnet. I had been asked to upload a pic of my engine bay in order that someone could see it to identify it, but not having a camera that option is out. And not being mobile enough to work in the engine bay I can`t check myself.

On the fuel injection front I would recognise multi point injection no trouble

Never having seen SPI and being informed that it contains a throttle body similar in appearance to a carb leaves me unsure of what I have bought.

thanks

Post by **Legacy777** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 1:50 pm

Yeah, I have seen pics of the carbed models. Not sure where I saw them though......because they would be useful right now.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 3:05 pm

magepaster - Ah, okay, I see... Well, in this thread someone posted a picture of the engine bay of a carbureted 1.6 Legacy:

viewtopic.php?t=1116&start=13

It's kind of low-resolution so I'm not sure how much it might help you.

One way to distinguish between a TBI setup and a carbureted setup is the presence of an airflow sensor or manifold absolute pressure sensor. As far as I know, Subaru never developed a speed density (pressure-based) fueling system until the late 1990s, so if your engine is fuel injected there should be an airflow meter somewhere. Late 1980s US-market SPI Subarus had the airflow meter attached to the top of the air filter housing, which is mounted against the right-side fender.

magepaster · Post by **magepaster** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 4:05 pm

vrg3...... that is exactly what my engine looks like( although mine is much much cleaner

) thanks.

So now I know it`s the carb model, any ideas on making it a little more willing to keep up with traffic? I`m not interested in making it into a flying machine and I`m not stupid enough to believe it ever could be. But a little more life in it would be nice.

thanks

Golden Oldie · Post by **Golden Oldie** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 8:31 pm

Here is a couple of pictures of my EJ18S from a UK 1.8GL AWD 16V injection

entirelyturbo · Post by **entirelyturbo** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 11:45 pm

Ewwww! Golden, you got some cleaning ahead of you!

Yukonart · Post by **Yukonart** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:07 am

Is there an engine under all that?

Golden, if you didn't live across an entire continent and ocean, I'd come over with a keg of Simple Green and help you make that engine bling!

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 4:27 am

Golden Oldie, thanks for posting those pics! Very interesting...

I don't seem to see an airflow meter. So perhaps I was mistaken and Subaru did use a speed density system. That's interesting; I thought the first speed density fueling system made by Subaru was in the phase 2 EJ25.

And it's got a distributor... Interesting too.

LegacyT · Post by **LegacyT** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 1:47 pm

The block looks almost like a loyale block and the intake manifold only has two legs as opposed to four. Intersting... How about tossing a holly four-barrel on there

Mark,

Golden Oldie · Post by **Golden Oldie** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 9:27 pm

subyluvr2212 wrote:Ewwww! Golden, you got some cleaning ahead of you!

Taadaaaaaa!!

magepaster · Post by **magepaster** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:09 am

Oooh, it looks like my engine now

You do work quickly G.O.

Yukonart · Post by **Yukonart** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 1:40 am

NICE!

HUGE improvement! Bravo!

mTk · Post by **mTk** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:46 am

much much better

MK

Golden Oldie · Post by **Golden Oldie** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:06 am

It's definately fuel injection as it says so on the throtle body cover and there are four legs from the throttle body to the lnlet ports on the heads, they are just ickle ones

It's in the shop getting new gaskets to cure loads of oil leaks at the moment (why it had got soooo dirty) so I will get some more pictures up in a week or two

magepaster · Post by **magepaster** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 5:52 pm

I`ve eventualy managed to get a pic of my engine. A poor old asthmatic carburetted pensioner. At least it`s clean...ish. I`ve only ever rinsed it over with water so I suppose that`s not too bad for a car that cost less than £500

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Legacy 1.8 N/A or SPI?

Legacy 1.8 N/A or SPI?

EJ18S pictures from a 1991 UK Legacy