Getting to know my ej22t

[Flatfourced]

So my 91 ej22t has been in my outback for around 5000 miles now. It's a good strong engine and i am working my through the basic mods. i have a hallman mbc set at 9lbs and a decent cold air setup going. I am buying my tmic this week and fixing my patchwork exhaust after that (smooth 2.5 in), a td04 as the final cut and dry upgrade. Still pondering the necessity of an afr gauge till i go above 11 psi.

When this is done i plan on cranking the boost up to 11 and looking for 190ish hp.

Past this i'm unsure. I know what i want, 200-230 at the wheels. There are many different ways to go i have read hours of posts. But still i'm undecided.

One thing i am sure of is that my ecu is garbage.

I have 3 paths to consider. tell me where i'm wrong.

1. 20g heads, ecu, intake manifold?
Pros- good hp gain, ecu can be tuned by atleast 1 guy on the planet (rob). bolt-on, fairly cheap, cool jdm stuffs
Cons- there's one guy on the planet that can tune the ecu, not sure on sensor difference and part avaliability. Interference engine.

2. US market 02-04 ej205, heads intake, ecu, whole deal minus the block. (ej255? not sure how that fits)
Pros- Easy and avaliable parts, desired goal, easy to tune ecu, might find a wrecked wrx.
Cons- pretty sure some machine work has to be done, cost, and obd2 emissions nonsense.

3. Keep my heads, send the cams to delta, pnp the heads, megasquirt
Pros- I like my motor for the classic turbo it is, i really like it being non-interference. Megasquirt is one of those eternaly useful things, and fully tunable.
Cons- Cost for the megasquirt and it's a big learning curve. Down time for cam grind. Can i get atleast 250 crank hp out of those tiny valves?

So i'm a couple months from finishing my cut and dry mods, and i need some sort of engine management to get my goals. What's the most cost effective and best way to get there?

Thanks for any advice!

[kimokalihi]

Keep in mind tuning it yourself is risky unless you really know what you're doing. Most engine failures you see with wrxs are from poor tunes, not the parts.

[Alphius]

I'm going to MegaSquirt my Legacy at some point. But I have lots of experience installing and tuning my own car (the Camaro in my signature) on MegaSquirt as well as several others, a couple of them being crazy turbo builds.

As far as the stock heads, they don't flow as horribly as everyone here says. They do give up a little over a different setup, but they are fine for lots of people. My car right now has a stage 2 RevTronix ECU in it and is running 17-18psi, I am well over 200hp at the wheels. No dyno yet, but by comparison to other cars (my Camaro, SR20DET swapped 240SX) with known horsepower quantity that's what I am comfortable claiming. I have a bone stock shortblock with only supporting mods for more boost. Injectors, MAF, turbo, intercooler and ECU.

I fully support a single cam turbo build. In fact, when mine kicks the bucket eventually for some reason I will probably build a forged bottom end and still use the stock heads and push even more boost through it. At that time I will have a MegaSquirt running the show. I am not comfortable with the stock ECU even with the Rev chip, and I want more control than Rob can give.

[Legacy777]

I'd probably recommend the Rob tune route. It is really the best bang for your buck and has the least amount of long term issues from retunes and all that associated with a stand alone.

[Flatfourced]

I think i'm going with the rob tune. It's the cheapest option and i found the 20g ecu can be made to wotk with my 22t.

The revtronix option looked good but it dosent seem like their website works anymore. Are they even still active?

Thanks for the experienced "hell yea you can get decent hp out of those heads".

I think i will be buying that 20g ecu next and just getting it done and scratched off the list. Follow robs instruction on the rest of the needed mods to run it right.

[kimokalihi]

Revtronix is history.

[wtdash]

Go w/the EJ20G heads, 550 (530cc) STi injectors, Rob tune and a TD05, to get 250 AWHP w/out too much trouble, BUT you'll give up some of the low-end torque. Those heads drop compression to 7.7:1 or so. Rob can bump the timing to help a bit.

Josh/legacy777 made 250 on the stock heads and kept the low-end w/550's and a TD05 on a LINK stand-alone, IIRC.

Keep your heads, put in 440's, w/Rob tune and TD04 and make @ least 180HP/230torque - that's what I made on the Revtronix (dead for a couple years now), which Rob's tune should be similar>>>better.

Delta does a street and strip grind for your stock cams. The strip may require tuning - not sure if Rob can accommodate that.

I want a turbo'd OB ('96-'99)!

Td

[Flatfourced]

yea L7s car is the idol build for me.

The more i ponder my goals and the heads i have i am positive i want to keep them. so i guess, rob 550 tune and td05, keep my heads.

When i swaped the engine i inspected the timing belt and headgaskets. Gaskets were a bit larger than the heads indicitive of a recent HG change. The timing belt looked and felt new. 0 engine ticks or racket. With the 115k it had on the clock, i'm thinking the 100k matenence was done.

So, that being said, there's alot of new parts that would be wasted with a head change.

Few more small detail questions.

Sti injectors, or rails and injectors. The 04 sti side feeds and the 91 ej22t side feeds look quite different. So i'm assuming i need the 04-06 sti rails and injectors, and i'm going to need a walboro 255.

Is my boost controler really needed after the rob tune, my guess is no lol.

Are these ~$300 ebay td05 rebuilds worth anything? I have rebuilt a td04 and could do it again. But seems i need td05 and they arent a stock subi part as far as i know.

And the classic.. u think my tranny is gonna snap? lol

well running in circles with questions, guess i'm looking for a ej20g ecu with my next check.

thank you all for the clear response and guidance.

[kimokalihi]

Only time will tell if the trans will break. Don't launch it and you'll probably be fine. Or get a forester trams woth 4.444s and launch it all day. Mine never broke and I've launched it quite a few times.

[wtdash]

Sti injectors, or rails and injectors. The 04 sti side feeds and the 91 ej22t side feeds look quite different. So i'm assuming i need the 04-06 sti rails and injectors, and i'm going to need a walboro 255.

No...you'll need '92-'94 NA SOHC EJ22 rails (probably '95-98 SOHC would work, too).

The pink EJ22T side-feeds are unique design but the gray 440 and yellow 480 side-feeds fit the same rails, which is weird.

EDIT: Yes, get a Walbro 255 pump. Fairly easy to install and you'll be ready for the extra HP.

Is my boost controler really needed after the rob tune, my guess is no lol.

No, you'll need an MBC, and you don't need anything fancy. Ran THIS w/out issue. Get a 'dropping resistor' from a Automatic w/the same plug as the BCS and it'll get rid of the CEL when you remove it.

Are these ~$300 ebay td05 rebuilds worth anything? I have rebuilt a td04 and could do it again. But seems i need td05 and they arent a stock subi part as far as i know.

TD05s WERE used on the UK/Aussie/etc Subie's up 'til '96ish and had the 90° like the VF11; after that they were straight inlet (under intake manifold inlet pipe). I've bought 2-3 from the UK on Ebait, but not all will ship to the US and shipping isn't cheap, but still overall cheaper than buying them in the US.

And the classic.. u think my tranny is gonna snap? lol

I had a '98 Forester 5-speed in my swapped Legacy and on my Forester build. Both handled 250 w/out issue, but I didn't launch. Depending on the year of your OB, it's probably the same trans.



GL,
Td

[Alphius]

My 5-speed isn't dead yet and it's a 3.90 USDM turbo trans. I have launched it at 18psi with wheelspin a few times.

A TD05 is an awesome turbo. Holds 18psi to redline and I have it fully spooled by 2800 on a completely stock EJ22T with RevTronix chip. I have gray 440s in stock rails, and they are just about maxed out. Injector duty cycle is pretty high under full go at high RPM. When I go standalone I will probably get STI injectors so I can run a little more boost and still be safe.

[Legacy777]

Is my boost controler really needed after the rob tune, my guess is no lol.

No, you'll need an MBC, and you don't need anything fancy. Ran THIS w/out issue. Get a 'dropping resistor' from a Automatic w/the same plug as the BCS and it'll get rid of the CEL when you remove it.

Can't you just have Rob configure where he wants the boost to be and keep everything internal to the ECU?

Also, I think he was saying he already has an aftermarket boost controller, and whether that is needed with the Rob tune ECU.

My answer would be it shouldn't be needed unless you wanted to play around with how much boost you wanted to run.

[wtdash]

^JC, Rob's tune is internal and he can set the 'boost target' (not sure what he calls it), and the user sets the MBC to match - @ least I think that's the way it works. I personally ran the Rob tune both w/the stock BCS and w/an MBC. It ran better w/the MBC, as his tune isn't calibrated to work well w/the BCS.

(I used the BCS as it helped w/the part throttle boost on my 4EAT {before my 5-speed swap} during the winter....nothing like the TCU dropping down a gear going up a hill and having all 3 wheels {VLSD} start spinning when the boost hits!)

Found this from correspondence when I ordered my Rob Tune:

From: rob.files@
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:32:58 -0800



Hi Todd,

Cool, my 550 tune will work great. STi pump should be fine. What are you going to do for the ignition change over? I don't recommend using the ECU and stock BCS to control boost. It's not an issue of the hardware, but the tune. It is extremely difficult to get the best response w/o overshoot or creep without tuning on that specific car setup. I have not been happy with the results. All my tunes go out with the recommendation to use a MBC or an EBC. The ball and spring worked fine on my setup, but I understand your concern with AT on ice. The only work arounds I can think of would be to either turn down the boost a bit when you know traction would be limited, or look at a low end EBC that would handle the overboost better. I have also seen more complex MBC configurations that might limit the spiking.

I don't need any other info. You can sell your knocklite as your CEL will now flicker when the ECU flags knock. I modify the OBDI interface slightly, so unless you can manually change the baud rate of the revscan software, it won't work. Plus I think all the parameter addresses are hardcoded so they wouldn't match the EJ20G parameters. Honestly the SSM interface is not so great for any real logging. You would be much better off using an Innovate AuxBox and directly logging the signals back to the ECU. You can even connect the CEL signal so you can have knock in the log as well.

-Rob

BTW, he was able to get Evoscan's developer to allow modification of the baud rate to work w/his EJ20G tune - used on mine successfully.

TD

[Legacy777]

Todd,

Good info. I figured he could set it internally, but it sounds like he can't get the boost control tune setup the way he wants, so it's just easier to run a stand alone boost control method.

[Flatfourced]

No...you'll need '92-'94 NA SOHC EJ22 rails (probably '95-98 SOHC would work, too).

So the us market 04-06 ej255/257 injectors fit these rails? or am i looking at the wrong 550's?


Good to know i havent wasted my investment on the MBC. I got a good deal, 50 bucks for a hallman, and it's my current favorite bit lol.


I think tonight i will post a complete list of the planned parts and see what i'm missing and what you guys think. A project like this buys slow but installs all at once, so i'm trying to be meticilious in getting the proper parts.

Thanks again.

[wtdash]

No...you'll need '92-'94 NA SOHC EJ22 rails (probably '95-98 SOHC would work, too).

So the us market 04-06 ej255/257 injectors fit these rails? or am i looking at the wrong 550's?

Thanks again.

Correct. STi/Baja/OB XT/Legacy GT/Forester XT all used the the 550 (flow 530cc) yellow side-feeds from '04-'07 (?). Just don't confuse them w/the older (late '90's) JDM/UK/Aussie 480cc yellow side-feeds that fit the stock turbo SOHC rails.

Td