legacycentral bbs

I want to put my spare EJ22 to good use, and I was wondering if there was any real good benefit to giving the heads this treatment in this car? I am still learning the ways of Subaru, and I wanted to get some input. Any work that I could have done to the cams as well? I want to get more power out of this car, but I really don't want to go turbo... the weirdo in me wants to make a really quick N/A!

Porting and polishing isn't really good for much. Maybe 5hp or so. But it does smooth things out, and the smoothness of flow can help the engine perform better, not by necessarily making more peak power.


Since you've got a spare engine, and you want to make power (and have got some money to slurge), you could always sell it and buy an EJ22T from a junkyard. Pull the heads, get a valve job done, swap in some hot cams, Ti valve springs and some oversized valves, get some ARP head studs, a stainless steel head gasket, custom rods and pistons (punch it out a bit, then stroke it, maybe to 2.6 liters or so), bolt it all down, and be sure to run premium only.

You could probably build something like a 13:1 or so N/A engine, and make a good bit of power.

Then you could always swap the turbo setup from a turbo legacy and run 4psi max, and be rollin .

That would be a fun project

Or you could just build a high-compression, hot-cammed, big-displacement, quad-throttle, monster N/A. Standalone engine management and convert to MAP based fueling, and you could rev to 10k, and make some ridiculous N/A numbers with a power band and torque curve that would make every Subaru owner in the world need to change their underoos. And you'd have a soundtrack unlike any vehicle on the planet. It'd be some kinda harmonic symphony of blats and rumbles, louder than thunder, and scarier than Rosie-O'Donnel during "that time" of the month.

Wow, I really do need sleep

Hmm, do you know of a place that I could get my cams done? I simply refuse to pay somebody like Cobb the money they are asking for this stuff. I will also look into higher displacement.

I know getting a turbo would make it all easier, and I may just give in and do that... but I am enjoy coloring outside the lines.

How much of a bitch would it be to toss an EJ25 in there?

It would probably drop right in with a bit of working.

Unfortunately, you can't mod cams that I know of. You'd need a whole different cam that's ground to different specs. I don't know who makes cams for the EJ22 though, I never really looked into it.

Perhaps I will consider a 2.5, and work from there, rather than spending too much time and money on the 2.2.

I need to get a 2.5 from an RS, bolt it to the Impreza transmission that is in the car now, so I can join Impreza boards as well... .

Jason Grahn swapped an EJ25 into his 1990 Legacy. Search for his thread; he has pictures and stuff of the process.

yeah, been running it for a while now. Had I the spare dough at the time, I would have had the heads extrude honed.

[quote="glassjaw"]Hmm, do you know of a place that I could get my cams done? I simply refuse to pay somebody like Cobb the money they are asking for this stuff. I will also look into higher displacement.
quote]
Cobb doesn't really charge any more for cams than anywhere else! You do realize that you get your core charge refunded, right? You aren't paying $900 for cams. But since EJ22 cams are not very common high performance items, they would probably want you to send yours in as the cores up front and all it would cost you is $500 (BAC5.2; Both Cobb and TWE cams are regrinds, not a whole different cam ).

You could go directly to Web (who does Cobb's) or Crane and save maybe $50 on the job, but the issue there is they haven't done as much Subaru specific R&D and are a more "generic" grind. If you want max gains, you should work with a Subaru tuner. All the time I hear people say, I am just gonna go buy my cams from Web thinking they are getting the same cam. Cobb owns the rights to their grind and Web DOES NOT sell the same grind on their own Subaru specific cams.

The only other suggestion I can make is contacting Colorado Component Rebuilders. They do nothing but Subaru engines. Their specialty is NA EJ22's for use in gyroplanes. Not only do thet do a complete rebuild, but they will do some port and polish work. Furthermore, they use a proprietary cam grind that ups the torque on the engines. I highly doubt they would sell you a set, but I am pretty sure they would rebuild your heads for you and use those cams.

Unless someone has dyno #'s to show otherwise, I say that 5hp for a PnP is way underestimating the extra flow to be gained there, unless we are talking a DIY job with a dremel! 15hp is more like it, and even that is conservative. And add another 15 for cams and you have already gained 30. Intake and headers will give you another 20-25hp and we haven't even addressed the bottom end yet.

A serious NA EJ22 build is something that hasn't really been explored that much. I am pretty sure with the right components you could get a rock solid engine that revs to 8000rpms and makes a fair bit over 200chp. In addition to the headwork, all you really would need is some high CR forged pistons. To keep it streetable, 11.5:1 is about the max you would want to go. The crank and rods are already forged and plenty strong. The phase I blocks are stronger than most people give them credit for. We are not talking ridiculous power here. I know of guys who have turbo'd stock NA EJ22's up to around 250hp and not blown them up. A 230hp NA build should not be an issue for this block as long as you make sure it gets enough fuel...

matt-

do you think a pII ej25 shortblock w/pI ej22 heads running about 11.5:1 CR would need to upgrade the fuel system?

if so would a wlabro pump be enough? maybe a new/higher pressure FPR?

im still on the fence about doing this project. dont wanna ruin my heads.

`Matt's right that the old EJ22s aren't junk. It's almost unfortunate for them that the turbo's so damn tough, but mine went to 246k with no block issues and nearly no wear (I'd have confidently done another 100k on it). The cylinders did show signs of mild walking on the HGs, but I beat the bag out of it and it was still acceptable. A built N/A running about 200 HP I'd bet would be fine for 150k+ without issue.

Steve