legacycentral bbs

Hey everyone, I'm a n00b and haven't been able to find a topic such as this one in the archives.

I have an old FWD, auto trans beater @120k, which I dearly love and plan to keep for the rest of my life. Trans works wonderfully, fluid stays clean, no leaks. I plan to turn the car into fun cruiser, not a track vehicle but something I can use for flying down the interstate and the curvy roads of PA.

I'd like about 180hp or so. Is it feasible to try to build the stock engine for another 50hp at the crank? I wouldn't be assembling things myself, but I'd be willing to put about 3k into it. I was also wondering about bolting in a 2.5RS motor, but had my doubts about the wiring/ OBD-II issues.

I know everyone usually goes turbo, but I'd rather stay NA with this thing, and just make it a better, nastier version of what the factory produced.

Any ideas? I have a couple of other cars, so it's no big deal if this one has to come off the road for a while.

OBX Equal Length Headers - $300
Port and Polish Heads - $200-$500

That'll get you around the 170chp mark if not a little higher. The EL headers are the easiest thing and will net you good gains. Some sites have actually reported upwards of 25-30whp with them alone.

If you're real serious about staying NA and are comfortable spending upwards of 3k, do some searching for "Frankenstien motor". Basically it's a 2.5 shortblock with 2.2 heads giving a high compression ratio NA motor. Done right you can get upwards of 180-200whp. This would probably be pushing you past the limits of your current tranny though.

BTW, welcome to the BBS .

Bolt ons that are cheap & will free up a few HP are

K&N Drop in filter ($50 or less)
Light Weight Crank Pulley ($60 Group A pulley)
Synthetic diff oil ($20 or less - I used Redline 75W90)

These 3 things should free up about 10 crank HP & all give a noticeable acceleration improvement (as my wife knew something was different about her car when I secretly did each of these).

Cams, headers, exhaust are some of the other N/A mods that are easy but a little more involved & expensive.

Cheapest way to get 50 more crank HP would be to slap a turbo on your N/A more & boost a few pounds.
With decent exhaust & intercooling you should get about 50HP out of 5psi of boost.

Hey, thanks a lot guys. One of my downpipes is a bit crushed, so I'd been considering those headers anyway. I'll probably do the pulley/diff lube/port and polish (matched to the headers?) within the coming months. Maybe I'll re-ring the motor while I'm at it, but I figure that with 120k the lower end oughta be okay still.

I thought about decking the heads/running a thinner HG too.

You're talking about these headers for the 2.5 RS, right? Since the 2.2 should have similar exhaust ports?

http://www.sparktecmotorsports.com/h10798s.html

I didn't follow the link, but the ej25 and ej22 have the same exh ports, so 2.5rs headers will work.
A quick compression check before you tear into the motor will tell you whether you should re-ring. Higher compression is good for n/a power, but the ej22e stock c/r is something like 9.5:1, so if you increase it you may need to run higher octane fuel to prevent detonation.

High Compression Frankenstein with Delta cams, headers, and an intake. That will put you at 180chp and not have you spending more than $700. Spending $3000 on that I would expect 220chp or more.

Matt Monson wrote:High Compression Frankenstein with Delta cams, headers, and an intake. That will put you at 180chp and not have you spending more than $700. Spending $3000 on that I would expect 220chp or more.

seriously. i need to get a dyno to see where i am to see if i should do this. plan on getting headers with full exhaust and see where that leads.

Sorry for the thread jack but i am in the same situation of decisions

SILINC3R wrote:

Matt Monson wrote:High Compression Frankenstein with Delta cams, headers, and an intake. That will put you at 180chp and not have you spending more than $700. Spending $3000 on that I would expect 220chp or more.

seriously. i need to get a dyno to see where i am to see if i should do this. plan on getting headers with full exhaust and see where that leads.

Sorry for the thread jack but i am in the same situation of decisions

That's my plan. Seeing as how I'm driving with a 19-year-old stock exhaust, some of which is crushed, the headers/full exhaust combo should provide a massive SOTP gain.

Hehe, no thread jack worries. If I were to go into how this is the girlfriend's car, but she's not currently my girlfriend...now THAT would be a thread-jack lol.

Does anyone know if the 2.5l headers will give me any clearance problems on my '90 leg?

heard they fit i belive but you should check out my intake desing and maybe make one for yourself. you can hear the air coming in and does help at those highway speeds