legacycentral bbs

Okay, I've read through the DOHC thread a few times and I'm getting dizzy...

I'm basically trying to sort out which heads I have on my car. I initially thought they were EJ20k which turns out they are not. I should have actually caught this a long time ago if I'd been paying more attention. I'm trying to sort this out so I have a better feel for my compression ratio and any type of valve/cam requirements.

What I know -

They are definately twin turbo heads - have the second coolant port on the driver's side head.

I have the metal timing gears, though I know these could have been swapped over.

They are coil on plug heads.

The valve cover gaskets match a 96' Legacy GT.

The coolant crossover pipe looks similar to the EJ20h but it does not have a spot for the single spade temp sensor. The flat spot is there but it has never been machined or drilled. There is also not as much 'flashing/web' between the passenger block port and the pipe going up towards the radiator.

The passenger side rear timing belt cover does not look like the Legacy EJ20g. I'm hesitant to use this as my identifier as the top gear mounting hole does not line up with the block. By this I mean the hole in the plastic cover beside the top gear does not line up with the block, there is a vertical offset of about 3/8". The bottom lines up though.

The turbo coolant pipe coming off the crossover matches the picture for the EJ20h but the one coming off the blcok does not.


I'm a little stumped as nothing perfectly matches the pictures in the DOHC thread and wondering if there are any other firm indicators of which heads I have.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Without pics, I would guess early EJ20H.

Should be HLAs under the buckets. The metal gears were suspected to be on some early Legacy twin turbos, but phased out soon after that. If it has shim-over-buckets it's likely EJ20R.

The timing cover should look like WRX EJ20G/K or any later model up to the EJ205/207-which had the covers modified for AVCS (even models without AVCS). ONLY the early Legacy EJ20G (with the stub-rocker heads) has a different inner cover.

Do the heater hose lines come out of the center of the block over the bellhousing? If they do, that's another sure indicator of a TT motor. Single turbo motors have the hoses coming out over the driver's side head.

The '96 Legacy GT (and Outback) was the only year USDM motor to get the HLA under-the-bucket heads, so it makes sense that the gaskets match.

I've never seen shim-over buckets but I would assume they would be pretty obvious by looking at them?

I so I'm thinking these are HLA's.

As far as the heater hose lines - one comes out over the center of the block and the bellhousing. This is the one that comes off the coolant crossover pipe. The other line comes out on the side of the bellhousing over the drivers side head.

I'm pretty confident they are TT heads as the drivers side head has a coolant pipe coming upwards that's been capped off.


And many thanks for the help. I was hoping you'd chime in.

Shim over buckets will have a noticable ridge around the tops of the buckets. There will also be a notch somewhere around the perimeter used to assist in the removal of the shim.

Thanks for the input. I took a closer look and they are definately HLA's.

I got my painted valve covers on and exhaust gaskets ordered but tonight I pulled the plugs and one of them came out a bit damp. So it looks like I'll be doing a compression check and going from there. This whole 'new' motor just hasn't been going quite like I'd planned .