legacycentral bbs

hello guys, i have a 93 legacy l 5mt wagon and i want to boost it.
there's a guy in my state that boosted his 94 postal wagon and he's running 8psi on stock everything and it's not hurting the engine.....

anyways

i'm trying to make up my mind because this is a whole new ball game for me. there's someone local to me selling me a td05h 16g with an 06 wrx tmic together with the turbo manifold and a set of megan mounts for 600. obviously i'd have to run oil feed and return lines and blah blah blah.
but i have a friend telling me that i'd be paying too much, and that i should go with an aftermarket turbo kit instead. what do you guys advice?

in the future i plan on upgrading the fuel system and throwing some cams in there right after i get my hands on an ej257 bottom end and rebuild it to go with the 22e heads for bottom end strength.

oh also, if i got the robtuned ej20 ecu could i run it with my ej22?

My recommendation would be to do a little more research before you make up your mind that you want to go down this road. Just because someone else did or is doing it, doesn't necessarily mean it's the best option. Have you spoken to the guy that boosted his postal wagon to get all the details of what he did, how it's running, and any issues he ran across?

My personal opinion, I would not recommend you just slap on a turbo to your n/a motor. The devil's in the details, and those "blah blah blah's" you mentioned above can really get you. Have you thought about engine management, additional fueling requirements, mounting the turbo, etc.

I think it would also help myself and others in providing feedback to know your level of skill/knowledge to do some of these tasks as well what you've already researched and have a plan for. You very well may be educated on everything you have to do, but we don't know that.

If it were me, I'd find an ej22t or ej20g swap it into your wagon, add the extra wiring for the turbo sensors, upgrade the exhaust, and run the robtuned ECU.

ive spoken to the guy a few times, it's been running as a daily for over 6 months now. and ive also seen the setup in pictures and in person, the only issue he has are overheating problems because he doesnt have the hood with a scoop, so instead he drives around with no hood to prevent them. im no car guru but im very mechanically inclined and have done lots of work on cars before (but a first gen gs300 was what broke me in). basically what i would like to do is slap everything on and see where it can get me without modifying much. it will be my project car in the beginning of next year and it would be a fun experiment, and if everything works as planned then I'll have a winter beater with a bit of boost.

The scoop on the hood has nothing to do with cooling the engine.. Someone is misinformed.

Jeff

^This. How does the other guy know he has no issues (overheating suggests otherwise, but could be unrelated)? Does he have an AFR gauge and EGT gauge? Without proper monitoring he could be running on the bleeding edge of blowing the engine and have no idea.

one thing to note is the turbo version of this engine was place though a series of extremely hard test for weeks on end to test reliability of the whole engine assembly.

something is telling me the setup the post man has on his car is missing a few required attributes. Lack of fuel to the combustion chamber under boost can cause high Exhaust gas temperatures to the point the engine starts to over heat.

too much timing on low octane fuel can cause detonation which will do massive engine damage. head gaskets can be damaged as well causing high coolant pressure and high coolant temp's.

Please if you could have this gentlemen write you a list of his setup we will let you know if it is safe or not.

you have to remember, boosting a natural aspirated engine is a little harder then slapping on a kit. there are things that are required for the theory of positive manifold pressure to exist safely and reliability.

fuel
timing
Mechanical strength
tuning

we are here to help and save you sanity.

I, personally, think the stock EJ22 will handle some boost well. The trick is to not get greedy....and most of us eventually get greedy. Also, you will need proper *programmable* engine management. ANY stock EM will not properly protect your (now) overstressed motor.


Forget the 16G. Find a stock WRX TD04. More than enough for any amount of power the N/A EJ22 can handle.

Convert your electrical to support the turbo setup and whatever programmable EM you choose. I would choose EJ22T/EJ20G wiring/ECUs as the starting point. Many write-ups on this forum. I don't think a Robtune would be a good way to go as it is designed for a motor (EJ20G) with a stronger piston and a different bore (affects proper timing). I think that a fully programmable EM is the only way to keep it safe. It also paves the way for when you get greedy and start building a proper motor.