ej 20 or 22

[RacerX]

Simple question: which is the better ej20 or ej22t proformance wise.

Im considering buying an early model impreza and shoving in one of the two engines.

[entirelyturbo]

Simple question indeed... what do you think a group whose cars have nothing but EJ22's in them is gonna say?

Very good! If you can get your hands on a JDM EJ20, I'd rather have that, but the USDM EJ22T or the USDM EJ20T? I'd rather have the EJ22T, I don't think Subaru has ever made a better turbo engine in the USA...

[Legacy777]

really depends on a lot of things, what year, etc.

It's really not that simple of a question

[Brat4by4]

if you wanna run tons of boost... the 2.2 liter closed deck design found in the USDM EJ22T can't be beat. with a fully remappable ecu you can push a lot of horse. ...and you can stroke it out to 2.4 Liters....

[mile hi]

EJ22t probably the best all around, if you want about the same power use a Liberty intercooler and crank up the boost for a lot more power use '98 Impreza DOHC heads add fuel and more boost.
AL(CO)
al@iwtu.net

[DLC]

My two cents are that the EJ22T is a beefy mofo of an engine, with everything but forged pistons from the factory.

On the other hand, it's a old engine design. The newest EJ20s are all die-cast, but think of the amount of improvements that have been made to the processes over the past 15 years. The B4 has this same engine and makes 280hp.

The newest versions of the engine are also incorporating reinforcements to the cylinders, so that high-boost won't cause them to shift.

Either way, you've got a damned fine engine.

Dave

[kelley]

I perfer an ej26 over both.

[mile hi]

What is suprizing to me is that The EJ22t shortblock in the 450+ hp impreza is taking 30lb boost and is lasting! Whatever those pistons are made of must be pretty tough. The last thing to give a problem is the rear crossmember it is twisting from all the power and the diff is tilted.
AL(CO)
al@iwtu.net

[boostjunkie]

I figure I should make some quotes to Mike Shields, who makes some pretty significant comments:

"Standard production "WRX" EJ20G engines changed to an open deck design at 94.10 This is where I missed the boat, as I had only the original 1993 factory manuals. The WRX-RA, WRX-STI and STI ver II remained closed deck with a high performance cylinder head, and other goodies, up to 96.6.6. This closed deck "RA" engine is the "big power" motor that made Subaru famous in WRC (world rally championship).

This RA version block, head and forged crank are still the ones to get if "going for broke" in the power department. The RA head in particular has different water jacketing, very expensive valve material and a host of other details, while the block remains the strongest EJ series made, along with its cousin, the EJ22 turbo block. The EJ20G "WRX-RA" motor was designed for an era when Group A rally car engines were seeing 400 plus horse power in the 8000 rpm range. The rule change to 36mm and then to a 32mm restrictor on the compressor inlet reduced the power output to the point that special 1996 Prodrive road prepared WRX-RA and STI version cars were "faster in a straight line than the Group A cars". This is a quote form David Englishby of Prodrive over lunch in Banbury in 1996. The inlet restrictor, with the lower rpm, lower maximum expected power figures along with the Group A rally car rule change to permit special engine and chassis developments, independent from actual production cars, lead to the redesign in 1997 of a new "EJ20K" series engines.
The 1997 year model change over date, "96.6.6", saw a major internal and external redesign of the engine. It is now the EJ20K series with re-routed, resized and repositioned turbocharger, repositioned larger intercooler, lower compression 8.8->8.0, bigger valves, more (relative) boost, and slight cam changes. After this time, all production engines are open deck design, including the STI and RA versions. This permitted a great cost saving by changing all engines over to open deck die-cast cases while keeping the basic strength for a 300hp design limit. One of the key developments was a ceramic coating process that was first done by a small UK company for the Prodrive assembled racing engines. A manufacturing process was developed for this piston coating, making it possible for the pistons of the K series engines to have greatly reduced friction surface with the cylinder wall."

My vote is for a closed deck 2.0L or 2.2L

[IggDawg]

is the EJ22t just a bored out version of the EJ20G? or is it a different block? and why the HELL did subaru give us (and only us) such a damn fine block if they weren't going to give i tany boost ? Did the EJ20G have oil squirters?

anyways, I'd reccommend the EJ22t since ultimately displacement does count for a lot all other things being equal. and assuming it is of comparable strength to the EJ20G. it's certainly going to be MUCH cheaper.

sorry for all the questions .

[ciper]

"why the HELL did subaru give us (and only us)"

Perhaps we are seeing it again with the 2.5l STI engine? Imagine 10 years from now someone else might have the same discussion titled

Should I get a 2.0 or 2.5 sti engine?