ReubenH

If you're doing a power build, getting a closed 22 from the states will feel like chump change. Jump on all the US forums and make some inquiries. Option 2 is boreing a 207 out, the latter will give you the more modern and reliable bottom end.

Yeah, if I squeezed any harder on this budget, I'd be popping out diamonds.

Man that is cheap, but not as cheap as me! I did but v2 WRX RA headers on beast, and he does sound good for it, even beast is closer to that RS noise I love than say, my mates ol V6 STi. I have seen the difference in the headers between v6 and some early headers too, it's very apparent when side by side. For anyone wondering about the inspiration Behind sticking with the old tech, this vid is one of the larger inspirations, as are a host of other vids, and driving many loud first gens. Def going 2.5" turbo back for this one, something simple simple sounds good!

Ah yes, I forget about those smooth 20G's. Yeah, haven't really been considering those, I put them in a different class really, when the G was used as the designator for the lower power higher comp K's. And you love it dave, tell me you wont own another BC.

Just saw the prices of the STA rods, yeah nah. Agreed, cheap for aftermarket amazing rods, but way too dear for this build. Prices on custom cometic MLS gaskets is amazing though.

22 closed decks are already hard enough to find in the sates, let alone outside the sates. All I have to ask is, is closed deck required? Surely the open deck only presents issues when doing massive power builds? For anything under say 250kw, open deck will be perfectly fine.

Not to the same extent? You're building a bloody V2 STi RA motor from the ground up, complete with manifold and ECU, all I'm doing is slapping a 22 between some turbo heads lol. Will be interesting to see what each project goes like, 22 on a link vs the last hurrah of the 20G, making practically modern STi power factory back in 95...

The only 20G's with shim are V2 STi RA, you should know this one Nick! And you should also know how rare they are. If I could have a set of those I'd jump on em, but as Dave is finding out, not so easy to find parts for them, he's had to find two sets of heads to bung together to make one, as you literally can not get parts like valves. So hydraulic it is, it's all about the sound, I want the purest 20G sound, it's different to the later heads, and if you can't decern that difference in note, you're missing out . This BC build is only slightly guided by me, I have general ideas of what I want, like pre 96 turbo, and I just take what opportunities arise, and let the car decide the final product. I didn't intend on a 2.2, I always was going to do that for Beast, but for Blighter I didn't care. Then a working 2.2 block appeared in front of me, and I had to say yes. I was going to bung anyhydraulic turbo heads on, then these RS-RA ones popped up, perfect. Port and polished will be a nice second best to STi-RA. If you have a set of STi RA heads that are good, and going for cheap btw, I am listening.

Haha, yeah, don't want to go stroker. Maybe beast can get that one day. I'll price up some rods for myself tomorrow, trade price might make it all worth it.

I assume the manifold has to come off for all versions. I just bought one off eBay for $80, biggest reason for me is its hard to find factory ones where the pipe onto the turbo isn't sliced. That in itself is a benefit.

Bump Hah, I knew I'd see this thing again, what a wicked car that was, and you can thank sam (the guy you bought it off) for tracking down those wheels too, when he bought it it was on some stupid 18" medussa's. He only had the car a short time, but what a wicked little thing, many fun drives were had. He lives back in the states again now, and suffice it to say that car turned him into a subie lover. Glad to see it on the club (i hardly visit), and glad to see it's fallen into good hands, and glad to see you got rid of the stupid old syms stickers! keep this car cool man, good work. There's still two more things I see that need to be done to return it back to factory, currently the badge on the front is an NZ New WRX badge, it should be a pink i, and the front lip is missing. We were planning to get those done to it, but sadly work situation meant that he had to go back to the states

Dave, your words, you know, they really speak to me, in a meaningful way. I understand now! Edit: You forgot to tell me to slam it though. With the extra power I'll have I won't need the ride heigh to go over the snow, I'll just power through the snow. And the DCCD will give me better traction! So, you got a spare 15k I can borrow?

Yeah, that 8.1 figure is from that chart, apparently running the thickest gaskets (1.3mm or something). I'd love to drop the thickness down to something a bit more normal, but I need to be sure that the pistons and valves will be friendly with eachother if I do that. Theory is one thing, but I like to see these things with my own eyes. I too drive to the redline, but I've been doing it to many first gens, and none have spat the dummy. Well frank with her wrx 20g now overheats, suspect minor HG, and Leo the bc GT snapped a cambelt, but that's cause we didn't know it's age, and got lazy. But no big ends, rods or lifter issues in the whole fleet (there's 7 cars including my two babies). So I'm going to go on a limb and trust these stock rods. If they fail me I have a second block that's kicking around, but I don't think I could live with myself having taken out a set of RS-RA heads. Keep the redline at 7500 and I should be right I never drop clutches or drive with the disrespect other cars seem to handle, maybe that's the trick? You have me thinking though, just how much are rods these days? They sure were expensive enough when I did beasts motor.

Yeah sorry guys, I added some edits to that post. I should point out no digs to any of you, it's just the reason I left CS is the "why don't you..." comments, I just like doing what I do, and occasionally I need help with the finer points. Thanks all for your help btw! Oh, further research today did come up with wrx era heads don't work on leggy 20G era blocks, due to the flat pistons with tiny valve recessed. Vice versa is fine, leggy 20G heads will work great with BG/wrx dished pistons, and the compression ratio will be dramatically knocked back (9.7:1 down to 8.1:1, perfect for boost). It's almost like the stars have aligned for these RS-RA heads to go on this BG 2.2. I would have liked to play with a 9:1 turbo motor, but hey, this build is dictated by tides and the wind in the trees, the only parts i've actually hunted for are the leather seats, and the 20K manifold, literally EVERYTHING else either was in the garage, was offered to me, or popped up on the clubs for a silly price. This whole build, from Ti to now, owes me less than a grand (wheels and tyres not withstanding).

The rods are no different to anything turbo of that era. I have my possum Bourne block in the wagon which has taken my abuse for 70,000ks now, and that's the go to car when I really want to drive. Nah, this is a fun project to teach me the basics of slapping all this gear together, to put in my daily, as an alternate to fixing the 250T on the street (will take my 20D out if the BC to put in that thing instead). I suppose you have to understand the motive and application to understand the build. This is not a power monster to compete with the ChCh machines, it's just my daily. With boost. The car it's going in is my second child (Beast being the first), it's a BC3 Ti Type-S (so no chrome other than the bump strips from factory), that I picked up for $500 as a fix'n'flic, that I have: Manual converted 20D converted it's running an STi 20K manifold turbo crossmember and headers with a 250T up/downpipe has a 4-plug GT loom, is running presently on a possum link has alloy control arms, k-brace, 20mm sway bars, rear subframe locking bolts, bilsteins, GTB brakes to go in, BH GTB booster and has a totally rust free chassis, and silky black paint interior is mostly upgraded to GT spec (foot well and ignition barrel lights 'n' all), with black leather seats and door card inserts to be fitted. It's my mongrel, MY mongrel, this has been hit with the Reuben option pack and I'd have nothing else. This is just a thread about asking the questions I need answered on what can be mix'n'matched, as you can see, something I like doing. If you want to see the cars build thread, it's on DOBC, and will not be getting posted on clubsub, because it would just be filled with "why don't you flick it and buy an RS" "Why are you putting a link on a non turbo" "why don't you get an impreza" "why don't you go AVCS twinscroll EZ36 6spd brembo". No.

Dave may have found me some RS-RA heads in the fs section, the chart reckons those will give me 8.1, and not 9.2 compression. Good news for boost, but isn't there issues with mixing heads and blocks, with the early and late hydraulic engines? Afaik it's the other way round, can't put wrx heads on a legacy 20g block. Is that right?

Ah good, I see this attitude still lurks here. Short answer: No. And cheers koom, might just have to rely on this for now then. Might have to measure it when we put it together.

This thread makes me happy, such incredible attention to detail, love it! We'll be passing though Greymouth in the days before christmass, then back again about 3 weeks later. Would love to see this thing in person! Will be in the Beast of course.

Yeah, there's a large sump and small sump, the BG SOHC's got the small sump, I'll be swapping a turbo sump on when we do the bottom end.

Hydraulic vs solid is dictated by year not model with the good ol phase 1 blocks, with the one and only exception of the V2 RA's. everything up to 96 was hydraulic, this can be identified by lines on the rocker cover everything after 96 was solid, with a smooth rocker cover. The exception being the V2 RA's (I do not know if this includes WRX RA's too, but subaru's fast system indicates it DOES, but again, proof that is NOT). The V2 RA's had the lines on the rocker cover, and are the older style engine, last of the 20G's, but did have solid lifters, and revved to 8K, just like the 20K's after it. Concerning later solid heads, telling a smooth 20H apart from a 20R nowdays is practically impossible. The yellow injectors, larger intake flexi pipe, 20R on the cambelt covers can all be swapped. And with the 20R's offing themselves for so many years now, it's impossible to say for sure the engine being pulled out of a manual BG GTB is going to be its original. you can almost guarantee if it has been swapped, there's actually a 20H chilling out in there. I've seen GTB's running grey top injectors before! All one can realistically do is make a best guess, find out if the engine is original, see if all the tell tail parts bolted to it actually match up, and go from there. But are 20H's and 20R's really that different head wise? And is it going to make that much of a difference to ones build?

So I just started another thread about building up a 22 DOHC turbo motor, and I'm wondering what the best option for cams is. Half the reason for going for a moderatly high comp (rough guess going by what the super accurate interwebs says: 9.5:1 ish) 2.2 is to have good low down torque and around town drivability. Kind of the total opposite of the 20K STi motor in my wagon. I had a chat to kelford cams on the phone the other day and tried to get a bit of info out of the guy I was talking to, and he seemed to indicate that non turbo cams might still be a very good choice for this wee build. I'm new to the cam game, I know what lift and duration are, but I know there's much more to it than that, and I don't know how these things affect the end product. I don't really know how N/A cams will work for me on boost. Is it going to be a case of good low down, at the cost of top end? If they are a good idea, how come nobody ever talks about putting N/A cams in turbo? Is this all a load of guff, and am I just better off leaving the turbo cams that are going to come with my turbo heads and calling it done? The other question is, is it worth my time tracking down some STi cams instead... Does anyone know how 20G STi cams related to 20G WRX/20H cams? Lots of questions, sorry

So I've picked up an EJ22 with 250,000k's on it, and I intend to slap some DOHC HLA turbo heads on there and boosting it. Heads I want to use will either be hydraulic EJ20H, or WRX EJ20G, which is handy, as they will match the age of the block (BG7) (I head this will avoid piston/valve matchup issues). I also want to stick with this generation of motor, because I bloody well love the sound they make, it's going in a BC, and I want to keep that 20G growl. I'm doing this on the cheap, originally I was just going to slap it together and go, and just run low boost (I already have a link in the car so can tune to suit), but the more I've thought about it, I've decided to go and replace all the bottom end beaings, and rings (can get ACL through work for cheap as chips). As far as I know, crank and rods are no different to turbo's of that era anyway, and the only things to get forged pistons were STi's, so the stock crank, rods and pistons should be fine for my purposes and tune, will be no different to working on a stock 20G. Are there any caveats I should know of? Does anyone have EJ22E piston dish volumes, and EJ20H/WRX EJ20G head volumes, so I can work out my compression ratios? I also want to make sure oil pressures remain up to the task, are the N/A and turbo oil pumps different (I've assumed they are the same)?

Stance is for posers. IMG_9214 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr oldmanrock-m by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

Avoid the SPFI 1800 like the plague! Those engines are loathsome lumps of alloy, that guzzle gas faster than they move (you know, you\'ve driven mine ). Make sure you get something MPFI, a 2.2 bc or 1600 impreza or something. I actually find MPFI much simplerto understand, it\'s just logical. Swing by my place on Saturday after work, I\'m changing the coolant in mitches intercooler, taking my timing cover off to inspect something on the aforementioned loathsome lump (ill show yah how the timing belt stuff works), and heck, if we have time, might put the new starter in Amy\'s wagon.

Yeah, was optional, on ALL legacy models, just had to tick the box when buying.. You could even option primative side airbags too, that come out of the side bolsters. Mine doesn\'t have those though, only wires coming out of the seat are the seatbelt buckle ones. You can run the dual airbag momo on a single bag system, I just call it that because the only way to get it from subaru was to option dual bags. Side note, it\'s the same wheel as the V4 STi wheel, just minus the red stitching. And yes, the brochures are avail for the BH. http://a15ff11300g.sakura.ne.jp/catalogue/catalogue.html