Swap or Turboize.

I'm guessing it's an early JDM EJ20g. If it's only 3 digits, how about $100.99
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Kathy is right. There is no replacement for actual honest to goodness hands on learning.

Yes, I, unfortunately, am a dub in a rather fast car. My car is very capable of performing woderfully at any rally-x, the only problem is the loose nut behind the steering wheel! :'(

 
i'll read the thread and comment later, but, wanna buy this? comes with all the stuff i took off (but no ecu) its only a 3 digit price tag.

EJ20painted2.jpg
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ummm....when did they put the throttle body facing the other direction?

 
Its not my skill, it was my tires that prevented me from winning any rally-x, oh and the sun was in my eyes, the car was running poor, the track was bad, etc... ;D

 
Damn, a few moments of down time from building T-4, so I'll post!

The intake on WRC motors was reversed with the TB pointing forward so that the length of the FMIC piping would be shorter. This can be done on any Subaru, but you better be excited about fabbing intercooler piping!

In terms of the RS vs. turbo. Boost is addictive, but it's not everything. We set top 5 times at our last event in the RS and RS's normally finish in the Top 5 of Canadian National Rally events. Why? They're reliable and have good power and traction. Set one up with a proper gearbox and you probably won't care about the missing turbo. Swap in a box with RA gears and 4.44 final drive and 4.44 rear LSD and you won't be able to wipe the grin off your face.

I think the hot setup for an NA Subaru is cold air intake, lightweight crank pully, cams and perhaps even a ported throttle body. There is a great NA forum on NASIOC which I know you've checked out.

My old RS, "Diablo," was a DIY turbo project. About $1,200 in parts. Weekend install. Ran on stock ECU. I had a RRFPR and an external BOV. I used a stock WRX TDO4 turbo. If you want to do this, I would suggest swapping to the EJ20T Legacy block. I did this on my car and used my stock RS heads. Car ran rich, but seemed to run fine otherwise. Only through a CEL under full boost. Full boost was about 8psi.

Don't let the nay sayers get you down. Gather the parts, and do the install. Rad is considering it as well on his 1.8, so you guys could have an install pah-tay!

In terms of the WRX motor/drivetrain swap-why not just buy a WRX!? :-) If you swap the entire harness, that's one thing, but it'll still be a project that I'd budget at least two weeks for, perhaps 4.

Cheers! John

 
OK evan, I'll bite

what IS that motah?

DG
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EJ20G, although that can be misleading. the ej20g was made in a bunch of variations, and basically just ment an ej motor made before '95. after 95 most of the motors were open deck because the WRC had made the 300hp regulation. its from a BC legacy,and is the same as the wrx motor but it came with a air/water intercooler (which is sold). the intake manifold is reversed, but can be flipped back around in 5min if you want. yes its for shorter FMIC piping, and i was going to make my own piping anyway so i figured i'd do the shortest route i could. so,

motor pros:

closed deck

good flowing heads (better than usdm wrx)

polished and (slightly) ported throttle body, knife edged butterfly plate.

super clean all around (no leaky seals etc) and on the inside of the valve cover (looks brand new).

comes with headers and uppipe, and any $125 wrx turbo will fit it (or an fp green!)

comes with wire harness, hoses, side feed injector fuel setup (use sr20 injectors to upgrade), all sensors.

came from an automatic car (tend to be in better shape because they're not raced)

coil on plug ignition

sweet paint!

comes with its own webpage!

cons:

HLA adjuster heads

doesn't come with ecu

???

i might go with a ej257 because i need the airflow. people who know the project know why
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also a ej20 swap wont have huge torque, so you might be able to get away with a RS tranny if you treat it nice.

i also like the idea of RHD, believe me, but one thing you have to remember is that everytime you go to pass someone you have to be 3/4 of the way out in the other lane before you can even see if anyone is coming
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but other than that, its hella cool.

if you want to port and polish your heads, i have done it to my old honda head and i have the die grinder and 25gal compressor you'll need if you want to use them.

 
i even have a honda head you can practice porting on! i already promised my spare subaru heads to ecksjay though.

 
personally i would swap. turboing the RS = engine explodes.

ya ya wiring is hard but you can hire people to merge the harnesses for 900

or eastcoastswappers in mass will do the whole thing for 2250 i believe. its gonna be the most reliable and will have more room for future power.

ive been readin up on JDM swaps for a while and i want to do v5-v6 swap. v7+ is too baller for me. but if you do the JDM thang you can get a front clip and gets lots of other goodies like 4pot brakes, carbon fiber strut bar, steering wheel, cluster, tranny. plus forged internals, higher redline, 280 hp stock

for a bit cheaper get usdm wrx. this place in manchester NH quoted me a cheap price. i forget what it was exactly but around 4k out the door for rex swap. hopefully with the new 2.5 wrx the older ones will start gettin real cheap. http://www.tdctuning.com/index.php?page=shop

NA mods are a waste of money. i got full exhaust for over 1000, headers back.
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that was a good start on a swap right there

 
All depends what you want. By the time you're done swapping in a WRX drivetrain and paying someone to do it, you might as well find a used WRX and buy it. Think of resale value and hassle factor.

Turbo'd RS's blow up because people don't know what they're doing when they do the install. With WRX drivetrains around, less people are doing it and so there's a bit more trepidation.

Think long and hard about what you want to do before you start laying out cash.

The resale value on a stock RS(or near stock) will probably be more than one with a WRX swap in it.

There are lots of us that turbo'd RS's before the WRX was available in the US. I'm not saying it's the way to go, but it does make one sweet ride. Car can be returned to stock later on. Not so with a WRX swap.

As Dave said in an earlier post, spend the money on upgrading the software(your driving skills) before upgrading the hardware! :-)

Cheers! John

 
yea i could easily sell my RS and get a wrx. but then i would be stuck with a bug eye
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i like the GC body style bett4r

 
Just playing devil's advocate as someone who's spent lots of cash on Subarus over the last 6 years. The GC8 body is sweet, I agree.

But, when you're done, you'll have way more money that you budget sunk into it. Believe me when I say that money(not to mention the time) spent on mods doesn't come back out of the cars when you sell them.

An '04 front end WRX swap onto a bugeye WRX is a lot cheaper than a WRX swap in a GC8. That's assuming you like the 04 front end look! ;-)

Look at the page on our team website where I detailed the turbo conversion on my RS. It wasn't hard and it wasn't expensive. Just took some confidence and research.

If you do a WRX swap, make sure you get the entire engine/ECU harness and swap out the entire thing. Get a subscription for your car at alldatadiy.com so that you'll have access to all the wiring diagrams.

Cheers! John

 
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