legacycentral bbs

ok so as you may know i have a FWD N/A 90 Legacy LS. thought about doing the swaps and going turbo and possibly AWD, but i have come to the conclusion that it would be more fun to have a lighter Legacy by keeping it FWD and N/A. so i have do the CAI with full aluminum piping all the way into the fender with wall with 3'' pipe.
currently the car sits with original trans, and engine. However i had my HG done about a month ago a feel that some power has been returned to me . but of course its never enough. suspension is almost done. once i get out of basic training for the Coast Guard i will be looking to put some coilovers in so the car can be lowered and feel even more planted than it already is. have sway bars and strut bars out the ears and lookign to do the lateral link step. (still wonder if it can be done on my year). so i know the car can handle, but it doesnt have the power. also when i get out i will be picking up a prodrive muffler so i cna do a complete exhuast with 2.25'' all the way to the headers were i hope to get a some aftermarket headers which still seem to confuse me on what will work, 2.5 headers?
so i understand i have done almost all i can do without getting into the engine to create more horsepower. so the plans need to get forged rods and rankshaft as well as pistons. this will keep some of the weight down? which will let me rev faster and get the car quicker. so now to the heads, keep the SOHC or use 2.5L heads or go DOHC. also if i stick with mine since they have been shaved down once already should i buy used EJ22 heads or will they be ok to be shaved twice. then on to the cams, i know delta cams makes them or rather i can have mine sent out to be worked on. also i guess a nice port and polish on the intake manifold as well as the throttle body could help.

looking for 170 -200HP. i think 170-180 is very possible and with a car that weighs about 2800 lbs should be pretty good. im not looking to blow the doors off 6 cylinder cars but rather to give them something to chase.

list
forged rods, crankshaft, and pistons?
port and polish whatever i can
bigger cams
and whatever else i could be missing

so the reason why i chose this path is because most others avoid the N/A because it is mayeb more logical to do the swap to turbo and AWD. but like i stated earlier i want to stay with the lighter paltform. also i think it would be easier staying with the EJ22 and not trying to use an RS motor(2.5L) so i wont have to worry about wiring and any issues. the other fact is that i love my car to much and i love the fact that it si FWD and N/A gives it reason to keep it and work with it.

any help will be greatly appreciated. i have searched but all it shows is people going from N/A to turbo

Tony

Look for a set of equal length headers, they'll net you around 20-25 chp right off the bat. Couple that with a set of Delta cams and you have your 180 chp no problem. Port and polish your head, match port your intake manifold and you should be up around the 190 chp mark.

I'm going this route this summer with my OBW.

BTW, I miss my FWD Legacy. The lower weight and less drivetrain loss really let it get up and go for being a NA car .

Also, I personally wouldn't waste your money on engine internals. You aren't pushing that much power where you are going to need them. Just my thoughts... though others with much more experience in that arena may feel otherwise, but 200 chp really isn't much for our motors to handle.

If you want to rev quicker, get a lightweight flywheel. Used, since they're very expensive new. And/or lightweight pulley set. I have the group A pulley set and a clutchmasters lightweight 13lb WRX flywheel that I will be using on my car. The pulley set comes with crank pulley, alternator pulley and power steering pulley.

Kind of spendy though.

oh awesome thanks guys . yea i forgot about the flywheel, and i already have the Group A pulley set but i couldnt use the PS pulley.
so skid542 what do you figure like 2000 for the cams headers and the port and polish

More power? put on a big turb.......oh wait nevermind

2000, I certainly hope not :-0.

I picked up a set of OBX EL headers off of ebay for around $250. Most sources show these giving around 20-30 whp improvement.

A set of cams from Delta should run around $220-250. Not sure what they're charging now, but let us know if you find out soon as I need to send a set of cams to them in the next month or so.

Port and Polish depends on how far you want to go. I'm just having mine cleaned up and port matched and then having the valves reseated. Maybe go for a 3-angle grind. Most of the work is being done by a friend in exchange for helping him frame in some new windows. However, I think $500 for a nice P&P job and valves would cover it though.

So figure maybe around $1000 for everthing - though your stock clutch likely won't hold the new power so include a little for that too.

My thoughts/hopes at least.

sounds real good, thanks again

What about shaving a bit off the heads for higher compression?

I really wish that the ECU's knock threashold could easily be adjusted on these cars too, like the OBDII cars. Bump up the timing, fatty cams, big valves. You could make adjustable cam gears, and bump up the power curve. Lightened pulleys and fliywheel would do a lot.

NOSssssssss?

Is this for DOHC or SOHC heads? If I recall correctly Delta wanted around $500 for 4 cams for my DOHC EJ20H motor when I asked them.

Kelly - NOS? You've been reading too many of Doug's threads .

Kimokalihi - this is for SOHC.


Tony - I forgot, though you probably didn't, to budget for head gaskets, intake gaskets, etc, including fluids if you decide to have headwork done.

Kelly =my heads have been shaved once already so the compression is higher already than stock

skid542 = actually i kind of forgot about that

What heads are you using?

right now they are the stock EJ22 heads

Oh, well you'r gonna need better heads for starters.

Kelly wrote:Oh, well you'r gonna need better heads for starters.

what do you suggest. I am for real about doing this in about a year so I will be using this info for real

Better flowing heads (EJ20G/H/K, EJ25 phI or II) will lower compression. So, if you upgrade, you'll need custom pistons as well.

beatersubi wrote:Better flowing heads (EJ20G/H/K, EJ25 phI or II) will lower compression. So, if you upgrade, you'll need custom pistons as well.

i thought you wanted lower compression for turbo cars

You do, depending on what kind of boost you will be running will determine what compression you want. But you're doing an NA build so you want high compression.

Read This:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthr ... ankenstein

One other thing that I haven't seen mentioned, but the factory rods and cranks are forged. I know you don't seem intent on splitting the case anymore, but there's no reason to replace the crank on these engines ever. The only reason I would ever replace the rods is if I went over 350chp on a turbo or I was looking to go titanium for a high revving NA build.