Looking for some suggestions for more power before a turbo upgrade

Animal25RS

Animal25RS

New member
I was wondering what your (forum people) thoughts are for achieving more power out of an N/A motor? Before spending money on a turbo setup, what would be some good upgrades to squeeze out more power?

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Not easy to build more power out of a Subie N/A motor. Essentially, the Subaru engineers did all that stuff already. OK so you can do cams, intake exhaust etc but that's serious coin for minimal gains with significant tradeoff in reduced long-term durability.

Far better to build suspension and tire package so that you don't need to slow down so much when road turns twisty.

Oh, and develop driver software control package, too.

 
GClark said:
I wouldn't go turbo either.  Selling it and buying a factory turbo car will save you $$$ and headache. 
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Wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy a boosted engine an swap it in?  After looking around, a boosted Subie (with NO rust) runs for more than 6K.  A boosted engine is about 4K.

 
Nigel Prodrive said:
Not easy to build more power out of a Subie N/A motor. Essentially, the Subaru engineers did all that stuff already. OK so you can do cams, intake exhaust etc but that's serious coin for minimal gains with significant tradeoff in reduced long-term durability.

Far better to build suspension and tire package so that you don't need to slow down so much when road turns twisty.

Oh, and develop driver software control package, too.
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+1

Boost and going fast is fun, but you can have just as much fun with na, just might not be the same kind of fun, capiche? You can have a big ass turbo, but if your car can't corner like a boss then the turbo will only help on the straights, and in my opinon, the fun is in the corners 
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As I'm sure Nigel would agree, if you're looking for performance, seat time is going to be the best thing for you. Unless you're looking to drag race, in that case you bought the wrong car.

 
JoeBalz said:
+1

Boost and going fast is fun, but you can have just as much fun with na, just might not be the same kind of fun, capiche? You can have a big ass turbo, but if your car can't corner like a boss then the turbo will only help on the straights, and in my opinon, the fun is in the corners 
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As I'm sure Nigel would agree, if you're looking for performance, seat time is going to be the best thing for you. Unless you're looking to drag race, in that case you bought the wrong car.
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Define "Seat time" please?

Drag racing is boring, I agree with you on the corners!  Which is why, I will be beefing up the suspension as well as being on the look out for more power.  While cornering is wicked fun, I just need a little bit more power to drive with on a touge type of road.  I don't really care for boost, but the car takes to long to respond and its boring.  So I'd like to look into N/A options for more power but there's no real information pool for that type of direction. 

 
Someone had linked a thread for a crazy na build on Nabisco. Can't even remember how Much more was done beyond cams and injectors, but from what I recall it was huge money and not much gain

 
Swapping in a turbo motor into an na car isn't as easy as you think. Say you spend the 4g for a motor you'll still need the harness to merge it all/countless hours of labor to rip out the dash and install the stuff. Crossmember isn't the same so you swap the entire front frame or notch it for the up pipe and soooo on. It's almost easier and less stressful to buy a turbo car to begin with.

 
Animal25RS said:
Define "Seat time" please?

Drag racing is boring, I agree with you on the corners!  Which is why, I will be beefing up the suspension as well as being on the look out for more power.  While cornering is wicked fun, I just need a little bit more power to drive with on a touge type of road.  I don't really care for boost, but the car takes to long to respond and its boring.  So I'd like to look into N/A options for more power but there's no real information pool for that type of direction. 
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Good old fashioned time behind the wheel. You know what they say, practice makes perfect. For instance, if you want to get good at driving/cornering on dirt, spending a day driving on dirt will do a lot more for you then say; a new intake.

 
JoeBalz said:
Good old fashioned time behind the wheel. You know what they say, practice makes perfect. For instance, if you want to get good at driving/cornering on dirt, spending a day driving on dirt will do a lot more for you then say; a new intake.
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Okay, I get that and believe me..i get a lot of "Seat Time". 

Matt said:
Swapping in a turbo motor into an na car isn't as easy as you think. Say you spend the 4g for a motor you'll still need the harness to merge it all/countless hours of labor to rip out the dash and install the stuff. Crossmember isn't the same so you swap the entire front frame or notch it for the up pipe and soooo on. It's almost easier and less stressful to buy a turbo car to begin with.
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Noted.

i-wagon said:
Someone had linked a thread for a crazy na build on Nabisco. Can't even remember how Much more was done beyond cams and injectors, but from what I recall it was huge money and not much gain
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If your thinking about the 2.5rs N/A build that hit 300HP, then I've seen it and that cash flow is something that a lot of us wish we had.

So far, it seems like Subaru's are difficult in general.  So far, with Subaru; there seems to be an ultimate law: Boost is where its at and there's no other way. 

 
As you already have seen it takes a lot of money to get an N/A car to have any amount of power. Boost isn't the end all be all in a subaru. Look at some of the rally drivers. I want to say that Double Plus Racing(who rezPunk co-drove for) did extremely well in their races on an ej22. Also a 5speed vs auto will make a difference on abilities. With my ej18 5speed fwd car I was able to out run a legacy outback with an auto and ej25d, by a long shot. I have owned the car for 4 years now and have gotten as near its limits as I care to on all surfaces. 

I am with the just buy a turbo car if you want to get a lot more power. Other then that; cams, injectors, intake, exhaust with equal length headers. Your looking at probably $2k all said and done with new quality parts.

 
There used to be stupor charger kits for these, which I still dream of doing. But honestly a good running newer 2.5 is fairly perky

 
single best way to pep up a 2.5 is to leave motor alone and swap in tranny and limited slip rear diff with 4.44 final drive, It'll be buzzy on the highway but a holy terror on the back roads. That's what all the built Open Light rally cars do. We had a 2.5RS spec rally car with a well-used SOHC Fozzy motor in it that beat many many STIS and Evos.

 
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