Turboing a 97 LGT

[Dridge]

Hey everyone Im new to the board and ive got a 97 Legact GT 5-speed. Ive been into cars for a while and i know how to work on them but i want more power out of my car. The only mods that I have for my car is a 2.25" custom catback exhaust, a kartboy short shifter, and a Kartboy MAF adapter plate with a K&N Cone filter. I was wondering what all I will need to turbocharge my car. Ive heard I could use a stock WRX manifold, turbo, TMIC and such, but I wanted to get all the useful information that I can get. I know some people on here have swapped 2.2 motors but I want to stick with my 2.5. So if anyone can help me out that would be great.

[Aczwild]

With the older GT's, such as ours, the 2.5L engines can only withstand about 5lbs of boost and its highly risky (see the story here), but any major modification to an engine is and is on the shoulders of the owner.

 

Most people do the swap to the EJ22 beacuse that engine was a factory closed deck design and could take up to 18lbs of boost!

 

If you really want to go the "adding a turbo" route then I believe that you will need the UP, DP, Headers, TMIC,Turbo, Intake, an aftermarket Piggyback ECU capable of controlling said turbo and boost without blowing everything to bits, hence it will have to be tuned and setup correctly, Oil hoses to connect to and cool the turbo...

 

You can see that this is no easy task (as is with adding a turbo to any vehicle) and must be done right to avoid serious problems with the car.

 

With all that said there is a turbo kit (the same that the kid above had in the story, that does work well and is on many older Subarus, its just a risk) which can be found here

[Dridge]

So how much would a 2.2 swap cost me? I dont have that much money, and I would probably be buying the parts over a certain amount of time.

[Aczwild]

This is where it gets tricky. You'll have to search places like ebay and craigslist for the EJ22 out of an older Legacy (90-94 I believe) for the turbo 2.2L. You'll have to, most likely, get the engine rebuilt, or just done over. Other options too are to hit junkyards for a wrecked WRX or even STi, like some members here have done

 

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18404

 

Depending on what you would like to do with your car, there might be better mods out there that are cheaper.

 

I'm kinda in your situation too. I'm a college student who doesnt have much money at the present moment and I've realized that I cant really go that far without spending a good bit of $$$.

 

Think hard about what you would like to do, for example I want to go the same route as you. I thought about spending the $400 on new headers, but if and when I did go turbo, I couldnt use the headers anymore, so that would have been a waste of $400. This goes the same with many performance parts for the NA 2.5L engine that you and I both have at the present time. It sucks that our aftermarket parts bin isnt as vast as a Hondas is, where the costs are minimal, but unfortunately its what we have to deal with

 

With this realization all that I have done to my cars engine is buy a GP Moto Intake, after that I made my realization and decided to focus on the suspension and handling of the car because if and when I am able to go turbo, all of the suspension and handling pieces that I have put on will be able to stay and complement the car well.

 

I have a question for you too, how many miles do you have on your GT and have you had to replace your headgaskets yet?

[Dridge]

Ive got about 92xxx miles on it (i bought it a couple years ago with 64xxx on it) and ive had to fix a few things but never the head gaskets. Ive had a new clutch, wheel bearings, shocks and struts, and i had them do the 60 thousand mile tune up after i bought the car....

[Aczwild]

I warn you now if you dont think the headgaskets have been replaced, then I'd be checking your oil and Coolant levels from time to time. I had mine go at 66K and I got lucky enough that I saved the engine by noticing what was going on and promptly shit it down and had it flatbedded away.

[LoveMySubie]

Do i even want to know what my chances are of needing a new engine if I didn't "flatbed" it away? Shop after shop has been giving me the run-around until finally one of the dealers just said those pretty little words "head gasket".

 

So yeah... theres no telling when mine went out, i've almost assuredly drove it far too long.

 

Should i just start shopping around for crashed WRX's and turn a bad thing into a fun thing? What's the usual problems if head gaskets go unnoticed...?

 

If i should need a new engine, what's the simplest drop-in that is both economical and more fun than stock?

 

Just a standard WRX drop-in? Or maybe find a totaled Forester XT, for the 2.5 turbo with better torque? what would drop in easiest if i've got a 2.5 with the automatic (if it's not too hard to switch to manual i would NOT mind at all.. i love manuals and am stuck with a automatic...)

[Aczwild]

It depends on how bad yours was. With my car the headgasket blew and the entire reserve tank of coolant and everything in the radiator went all over the place, the temperature guage instantly pegged itself and the car became unruly. It wasnt absolutely instant that I shut the car down, but it was onlky about a minute of driving with the car overheating and no coolant before I found a place to pull it off the road to call a flatbed.

 

If you drove the car around overheating with no coolant for a while, then you might have some problems, but let the dealer (or mechanics, whomever is gonna do the work) pull the engine and open it up to see the headgaskets. They will be able to tell you then if there is damage to the pistons and the cylinders and of course they will tell you if the engine is shot.

[LoveMySubie]

that's part of the thing... it'll cost me more than i can really afford just to have someone yank the engine out and take off the head. If i have someone do that i have no choice. If I know with a high likelyhood that it's completely shot that's different.

 

Oh, and the reason I didn't flatbed was because it was acting more like a slow leak than a "OMG WHERE'D MY ANTIFREEZE GO?!" sort of moment. My car only overheats on occasion (when it starts getting lower i suppose), but doesn't seem to have ever been completely empty. Main problem being, it's been doing this fun "sometimes overheating" thing for quite a long time. It still seems to run alright, though once in a while i hear some noises i don't want to hear (still trying to identify which noise they are... I'm used to listening to an old AMC v8, not a new flat-four. But the leak doesn't seem hugely fast, and with as little as i drive during the school year i may not even put 100 miles on it in the next two months, so i'll probably have to wait to get it fixed.

 

I was just saying that if theres a large possibility of the repairs going over say, a cheaply done standard wrx drop-in... i'd rather have the turbo. how much does a cheaplydone wrx/foresterxt swap typically cost? like, if i found a wrecked one?

[Aczwild]

It probably wouldnt be cheaper to do the swap because of the amount of things you would have to replace (see my first post above for some of the things you would have to replace). For example to have my headgaskets done it was only $500. You can ask Xcntrk75 how much it cost him to do it himsel though http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18404

 

My brother just bought a 2000 LGT Limited and had to have his headgaskets repaired (he had a small leak too), so when I get home on the 10th of March I'll ask the mechanics what they did to fix the problem. I can tell you now for your model though they put out a coolant conditioner to help with the leak.

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