Vascoobiedude Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 So... I have a '99 Legacy L Wagon, 35th Anniv ed. EJ22. 4eat. As of now, the car is mechanically bone stock. I have a firm grasp on continuing the exterior and interior mods, so now it's time to look at mechanical and performance mods. Now, please keep in mind, I'm looking for serious here, and I am on a budget, so as much as I'd LOVE to do a full swap, thats just way out of question. What I'm looking for is: 1. Suspension- Don't want to really drop the car more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch, but want to firm up the body roll in corners, and tighten the handling without destroying the rideability. In other words, comfort with performance. So, struts, coilovers, used, etc ideas. Also, swaybars, bushings etc., and which ones would be the optimum choice. 2. Air- Here's where it gets tricky. Not sure how a cai would work, as this 2.2 has the secondary airbox right on top of the motor. I'd love to be able to rip out ALL of the stock intake and redo it with something that WORKS, but does not harm driveability or plague the cel. Also, intake manifolds that are swappable? Other ideas? 3. Fuel- with more air, comes the need for more fuel.. Injectors, and pump is about all I can think of.. Ideas? STI pump and inj? I'm just fishing on that one. 4. Exhaust- Since the car will now inhale, and burn better, guess it needs to exhale better too. I know catbacks aren't avail for our cars. So, lets say this... Headers I need advice on. As for the rest, Im thinking 2 1/4 pipe, fabbed from the cat back to an aftrmarket axleback ss setup. But I'm lost as to EL and UEL headers, if that even applies to NA motors. Want to keep or even increase the "subie" sound, and avoid "rice" noice at all costs. So, ideas? Any other "bolt on" or "swap" ideas such as heads, pullies, etc. would be welcome as well. As another idea, tuning? Are ther options as it comes to ecu tuning a na motor? Or does anyone even bother with them? If so, where to get software, laptop cable etc. or a standalone tuner... Thanks in advance, guys. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, and understand alot about these cars, just not where to get things, and what options are truly available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WESTcoast Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 check around on the forum all your questions have been answered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vascoobiedude Posted February 24, 2010 Author Share Posted February 24, 2010 Yea, I know... I have. Almost all of the answers and questions, though, are geared towards the ej25 motor. If the ej22 is close enough for these things to be interchangeable, then exhaust, CAI, and the like are fairly straight forward. Questions like fuel, intake manifold swaps, and NA tuning I havent had any luck on finding though. Not tryin to be a lazy ass, just lookin for a little more specific guidance than some some or most of the threads provide. Found subikid90's post listing the threads with useable info, and alot of it was good, but a lot of subjective guessing as well... Basically, since I'm trying to do a slow build on a tight budget, want to get all my facts straight before purchasing anything... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98quiksilvergt Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 I just got rid of the box behind the throttle body. I can't tell if it made a performance increase. I think it did but, not much. It sounds alot better though. You can really hear the boxer burble coming from the engine. I also removed the air silencer in the fender. Then I installed a k&n filter in the stock air box. That's when I really felt a difference. It's like a stock looking cold air intake. It works too. I'll see if I can take some pics for you. Snow storm coming tomarrow so I may be busy driving all day but I'll see what I can do. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WESTcoast Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 Everything will go right with your car, exhuast, cai, suspension, it doesnt matter if its ej25 or ej22, it all the same unless you are doing internal work such as injectors, cams, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaeven Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 If you swap on a gen1 legacy intake, it will remove the air plenum from the opening to the throttle... You end up with better flow, thus more top end power 2-3hp if that, but you will lose some of the instant torque due to there not being a big reserve of air for the motor to take from (it has to pull in more air through the filter to get up and moving) however, it will sound better, and the general consensus is that more top end power is worth the small sacrifice of instant torque... As far as injectors go, don't waste your money... Unless you do headwork, your stock injectors should be well within their efficiency range... Maybe just pull them out and get them cleaned/flowed, that could be worthwhile... Same goesf or the fuel pump... Don't waste your money... Truth be told, the best mod you could do for your car, besides replacing the motor, is to convert it to a manual... You'll be putting more power to the ground that way... At the end of the day though, you have an athsmatic ej22 with a slushbox behind it... No mods are really going to make it fast... Just more enjoyable... Just save your pennies for a turbo conversion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vascoobiedude Posted February 26, 2010 Author Share Posted February 26, 2010 If you swap on a gen1 legacy intake, it will remove the air plenum from the opening to the throttle... You end up with better flow, thus more top end power 2-3hp if that, but you will lose some of the instant torque due to there not being a big reserve of air for the motor to take from (it has to pull in more air through the filter to get up and moving) however, it will sound better, and the general consensus is that more top end power is worth the small sacrifice of instant torque... As far as injectors go, don't waste your money... Unless you do headwork, your stock injectors should be well within their efficiency range... Maybe just pull them out and get them cleaned/flowed, that could be worthwhile... Same goesf or the fuel pump... Don't waste your money... Truth be told, the best mod you could do for your car, besides replacing the motor, is to convert it to a manual... You'll be putting more power to the ground that way... At the end of the day though, you have an athsmatic ej22 with a slushbox behind it... No mods are really going to make it fast... Just more enjoyable... Just save your pennies for a turbo conversion Lol... Yea, a swap would be nice. But, far too financially cumbersome for me at the moment. I'm really not lookng for "fast". I mean top end is top end, regardless of how fast we get there. the car already loves 115-120mph just fine. Just want to open it up to its full, na, non internally modded potential. The farthest i want to go (with THIS legacy ) is an intake manifold, exhaust, maybe injectors. But knowing wether one intake will make any difference over another, one injector versus another, etc. Thats the stuff I dont know. Exhaust, is pretty straight forward at this point, just need to figure out if its single port or dual port, i suppose, so i can order up the right headers. Then its on to suspension... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaeven Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 it's a dual port... you can get some borla replica headers, fed into the stock cat and out through a 2.25' pipe, with one resinator and a 2.5" muffler... it'll sound rumbly, and quite loud... but should be good... here is my car with that exhaust setup: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_ziGZd_Tsw]YouTube- Subaru Liberty Drive By[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chV7UmJb_-4]YouTube- NA EJ22 exhaust[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7mQ2PTM4n4]YouTube- cold start EJ22 Exhaust[/ame] injectors, if they have a better spray pattern, might make a minor difference... but it wouldn't be noticable unless the car was tuned... which is a serious, serious waste of money on an ej22... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vascoobiedude Posted February 26, 2010 Author Share Posted February 26, 2010 it's a dual port... you can get some borla replica headers, fed into the stock cat and out through a 2.25' pipe, with one resinator and a 2.5" muffler... it'll sound rumbly, and quite loud... but should be good... here is my car with that exhaust setup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_ziGZd_Tsw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chV7UmJb_-4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7mQ2PTM4n4 injectors, if they have a better spray pattern, might make a minor difference... but it wouldn't be noticable unless the car was tuned... which is a serious, serious waste of money on an ej22... I wouldnt say tuning would be a waste of money... Depends on pricing. I cant even find any access software or standalone tuners for it though. As for injectors, all i would do is a set of sti or high flow injectors and a higher flow fuel pump.. Old addage of more fuel+more air=more fire!! Your exhaust is nice, too loud for what im goin for though. If it was a 5spd, yes. But an auto... Nah... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaeven Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 AFAIK There is no open source tuning available for the ej22... You'd need a piggyback... Hence $$$$ and not worth it... And the ej22 runs rich on stock injectors... More power would be had for leaning it out and revving it harder (higher)... You'd need to change heads for more flow or at a minimum, the cams... Which is all basically pointless with an AT Running an aftermarket intake system isn't getting any more air into the motor (the pistons are still only going to pull in the same amount of air, more air would require positive manifold pressure, which requires some form on forced induction)... What changing the intake and exhaust does is helps the pistons pull in air and expell exhaust more easily, therefor you get more power... It's not because the motor is getting more air... That's just my $0.02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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