JonOfScio

no way, your car has two cats? that's kinda weird. I searched a parts manual online and it said only one cat between all the versions of '96 imprezas. maybe yours is a late model '96 with some incorporated '97 idea. not uncommon to see slightly small changes in late MY production. because the '97 does show both cats. but, unfortunately, neither of them are the same cats that a '99 2.5RS would use, which does leave me to believe that although it may line up exactly, the end of the cat section on yours is a different internal diameter than the 2.5RS exhaust. I could be wrong though. but check it out. you should measure up both if you get a chance. also, why is it that you are not wanting to replace the whole system? it would be much easier to match parts.

the '96 impreza 2.2L only has one cat. and it shows a different p/n than the cats for any of the '99 impreza models. they had two. the cat section may be exactly the same, but with two in the later imprezas, but I doubt it. I think that you would find that it wouldn't work. But I could be wrong. You should measure the width of the end of the cat section, and how long it is. then see about the 2.5RS for the same things. I would just suggest getting a muffler shop to weld up a new catback section if you're not looking to just replace it all. it wouldn't run you that much. anywhere from $100-$200 depending on where you would go.

I can testify to the brat burnouts. Remember the one time in bi-mart parking lot you had forgotten you had it in reverse, pulled the e-brake, and floored it? that's right, REVERSE BURNOUTS. I miss it.

not uncommon to hear from older subies, and always trips out the ones who don't believe in subarus.

for instance, most Arco stations add 10% Ethanol to the gasoline. And since BP gets it's gas (british petroleoum, and they do own Arco) gets its gas from the south china sea, it has more of a dilluted water content to it, so they oxygenate it with ethanol to give it a higher octane rating. (ethanol runs about 114 octane pure.) I reccomend a top tier company. Conoco, 76, Chevron, Texaco *owned by chevron* and be it one that has alot of traffic. 87 is just fine for your car.

forgot to post this: it has been mentioned. yes, you do have two sensors. the second, you could put a fitting in to take it out of the stream of the exhaust flow, or you could put a resistor inline to change the signal to a point where the ecu doesn't care. sometimes the latter doesn't work as well as it should. if you could afford a highflow cat, you wouldn't need to gut it or play with your o2 sensor. although, some highflow cats are really barely even a cat at all, and throw a cel anyway lol. so know what you would want.

lest we not forget that an EJ22 in a '98 has single port exhaust. ('97 up to be correct) So the performance factor of putting an exhaust on those heads is not as great as a dual port head would benefit from a header setup. someone should definately make an equal length header for that head though, see if that works neatly or not. my suggestion would be 1 3/4" internal from the heads, to a 1 3/4" to 2.25" Y, to a highflow cat, 2.25" catback with resonator, and 2.25" muffler. (although, be choosy enough not to get a straight through design.) The RIGHT sizes of tubing for a particular motor is really important to retain the right velocity. on really costly high hp n/a builds, people have noticed 2.5" is good, but it takes ALOT of work to get to a point where a 2.5" catback would not suffer the low end. also, it's not that you can't find headers for newer EJ cars, it's that you can only really find one header (borla) for a single port exhaust for the EJ22. You know what is interesting about that head? it uses EJ25 valves, and the whole cam system is like that of an EJ25. It's really basically an early SOHC EJ25 head with the combustion chamber suited for an EJ22 block and a single exhaust port.

some '95 up and all '96 are OBD-II my EJ22 1995 Legacy was OBD-II.

oooh, you bought a car and it has untold goodies huh? you should get that turbo XS tuned, it would prove to be beneficial for power gains. Unless your not into all that...

the twin turbo is a 280hp motor, here in the US, people import the motors from Japan. Who is to know if they came un the UK too... but in either case, when he said Grey Import, it means, like, if we wanted to import a car that was from another country like Japan or Germany. A skyline would be a grey market import car, for instance. they have never made them here in the US, so to bring one over would have to go through government and state regulations. It's rumored that even changing all the windows occurs.... As far as I know, chassis problems are not frequent. And by the way, the 1995-1996 body style is my favorite next to the 2005+ body style.

how old is the car? it could be leaky exhaust gaskets (if you've got a bad tick/whispy sound) the cat could be bad, and the second o2 sensor is throwing a fit, or you may just need to replace your O2 sensors because they are dying out.

I am an audiophile, so in my next car, for a deck, I plan on a high end apline or pioneer. I'm not into volume as much has fidelity and quality. I'd be happy with a low powered sub, and four higher quality speakers. no record breaking system here.

I had two subies. My '88 hatch I used NGK V-powers in ($2 a piece) and switched to bosch platinums once... ($2.20 a piece.) I could notice very little difference in the top end, and when I put about 3,000 miles on it, I changed back to the v-powers and noticed that the bosch plugs were looking a little worse off then they should, and that the v-powers gave it back a little something.but hey, that's only a 67hp motor, so... But the legacy, ('95, EJ22) I used NGK v-powers. every other oil change (so say about every 4,000 miles! I would check the plugs. I swapped them twice, just because I had planned on them being out, and was trying "new plugs" with different gap. I found that a 50 thousands gap worked for me just fine.

staying n/a, there's alot of small things you can do. I'm not really sure how the '06 cars respond to mods yet... if they have a hayday in the ecu or not. you want a little more power, and stay in the warranty, you could try getting some SPT exhaust on there, an airfilter won't void warranty. I don't know if a k&n would do much on that car, but on my old car it made a pretty big difference combined with opening up the bottom of the airbox. +1 for suspension mods. even if it's just swaybars and endlinks, do it! DO IT!

it's not that bad. look next to the transmission on the right hand side. if it's turbo, you may need to pull off the IC stuff, ect. to see it. I don't remember. it's been a while since I have seen a right hand drive EJ20T motor. in either case, a subaru is a very easy starter change in comparison to other cars. I did one in an S-10 one time that took me about 5 hours! THERE WAS NO ROOM!

I had an '88 hatch. it was 2wd, 5 speed, 2bbl hitachi, hitachi disty, hydraulic lifters, and had an O2 sensor and ECU. I hated the stock fuel system.

the hitachi carburetors (MOST) use many vacuum lines, diaphragms, solenoids, and ect. (say, my '88 hatch as an example) to get good emissions, ect. even had an ECU! But, on your old vehicle, just swap for a weber. Or, if you REALLY want to keep a hitachi, then get one from a 4wd manual non-ca car. There's really only the brake booster, the trans (if auto) the EGR, the disty, and one to the manifold. At least, when we got our rebuilt one put on, that's all I went for. I tuned it at 1 3/4" idle turns and 1 1/2 mixture turns. but it was an auto EA82. (ie:, idle speed and idle mixture, for reference.)

you should see if there are codes man. if it were OBDII it would be crying out!

so check this out. I have had two vehicles with this problem. so say you replace everything liek you just have, and nothing has changed. have you checked your exhaust gaskets? both of my cars, when I did the same things, and then replaced the exhaust gaskets, I noticed the motor was quieter, and my mileage increased. I think I was just leaking out exhaust, in small amounts, but enough to throw off the O2 sensor to run it rich. you might look for this too. also, maybe you have lost some compression and your block needs to be rebuilt with new rings, ect. it's a thought. does your oil get excessively dirty in a short amount of time? does it smell different than it should? ect.

nah... lol. hey, about two to two and a half turns out right? (that would be 4 to 5 half turns) on the idle mixture screw right? Two runs real well, and two and a half doesn't sound any different. So anyhow, it purrs now (with a slight exhaust leak)

So it needed a new carb. The shafts were too worn, it was waaay too dirty, leaking from numerous places, and when I went to work on it, replacing the gaskets, being careful, I aggitated the idle mixture screw housing and it decided it wouldn't idle EVER. So new carb time. We took it to a shop, because well, I'm tired of working on this car, and it was inexpensive for them to replace it. The carb we had was the CA emissions one, and the one we replaced it with was the non-ca, 2wd one. Problems since we got it back- The EGR vacuum port was hooked up to the AT vacuum Misc. vacuum wires went in weird areas One vac on the carb which draws in air at idle, (above the idle screw) was left free to suck in air It was idleing at 1500rpm* So at idle, it was like 1500rpm right? So i turn it down a little to about 800 or so, and we get it to operating temp-> Now it would idle and just about die at 500rpm. Sounds like it was running lean to me! So I checked the idle fuel mixture screw. They had it one fuel turn out. That's it. No wonder they had it idleing at 1500 rpm, that's like practically out of the idle circuit!!! Anyhow, labor was cheap, and way less annoying than me doing it (again) so all in all, the $105 in labor wasn't too bad I think. But I still need to get the airbubbles out of the coolant system. I think it's time for a new coil and fuel filter.

but of course the most reliable way to turbo it is to do an engine swap. Either get a parts car that is in good order and swap the ecu + engine, or go the aftermarket route. You'll be looking at 5-6 psi or less (as a common rule) because of the high compression in that motor. If you wanted to go balls, put some money in the block by putting in EJ22T pistons. in either case, you'd basically need all the things contained in a turbo kit, so you can see what is in them and either buy what you want from whomever or buy a kit. A kit basically is going to get you bolt in performance and a reliable name. AVO turbos are GOOD turbos. IMO. But you can always get used VF34/VF39 turbos and exhaust parts from wrx/sti owners who are swapping on bigger stuff anyhow. Either way, it won't be cheap cheap.

I'm pretty sure the intake and exhaust ports are smaller in size, so you might be negating the compression increase. If you want to get the *most* out of something like that... new cams (cobb spicy?) EJ18 valvetrain, possibly if the valves are bigger, having the valve seats enlarged to accept EJ22 valves some headwork (porting) possibly a valve job (5 angle, whatever) EJ22 manifold EJ25 injectors (or if the manifold is EJ22 '95+ it should have the red injectors anyhow) EJ22 ecu by my calculations... if both motors have the same wristpin location (exactly) and the same rod length (exactly) and the only differences are bore, gasket, and heads, you should get 11:1 with EJ18 heads and EJ22 gasket (1.52mm, stock EJ22 phase I) or if you wanted, which I think is the right measurement, the phase II EJ22 at 0.68mm (0.027") would net you 12.7:1 CR!! And you'd have one cool SOHC motor. But the 12.7:1 would require either an ECU change or really high octane gas.

I've heard from one engine builder (mind you he was a hardcore domestic man) that lower compression gets better mileage (under the less power = more economy theory) and that higher compression means less mileage because it's taking in more air.

So I went to the parts store to get the disty cap and rotor for our '87 carbed sedan. The one I got was not of the right type. Upon opening the disty I found that it looked EXACTLY like the distributor from my '88 Hatchback (of course EA81) Going back there, they said for the car I had given them, there was a screw on and a snap on. And I told them neither were right. So just out of curiosity, I told them to put '84 in as the year instead of '87. They pulled up the right cap and rotor, and out of all of this, what does anyone make? did the '84 and older EA81s have a certain type, and the '85 and newer EA82s have a different type? this is what I thought. Or do all carbed subies (EA81 and EA82) share one type, and it varies among the rest? I'll post a pic later tomorrow of the distributor. Tomorrow I'm pulling the manifold to fix a leak and the carb to rebuild it, so I might as well be able to pull the disty and snap a picture. btw - the carburetor rebuild kit I got from Schucks was $22 and has BOTH sets of gaskets (for the EA81 and EA82 2bbl hitachi) and the last kit I had gotten didn't do this. Is this common of carb rebuild kits or did I find the best priced rebuild kit? It's not like it has two sets of everything... one accelerator pump and some assorted, but the three main carb gaskets including the manifold gaskets, has both styles.