So I just bought a rust free 91 loyale 5 spd 4wd wagon and have found little bits of information regarding making more power out of the 1.8 and also some snipets of information regarding swaps... My goal is to have a reliable sleeper that can face the toughest northern US winters as well as actually being able to pull in 5th (or even 4th) in 4wd instead of bogging down. So my questions are as follows:

how much power can the stock driveline (trans and diff ) take reliably?

how much power can be made reliably out of the 1.8? obviuosly turboed ive heard of 8-12 psi being plausible but i cant imagine pistons are stock

what is the most popular motor swap to make the cheapest most reliable power ( i know its a long shot)

is there any feasible way to make the 4wd be in rwd when it is off instead of fwd?

 

as well as any other info regarding the 4wd system. thanks

In my opinion.... Best bet for a "reliable rally sleeper" is to yank the 1.8 and the selectable tranny and swap in an ej and awd tranny. But then your gonna wanna do a 5 lug swap too for brake, wheel, and strut options and probly gonna wanna find an LSD rear diff and possibly one for the tranny too. By the time you've got all that time/$ money into it you may well have just as easily bought yourself an impreza and done some mild mods! Not trying to discourage you at all. Personally I like the concept and it's been pioneered by others and documented well here on the website. Use the SEARCH function an sooooo many questions don't have to be asked. (that's

my experience anyhow) thanks, Spencer

you can swap on rear disc brakes and swap motors, trans from other models of the same platform.

 

The car will do quite allright when it is running properly. if you take out the front axle shaft and leave the stub end in the hub, you will have RWD when 4wd is engaged. dont beat on it too much that way. front wheel drive would just spin the bare axle stub.