I am presently restoring a 1981 subaru GL 4x4 station wagon. I am rebuilding the motor. Boring the engine out 20 thousands over and using 1600 pistons. I am also putting in a more aggresive cam. I will put on a weber carb and a accel super coil and a distributor off of a 2 wheel drive subie.

I am removing the catalytic converter and putting on one and threequarter exhaust pipe. I will also use a flowmaster muffler. Is there anything else I can do to eek out any more horsepower, beside building a special intake manifold. I hope this car will be somewhat like the old 91 dual overhead cam mazda protege, I used to have. I will be painting the car back to its original white. I am also installing later model subie seats and wheels.

Might consider a hi-po coil, 8mm plug wires and NGK Iridium plugs.

If your replacing all the bearings, seals, etc I would use a good synthetic oil.

You are using oversized 1600 pistons? You should be using EA82 SPFI pistons. The compression increase is better.

 

Boreing it is a bad idea - the cast-in cylinder liners can spin in the case if it's not properly bored and most machine shops do not have a bore plate for these.

 

Take .020" off the heads, and some off the block - that will also increase compression.

 

Accell coils are junk - use the stock coil or one of the non-mexico MSD's etc.

 

2WD distributors don't have any benefits. The advance curve is the same. And the module's are more expensive and they suffer from more rapid bushing wear.

 

You should do the SPFI conversion instead of a Weber. Use MegaSquirt for the control system and you can likely push about 120 to 125 HP.

 

GD

MEGASQUIRT IS REALLY EASY AND AWESOME. I am putting a MS-II V 3.0 on my 67 chevy. Its really easy, you need soldering iron, and basic automotive skills, there is a write up on diyautotune.com about them MS2'in a RX, Pretty easy, gained like 12hp or so, and can give you a really easy install. For the low cost of Megasquirt, I will never replace or rebuild a carb again. I will just F.I. the thing.

I saw good "butt-dyno" gains from adding a MSD-6A ignition and the Excel SuperCoil (square blockstyle)...