I bought a hoist last night and proceeded to pull my EA81T out of the engine bay. She complained a little about having her heart removed and she still needs to be releived of her P/S lines, but she'll be out soon. The shop I'm taking the engine to probably will use a rebuilt short block, but since I would like to keep a numbers matching car, I think I will give them an extra block and keep the original so I can have that rebuilt and eventually put some modded heads on it. So what should I do to the car while the engine is out? I want to replace the hoses with silicone (No fancy colors, just black or grey), but what else should I mod or replace while the engine bay is empty? I will start looking for a WRX or legacy turbo and maybe have an exhaust fabbed up. Besides that, what are your suggestions?

well if this was a manual, I'd say lighten the flywheel but since its a automatic.....ummm the only good advice would be to get rid of the auto but you mentioned keeping a numbers matching car so I don't think you'd be doing that anytime soon.

 

Fab up a cold air intake, work on the ignition by using a bigger coil, bigger radiator with dual electric fans, maybe an intercooler and if you use one, put a boost controlled fan on it. Other than that, I can't think of anything you could really do to it besides raise the boost and readjust your timing.

Well, the one thing I haven't done to keep in numbers matching WAS to change the tranny. It's now holding a 5spd D/R under it's belly. Also has a MSD coil, and I'm about to put a manual boost controller on it. I think the radiator will be able to handle the increased temps, but I may go to aftermarket FAL or another companie's big fat fans. Intercooler goes on after the turbo swap. Anyone else with an opinion?

Bumpidy rump!