I'm looking to bump up the horsepower on my VW project. I was wondering if heads off of a 2.5 or something would be compatable with my '91 NA 2.2L engine. Any suggestions?

Any particular reason you want to go DOHC?

 

The big issue is most if not all of the us spec DOHC heads are from the ej25. If you swap heads it will reduce the compression ratio.

I "heard" that the DOHC heads flow better. I'm just lookin' for easy hp.

The DOHC head off of a JDM EJ20G will work.

There is an article on legacycentral.org about it, the added flow of the 2.5 liter head is not enough to warrant the trouble putting it on. But That is just the 2.5, I have no idea abotu the JDM heads Corky was talking about, for all I know they will just bolt right on.

I have a set of EJ22 heads I'd sell, you could prolly have those ported and polished for less than it would cost ya to get a set of those heads Corky was talking about. They have a fresh valve grind on them, but somehow one of the valves got lost, but I have the other valves....

Both the early EJ22 and the JDM EJ20G engines are closed deck engine, so the cooling holes line up, all of the DOHC engines that came to the US are either semi-open or open deck engines and the cooling holes will not match.

ONLY the EJ22T was closed deck. The n/a EJ22 1990-1994 legacies were open deck.

Do these engines agree with nitrous oxide?

Josh, I'm confused, if only the EJ22T was a closed deck, that the engine in the 92 Legacy that I replaced head gaskets on must have been an EJ22T, although the VIN doesn't state that. It was a Plain Jane EJ22 with and auto tranny, the block was a closed deck.

Corky,

 

All the documentation and pictures I've seen say that the EJ22 n/a motor is open deck.

 

Was this 92 made in Japan or the US?

The 92 was a USDM.

hmmm....that's very interesting......