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EJ22 swap with UEL headers?

Featured Replies

Hey guys, 

I have my 85 FrankinSoob GL with the 2.2L swap. I was wondering if anyone has installed UEL headers on their 2.2 swap? I want to give my ol GL that "Subaru rumble", but I'm unsure if the pipes would fit with the skip plate. But I don't really want to loose the skid plate. Has anyone done this with theirs, and if so, how dude the fit? 

Thanks, 

Daniel

I’ve got the factory Y pipe from the Gen1 EJ22 on my L, so there’s no issue with the factory bash plate. 

UELs in the style of the turbo exhaust manifold (with the pipe crossing under the front of the engine but usually reversed to the turbo setup) can be made to have little to no change to the bash plate. The trick is to keep it up high and possible make a heat shield for the cam covers. 

To make a decent note you’ll need mufflers that don’t muffle the sound so well - straight through mufflers seem to do this well. A decent exhaust shop should sort this out no issue. 

This is my setup from 9 years ago. It’s still running now without any issues even though I’ve scraped it, rocked on it and flooded it with water... 

 you can hear the exhaust in this video once it changes to the outside camera: 

That said, the aftermarket UEL sound is sweet. We did some DIY ones for my sister’s Gen3 RX. The other day as it pulled into our driveway I was waiting to check out the WRX that I thought was about to drive past! It’s got a cat back “sports exhaust” from the previous owner, the UELs make it Subaru spec now. No video of that I’m sorry.

Pic of the build process:

 tQMmnN.jpg 

and the final product - I forgot to get a pic of it fitted: 

ckOEBy.jpg 

with this setup we can return it to stock if need be as we’ve not modified any points where joints occur in the exhaust, really though, why would you go back to stock?? 

Cheers 

Bennie

 

I had Borla headers on my '94 EJ22e in my '92 Loyale with a cat pipe from a '98 Legacy, no problem.

Edited by Numbchux

  • Author
7 hours ago, el_freddo said:

I’ve got the factory Y pipe from the Gen1 EJ22 on my L, so there’s no issue with the factory bash plate. 

UELs in the style of the turbo exhaust manifold (with the pipe crossing under the front of the engine but usually reversed to the turbo setup) can be made to have little to no change to the bash plate. The trick is to keep it up high and possible make a heat shield for the cam covers. 

To make a decent note you’ll need mufflers that don’t muffle the sound so well - straight through mufflers seem to do this well. A decent exhaust shop should sort this out no issue. 

This is my setup from 9 years ago. It’s still running now without any issues even though I’ve scraped it, rocked on it and flooded it with water... 

 you can hear the exhaust in this video once it changes to the outside camera: 

That said, the aftermarket UEL sound is sweet. We did some DIY ones for my sister’s Gen3 RX. The other day as it pulled into our driveway I was waiting to check out the WRX that I thought was about to drive past! It’s got a cat back “sports exhaust” from the previous owner, the UELs make it Subaru spec now. No video of that I’m sorry.

Pic of the build process:

 tQMmnN.jpg 

and the final product - I forgot to get a pic of it fitted: 

ckOEBy.jpg 

with this setup we can return it to stock if need be as we’ve not modified any points where joints occur in the exhaust, really though, why would you go back to stock?? 

Cheers 

Bennie

 

Sweet thank you so much. My exhaust right now has the Stock Y pipe with a 12" cherry bomb center piped and a thrush turbo muffler at the tail. This combination seems to work well and sounds nice, I'll see if I can post a video of what it sounds like now. 

Ha! I'm in the exact same situation. 

I've never really messed with newer subarus but my EA series days are over, there's a 1995 subaru impreza obd-2 ej22e in my loyale now and i really want to know what i have to do to get UEL headers on it. 

I nabbed the exhaust off an 98 2.5 forester and where i cut it (right after the cat) lined right up with my original ea exhaust pipe. 

My confusion comes from seeing all these headers with the outlet over just off center from the drivers side. 

My ea exhaust runs up the passenger side of the car. 

How do you join it up?

4 hours ago, l75eya said:

My ea exhaust runs up the passenger side of the car. 

How do you join it up?

Use the stock EJ mid pipe section that those equal length Y pipes use, then go custom from there. 

Ruby Scoo above runs the gen 1 Y pipe with a welded on cat back exhaust that’s custom for the L series, lift and EJ. 

Using the factory EA exhasut with an EJ should only be a stop gap as it’s very restricting. 

Cheers 

Bennie

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