I am new to the board, so please take it easy on me. I have an 2001 OUtback that I inherited from my wife. The car seems a little heavy for a engine. Now that Subaru is selling 2.5L Turbo's, is there any way to add a turbo to my Outback? I have noticed a lack of aftermarket items for this car.

 

-Neil '01

I am new to the board, so please take it easy on me. I have an 2001 OUtback that I inherited from my wife. The car seems a little heavy for a engine. Now that Subaru is selling 2.5L Turbo's, is there any way to add a turbo to my Outback? I have noticed a lack of aftermarket items for this car.

 

-Neil '01

 

Contrary to your request, I will not take it easy on you! I will welcome you to the board with all the enthusiasm I can muster! Take that!

 

OK, now that I got that out of my system. . . I have not heard of an aftermarket turbo for the EJ25 (which you have). Perhaps a new 2.5L turbo will fit in there but it will cost you a lot of money. Perhaps a few more details about the car can help to find a solution to the car feeling "too heavy for the engine". . .

 

By the way, I'm very close to you, in Oakley (think Antioch), so perhaps I can take a look at things if you have any problems. . .

I would imagine that you'd be doing a major undertaking by trying to convert an non-turbo engine to a turbo one, unless you wanted to tear into the engine you already have or swap in a complete turbo engine from a salvaged car.

 

 

 

I've never bothered because I have no cash to spare on it, but I'd suggest you look into an aftermarket supercharger like Paxton or Whipple or whoever else is out there. The supercharger is usually just a bolt-on that doesn't require any internal engine mods that turbo would. Not as much power gain, but still pretty impressive over the naturally aspirated factory engine.

Welcome Neil.

 

Your 2.5 is the same displacement as the new 2.5 turbos, but they're totally different and distinct engines. The 2.5t is a semi-closed deck and the 2.5 n/a is an open deck IIRC. What that means to you is your engine + extra psi = good chance of broken engine.

 

Your car is on the heavy and slow side, yes, and you'll not find a lot of "performance" parts for it I'm afraid.

 

If you want to investigate the turbo option further, I'd recommend this link:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185230

 

It's the FAQ's in Nasioc's Aftermarket Forced Induction forum, meaning cars which did not come standard with forced induction but had it added after the fact. Good info there or at least enough technical stuff and problems to scare the idea out of you.

 

Steve

look for performance pars fpr the impreza 2.5rs... its the same engine and drivetrain.

 

aftermarket turbo is a bad idea on a n/a engine. they do make kits for it though, but i havnet seen one last more than a couple months with out doing an impression of a granade. well, maybe not quite that bad. but it wanst good.look into getting exhaust and intake mods. here is a site that sells stuff for all the lines the outback, if you have the real one, is basically a beefed up legacy. just check out that site, even if you dont use them, its a starting point.

 

http://www.rallitek.com/catalog.asp?VEH_ID=6

 

hmmm, looking at the turbo kit they sell there, it might be doable, but i would still be leary of it.

 

peace

tim c.

Thank you all for your feedback. It doesn't sound like anyone favors the idea of turbo charging an n/a engine. I assume that the same sentiment is held for supercharging the engine. Any idea what kind of gains I could expect from new intake or exhaust? Does anyone have experience with tower struts or sway bars to tighten up the car?

 

By the way, Outback '97, what is an open deck engine vs. closed deck engine?

 

-Neil '01

Neil:

 

A google search netted me this, it has a couple of good photos to illustrate. Note that the pictures are not of your engine nor the new 2.5 turbos, but you get the idea:

 

http://www.legacycentral.org/library/literature/deck.htm

 

Steve

put a turbo kit on the 2.5NA and the shortblock will melt

 

i have NEVER seen a turbo kit fitted to a 2.5NA that lasted long.

sure... maybe 1... maybe 2 years....

 

then when you are left out the $2k you spent for the kit

and stuck on the side of the road with no ride??

it's not worth it.

 

if you want to turbo, do an engine swap

that's really the only reliable way to get it done

plan on $6-7k to do it right

 

the 2.5NA block just cannot take the power and strain of a turbo kit.

 

Jamie