lucifer_1_child Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 i have an 88 dl and i need to pump up the horse power im a fairly good mechanic and i have done the whole cold air short ram and a new hi flow mass air unit sensor but i need more and im not to familier with the boxer engine i want to rais the compresion but i dont know where to find high compretion pistons and about shaving the heads / clearance issue or mabey do a whole new transplant if any one could tell me how to do this and / or the trouble it might cause or has any other ideas that would rock thanx o i think my engine is the ea81 but im not shure would the 88 gl tubo fit my car ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75subie Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 unless its a hatchback, your engine is a ea82, and yes, a 88 turbo motor will bolt in but there is some electrical differences. is your motor carbed or spfi? there are some mods you can do on the stock motor to pull out some more power but it will never be a power house. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 Your engine should be an SPFI EA82, which already has the highest compression pistons available in that engine (9.5:1). Getting custom pistons made would not be worth the money. As much as I love these motors in their stock form, modifying them is not cost effective in my opinion. If it was my car and I wanted more power, I would do one of two engine swaps: 1. EA82T engine. Gets you up around 115 horsepower, with some room for mods while keeping it reliable. You'll have to transplant most of the wiring harness from the donor car, which is not hard, but takes a couple days. 2. EJ22 engine from a Legacy. This swap is becoming quite popular because it gets you to 130 or 140 hp, depending on the model, with much better reliability and longevity than your stock engine. The wiring is about the same as an EA82T swap, in that you have to transplant most of the wiring harness, which takes a couple days. There is lots of info on this site about this particular swap, so try a search for "EJ22 swap" and other similar terms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifer_1_child Posted December 12, 2005 Author Share Posted December 12, 2005 unless its a hatchback, your engine is a ea82, and yes, a 88 turbo motor will bolt in but there is some electrical differences. is your motor carbed or spfi? there are some mods you can do on the stock motor to pull out some more power but it will never be a power house. Jon yeah its a hatch back and its single port fuel injection and i realize its not going to rally but i would like it to do 65 is it a 1.8 ? and if i put a new motor in it i would have to replace my entire electical right? so tell me about the mods thanx for the help luke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifer_1_child Posted December 12, 2005 Author Share Posted December 12, 2005 Your engine should be an SPFI EA82, which already has the highest compression pistons available in that engine (9.5:1). Getting custom pistons made would not be worth the money. As much as I love these motors in their stock form, modifying them is not cost effective in my opinion. If it was my car and I wanted more power, I would do one of two engine swaps: 1. EA82T engine. Gets you up around 115 horsepower, with some room for mods while keeping it reliable. You'll have to transplant most of the wiring harness from the donor car, which is not hard, but takes a couple days. 2. EJ22 engine from a Legacy. This swap is becoming quite popular because it gets you to 130 or 140 hp, depending on the model, with much better reliability and longevity than your stock engine. The wiring is about the same as an EA82T swap, in that you have to transplant most of the wiring harness, which takes a couple days. There is lots of info on this site about this particular swap, so try a search for "EJ22 swap" and other similar terms. so at 9.5:1 shouldnt i be running at least pluss gas? and is there any way to ell just from looking at the engine what it is becuse the guy i bought it from had a new engine put into it and it kinda janky most of my stock harness isn't hooked up its just haning in the engine compartment thanks for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthWet Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 The "hatchback" is a 2-door body with a hatch at the back; body has slightly curved edges/corners. The wagon is a 4-door with a wagon hatch at the back, and the body has rather sharp edges/corners. The body style matters, as the engines are different series/designs. The hatchback should have the EA81 OHV engine, which is carbureted and has the distributor on the front of the engine, while the wagon/sedan has the EA82 OHC engine, which is probably SPFI and has the distributor on the back of the driver's side (USA) cam carrier. Both engines are 1.8 liter. The EA82 SPFI engine, although not a powerhouse, is perfectly adequate when running right. I just cruised over the Cascades this weekend doing 70-75 MPH most of the way... and mine is an automatic tranmission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 Sounds like you've got a coupe, and not a hatchback. The coupe is a two-door, with a big-a$$ hatch that opens up in the back, and has an EA82 SPFI engine. The hatchback is a smaller car, and has an EA81 or EA71 carbureted engine. You can tell for sure what kind of engine it is by looking for the engine code cast into the block. An EA82 engine will have "EA82" cast into the block near the center, on the top front of the engine. I can't remember where the EA81 has its ID casting, but it's somewhere on top of the engine, and it's easy to see. If the engine was swapped, you may have a carbed block, which has lower compression. There is no way to tell, aside from tearing the engine apart and looking at the pistons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subarian Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 so at 9.5:1 shouldnt i be running at least pluss gas?and is there any way to ell just from looking at the engine what it is becuse the guy i bought it from had a new engine put into it and it kinda janky most of my stock harness isn't hooked up its just haning in the engine compartment thanks for your help If most of your harness is just hanging, that may be a big part of your problem. The 1.8 isn't a racer motor, but you shouldn't have any problem getting 65 mph out of it on regular gas. Mine is a tired old carbed 1.8 (253,000 miles) and it does 75 fine except for steep grades. Of course, it does 0-60 in about 7.5 (minutes) but that's another story. Get a service manual and find out what all those things that are disconnected are supposed to do. Then do a good tuneup, and you should notice a lot more power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 I'd start with a good tune up, make sure your ignition system is good, and you are running NGK plugs, anything else and the car will run like crap, so if you got some Bosch +4's get rid of them ASAP. change your fuel filter, thats usually the next suspect, and if that dosn't work you may have some issues with the cat converter being clogged. I'd also do a compression check, if your compression is down that would certainly cause some low power issues, and a rebuild might be in order. I have an 88DL too, and i did the 2.2 legacy engine swap, and its been running better now with the 2.2 then it ever did with the 1.8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifer_1_child Posted December 13, 2005 Author Share Posted December 13, 2005 The "hatchback" is a 2-door body with a hatch at the back; body has slightly curved edges/corners. The wagon is a 4-door with a wagon hatch at the back, and the body has rather sharp edges/corners. The body style matters, as the engines are different series/designs. The hatchback should have the EA81 OHV engine, which is carbureted and has the distributor on the front of the engine, while the wagon/sedan has the EA82 OHC engine, which is probably SPFI and has the distributor on the back of the driver's side (USA) cam carrier. Both engines are 1.8 liter. The EA82 SPFI engine, although not a powerhouse, is perfectly adequate when running right. I just cruised over the Cascades this weekend doing 70-75 MPH most of the way... and mine is an automatic tranmission. yeah i live on the top of mt ashland and thre is a major mountan pass there i can hit 115 on the flats but the mountan is a litle harder to concour yeah my drestibuter is in the baqck and my car is 4 door .is there a mpfi for this moddle i heard from a freind of mine that he had saw one on byb.com? thanx for the help luke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifer_1_child Posted December 13, 2005 Author Share Posted December 13, 2005 I'd start with a good tune up, make sure your ignition system is good, and you are running NGK plugs, anything else and the car will run like crap, so if you got some Bosch +4's get rid of them ASAP. change your fuel filter, thats usually the next suspect, and if that dosn't work you may have some issues with the cat converter being clogged. I'd also do a compression check, if your compression is down that would certainly cause some low power issues, and a rebuild might be in order. I have an 88DL too, and i did the 2.2 legacy engine swap, and its been running better now with the 2.2 then it ever did with the 1.8 dude i just blew 25 buck on the +4s and the cat was giving me a little crap so i removed it (I dont have to pass iem scince i live out of city limets yeah i would like a 2.2 how lond did that take ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 There is a MPFI for that model, but after you do all the work to swap the wiring harness, you might as well swap in a EJ22, the EJ22 is less wiring work, although you need an adapter plate. It didn't take that much time, i did cut down the harness quite a bit, but that is the hardest part of the swap, i probably had about 20 hours worth of work into the harness, 2 hours to get the plate on and the engine in, and another 5-10 hours to fixor the rest of the car up into a running order. If you are high speed, and work real hard, i'd say that it could be doable in a weekend, but i'd reccomend at least 2 weeks before you absolutely need the car again, although most of the prep work can be done before you tear into the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifer_1_child Posted December 13, 2005 Author Share Posted December 13, 2005 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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