2.2 Frankenstein turbo motor/ need head gasket help

[Cubdriver]

My boy and I built a Frankenstein turbo motor with an EJ22 block and EJ25D dual over head cam heads. We need help on which head gaskets to run, any experts out there? Obviously we have boost and compression issues to consider so any help would be greatly appreciated. Oh the motor is going into a 97' wagon.

Thanks,
Hank

[Garrison]

Hank,

I thought we had this problem nicked months ago, what happened?

[Cubdriver]

Hey Garrison,

Well where to start? To recap we had a 97' EJ22 block with 25D heads ebay headers, down pipe and exhaust, 18g turbo, wrx intercooler, emanage ultimate and a bunch of other stuff we did on our own. I cant remember which head gaskets we were running. But we got it running and at 8lbs of boost seem to run pretty good until the timing belt slipped a couple of teeth, but thats another story. So we pulled the heads and changed some valves and put it back together. I know we had two different head gaskets on the car at this point. My boy working with his friend that was tuning it turned the boost up to 15psi he ran around like this for awhile and then for sure lost one of the head gaskets. I am proud of my boy as he did most of this himself with some input from me, some advice he took and some he didn't but that is how we learn. He commercial fished all summer and bought a 2.2turbo motor and a wrx motor and wants to build a 2.36 stroker motor. I told him i am fine with that but we need to get your car running in the mean time so you have something to drive cause your not driving our cars. The car was also smoking a lot so i was afraid we had ring trouble to so i picked up another 2.2 motor and we are going to put all his parts on this while he builds his new motor. I had the heads checked out so its time to put everything back together but i can't remember which head gaskets we should be using. Ok Garrison, thats the story, this time i am going to pay someone i trust to put a mild tune on it.

Thanks for your help.

Hank

[lord flashheart]

the 'composite' gaskets that are offen used on the 2.2 dont hold up to extreme boost very well, you should have your block and heads surfaced, and use MLS head gaskets. and i would urge u to use some ARP head studs. on that note, the 2.3 isnt all that great. you would be better off with a strait up 2.5, for a few reasons im not going to get into but one of the big things is that if you do the 2.3 stroker IIRC you must have custom pistons made and use the EJ25D head gaskets. because they are like .050+ thick where as the 2.5 turbo is like .023 or something like that. also. if you are planning on running any where neer the 15lbs of boost i would say go forged pistons.

[98legacygt22]

Im building the same motor, and I am also wondering what head gaskets I should run. The original style ej22 head gaskets do not line up with the ports on the heads what so ever. I want at least 12 pounds of boost out of mine, I'm splitting the case and putting in ACL race bearings and MAYBE some ej22t pistons but I'm not sure yet.

[decke48]

Usually match the head gasket to the head used

[Garrison]

Im building the same motor, and I am also wondering what head gaskets I should run. The original style ej22 head gaskets do not line up with the ports on the heads what so ever. I want at least 12 pounds of boost out of mine, I'm splitting the case and putting in ACL race bearings and MAYBE some ej22t pistons but I'm not sure yet.

Don't use EJ22T pistons with the EJ25D heads. It will drop your displacement to ~7.5:1.

[98legacygt22]

Usually match the head gasket to the head used

I'm going to get some for a 98 impreza 2.2, all the passages line up and they're the correct bore size.

[98legacygt22]

Im building the same motor, and I am also wondering what head gaskets I should run. The original style ej22 head gaskets do not line up with the ports on the heads what so ever. I want at least 12 pounds of boost out of mine, I'm splitting the case and putting in ACL race bearings and MAYBE some ej22t pistons but I'm not sure yet.

Don't use EJ22T pistons with the EJ25D heads. It will drop your displacement to ~7.5:1.

Yeah I probably won't bother with them, I'll see if I can find some regular ej22 pistons that can hold up to boost a little better than the stock ones (maybe weisco?). My motor has a nice tick coming from it so I'm splitting the block and replacing my pistons and rod bearings although the noise is probably from my drivers side 2.2 head