putting a turbo in my legacy

[RO_4_LIFE]

i have a very limited amount of knowledge about turbos, so i was wondering how compatible stock turbos are from manufacturer to manufacturer?? i didn't know if a turbo from my friends' wrecked Volvo would fit in my '95 Legacy (the volvo is pretty old) or how the heck that stuff works. like i said, random ideas just pop in my head, and i didn't know whether this was feasible/worth it, or if it would require extensive mods for sumthing thats a piece of crap. (altho it WOULD be free, even if it fit) Any knowledge u can share with me on the subject would be greatly appreciated

[AJM]

Any turbo can be made to fit prac anything.

For a Legacy, it is possible, but you will thousands of dollars worth of supporting mods and possible rebuilds to make it feasable.

[RO_4_LIFE]

ok, thats exactly what i didn't wanna hear :lol: haha i'd be better off getting one offa an STI in a junkyard or sumthin, right??

[DOOK]

no, what he's saying is anytime you add/switch turbos on any vehicle, a lot more modifications are needed, whether it be engine management, intercooler systems, upgrades in the fuel system, etc... you can't just stick any turbo on any motor, that isn't how it works. Engines need two things to run better, fuel and air. What a turbo does is use exhaust gases to create basically a super intake. If you get that much more air without adding the fuel, your car will run lean and blow. It's a very oversimplified explanation, but it's no more complicated than that either at this point for you.

[auspex]

well...it's not the turbo itself that isn't capable, it's your motor. Non-turbo'd motors aren't designed to handle the extreme amounts of energy at turbo will generate.

What our friend, AJM, is saying is that the 2.5L Subaru motor will blow up when your throw a turbo in there. To not blow up you will have to get new just about everything....and that everything is all reinforced and expensive.

It's cheaper to get a WRX, STi, or 1st-gen turbo Legacy motor and use it.

If you search a bit you can find smoe more info on some guys around here who have swapped in the beefier motors.

-mike

[RO_4_LIFE]

yeah, thats a good explanation for me. you can't insult my intelligence, cuz i don't have any on this subject haha Ok, i'm seeing where we're headed with this. i guess i'll just stick with N/A :lol:

[Sarra]

Get a STi shortblock, WRX 2 liter header, uppipe, xmember, downpipe, STi fuel rails and injectors, and a STi fuel pump, install, get a PP6 or Emanage, find someone to tune it up.

Now, if you have SOHC heads, you may need new valves and valvesprings. If you have 2.5 DOHC heads, you should be okay, but keep a feel out for valve float. If you've got a 2.2 or 1.8... Then get a 2.2 DOHC shortblock, and the stuff above, and you should be good.

The weakest point of the NA motors, IMO, is the cylinder walls. The NA blocks just weren't designed to run boost, any boost, so in order to get boost, you gotta switch to a closed or semi-closed deck block.

If you're just gonna run 5-7 PSI, your stock motor should be okay for a few thousand miles, depending on tune.

[AJM]

Get a STi shortblock, WRX 2 liter header, uppipe, xmember, downpipe, STi fuel rails and injectors, and a STi fuel pump, install, get a PP6 or Emanage, find someone to tune it up.

Because that won't cost you sevral grand. Why not just go ahead and get a Cobb block...

On 4-5 psi you'd be gine on an ej22 or ej18, my main concern with the ej25 would be the open decks of the erlier design. You could turbo an ej18 or 22 with 4-5 psi and upgraded injectors, fuel pump, rails, AFC, rising rate Fuel reg, timing adjustment, etc etc , and it would be reasonable reliablility wise providing you got a nice tune and had a motor with no problems. By the time you do all that, you might as well build a N/a motor with better power and good realibility (cams, port& polish, etc) or do a swap.

[rougeben83]

If you are truly serious about adding a turbo, I would suggest you go to rs25.com; they have a lot more experience with turboing N/A subaru's and they'll point you in the right direction of what to do rather than all the "should have's" people are saying around here.

Basically, you are limited to 6-7psi on the stock block, need fuel injectors, uprated pump, and a engine management, engine management, engine management, dyno tune, dyno tune, dyno tune.

There are some other tips and tricks that wont turn into "thousands of dollars in parts" that you can look over there too; it just depends on how much work you want to do to make certain parts fit correctly.