Topic: Looking to suss out my future plans for Forester XT build, need advice

[rkarakai21]

Hey guys, new the the forum.  I am driving a new to me 02 Forester XT five speed.  This car is and will be my daily driver so overall I'm looking to keep it reliable and do not want to push the power to the point where I'm prematurely burning out clutches, transmissions, etc..  That being said I don't know enough about the capacity of the EJ20 or the differentials and five speed in this car.  This engine is supposed to be rated at 219 hp at the crank right now in stock form.  How much hp is relatively safe to get out of these engines without worry of premature engine/turbo failure, and drivetrain failure?  Could you prod it up to about 250-260 crank hp and still have a fairly reliable car?  I won't be beating it around a track, just looking for a few more ponys for merging onto the highway and general responsiveness.   What are the upgrades you would suggest for a mild build like this, maybe downpipe, uppipe, turbo inlet, and a protune? 

Cheers

Ryan

[Mason]

Hugely debatable thread you have started. If you wanna crank up the jam a bit I personally would track down a STI intercooler, injector, and turbo (vf34 or similar) and get it tuned.

Please please please avoid vent to atmosphere bov

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

reliable car?

Keep it bone stock.
/thread

[RockThePylon]

I run ~280hp crank on my old beater WRX.

Aftermarket downpipe, STI intercooler, turbo, fuel injectors, fuel pump, and a tune. If you're patient you can gather up everything pretty cheap used.

[SpdDmn]

Hugely debatable thread you have started. If you wanna crank up the jam a bit I personally would track down a STI intercooler, injector, and turbo (vf34 or similar) and get it tuned.

Please please please avoid vent to atmosphere bov

This is pretty much the setup I ran on my first 2007 FXT, plus exhaust. I didn't bother with injectors on that build, since they were the same size (565cc iirc?) as the same-gen STI. I also ran the stock 5MT with a street ACT clutch, for a year and a half until the car was written off. An OEM STI intercooler is good bang for buck - I still run one on my current build, and would only see minimal power gains with anything aftermarket.

I really enjoyed the combination of the 2.5L with VF34 (or any STI size turbo), with the gearing of the Forester. I suppose the EJ20 would be more similar to my bugeye with the VF34, which was still a blast!


Someone mentioned in your intro thread about the KillerB pickup tube, would be a good one to do early on for peace of mind.

[rkarakai21]

So what is the problem with the stock oil pickup tube/oil pan on these cars? Now that I've seen a couple suggest the pickup tube and the aftermarket oil pan.

[10secdream]

https://www.killerbmotorsport.net/blog/post/why-buy0killer-b-oil-pickup/

[thedude]

So what is the problem with the stock oil pickup tube/oil pan on these cars? Now that I've seen a couple suggest the pickup tube and the aftermarket oil pan.

The pickup tube is known to crack, leading to oil starvation, leading to catastrophic failure.

The baffle prevents oil from sloshing side to side or being forced to one side, ie. donuts (see video below) which leads to lack of oil, leading to oil starvation, leading to catastrophic failure.

This isn't meant to scare you, but rather educate you on one of the known issues and problems people have run into.

A brief article from Killer Bee website: https://www.killerbmotorsport.net/blog/post/why-buy0killer-b-oil-pickup/

How not to drive an EJ:

[rkarakai21]

Thanks for the info guys.  Much appreciated.