96 wrx impreza engine swap to ej208 twin turbo ? Help needed

[Wattsym12]

Our tracktoy 96 wrx impreza has just had a head gasket go it's done nearly 200000 miles and instead of doing head for it to go again was looking at the ej208 engine from a legacy or forester not sure which just wondering will this engine go strait onto the exhaust and all other bits from our impreza ? Also our engine had 270 bhp the twin turbo has 276 are the two turbos smaller ? Do they spool up faster for less turbo lag ? Any help much appreciated

[Vixpy1]

The twin turbo is from the legacy gtb only, they are st and best avoided

[mini1380cc]

The ej208 only comes from the legacy gtb. It is two turbos, one small, one big. Gtb revisions a,b and c have a near identical setup to each other. The revision d has slightly smaller turbos but makes the same power with less of a drop in power between the first and second spooling ( see valley of death gtb).

The exhaust system is different because there is a turbo on each side, so it routes differently. They are fairly complex to tune and will only yield 330bhp before different turbos are needed. The block itself is the same as impreza but it has different heads with bigger ports.

In your situation you would be best sticking to a single turbo setup, going twins would be do'able but it doesn't gain you much.

.....and they are not st or best avoided.

[Vixpy1]

The engines certainly are st and best avoided. The twin turbo system is a fantastic demonstration of over complicating things and failing . They have zero redeeming features vs a uk engine and a vf34 if you were considering an engine to drop into an impreza

[mini1380cc]

You do realise the engine is the same as impreza, so to say it is st is to say the same for anything else that uses the ej20. It's just the turbo system that is different, which is a bit marmite.


Anyways, as you say there is no advantage to using the ej208.

[Wattsym12]

Fair enough cheers for the replies don't suppose anyone knows of a decent jap import engine supplier then? Not 100% sold on buying one from eBay as they all seem to be low mileage abit suspicious also thinking of doing a conversion to rwd as been told it will be more lively on track anyone got any thoughts on that ? Cheers again for replies

[GravelBen]

I like the twin-turbo setup as a road engine (mine is Rev-D) - its on boost below 2000rpm, nice and torquey with minimal lag for day to day stuff only using the primary turbo, and the secondary joins the party when you want to have fun or get past someone quickly, pulls hard right to the redline. Standard for standard a GTB will beat an STi for top-end speed, but nothing else. Its a wider, more linear power delivery than the single turbo cars, less of the big surge of mid range torque.

For a track car you're much better off staying single turbo though as other have said.