Nachaluva's Foz

Two years ago I got a heartbreaking call my brother in law had suddenly died from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS). He was a strong, healthy, fit man. They found him slumped over the table at work...apparently he was dead before he even hit the table, so at least he didn’t suffer at all.

My sister offered me his car, so I bought it. It was their 3rd Subie but my 1st.

I soon got tired of the poor lights so set out on my 1st mod...a headlight wiring upgrade & upgraded H4 bulbs. I soon ran into problems which is how I came upon AuSubaru while researching the wiring.

After much work & lots of help, esp from Gannon, my 1st mod was finished:
Headlights Wiring Upgrade - ORS

My 1st trip offroad was soon after to picturesque & historic Walhalla:

I discovered my suspension was completely shot, springs sagging & strut bouncing. With help from the forum I decided on raised King springs & new KYB struts. Very happy with the much improved handling & increased clearance, but I wish so much I had got the gen2 rear struts (SG)


I added Whiteline KCA414 Camber bolts which gave me neg camber on the rear but the best I could get the front was neutral.

A SubaXtreme sumpguard was next. I guess it did its job of protecting the sump but I found it very brittle & was soon falling apart

A Crossbred guard soon replaced it!

 

[NachaLuva]

Installed my Xmas pressie:


Painted the brake rotor hats silver:


Put the muddies on:


Got stuck in the Goulburn R lol


I found the muddies a little noisy, not bad, but onroad they handle woefully! GREAT offroad though. I managed to keep up with an FJ40 with 33" muddies, 5" lift & modded engine

 

[idw]

Does your auto antenna "auto" anymore . Looking good nice to see the muddie worked out.

 

[NachaLuva]

Does your auto antenna "auto" anymore . Looking good nice to see the muddie worked out.

Haha no, it hasnt since I've owned it lol.

Yeah the muddies had awesome grip on some steep gravelly slopes. I could feel it slipping then gripping hard so I'll have to be careful not to put too much torque through them so I dont snap an axle as the tyre regains grip!

This was the first time I've given the rear pLSD a work out. There was one climb with moderate diagonal ruts where I could feel the front tyre losing grip but the rears kept pushing me up

The other thing I noticed with all this extra grip was the poor old EJ20J was struggling :rotfl:

 

[jf1sf5]

The other thing I noticed with all this extra grip was the poor old EJ20J was struggling :rotfl:

Same with my Foz....within a 1/2 an hour, i'll be looking at a EJ22 Legacy (175'000 km, 1st hand, belongs to a 82 years old grandma !) to make an engine swap

 

[NachaLuva]

Same with my Foz....within a 1/2 an hour, i'll be looking at a EJ22 Legacy (175'000 km, 1st hand, belongs to a 82 years old grandma !) to make an engine swap

Very jealous

 

[idw]

Weakest part is the stub off the gearbox, I've dropped a wheel from in the air spinning to the ground and the shock made it start clicking. broken cv's aren't so bad, snap the axel stubs and that'll hurt little oswina :lol:. Should come out the the wombat sometime!

My antenna works sometimes, i just left it down and unplugged the remote signal off the heat unit and put on a windscreen one. Plus is now the fm doesn't reflect off the uhf so the uhf has better range and clarity! bad side is the radio has **** reception.

 

[jf1sf5]

Haven't bought the Legacy, too old ('90)and not in a "good" condition, a bit like the grandma...I'll try find an other one, preferably a '95 or '96...

 

[NachaLuva]

Weakest part is the stub off the gearbox, I've dropped a wheel from in the air spinning to the ground and the shock made it start clicking. broken cv's aren't so bad, snap the axel stubs and that'll hurt little oswina :lol:

OK I'll keep that in mind, thanks

Should come out the the wombat sometime!

Yep we should do that. You'll have to come out to Reefton too :iconwink:

 

[idw]

Sounds good I havent been up that way in a long time and never with my car.

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday NL

Oswina is certainly coming together well, mate.

Haha no, it hasnt since I've owned it lol.

Some people seem to have a problem with the antenna being built in to the rear quarter window in the SG and beyond. We have no such problems. In fact, both ours have the best FM reception (and AM) that I have so far encountered. Telescopic antennae on all our other previous cars have given absolutely garbage FM reception ...

Yeah the muddies had awesome grip on some steep gravelly slopes. I could feel it slipping then gripping hard so I'll have to be careful not to put too much torque through them so I dont snap an axle as the tyre regains grip!

Too much torque? Sorry to laugh, but from an EJ-20?
You are probably right to be careful though, all ribbing aside ... :lol: .

This was the first time I've given the rear pLSD a work out. There was one climb with moderate diagonal ruts where I could feel the front tyre losing grip but the rears kept pushing me up

I have noticed the same with the vLSD in mine. Probably nowhere near as 'grabby' though.

The other thing I noticed with all this extra grip was the poor old EJ20J was struggling :rotfl:

Yeah. The EJ-20 in the SF was like my Impreza with the EJ-18.
Both should have had the EJ-22 from the very start. Both have (relatively) heavy bodies, and don't work all that well with such under-powered (torqued ... ) engines as their OEM ones were.
Both the Impreza and the SF have extremely similar gearing, but the Impreza had no LR, and a slightly lower FD ratio at 3.900:1 vs 4.111:1. Of course, the Impreza also had 14" rims vs 15" on the SF Forester.

My Impreza was hardly sporty, but an excellent touring car. Unfortunately 5th was way to high.
4th HR in Roo2 is much the same kmh/1000 rpm as the Impreza was in 5th ... .
5th LR in Roo2 is only slightly lower kmh/1000 rpm as the Impreza was in 5th.

The Impreza impressed on me the importance of have a sufficiently powerful engine (torque in particular - i.e. engine capacity!) and appropriate gearing for the mass of the car. When we got the Camry (2.2L DOHC 4 cylinder), it rubbed our noses in that. It was not a small light car by any means, yet had plenty of jump at all speeds, even with the 4AT. It was the benchmark against which I compared the SG and SH Forester. Both have considerably higher torque to weight ratio than the Camry, and far better gear ratios than the Impreza.

They both go like the clappers for all ordinary purposes, and starting from any given speed, whether around town or passing out on the highway. Neither of them are racing cars, but both have more than just adequate power for our needs.

 

[idw]

ej18 = 164nm (best config end of platform life) @ 3600rpm (88kw @5600rpm)
ej20 = 190nm (SOHC in 97 SF for comparison - DOHC negligible torque differences/rpm) @ 4400rpm (102kw @5600rpm) < engine in me and nachaluva's foz
ej22 = 186nm (best config end of platform life) @ 4500rpm
ej25 = 229nm (best config current platform) @4000rpm

shock ej22 is negligibly different to the shock ej20. tune the thing that's a different matter

 

[Ratbag]

^ Gidday Id

It's not the maximum figure that's important, mate. It's the shape of the torque curve from start to finish.

The EJ-18 in my Impreza was like driving my hot Morris 1100 with its full race camshaft (etc). Had a torque curve like an inverted ski jump ... .

OTOH, the torque curve of the EJ-253 donk is within around 10% of its maximum figure from about 1,800 rpm to its red line at about 6,300 rpm. That very flat torque curve makes a huge difference in tractability when compared with an engine that has a more "peaky" torque curve.

Given approximately the same technology, torque is a function of swept area.

The differences between the EJ-252 and EJ-253 comes about (I think) from the variable valve lift technology in the EJ-253; the inlet tumbler valves and probably changes to the cam lobe profiles in the later engine to shift the low end of the usable torque curve downwards, while letting the VVLT shift the top end of the curve upwards. Having driven both the series I and series II Foresters, I can attest that there is a very pronounced difference in their general tractability and performance.

Just ruminating, FWIW.

 

[NachaLuva]

Those figures surprise me idw. I've heard many times about how much more go the EJ22 has over the EJ20. May be as RB says the torque is flatter in the EJ22, the EJ20 seems to be very peaky. Nothing below 2300rpm, hits its stride above 3500rpm

 

[idw]

When the engine is making it's maximum figures gives a bit of an idea of the torque curve.

having offloaded both an SF with the 2.2 and a 2.0. There wasn't any noticeable difference besides mine had better fuel economy the torque curve stock map is virtually identical. Use ej20 newer heads and then it's a different matter increase compression slightly alternate running and better can design, use that on the 2.2 block and that might be worth it. Stock engine configure and transplant there wouldn't really be any benefit.

The 2.5 starts Developing useable torque much lower, which is more comfortable. That just changes the way you drive the SF for the same results, which is harder on the car if your doing it everyday. The ej18 on the other hand was the beginning of development of that config and doesn't make useable power until 4000 rpm, 1000rpm higher than the 2.0 and close to 2,000 rpm higher than the 2.5.

The point I was trying to make vaguely is the 2.2 stock is not really useable different the the 2.0. The 2.5 is a huge improvement.

the ej18 was just a crap powerplant made for economy

 

[Ratbag]

^ Some interesting observations there, Id.

Not sure that I agree with them all, but in general, yes.

The EJ-18 was made to replace the EA-82, which was roughly the same capacity, but antique technology otherwise - see Here. However, it would be churlish to complain about an engine that ran without any kind of problem for nearly 18 years and 234,000 kms ...

The fundamental error was putting the EJ-18 into such a (relatively) heavy car as the 5 door Impreza hatch. My '93 Impreza was the heaviest 1800 cc car made by anyone, with the least powerful 1800 cc engine in it made by anybody, AFAIK. The gearing was all wrong for the car and engine, and the engine tune was woeful. When I think back over all those years driving it that the engine responsiveness could have been altered to make it at least acceptable around town ... . I had to rev its rings off to get it moving as fast as the average 1400 cc shopping pram in town. On the open road, an entirely different story ...

I have thought about getting a tune done on Roo2, but really cannot see the point. It is a very well sorted vehicle, as Rally has already said. I agree with his assessment.

Just as I don't need (or want) a turbo. Rat cunning and good driving makes up for a hell of a lot of lack of sheer grunt, as I have known for many decades ... :rotfl:.

 

[NachaLuva]

How would I get a tune on the EJ20J with OBD I? I didnt think it could be done

 

[idw]

That's the great thing about Australia, we can disagree on some thinks and remain mates...in other countries one of us would end up in jail :lol:.

Some people have have made some great improvements tuning the 2.5, unless your racing it I'm not sure what the point is. The ej20 i don't have a clue.

And to some extend the engine's torque has little to do with dropping a spinning wheel, as the torque generated from the spinning wheel hitting the ground and remaining traction can far greatly exceed the engine torque and components breaking strength. Big heavy tires only increase the potential, like big muddies

the ej22 we put in my mates a car was just a straight swap unbolted it bolted it in the sf. little electrical work and was good to go.

I'm sourcing my info from the Japanese wiki and its sources mainly (not through google translate that's almost useless for Japanese :lol. Can sometimes have conflicting info to the English wiki's of the same.

 

[Ratbag]

^ G'day again Id

I agree.

Specially where one's own opinions are concerned, one should always bear in mind the following ...

No matter how well founded one might think they are, two differing opinions can be:

1) One is right and the other wrong ...

2) Both are partially right and partially wrong ...

3) Both are wrong ... :lol:

So hardly worth having WW3 about!

I always hope that out of these differences of opinion we can all come a bit closer to some approximation of the truth, as best that the truth can ever be ascertained ...

In order to ascertain the truth, one must first establish the facts, as best they can be ascertained ...

Maybe it could be the case that with a straight swap of an EJ-22 for an EJ-20, the EJ-20's ECU can manage the different engine, but is not doing it very well. Not badly enough to damage it, but not ideally efficiently either.

You have mentioned that the EJ-22 with a custom tune does a lot better. Perhaps the above is why?

I also agree about having a custom tune done for the EJ-253. Seems to manage fine how it is. So why interfere with a working system? I have already had to talk SWMBO's way out of one speeding fine in RonnyRoo. Methinks that they are already fast enough ... .

:ebiggrin: :biggrin:

 

[idw]

I think i might depend on the generation of ECU, the newer ones "learn" better and adapt better than the older generations. Depending on the year all three displacements shared the same ecu with different software tuning.

When i said bolt in we did use the ecu that came on the ej22.

I'll search internet for dyno results, might help make more sense. then again might confuse things more. I've been looking for an ej25 to transplant atm so i might end up with my own dyno results lol

 

[NachaLuva]

Using the ECU that comes with the engine is definitely the way to go. An EJ25 transplant would be sweet