Performance Options for Older Subarus: *Read before Posting*

Engine, gearbox, diff & driveshafts
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Storm
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Post by Storm » Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:24 am

tex wrote:I don't know if Ive mentioned this before or not but I was under the impression tht porting for performance is still IN wheras polishing is now OUT because the atomised fuel tends to stick to the smooth sticky surface but if its rough it creates turbulance and sometimes a vortex.
Mirror finish polishing does nothing good for a street engine, for a full on drag engine its a different matter cause the idea is to get the fuel into the engine asap and its nearly flooding in anyway.

Rough casting hinders air/fuel movement and can in some cases cause turbulence that negatively impacts on atomisation because the fuel can get caught in the roughs and puddle.

ExtrudeHone or AbrasiveFlow Porting is the new technology that seems to be getting brilliant results. It evens the individual port flows so each port is flowing similar to the others, it takes out rough castings allowing air/fuel to flow unhindered thus stopping puddling, it does not mirror finish the port, and it helps to create a near optimum valve throat profile.

A vortex will never be formed in a square or rectangle port. Vortexes are created in the valve throat and many factors including valve stem thickness, valve seat angles, combustion chamber shape, and the engines compression ratio have an effect on it.

Realistically what is required is a clean port that flows the amount of air the engine requires for the revs it pulls at the highest velocity possible. with everything else even a small port will have a higher velocity but a big port will flow more air. If you have an EA engine that is going to pull over 6000rpm continuously go the biggest port you can muster, if you just want a street engine then port matching, valve throat and bowl cleaning, and a good 3 angle valve seat profile will give you what you need.

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kona480
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Post by kona480 » Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:12 pm

BaronVonChickenPants wrote:Exhaust upgrades:
Replace everything after the Y pipes with 2-2 1/4 inch pipe, a hotdog and a straight through/high flow muffler.
Cost: hotdog $50, lukey turbo muffler $100, whole setup supplied and fitted $220
my brumby has what you mentioned with a 2 inch pipe but has a 1.75 inch pipe just before the rear muffler and what i'm guessing is a stock oval muffler. Which is better in terms or performance, sound and cost, a 5 inch cannon tip or a straight through/high flow muffler?
thanks

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spike
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Post by spike » Mon Jan 04, 2010 1:27 pm

Storm wrote: Rough casting hinders air/fuel movement and can in some cases cause turbulence that negatively impacts on atomisation because the fuel can get caught in the roughs and puddle.

.
this my freinds is hard to say.
back in the day you wanted the air going in to have turbulence. apparently this would break large droplets of fuel or somthing.
personally im a fan of mirror finish if your carbies doing it right then it should be ok.



for those looking to get an ea series motor to go hard, start saving me thinks if you buy the car for 1000 at 16 then by the time your 30 still mooching of your parents you can have enough for some power

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spike
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Post by spike » Mon Jan 04, 2010 1:36 pm

kona480 wrote:my brumby has what you mentioned with a 2 inch pipe but has a 1.75 inch pipe just before the rear muffler and what i'm guessing is a stock oval muffler. Which is better in terms or performance, sound and cost, a 5 inch cannon tip or a straight through/high flow muffler?
thanks
id say for sound
cannon i hate them but yeah.
cost probably cannon tip.
performance, probably hard to say as neither of them are my choice but id go with the high flow
if you want to get the most out of the motor you need to start from the top, pulse tested headers are the best, expensive and if your engine has any mods then you have to have them custom, probably a straight throuw from the headers cause there is a special size for your gas movement, cross overs and the like, then bring into a twin barrel muffler where they can cross over and come out again
hard, costly and illegal and only get a few ponies.
for those running an engine in a race car, especially a special then it could be worth it.
an exhaust that is a special lengeth can release almost double the power of the above metioned stuff, as the exhaust blows it almost sucks air though the other end but its not a guess work thing. and impossible to route around a car

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Subiegirl
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Post by Subiegirl » Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:58 am

Carburetor upgrades
The most common upgrade is a weber 32/36 DGV (manual choke), DGEV (electric choke), DGAV (water choke) or a 180 holley, they're all essentially the same carb, you'll need to buy or build an adaptor plate.
Cost: Carb $50, rebuild kit $50, adaptor plate $50


Can someone tell what the difference is between the manual/electric/water choke? Also i can't seem to find a weber carb for under $500(new)

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Subiegirl
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Post by Subiegirl » Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:03 am

More spark:
Use higher powered coil such as the "MSD Blaster 2" and increase the spark plug gap to 1.1-1.2mm.
Cost: MSD Blaster $120


^^^^
I found this on ebay, is this the one that you are talking about?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWAX:IT

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TOONGA
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Post by TOONGA » Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:14 am

Subiegirl wrote:Carburetor upgrades

Can someone tell what the difference is between the manual/electric/water choke? Also i can't seem to find a weber carb for under $500(new)
the manual choke has a wire control that you pull out to set the choke and then push in when the engine is running suitably

the electric choke has a sensor that recieves a signal from a water temp sender that runs to a solanoid to turn the choke off

the water choke bypasses the electric signal and has a piped setup that runs to a solanoid/thermostat type arangment on the carby that shuts the choke off when the desired water tempreture is reached
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Subiegirl
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Post by Subiegirl » Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:47 am

TOONGA wrote:the manual choke has a wire control that you pull out to set the choke and then push in when the engine is running suitably

the electric choke has a sensor that recieves a signal from a water temp sender that runs to a solanoid to turn the choke off

the water choke bypasses the electric signal and has a piped setup that runs to a solanoid/thermostat type arangment on the carby that shuts the choke off when the desired water tempreture is reached

ok thanks alot for that, do you know whether a 92 brumby EA81 has an electric/water choke carby, im assuming it wont be manual.

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TOONGA
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Post by TOONGA » Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:26 pm

a 92 brumby should have an electric choke

and will look like this

Image

minus the red dust and other muck

the choke solanoid is on the left of this picture there is a blue wire that runs to it from a relay/sensor that has input from the temp sender and when the engine is hot the choke stops and the butterfly valve opens up in theory :)

my carby is a wreck and needs a rebuild as it has never had one and my brumby is a 1989 model

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BaronVonChickenPants
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Post by BaronVonChickenPants » Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:06 pm

Subiegirl wrote:More spark:
Use higher powered coil such as the "MSD Blaster 2" and increase the spark plug gap to 1.1-1.2mm.
Cost: MSD Blaster $120


^^^^
I found this on ebay, is this the one that you are talking about?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWAX:IT
Yes that is the correct unit, your distributor should be electronic and not require the ballast resistor.

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Subiegirl
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Post by Subiegirl » Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:40 pm

Thanks for that...so much to do..so little money lol My exhaust gets done this weekend hopefully yay!! then a cpl more months of saving and il be able to get my weber carby, ignition coil, leads and high flow air filter!!

argh so excited!

Cheers Guys!!!:D:D:D:D

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spike
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Post by spike » Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:35 pm

hey im not a mod but should we really be asking questions in this thread??
sure fire recomendations for performance yeah cause thats what the thread is about.

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josh b
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help with ea 80 motor

Post by josh b » Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:16 pm

do all these tips apply to an ea 80 motor. Just bought a brumby with 199 km runs ok but would like a bit more power, can anyone help?:confused:

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preno
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Post by preno » Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:25 pm

josh b wrote:do all these tips apply to an ea 80 motor. Just bought a brumby with 199 km runs ok but would like a bit more power, can anyone help?:confused:
yeh mate they all apply to the ea series engines. ur brumby will have a ea81 engine. 1800cc ohv type.

the main upgrades are the weber carb, larger exhaust, electric dizzy, better coil etc. these will all give a little bit more go to ur engine but dont go expecting heaps. if you want lots more go then i suggest a EJ conversion.

just have a search around the sight. everything has been covered before.

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josh b
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old motor

Post by josh b » Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:15 pm

yes i have looked at an up grade carby, prob thwe first thing i will do. Is and a electric dizzy hard to install

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brettok1
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Post by brettok1 » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:54 pm

this thread has answered all my questions, awesome job, im just going to learn how to advance my timing and look for a carby, i already have a custom exhaust on my l series, thanks heaps baron.

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BaronVonChickenPants
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Post by BaronVonChickenPants » Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:38 pm

I recent PM that I thought might help others:
Brumby Kid wrote:Carburetor upgrades
The most common upgrade is a weber 32/36 DGV (manual choke), DGEV (electric choke), DGAV (water choke) or a 180 holley, they're all essentially the same carb, you'll need to buy or build an adaptor plate.
Cost: Carb $50, rebuild kit $50, adaptor plate $50

Hey Jordan, Where did you get your weber? That is cheap! The only ones i can find are $500-$700.

Cheers Cam
Hi Cam,
When I wrote that article (wow 6 years ago, time flies when you have kids) I had recently purchased a holley 180 and a weber 32/36 dgav from ebay for under $50. Mostly it's about patience and having the time to wait for a bargain to pop up. Also search for miss-spelled listings, like holey, holly, webber, etc, they usually get less attention.

The main advantage of the weber 32/36 and holley 180 is the generally came from a 1.6 to 2.0 litre engine, like a Gemini or Escort, so required very little retuning for our 1.8 litre engines.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Weber-32-36- ... 0583259308

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Ford-Escort- ... 0621425664

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/REBUILT-1973 ... 0868827217

Of course this only works if you have the time to wait for a bargain to fall in pop up.

Because these carb's are so sought after and generally expensive lately people have started looking at similar alternatives like the Weber 34ADM from the XE/XF Falcon's, but these would require re-jetting to suit an engine half of their intended size:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/weber-carbi- ... 0788843319

You can try hunting you local wreckers or pick-a-part for these Falcon units but wreckers tend to put a premium on anything with Weber or Holley stamped on it.

You can also try searching for less specific terms, like weber 34, weber 36, weber 38 and you might be lucky to get something near enough to do the job, again trying alternate spellings can yield different results:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Weber-32-34- ... 0669988207

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Weber-webber ... 0584149114

There are also chinese clones of the Weber appearing on the market under the Empi branding, but these are still too new to be had cheaply.

Regards,
Jordan.
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coxy
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Post by coxy » Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:58 pm

Storm wrote:Mirror finish polishing does nothing good for a street engine, for a full on drag engine its a different matter cause the idea is to get the fuel into the engine asap and its nearly flooding in anyway.

Rough casting hinders air/fuel movement and can in some cases cause turbulence that negatively impacts on atomisation because the fuel can get caught in the roughs and puddle.

ExtrudeHone or AbrasiveFlow Porting is the new technology that seems to be getting brilliant results. It evens the individual port flows so each port is flowing similar to the others, it takes out rough castings allowing air/fuel to flow unhindered thus stopping puddling, it does not mirror finish the port, and it helps to create a near optimum valve throat profile.

A vortex will never be formed in a square or rectangle port. Vortexes are created in the valve throat and many factors including valve stem thickness, valve seat angles, combustion chamber shape, and the engines compression ratio have an effect on it.

Realistically what is required is a clean port that flows the amount of air the engine requires for the revs it pulls at the highest velocity possible. with everything else even a small port will have a higher velocity but a big port will flow more air. If you have an EA engine that is going to pull over 6000rpm continuously go the biggest port you can muster, if you just want a street engine then port matching, valve throat and bowl cleaning, and a good 3 angle valve seat profile will give you what you need.
The correct finish on ALL engines is a fine abraded finish such as that obtained by using "cartridge Rolls" as sold by Standard Abrasives.
Extrude hone etc is in reality about as usefull as so called CNC porting available on many aftermarket V8 heads a starting point and no more.

It is as always a method for lowering labour costs,But in truth there are so many variations no two engines even from the same engine family are identical,For instance with an engine with tight radius bends in the exhaust header section you deliberately try to make one section of the port flow more and to turn it so the exhaust gas swirls as it enters the header pipe section,This aids better fkow around light radius bends and is not something you achieve with so called abrasive hone porting terchniques.

Putting it into a perspective cpuntry people especially can relate to that type of so called porting is akin to a river it will always take the easiest path not necessarily the right path,Hence how many of the Billabongs formed on the Darling river.Logically when yoy think about it it does not translate that well to engines with specific design traits such as deliberate offset of ports to clear pushrods etc.

Now back to the EA81~82 in both cases bigger ports is not the way to go because of fuel dropout,So called Pocket porting,Carefull reshaping and blending behind and after the valve seat area will be worth the effort,either go slow pay for it to be done or buy a dremel and learn carefully.

Increasing compression such as EA82 MPFI pistons after all just how easy is it to get EA71 pistons these days,definately a good way to go.

Camshafts what you gain in one area you tend to loose elsewhere,more top end less bottom end so to speak.
Advantage of EA81 motors is torque so improve breathing by pocket porting,Better exhaust system raise compression with EA82 MPFI pistons and dial in the ignition system with correct timing after testing uphill with a stopwatch or a dyno.
Timing options include 2WD distributor or springs from same for faster response mechanical advance curve,Better Coil as mentioned previously and the point all forget replace all the connections at coil and distributor with new ones or preferably make up a new subharness as it will be old and baked hard by engine heat.
Voltage drop causes issues,drop 1 volt more than original factory spec and lose 10 percent of lighting output with headlights ,the same ratio applies to ignition systems so make sure it is A! not dodgy platic crimp connectors from repco or supercheap use Utilux from a good electrical wholesaler with Lucar Covers etc.

Oil if the engine is fresh then use a decent 10W40 Oil of semi synthetic stock as this will improve performance and economy.
Hint Motorcycle oils are best these days as modern car oil standards are junk where the Greenies have mandated Catalytic Converter life is more important then engine life so the latest standard for car engine oils means they are RUBBISH for engine reliability and life due to lowering the ZDDP content.
ZDDP ~Zinc and Phosporous additives are the ANTIWEAR additives in engine oils.
Motorcycle Oils have higher levels of these additives for they have to live in a gearboxs as well as an engines and have become firm favorites among the Hot Evo and WRX turbo guys for those reasons.

For those with issues as related earlier with Weber Carburettors having poor cruise manners look at the size of the Auxilliary venturi in the primary throat it is likely too large,The Auxillary is the small section in the middle of the carb throat and it controls when the main circuit starts to operate,some searching on sidedraft webers will give a good explanation of the relationships between different sections when tuning carburwettors

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FALCONCONVERTTOSUBARU
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Post by FALCONCONVERTTOSUBARU » Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:00 pm

will the running of 98 and advancing the timing decrease fuel economy or increase it? Car I have is an EA82 carby with 178 000 kms on it. Main issues for it is leaking crank seal and proberly needing new plugs and leads before I tune.

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