1985 Turbo Brat Upgraded turbo?

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cactvs
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1985 Turbo Brat Upgraded turbo?

Post by cactvs »

Anyone ever upgrade the turbo on an EA81 injected motor? I recently acquired a 1985 Turbo Brat which runs pretty strong. It has the factory turbo and injection all in place. Looking to freshen her up a bit, slightly larger turbo, maybe an intercooler...
bobjr94
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Re: 1985 Turbo Brat Upgraded turbo?

Post by bobjr94 »

They are interesting cars but there isn't much you can do on those, everything will have to be custom made. The turbos, downpipe's and intercoolers from the newer turbo subarus are different. I think they only have like 91HP, so if you really wanted an improvement a 130hp from a 2.2 legacy would make alot more power.

But for upgrades, the easiest thing might be to get a cheap universal intercooler from ebay, but try and find a really small one. Using one sold for a wrx or sti would be way to large and create alot of lag. Then get a hood scoop and duct to mount over it. I think they only run 5-6 lbs of boost, you could maybe do 8-10 with an intercooler but I don't know how far those old air flow meters are good for. The anti-knock systems and ignition systems are pretty primitive and the ecu can't be tuned like on modern subarus, that really limits upgrades.
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