Noob question! Is it possible to put a turbo in a 97 1.8 impreza?

[kiwiboi]

Hi guys I'm a noob when it comes to cars but you gotta start somewhere right haha, I'm looking at buying a 1997 1.8 litre impreza hatchback as a project car, however I really want to be working with a turbo. I've had mixed results of the internet as to whether it's possible/worthwhile enough but nothing concrete. Would anyone be able to help me out?

 

Many Thanks!

[Rooster2]

anything is possible, but this would be terribly impractical. You are far better off to buy a car that already has a turbo. It would be money far wiser spent.

[kiwiboi]

Thanks for a response, it's hard to get a WRX for the right price here. Would I be able to put an EJ20T engine in the impreza?

[pocketxgirl]

For a self described noob? It might be a little more than you want to tackle.

 

I've seen a few 1.8 motors with turbos.  They're cool but still a lot of work, and the most PSI I'd probably push in it would be 5 or 7 pounds before I'd be worried about breaking something. It would definitely be a labor of love because in the end you wouldn't be breaking any land speed records with it. 

 

Dropping a 2.0T from a WRX is a wiring nightmare that I wouldn't feel comfortable messing with. Some guys are wiring gurus and are fine merging harnesses or even swapping the whole she-bang ( and I mean everything down to the tail lights), but I'm not one of them. I've seen a lot of Subies for sale that are halfway through a turbo swap because the enormity of it all became too much for the owners to wrap their heads around.

 

If you want more oomph, drop in a 2.2. Then you can have fun with some extra HP while you really research what it would take to put a turbo motor in there the right way. :-)

[kiwiboi]

Cheers for the response. Yeah I really am a noob, I'm 19 and currently drive a honda domani lol. Fell in love with Subi's after driving my friends B4 though, do you think a 97 1.8 impreza would be a good starting car for me to learn how to do some mods and what not?

 

Thanks!

[pocketxgirl]

The ej motors have been around for a long time (twenty something years?) and they all function similarly so if you want to tear the 1.8 down and get familiar with the layout, that wouldn't be a bad thing. Kind of like with Hondas how a B16 is similar to a B18 and to a B20. Same family.

 

The 1.8s are pretty bulletproof and can take a lot of abuse. Unfortunately, they're also pretty gutless and as the saying goes, "there's no substitute for cubic inches." I would probably not spend a lot of money trying to mod a 1.8 unless you have money to burn.

 

If you are pretty determined to turbo this Impreza, the easiest option would be to find a smashed SS Legacy with a complete 2.2T and start from there. Easiest option doesn't mean easy, though. You'd have to swap the crossmember or notch it, swap some sensors, swap fuel pumps, find and install a fuel management system or fmu, wire in the knock sensor, and then spend months tweaking things to get them to run correctly. Probably some other stuff that I can't remember off the top of my head, too.

 

You can kind of see where I'm going, right? :-)

 

I know nobody wants to hear this when they have big dreams of big power but start small. The experience and knowledge you'll gain will be worth it.

 

Or you could always buy and older SS leggy and blast around with it for while. It won't be a wrx but they're still loads of fun!