E30 group 2 rally car build

[Iain]

Why go EJ20G? They're horrible old engines.

EJ207 + Version 5 STi heads = brilliant 2.0L

[Fendego]

Nice subaru, What are your plans engine wise? turbo? stroker?

Plans for the Subaru or the e30?

I see what else you have lurking in your garage . How about the scoop on that as well...

Not my garage, it's my buddies and that's a 67 lotus elan. I don't know exactly what is going on with that thing. We started working on it in the summer but it will probably go untouched till it's warm again.

Why go EJ20G? They're horrible old engines.

EJ207 + Version 5 STi heads = brilliant 2.0L

Common, 20gs are not that bad. Honestly I didn't buy the motor, I don't know why he choose it except for the fact that it came with a 4.44 trans because it is out of a forester and the 00 2.5rs has a 4.44 rear end so he didn't have to swap diffs. To be honest I like it a lot, it's mild mannered and it makes full power by 1800 rpm and so far we have not had any issues with the motor running on Haltech.

[Iain]

I have plenty of experience with the Gs and they are equivalent to an Eta motor in turbo Subaru world (Hydraulic Lash Adjuster heads and small cams & ports FTL)

A GT Forester shouldn't have had a Forester - does the engine have an under-manifold intake and oval spark plug bores? If so, I don't think it's an EJ20G.

If you need any help with the Haltech, i have a bunch of maps for different set-ups on turbo Subarus for those ECUs and can email them. A good friend of mine designed the E8 and E11v2 ECUs for them and used his turbo Subarus as a test bed. :)

[HarryPotter]

OoO this should turn out fun. I've always wanted to do this myself.

[Fendego]

I have plenty of experience with the Gs and they are equivalent to an Eta motor in turbo Subaru world (Hydraulic Lash Adjuster heads and small cams & ports FTL)

A GT Forester shouldn't have had a Forester - does the engine have an under-manifold intake and oval spark plug bores? If so, I don't think it's an EJ20G.

If you need any help with the Haltech, i have a bunch of maps for different set-ups on turbo Subarus for those ECUs and can email them. A good friend of mine designed the E8 and E11v2 ECUs for them and used his turbo Subarus as a test bed. :)

The motor didn't come from a Gt, it's a from a Japanese spec sf5 s/tb and it is a 20G, I'm positive. Where I live the car scene is dominated by Subarus and to be honest the differences that to you make the 20G a horrible old engine are really negligible to me. Obviously a version 5 motor is ideal, I certainly understand that but bang for buck this motor was well priced and back in the day it was pretty hot. The car will reliably put down 250whp in it's current form and that's all the owner really want's or needs.

Also keep in mind, In my world a well built car is a well balanced car. Unfortunately the limiting factor in this build was money and time. The old phrase time is money is very true and this motor was chosen for it's price and availability. While this may sound silly, now that the the car is finished I can say that with the resources we had, the 20G was a good play.

I will ask him about the maps although I think were set as we just made our own. Thank you for the offer though:). It looks like a Subaru interior in your profile picture, do you own one?

[Iain]

I've got a few. :) Mostly Libertys (Aus versions of the Legacy) with turbo conversions. 90% of my mates drive them, too. We do all the work at home - best thing about Subarus is how simple they are and how quickly you can build a really quick car on the cheap!

Oh, and they hold schooners in the cupholders! Haha

[Jesse30]

i fucking miss my gc8 :(:(

[Fendego]

I thought after we built the Gc I would be super jealous and ditch my e30 for one. I tried but not hard enough to make it happen and now that I got over the initial hump I'm sooo glad I kept my e30!

A few pictures



I'm having starting problems right now, yesterday I made a run to napa to pick up some new plugs and all they had were more crappy Ngks which just foul out constantly. Anyways I put the new new Ngks in and it was running and idling just fine so I let it get up to temp. I shut it off to put a new fuel filter on and learned lesson one, never buy a Chinese made fuel filter. The direction of flow printed on the filter was wrong! It wasn't starting. I flipped it around and it ran just fine for few minutes than it died. Than it would not start again. I hate these plugs, might just go get some Boschs before school today

[SlapDash]

Any updates? I've got an E30 rally car in the works as well. Eerily similar, mine's an '88 325is, black with that red pin stripe and 'weaves.

Keep us posted!

Good luck with the build!

PS Here's my site if anyone's interested: www.slapdashracing.com

[irish44j]

so what happened to this thread? ever finish the car?

[SlapDash]

I finished mine. Raced in two Rally America events (New England Forest Rally) and nearly finished both, then did actually finish Black River Stages this past September. Also got a story in Bimmer magazine. If anyone's interested, you can check it out here: www.slapdashgarage.com.

[horse30]

Wow, the interior looks painfully clean for a rally car lol. All in all an exciting build. I'm curious to see how this turns out