Upgrades to 2003 Baja, Please help/suggestions.

LeBernadin wrote in news:WDKEb.599335$Tr4.1566716@attbi_s03:

Usually the most cost effective performance upgrades involve getting more air into the engine and less restriction on the exhaust. Look at a cold air intake and an exhaust upgrade. If you are lucky you'll get a 10-15% improvement in HP. The sway bar will only improve handling and a boost guage wont do a thing until you get a turbo and then it will only tell you what that's doing.

I wouldn't worry about "forward WILL have" stuff - '04 is probably the last year for the Baja. If you want a collector's item, go trade yours in now on the turbo.

Carl

LeBernad> Firstoff, unlike the majority of you who post here, i'm not as savy with re

This engine is (as are most modern powerplants) fairly well optimsed as is. Forced induction (turbo or supercharger) and/or a different cam are the only mods that will reap substantial gains. Note that this engine was not designed for forced induction, and will therefore suffer a reduction in reliability.

The stock intake takes air (at ambient temperature) from above the passenger-side (USA) headlight. This is, in effect, a cold-air intake, and removing the resonator (a popular do-it-yourself mod) will only serve to increase noise levels, not performance.

The stock exhaust is a good match for this powerplant. If you're going to add a turbo or supercharger, you'll want to go with a larger-diameter exhaust.

Well - if you aren't into working on the car, keep the mods simple - you may be able to net 10-15hp at the wheels with headers and an exhaust, but even that is probably overly optemistic. The largest gains are going to be found with a turbo - note that this is not a low maintenance sort of thing, and requires all sorts of stuff aside from the turbo - you will also need engine management, etc. The Subaru service department won't like an aftermarket turbo system - say bye-bye to the warranty on the powertrain...

getting into the mid-200's is going to require substantial mods - the turbo is probably the thing to do.

The torque converter is probably more of an off-the-line performance sort of thing. I imagine a boost gauge (either as a function of the boost controller or as a standalone unit) would be part of any packaged turbo upgrade. The sway bar is more a handling thing than anything else. And the synthetic is just a good thing to do anyway (there have been claims of minute hp gains, but I wouldn't count on it - I certainly didn't notice anything on any of my cars which run all synthetics)

Why not look for a wrecked Forester XT or something like that and do an engine swap...

If you bought it with an automatic, you already blew the cheapest "mod" for the car. You could have had more horsepower at the wheel AND saved hundreds of dollars by buying the 5-speed.

-DanD