I Added Two Extra Cylinders To My Subaru

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:04]Yep, we are adding two extra cylinders to my Subaru Rally car, and it is unlike anything that I or anyone else around me has ever experienced before. And we are covering the entire swap, start to finish. So, buckle up. And this is all part of two regular people's journey into the sport of rally, where I've had just one year to go from rally fan to competitive rally driver. With just sim racing, an old low-budget rally car, and a lot of help from my friends, we are now fighting for real deal rally champ over pinch. And I have just one year to go from a corporate job working from home to a competing rally driver by turning my stock daily into a rally car and going full sand on the stages. How far can we take this? Subscribe and let's find out together. Welcome to season 2 of Gravo Co. Three, two, one, go.

[00:00:58]>> All right. Why are we doing this? Well, for those who have been following this series, you know that we already had a six sounding turbocharged Subaru four-cylinder engine in my lowbudget Subaru rally car.

[00:01:11]And with it, we won most of the events that we entered in our class for our very first year of rallying, which was 2025. So, what is the problem? Well, we had to drive the frigin wheels off of that poor car to get those results that we got. And at the end of those rallies, no matter how hard we pushed and how good we did, we'd still oftentimes be minutes behind the overall open class leader. However, anytime we had a downhill stage where engine power didn't matter nearly as much, we were right up there with literally the fastest cars, drivers, co-drivers, and teams in North America. So, all I think about is what keeps me up at night? What kind of damage could we do on the leaderboards if our car had a few more horses under the hood? Big big day today. We are dropping out of the subframe, the engine. Uh Ryan back there, he's already pulled out the exhaust. Everything's coming out today. I don't know if we'll get the engine in today cuz we got a whole bunch of finagling to do with the front of the car because that rad support is just Swiss cheese. There's basically nothing left of it. So you can see already just how close everything is in here.

[00:02:17]There's like no space because this whole rad support is like majorly pushed in to begin with and it's also sort of pushed in on the bottom in towards the engine.

[00:02:27]So we have no hope of using this rad support and having a rad actually fit in there. I've mentioned how low power our car is and most people don't believe us.

[00:02:35]I get it in the comments all the time.

[00:02:36]It's like, well that that engine sounds sick. I've told people which engine it is, which is like the legendary EJ22T.

[00:02:42]It's like a closed deck. It's got oil squirters. People use the block for like super high horsepower drag builds. It's a sick engine. It sounds super good. And it is probably the most reliable Subaru four-cylinder turbo engine out there, especially because for us, we never really did any mods to it. It was it was a stock engine. We're never pushing it that hard. However, it was from 1991.

[00:03:03]Means there's no OBD2 or anything like that. You cannot talk to it. It's just going to do its thing and you hope for the best. To give you an idea of how little power that engine had in that car, stock from the factory at the crank, the EJ22T had 160 horsepower.

[00:03:17]Now, they usually say you lose about half a% of performance for horsepower for every year that it's been running.

[00:03:23]So, if we're being generous, it's had about an 18% power loss. Add a turbo inlet restrictor and that hole into the turbo where the air can get through has gone down by about 27%. So, you can imagine how much horsepower you're losing from that. And then you include about 15 to 20% drivetrain loss. And we are looking at best for generous numbers, 80 to 90 wheel horsepower. And you can certainly see that from any anytime, you know, we put it in fourth and aren't going downhill because it it just doesn't accelerate in fourth. Don't even talk to me about fifth gear. It was also super laggy. Like we've got 1991 turbo lag going on. You can also see how little power it had by our timed 0 to 100 runs on flat ground.

[00:04:00]>> Left short into five right late. That's your eight right up 30 eight left short and a five right late.

[00:04:12]>> Yeah, rough.

[00:04:14]Did good. Did real good. This thing was still living at or near red line for so many hours and it just just ran and never complained once.

[00:04:25]Not once.

[00:04:29]Oh yeah.

[00:04:34]Uh, holy smokes. This is a first. This is a first for me.

[00:04:41]No more turbo for this rally car.

[00:04:45]And what is hilarious to me is that the answer to our horsepower prayers has come in the form of what I think to be one of the ugliest vehicles of all time, the Subaru TCA.

[00:04:57]Somehow underneath the hood of this travesty of an SUV lies one of the sickest engines Subaru has ever produced. And we are talking about the EZ30 phase 2 flat 6 engine. A naturally aspirated 3 L flat 6 motor and why yes it is Porsches that also use flat 6s in their cars. And this one will put out over double the amount of horsepower that we currently have in the car while at the same time giving us a million other benefits. And we've got some crucial crucial mods that we're going to make on this engine, both for extra horsepower and for making it not blow up. So, if you are considering this swap, you might want to watch. And I'm so pumped to be able to drive this new iteration of the car and hear this new iteration of the car. It should be insane. Now, speaking of this engine, I wanted a low mileage, pristine JDM version, but when I went to go and actually buy it, this engine that was listed on the website for sale, they didn't have it anymore. And now on this very tight timeline that we have, the only one that was available is basically the worst case scenario engine. It is from a local Subaru Tbeca that ended its life via a heavy front end collision, which gives us about a 50/50 chance that this engine overheated, but it's the only one that was available, and we were on an unbelievably tight timeline. So yeah, I bought it. I think I paid too much for it. No, I know I paid too much for it. And further to that, the timeline is so tight and the budget is so low that uh we don't have the time nor the money to actually pull the engine all apart to see if it's actually in any kind of decent condition. So, we have to go all the way with the install on this engine fully in the car, wired up, ready to go, crank the engine over, hopefully it fires up, and then and only then do we actually get to find out if this engine was totally cooked to begin with. And that also goes for the transmission and the rear diff, too. So, everything's been moving really fast with this engine. And, uh, Ryan went and put in some work to to undo all like what is it like 55 50ome bolts. Uh, and they're allens and they're all corroded because he's a magician. He only stripped one. And if you've ever looked around online about having to take this whole cover off, um, to only have one strip, especially when it's old and corroded like that, it's basically a miracle. So, he he took this off, resealed it, um, and then put a new seal on the oil cooler, which is another big place uh, for oil leaks. Okay, this is the old subframe and the old uh, steering rack there. And what's really really sweet is that there's a brand new subframe up front from a company called TSS Fab. They're a new sponsor for the year. So, they they've sent out a subframe for us. And because we are using their subframe, we should be able to just drop this thing right into this 1995 Empreza L. The clearance should be fine for everything. It's all good. And we optioned out so that we can just drop in a 2008 plus steering rack into the car. So, everything is just going to fit. There's no fabrication required.

[00:07:50]But what's really, really cool is that, you know, like we all know that the Easy30 is a little bit heavier of an engine than the EJ, but from what they're saying, you save at least 10 lb of weight going from the stock subframe to their subframe. That's making up a huge part of the weight difference just right there, which is amazing. So, the idea is with this whole swap is to try and do a drop in engine as much as possible. So, we're not like building out this engine. It's staying intact other than resealing this. So, we're just going to do injectors, swap them out for SCI injectors. Uh, we know the numbers on those for tuning. And we're going to change out the spark plugs, do a shorter belt cuz we took out the AC.

[00:08:28]And that's kind of it. And then we'll slap it in and see what happens.

[00:08:37]None of these feel like they were tight.

[00:08:39]No.

[00:08:44]Okay. So, with this engine, one of the key things that we have to keep in mind is oiling. Uh we want to rev this up over 7,000 RPM. The oiling for this engine isn't great to begin with, and we're going to ask a lot out of it. And so one of the main things that you can do to help with that is to make sure that you know when we're sliding sideways and doing jumps and slloshing that oil around everywhere to make sure that the oil pickup has oil to pick up.

[00:09:06]So Rally Sport Design engineered this.

[00:09:09]This is a replacement oil pan. And look how much engineering and work has gone into this to make sure that one the oil stays where it needs to be right where the pickup is going to be. And so if you see all these little flaps, it allows the oil to move through inwards towards the pickup and then holds it there to make sure it stays there so that there is plenty of oil no matter what we're doing or flying around corners, going off of jumps, that kind of thing.

[00:09:30]There's always going to be oil there to pick up, which is a a huge deal with this engine and for a rally car or for track cars or whatever. Uh, another big one with this is just trying to keep the the oil as cool as possible. And one of the things that you can do with that is just have more oil in your system. And so this I can't remember the exact number, but it's somewhere around 1.4 or 1.5 additional lers that you can fit into the system. And so the more oil you have technically the cooler it can stay.

[00:09:55]So that's sick. And like look at the details on this thing. Yeah, Rally Sport Design does some pretty amazing stuff for all types of Subaru engines. So go and check them out. Incredible work on this.

[00:10:18]While Ryan Tackles that, this Ryan has got to go shopping. Yes, we're all named Ryan.

[00:10:26]Hanging out the pick and pole. Got to get a couple of things. One of them is engine side harness. So, I got to chop that off. Take that. Then see what this has for a throttle pedal.

[00:10:43]Yep, that throttle pedal should work, too. Pull that out. Way we go. And I don't have a tripod or anything, but in order to get that side of the harness out, I'm literally just taking freaking bolt cutters and just chopping right through.

[00:11:00]Okay, what an absolute nightmare this is to even consider working on.

[00:11:10]So, we're going from a cable throttle to like position sensor throttle. So, needed that. Time to go back to the shop. So, that is the original pedal box. So, we need a different one from a newer car so it'll work just like with the throttle pedal. And this right here is the brake booster. And we are taking this thing out. The Easy30 being a heavier engine than the EJ by a little bit, trying to do everything possible to counteract that weight uh difference.

[00:11:37]And so this is another way that we're doing it. We have a brake booster delete kit from L & Fabricators coming in and that's going to save us another Oh man.

[00:11:47]I mean, that felt like maybe 8 10 lb or so tops kind of thing. So between getting rid of this and the subframe, we should be at around 20 lb weight savings.

[00:12:00]Okay, getting this newer pedal box in should be pretty quick and easy, right?

[00:12:08]Well, that's fun. Oh boy, that's that's really fun. Uh, I see. I get it.

[00:12:26]cables everywhere.

[00:12:29]Yeah, I'm no mechanic. I know it might seem like I I work here. I don't work here. I'm mechanically inclined, but there's just so much that I don't know.

[00:12:36]And I think that was like one of the huge reasons or one of the things that I was really most looking forward to with going down this whole journey is that like I'm going to have to learn all this stuff. I need to learn this stuff. not only to put things together, but when we're on the side of the road and it's all blown apart, I have to be able to fix things, um, and know specific things about specific cars. And I, and I guess that's the thing, like there are a number of vehicles that I know a decent amount about, but a mid90s Impreza isn't one of them. So, learning a ton. Look at this absolute thing of beauty.

[00:13:03]24year-old 5-speed transmission out of a Japanese domestic market Subaru Forester. It's a little scongy, but there's a method to my madness. One, it's 4.44 44 final drive, which is very important for what I want. But two, I was trying to pick a transmission that is both in the budget and also one that probably has lowerish kilometers. So, this is very likely under 100k. And also too, it's out of a Forester. And so, my reasoning was if I have to choose between like a WRX or an STI or a Forester transmission, I'm riding on the the bet that this transmission would have been bagged a lot less than a WRX or STI transmission. Should be should be good.

[00:13:44]All right. So, we put a um I guess you know like a stage one clutch on there.

[00:13:50]We don't need anything too crazy. And I don't want the engagement to be super nuts because when we're mid-stage like the shifting gets messy and so I actually want something that's going to treat the rest of the system nicely without too much shock when I'm doing brutal shifts. And so we go with stage one that's going to be plenty for the amount of power this engine makes. Uh, and we've got a just like a a resurfaced used EJ flywheel on there. And I went with an EJ flywheel because Lightning flywheels are really expensive and this is really cheap. And two, the weight of this is made for a four-cylinder, whereas this is a six-cylinder. This is a lot more rotating mass. So, this should kind of act like sort of like a a a lighter weight flywheel in comparison to the engine. So, I've heard of other people doing this. You know, it makes the revs a little bit zippier than normal. So, I think it should be just right.

[00:14:40]The engine is in the proximity of the car. Now we just have to smush these two things together.

[00:14:48]>> Oh, I dropped.

[00:14:49]>> And then rally car, I guess.

[00:14:54]This is the easiest install ever.

[00:14:58]>> Step one, remove everything.

[00:15:07]Because of our crazy tight timeline, TSS Fab sent the subframe in raw steel and we immediately got it sent over to Blackbox Automotive here in Calgary and they did a super super super fast turnaround time to perfectly powder coat this subframe. It is so nice. Blackbox does powder coating and ceramic coating and fabrication. They're absolutely fantastic.

[00:15:28]>> Minimum the third engine that this ridiculous chassis has seen in its life.

[00:15:35]Three engines minimum. Here we go. Hey.

[00:15:41]>> Yeah. Holy smokes.

[00:15:54]>> Oh, baby.

[00:16:00]>> Pretty cool.

[00:16:02]>> Well, it's touching. We're going to have to >> touching what? Oh yeah.

[00:16:05]>> Oh, it's touching. Oh, >> the engine, >> right?

[00:16:09]>> But it is it's it is leaned over so far.

[00:16:12]>> Yeah. So, one of the weaknesses of the EZ30R is the exhaust manifolds or the the headers on the backside. They're really restrictive for flow. It's kind of trapping a lot of the really great sound of the EZ30. And so, you can go ahead and get these from a company called Unicorn Power Systems. And uh these flow way way better than stock and they make it sound really sick. Um they these ones have a a Vband option as well. So we went for that. So it's just like really nice easy disconnect if we have to do that um in the middle of a rally service, which will be super super handy rather than everything being totally welded together. I cannot wait to get these on the car. It's so shiny and so nice. You may notice I've been doing a heck of a lot of shout outs in this video because it took a freaking village to make this engine swap happen so quickly and I can't thank them all enough. Okay, we've got a new diff on the back as well. And uh even if we had just done this change like between a new well not new, it's very old transmission, but transmission and diff even just making that change and if we had left the same engine in there, it would have totally transformed how peppy the vehicle would feel. And that's because the final drive changed a significant amount. The final drive before uh was 3.9 on this setup and now we're going to a 4.44. And what that means is with a 3.9, that drive shaft would have to turn 3.9 times in order to turn the wheel one time. But now we're going to 4.44. So now that center drive shaft has to turn 4.44 times in order to turn this one time. So it's basically like giving the engine more leverage over the wheels essentially. But that does mean that you'll rev out sooner.

[00:17:53]Doing a 4.44 is great for like a rally car because we know we'll still have plenty of top speed on this. But if I were to have this as a daily driver and throw it in fifth gear on the highway, you're going to be revving way higher than you would with a 3.9 or a 3.7. So, uh, amazing rally car upgrade. Maybe not so good for the street, right? So, here we are. Um, I haven't been in the shop in a little bit. Uh, these guys have been tackling a ton of stuff. I I've basically just been editing. I've been in my basement editing and editing and editing to try and put out videos faster on the channel. Get out more stuff for you all who are asking for it. Um, and so these guys have just been Oh, man. They've been putting in a lot of work. Let's check it out. Yeah, there's been so much going on every moment of every day.

[00:18:45]>> What do you want? These guys have been here doing this. Just an endless checklist of stuff to take care of, including bending the freaking frame rails out to just even fit the engine.

[00:19:00]Uh, after we put the engine in, we found out very quickly that on this side, it was contacting cuz of that uh original damage that I bought the car with. Look, we've got a rad support in and the rad, which is like an OE H6 rad. It's pretty thin. Um, and we've got uh these end up being like those the thin spa fans, right?

[00:19:21]>> Yeah.

[00:19:22]>> Yeah. So, we've got these thinner spa fans. They're like they're they're a lot thinner than normal fans, but they're from a good company that they're known for making fans that push a lot of air.

[00:19:32]So, we're going to we're going to hope for the best on that. And as you can see, Ryan T is uh in wiring purgatory right now.

[00:19:43]just a lot of wiring. And Ryan C. Yes, there are that many Ryans. Um, he has been working on getting the Haltech dash in, which is so sick.

[00:19:56]Um, this engine is running on a standalone. This is the only real way to be able to do this, especially for rally and motorsports. Um, we're running the engine off of its own separate Haltech ECU. It's a Elite 2500, and Ryan C is a bit of a master at this stuff, so he's been working on that. It has been all hands on deck and it is Monday right now. This car needs to be done done by Friday and there is so much to do cuz it all has to be totally wired up, ready to go. We need to have it on the dyno to tune it. All of this has to happen like now now.

[00:20:28]This will eventually go here.

[00:20:35]Uh hey, you've seen Jason on the channel a few times before. He's been a massive part, especially like the fabrication side of getting that car to where it is now.

[00:20:43]>> Literally can't do it without Jason. And if you remember from one of those older videos, um I told you about Jason a little bit and how uh he's kind of a big deal in the drift scene in South Africa with the car up there behind us by the way. And what's really really cool to hear is that Jason is on track to get back into back into the big leagues pretty quick here. What's going on with you lately? Yeah. So, we're getting the car fully rebuilt to head into Formula Drift Prospect next year. Well, this year.

[00:21:12]>> What type of car?

[00:21:13]>> Uh, so this is my right-hand drive Ford Mustang that I imported from South Africa when I moved here. So, it was way cheaper to import a race car than it was to buy a car here and then have to rebuild everything. And then it's leftand drive. I'm used to driving on the correct side of the car. We've had to change so much from the roll cage.

[00:21:32]The engine's been fully rebuilt. fuel cell >> just for like different regulations.

[00:21:37]>> Yeah, I had a pedal box in. One of their rules is that you have to have stock pedals. Really? So, I had to import pedals from the UK because obviously rightand drive I couldn't find in North America.

[00:21:46]>> Rightand drive Ford Mustang pedals.

[00:21:48]>> Interesting. All right. Where can people follow you on this build?

[00:21:51]>> Jason Webb on YouTube and then Webdrift 45 on Instagram and Facebook.

[00:21:56]>> Nice. That's sick. The car is unbelievable. I'll get a couple uh clips of the car and where it's at and um yeah, man. Can't wait to see you out there. Sorry. When is the first event?

[00:22:03]First event for you. First events in May.

[00:22:05]>> All right. Cheers, man. Sweet. So, now Jason is starting to work on the exhaust. Going to run a 3-in stainless exhaust all the way to here. We're going to do a uh one very like mild muffler to it. Just like pass through kind of muffler. And then uh a cat on the end.

[00:22:24]Motorsport cat. Flows really, really well. It goes right on the end of the exhaust system for a rally car. It's like the least likely to hit anything when it's, you know, up at the very very back edge of the vehicle. So, that's nice. And um cuz the last owners at some point they smashed into something and the cat like bashed a big dent into the cabin.

[00:22:47]There's the resonator.

[00:22:49]Straight on through. Straight pipe 3 lers.

[00:22:52]They don't they don't sound amazing, but if you do it right, if you put like the right resonator and cat situation on there, it can sound really really good.

[00:23:00]And I'm hoping I'm really hoping that this will do it.

[00:23:19]So, what we'll do is Yeah, we'll lob off these two ends and then those two will marry and we'll make our own little Y piece there.

[00:23:30]>> They'll come around next to each other and then join down here somewhere.

[00:23:33]>> Okay. Yeah.

[00:23:36]>> Oh, yeah. Something like that. It's >> beautiful.

[00:23:40]a little bit more compact in this guy.

[00:23:48]>> If there's one skill I want to learn how to do really well in my life, it's metal fabrication. I have endless respect for great fabricators like Jason who can work with steel and aluminum in a 3D space to make something functional on the performance side and something that is straight up stunning to even just look at. So much skill involved here.

[00:24:23]looks like an alien. Build some kind of airbox there.

[00:24:27]>> Mhm.

[00:24:29]>> Give us something to mount the our stream reservoir to. Okay, with the exhaust now on, everything should be buttoned up and wired up enough to attempt a first start on this engine.

[00:24:40]It's time to find out if this engine was totally cooked from the beginning.

[00:24:46]Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

[00:24:58]I think it's worth It's happening.

[00:25:47]Okay, that's very exciting. Uh, sounds really scary. They don't seem too concerned. um you know, just first start. It's not going to just be purring like a kitten yet. Uh yeah, they're going to do some checks on some things and keep testing.

[00:26:07]So exciting.

[00:26:24]Spicy.

[00:26:25]>> Woo.

[00:26:26]>> Sorry about your future life, little Tbeca engine.

[00:26:30]I was a little worried cuz it it idles kind of quietly, but as soon as you step on it.

[00:26:35]>> Holy smokes. Okay, it looks like the engine is all right so far.

[00:26:40]>> All right, we're closing the hood for now.

[00:26:51]Now it's time to get it on the dyno here at VEX Performance. Get a base tune on it. Make sure the engine and transmission can actually run under proper load.

[00:27:03]>> Oh, I want I just want to drive it >> and see what this very stock setup can do on pump gas. I just want to hear it rev. What's your guess, Max?

[00:27:34]>> 200 wheel.

[00:27:35]>> 200. All right. I like that. I mean, from everything I'm hearing about this dyno, that could be optimistic.

[00:27:43]It's worth noting that for dinos, uh, elevation makes a really big difference.

[00:27:47]And a lot of people get their big dino numbers at sea level or very close to it. We are about 3,500 ft above above sea level. So like about 1,000 m. And also, this type of dyno is known as a heartbreaker dyno.

[00:28:02]So let's see.

[00:28:07]Heat up here.

[00:28:41]It's so loud.

[00:29:02]I don't know if you can hear me again, but Max just said that was like half throttle, by the way. Like they're just they're just kind of getting things going.

[00:29:11]So that's not full throttle. That's a good sign.

[00:29:27]Okay, that was my first time hearing it all the way to red line, which is 7200 RPM.

[00:29:33]Holy smokes, that thing. That's amazing.

[00:29:36]And it took it. It didn't blow up. I I think everybody was maybe a little worried about that cuz again, we never saw inside this engine. So, yeah, pretty pumped. It sounded so good. I know it's not going to come across with this tiny poor little microphone well at all.

[00:29:53]it'll just be really buzzy, but sounded amazing.

[00:29:57]>> So, basically, we're just adjusting all the fueling aspect of it for now.

[00:30:03]>> The fueling aspect of it.

[00:30:05]>> Okay.

[00:30:06]>> Um, so just making sure we're reaching our targets when we need to. Yeah. Once the fueling is all set, then we can start adding more power.

[00:30:14]>> You're taking bets out here. What What are you at?

[00:30:17]>> 192.

[00:30:18]>> 192. What's your bet?

[00:30:20]>> 188. 188. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm saying 195.

[00:30:27]>> Alex said 170.

[00:30:29]>> Oh, yeah. Thanks, Alex.

[00:30:33]So, no, no surprise here. I am the highest guess.

[00:30:53]Um, okay. So, um, that's where we're at for this one. It wound up being 180. It's like 179 point something. Uh, I was hoping for more, but they tried uh they tried a bunch of things and um, that is the safe tune for now, which is what we need. We need a safe tune. And so being on a Heartbreaker dyno at 3500 ft, you know, if we were in LA on a Mustang dyno, that's got to be over 200, right? Let's call it Let's just call it an even like 300. All right, we dinoed at 300.

[00:31:25]Perfect. See you later.

[00:31:54]With an extreme amount of hard work by so many, the swap was finished literally hours before the start of the next rally. And we'll cover the whole experience in the next video, but I can tell you now that it was everything I'd hoped it to be.

[00:32:08]It's powerful. Sounds unreal. It's an absolute handful. It's It's a dream come true.

[00:32:17]But little did we know that within 48 hours of finishing the swap, my co-driver and I would be on our way to the hospital and the car would be destroyed.

[00:32:29]See you on the next one.