you can do the usual intake/ header/exhaust but in the end you'll still be slower then a stock wrx, and you'll probably thirst for more, i think AVO has a turbo kit.
get a wrx. this question comes up alot and this is still the best answer. you can do the usaul mods as 3rik stated. but in the end you will still be slower than a stock wrx. you can go with a turbo kit, however with the high compression 2.5l you cant run much boost (6psi) before you need to sink alot of money into it since you will hit a wall. while a wrx has alot more power upgrade options that can be done before you need to sink alot of money into it. for NA do headers, catback, intake, and them look into new other things such as EMS Cobb makes an AP for the NA 2.5ls now IIRC. this would be a good route to go, from there you can get some Delta re-ground/TWE/Cobb cams. then you need to get creative
indeed. I have heard however that the Delta re-grinds offer very similiar gains and cost less Also if you want to go all out TWE has done a NA 2.5l to put out 300CHP (same as stock STi), like 220 at the wheels or something. Yet is has a NA tq curve that will leave you in last week. yet this is highly expensive as it will cost more $$$ per HP/TQ to gain it NA versus Turbo
I didn't know there was a turbokit for NA vehicles .. isn't that a bad idea? I was toying with the idea of putting a tiny turbo on the RS but was told that I would probably blow up the motor... I know nothing about this. I sux.
alot of people on here have turbo NA cars. myself included. There are/were quite a few places that made turbo kits for RSs. they tend to be expensive though. it isnt a horrible idea. adding alittle boost to a NA car wont blow it up if you are careful. if you can add more fuel through an FMU or bigger injectors and can retard the timing with a EMS you can squeeze alot of power from a boosted NA car. I think kelly was pushing 200whp on his RS w/ his turbo kit. the issue comes with the fact that NA cars run higher compression than turbo motors. so they cannot hold as much boost before you start running into problems (detonation, ect...). if you lower the compression you can run more boost. a 2.5i or RS runs at 10:1 or 10.5:1 compression where are a WRX runs closer to 8:1. you can do 6psi on a RS or i with basic supporting mods, 10 or 12 if you go all out (EMS) like kelly did. after that you will need to do work to the actual motor to allow it to take more boost with out problems. a WRX can run hella more boost without running into issues. a WRX comes at close to 14psi and with supporting mods can get close to the 20s (i am not 100% on this i am not a wrx pro).
i havent blown mine, bilkface hasnt blown his, (however he has a hydra nemesis) he has 220 whp and like 265 wtq
Enginuity now supports a number of ODBII NA Subaru's. There is a thread on NASIOC in the "Proven Power Bragging" with a guy that gained some power by tuning. However, you're fairly limited in what you can tune on a N/A car.
A high compression engine, though you cannot run as much boost safely, would produce better off-boost response though, right? I wouldn't mind seeing a dyno graph overlay of a 2.5 (high compression) boosted to 6psi, vs a 2.0 WRX with stock turbo. Still, if you could find a used WRX that hasn't been trashed, it would probably be a cheaper fast car in the long run.
there was a article in subiesport in which they got one of the new APs for the NA 2.5l and had it on their zero->hero car.
No worries, the goal for your car would and should be shortblock swap and some sort of EM. I am not a firm believer in turboing the NA motors. It can be done, and somewhat reliably, but my belief is "why risk it?" We'll find you a nice motor to make power with. Although, a lightly boosted 180 whp N/A motor would be lots of fun. Torquey, for sure. We need to figure out what you want from teh car first.