1997 gf8 sti ej20k project
 

Hey everyone my names Kyle I’ve got a 1997 gf8 here in Okinawa. I have searched forum after forum and can’t seem to find anything useful. I’m trying to gain some knowledge on power capabilities of the ej20k I’ve got. I want to make 500hp or more but I have yet to find anything I’ve spent weeks searching but all I find is ej20 in general. I want to know specifically what I can and can’t make on the ej20k or if I’m just gonna have to suck it up and do the 207 or 20x swap thanks in adavance

Short answer, for 500bhp you're going to have to get a built motor.

Thanks for the quick response
 

Now when you say built motor are you saying other than my 20k? Reason I’m asking is because 20ks are a dime a dozen here and I had planned on building the 20k. Was going to sleeve and possibly do a striker kit. But I’ve spent a year doing research and I can’t find anything on 20ks it’s only ever been “ej20” in general that I’ve been able to find. If the easy answer is to 207 or 20x swap it then that’s what I’ll do.

for clarification the reason I’ve not mentioned anything newer is because here in Japan in order to pass JCI my engine block has to stay stamped EJ20 so I am limited to what I can do.

This is an oversimplification but all the EJ20 blocks are the same including the ones found in the N/A models. The main differences are obviously the internals and whether they are closed, semi closed or open deck. So in theory if you wanted to you could get a N/A block and build it.

Now for your current situation you could use your block and depending on what deck it is you could get closed deck inserts. Then do the stroker kit.

that was my thoughts. I was thinking to sleeve and stroke and go with bigger cams but I don’t know how versatile the cams are I was thinking of getting brian crower stage 3 280 cam shafts and some adjustable cams as well a few other odds and ends. Main focus though is compatibility.

Over simplification again but if you are going aftermarket cams you are going the built head route. Now from factory the car never came with AVCS heads, more commonly found on newage STI so if you wanted to run them you would need newage heads and a standalone ecu to allow it to run. There are other ways but to my knowledge thats the easiest.

Those cams you mentioned I have not looked into but I'm sure others on here have used them.

Another thing to consider is the year of car you have, if I am not mistaken it is a 93 model and that ECU cannot be remapped. You will need an ESL i think

It’s a 97 but correct I cannot re flash my ecu I was going to go with haltech. Thanks for the info this all should help me.

Sorry brain fart on my end :lol1: