[lazylongboarder]

Actually, the only closed deck block that subaru ever produced was the EJ22, a naturally aspirated 2.2 liter motor put in the legacy's in the early 90's. The STi now has a semi closed deck block. Both the EJ20T and EJ20TT have an open deck block. No 2.0 or 2.5 liter deck has ever been closed from the factory. Not even the Forrester 2.5 X... 330 hp from the factory.

When I make my fire-breather i'll use either the STi block or the EJ22 block, sleeve it, Forged rods, billet pistons, cams, valves, retainers, port and polish, T3/T4, 33 psi, and no muffler.

When the EJ22 block is sleeved the block will be able to handle 50 psi! All I would have to worry about is the crank snapping in two and finding rods, wristpins, rings, pistons, valves, cams, retainers...Hell every thing breaks at those pressure levels. The EJ20T and TT block will handle 400 hp stock, that'll be fine for a while. 400 hp in a bug is plenty if you ask me.

The only difference between the EJ20T and the EJ20TT is that the heads are differant. The valves are slightly larger and the cams are a little more aggresive. The shortblocks on these two motors are identical, hence an identical compression ratio.

The reason why i'm going with a single turbo conversion is that the header is heavier than a sandrail header and controlling boost is much easier as well as plumbing for a high capacity intercooler. But if you are looking for an easy 300 hp on a budget, The EJ20T series motors can't be beat. I have to use a sandrail style header because of the rear exiting (to the motor, forwards on a rear engined application) stock style header based on the EJ20T will interfere with the cross member of the 993's rear suspension that i'm putting on.