Subaru 2.2L turbo oil recommendations?

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I am picking up a very very clean '91 Subaru Legacy Sport Sedan with the 2.2L closed-deck EJ22T, turbocharged (no intercooler) to about 8psi. Car is all stock, very well maintained/lots of records, and 204K miles. Viscous center diff and rear LSD.

I have run Motul 300V, D1 5w-40, AMSOIL SSO, and Elf Excellium NF with good results in my '98 2.2L NA for many miles. Good UOA's. Availability is #1 alongside of cost. Mobil 1 0w-40 is another option, but not stocked in my local Wal-Marts any more, so cost has increased slightly.

I plan on running an AutoRX treatment first--- what would you recommend....just start using PP or Rotella Syn 5w-40 right off the bat? Those are my first two choices, I know I can't go wrong with those. Or should I do a good dino run while I do the AutoRX treatment?


The car will be autocrossed regularly and probably run street-pump 100 octane Sunoco or VP while being raced, otherwise babied and gas mileage squeezed out of it...yes, you can have both :)

I have had great luck with the AMSOIL Severe Gear 75w-110 in my other Subaru, so I see no reason to vary from this.

First OCI will have a long trip to Texas, where the family and I are relocating.

Opinions always appreciated.
 
i would do dino during the auto-rx phase then do either rotella or PP, PP being my first choice with a couple of uoa's to confirm everything is working out for you
 
When I first read this thread I was thinking, there's no 2.2L turbo Subie engine. Then I realized we're talking about a '91 Subie. Anyway, I agree with 02zx9r. Plenty of good dino oils out there at a good price. I ran Pennzoil and Castrol GTX 5W-30 during my clean/rinse phases in my WRX with no problems at all. Keep in mind the OCIs with Auto-Rx are only 2500 - 3000 miles so no sense spending a bundle on good synthetic if it won't be in the engine for very long. Also keep an eye on the oil level during the OCIs. I've noticed that my WRX tends to start eating some oil when the I get into the 2000-2500 mile range. Of course, that's before I did the Auto-Rx. I'm in my first OCI after the rinse phase so I don't know if that will change or not.

Ed B.
 
Congrats on the Subies! My first two cars were Subarus ('76 DL and '78 GL). Hope to have another one someday. Though it would be a toss up with a Mazda 3. My last two cars have been an '85 Mazda GLC Sport (bought in 1990), and an '88 323 (bought in '93) - the only way I can imagine these cars being any funner is if they were convertibles.

Good luck!
 
^^^^or with a Turbo and AWD (323GTX) hehe.

As I will be autocrossing the car during the ARX treatment, I still want to have some additional protection, especially when everything gets hot. Autocrossing is like baseball...90% sitting around doing nothing, and then that last 10% is a short burst of 100% throttle for 60 seconds and then sit and wait....that can't be kind to an engine.
 
get a robust dino 20w50 and run that, or if it will make you feel better than run the rotella 5w40, $16/gallon
 
Originally Posted By: 02zx9r
get a robust dino 20w50 and run that, or if it will make you feel better than run the rotella 5w40, $16/gallon


What`s BITOG`s members` favorite/best dino 20W50?
 
The car had been running Pennzoil YB 20w-50 @ 3K OCI and from the Los Angeles area. A few front seal leaks were just fixed when the timing belt/wp/cam seals/FMS replaced, but lots of residual grossness. No varnish under the oil cap that I can see. Exterior of the engine needs a thorough cleaning :)

Time for ARX, probably just run Rotella 5w-40. Thanks everyone!
 
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