Sorry for all the confusion. I'm building up an EJ25 from a warrantee block using SOHC 2.2 heads (for price reasons and personal curiosity).
I currently co-drive a 98RS with the DOHC in DSP. We're kinda doing dual duty since the OWNER of the 98RS discusses with me what we should do to his car to make it more of a beast. We split costs of parts, tires, etc...and I do alot of the wrenching while teaching him how to do some of this stuff.
I've been looking for a shortblockto build up and put in my 96L for a long time and ALMOST bought a couple online last year.... Then I took the 98 to the strip and just by chance started talking to a guy who worked at a local dealer. I asked about blocks and we pretty much made a deal I couldn't refuse, so I got 3 blocks with the intention of selling 2 to help finance the 3rd one's cleanup/machinework.
Meanwhile, we still have the 98 that we're trying to make nationally competitive in street prepared, which allows for some interesting mods that nobody else has tried on a Subie yet (to our knowledge). I don't like the fact that already the DSP Imprezas are being referred to as STS cars with Rcompounds. I want to show that one can take an RS and bring it relatively close to the limits of SP rules and do "very well". It really hurts that we can't revert to IT specs as other cars can, they can get very, very light and still make decent power and put it down with authority.
Altering the timing of the cams on the DOHC is part of our plan once we obtain or build adjustable cam gears. At only 33k miles, it's not ready for a new timing belt yet, but once we find a set of gears or a way to make the stock ones adjustable, we'll be in there changing that around.
The project that is the subject of this thread, is going to go into my 96L. I originally wanted to have a 2.5 built up last year to take advantage of DSP rules that clumped ALL Imprezas together. I was hoping to have a stock 2.5 (heads and all) pushing my L chassis with no power anything to DSP contention against the flyweight race bred Fiats and IT BMWS, Acuras, Capris, Neons, etc...
After reading about the prices of 2.5 heads and some peoples dis satisfaction with folks selling RS parts at REASONABLE prices just to keep the "value" of the RS high. I checked into other options and found that the "lowly" 2.2, though sought for it's turbo ready closed deck model, is virtually worthless to most. When I look at the stock power levels it puts out, I can't help but think that with more compression and some more agressive tuning, it might rival some conservatively tuned turbo motors.....Just what most folks are doing while fretting over the transmission longevity or crunching the numbers of lord knows what else. It's my opinion that motors running any amount of boost UNDER 10psi is a waste and should be tuned N/A or re-engineered to hold 10-15psi. Including trannies, axles, brakes, etc...
I'll build up a junkyard dog with very little hi-tech treatments, or expensive electronic gadgetry. Old Skool tuning with basic, time proven fueling control to keep things running reliably. Time may change this plan into something vastly different. I don't know yet. I'll have balancing checked to make sure bearing longevity is not an issue, but nothing extraordinary.
Puck....yeah, the MAP vs MAF is ECU related. It don't care what kind of heads you're running. Go for it if you want. Just know that headgaskets are an area of concern. Price may not be any higher due to the general concensus (or wholesale wool-pulling) that SOHC is "the way to go".