edsnova posted:Good luck. I've long been astonished by the utter lack of information about and interest in tuning N/A Subarus—and N/A everything else. I guess turbos cut such a wide swath through the market that there's not market remaining for traditional head-cam-intake-(and now ecu) upgrades.
As you noted, the whole world is going to forced induction. Watch what the high-end air-cooled VW builders and tuners are doing. It's increasingly turbo-oriented.
You know that I've never been a Subaru guy... but I was driving down the road today when the whole blown-Subi thing "clicked". Everybody knows that turbos are where the power is (and where the development money is getting spent), but a turbocharged Type 1 is not streetable (at least in the way I'm thinking).
But once you go over to the water-cooled side, there's very little to stop you from just going all the way with it. The motors are a stout as an anvil, and cooling them with a turbo is just a matter of a bigger radiator(s). Some charge-cooling would be nice, which is a problem with packaging in a rear-engined car, but you could set up a nice methanol injection system to get around that.
I spent the better part of 10 years on a quest for 200 (semi) reliable HP from a Type 1, but I've always known it was a quixotic pursuit. I'm still a died-in-the-wool retro-grouch, and I love my air-cooled engine. But... if you want more than 175 hp or so, the best way to get it is with a Subaru. And if you are going to the work, you can get a 230 hp Outfront longblock with all the go-fast stuff, or you can get a 250 hp stock Subaru turbo mill. A stock EJ257 makes 300 hp/300 lb-ft.
'That ought to do it.