I was travelling home on Monday evening, minding my own business when a car pulled out of a side road directly into my path. The road was wet, and in spite of my best efforts I was unable to avoid the inevitable. My car made the ultimate sacrifice . . . .
. . . . and it's my first ever total loss. It was a BF7 EJ22 n/a 4WD with 5MT with hi/low ratio. It had done an intergalactic mileage (381,000km) but was in very tidy condition. My only injury was a sore knee after it hit the dash. The guy driving the other car was also unhurt. His is the blue car in the picture above, it's a late model aussie Ford Falcon XR8, fitted with a 260kw 5.4l V8. I hit the r/f corner. The police attended the scene, and established quite quickly that the other guy was at fault.
i had just fitted a set of 16" BBS alloys to the Legacy, and the car already had a full leather interior and various other upgrades that I'd previously fitted, so I went hunting for a replacement Legacy to swap the good stuff into.
I found this:
It's a JDM GT quad cam 2 litre turbo with auto trans, with only 125,000km (78,000mi) on the clock. Unusually for one of these in NZ, it hasn't been molested at all. There's no blow-off valve or pod filter, no extra guages screwed onto the dash, it's a completely virgin unmolested car, which is exactly what I was looking for. There are a few bumps & bruises here & there, but it's going to be straightforward to tidy it up. The price was reasonable IMHO.
I've since given it a wash and swapped the 16" BBS alloys over. There's several little things that need attention, but it seems to be a strong honest car so far. Time will tell . . . .
Sucks about your car, it looks nice. But that new one looks super clean so that's good to hear. I'm sure it'll make a fine car.
98 Metro Hatch Daily Driver :)
91 SS EJ20G Engine/Tranny/Diff Swap Build Thread Here
"Your testes are close to your bottom but you still play with them all the time." Jeremy Clarkson
I've spent this weekend attending to a few things and swapping stuff over from the wrecked car. Just changing the wheels alone has transformed the car. Even my wife likes it!
I haven't been on this forum for quite some time. I rediscovered a link a few days ago and found this thread. Thought it might be time for an update!
I still have the BF GT, and it is back in regular use after an enforced rest a few years ago (the car, not the owner!). The bigends began rattling about three years ago, and I parked it up in anticipation of a rebuild. There had been indications of the engine's ailing health for a while, so the final death-rattles came as no great surprise.
It also gave me plenty of time to think about what particular purpose I wanted the car to fulfill, and how best to achieve that purpose. In a nutshell, I wanted to preserve the car's "drive-ability" in traffic without being peaky or needing constant revs, and I wanted it to be smooth, quiet and reliable. I also wanted it to be quick, without drinking fuel like an alcoholic. No problem then . . . .
I had been acquiring parts in anticipation of the impending rebuild for a few years prior, so I began a more focussed approach. I found a bare CDB with a few damaged threads, a set of barely used 1st oversise Wiseco forged pistons, an unmarked crankshaft, a set of near new H-beam rods and a pair of heads off a JDM BG GT-B. The shopping list included a new 12mm oil pump, a set of Subaru main and b/end shells, and a Subaru timing belt kit complete with water pump.
Also on the list was a set of stainless steel equal length headers, and a GFB under-driven crank pulley kit.
I approached a local Subaru dismantler and bought a manual conversion "kit" which included the crossmember, pedal set, clutch hydraulics, driveshaft, manual speedo cluster, and starter motor. They gave a limited 30 day warranty which was well expired by the time we had the car running, but they stood by the kit and replaced a few items which failed and supplied a few items which were missing from the kit. I was pleasantly surprised.
Because of pressures of time with work, I came to an arrangement with a local Subaru mechanic. He pulled the dead engine out, and I took it home to strip the turbo, inlet manifold, injectors, sump etc and swap them over to the new engine. Once assembled, I then dropped the new engine off for the local guy to install, along with the manual conversion kit. We also took the opportunity to overhaul the brakes, regas the aircon, add an electronic boost controller and fit a new radiator.
The car has been back in use for eighteen months now, and has traveled about 15,000mi so far. The only further change has been to replace the suspension struts with a used set of Bilsteins from a BG GT-B, with standard springs. The handling is good and the ride is quite acceptable. I regularly tow a trailer which weighs about 1,000lb, sometimes covering 600-800mi during a weekend. The car copes with the load without complaint, and my wife is happy to travel in the car too. Overtaking and hill climbing are effortless.
Performance wise when it's not towing, it's a barrel of fun. It's still running the OEM VF10 turbo and OEM ECU, but the electronic boost controller has managed to squeeze 14lb out of them. Importantly though, the car remains a pleasure to drive in traffic as well as on deserted country roads. I have recently acquired a TD05 in tidy condition, but am in no hurry to install it because the car is running so well.
Plans for the coming year are to tidy up the body and repaint it to make it a bit more presentable. I don't want a show winner, and have made no attempt to dress the engine bay, but I would like it a bit tidier. It's not bad overall, but doesn't pass a close inspection cosmetically.
One comment on your engine build, upgrading to the larger flow 12mm oil pump on an engine that doesn't need it can cause issues. I don't remember which member had the issues, but essentially what happens is that the pump is flowing more oil than the engine needs so the oil is bypassed and can foam, which isn't good for lubrication.
Maybe some others will chime in if they remember who it was that used the 12mm pump and had the issues.
PhyrraM wrote:Properly functioning oil squirters shut off at low oil pressure.
Using a 12mm pump on an engine without AVCS must be done with caution. If too much oil is recycled by the bypass the opportunity is there to over aerate the oil.
The 12mm pump only came on motors with AVCS or dual AVCS. If you use it on a motor with less demand for oil, then the bypass will stay open for a greater percentage of time. This can lead to excessive re-circulation of the oil and the possible introduction of more air than the system can "float" out.
If the motor was built with much larger bearing clearances than stock, then there might be a need significantly bump oil supply with the 12mm pump.
I'm not saying anything is right or wrong with your particular build, I'm just throwing out some theorycraft to help with your eventual diagnosis.
god i hope this isnt in my future! +1 on being alright though.