USLiberty's 93 L with SS/Wrx swap: v1 EJ20g(FCD), EMS

[usliberty]

Here's my first post and my 93 legacy I built with a jdm EJ20g swap,Link Plus ECM, FMIC, HKS BOV, EVC boost controller, 3"downpipe, K sport coilovers and many more. Enjoy and feel free to comment. Heres the address to my album. https://picasaweb.google.com/1008532728 ... directlink

[kimokalihi]

Nice car. I see you had the rats nest problem I experienced a year ago. The car sat for 3 years while I was collecting parts and they built a nest and had babies in the HVAC fan. I finally got the car running and was testing out the electronics and flipped the fan on high and heard them bouncing around in the fan getting chopped up. Smelled terrible and I had to rip out the entire HVAC system and replace it.

You should delete about 1/3 of your pictures as many of them have multiple shots of the same thing from ever-so-slightly different angles and level of focus.

[usliberty]

still working on the album but probably added/deleted a few more pics also but yeah the rats had made a condominium for themselves with a large storage of stolen dog food in the glove compartment. they seem to like the taste of black wire insulation, Car sat for 5 years after it had the basic ej20t swap with link plus ECU. febuary of 2011 I started bringing it back, about 8000$ later and 4 months of solid 40-50 hour weeks, I have rebuilt it to where I always intended it to be. I had John at Outfront/Outback motorsports tune the ECM/motor. The motor was from nippon motors in LA, a rare/desirable version of the motor im told by the sandrail guys called "rocker arm motor" descibing its different valve cover, it was a closed deck version and came with a water-air intercooler.
This latest restore/upgrade included replaced water/oil pump, timing belt, idler bearing, valve cover gaskets, cam/crank seals. Installed STI motor/tranny mounts, exedy stage 1 clutch, FMIC(ebay), walbro 255 fuel pump, 3"downpipe and exhaust with a 3" magnaflow(sounds so good), 3"cone filter & intake to turbo, HKS SSQV BOV, HKS EVC2 electronic boost controller, autometer EGT, oil pressure, air/fuel stoich gauges. The interior was stripped down, 40lbs of fatmat sound deadening installed(stereo fanatic), yellow top optima battery relocated in the trunk, pioneer deh4200 head unit powering 2 6-1/2"& 2 5-1/4" infinity reference series component speakers F&R, soundstream 900D 900watt amp pushing 1-kicker solobaric 12"L5 and Metallica sounds absolutely flawless when cranked. I also installed a powered/heated leather recaro sport seat that is the best improvement I ever made! I painted the dash, fabricated the gauge cluster under the head unit. I also installed a set of K sport adjustable coilovers I got off ebay and was also extremely impressed by the smooth ride even when lowered. I have a wedge frature of T8 vertabrae and a horrible ride would kill me, and they are extremely smooth on grated dirt roads. I run 16-18 psi with stock turbo with stock injectors at 80% duty.

[usliberty]

Pics in gallery are now in cronological order of restore

[hitzkrieg]

There never was an actual EJ20'T', the designations were G, H, K, R, 5, 6, 7 and 8. It looks like you have the early EJ20G engine in your car because of the valve covers with the lines on it. Nitpicking aside, it's a nice build. Welcome to LC

[usliberty]

Your right, I knew that long ago but the brain and the fingers werent working that early in the morning for me. I added some great pics I took from a local lookout point with a dramatic Arizona monsoon storm/sunset in the background, even caught some lighting in a few pics. how do you post pics in the forums?

[Florin1]

You need to host them on photobucket or picasa or whatever. Then get the url that has "IMG" in the url. Copy that and paste it here.

[Legacy777]

Welcome to the BBS!

Nice looking Legacy and motor rebuild!

[usliberty]

Long time no post, lots has happened since my past project. My SS was hit which bent the frame rail next to the motor. I decided to scrap the car and swap everything to a fwd legacy... lighter and cheaper insurance. I will summarize it and try to not leave anything out.
Starting with some favorite pics of my SS.



Some AZ monsoons


Jerome copper mine with NABISCO's


And the hit, a little old lady did not see me


And the other side

[usliberty]

RIP Sleepy Panda...
good ole 20g motor is non interference so this is still okay.

I decided to port my exhaust manifold while I searched for a cheap donor, this ended up giving me at least 20hp according to my butt dyno.

[usliberty]

Motor got cleaned up, new valve cover gaskets, timing belt and replaced broken timing covers. Painted gold to pay tribute to the rsra motor.


Got a freebie streelite act flywheel, it got surfaced


Found a donor car in phoenix 500$ and I towed it home. Its fwd/auto and it has a ej20(eu replacement/swAp?) and was knocking very badly.


it had been through a hailstorm or two





Pulled that motor and cleaned her up, was absolutely filthy!!


Best of all, no ABS!! I had to swap the clutch cylinder, drilled a few holes matching the SS.


Dash had to be painted to match my ss interor, so it came out

[usliberty]

Dash and a fat cat!


Dash, painted and reinstalled, its a grey to match the interior, used TSP to scrub/clean, then bulldog adhesive promoter and then SEM dash paint in a rattlecan.


InFinity kappa 6 1/2" components replace the factory, ran larger gauge wire for more power in future.


Ran dual 4ga power wires to trunk for battery to be moved there


Tranny was swapped in at this point, wiring mess to go thru

[usliberty]

Motor is going in




Battery is moved, room for ignitors


FMIC is installed, ducted the piping under the headlights instead of thru the fenders

[usliberty]

Cleaned it up and blacked out the fmic.... sleeper.


Lots of dings and a hit in the right rear tail-light


A!#es up girls! Rear subframe gets swapped, along with fuel tanks and pressure relief canister thingy.


Got sick of dirtywork so I swapped doorpanels, windows/guides and motors

[Legacy777]

It almost looks like the master cylinder was leaking, or that may just be from water and dirt that has collected on the brake booster under the master cylinder.

[Legacy777]

That's A LOT of work, but is coming along and looking good!

[usliberty]

Thanks, I haven't finished uploading the rest lol. I think the oil is probably from brake oil spillage cuz ive been driving it for 6 months now and brakes work great. If you noticed the bodywork was bad, I spent more time doing bodywork than the whole swap. Being my first paint job I made several mistakes on material usage but I always stripped off the putty and used the correct bondo for the job.. maybe three or four times before I was happy. Was driving it in primer for a couple months. Overall it took 6 months to paint after the car was driving.
While it was in primer I broke a single tooth in first gear so my trans was dead! That sucked! I found a nabisco buddy who had a 03 wrx trans/diff leftover from his 6speed swap, only 80,000 miles but the centerdiff bearings had been taken out. So that required me to order a set of four center diff bearings and install them(125$) Lucky my nabisco
buddies are alky's and he gave me the 5speed/diff for a 30pack he also helped me put it in using his heated garage. Now I have limited slip and scandanavian flicks are much improved. Now some more pics.
120$ for scrap just doesn't justify my loss. At least I stripped it completely first.


Guidecoat

[usliberty]

Bodywork sucks! Wax on wax off!



I did get some size in my arms with all the sanding. I block sanded it rather than use a DA because this car has straight panels and lots of haildamage. I stopped counting when I counted 130 dings all over the place, one hailrock nearly penetrated the roof.


More primer!


Eventually the whole thing was primer and I rejoiced!


I kicked the crap outta a 4x4 toyota getting here


Primer with my modified ss grill, which later broke and I had to make a new one from my L-trim grill


Another Nabisco cruise, left a couple sti's in my dust when sparring in the corners it only weighs 3020lbs in

[usliberty]

This is how bad my roof was!!


Looks diseased



I think this would be considered an act of god


Frankenscoob is its name, this thing shouldn't of been brought back to life. 4 cars into 1.

[Legacy777]

Again....looks good!

At least you got $120 for the shell. When I scrapped my donor car I didn't get anything for it.....they just came and took it away.

[usliberty]

Finally was happy with my work







Building my grill


I also started experimenting with a two tone my hood, the flat colors can be sanded and polished to a gloss.

[usliberty]

I love the shadows casted by the flat white but the top of the car is just blinding and no body lines can be seen from the top. I'm considering making the top half of the car gloss. What do you think? Using the body line that goes down the door handles as a line break.

[Legacy777]

That might work.....I agree using the normal body line would be a good break between the flat and gloss. I'm not sure how it would look with a "hard" edge from gloss to flat though....

[SILINC3R]

I love the body work. You are a pro for sure. Love seeing resurrections

[usliberty]

I'm not pro but thanks for the compliments. I would have been fired for how long I took, LOL. Here's where I got the idea for the two tone, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9boKQFcQ ... ata_player