HappyFrog's 1992 Legacy Turbo

[mike-tracy]

Holy crap those are rusted. Sorry bro, I live right by the sea and even we don't have that bad of a problem with rust.

[HappyFrog]

They were already in really bad shape when I stored them away. I bought new ones for my impreza so I thought these were to be stored away for good and didn't think of soaking them in oil at the time. Oh well, we'll see what a lot of soaking, a good cleaning and some sandblasting will do to them.

[HappyFrog]

While waiting for the spring and some funds to clear, I went to my brothers place yesterday to store some parts and help him clean out the attic. This time I brought my 3" TBE from Roger Clark Motorsport, AMS bonnet dampers, Subaru caliper repair kit, 1L DOT 5.1 brake fluid and a pound of Margarine. I still need to fix the ABS and have it MOT tested before I can take it apart for a rust job and respray.


I test fitted my speedlines to check how large tires I can get before shipping them off for refurbish. Looks alright, can't wait to see it in the final colour.



I tried to take a pic of my brothers projects, he's got 4 different BJ45s and possible a 5th on the way. The bus on the right and the pickup in the middle will be restored, the rest is just for parts.

[HappyFrog]

After much thought I have finally decided to pull the plug on this project. I'll have to admit I only bought the Legacy as it already had many of the parts I had wished for my Impreza and was hoping to be able to raise money for another Impreza as time passed. After driving it a little I decided to keep it and restore it, but as the paintjob is coming up and tax is higher than expected, I finally gave in last week and bought an Impreza instead. Paint and taxes would be around half of what I gave for the Impreza and I never would have sold the Impreza if it wasn't for financial reasons, so there is no doubt in my mind I will be happier with this in the long run.

The plan for now is to keep the Impreza running the rest of year. The Legacy will be taken apart, I'll keep the block, gearbox, ecu and tuning parts, the rest will be sold and the shell will end its days on the scrapyard. Next year the CDB, 6MT, forged internals and ecu will go in, hopefully accompanied by some STi heads and a bigger turbo aiming for 350-400bhp.

That's it from me, sorry to let you guys down.

[jake15]

when you part out the leggy i want the rear bumper lip!

[prodrive]

AWIC is out (what a b*tch btw when you are too lazy to remove the front bumper).


There was absolutely no room for either the bugeye tmic or the 99 gt tmic, so I gave in and ordered a Hybrid GT fmic for a ph1 impreza. Except from a little cutting in the bumper, it should bolt right on... I hope.
Good thing I didn't remove the bumper and saved an hour of finger killing fiddling with the awic :roll:

do you still have them?

[kimokalihi]

Got a link to this FMIC kit you're talking about? I want a kit but I don't want the gigantic intercooler that comes with the CX racing kit.

[HappyFrog]

AWIC is gone, sorry. Still got the 99 and 01 tmic, but postage is more than they are worth.

The fmic was a HDi GT Spec from Hybrid: http://hybrid-power.com/products.php?su ... e=WRX%2099
The core is pretty big though and I had to cut a lot more from the bumper and bumper beam than I expected. Harvey Smith that I bought the kit from does pipework for the Legacy which is worth mentioning. The GC8 kits will work as well if you cut both pipes on the cold side and assemble them with silicone joins.

I'd probably go for a custom job if I was doing it again, either something where the pipes goes beneath the head lights or for a Pace fmic where you don't have to cut anything - also the Pace has half the pipework of most other kits (just bought one for my impreza ).

[kimokalihi]

Where do I get a pace intercooler from? I do not want to cut my bumper beam. Sounds ludicrous to start modifying safety components for a little extra HP. How would one do custom piping? I would want to use aluminum since it won't rust but I'm sure that's not cheap and how would I bend the pipes? Without a mandrel bender they'll be out of round when bent.

[HappyFrog]

I bought mine 2nd hand, I'm not sure if they are producing them anymore. Lateral Performance has a kit as well but the price is insane ($2500 or thereabouts). I think the Pace was $2000... but you also get a new smaller radiator with the kit in order to make room for the ic core

They guy mapping mine built this one a couple of years ago. Just buy some stainless or alu bends and straight tubes, cut them up, tape them together and have someone weld them.

[kimokalihi]

Hey that could work, wonder how much it would be to build a whole kit with bends or where they sell aluminum bends and straight pipes...