kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap

[kimokalihi]

It's probably not DEAD center. I just eyeballed it by setting the scoop on the hood and used the two windshield squirters as my guide to center it. Then I marked on the scoop where the bolts where and then marked the hood and used a straight edge to connect to dots and get my bolt hole markings down. Once the holes were drilled the scoop sat much closer to the hood and I traced the outline of the scoop onto the masking tape I had already put on the hood so I could mark it with a sharpie.

You can also take even more time and make the scoop sit flush with the hood. This is much more difficult and requires a dremel or very thin small diameter cutting wheel on an end grinder to precisely cut out the outline of the scoop through the top layer only of the hood. Florin1 did this but my dremel burnt up when I started cutting the hood out over a year ago and then I didn't continue with the project until this month!

NOTE: If you do procrastinate on the project after you've already begun, do NOT leave the masking tape on the hood for over a year like I did. This ruins your paint and it's hard as hell to get off.

[CAV3MAN227]

NOTE: If you do procrastinate on the project after you've already begun, do NOT leave the masking tape on the hood for over a year like I did. This ruins your paint and it's hard as hell to get off.

-Lol! well thanks for the info. Ima wait for a while cause i haven't made up my mind if i want to do it to my ss hood or get a n/a hood!
-Joe

[kimokalihi]

When I go front mount I want to find an NA hood.

[CAV3MAN227]

-Well I'm sure there a dime a dozen in the junk yards! I saw quite a few today while getting some parts for my ss!
-Joe

[kimokalihi]

Yeah but it's hard to find one in pearl white. I don't even know if an NA pearl white hood exists. I think all the NA cars were aspen white.

[Mattheww044]

at least you guys have turbo legacies in youpr junkyards!

[kimokalihi]

I don't. I've seen one before and it was stripped so fast it was crazy. I was going there pretty often and all of the sudden there was a red touring wagon in the back and I almost didn't see it and then I checked it out and the engine and trans were gone already.

[Legacy777]

I like the grill kimo!

[Fkyx]

Hey! That looks familiar!

[HappyFrog]

Looks awesome

Is that a genuine lip? If so, where on earth did you get it?

[kimokalihi]

Thanks josh!

People sell the lip on ebay for real cheap compared to the genuine STI lip. Ebay = $70 shipped Subaru stealership = $600. The lip is an 06-07 STI knockoff. Just use a heat gun to get it to fit the curves of the bumper properly and cut out a couple chunks underneath to help it bend around the corners and trim the ends to fit.

Florin, you got one too?

[HappyFrog]

It looks good, I like that is more subtle then some of the earlier lips.

[kimokalihi]

I'm all about subtle and clean. Not into flashy ricey cars with too much going on. I really want to have my door handles painted professionally. What type of paint would hold up to frequent use and possible key contact the best? What about annodized?

[kimokalihi]

I have a condition that causes me to feel incredibly restless and anxious and even depressed when I go a whole day and get nothing accomplished. If I waste away an entire day I begin to feel trapped in a rut like my life is going nowhere and I'm worthless. I feel claustrophobic and suffocated. In a way, the legacy has been a therapeutic tool to me. I never thought of it that way until now because I don't have anything to do on it.

I think it's my job that has a lot to do with it. I used to feel the same way before I had a job when I was a kid in school. I hated school almost as much as I hate my job and just working for someone in general. So I valued the free time I had and got depressed when I wasted it doing nothing or there was nothing to do. I guess this prevents me from being completely lazy all the time which is good but the feeling of depression is less than desirable.

Anybody else feel this way?

Now that my car is on the road and running well I have begun to get mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I want it to be faster and turn it into a track car. On the other hand I keep thinking I'm going to wind up killing myself in it or worse get someone else killed. Every time I drive it fast I think about all the possible ways I could kill someone or hit a deer or have a blow out around a corner or one little mistake when I was working on the car could cause catastrophic failure. Now I'm hesitant to drive fast and that was the whole point of building the car.

Character vs Self. I'm lost.

On a brighter note, after seeing this Nissan 200sx budget drift car I really want to build a cheap drift car now.

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/08 ... -ae86.aspx

[evolutionmovement]

I get the same way if I don't do something and felt having too fast a car was useless long ago, mostly from seeing what happened to friends who had fast cars (those that were always broke and those that crashed). For me, speed has little relationship to how fun a car is to drive and that's why I've designed Tigershark to be reliable and fun to drive (light weight, no power steering, manual transmission, rwd) over being fast, though it should still be somewhere around 10 lbs/hp, so it won't be slow. If I'm not writing, designing, or building something I get depressed and angry.

[kleinkid]

Do you exercise regularly? Maybe you could use bicycling, road or mountain bike, road would be good because you could leave right from your house, or running, as a theraputic drug, so to speak. The feeling of not getting something done would be replaced by the feeling of accomplishent you would receive from the results of having physically exerted yourself. Good juice is released into your body from exercising.

[AWD_addict]

Exercise is just going to keep your wallet fatter while you get thinner, which will make your car faster in the end. But this is a car forum, so we should be encouraging you to spend money on parts, or maybe driving school.

[PhyrraM]

Not to put words in Kimo's mouth, but for some folks exercise doesn't cut it. There is no tangible evidence of progress. With the car, you can see and feel everything you've done to it. Progress is apparent and obvious.

Kimo, take my advice even though it's not popular and not many others do....find a track car. Even a cheapo one. Making a daily drive too fast (over ~300 in a Legacy) is asking for trouble. In the long run, having a proper car for each duty is way cheaper than trying to create a single 'do it all car'.

Humor me for a bit...Go to the various BBSs and take a quick tally of those with really big/nice builds. Now go and read between the lines of the posts. You will find that almost everyone who does this stuff either has a regular car as a DD or they are blowing up motors, or wrecking them, or..., or...., or.... To find the guy that REALLY and HONESTLY daily drives a built car is very rare.

Now, you've got the Metro.....what about a nice 100HP Metro daily driver? Sounds like a good waster of idle time to me. LOL

Another thing to consider...If you truely are afraid to push your Legacy (on the weekends) then your next activity should be some type of driving lesson or practice. Sign up for some rallyX. Or some autoX. First, you will be keeping the fast driving off the street. Second, you will not feel the need to drive over the limit on the street. Third, you will learn what improvements are really doing to your car. So far all you've 'done' is add parts that the internets says are the right parts to add. Driving (and learning) on them will allow you to understand what they do, and what might have not been correct or proper. It will allow you to plan your next upgrades for proper effectiveness.



Disclaimer....no I'm not perfect either. I've tried the 'all in one' car before. I sometimes drive too fast also. But the advice is sound.

[fatgc8]

Personally I think your not used to your car yet. You and the car are both feeling each other out if that makes any sense. The reason why you built this car is because you want to enjoy the performance aspect of it. I mean why else would you opt for a motor swap, sway bars, rims& tires etc. I think the only way to accomplish what you want to do with this thing is to take it to a track. Whether its very light Autox or Road Racing they will both give you great excitement and will also give you the learning experience of how this car behaves. Best of all its very safe. Just try it out a couple of times and you will be hooked.


edit PhyrraM beat me to it lol

[klin7757]

[quote="kimokalihi"]I have a condition that causes me to feel incredibly restless and anxious and even depressed when I go a whole day and get nothing accomplished. If I waste away an entire day I begin to feel trapped in a rut like my life is going nowhere and I'm worthless. I feel claustrophobic and suffocated. In a way, the legacy has been a therapeutic tool to me. I never thought of it that way until now because I don't have anything to do on it.

I think it's my job that has a lot to do with it. I used to feel the same way before I had a job when I was a kid in school. I hated school almost as much as I hate my job and just working for someone in general. So I valued the free time I had and got depressed when I wasted it doing nothing or there was nothing to do. I guess this prevents me from being completely lazy all the time which is good but the feeling of depression is less than desirable.

Anybody else feel this way?[/quote]

I get the exact same way. My car was what let me escape from the constant bombardment of stress and bullshit that life tends to throw your way. Now that it's been stolen I don't really have an outlet. Excersize helps, but I need a project. It can't just be work all the time. I'd lose it.

[Florin1]

Thanks josh!

People sell the lip on ebay for real cheap compared to the genuine STI lip. Ebay = $70 shipped Subaru stealership = $600. The lip is an 06-07 STI knockoff. Just use a heat gun to get it to fit the curves of the bumper properly and cut out a couple chunks underneath to help it bend around the corners and trim the ends to fit.

Florin, you got one too?

Not yet Kimo, but i will once i swap my 91ss front end on to my 94ss.
As for the post on feeling depressed I hear ya on that one. I've been laid off from my union (Glazer) for quite some time, so, i have a lot of free time. And yeah, if i dont occupy myself i too get in the depressed/rut thing. Thats why i have 3 projects at the moment. Haha. Well put btw. And yeah, the rest of the guys are right, just get another project. You should actually head up here the weekend of 24th and 25th. The big drift battle is gonna happen. Once you see it in person, you will catch the bug and want a drift car.


As for you fellows suggesting autox, where can one get some info?? I just picked up some track wheels with slicks and would like to abuse them a little.

(hey post number 454! I'm now a Big Block :p)

[kimokalihi]

I do not exercise anymore. I quit earlier this year. I went to the gym for over a year 2-4 times a week but it was all lifting weights. It was enjoyable but I tore both rotator cuffs in my shoulders and for about a year I tried working out around the injury and it just would not heal. May never heal. For now I'm taking time off from the gym but I plan to go back or start working out at home if my shoulders heal.

This made me laugh.

Exercise is just going to keep your wallet fatter while you get thinner, which will make your car faster in the end.

Jess, you're probably right. I do want to track the car. I have been driving it a lot lately to work but it's still not a daily driver. Never will be, in fact quite the opposite once I get over the urge to drive it to work. The last couple days I took the metro. What a difference that was. No more skyscraper seats that make you feel like you're in a truck. Body roll that makes you feel like you're riding on slinky's. Enough power to do a 23 second quater mile. 0-60 time that's the same as the quarter mile time

I think the problem is I'm a bit competitive. I love to race go karts and I want to race my car on a similar track. I don't want to be street racing. Sometimes you can't help it like when that corvette challenged me.

As far as upgrading the metro, I can't say I haven't thought about it. Just because it would be funny to beat people with a metro. I've thought about dropping in a Suzuki Swift GTI twin cam turbo motor in it or a there was a guy who was selling a complete turbo kit off his metro for about $800. But I bought this car to get my to work every day and do it efficiently to save me money and the car has long since paid for it self in fuel savings from driving my last subaru legacy wagon.

I should take some classes. I don't know about rallycross. I don't really want to beat up my legacy. It's in pretty good shape.

I work weekends Florin I need a normal job. During the winter time I go for days without even seeing the sun. Go to bed before it comes up and wake up after it's gone down. Day after day. Not healthy to go without sun like that.

I thought about applying at UPS because I think driving a UPS truck would be a great job for me and I talked to a customer that comes to the casino a lot and he loves driving for UPS. You have to start off loading boxes for a couple years though and I don't know if my shoulders can handle that right now. If it's not extremely heavy I can still pick things up and move them but any lifting out to the sides or out in front where my arms are pointing out hurts like hell.

So for now I'm still grinding away at the casino paying off 3 loans. In a little over a year they'll all be paid off and then it will be easier to find a new job.

Thanks for the support and ideas. I appreciate it.

[Florin1]

than come for just Friday? Did you see that video i posted of bmxkelowna on his legacy gets new color thread? its on the last page

[evolutionmovement]

Don't push your arms if they still hurt at all. I did something to my shoulder muscle at work years ago and it took about 5 years to heal and continually acted up because I didn't lay off of it. At this point, I don't have to move my arm in a way that causes it to hurt, so I think it's finally healed.

[kimokalihi]

Florin, I did see that video. Looks like a blast. I work fridays. Only time I get to do anything is weds and thurs.

Steve, definitely good advice there. I can vouch for that. My shoulders would probably be a lot better right now had I stopped going to the gym when they started hurting. They're better but I have a feeling they'll never stop hurting and they pop when I rotate my arms or lift my arms straight out.

Quick word of advice to anyone who works out or is thinking about lifting weights: Don't ever go past the plane of your back on bench press. Don't go past the point where your upper arms are at a 90 degree angle with your torso on shoulder press. Don't lift if it hurts, it won't go away if you keep working out. Always keep your chest up. Posture was a big reason why I got hurt, coupled with people who didn't know what they were doing telling me how to do the workouts. Be very cautious who you accept advice or guidance from in the gym. If they tell you to go further down and touch your chest and it's causing your upper arms to dip below the plane of your back do NOT listen to them. All that does is bring your delts into play and they're not designed to lift like that and it's too much weight for your delts which is how rotator cuff injuries occur which are the most common injury in the gym. Besides, if you're doing bench press it's to work your pecs and triceps not your shoulders.

Always keep your chest up. I know I said it before but this is very crucial. Chest up back straight. Good posture allows you to be stronger in your lifts and not get hurt.

Read the book Scrawny To Brawny. Especially if you're new to lifting. I wish I had read it before I started. Would have prevented my shoulder injuries.