kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap

[kimokalihi]

1991 Subaru Legacy SS Turbo Sedan
WRX EJ20G
Rob Tuned EJ20G ECU
JECS MAF
Forester 4.444 Trans+Diff
TD05 18G Turbo
525CC STI Yellowtop Injectors
JECS MAF
Impreza GC Tein Type HT Coilovers
20mm Whiteline Rear Bar w/20mm WRX Wagon Front Bar
Rota DPT 17x9 General Exclaim UHP 225/45/17
STI Front Lip
WRX Hood Scoop and TMIC
WRX Front and Rear Seats
Rally Armor Mud Flaps





Index:

Page # - Mod w/Link

2 - Timing Belt, Shifter Bushings
3 - Valve Cover Gaskets, Paint
5 - Throttle Body Spacer Fabrication, Phenolic Intake Spacers, Header Wrap, Group N Mounts
7 - Clutch, Lightweight Flywheel
8 - Engine, Trans Install
9 - Canadian Manual Seatbelts, Canadian Headliner
10 - ASI Silicone Intake, Sunroof Replacement
12 - Whiteline RSB
19 - TMIC
20 - BPV Fab, Walbro 255 Fuel Pump, 20mm WRX Front Swaybar
21 - Custom Hi-flow Catted DP, O2 and Innovate LC-1 Wideband, TD05 18G w/Heat Blanket
22 - TD04 + TD05 Comparison,
23 - Rob Tuned EJ20G ECU, Injector Adapter Kit, Tein Type HT Coilovers
24 - Yellotop 525cc Injectors, Simply Subie Fender Braces
25 - New Clutch Master and Slave Cylinders, Wiper Fluid Reservoir Relocation
29 - Fuel Leak, Rob Tuned ECU Install, Mouse Nest Massacre, New Speedo Cable
30 - AC Evap Delete
31 - Hallman MBC Install
33 - Rota 17x8 DPT's w/General Exclaim UHP 225/45/17
35 - AC Condensor Delete, Custom Battery Tie Down
37 - Custom Grill, WRX Hood Scoop
39 - Black and White Photoshoot
40 - Stripped Crank Pulley Keyway
42 - New Crank Sprocket, New Crankshaft Key, Blown Engine
44 - Engine Removal
45 - Blown Piston Rings, Injectors Cleaned and Flowtested
47 - New (to me) WRX EJ20G Shortblock
48 - Gaskets, Seals, Oil Pump, Engine Assembly
49 - Engine Installed
50 - Back On The Road
52 - New Rob Chip
53 - Rally Armor Mud Flaps

[kimokalihi]

Intro:

My name is Kimo, I just turned 22 June 5th 2009 and this is my first 3rd Legacy and my first fast car. I would like to race it on a track of some sort like the grand prix track or something. I have no experience racing but I've always wanted to race or do rallycross.
All the pictures from this thread, any of my other threads or posts and many more that aren't ever posted can be found in my photobucket album here http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... y%20Turbo/.


I bought this car for $2,500 from another member named Patrick who bought the car from Jake15. The car came with stock suspension and WRX suspension not installed. Also came with WRX seats front and rear and 3" downpipe. The engine was out of the car unassembled and consisted of EJ22T block and EJ20G heads and intake manifold. He orginally wanted $3,000 for the car but I gave him $2,500 and told him to keep the block because you could move the crank in and out of the block by hand 1/8" which was about 25X more play than the FSM spec.

I paid too much for the car but at the time I had been looking for a turbo legacy for probably a year and was getting impatient. Oh well.

Here it is when we got it home on the trailer.







Here's a few more shots of the car as it sat in my driveway for months through the snow and the rain of winter.











The first 3 mods I did were STI struts and springs, WRX hood scoop (not finished) and chrome trim blackout.





















Those alignment bolts weren't turned the right way when I took those pictures.



I've had it now for 8 months and I have been collecting parts the whole time and I've got some cool stuff ready to go on the car.

I found an EJ20H twin turbo motor for really cheap but decided I didn't want to pay to have the heads rebuilt and it would be easier to find a complete EJ22T motor to drop in. I found an EJ22T and then decided it needed to be rebuilt too or at least a lot of hoses and belts and seals that were going to cost a fortune so I stripped that engine down and sold the block and will be selling the heads and intake/harness.

Thanks to PhyrraM for showing me a killer deal on Ebay for an EJ20G/K Turbo with 5spd Trans out of a 97 JDM forester. The seller accidently listed it as an auto trans and I believe that was the reason I got it for only $680. They were also selling a matching limited slip rear diff with axles for $100. All in all I got the engine,tranny,rear LSD,4 axles,ECU,harness,intake,intercooler,turbo and crossmembers for $1,280 shipped out the door.
















I might be going to my parents house where my car is at and pull the tranny off the EJ20G and install my Clutchmasters Lightweight flywheel which I put a brand new metal pressure plate insert in. Then install the new Exedy EJ22T clutch and throwout bearing and put the tranny back on. Next I will remove the belts and timing covers and install a new subaru OEM timing belt to insure it doesn't snap on me while passing 3 vehicles, one towing a horse trailer, like when I bought my first legacy.

Updates coming soon!

[douglas vincent]

PLEASE remove the timing cover and INSPECT the water pump and timing belt!

[kimokalihi]

Next I will remove the belts and timing covers and install a new subaru OEM timing belt to insure it doesn't snap on me

Will do

[SLODRIVE]

Hoo boy, you got some fun ahead of you!

Do yourself a favor before you put it in...go ahead and replace ALL of the external seals (rear main, cam/crank seals, valve cover gaskets, oil separator). There's a good chance some or all of them have dried up while the motor's been sitting idle, and now is the only time you can get to the rear main seal, as well as the oil separator cover. I would personally replace the water pump and at least take the oil pump apart to check it while doing the T-belt...better do to it now than later IMO!

Maybe also pull the oil pan and peek inside???

[kimokalihi]

Probably a good idea. I have the rear main seal already and maybe even a front crank seal. I'm thinking about taking the oil pump and water pump off the EJ20H that I just put on a few months ago and it's been sitting on the engine stand and never been run. The oil pump and water pump on it are brand new. The oil pump has the nipple(s) (can't remember if it's one or two) for the oil cooler on the EJ22T though.

[kimokalihi]

Little update. Sort of.

I went over to my parents place to remove the transmission and was going to put the lightweight flywheel and new clutch on. But there was a huge mess from tearing apart the EJ22T I just sold the block from and I had to clean it up to make room.

I was over there for 2.5 hours and got the mess somewhat cleaned up and unloaded all the stuff off the pallet minus the engine/tranny. Took pictures of it all. Then I removed the downpipe and tried removing the tranny but for the life of me I could not get it off. I need the engine leveling thing from harbor freight tools so I can get it to slide off straight. I got it about a half inch off the engine but that was all I could do on my own. I think I'm going to be quite sore tomorrow after wrestling that thing for 20 mins. My back was killing me afterwards.



















The turbo doesn't seem to have any shaft play.





Does this have the same type of clutch as the 91 SS?

[Legacy777]

Interesting "ARC Product"

[Impregacy]

yeah wtf? they present comfortable and unknown car life with ARC power? I love it!

[asc_up]

Nice! You could easily sell that ARC box for $150.

[kimokalihi]

Really? What's so great about it? I guess it's got an MAF, is that any good? Other than that, doesn't look like anything special to me.

[asc_up]

Haha to be honest, it's nothing that does anything spectacular. But it's one of those products that people buy just to say that they have an ARC product on their car.

Here's the retail on the WRX/STi ARC boxes:

http://www.optionimports.com/arc-induct ... ubaru.html

[asc_up]

Think I'll be staying with my HKS intake

[kimokalihi]

Holy shit! That's ludicrous, I think I would make fun of anyone who bought that product. Unless they got it for cheap, but seriously, $515? Is that necessary? Who do they think they are?

Guess I should clean it up and sell it then lol. Probably over on NASIOC.

[asc_up]

Exactly, it'll probably pay for the shipping on all your stuff!

[kimokalihi]

Haha I doubt that. Shipping was about $510 or something like that. I can't see getting more than $75 for that thing.

Is that just the stock MAF from the 97 forester or did that come on the ARC box?

[AWD_addict]

That ARC box is worth it for the JDM knowledge on the label.

[kimokalihi]

I got the tranny off the motor. I didn't know you had to remove the clutch fork pin to get them seperated. All that back breaking work trying to pull on that tranny for nothing!

Thanks for a thread I saw on here earlier today talking about the pin needing to be removed.

I got a bunch of pictures I'll post up when I get home from work to show everyone exactly what needs to be done to get it apart. It's easy once you know it needs to come out. Tranny came right off after that.

[PhyrraM]

..... I didn't know you had to remove the clutch fork pin to get them seperated. .....

Kimo...Man, thought we had been teaching you better than that!

Good luck with the rest of the swap. Keep asking questions, we'll keep ya on course!

[93forestpearl]

Damn does that swap look clean. I don't see motors and trannys so splotless and that old, but I live da north woods, ya know.





That intake box could possibly fetch some pretty decent coin. I'd through it up on nasioc for $200 just to see if anyone bites.

[kimokalihi]

$200 haha.

Nobody ever told me about the clutch fork pin needing to be removed! I never had to do such a thing on my metro or my toyota pickup to get the trannys off.

It is a pretty clean motor except it does have the corroding white spots on the aluminum. I was meaning to ask how to clean that off and possibly prevent the aluminum from doing that in the future. It makes the engine look nasty.

[kimokalihi]

Here's the pictures I promised.


When removing the 5MT tranny from you engine or the engine from the tranny be sure to remove the clutch fork pivot pin. It takes a 10mm allen head socket or allen wrench as I used, a 6mm metric bolt that will thread into the pin to pull it out and a hammer to wack it because it's probably stuck in there pretty good like mine was.

Thanks to Jake15 for telling me how to remove the pin!



First remove this plug.






Then you just screw in the bolt and bend a hook in the end of it and tap it out with the hammer. Easy! It will save your back much stress from wrestling with the transmission/engine. Trust me, I went down that road and it's a frustrating one too.

Tip: I found a battery tie down bolt with the hook already in it and it was the right size and thread pitch! Worked awesome.










A few of the goodies I've collected while looking for my engine.



Clutchmasters lightweight WRX flywheel with a brand new insert.






The TD04 will either get sold or kept as a spare. Probably sold when I want a bigger turbo along with the JDM one that's on the engine now. The USDM TD04 has 2K miles on it and looks damn near new!











Nice little tool for finding bolt/nut sizes





New OEM bushings, spring and pin for shift linkage.






Group A Shortshifter







WRX seats front and rear but the rear is not in right now.






Kartboy shifter bushing.






STI shift trim with (I think) newer legacy GT leather wrapped shift knob. I think it looks great! Cut the stock plastic to fit the STI aluminum trim and it should look pretty sharp when it's in. No freezing cold/scalding hot metal shift knob for me!





Simply Subie fender braces. They look nice! Excellent build quality. I was just under the impression that they came with hardware because Livestrong's pictures show shiny new bolts! Oh well.

[asc_up]

Very nice Kimo! Everything looks like it's finally coming together for you!

[kimokalihi]

Thanks. I know, I feel like it is too but at the same time I'm so used to setbacks and things getting in the way of progress that's it's hard to be optimistic about it.

So far so good though.

[kimokalihi]

Last night I did my first couple mods to my new engine/tranny. Well sort of mods.








I installed all new bushings for the entire shift linkage including that crazy pivoting piece with the two cylinders welded together which connects to the shifter link with 2 pins.







I couldn't find my punch set and the ones I found were not the right size and were tapered. Don't use tapered punches to drive out these pins or any of these kind of pins because it mushrooms them out and gets them stuck. Luckily I was able to find two bolts that fit the holes perfectly thanks to my nifty little bolt/nut measuring gizmo I picked up for cheap at Tacoma Screw. Definately get one of these, they're quite helpful.

The bigger pin is an 8mm and the smaller pin inside of it is a 5mm if you want to buy the correct size punch or bolt(cheaper lol).















This is where I'll need some help. This is my first shortshifter. Let me get this straight, the real purpose of a shortshifter is to shorten the throw distance of the shifter to make for quicker shifts and less travel at the gear knob. Not to make your shifter shorter.

Correct?

It appears as if this shortshifter by GroupA in canada does both of these things. It is adjustable on both ends. Nice little piece it is. It's pretty. It's very light and looks well made. It's also expensive, I think too expensive. Yet, I bought it anyways.

So tell me, how to I get the ball into that socket? Just shove it in as hard as I can? There doesn't seem to be any way to get it to loosen up to get the ball in. Except maybe that wrist pin on the bottom of it.

Also, what is the larger ball size for? It certainly won't fit in that socket.




























Replaced the plastic cover on the back of the engine which is prone to cracking and leaking oil with the metal version.





You will most likely need an impact wrench like this one and a hammer to break loose the stupid phillips screws that hold the cover on. I needed it to get two of them loose and I needed it on the EJ22T that I just took apart last week. Otherwise you will probably end up stripping them out like I did last week on one of them.

This nifty little tool applies a lot of downward pressure on the head of the bolt while also turning the bolt with a lot of force breaking it loose with ease.






Notice here that the plastic cover has a groove in it all the way around for the gasket maker to sit in. The metal cover does not have this groove....hmmm.







Notice anything weird here? Look at the second picture and you'll see it.





I think with the metal cover I was supposed to buy bolts as well. I told the guy at the dealer to skip the bolts because they were a total rip off and I thought they were the same as the ones that were already on the engine. But after seeing that the plastic cover had indents for the bolt heads to sit in and the metal plate does not have them, I think I need those bolts now.

Can anyone confirm if indeed there are different bolts used with the metal cover? I don't think you're supposed to use these bolts with this cover. Just look at how far they sit out of it!





Lightweight GroupA crank pulley. Also have alternator and power steering pulleys, not pictured.









Cheap aluminum oil filler cap I got off ebay. It was advertised as JDM lol.