deadhp1's 94 lifted n/a wagon ej253 swap

[beatersubi]

The 5/8" barb fits perfectly to my 5/8" ID reinforced washing machine hose.

Perfect. I love a home-brew build.

All that's left for now is to bleed the coolant system and top off the atf fluid.

Know what the 'f' in 'atf' stands for?

[vrg3]

Awesome! I love the Powered By Home Depot approach. Way to get the car running!

You might want to keep your eyes peeled for some emissions hose to replace the hoses you're using now though; the heat and oil will eat through them eventually. I believe Josh recommended buying emissions hose from RockAuto.

And thanks for the pics, by the way. When I have a chance I'll post them up for everyone's reference.

[deadhp1]

lol on the atf...fluid
Bit of a brain fart on my end.

I'll be keeping an eye out for emissions hose, I have a couple of junk cars here and can probably source what I need from them. The longer 5/8 ID hose I'm going to replace eventually with a custom stainless steel wrapped hose from a local auto shop once I get a little extra $.
The swap was done on a very tight budget. I think I have less than $50 into it including fluids. I knew my parts cars would pay off.

[beatersubi]

I think I have less than $50 into it including fluids. I knew my parts cars would pay off.

This is the best part. The hard part is convincing the wife the parts pile will pay off eventually.

[deadhp1]

I've been on the search for a cheap set of tires. I think I found a set of Forester 225/55/17 Geolander g95's locally for $125....I'll find out tomorrow if they accept. They should fit my 17" wrx wheels nicely.
I have multiple sets of wheels/tires, but all the tires are horribly cracked, and my set of forester 16"s are mismatched brands/sizes.
As soon as I get tires this car is going on the road.

Also in the plans are a 60/40 switch and a power mode switch. I'm thinking of using covered toggle switches aircraft style.
These would allow me to know when they are on or off easily as the cover needs to be lifted when the switch is turned on.
I'll probably place them in the center console in the dummy plate next to the ebrake handle.

I've recently been thinking of paint as well. I'm not sure what the budget will allow, but I could spray can, roller, bedliner, or plasti-cote the car. It's currently spray painted black with the stock color bleeding through due to someone pressure washing it. I've been seriously considering Monstaliner bedliner. They are located near me and have a special going on right now.

[beatersubi]

I've been considering bedliner-ing the bottom half of my wagon for a while. Kinda like a poor man's outback. It would be interesting to see the entire car done in it.

[deadhp1]

I'm still debating using Monstaliner bedliner for the whole car or just for underneath. I'll have to see what funds will allow.

I got the car on the road today for the first time. Halfway through my trip the IACV hoses popped off because I didn't clamp them. I fixed it with some zip ties and will be replacing the zip ties with metal clamps tomorrow.

On the last leg of my trip the check engine light popped up for a code 32. I'm pretty sure the o2 sensor has had it's day in the sun and will need to be replaced. I'm thinking of grabbing a 4-wire bosch 15729 so I won't have to worry about grounding the signal through the exhaust. I'll probably try to ground the current sensor and see if that solves my problem while I wait for the new one to arrive. I've been thinking the exhaust isn't providing a good ground.
If that doesn't work I'll pick up a 1-wire sensor from autozone for 17.99 to drive around on for a few days.
I really only need to sensor to get rid of that annoying check engine light and to pass emissions.

There seems to be a wheel bearing issue on one or 2 wheels. It happens on right hand turns from the drivers side front. I have an extra wheel bearing and will be ordering another for the other side. I'll probably cheap out and buy a prime choice wheel bearing off of ebay for $25. It's a shame because they used to be $13 each.

The car itself is running like a champ considering it was sitting for 5 years. The forester engine was only sitting for a year.
We got tons of strange looks driving it around today. It seems that fire chiefs watched the car closely...maybe the flat black makes it look burned?
A sf forester owner did a double take as he drove by....my legacy wagon was taller than his "suv"....we had the same wheels too! LOL. I'm pretty used to driving low to the ground, so it was interesting for me to be taller than some trucks.


I received my toggle switched and installed them into my broken panel. They aren't wired up yet, and I plan on making a aluminum panel to fit them into. I can't wait to have power mode and a locked duty c solenoid.

The tape is there to hold the panel in place as the clips were previously broken.


I ended up putting my mismatched 215/60/16 forester wheels/tires on the car(one is a 205). The car did quite well and has a ton of power. I can spin it on grass and gravel. On the street it easily breaks the fronts loose till the rear catches.
It's in need of an alignment and matching tires badly.

I haven't heard a peep from the seller of the 17" forester tires or from the person selling the 15" general grabber at2's(215/75/15). So I've continued looking for tires.
I have found a set of 215/65/16 2009 forester tires for $75 that I will be trying to get over the next 2 days.

The brakes felt really weak the other day so we greased them today and sanded the scum off the rotors.
I have a set of wrx front brakes that were recently rebuilt and a set of h6 rears that are in need of a rebuild.
I might get around to putting them on soon.


I'll also be taking out the fuel senders soon to clean/replace them if needed. They read from full to half, then go down to empty. I was going to take them out the other day, but when I opened up the access plates I was greeted by one broken stud/missing nut and the rest of the studs looked quite weak. I guess someone else had the same idea before.
I'll be soaking them over the next week and will be running a die over the stud tips before even attempting this.

I found the rivnut tool and replaced the one spinning rivnut in the roof so I could put the roof rack on again. It worked like a charm.
I'm still debating keeping the stock roof rack or using the roof rails from the 2000 legacy I have. They look like they would fit, but I'd have to get the headliner out to be sure. They have studs coming out of the rails and are bolted in from the bottom. I'm also missing the crossbars for the 2000 legacy so I'd have to remount them to 2000 shell and secure it with wood before installing to the 94 legacy.
The forester roof rack is about 2 inches too wide to fit on the 94 legacy roof properly. It's a shame because I have the rails for that.


That's about it for the next couple of days. I'll grab some more pics soon!
I need to redo the brakes, wheel bearing, and o2 sensor on my wife's cobalt tomorrow. Then I can dig back into the legacy.

[ciper]

I may have missed it but which transmission are you using?
If you don't want to convert to male axles I have an extra 3.9 female axle LSD I could sell the carrier out of.
(its the carrier that decides the axle type and has the LSD)
If it helps I swapped an EJ25D into my other first gen legacy and ran it off a 93 ej22 computer.

[deadhp1]

I'm running the stock 94 4eat with 118k on it.
I have an lsd out of a 04 forester xt...and I believe I have some extra axles laying around.
How much were you looking for the carrier?

The ej25d was my backup instead of the ej253. I have a rebuilt 96 ej25d that I put into my 99 legacy outback. The tranny turned out to be toast in that though, so I built this car instead.

I'm also running off the stock computer. I took the car out in the rain today and actually roasted the tires a bit.

[ciper]

Actually if you have some extra money I have a PERFECT 4eat. Low mileage and was rebuilt by subaru themselves. Its a 98 which was the very last year of phase 1 4eat so it has all the upgrades. I've personally taken it apart and inspected it with help of Thawa. I have the matching rear differential as well. It has 4.44 final drive so you'll rape off the line. It was in my 91 legacy behind an EJ25D running on a 93 computer (to match the larger red injectors)

Otherwise for the LSD carrier alone let me weigh it first.

[deadhp1]

ciper pm sent

Just a quick update with 2 pictures


The coolant bottle actually fits under the car.

My o2 sensor came in the mail today, so I'll be installing it tomorrow.
I'll also be picking up my tires on Saturday! It's about time!

[ciper]

You need to transplant a Forester/Outback trailing arm in the back to fix the suspension geometry. Not only does it look too far forward but you've now given it reverse castor. Otherwise you can devise some type of spacer for the upper trailing arm mount.

If you really wanted to make it right you would also install the front crossmember spacers, steering u-joint and transmission cradle to fix the center of gravity and the axle/control arm angle in the front. Otherwise you've increased the amount of toe change over bumps (bump steer)

Looking good otherwise!

[deadhp1]

Good looking out ciper. My passenger front axle was clickinga little today, so it has been on my mind.
I have actually swapped the trailing arm mounts. The trailing arms themselves are actually the same length.
I've been thinking of having 1" spacers made for the mounts.

I still have the forester parts car, and am planning on swapping the rest of the parts over when I swap the rear spindles(I'd like to have a rear sway bar).

There really is so much left to do with this car.
Today we did the driver's side wheel bearing. Tomorrow I'll be doing the o2 sensor and picking up my tires.

[ciper]

You're sure the arms are the same length?

[deadhp1]

Yep! I held them up against each other when I swapped the brackets. This was from a 99 Forester.
I actually broke one of the trailing arm bracket welded nuts inside the legacy frame rail and had to drill into the floor to put a new one in.
A interesting factoid is that the outback brackets reposition the tires better than the Forester.

I'll be swapping the trailing arms and rear spindle anyhow. I could use some rear bushings and I want to make use of this Whiteline rear sway bar I have.
I'll make sure to swap the rear forester sway bar brackets too....I'll probably do all of them then.
The only reason I haven't done the full swap is I have really bad luck with subframe bolts. On three cars I have taken apart the front subframe bolts break off. It doesn't help with the low budget build.

Anyhow I'm off to pick up tires. It's raining today so no o2 sensor work for me.

[deadhp1]

I picked up my tires yesterday. They are 215/65/16 from a 2009 forester.
They all have around 6/32 tread left and one has a patch. Not bad for $75.

I spent today getting ready to pull the phase 2 4eat out of the 99 Forester in order to swap it into the 99 Outback we have. While doing that I dropped the front subframe and started to gather my spacers/control arms.


I still need to remove the tranny crossmember. It looks exactly like the crossmember already in my 94 Legacy.
So I'm not sure if I'll be using that.
I may be taking the trailing arm mounts off my 99 Outback for my 94 Legacy...or I might just see if I can get them cheap from the junkyard.

Tomorrow if it's nice I'll try to swap the front spacers/control arms into my 94 Legacy and take care of the o2 sensor while I'm at it.

[deadhp1]

Just a quick update.
I still haven't gotten a chance to swap my spacers, control arms, or o2 sensor.
I did get a chance to rip apart the 04XT Forester rear diff and pulled out the VLSD.

I've got it stored away until I get a chance to tackle the rear end of my legacy.
I'll need to pull the rear diff out and swap the ring gear. I'll also have to use the forester axles.
I figure I'll do the rear spacers, spindles, and sway bar at the same time.

[deadhp1]

Today we installed the front crossmember spacers, front control arms, and the forester pitch stop.
If you look closely in the second pic you can just barely see the whiteline steering rack bushings.


I painted the front spacers since they were quite rusty. I had to use the matching bolts since the stock legacy ones are too short.
The stock legacy pitch stop rod was about 1/2" too short to fit after installing the spacers, so I had to grab the forester one.

I should of taken a comparison picture of the two rods, but I didn't have my camera with me then.

The control arms went in nicely.
In total the axles look much happier.

The engine sits a bit lower now. It's actually quite nice.



Since the exhaust is off I'll do the o2 sensor before finishing it up.
I'll probably finish it up tomorrow and have it on the ground.

When we started the work today, we discovered that my radiator has a nasty leak in the end tank. The mounts on the top of the radiator weren't tightened down. Woops!
It must of just happened today because the heat and everything worked fine yesterday. Spirited is the best way to describe today's driving. I did make the front and rear tires break loose on more than one occasion.
I'll pull the forester radiator and check it's fitment tomorrow. If that doesn't fit I'll pull the 99 outback radiator/fans and check it's fitment. I think the outbacks radiator will be a good match.

[ciper]

How did you deal with the steering linkage? Did the original one have enough length in it or did you have to use the forester one?
Are your radiator hoses at an ok angle since the engine is lower?

[deadhp1]

I'm going to pop the original steering linkage out of the 94 Legacy today and compare it with the 99 Forester. So far it looks like the 94 is long enough, but I won't know for sure until I get them side by side.

The radiator hose angles look great. I was a bit worried when installing the spacers because they looked like they were stretching. After bolting the crossmember back up they have plenty of slack.

The wiring/fuel/ac lines also have plenty of slack.

I can't wait to drive it! The front spacers/control arms should make a big difference in the way it turns at speed.

[deadhp1]

Steering linkages
94 Legacy on top 99 Forester on bottom

[beatersubi]

That is a significant difference. What material is the 'damper' in the middle of the forester link made of?

[deadhp1]

I believe it's a high density rubber. It feels a bit like plastic. I'm guessing it's the same material as the wrx has in it's steering linkage.

[deadhp1]

The Forester steering linkage is too long to fit. We tried but it's about an inch too long to fit.

Got the legacy back on the ground today. We also got the radiator out, and while taking the fans off we broke 1 bolt off the top support and three off the lower. The radiator had a crack in the front of the passenger side end tank.
I'm thinking of just ordering a stock replacement radiator. I don't really want to empty the cooling system from the outback.
Anyhow the an aftermarket stock radiator is about $70 on ebay.

I'll take the time to paint the strut bar mounts and the fan housing. Who knows, I might even get around to doing the rear end.

[beatersubi]

Are you using the stock Legacy link, then?