Maciek's 2.36L Turbo Build (and boom goes #4 rod bearing!)

[Dominator]

Nice job with the progress on the cars in these last few updates. I look forward to seeing some pictures.

[macipusy]

Just ordered the V7 JDM STi hood scoop from JapanParts.com....$175 shipped. Not bad, since everybody is charging 200+ for used ones on the forums.

I also adjusted a few things in the tune map....the TPS signal was somehow flipped....it's reading 4.44V at full close and 0.45V at 100% open throttle. The 91 SS was opposite of that. I just reset the values and all of a sudden it runs even better. I must say that this is the best mod for these cars....some kind of upgraded ECU, be it standalone or Rob Tune ECU.

I'd like to get one of the STi front lips designed for our cars....I've been trolling around on RSLibertyClub looking for one for sale. Maybe the mold will make its way over to the States at some point.
I might try to cut up a V6 STi lip and make it fit....I have a spare ebay replica laying around.

['98Wagon]

This thread needs more pictures!

Car sounds incredible. Can't wait to see dyno slips!

[Legacy777]

The older TPS signals were reversed and should read about 4.6 v closed and .5 V when open.

Yeah, my car never idled as good on the stock ECU as it does on the Link ECU. The idle is quite lopey now with the cam, but that's ok.

[macipusy]

That makes sense Josh, about the reverse voltages on the TPS....the funny thing is that I just loaded the map from the 91 SS onto the 93 TW and it was reversed....same standalone ECU setup. I need to plug in and double check the 91 SS map when I see the new owner next.

[macipusy]

I am currently working on a front lip solution for the turbo wagon. I don't believe it has been done before....at least I have not seen it on this forum. And so far it's looking a lot nicer then the 06-07 STi ebay lip which I had on my 91 SS.

I am using a V6 STi lip replica off of ebay....similar price to the 06-07 STi lip. This one needs to be cut in the middle and trimmed for width....the V5/V6 GC front bumper is ~3-4" wider. The curves match very nice, and it actually goes over the bumper and not below it. The ends by the wheels do not have to be trimmed, and flow very nicely with the lines off the sideskirts. So far I have it chopped in two pieces and it hugs the bumper without heat gun fitting with just 2 bolts holding it on....I drilled 1 hole per side on the front side of the wheel arch on the bumper.

I promise I am taking progress pictures of this process, and will post them up in the next couple of weeks.

The only non fitment area is where the GC has air duct holes for brake vents...the area does not look too bad though...still nicer then the 06-07 lip IMHO. The rest of the lip fits into the tiny groove on the lower portion of the bumper, just above the unpainted part of the bumper.

The look of the car with this front lip is amazing...I know you guys will be anxious to see the pics. It actually looks very similar to the STi lip that is available overseas for Gen1 Legacies.

[macipusy]

I'm getting all my pics processed for web...I should be done and have all of them up next week.

Here is a sneak peek of the work being done to the turbo wagon.



Front lip mock up. A tiny peek at the front grille project as well.




Rear skirt install and the mandatory STi badge good for 10 whp...at least. The wing is only mocked up, and held on by tape.

[macipusy]

And I installed the manual boost controller last night. The td05-16g turbo at 12 psi on E85 is pretty bad ass. I couldn't turn it up anymore because all the wheels were breaking loose when boost hit. Then in second gear the 4EAT started slipping the clutches like mad....at 5K RPMs. I'm guessing it's approaching 300 wheel torque for sure.

Can't wait till it can handle 16-18 psi....time to upgrade the 4EAT clutches.

[Legacy777]

Nice work!!

I know we'll be anxious to see the rest of the front lip pics

[macipusy]

I did finish installing the front lip for now. I mounted it to the bumper with zip ties for the time being, and did not glue it together at the seem yet. I'm going to wait till all the snowing is over before I finish it 100%. The JDM scoop is on as well.

I was going to take pics this morning, but woke up to 2 inches of snow. It will probably be a couple of days till it melts and I can wash up the wagon for some nicer looking photos.

The only weird part of the lip is what is shown in the above picture, where the RS bumper has the air duct inlet. Unless you focus right on this area, the lip loos like it's made for the car. From 20 feet away you can't even tell.

On a side note, I was back in Denver last week and saw a turbo wagon with a larger looking wing than the 97-99 GT wing. It kind of looked like it was from a Forester, maybe 04-08 model. This is making me rethink the rear wing solution. I looked like it had a nice aggressive angle on it. Time for some measurements.

I also picked up a mint rear bumper and rear drivers side passenger door at the Pull & Pay in Denver. I'll swap those parts next time I'm down there at my storage garage...maybe mid Summer.

[killajamal]

Maciek you're a brilliant dude and I love seeing you put all your knowledge and abilities to work. It's inspiring!

Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk

[macipusy]

Here come the promised pics form the turbo wagon Haltech ECU install, front lip and grille work and JDM hood scoop sneak peek.

First off is the standalone ECU install and E85 conversion.


Walbro 255 LPH fuel pump. Super easy to do if you have the installation kit with the pump.
Sorry, pic is upside down



Legacy Spec B 565cc yellow top injectors in 92-94 n/a fuel rails, ej20g FPR and new o-rings



Fuel rails installed. Had to go buy longer screws for the injector caps...not shown in pic.



Haltech Sprint 500 ECU and Intake Air Temperature Sensor for speed density conversion.
Bye bye shitty MAF and all problems you create.



The Plug n Play wiring



Close up of the PnP adapter from AutoSport Wiring for the ej20g...same ECU plugs as ej22t
This makes the installation much less complicated.

[macipusy]

Grille mesh insert project started with spraying the hood latch support black.



I trimmed the mesh and primered it black



Then I mounted it to the cut out stock 92-94 turbo grille, with zip ties for the time being



Mounted on the car with the pretty STi badge I had laying around.



Couple of under the hood shots. The standalone ECU allows for a nice cleanup of the crap on the passenger strut tower.



Lots of tiny 'birds nest' elimination projects still to come. Cleaning up after previous owner.
The PCV system venting needs to be reworked, and the coolant tank needs to be mounted.



I will post the story on the history of this wagon at some point....it is very interesting to say the least.

[macipusy]

Front lip action!


Here is what it looks like mounted to the wheel arch of the bumper. Drilled a hole in the lip and bumper for the bolt.



Nice flow of lines from sideskirts to the front lip. The whole shape of the lip is very close to the profile of the turbo Legacies. No heat gun work at all. Makes me think other GC specific front lips should be likely candidates for lip solutions.



Section profile of chopped half of the lip. Had to remove about 3-4 inches in width from the center section.
I did not cut exactly in the center. I opted to remove a slight warped imperfection slightly off center in location.



Mounted only with zip ties for now. I have still not glued the halves together. I did since put a piece of white electrical tape over the joint, to hide it temporarily.



Another shot. JDM STi hood scoop is fitted. All recent body modifications are only primered white for now.
The area of poor fit on the lip, where the GC has the brake air ducts, is not too bad at all. It can be sinched up a little more with proper mounting.

[dankberries]

Plug&play? Minus the wiring lol? Are you Keeping the MAF as an filter adapter?

[Legacy777]

Fuel rails installed. Had to go buy longer screws for the injector caps...not shown in pic.

You need to remove the plastic grey dust injector caps and then the metal caps/covers will install properly and the bolts will fit.

[macipusy]

RSTi pic update, from the 06 LGT transmission swap.

The LGT transmission is 4.11 FD and a drop in installation. The transmission I purchased from a member on AWDpirates.net was already used in a GC Impreza. He already split the case and installed the correct speedo gear. He also installed the 04 STi male stubs in the transmission for full compatibility with the stock axles.


I went to town on cleaning the transmission with a die grinder and wire brush wheels.



More bling bling



A pic of all the fun parts that went along with the transmission swap.
I'm in love with the Clutch Masters FX300 kevlar disc clutch setup with the stock 06 WRX single mass flywheel.Pedal feel is softer then stock and holds power very well...no shutter at all. I'm loving the stock weight flywheel as well...no more throttle bleeps on take off to prevent stalling. I'm done with LW flywheels on anything turbo.



COBB adjustable short throw shifter and COBB shifter bushings.



Whiteline transmission cross member bushings.



GroupN transmission mount, SS clutch line and GrimmSpeed battery tie down....as bonus



I also got a LGT slave clutch cylinder. It was larger and fit the transmission better. Possibly a tad longer than the stock RS slave cylinder.



I also got a new u-joint for the RS...new stiff bushings.



With the shifter assembly attached.






The speedo plug and sensors moved from the RS transmission.





Clutch fork install





Ready for the CM FX300 clutch kit install...no leaks from the rear main or access plate...yet.



06 WRX stock single mass flywheel.



Kevlar clutch disc and my pro-style clutch centering tool...just a chopped off tip from a transmission main shaft.



Pressure plate on.



Turned out that the COBB SS shifter was actually a 02 WRX model and was too wide to fit in the RS shifter assembly. Had to have the machine shop take some material off.



Bushings in and ready for install.




That is all I have for now. Once it gets nicer outside, I'll take shots of both cars.

[macipusy]

dankberries....by PnP I meant no chopping wires on the car side. The standalone just comes with a plug on the ECU side and wire whips on the other. My first standalone, I chopped all the wires in the car....what a nightmare that was compared to this time around.

The MAF is unplugged and only there as a filter adapter for now. I will probably draw up a nice adapter in AutoCAD and have a machine shop make it for me....a future project.

Josh....thanks for that tip. I don't remember the STi yellow tops having those gray covers (it's been a while though since I've seen them)...and the injector caps fit with just removing the rubber inserts on the underside of the caps. I will remove those the next time I do some work under the hood.

[Legacy777]

I'm loving the stock weight flywheel as well...no more throttle bleeps on take off to prevent stalling. I'm done with LW flywheels on anything turbo.

I also got a LGT slave clutch cylinder. It was larger and fit the transmission better. Possibly a tad longer than the stock RS slave cylinder.


06 WRX stock single mass flywheel.

Excellent pictures and documentation of the work. That is definitely some bling bling on the transmission! Looks good!


Agreed on the stock weight flywheel. I'm much happier driving the 6spd around with the stock weight flywheel compared to the LW flywheel on the 5spd.


If the piston size in the slave cylinder is different that may also contribute to the softer feel in the pedal, which is good.


I think the picture referenced above in the quotes section is the wrong picture for the label

[macipusy]

Josh....it totally was the wrong picture. Thank you for the heads up. It was a function of the copy, paste and edit process failure. It is fixed now.

['98Wagon]

It's probably too late now- but as I have learned during my restoration project with my 75 Toyota LandCruiser, if you shoot clear coat on shined parts like your transmission, it will help them stay clean and easier to clean when they do get dirty-as well as preventing oxidation.

Beautiful work btw. Both of these cars are works of ART!

[macipusy]

'98wagon....thanks for the tip. I might consider it when I split the transmission to fix 5th gear.

BTW....thank you to all who commented on the thread.

[macipusy]

A little update on the TW. Last week I installed the Hallman MBC, and was gradually increasing boost....trying to get to 16psi. Over 12psi, I popped the TMIC off. And then on the way home I blew a hole in the top radiator hose, spraying coolant all over the engine and windshield....nasty. Since I had to replace the hose and fix the TMIC connection (it popped off underneath the inter cooler at the y-pipe to turbo coupler), I figured I'd attack some of the areas that needed attention.


Here is where I mounted the boost controller. Also shows how I cleaned up the bypass return line from the BPV to the intake. Sorry for the blurry pic.




I also started cleaning up the PCV lines. Got rid of the ugly hard line which is was laying across the top of the intake manifold....see previous engine bay pics.



A few things under the hood still require immediate attention.

1. The intake needs work on IAC connection and various PCV connections. A catch can setup is in order.
2. The drivers side PCV line needs to be routed to the intake.
3. The PCV tree coming off the back of the block needs to be completely reworked. Looks like it's the wrong plastic tree for the turbo setup. You can see some the tragedy in the pic.
4. PCV valve hose is pinched and ripped....so it's probably not doing anything functional. I'm considering deleting the PCV valve all together, but have not decided on it yet. The IAT sensor would go in it's place.
5. Coolant tank needs a correct mounting setup....it's just dangling for now.
6. The alternator wires need a wrap job....I didn't get around to finish that after I found and replaced the corroded power supply wires.
7. Need to install new spark plugs.

Other stuff which is critical but not under the hood.

1. Previous owner installed the V4 STi suspension I gave him with the car, but did not install the conical washers between the strut and top hat.
2. Rear strut assembly has a serious clunk over bumps....needs investigation.
3. Passenger side inner tie rod has like an inch of play...super annoying and dangerous in turns.
4. Still finishing the tuning....throttle tip in tables need work.
5. Need to install the missing fender liner on the driver side front...most likely the culprit for corroded power wires...NaCl on the road in the winter...ugh.

[macipusy]

So I wanted to enlighten you guys with the interesting back story on the 1993 Legacy turbo wagon.

I had my brother purchase this wagon as his winter car 5 years ago. I told him I would do all the maintenance and repair jobs during his ownership, and when he wanted to sell the car in the future, we would split the money 50/50. My brother is a complete car noob and he was down with the idea. I actually had to put in a couple weeks of troubleshooting and repairing to get the car to run initially.

Fast forward 3 years, my brother is done with the car....he graduated Law School and didn't think a Subaru fit his image (silly lawyers and their BMW's). So I posted the car for sale on a local forum. I was friends with a guy at the time, also a Gen1 Legacy guy, and talked with him a couple times a week, consistently. I've knew him for a couple of years and seemed like a good guy. I will keep his name anonymous. He showed very high interest in the turbo wagon. At that time is was completely stock at 212K miles and zero rust.

It was April, close to tax refund time and he wanted the car badly. He told me his tax return is on the way and wanted the car now. I was kind of weary to just sign over the car, so I drafted up a contract for the price minus $100 deposit, we signed it and I let him loose with the car and title. This was about the time I purchased the RS.

A couple of weeks go by and he calls me to tell me he got arrested. He said he was speeding, with no DL, expired tags in my brothers name, not registered with the title still in the glove box. Well, no proof of ID equals going to jail for the weekend and getting the car impounded. He had to spend his tax return on getting the car out of tow, with 3-4 days of storage fees.

I told him not to stress, to keep in touch and make payments as he was able to. Well...he disappeared, for weeks and months at a time with zero contact. I started to get frustrated and told him to return the car if he could not afford it.

He mentioned something strange during one of our conversations....it was around July now. He asked why the oil could be getting shot out of the oil filler cap. I thought maybe he hooked up a boosted line to his PCV line by mistake....little did I know about what really happened. Later he told me that the vf11 blew up and hydro locked the motor with oil, possibly cracking the piston. Still was not the truth.

He disappeared even more after that. I could not get a hold of him at all. I did know where his father lived, and on a nice summer evening in late August I knocked on his dads door holding the contract we signed before the purchase of the car. I told his dad that I did not want to sue his son for the car, but he was leaving me no choice. His dad looked at the contract and told me he would take care of it. Funny, cause 5 minutes later I get a call from dudebro telling me he will return the car.

So months go by and finally I was able to schedule my friend Shawn from RetroRoo to tow the car for me...I was already living in South Dakota and the car was in Denver. I got the car back!!!...but this wasn't even close to the end of the story.

I try to turn the car over to see what damage has been caused...doesn't even crank. It would not budge by hand with a breaker on the crank pulley bolt. Motor is ceased.

I had an extra ej22t in my garage just hanging out for emergency purposes. Removed the ceased motor....very difficult to remove the torque converter if you cannot spin it around...had to cut off the torque plate with a dremmel. I did notice that there was a td05-16g turbo on the motor, with stock injectors and the wastegate was not hooked up at all. He was boosting the car to max boost levels of the turbo on gasoline and tiny injectors.

So I split the motor and find insane evidence of detonation. All pistons and combustion chambers looked like someone took a chisel and hammer to them. Piston #4 was melted with a hole on the thrust surface....bottom side of bore. Then #1 rod bearing was spun and melted to the crank. I saved the piston and rod for show and tell...maybe I'll post some pics of them. I think he was hammering the hell out of this car under very lean conditions...probably felt fast as hell while melting pistons. After the piston melted, he started pissing all the oil out of the vents and most likely kept hammering till all oil was gone and bearings started to melt. When the motor ceased, it did not have enough power on 3 cylinders to shoot the rod through the block. So the block can be salvaged with a bore and hone.

The car still did not run with the swapped junkyard motor in it. It would crank but not start. Turned out to be the fuel pump relay. And the junkyard injectors were corroded shut. The car finally ran again after that....this was in April of last year.

After I spent countless hours troubleshooting and repairing the wagon, I decided I will keep it and sell the 91SS....I didn't need 2 sporty sedans (RSTi and 91SS). It could be more beneficial to have a wagon and sedan, especially since I mountain bike quite a bit in the summer time and the sedan is not conducive to these activities.

So this brings things up to date with the wagon. I am actually quite happy all this shit went down, because I like this wagon much more then I did the SS. The SS was starting to lose the battle with rust, beyond my abilities to stop it. The new owner of the SS lives only a few blocks away, so I still see it rolling around town. There are only 4 turbo Legacies in town...3 wagons and 1 sedan. The 2 other wagons are stock.

Sorry for the long story.

[Legacy777]

Maciek,

That's an interesting story for sure! Also, good advice for others to get the money up front, even if it is someone you know.