HappyFrog's 1992 Legacy Turbo

[kimokalihi]

Man, must be nice. I love wheelin. Makes me miss the yota.

[HappyFrog]

Had a couple of messages from the tuner this morning. They had it running at 1 bar last night (~14,5 psi) but had problems with the spark plugs. He will change them tonight and try again. Actually I never checked them, so might be too hot, lets hope it is that simple.

- well I talked to him last night as well, I had forgotten to tighten the clips on the ic of one of the cold pipes so it blew off the silicone joint... insert facepalm smiley here.

[HappyFrog]

Holy crap this thing is fast!!!
It's running at 22psi and i'm confident the 300hp goal is achieved.

[HappyFrog]

Had it dynoed today, the verdict was 294/293 a little less than expected. The ignition system is failing a bit under load so I've ordered a set of coil packs instead of the cheap coils and wires used now. If that helps I will turn it up to 24 psi and give it another go.

[HappyFrog]

Been a bit quiet here the last month or so, been waiting for coil packs. Finally arrived yesterday and I will get them fitted tuesday or wednesday. I had also closed a deal on a 95 wrx interior, but the deal fell apart because the courier wanted too much
Decided to postpone my interior plans for a while and closed a deal on a steering wheel instead, which should be here in a couple of weeks.


Also, yesterday I went to a photoshoot with it. A friend of mine shot a bunch of pictures of it to document the state it is in, I always forget that when restoring stuff so this time I decided to do something about it - I usually only have a couple of before pics and whole lot of after pics and you always forget how it was
The pics was shot in an old shipyard, I'm really looking forward to receiving the pics, will of course post a bunch of them.

[kimokalihi]

Had it dynoed today, the verdict was 294/293 a little less than expected. The ignition system is failing a bit under load so I've ordered a set of coil packs instead of the cheap coils and wires used now. If that helps I will turn it up to 24 psi and give it another go.

Really makes me wonder what I'm putting down. I'm using the same injectors as you and TD05 16g but pretty much everything else is different lol. 2.0 block, different engine management, only 16 lbs of boost at the moment but I can run as much as 18. That's quite a bit less than 22 though.

Nice job on the power goal.

[HappyFrog]

Thanks, I'm not satisfied yet though. It spiked at 5475rpms which is a bit too early and torque drops off too much as well so I'm eager to see what the coils will do for it. I'm having second thoughts about turning the boost up though, 24psi will push the 16g above its optimal work range, no reason to wear out the turbo just to gain a couple of extra hp and I want to be able to use all of them without having to think about it.

What heads are you using btw? You may be putting down the same numbers if you have newer ones.

[kimokalihi]

97 Forester EJ20G heads. I know nothing about them lol. I want more power too. This 2.0 is just not enough. I want 400WHP

[HappyFrog]

Haha, I'm not that greedy, it is too much for trackdays anyway.
My original goal was 350bhp, but my tuner told me that neither heads or turbo was good for that much power, so I turned it down to 300. Now that I have the dyno sheet I've turned it up a bit again, but we'll see.

[HappyFrog]

Finally had a chance to spend a couple of hours with the car yesterday, so replaced the ignition coils and leads with coil on plugs from an early impreza. It appears to have cured my misfire problems during WOT although it boosted a little lower than usual.
The turbine noise was higher than usual though and it had a strange rattle that came up as soon as the turbo was working. It went away when it was hot, but it does sound like one of the blades is touching the housing... it's just odd that it went away after a beating. I got some more time to play with next weekend so I'll give it a proper beating and see if the turbo is on it's way out.

I've also had another problem, it would stall when idling just after it had been turned on. Giving it some revs would keep it alive and after a minute or so it would idle on its own. It turned out my battery was almost dead and replacing it fixed it right away.
Finally I replaced the washer bottle with one of a 95 Impreza Type RA. I should have done it sooner, it fixed a lot of the problems I had with the fmic piping when installing it

I forgot about pics, will try to get a couple of new ones when going to my brothers place next week.

[HappyFrog]

AWESOME my interior just arrived!
I dunno what happened to the camera but for some reason it looks like the suede part is dirty, they are in absolutely mint condition though.

They are from a LHD STi7 so the height adjustment is obviously in the wrong side. I don't know if I'll miss it, if I do I'll try to convert the legacy frames.

[kimokalihi]

Trust me you will not miss the height adjustment. No need to go any higher with these seats. I have 02 WRX seats in my 91 legacy and they're way too high as it is. I'm 5'11" and my head is almost hitting the ceiling. If I wax my hair up it hits the ceiling and drives me nuts. I have the height adjustment as low and it goes and it still needs to go down probably 2 inches. It's crazy high. I really need to take the seats out and have the rails cut and rewelded.

[HappyFrog]

I'm also 5'11" but my legs are freakish long, so with a little luck they will suit me fine, I have the current seat set to max height. I've read that up to and including v7 USDM and JDM/EDM seats were different. I dunno if it's true and I doubt they did anything to the height, but USDM seats should be wider (insert random joke about american weight here - I'm overweight myself, so I will not post it )

[HappyFrog]

The turbo is mocking me, it only boosted 14 psi yesterday and it doesn't look or sound like it has a leak. I guess it's time to take it off and inspect it.
In the meantime I got a little done, the right rear abs sensor is faulty so ordered a "new" one from an impreza and hoping it will fit.

I changed the header tank since it was missing something critical.
Before:


After:


Last week I changed the washer bottle for a 95 Type RA one, nice cheap mod and solved clearance issues with the fmic piping.


I also changed the cheap aftermarket coils and leads fitted by the previous owner by stock 2 bolt coil on plugs. Two of them had been repaired with tape where the lead connects to the plug It seems to have solved some misfire problems I've had during WOT, but I can't be sure until I get the boost back up... pulls nice and fine and it did boost 18psi all the way to redline last weekend.


Finally my battery died last weekend and I borrowed one from my brother while we work on the car. It is too short for the bracket, so I fitted a limited edition light weight battery extender.
As a totally unexpected bonus it instantly cured some idling problem I've had while the car is cold.

[HappyFrog]

A little update. The turbo is back to normal, the problem was caused by dirt in the dawes device and it kept the wastegate open. I've been out trashing it a bit and it seems like the misfires have been cured by the coil packs. It has only misfired once in a hard down shift, otherwise it runs well and pulls strong.

Also a few parts have arrived lately. Last month I received a set of simply subie fender braces and yesterday this genuine STi carbon strut brace landed.


I was working on the car yesterday, so the strut brace was fitted right away. I'll wait with the fender braces as I will change fenders soon anyway.


This slanty type tmic also arrived yesterday. I'll be using it for mot testing as the fmic isn't going to be approved.


And finally I bought 10m of black cotton braided hose. I'm trying to steer away from all that blue silicone stuff, all of a sudden I'm not that keen about the blue hoses and I thought the cotton hoses looked old school somehow

[kimokalihi]

Sweet looking hose. Where did you get it and how much?

[HappyFrog]

http://www.advancedfluidsolutions.co.uk ... b-91-c.asp
$3.65 per meter for the 4mm version. I regret I didn't buy some of the 4,5mm as well though, it is made of rubber so it is really stiff (it is actually fuel hose)
I found another company that does the hose in silicone and in a couple of different colours, but so far I haven't been able to get a price as they only ship to companies.

[HappyFrog]

Got some pics this morning from the photoshoot back in august, it looks way too good on the pics. You can barely notice it, but there is no clear coat left on the mirrors, the wing and on both sides of the roof. Looks awesome nevertheless

[HappyFrog]

Re-bading in progress. Gave up on finding a second hand one and though subaru could order it, they didn't want to sell it (charged $111 ) so getting one done in alloy and anodised black.
.jpg

[Legacy777]

Very nice looking! I'd like to see it when it's finished.

I'm guessing that was done on a CNC machine, did they give you the code used to machine it?

[HappyFrog]

Nope, but perhaps he would be willing to let it go cheap if not for free. I'll of course post pics when it is done.

[HappyFrog]

It turned out pretty good if you ask me!

[HappyFrog]

More badges on it's way. A fellow legacy owner wanted a set as well and I decided that the subaru one would look tame next to the nice alloy one The last one is a bonus made by the machinist, will reveal it later.


Also bought second hand 3" decat turboback, really looking forward to get rid of the ghetto crap I got now.

[Danny-G]

I like the subaru one, I like it alot. I think I might have to get one made here for myself because it looks sweet! Does the last one have two words? It almost looks like it does...

[HappyFrog]

Yup