legacycentral bbs

Hey guys,

Here's the deal. My brother needs to get another car soon. He wants a legacy turbo and found one that's a 92 with real low mileage. 49k to be exact. He can get it for about 2500 because the tranny isn't working. It got auctioned off as a donated vehicle (because of tranny) and the guy that got it said that he cant find anything else wrong with it. So since it is salvaged he's willing to limp it around to get it back on the road. What my brother would do is buy a 2.5 RS tranny and swap that in (along with a 4.11 rear diff so the gearing is the same) and use that for awhile. Do you guys see anything wrong with this at all? I know that the RS is pushing roughly the same hp, but about 20 less torque.

The clutch setup will be opposite our stock ones (the ol push vs pull topic) and if he starts to beef it up later he'll have to upgrade the clutch more than likely, but people turbo those RS quite often. Would putting one of those tranny's in be that much of a problem in all reality? I figure it is good for the car stock at least.

In the end he is looking at getting it for under 4k bucks. Which for about only 50,000 miles is a killer deal I think.

-Ryan

I dunno ryan, but do let me know if you guys need some help with anything, Is it a 4eat or 5mt?

It will be a 4eat swap to a 5mt. So yeah, I'll be doing what you did. Oh, and I think you have something turned around in your swap. I told Barsotti about your shifter and he thought that shouldn't have happened.

No one else has an opinion on this? I'm guessing then there is no immediate concerns with going this route?

I wouldn't do it. Or I would do it, but go with the Turbo Hydro clutch instead of the pull style cable clutch from a 2.5RS.

Another MAJOR concern in my book is the WAY low miles. The car has been driven WAY less than 5,000 miles per year. That's horrendous, and probably needs new seals everywhere. I bet the car will run for about a month, then start leaking everything from everywhere. I doubt it's a happy camper.

I think you'll run into problems like I had. $3400 for the car, then dump 2k into it, just so it can be driven, and STILL have things go wrong.

We'll see. A trusted mechanic is the one who got it from an auction so he'll be giving the ok on it before he gets it to us.

Meh, some things took a few thousand miles to become apparent for me.

Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure and make that a consideration.

the rs tranny will easily handle the stock legacy turbo's power and more

a friend has 280whp through a stock rs tranny (upgraded clutch) for the last 80,000kms.. no problems to date with heavy auto-x launches

Good to know thanks.

BAC5.2 wrote:I wouldn't do it. Or I would do it, but go with the Turbo Hydro clutch instead of the pull style cable clutch from a 2.5RS.

Another MAJOR concern in my book is the WAY low miles. The car has been driven WAY less than 5,000 miles per year. That's horrendous, and probably needs new seals everywhere. I bet the car will run for about a month, then start leaking everything from everywhere. I doubt it's a happy camper.

I think you'll run into problems like I had. $3400 for the car, then dump 2k into it, just so it can be driven, and STILL have things go wrong.

The RS actually uses a push style hydrolic clutch. Pull style clutchs are only on the turbos, and cables are only on cars before about 97-98.

Ryan, about the shifter, I actually figured that out about a week or two ago, it was the top pivot, i had it turned backwards like a dolt

Yeah, I concur with Phil about the mileage. I've had less trouble with accessories from my high-mileage cars than people I know who've bought under-mileage cars - even cars that have a reputation for reliability. Cars are meant to be driven and Subaru engines don't seem to care about miles anyway. Not that I'm saying not to go for it, but just as something to watch out for.

Steve

Well talking to the mechanic he felt that we shouldn't have any more problems with it than a car with 130,000 miles. I figure we get a water pump and check the belts and change those things, expect to replace the valve cover gaskets and the rear seal under the turbo like I did in my car in the near future. At this point I think my brother is thinking about it. I guess we'll just see how things go.

-Ryan

I don't think the miles would be a problem so long as they were put on regularly. I have a friend with a 1984 Mercedes (non-diesel) with 39,000 on it, but it was driven every couple of days - not much, but regularly. It's fine. I have a 1969 Honda with 11000 on it. I bought it with just under 7000 on it. It was not driven regularly - spent most of its life sitting in a barn, but I've had no serious problems out of it. (I did figure out the recent "overheating". it wasn't overheating, the fuel valve wasn't letting fuel get throuh quickly enough and just needed cleaning.)
I still don't know anything about swapping trannys though.