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My newly acquired 1991 Legacy Turbo

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 10:49 pm
by Warp3
I bought this car over the weekend. It is in amazingly good shape (interior is in great condition and the exterior has only a few notable issues and pretty much everything works) and was ridiculously cheap ($750 :shock: ). I'm not driving it yet as it has a problem with the drivetrain (current suspect is the flex-plate), but it still drives and runs well even with that issue.

It's a 1991 model (automatic, unfortunately) with 174k miles.

Three Subarus aren't too many, right? :lol:

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Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 11:38 pm
by DLC
You have 3 of the best Subarus ever made...so no, 3 is not too much.

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:32 am
by LaureltheQueen
wow. sweet list, and the ss looks great!

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:37 am
by THAWA
jawesome

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:23 am
by HomeSlice
that thing is hotta hotta- what a deal congrats--nice gc in the background

Re: My newly acquired 1991 Legacy Turbo

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 4:50 am
by entirelyturbo
Warp3 wrote:it has a problem with the drivetrain (current suspect is the flex-plate)

(automatic, unfortunately)
Sounds like a good reason to do a 5MT swap to me :twisted:

Welcome to the board!

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 5:10 am
by georryan
NICE! Good find. Once you fix that flex plate and start putting some money into it, you'll be exceptionally glad you got it. :)

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 6:42 am
by BAC5.2
I wish I had a 91 MT Turbo parts car :(

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 6:52 am
by THAWA
talk to vrg :)

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:00 pm
by Warp3
HomeSlice wrote:nice gc in the background
Thanks! :D

...and thanks to everyone for compliments on the Legacy as well. :D

Re: My newly acquired 1991 Legacy Turbo

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:06 pm
by Warp3
subyluvr2212 wrote: Sounds like a good reason to do a 5MT swap to me :twisted:
The thought has definitely crossed my mind. Is there a thread on here detailing the parts needed for the swap?

(I'd search but I've been searching for a ton of stuff since I registered here and the search engine is really starting to annoy me. On a related note, does anyone know if you can make the search engine search for an exact phrase? I already tried offsetting it with quote marks, but no luck.)
Welcome to the board!
Thanks! :D FYI: I go by the same screen name on NASIOC (with a sub-200 member number, no less), RS25.com, USMB, and XT6.net as well. :)

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:24 pm
by legacy92ej22t
Nice SS. Welcome and enjoy. That's a very nice list. Any pics of the RX turbo? :D

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:31 pm
by Tleg93
I'm jealous, my 91 turbo was $1000.00 and it needs extensive body work. It's junk to me but at least it has benefitted me monetarily. Maybe I could part it out to you at some point. It has 10k less miles on it.

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:19 pm
by THAWA
Warp, check here: http://www.legacycentral.org/library/tr ... onvert.htm
theres a few more pieces you might need, but that's the jist of it
If you are searching and put the word AND between your words it'll search for both the words in the same post you can do the same with OR and NOT Also if you just want to find multiple words and don't feel like typing AND all the time, you can just select the "Search for all terms" button

Matt, check on his site.

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:59 pm
by QuickDrive
BAC5.2 wrote:I wish I had a 91 MT Turbo parts car :(
Ditto

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 6:06 pm
by Warp3
legacy92ej22t wrote:Nice SS. Welcome and enjoy. That's a very nice list. Any pics of the RX turbo? :D
They are from when I first got it, but yes, I do:
http://www.warpthree.com/images/warp3/rx031122/

FYI: No this isn't my house and no, those aren't my cars... :lol: In fact several of those cars aren't even there anymore...hehe :)

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 6:09 pm
by Warp3
I guess I need to pay more attention...I didn't even see the "Library" link on the main page... :lol:

Thanks :D

Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 4:11 pm
by turbonator
Whats the flex plate??? And what symptoms does it cause..

I also bought a 91 turbo less then 2 years ago and it has all kinds of shaking and thudding noises. Would this flex plate be in between the driveshaft and?? I'm kind of newb to this forum and car.. But I've replaced the flex disc on my e30 which bimmer guys call the guibdo..Thanks..

Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 4:56 pm
by Warp3
The flexplate is like a circular bracket that connects the torque converter to the engine. It sits where the flywheel would in a manual tranny car (and bolts to the engine in the same way).

I'm not actually sure if this is what is wrong with the car or not, though. The guy I bought it from said his mechanic claimed it was a "cracked flywheel" and since auto tranny Subarus don't have flywheels, the closest thing to one of those is a flexplate. In some ways it *almost* sounds like a heat shield, though, but I'm not sure I'll be quite that lucky.

The symptom the car has is a metallic grinding/scraping noise that occurs on startup, when blipping the throttle, over 4000rpm under load (and on decel afterward), and sometimes when shutting the car off. It does not occur on gradual revving or at WOT under load below 4000 rpm. It does seem like it's coming from the area where the flexplate is located (i.e. the very front of the tranny).

The car is currently up at Dale's shop (Teague's Auto / Boxer4Racing) and I should find out sometime next week what the actual problem is.

Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 8:54 pm
by turbonator
Thanks man.. Good luck with the new car..

Thats not my problem I have some much more serious issues.. :(

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:54 pm
by Warp3
Well it's still in the shop at the moment. The good news is that the flex plate wasn't cracked after all. The bad news is that apparently the torque converter got swapped for a non-turbo version at some point in the past and needs replaced, the turbo is seized (which definitely explains why it felt down on power), and a few other parts here and there need replaced. :(

The good news is that Jerry (of Deadbolt Speed) cut me a good deal on a TD05H-16G turbo, so I'm getting that installed while it's in the shop! :twisted:

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:29 pm
by QuickDrive
NICE!

Well I can deffinately say that a 16g is on my wishlist

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 12:54 am
by BAC5.2
Jesus, how many of us have 16G's now?

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 1:39 am
by Warp3
On a related note, Jerry and Dale aren't having the greatest luck with getting the compressor outlet of the TD05H-16G to match up with the turbo to throttle body piping. Is this not as "bolt-up" as I previously thought? (Jerry was well aware of the coolant line change that is required, but was under the assumption that the rest bolted up to the stock setup...is this not the case?)

I've searched the forums here and found some 16G install threads, but nothing really details how you got the piping to fit (unless you just all used custom piping as most of the installs already had intercoolers anyway).

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:44 am
by QuickDrive
The compressor outlets are not the same from the stock turbo to the 16G

The 16G is 90 degree, and the stock is like 5 degrees off of 45.

Therefore the stock piping will not fit.

Everyone here has an intercooler on their 16g so you may consider doing a wrx swap in there, as those hoses may work correctly. otherwise it's all about fabbing something up

I'd like to know what Matt and Phil actually...