legacycentral bbs

you guys taklin about the 02 and up wrx (usdm wrx) or the older jdm wrx's? cuz im kinda confused when you guys say older wrx intercoolers or just wrx stuff in general. so 02 and up wrx parts work or all wrx's. and could you just buy upgraded wrx parts instead of oem parts for the SS? like instead of buying a stock wrx intercooler get a aps tmic or something?

and what about 02+ wrx suspension parts? swaybars, strut braces, springs, shocks, brakes, etc?

What's great about Subaru is that alot of parts from different years and models fit on eachother. Intercoolers from 2002+ WRX models fit with some modification. Earlier JDM WRX intercoolers that are slanted fit much better and have more clearence with the firewall.



I believe struts from a WRX fit with new spring perches since the WRX springs are tapered and the SS ones aren't? I know that I bought top mounts made for an older WRX and they fit perfectly. Most any modern Subaru brakes fit as long as you have the proper wheel clearence. Alot of members here have upgraded WRX brakes.

what about 02 tmic upgrades?

An 02+ stock TMIC is a tight fit. I would think an aftermarket one would be worse. Plus you don't get the airflow with the tiny scoop on an SS.
Swaybars no. But they are made for our car.

subarus are like legos

Legos! Woo!

...except sometimes they're hard-to-locate legos..

Parts aren't always readily found, and found in working/decent condition. So really, the compatibility is a blessing of a curse. (Blessing in disguise?) Plus, with our cars reaching almost 15 years old, dealerships are having a hard time keeping inventory in stock, which only increases the need for compatibility and knowledge of Subaru compatibility. There's always a price to be paid for living the longest...

-K- wrote:An 02+ stock TMIC is a tight fit. I would think an aftermarket one would be worse. Plus you don't get the airflow with the tiny scoop on an SS.
Swaybars no. But they are made for our car.

i see, so if you wanted to get a bigger intercooler you would have to go front mount.

Legos! Woo!

...except sometimes they're hard-to-locate legos..

Parts aren't always readily found, and found in working/decent condition. So really, the compatibility is a blessing of a curse. (Blessing in disguise?) Plus, with our cars reaching almost 15 years old, dealerships are having a hard time keeping inventory in stock, which only increases the need for compatibility and knowledge of Subaru compatibility. There's always a price to be paid for living the longest...

i see. so what all works from a wrx?

i see. so what all works from a wrx?

struts/springs, intercooler, downpipe (with custom mid-pipe), wheels, brakes (with 16" wheels), seats (atleast the rear ones), fuel pumps (similar if not identical), and prob some other stuff im forgetting.

A better question would be, what doesn't work from a wrx?

I have a WRX intercool. It makes my car teh ub3r f4stZ0r.

STi Wings for everyone.

Subaru_Nation555 wrote:

i see. so what all works from a wrx?

struts/springs, intercooler, downpipe (with custom mid-pipe), wheels, brakes (with 16" wheels), seats (atleast the rear ones), fuel pumps (similar if not identical), and prob some other stuff im forgetting.

wow. so you could get most of these parts aftermarket and put em on. example like a high flow fuel pump or coilovers and turbos. oh these cars are hot. ha haha.

turbochargers won't work without some custom work. Leggy Turbos need a 90 degree inlet which the WRX dosen't have.

maybe a differnt intake tube?

Here is a turbo with a standard 90 degree inlet:


Here is one that would fit a USDM Legacy Turbo with a rotated 90 degree inlet:

stuff form gc era wrx's fit better. for exapmle the turbos and intercoolers from 93-96 imprezza wrx;s fit better than 02 wrx stuff will, same goes for suspensions though they can all be made to fit one way or another. strut tower brace from gc era wrx;s also fit.

fmic will require modification or custom piping. in general they are similar but are far enough difference that it gets tricky. location of the air intake on our cars, throtle body angle and positioning and the lower main raditior line all compromise fmic piping made for wrx's. and please dont go top mount wrx or afetrmarket for wrx intercooling. it can be livable but heat soak sucks. refer here ( http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... 13&start=0 ) for more info.

fuel mods for pumps gss341/2 should work fine with some light modifacation. ill be doing this install soon so ill have more info at that time. other fuel mods include yellow 440cc injectors again from gc era sti motors but require 92-94 legacy L fuel rails with your stock manifold refferenceing fpr. when you pull NA rails off you can also use the injetors that are in them and modd them to get about 740cc's. this requires engine management though which nothing so far from wrx's can provide as a plug and play but inovative tuning is working on seeing if the autronic units for wrx's work.

exhaust. headers with uppipes will bolt on. if there is fittment problems you can trust that there was a problem with fittment on the wrx's too. mostly with gt spec equal length headers. down pipes and other exaust items will fit as long as they are used in conjunction with each other. after market wrx down pipes are longer than our factory ones and will not bolt up to a stock cat back. there are some adveritised on ebay that say they are too short for wrx's that will fit with ease to the stock cat backs as noted by the experience of windchaser. full turbo backs are too short. you will need to put an extention of about 6 inches in the axle back or the mid pipe. depending on which axle back mid pipe combo you use will detirmine which one you do. (eg. if you use a setup that is cockeye you would probaly want to put the extention in the midpipe so its less visible. if you do a prodrive axle back youll want to put it in the axle back because its more form fitted and tucked under the car) also the 2 hangers on the muffler need to be extended and moved forewards or backwards or none at all depending on how you want it to sit. the midpipe hanger needs to be moved back 3 inches but is not nessary to because the 3 hangers on the axle back and the dp hanger on the tranny will sufficently hold up the midpipe.

heads will bolt up but coolant passages may not mate up properly for heads that came off open deck blocks. for this you need to use the gasket for the block in question and you wont have much problem but again if you use heads form a closed deck gc era wrx they will fit.

intakes. will not fit. as noted with the turbo inlet styling its just impossible. it improve on stock do a search for coffe cup mod or other varitaion or a name search for legazee and youll see what i mean. if you want to do a cone filter which for many on this board is not reomended but from my experience has no harm and little gain the only filters you will be able to fit are a toucan industries bov style filter with adapter and the bov looking thing removed and a standard apc autozone cone filter. for the apc one you will need to cut a slit on the gasket that goes around a maf adapter or pipe and flip it around. then drill the pattern of the maf bolts into the filter and bolt to the maf acordingly. the reason for this is because the abs unit if you still have one will get in the way.

drive line. any transmission can be made to fit. all ej series motors use the same bolt pattern trans missions even though a block may have 6 bolt points and a trans has only 4 it will sitll bolt up. of course for a at to man swap you will need everything else like master cilinders and peddals but for an at to at swap you just need a the tcu and do some wiring. with all drive line swaps the rear diff is required that matches the trans for gear ratio purposes

turbos as mentioned before will require moddifiation of the intake tract to work. i personaly built an adapter piece bassed on the piece magicmike built for his vf34 for my vf39 though mine wasnt as pretty. (pics of mikes here http://www.thawa.net/gallery/IHI-VF-34- ... cture1_041 ) to build it took me a good 5 days. if i were to do it again i could do it in a bout 9 hours but i probaly wouldnt be willing to do it again anyways. its for sale in the parts shed along with the turbo (vf39) if your interested. along with a turbo upgrade i found that the oil line is too short to bolt up to the turbo on the vf39. this may not be a problem with the 16g which is the turbo picured above and the only truly bolt on turbo out there but it may be a problem as when i installed my 16g the oil line was giving me the same grief that the 39 did. this is that the line is too short. when i remidied this i went to a hose shop and had them cut and weld fittings for a steel braided teflon high pressure hose and get the proper length in between. this not only made it fit properly it made to so that when i take off a turbo i dont have to remove the lower part of the oil line. to illustrate why i belive the 16g will present the same oil line problem, when i put on both turbos i had the oil line assembled and bolted to the block befor bolting it to the turbo. i had the line made just right and while puttin the bolt thorugh the banjo both times banjo was pulling on the bolt and not letting it sit properly and therefore not alowing it to catch threads and hense not being able to bolt in. to remidi this i had to disconect the upper part form the braided line and attach it to the turbo before re attaching the braided line to the upper oil line.

pcv vlave system. depending on the situation of the plastic yours is made of it could be good or bad. if yor f piece is still intact you will need to move it back towards the fire wall and use heater hose to extend the connections. if it was like mine an breaks at all different points you will need to rebuild it with heater hose and home depot 90 degree connectors. this wont allow you to use the venturi system that the stock intake tract has. in order to use that you will need a 3/4 inch od mandrel bent 5 inch radius J bend and a matching smaller mettal piece that is welded in at a 45 degree angle. this way also prevents the melting of the connectors unless you use copper or brass instead of nylon or pvc or other plastic barbedend connectors.

if i got anything wrong feel free to chime in.

I can do a writeup and pictures later. But a full WRX turboback is not too short.

Me and Snowboarded put systems straight on and the tailpipe just sits tucked under the bumper... but past the lip that would put exhaust into the trunk.

It's more personal preference.

i see

it is if you're a wagon owner. I have photos to prove it.

Man, if the guy knew what grammar was, I'd say that azn2nr's post should be a sticky in the 'stuff you need to know.' Nice write up.