legacycentral bbs

Well, I know it's not exactly Legacy or EJ22 related, but I thought you all might like to see progress of my seemingly-controversial EJ18 build.

Just so everyone knows, I plan on rebuilding the EJ18 shortblock (I'm told this engine does have 230k miles on it) and putting some EJ205 (USDM WRX) heads on it, then putting it into a GF Impreza wagon. Other than that, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, as far as which turbo I'm gonna use, etc. etc.

My goal is to get 300 chp out of it. That's all I need, that's all I want. Plus, I figure a Phase I open-deck 1.8-liter engine isn't good for much more no matter what I do to it.

Anyway, I'll update this thread as I move along.

I did take it down basically to a longblock today:


Here's what it looked like the day I got it:


Expect to see most of this stuff on eBay in the next couple days:


I can't do much more than that, as it's stuck on the tire. Once I get an engine stand (which won't be for a couple months ), the heads will come off, and I'll probably tear the shortblock down.

Some stuff is on eBay, check it out.

It's been a while since I touched this engine, but some n00b on RS25.com was swearing the EJ18 was semi-closed deck, so I pulled my heads tonight to prove him wrong

So, I'm down to a short-block now. Yeah, I'm just moving right along with this project .

But, I might be moving along faster soon, because also today, I scored a set of EJ205 heads... FREE! A WRX in the shop broke a timing belt I think and bent its valves, so the heads were pulled and replaced. All I did was ask my service manager, and he said take em! So, once I get some money, I'll get new valves for it and send them off to a machine shop. I'll probably P&P them and do some other stuff too.

But first, I need to verify that those heads will work on this block. If time permits, I should be able to do that in the next month or so.

Then I'll start looking into Eagle rods, custom pistons, etc.

They should work, just use an EJ20 head gasket.

Your going to turbo it, right?

A good friend of mine had a 1.8T 93 Impreza sedan. With a TD04 at wastegate boost, it ran a 14.2 or something crazy like that. It was, by far, the most fun Impreza I ever rode in. Crazy coilovers, it was just fast enough, and it got silly gas mileage.

The #1 issue with fitment is valve clearance, coz the 205 valves are bigger. Off the top, I'm not 100% sure the valves will clear the cylinder walls. I put the 18E headgasket on the 205 head last night and the inner exhaust valves are REALLY close. I'm gonna hafta just temporarily bolt the head onto the block and turn the cams and see what happens. There's also the issue of the valves hitting the pistons even under normal operation because of the smaller indentations in the 18E pistons, but I can fix that with custom pistons.

I want to, and have to, use the 205 headgasket. 1) the 18E headgasket would get me approx. 7.8:1 CR, which is too low for what I want, and 2) the 18E headgasket would block coolant passages in the 205 heads.

Stay tuned.

What turbo are you going to use?

Not sure.

I've got a VF40 from an LGT sitting in my garage. Was replaced under warranty at the dealership, Subaru told us to scrap it, so I scrapped it... in the trunk of my car

I keep hearing that no one in the US can rebuild VF-series turbos (I actually went to Central Florida Turbo, they're big shots around here, and they told me the same thing), but then I hear Deadbolt can rebuild them.

I'm not sure though. I dunno how much boost the VF40 is good for. I was thinking VF39, but there are just too many problems with that turbo. I've got THREE of those in warranty right now that I can move the shaft almost an inch.

With all the shit I got going on, I'm just gonna try to get a reasonable goal of having at least the shortblock assembled how I want it by the end of the year. Then, once I graduate, I'll have more time to devote to it, and all my other stuff too.

Rocket Rally told me a lot of Deadbolt VF series turbos that they get are DOA... just a heads up

VF30 man, that's a money turbo.

I scrapped the EJ18 project... literally.

Took the shortblock, heads, and the EJ25 heads I thought were EJ20 heads... and went to the scrapyard with them.

I was up $23.25 and later, up a case of Heineken in my refrigerator.

So, yeah, whatever restoration I accomplish on my Legacy will be the extent of my interest with Subaru.

Why what turned you sour?

I assume you sold the stuff as aluminum scrap, but $23 seems a little low for a shortblock+heads...
Why didn't you keep the heads for use on your Legacy?

It probably would have run good - I'm pretty sure someone on RS25 ran low 13s on a TD04 / 1.8T Impreza.

I had a 1.8 project that went to the scrap yard about 2 weeks ago. Got the motor off a local guy on rs25.com. He thought it had a blown headgasket but it turned out to be a grenaded piston shattered into millions of pieces which cracked the block. Oh well. At least it was fun to pretend about building a motor.

Well, the scrapyard was very diligent in determining that the crank, cams, and and miscellaneous bolts were steel.

All you need is a magnet, so it's not that hard

So they rated all of it as some kind of shreddable metal mix, which is worth $10.50 per 100lbs.

The EJ18 heads are supposed to be the worst EJ heads ever made, and I have no reason to lower the compression in the Legacy with the EJ25 heads.

Yeah, if I wanted to tear into the shortblock and heads and gather up the rods and crank and all that to make up a specific steel pile and then the block halves and stripped heads as aluminum, I might have gotten a little more money. But I really didn't care. It was $23.25 I didn't have before.

I still think the idea is cool, of a high-power Subaru 1.8T, especially with the cylinder walls being sturdier thanks to the small bore, but I was also considering the Phase I bottom end, and the open-deck block.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm willing to put money into things to make them work, but the thought of putting money into that engine and still have it blow up because of inherent and irrepairable weaknesses kinda made me second-guess it.

Plus, I have an extra few square feet in my garage again.

I almost did the same with my old EJ22, but most of the weight was in the steel and cutting out the liners and removing all the rest including plugs and such was not worth the 70 bucks I MIGHT have gotten out of it. I keep hearing about the high price of aluminum, but fail to see it. Copper is high, nickel is high, platinum and gold are high, but aluminum is barely worth the trouble. I ended up sending the crankcase to a board member in NY.