legacycentral bbs

went and looked at this SVX yesterday, before the auction ended today, it was local to me, and listed on ebay, and low miles.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 916&rd=1,1

It had never had previous body work-good
The seller was a car dealer (never deal with dealers that don't know stuff about cars). he had stated in an email it was a non-smoker car. WRONG. ashtray full of butts.
also, the radiator was busted and no antifreeze in it. I asked him to put antifreeze in it before i started it, which he did. then it leaked out. the oil level was also low. It would be a risky bid, so i didnt bid- the winner is gonna have lots of work, and it is not driveable with the radiator (and or headgasket) as is, even though the seller said it drove fabulously or however he put it. the interior was far from immaculate as stated (due to smoking). also, the rear exhuast input to the muffler was "sliced" as if someone had tried to steal the muffler. I like these cars, and low miles are hard to find. but too many "ifs" oh, also when i started it, the AC had been left on, and i think the AC compressor is going bad, it ticked at the compressor and the AC belt wobbbled as if it was loose, but when i shut the car off, the belt was proper tension, i think the compressor was trying to lock up.

what are these things worth?

Ive seen them go anything from $1000 to $7000

The 4EATS in them tend to overheat and kerplode due to the high torque and high weight of the car.

If its on its first transmission, Id stay the hell away for over 3 grand

supposedly, the "early" cars had a "screen" in the tranny filter/cooler that blocked flow, causing all the early made cars to burn transmissions, all of them. The later cars, subaru removed the screen to prevent this. this car was a later car, and why i had my hopes up

Its mostly just overheating that does it.

They are big, heavy cars, and its the same transmission that went in our cars, which, IIRC, are 500lbs lighter

Imagine what towing a trailer, all day, every day would do to your car over a few years.

5 speed swap for if i ever get an SVX, no overheating then.

Go for the 6 speed

Subaru never put the 5 speeds in the SVX for a reason - they didnt think they could reliably handle the torque

The really low gear ratio is a tranny killer too. Low gearing meant that the parts inside the tranny were always spinning slowly causing heat problems and the diffs would grenade regularly. A tranny cooler can aid in this a great deal and so can a swap.

If you want an svx, look on http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum for the for sale ads. Those are often very reasonable.

Bheinen74 wrote:supposedly, the "early" cars had a "screen" in the tranny filter/cooler that blocked flow, causing all the early made cars to burn transmissions, all of them. The later cars, subaru removed the screen to prevent this.

Just wondering, my '93 NA AT and my '93 ss AT had/have that screen in the tranny. Does that cause tranny failure for our cars too? If so, would it be advisable to remove the screen and install an external filter?

93Leg-c wrote:

Bheinen74 wrote:supposedly, the "early" cars had a "screen" in the tranny filter/cooler that blocked flow, causing all the early made cars to burn transmissions, all of them. The later cars, subaru removed the screen to prevent this.

Just wondering, my '93 NA AT and my '93 ss AT had/have that screen in the tranny. Does that cause tranny failure for our cars too? If so, would it be advisable to remove the screen and install an external filter?

No. The low gear ratio made that screen thing deadly for the SVX tranny. It's perfectly fine in our cars.

It's mostly a combination of the fact that the gearing is much taller as Manarius has said, which means the transmission is straining more; the fact that the car is much heavier than the Legacy, the fact that the engine is 100hp more powerful than the Legacy... and yes, it is basically the same transmission as the Legacy.

I believe a 6-speed swap has successfully been done into an SVX, but without all the DCCD doodads.

Yes, the 6MT swap has been done, by a couple people over on the SVX board. I want to say there are about 5 or so running with 6MT's. A couple of them do have the DCCD crap wired in as well

Doing a 6 speed swap isnt much different than a 5 speed swap really.

Yeah, with the 6MT you don't need to lengthen the driveshaft, cause it's the same length as the automatic

Thanks for the explanations, Manarius and subyluvr2212!

Regarding swapping in a 6MT, don't the half axles need to be shortened when installed in our Legacies?

It sounds like you made the right decision by walking away, although I love mine, I would have done better to pass up on the first one I saw and search a little longer

93Leg-c wrote:

Bheinen74 wrote:supposedly, the "early" cars had a "screen" in the tranny filter/cooler that blocked flow, causing all the early made cars to burn transmissions, all of them. The later cars, subaru removed the screen to prevent this.

Just wondering, my '93 NA AT and my '93 ss AT had/have that screen in the tranny. Does that cause tranny failure for our cars too? If so, would it be advisable to remove the screen and install an external filter?

Just to clarify, the screen that caused problems is in the small passage of the cooler, inside of the radiator. Not the large screen of the internal filter that sits in the tranny pan.

Removing the screen doesn't always help the dead tranny problem. If you get one, first step is to install an external tranny cooler and temp gauge. A fluid change every 10k doesn't hurt either

But as mentioned earlier http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum is the place to go. TomsSVX (Young Tom) is the man to talk to about 5/6MT swaps. For AT and exhaust work you will want to talk to SVXfiles (Old Tom).
YT supplied the 5speed kit for my SVX Racer and OT supplied the custom headers and exhaust.

Hocrest wrote:Just to clarify, the screen that caused problems is in the small passage of the cooler, inside of the radiator. Not the large screen of the internal filter that sits in the tranny pan.

Thanks for that clarification. I missed that totally from Bheinen74's post,