Patti's Restoration

[entirelyturbo]

Patti, my 1991 Legacy L 4WD 5spd, has been easily the best car I've ever owned or likely will ever own in my life.

Only 4 months after I got my driver's license, and only 1 day before I started my junior year of high school, I bought this car.

Truth be told, I hated the car when I first bought her. I was after a turbo DSM and bought this car as temporary transportation until I could get something faster.

Fast forward 9 years, and this car has done more than just rid me of my initial opinion of her, and provide me with impeccably reliable transportation throughout, and caused me to grow unhealthily attached to her... she has introduced me to many awesome friends that I deeply respect, given me a steady job, and indeed defined who I am.

That's just how awesome these cars are.

And how have I repaid her?

By letting her deteriorate into this condition:






Granted, I did have tremendous school and work obligations during those first 7 years and simply couldn't give her the attention I wanted to, but I'm nonetheless ashamed that I treated my favorite car in the world with such wanton neglect.

So, after 7 years of tireless and virtually flawless service and 1½ years of patient dormancy...

... I'm going to give Patti the restoration she deserves.

I've already started acquiring parts, as you'll remember from a couple weeks ago with the quarter panel.

But for now, the most immediate plans are to have her running by this event (provided it happens).

By running, I mean headgasket job with full headwork done, and a new clutch and flywheel. She'll still look pretty ugly, but will be functional.

That way, I can drive her around on occasion so she's not just sitting in the garage rotting away.

So this will be somewhat of a rolling restoration.

She will receive the best bodywork I can afford to give her, and she will receive a refreshed interior... strongly considering 2.5RS seats reupholstered to match the interior.

However, she will not have her stock engine the whole time. As I indicated here, I have a Phase II SOHC EJ25 sitting in my garage.

The rough plan is to do the high-compression EJ22/EJ25 hybrid, with some mild fuel, EM, and bolt-ons, as well as a fresh drivetrain. I'm not sure if it's possible, but I'm aiming for 200chp.

I'm actually pondering some road course action for her, if only some track days here and there to hone my driving skills.

But that's a WAYS off. Right now, expect the next post when I remove her stock engine.

I'm well aware that the blood, sweat, and tears I have in her now is nothing compared to what I need to do to get her back in tip-top condition. This will not be easy, quick, or cheap. It will require my utmost patience, concentration, and determination.

But that's okay.

I owe her big, and I'm going to pay up.

[mexicanzero]

good luck on that bud! i admire your passion in this project. even though i've only had my car 2 years i am also very attached and wish to do some kind of rebuild/restoration once i can afford another car as a dd.

to me a car isnt a means of transportation, its a hobby, a job, the friend that always comes through and listens when you need her too, a way to get out of the house and relax and i could keep going but this has gotten sappy enough as it is so i'll stop...
lol

-ALex

[evolutionmovement]

Though of course it doesn't talk or anything, I consider my wagon to be a character in my books, but not the other cars.

[mexicanzero]

talk, no..... roar, yessss

i just remembered i used to have a pet cockroach i named patti in second grade when i lived in trinidad... weird i know, i was special

still am

-Alex

[ericem]

Though of course it doesn't talk or anything, I consider my wagon to be a character in my books, but not the other cars.

haha same but I killed my car, atleast I think it has been killed (scrapped it, but not sure it was technically "crushed" yet! Fairwell 93 leg! )

Good luck with your restoration though!!

[entirelyturbo]

Took the engine out. I'll probably remove the heads over the weekend and take them to the machine shop next week.

I have a slew of parts waiting, including a full gasket set, clutch and flywheel, head bolts, and a complete set of brand-new lifters. You can see them sitting on the big bin on the right in the first picture.

[206er]

port match the entire top end and do delta cams while the motor is out. can't install cams with the motor in the car. dont think you need any extra fuel that the stock setup cant handle. could be wrong though, never had a wideband on mine lol. some em would be good for adding timing and tweaking the fuel though.
if you wanted to you could try and do some mild headwork. if you keep it simple there's not much that can go wrong. blend the valve seats into the bowl, remove casting flaws, smooth around valve guides, put a 120 grit finish on the whole intake and as fine as you want to go on the exhaust. leave the devider and the short side radius alone.

[kimokalihi]

I've always wondered why wouldn't everything be port matched from the factory? Wouldn't that be really easy for them to just design it that way if it were the optimal way of having it?

[entirelyturbo]

Heads are off and ready for the machine shop.

I've made the decision to go ahead and do the Frankenmotor EJ22/EJ25 hybrid now, using these heads on the Phase II EJ25 I have sitting in the corner. Doing this twice is kinda stupid...

... well, also, the fact that I broke a flywheel bolt off in the EJ22 played a part in that decision as well

I'm reviewing a whole bunch of NASIOC threads on it, but from what I can tell, it's pretty much a direct swap. Everything just bolts onto the EJ25 shortblock and I put the whole thing back in and the car essentially doesn't even know anything changed. The only thing I'm not 100% sure on is if the coolant crossover pipe swaps over, but maybe someone can answer that for me.

My primary objective is still to get the car up and running, so when it is, I'll just putt around with 11.5:1 CR or whatever it is on high-test until I can afford to do some more mods to make it run at its full potential.

[entirelyturbo]

Actually, 206er, I think I may take your advice and do headwork while I have everything apart.

Too bad I missed Delta Cam's holiday sale

That will push it back quite a bit, but it's already being held back by my harmonic balancer coming apart and not having the money to replace it at the moment.

[evolutionmovement]

I think I have an extra harmonic balancer I could send you for shipping cost. Might be easier for you to source locally and you'll have to wait for me to dig out the garage, but just let me know.

[entirelyturbo]

Thanks Steve. I'll let you know.

[entirelyturbo]

Spent Valentine's Day doing something truly meaningful and dear to my heart... working on Patti.

Cleaned the engine bay up a little bit, still have a lot more to do though:


Swapped the EJ25 onto the stand and the EJ22 onto the ground:


And... I started taking the heads apart:




[Kumar]HA HA![/Kumar]

[nemorzuz]

How is your project going?

[entirelyturbo]

This project is over... the car no longer exists. I forgot... mods, feel free to lock or delete this thread if necessary. I took it to the junkyard earlier this year, though some of it lives on as parts on other cars on this forum.

It was a very, very difficult decision to make, but I had to come to terms with the fact that it was no longer in my best interest to keep it, financially or psychologically.

The guy who carried it away on the bulldozer at the junkyard said he could tell how attached I was to it.

Nonetheless, I have moved on, and here is what I have replaced it with:

A 100% real JDM Subaru Legacy B4 RSK


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