legacycentral bbs

I am going to tackle getting my newly purchased 94 Legacy SS rebuilt. She runs fine now by has 220K on the clock and had metal flakes all in her oil. I have been reading through tons of posts and I think I have a good parts list together. My plan is run a TD04 or similar sized turbo with a TMIC, (already installed) potentially converting to FMIC down the road with a target of 12PSI daily and ~15PSI if I wanta get on her.

This will mainly be a DD and I do drive spiritedly from time to time. I am looking for reliability and fun factor (what drew me to the platform in the first place).

I am on a budget so I am trying to put my money where it counts. I have read Legacy777 build out and I understand that is the preferred route (new rods,pistons, bearings). HOWEVER, I do not want to boost the snot out of this car, and I want to maintain stock heads and fuel system.

My questions are below:

Can I get by with re-ringing the OEM pistons as long as wear in the cylinder walls and pistons is acceptable and even? I have compression tested the block and a dry test gives me 120-130PSI on all cylinders.

Can I re-use the forged OEM rods as long as they don't show damage? I haven't seen a post yet on someone losing a rod, only rod bearings.

I understand that if I break this thing open and I have damaged pistons/rods I will need to replace, just looking to spend smartly as I will be doing clutch, timing belt, etc... on this at the same time and I want to get the best bang for my buck.

And YES....I am cheap, but I don't mind spending money when it matters and attempt to minimize expense otherwise.

Thanks in advance for your inputs....this forum is pretty dang useful.


Eric

Eric,

If the OEM pistons are in ok shape, I suppose you could re-use them. The primary issue I can see is that even if you just have the cylinders honed, the stock sized pistons are likely going to have too large a clearance between the clyinder wall & piston. You can get other pistons besides wiseco that are cheaper.

The OEM rods should be fine to reuse.

you can do all that but what for, the motor runs perfect. add the intercooler and turbo and you must have a way to tune it right is the key.

if your going to open the block, clean the pistons up get new rings and bearings and your done. then new oil pump and water pump and seals gaskets.

Thanks for the responses guys. I found a shop that has a good reputation around here and I think I am going to let them rebuild it for me. They quoted $2600 with replacing the crank. rods. pistons, all bearings. oil pump, water pump, and gaskets.

When they crack it we are going to evaluate the internals and see what we find. The shop isn't too far from work so I plan on being down there pretty often. I am going to try to drop it off tomorrow for them to evaluate the metal flake issue and for them to get a better idea of the job. I might get them to drop the oil pan and see if they can see any obvious damage.

Miss driving this car, can't wait to get her back on the road one way or the other.

Oh yeah, meant to mention, seller stated that this block has been rebuilt before and I believe him, every gasket that I can see looks new and blue.

so your replacing the crank and rods and pistons for what reason ? makes no sense on why you would do such a thing ??

Nico,

The shop is going to inspect everything and I have instructed just to do the bearings and rings at this time. The $2600 quote was what they were thinking the worse case would be if they had to replace all internals.

It was 1100 in parts and 1500 in labor. With just rings, bearings, and gaskets it brought the parts cost down to around the 500 range.

Realistically I think that I will be looking at the 2200-2600 range depending on what they find and what breaks when they start pulling it out.