Mike's (s)old 92 SS

[Legacy777]

Glad you were able to get the bolt out and yeah, congrats on the new job!

I ran across the 6 vs. 9 bolt thing too and ordered some new bolts.

[mike-tracy]

There's a junkyard near me with 2x 05 LGT's so I grabbed a set of rear calipers. Luckily they take thr same pads as the H6 rears, so i'll swap those over, and reuse my ventilated 2 pot rear rotors that look mint.

Those 2 LGT's didnt have the front brakes, nor the other set of rears. They were mostly stripped.

[mike-tracy]

Well good news, I got my car started for the first time since owning it. With just the DP and midpipe, and no TMIC it sounds like a heavily cammed engine! lol. After I plugged in the MAF, it'd stay running as long as I let it.

There were several issues that took some time troubleshooting, but the biggest one was a dead fuel pump! Luckily the soon-to-be owner of my 91ss gave me a Walbro to install, so I grabbed the stock one and swapped it into the 92. Got the PCV and vacuum lines mostly buttoned up, but I wasn't able to install the TMIC because of the $!@%!%# SS clutch master cylinder. Why you so tall!

On to the pics:

I cut off the tab on the lower right corner so I can actually use the stock SS coolant tank in place:


Out of my two WRX "slantys," this one has space for the clutch master cylinder. Or so I thought... It hits the cap and I really can't fit it even with "persuasion"


Engine as far as I got tonight:


Bonus pic from work. This is a Pumper truck with a Schwing boom, lol.

Construction jokes


So tomorrow I'll get an 02-05 WRX clutch master cylinder as they're low and offset. I also need about 3' of PCV hose to go from the driver side head to the "T" in the 90* turbo boot. Then I'll be rollin! (I hope!)

[mike-tracy]

Hooked everything up tonight, and filled er up with coolant. I let the engine run for about 20 minutes. Idle started at 2k, then lowered to 1k and stayed there. Fans came on at the appropriate time, and I had no leaks lol. Temp stayed stable at just under the half-way point on the gauge.

I do have a CEL. Didn't check it but I noticed my speedo doesn't move so I suspect that's part or all of it. Car has all 4 wheels in the air.

Instead of swapping mastercylinders (since my setup is freshly reman, and cause I really, really didn't want to rebleed it!), I chopped the reservoir to right above the "Max" line. The cap stays put due to the seal in it. This gave me just enough clearance to put the WRX slanty in. I am also using the SS coolant tank in the stock location. Works good so far.


Heads are LOUD!!!

[mike-tracy]

Well gents, I drove the car for the first time today. Man it was fun! Heads are now as quiet as you expect, and almost everything is working properly.

I installed the rest of the exhaust, finally finished the rear sway bar, buttoned up a few more things here and there.

Impressions and observations: the steering is super tight, and car feels really good.
-Theres's that CEL or 3 still showing.
-I don't have a boost gauge hooked up so I don't know if it's in limp or not.
-Speedo doesn't work
-The ej22t has so much more torque than my ej20gs'! I love it!
-Hopefully the suspension needs to settle. The wrx wagon struts and wrx sedan springs (prodrive lowering springs) leave the car raked looking.
-I'm missing the shifter linkage spring, and even the all-Kartboy bushing setup doesn't fix that away.
-Engine idles at 1k, and is rather rough till you give it throttle, then it's like butter.
-The tranny's 36:64 power split is so awesome! All subies should be more rear biased.

That's it for now. Here's a pic of the engine all buttoned up:

[cj91legss]

Looks like we accomplished some stuff this week Mike.

[mike-tracy]

Yeah buddy!

[mike-tracy]

Figured out how i screwed up on the suspension. Bought some 04 sti struts in good shape for $200, those will be going on.

Went to the rally this weekend and didnt touch the cars. Lets just say SRTUSA has a couple excellent drivers!

[mike-tracy]

Well I installed the struts last night. Due to my rear end being about 3 inches taller than the front, I thought I'd accidentally installed my forester struts. However, their part numbers checked out as wrx wagon.



So why the uplifted butt then? Front was low and looked good.

To recap, I used wrx wagon struts all around and 02-03 wrx sedan springs, along with 1992 legacy tophats.


Haven't dropped the car down with the sti struts, but they visually looked the same height as the wrx ones.

[mike-tracy]

I found part of the problem - I was using front perches on the rears! Luckily my roommate had a set of 92 assembled struts so I can see the difference.I installed the springs on the STI struts, and put the car back on the ground. Front still looks nice and low, rear is still higher than expected but it is about an inch lower now with the proper perches lol.

Car feels nice and tight other than the higher ass end, and desperately needing an alignment!

[mike-tracy]

Left is the 92SS rear, middle is STI rear with front tophat!
.


Believe it or not, the rear was 1" taller with the incorrect perches!

[cj91legss]

I assume you got it all squared away?

[SILINC3R]

Glad to see it's driving

[mike-tracy]

Above pic is with the correct rear perches. Still too high. Im going to experiment with the sti spings.

Means I have to get 90-91 tophats.

Yeah she runs rather well. I think the shift linkage is slightly bent because occationally I have issues getting into 5th and reverse. Also I still havent messed with the speedo cable.

[ride_child]

90-91 tophats for the rear? i have a spare front set of struts...

[mike-tracy]

90-91 tophats for the rear? i have a spare front set of struts...

The fronts are fine, just need those specific tophats to fit the tapered sti rear springs.

[Legacy777]

Hmm, that is a pretty high riding rear end. (Let the innuendos commmence )

Usually it's the other way around....a saggy rear end. Have other's used this combo and had the same results?

[mike-tracy]

Speaking of Sti suspension, Kimo had a saggy rear with that combo iirc. CJ has it also and it looks even. Thats what I'll try next.

Pulled the gauge cluster out, and as I suspected, the cable was unplugged. Hooked it up and speedo works again.

Had a knocking sound under load the last time I drove it. Based on previous experience, it sounded like a bolt backed out on the flywheel or pressure plate. Pulled the engine and I couldn't see any damaged or backed out bolts. Looks like the flywheel teeth might have been hitting part of the tranny belhousing so I ground down a little more. Reinstalled the motor but havent hooked everything back up to see if I was right.

[mike-tracy]

Made a command decision to swap in my ej20g engine. The 22t is going to need some work to get it running. This is temporary till I get another ej22t short block.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Well, I've owned SS's for 5+ years now and have yet to own one with an ej22t. Ultimately, I would like to build an ej22k, but that's further down the line.

[cj91legss]

5 seems like a low number, come to think of it I had my white wagon 10+ years, 4 of those were a turbo swap, and 4+years i had the prefaced (probably only 2 years of actually driving it because i break transmissions...)

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

[mike-tracy]

Well 10 years ago I was stationed in Southern California, and subarus were few and far between. Matter of fact, in 04 the only Subarus I had ridden in were an 80s GL wagon, and an ej207 swapped bugeye. Former didn't inspire me to consider owning a Subaru, and the latter was awesome but so far out of reach. Wouldnt own a subie till I moved back to washington in 06.

[cj91legss]

I was inspired when I was 17-18 hangin out down at Frantic Four with the owner, working on them and Eric's swapped post face is what really got my attention.

Edit just realized my math is wrong in my above post. had the white wagon for 4-5 years.

[mike-tracy]

Yeah that seems like a dream-come-true job for a subie lover.

[Danteandsoob]

Bumpin' an old thread..

Mike, did you ever get the rear ride height level? I just installed lowering springs on stock perches and my car looks like yours in the picture above on this page.

[Alphius]

Mike, ever going to get this thing on the road?