My 91 T-Leg build.
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 12:35 am
Well I've had my turbo legacy for about 2 years now and at 199,XXX miles I've decided it's time for some major upgrades.
The previous owner had swapped a cable clutch 5MT into the car(originally an A/T car), and for whatever reason I had tons of problems with cables breaking. Some would last a week, some would last 3 months. It sucks when you're afraid you'll snap your clutch cable literally every time your press the clutch. Stop and go traffic was a nightmare!
My solution was to get a low miles JDM 6mt and R180 to replace my tired viscous LSD r160. I ended up finding a crazy good deal that included 6mt, r180 with subframe, knuckles f/r and... Brembos! When the goods arrived I still had a few things left to do: Clutch, driveline, pads&rotors, hydro pedal box, and find wheels that clear brembos.
The kit I got came with a clutch assembly, the flywheel and pressure plate looked excellent so I decided to save a few bucks and get just an oem friction disk for a 04 sti to prolong it's life. I also bought a new oem throw out bearing, just cuz. Also purchased a 04 sti clutch master. And for the pedal box... I was fortunate that my brother has a 91ss that's in limbo, and he let me "borrow" the pedal box out of it. I got a clutch hydraulic line from ChaseBays for a 02-07 wrx to keep things simple and clean. Boom, clutch is sorted out.
The knuckles I got had 5x100 hubs so I ended up getting some pads and rotors from car quest for an 04sti. As for the wheels, I found the cheapest wheels I could find that would clear brembos lol. Throughout my journies of the internets i ended up with some v7 sti wheels. At the same time I purchased my clutch line, I purchased some stainless steel brake lines for an 04 sti from ChaseBays as well.
For the drive line I got a new one for a 91 legacy with a 4eat.
Now for the install... everything went flawlessly, well almost. Got my 5mt and rear subframe with r160 out within 3 hours. The only issues I had with transmission fitment was the bell housing barely scraped on the turbo bracket so I just took a grinder to the bell housing a tiny bit. Also had to add a heli coil to the lower starter bolt hole. After that the 6mt slid right in. The R180 fit flawlessly and install was just as smooth as the disassembly. Once the tranny and rear diff were installed I slapped my knuckles with Brembos on with new pads and rotors. Bled the brakes and were off to the races..
Or atleast i was close! Now time for the fun part, the pedal box... I've heard lots of people claim the entire dash has to come out to change To a hydro pedal box. Well if you loosen the steering collum and pop the plastic kick panel off you definetly can snake the pedal box over the collum and into place. It can be done! I've installed a couple now and it's actually pretty easy! Well now that the hard part is out of the way I bled the clutch, installed my driveline and took her for a rip and everything worked exactly as it should.
6mt, r180, and brembo swap done. Pretty much all within a weekend!
I've had my 6mt installed for a few weeks now and it's been awesome! The gear ratios make it feel a lot peppier but the brembos bring me back to reality by telling me I'm not even goIng that fast whenever I press the brakes.
Present day, my car has recently developed low compression (cyl #4) and a slight tick on cold mornings. I'm assuming due to cracked rings or ring land. I thought about using a friends 22t to build a motor with twin stick heads but I ended up getting a crazy good deal on an ej206. The research I've done shows it's basically a two stage turbod version of an ej205 but with better flowing heads and a 9:1 compression ration rather than 8.5:1. It also has 440cc injectors. I removed the two turbos, and all the parts associated with them. I plan to run a td05 20g with a Z4 wrx Ecu and CoP for now. There's a few other various diffences I've noticed. Like the 206 uses a stepper motor for iacv rather than a solenoid. So I think I'm going to use a Throttle body from a ej205 that has a 3 wire iacv. The ej206 coolant cross over pipe lacks the 1/8npt hole for the 1 wire temp sender for the gauge panel. i had to drill and tap the cross over. Friday night I'm going to put a new timing kit and water pump on my ej206 and then yeet my 22t out and start swapping wiring and exhaust manifolds.
Am I overlooking anything? Probably. Am I going to make it work? Oh yeah.
The previous owner had swapped a cable clutch 5MT into the car(originally an A/T car), and for whatever reason I had tons of problems with cables breaking. Some would last a week, some would last 3 months. It sucks when you're afraid you'll snap your clutch cable literally every time your press the clutch. Stop and go traffic was a nightmare!
My solution was to get a low miles JDM 6mt and R180 to replace my tired viscous LSD r160. I ended up finding a crazy good deal that included 6mt, r180 with subframe, knuckles f/r and... Brembos! When the goods arrived I still had a few things left to do: Clutch, driveline, pads&rotors, hydro pedal box, and find wheels that clear brembos.
The kit I got came with a clutch assembly, the flywheel and pressure plate looked excellent so I decided to save a few bucks and get just an oem friction disk for a 04 sti to prolong it's life. I also bought a new oem throw out bearing, just cuz. Also purchased a 04 sti clutch master. And for the pedal box... I was fortunate that my brother has a 91ss that's in limbo, and he let me "borrow" the pedal box out of it. I got a clutch hydraulic line from ChaseBays for a 02-07 wrx to keep things simple and clean. Boom, clutch is sorted out.
The knuckles I got had 5x100 hubs so I ended up getting some pads and rotors from car quest for an 04sti. As for the wheels, I found the cheapest wheels I could find that would clear brembos lol. Throughout my journies of the internets i ended up with some v7 sti wheels. At the same time I purchased my clutch line, I purchased some stainless steel brake lines for an 04 sti from ChaseBays as well.
For the drive line I got a new one for a 91 legacy with a 4eat.
Now for the install... everything went flawlessly, well almost. Got my 5mt and rear subframe with r160 out within 3 hours. The only issues I had with transmission fitment was the bell housing barely scraped on the turbo bracket so I just took a grinder to the bell housing a tiny bit. Also had to add a heli coil to the lower starter bolt hole. After that the 6mt slid right in. The R180 fit flawlessly and install was just as smooth as the disassembly. Once the tranny and rear diff were installed I slapped my knuckles with Brembos on with new pads and rotors. Bled the brakes and were off to the races..
Or atleast i was close! Now time for the fun part, the pedal box... I've heard lots of people claim the entire dash has to come out to change To a hydro pedal box. Well if you loosen the steering collum and pop the plastic kick panel off you definetly can snake the pedal box over the collum and into place. It can be done! I've installed a couple now and it's actually pretty easy! Well now that the hard part is out of the way I bled the clutch, installed my driveline and took her for a rip and everything worked exactly as it should.
6mt, r180, and brembo swap done. Pretty much all within a weekend!
I've had my 6mt installed for a few weeks now and it's been awesome! The gear ratios make it feel a lot peppier but the brembos bring me back to reality by telling me I'm not even goIng that fast whenever I press the brakes.
Present day, my car has recently developed low compression (cyl #4) and a slight tick on cold mornings. I'm assuming due to cracked rings or ring land. I thought about using a friends 22t to build a motor with twin stick heads but I ended up getting a crazy good deal on an ej206. The research I've done shows it's basically a two stage turbod version of an ej205 but with better flowing heads and a 9:1 compression ration rather than 8.5:1. It also has 440cc injectors. I removed the two turbos, and all the parts associated with them. I plan to run a td05 20g with a Z4 wrx Ecu and CoP for now. There's a few other various diffences I've noticed. Like the 206 uses a stepper motor for iacv rather than a solenoid. So I think I'm going to use a Throttle body from a ej205 that has a 3 wire iacv. The ej206 coolant cross over pipe lacks the 1/8npt hole for the 1 wire temp sender for the gauge panel. i had to drill and tap the cross over. Friday night I'm going to put a new timing kit and water pump on my ej206 and then yeet my 22t out and start swapping wiring and exhaust manifolds.
Am I overlooking anything? Probably. Am I going to make it work? Oh yeah.