Meeper's 99 Outback "Blue"10/20/15 minor updates

[meepers]

Ok, it's official. "Blue" has begun. She started life as: 1999 Outback Limited 30th anniversary with cold weather pack and dual moon roofs.

Overall she is fairly clean other then some body damage to the left rear door, left rear dog leg, and the paint on the top surfaces is checking pretty bad.




Engine/Drivetrain:

Ruby's Motor.

EJ255 702 casting bottom end.
New Bearings and seals
EJ25D heads completely gone through, new valve springs, retainers, seals, guides and tapped for oil return with very minor porting.
Gates Racing Belt components
New water pump
LIC Adjustable timing idlers
Boostless for the time being..... boo.


Suspension/Brakes:

Stock


Interior:

Stock. Grey leather, Heated seats, Prem sound with Rear pillar tweets, door tweets, and the unicorn under seat subwoofer. She also has the hideous wood grain switch covers and radio bezel. These will be pulled and sold when I install my radio in the VERY near future. Carpet definately needs a good cleaning, and their is atleast enough dog hair to make a rug. There is also a rear seat cup holder mounted to the center console that I have never seen before.


Exterior

Stock. Blue/Gold. Factory installed spoiler. I have already started removing the upper stripe tape. I half-assed waxed part of the hood and fender to see if the paint will even look decent after a proper cleaning as it is pretty oxidized and is cracking. I think with a much needed wash and wax, she will be presentable until I decide what I want to do to the outside.


Near future to do list:

Interior:

Deep deep cleaning. Install my alarm. Install my 03 WRX front and rear seats (add my heating pads from my 98's original seats). Install my 2010 Kia Optima rear view mirror (auto dim, home link, compass, temp disp). Window Tint. Install my stereo. Install STI Steering wheel. Swap out the fake wood grain trim for black.

Exterior:

Install my JDM Projector headlamps. Install my brand new Hella 500's with yellow bulbs. Fog light wiring mod. Install my fender lights. Install Smoked Tails (need to smoke center garnish as the last one was destroyed when rear ended). Install my Honda rear wiper arm. Detail exterior and wax, wax, wax, wax.

Engine/Drivetrain:

Replace fuel pump with my 255lph Wally. Fill coolant and change oil tonight. All that is left to make her run. Motor is installed and all hooked up. Fuel pump not running kept her from firing last night. New air filter. Reseal PS pump res. Install my 07 rex wheels with new 205/50r17's and put my WRX rotors and caliper mounts on for ghetto big brake kit. Replace ATF and rear diff fluid. Inspect all CV axles, brakes, and susp bits for wear. The brake fluid looks brand new, as are the current tires on the stock 15" rims. I need to find out if 201/50r17's will clear WRX struts. If they will, I will install my 04 WRX struts and stock springs just to drop her down a little. I need to de badge the decklid and scrape the nasty ABS/AWD decals from the back windows as they are beat to death and I do not want to tint over them.



Sometime after it cools off:


Swap my WRX 5speed and diff in, Remove body spacers, install turbo and emanage, STI suspension, 3" exhaust from Ruby. I am going to dye the carpet out of Ruby black, and when the carpet is clean and fresh I will swap all my interior bits that I need (carpet, seats, Dash) yadda yadda.


I just want to get her back on the road and put some miles on her to see how she shakes out. I will take care of whatever maint items are needed as I find them.


Just some photos of the day I got the car.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2015/02/20150205_143549_zpsydbfqbyy-1.jpg (http://s64.photobucket.com/user/timmaahhh1/media/20150205_143549_zpsydbfqbyy.jpg.html)

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2015/02/20150205_143546_zps5qqrleyo-1.jpg (http://s64.photobucket.com/user/timmaahhh1/media/20150205_143546_zps5qqrleyo.jpg.html)

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2015/02/20150205_143542_zps9zkj71oh-1.jpg (http://s64.photobucket.com/user/timmaahhh1/media/20150205_143542_zps9zkj71oh.jpg.html)

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2015/02/20150205_143539_zpsjr1huxig-1.jpg (http://s64.photobucket.com/user/timmaahhh1/media/20150205_143539_zpsjr1huxig.jpg.html)

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2015/02/20150205_143527_zpshedjw4xq-1.jpg (http://s64.photobucket.com/user/timmaahhh1/media/20150205_143527_zpshedjw4xq.jpg.html)

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2015/02/20150205_143519_zpsozgkg6pa-1.jpg (http://s64.photobucket.com/user/timmaahhh1/media/20150205_143519_zpsozgkg6pa.jpg.html)

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2015/02/20150205_143510_zpsyhniwvzv-1.jpg (http://s64.photobucket.com/user/timmaahhh1/media/20150205_143510_zpsyhniwvzv.jpg.html)

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2015/02/20150205_143500_zpsi3qd3riw-1.jpg (http://s64.photobucket.com/user/timmaahhh1/media/20150205_143500_zpsi3qd3riw.jpg.html)



More to come when I can actually DRIVE her to the car wash and give her a proper cleaning. Comments welcome!

[dynonacht]

Jealous!

[meepers]

Well good and bad news. As always........ Got the motor in, she runs. Problems that I can find are as follows:

Fuel tank temp circuit high. This could be since I stole the fuel pump out of this car and swapped it with my 97 while diagnosing a driveablility issue that turned out to be bad timing belt, skipped tooth.

Multiple misfires below 1000 rpm. I chalk this up to the injectors being some what neglected and the 1/4 tank of 3 year old gas. I topped her up with super last night, going to throw in a bottle if injector cleaner to see if that clears up.

EGR flow. This is because I was not running the EGR with the turbo setup and simply had the head and manifold plugged with a brass plug. Well I was going to attach the tube, however, it is near impossible to get the head tube installed while the engine is in the car. This will take some planning on my part to get back in operation as I wont pass emissions with the code.


And the most worrisome problem. P1704 Trans 2-4 solenoid circuit malfunction. This leaves me with a constantly flashing trans temp light, no second or fourth gear, and it shifts into third gear from first at 1500rpm or like 25mph. This makes for a slow gutless pig. Trans fluid is in the middle of the dipstick when operating temp and other then the missing gears... she drives really nice. I will do the FSM troubleshooting tonight after work to see if I can figure this one out.


No power steering. This is a simple fix. I need to buy a belt, and the oring that goes from the res to the pump. Since I was sans ps in the other shell, by alt belt is substantially too short lol.

Power ant mast.. I guess some of the plastic gears are broken and the motor can only move it up or down like 6". Easy fix, I just need to buy a new mast.

Rear sunroof deflector does not go down when closing the center moon roof. I had to pull it down to close the window for the car wash last night. Need to look into this.

Passanger front inner CV boot torn. I just need to slap in one of my spare cv joints. No worries. Since I have to separate the RF knuckle to replace, I might just throw my old WRX struts/springs in to get her down a little. But.... I dont know if 205/50r17's will clear WRX strut mounts.


Well I guess the good news is 3 out of 4 of my Legacy wagons started life as an automatic, this means I have some spare parts!. I think I will start by swapping out the AT control module tonight out of my 98 parts car. I also have an inhibitor switch. Blue has a Phase 2 auto, and the remaining autos I have are all PHase 1.

Tonights list of items is:

PS belt/fluid. Swap TCM. Drain/fill the trans. Swap fuel pumps. Clean IAC or swap for another as it doenst seem to respond fast enough to bring the RPMS up when it wants to stall. Clean the inside and glass.


Good news is as follows:

New tires. They have less then 3k on them, and I even have the invoice and road hazard from discount with lifetime balancing.

Leather is in decent shape. Just needs a cleaning and conditioning to keep from getting hard.

Everything other then the transmission seems to work just fine! Fogs, seat heaters, wipers (needs new blades), radio, all seem to function. The only thing that kinda doesnt work is the driverside window auto down. Might be the switch though. I will swap and find out.

Car drives good, no vibrations, no weird noises. AC works, heater works as do the gauges and both sunroofs. I definately need to get my 03 Rex seats installed fast. I forgot just how uncomfortable the 2nd gen leggy seats really were.

[meepers]

Bah, stupid slush box. Ok, today I found an 03 outback at ecology. I took all 7 transmission solenoids. They all tested good with my dvom right in the center of their good values. Bought 5 quarts of valvoline max life dex fluid and permatex ultra grey. Pulled the trans pain and to my luck, the 03 phase 2 was still p2 gen 1 and all solenoids were correct and I probably could have just direct swapped valve bodies. At .95 each, I can't complain about my atf bath. Got them cleaned and installed. Hardest part was getting the old gasket material off. By the looks of it this trans had never been opened.

Even grabbed the 03 tcu in hopes that it was a direct swap. Well just got her back together and still throwing the p1704. Fml. Tcu apparently has different wiring config. I am looking for an 03 Fsm right now to compare. Tested out all the old solenoids and they are all in spec. Going to test wiring next and see if I can swap tcms with a repin.

[meepers]

Well after lots of reading and pin tracing, I know now that the 03 TCU is a no go. It looks for Cab-bus signal from the p2 ECM. Further research shows that the 99 OB/SUS has its own TCM and is one year only. I have located a few of them online, and even one local with a vendor I use quite a bit. I wish the FSM I have for the 99 legacy did not have conflicting wiring info on the TCM.... Makes troubleshooting very difficult when you cannot be sure what wires go where. two pages that are consecutive in the FSM have wiring diagrams that place the solenoids on different pins to both the TCM and the location on the transmission connector.

It is kind of funny, that I kept the auto in this car because I didnt have the time or energy to swap in the 5 speed and with the temps still around 100* wanted to wait until it cools off. I guess the joke is on me, as at this point, I think it would have been faster to just put the damn thing in from the get go, and I wouldnt have spent an extra $100.00 for auto trans parts/fluids.

At this point, I am almost ready to just say screw it, and get my 62 Nova back to being a driver and parking the Subies until I get some motivation again.

Annnnndddd....... All of that was meant to be posted YESTERDAY! lol.

[meepers]

Well I may have a replacement TCM this evening. I will plug her in and see where we are. Small update of things to do and done:

Went to close the front moon roof cover (headliner) and the plastic trim inside that covers the motor decided to explode.... Will need to see if avail.

Killed the power to my Front seat heaters. I was trying to add a cig lighter where the change holder was, and looks like i dead shorted the power and ground. Of course all the panel fuses are good. I will have to see if this has a separate set of fuses like my 98 does.

Installed my Honda rear gate wiper.

Thats pretty much it. Things I am still fighting:


Rough Idle with Misfires and sometimes backfires in the intake when pushing throttle. Clears up at approx 800rpm. Thing idled perfect in Ruby with a turbo and sti yellow tops. Trouble shooting to date has been: 91 octane, lucas injector cleaner, Different MAF, Swapped coil packs, swapped fuel pumps, swapped alternator, (this died on me the other night) disconnected and capped off all EGR vac lines, carb cleaner sprayed around all intake components, swapped ECM's, double checked all grounds, new air filter.

Things left to try.... Ghetto Ground mod, clean TB, Clean IAC, pull manifold and double check gaskets. It sounds like it has a vac leak (squeak sound) Put my new EGR valve on and reconnect EGR stuffs, Replace front O2 Sensor. Pull everything out and put my 5 speed swap in and rewire for my 98 ecu and emanage.

But looking at Bosch's narow band voltage output just now, It looks like intake leak may be the culprit. Reading the voltage last night in my scanner, the front 02 sensor with no gas peddle input, had the voltage at 0.0-0.1 which is super lean apparently. (wideband is not hooked up yet). Then looking at all the fuel trims, it was +20-25 across the ltr and str settings. Me thinks if the car is adding that much fuel and STILL lean..... An unmetered air is a likely culprit.

I made the decision to pull the intake off the motor when doing the install so I had access to the Torque converter bolts, and replaced the intake with the unit that came on the car, so I wouldnt have to pull injectors out. I also did not use the GS spacers (egr tube) but after today I am thinking I may just go ahead and reinstall everything as it was, and cut the EGR tube and lengthen it.

She needs a good bath and interior cleaning. It has been raining off and on here in Phoenix all week, but I dont like a car full of other peoples dirt.

I need to install my Stereo and alarm/Remote start. I miss hands free cell phone, and being able to stream pandora.

Need to pull out the leather seats and install my 03 rex front and rears. They are about a bajillion times more comfortable.

Swap out TCM and hope that makes my car have more then 3rd gear.....

Put my wrx wheels with the 225/55r 17's on.

Full on detail with Polish and waxing.

Install JDM headlamps and fender markers.

Thats about it for the near future. I will get some photos up soon.

[Strykr]

Wow you've got a lot ahead of you to do! Good Luck!

[meepers]

Yeah definately lots to do. I should for sure have the TCM in a few hours so I can test that and hopefully have a 4eat instad of a JK1eat. Once that CEL for the TCM is gone, I can really dig into gettin the idle issue and whatever gremlins there are worked out. (that was supposed to be sent on friday)......


Fixed the Transmission issue. Replacing the TCM was not the issue. So I spent Saturday looking for the CORRECT wiring Schematic for the 99 Trans. After some DVOM wizardry, I located the cut wiring. A wire was cut under the hard plastic wire loom that goes from the bulk head connector down to the transmission itself. It was a clean cut and the wire was pulled away from the rest. I have never been a big fan of mechanics, and if I had to take a wild stab in the dark.... I would say when this car went into the shop for the exploded timing belt/cam gears, this wire was cut as a way to tack on some $$ to the ticket.

There is NO way this wire was naturally cut, it was clearly cut with cutters, and it was INSIDE the split loom that was completely undamaged. There was no marks to the harness anywhere else, and it was the only wire pulled out of the bundle, yet still inside the looming. The transmission seems to be in great health, shifts smooth through all the gears, and does what you would expect it to do. The only thing I have found is a slight leak at the rubber lines that go into the radiator cooler. And I would guess this happened when I pulled the Radiator out to pull the motor. I should have replaced these 2 lines but left them. So I will get them replaced tomorrow.

In other good news, I pulled the head off with the exploded cam gears, and there is ZERO visible damages. I will pull all the valves to make sure they are still straight before doing some minor port and polish work, and tapping for the oil return.

I plan on building the the stock P2 block as an open deck drop in replacement of the 255 that is already in the car. I will look for a set of 255 or 257 pistons and go through the block. Everything inside this motor is exceptionally clean, and it doesnt look like it has ever had any oil problems and that it has been well maintained.

I guess this week I will start swapping over my seats, lights, stereo, and alarm stuff to the new car and plan on getting her into the tint shop. The leather looks nice.. but I hate the stock Legacy seats. lol. That is all for now!

[meepers]

all righty then.. Time for a quick update of schtuffz.

Apparently having 4th gear creates much more pressure in the trans cooler lines. The lower line (I reused the lines when I pulled the radiator to do the motor swap) started pissing tranny fluid all over. My parking spot looked like someone sacrafices chickens or pigs on a daily basis. I Went to Oreily auto parts for trans cooler line, their system listed it as 3/4" I KNEW that was way off, so I pulled a fitting and brought it to them and bought a gallon of Valvoline high mileage voodoo chicken blood fluid. Well, I told the kid at the counter, I was pretty sure I needed 3/8's line, and he comes back with 5/32? line. Says its snug, but is the ticket.

Well I get back to the house, Pull the over flow bottle, pull the bottom line, quart of trans fluid on the ground...... Go to put the new hose on, and it is way to small. So I cut the split part off the factory cooler line, slide it all the way to where it bottoms out at the bend in the trans line fitting, and use a new clamp. Put everything back together, and pour 3 quarts more trans fluid in my car.


While I was in there, I finally took the time to address my vaccum leak. I figured it was a bad intake mani gasket since I reused the gaskets from when I built the motor back in December. As I am standing over the car, I decide to grab my 3/8's ratchet, extension and socket. Boy did I feel dumb when I was able to get nearly a full turn on all the intake manifold bolts. Then it hit me. I put everything back together on a sunday night, in the dark, in a hurry so I could drive the following morning to work. When I put it together I used my 1/4" drive ratchet with a 12" extension to clear all the fuel lines and nonsense. Well I intended on going back over everything, but I didnt. So by actually tightening my manifold, I have no more multiple cyl misfires, she idles, and no cel has returned other then the EGR flow cel. I felt monumentally dumb for my complete lack of catching that issue on the manifold.

Now the trans shifts, is smooth and has no leaks, however the underside of my car was bathed in about 20 dollars of trans fluid. Yesterday I bring the car through the wash to get the undercarraige bath. I get home, and 5 minutes later it starts to rain. then.... HAIL. Marble sized hail, beating my freshly washed, black car up. I only suffered minor damage, but it is still annoying.

Tonights plan consists of installing the new EGR valve, and hooking up the EGR system that was disconnected since building the motor with NO cel in the 98. Must be a change on how the 99 reads. I will aslo get my cig lighter swapped out so I can charge my cell phone in the car. Depending on how late my kiddo stays, I might get my 07 WRX wheels swapped on her and switch out the driver window switch so my auto down feature works again.

After the EGR Cel is gone, off to emissions and getting her registered. That will make me most happy.

Top of the list to do:

Window Tint.
Electronics.
JDM Headlights and blacked out tails from Ruby.




I have also decided that Ruby is going to come back not as a back up car, but as a rally car. Not sure if going heavy or light weight open class. Cage building will begin shortly. I will keep her page updated as I go as well! Look for some bitching new things to come that I hope there is some insterest in making multiples of.


Cant wait!