almost a new legacy owner

[downest]

I've been a long time Honda owner/modder, and I've been looking for a subaru for a while since I just moved back to New England from a year in Florida. I was looking for a GF (I think that's the code) 2.5 Impreza wagon to do an EJ20 WRX swap into, but today I came across a killer deal on a '96 Legacy Outback Wagon. Hopefully I'll be picking it up this week and starting to convert it to a good winter/off roadish car as soon as possible. It's got a blown headgasket (surprise!), but I'm really not too concerned with that for the price. The car is otherwise pretty clean and has heated seats, and it's blue/silver which is acceptable and pretty cop-invisible. Hopefully, I'l be getting it tomorrow, I have to go take another look during the day and negotiate on the price a little more, but I'd like to have it in my shop tomorrow night.

I still plan to swap in a WRX engine and manual tranny/drivetrain, lift it slightly and give it a beefier suspension and generally some off-road/rally style stuff. I plan to drive it all winter and when I'm not driving my Honda CRX during the rest of the year. I'm a fabricator/tuner and I own and operate my own shop in RI, and I really like learning new stuff. This will be my first subaru, though I've done stuff on a few, I expect to learn a lot and have some fun. I really didn't want to get another road race/autocross oriented car and do the same kind of things, and subaru is the perfect choice for something different but fun, and still reliable and imho cool. I've done some reading around the net and I really like the subie wagons with big ass mud tires, roof racks, foglights, and general Mad-Max-apocalypse-zombie combat utility equipment (but of course, WITH heated seats :cool: ).

[henryq89]

welcome man! ...heated seats!woahh...
sounds like a great idea! we have a couple legacy wagons roaming around here
pics please!...when the car is in your possession !

[1996Battlewagon]

Welcome to the Thunder Dome! Looks like you've got the bug; nice. There are quite a few of us (myself included) that share your Mad Max style dream. I can't wait to see what you come up with; good luck.

Oh, and you are in a prime location for meets. Check that thread if you already haven't.

[downest]

Thanks! I like the idea of a wagon more than a sedan. I don't know about the legacy sedans, but I know from friends who have had imprezas that the rear seats don't fold down, making it useless to me. I really prefer hatchbacks, then coupes, but you can't dispute a wagon's utility! It is my understanding that the heated seats are an option for these cars, am I wrong?

A good friend of mine has a WRX wagon with a bunch of stuff done to it, I babysat it all last week and really got to feel what it was like to drive on a normal day to day basis and I liked it. Unfortunately, I don't think the leggy is gonna keep up with the WRX for a while!

I'll definitely have pics up, hopefully tomorrow. Either way I'll try and take some if I can go look at it tomorrow, once I do get it I'll post the price, you aren't gonna believe it.

[T_F_E]

Welcome! heated seats are awesome, I'm kinda going in the same direction with my car as you are, me you and a couple other people on here would rather lift it then drop it :smt002

Welcome! heated seats are awesome, I'm kinda going in the same direction with my car as you are, me you and a couple other people on here would rather lift it then drop it :smt002

i want both, lol

winter lift, summer drop :grin:

[)2edline]

=P Legacy Sedans do have fold down rear seats. I swapped out my fronts but refused to do the rear. Fold down rear seats make the car much more versatile. I can pack tons of snowboards up in there.

[downest]

I'm gonna try and get a look at this thing today and hopefully get it. Is there anything else I should be aware of when I look it over?

[1996Battlewagon]

Well, since the biggest problem with the 2.5 L cars are the headgaskets (and those are already gone) I'd just check for the usually stuff: rust, cv joints, wheel bearings and check the suspension for any kinks. Some outback drivers (*cough*jg09*cough*) like to jump there cars off stuff.

[downest]

Gonna go pick this thing up tonight! Settled on $200, seems like a deal and a half.

He says the overheating is random and intermittent, which seems kinda weird for a headgasket, but we'll see soon enough.

[Huffer]

Gonna go pick this thing up tonight! Settled on $200, seems like a deal and a half.

He says the overheating is random and intermittent, which seems kinda weird for a headgasket, but we'll see soon enough.

Could easily just be a faulty thermostat, check for the normal bits. $200 is a steal.

[downest]

Is that common on these cars?

[decke48]

Is that common on these cars?
common on every high-mileage car. its a start. lots cheaper that headgaskets

[Okin DaVanh]

$200 is a steal.

Yeah, and if you don't want it... Call me. I'll come pic it up. :smt023

[anothernord]

Wow, 200 is practically free for a complete car like that. Hopefully its got a strong frame and electric system to boot.

[97legacygt]

Even if it is unrepairable, you could part it out and make money on it no problem whatsoever.

[downest]

After some fun, I got it home. Had to drive from the Jamestown island over here to the mainland, made it *just* over the bridge and it started to overheat. Luckily letting it coast in gear (auto) on the downhill helped it cool down and made it last longer. I'm not sure the headgasket is even bad, the oil is clean, and the only crap in the coolant from what I can tell is just crap in the overflow. The problem is, the upper hose was soft and broke, and the guy put some duct tape on it. Anyway, so I was driving and the temp started to go critical, so I pulled over and as I slowed down there was a lot of steam under the hood, and no heat (thus no defrost) the whole time. The old tape had broken. I put some water in it and drove it steaming but at normal temp another mile or so downhill to a friend's house. I put some fresh tape on it and refilled the coolant, and let it cool down while I hung out for a few hours. Then I drove it the 6 remaining miles (out of 15ish total) to my shop, with pretty much NO major overheating and minor steam leakage, even uphill. I'm going to replace the hose and flush the coolant, and do a leakdown and pressure test on it before anything else.

Pics:
http://wickedinnovation.net/downest/Legacy/DSC02754.JPG
http://wickedinnovation.net/downest/Legacy/DSC02755.JPG
http://wickedinnovation.net/downest/Legacy/DSC02756.JPG
http://wickedinnovation.net/downest/Legacy/DSC02758.JPG
http://wickedinnovation.net/downest/Legacy/DSC02759.JPG

Not bad for $200!!!

There is a bubble of rust starting on the driver quarter panel, and a small dent on the passenger fender. The front end was hit by a trailer hitch, so the bumper is broken and the support behind it and the condenser are all bent, AC system is discharged and the radiator is new. I assumed the radiator was related to the cooling issue when he first told me, but now I think it's from the apparent accident. Anyway, tomorrow I'll go over it better and clean everything out and give all the parts a more thorough look over.

[Huffer]

A bad hose would create the spiking temps - could be as simple as replacing the hose and burping the coolant system.

Nice find!

[Grafton]

one hell of a deal you got a whole car for approx. what i payed for my jdm headlights

[henryq89]

one hell of a deal
yea man looks pretty sweet lol...like the destruction sticker nd the color of the car!

[downest]

Well, I'm wating on delivery of the hose so I can fix that and see what's up. I cleaned the car out and I'm about to vacuum it. I need a couple of clips for the driver door panel, looks like the PO decided to remove the speakers quick and broke most of the clips :( The rearview is also craked, I might put my huge racing one out of my CRX on it for now, but I'll need one soon. Looks like most everything is intact though, just have to vacuum and straighten everything out and see where I am then.

edit: also de-stickered the whole thing.

[downest]

Ok got it all cleaned up, installed a new upper hose. I also installed a new lower hose because it was very soft and seemed to have a small leak as well. Installed those, let it warm up, the heat never came on but it reached operating temp and the fan kicked on, then it started to creep up. All this time I had a funnel in the radiator with excess coolant so I could see bubbles, and I checked the exhaust for the telltale sweet smell. Anyway. So I turned it off, then figured the thermostat must be sticking. There's a receipt from a shop from November for a new thermostat install. Oh well, might as well check it right? So I pulled it out. The car runs perfect now. I let it idle for a LONG time and it never went above operating temp, the fan never even came on. At first there was still no heat, but I revved it and a ton of air came out, so there must have been air in the heater core. I took it out for a ride and drove it pretty hard, just drives like a normal car with no thermostat, so I guess that was it! I'm gonna get a Subaru OEM thermostat and install that, it's cool and all that it works but no heat sucks.

I also discovered that I have a plug-in block heater while I was doing the lower hose, that's pretty convenient!

My seat heaters aren't super hot. I assume the "down" position is hotter than the "up" position, but I'm not sure really. The passenger seat seems to get warm to the touch after having the heater on, but the driver seat doesn't. At the same time it doesn't seem to be cold, just not warm until I sit in it, and then it's hard to tell if it's warm from me or the heater, maybe it will be easier to tell when I start it cold in the morning after being outside.

[T_F_E]

Yes down is hotter, no they don't really get to hot. The block heaters on the cars are great, my fingers are crossed that once you fix the thermostat you have a great car ;)