BDAlex95's 98 Legacy GT - Finished Hybrid Turbo Block/Working Out Problems

[BDAlex95]

So this is my 1998 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT 5 spd.





After getting my license and driving my parents '95 Legacy LSi I decided it was time to upgrade to something a little better than the first year of the BD, and after many months of searching I found this car on CL for $3000 with 210k miles. After blowing up two engines I decided it was time to put the car on hold and save money for a good engine, so it's been sitting in my driveway for the past 9 months while life gave me lemons and I thought of what to do with the car. Recently I've gotten a promotion to support my plans, and this is where I'm at now.

Exterior:
-20% Tint all around
-Roof Rack
-Stock Snowflakes dipped in Neon Green
-Blacked out housing for stock 2 piece headlights
-JDM Tail Lights
-Had JDM Projector Fogs, but busted them out in a crash.
Interior:
-Front/Back Speakers, Alpine deck, 800w Amp and 2 10" Pioneers.
-Neochrome Shifter
-Broadway Mirror
-Walmart Seat Covers
Exhaust:
-2.25" Magnaflow Catback
Suspension:
-H&R Springs on Stock Struts(I compared my car to another GT and my car was a good inch higher than the stock one, very strange)

Future Plans include a low compression 22E/25D block that will be force fed with a TD05-16g; which I am in the middle of building and would appreciate as much help as possible

Apologies for any bad pictures, I'm not a photograph

[BDAlex95]

This is how far I've gotten in the build, if you guys have any suggestions feel free to comment. I'll keep updating as I get more parts.

1998 Subaru Legacy Engine Build
Total Cost so far - $3800
Total Estimated Cost - $4800

So far:
Headers/UpPipe(eBay) - $115

96 Block(SoA) - $2000

98 P&P Heads(Chris) - $250

td05h16g(eBay) - $225

WRX DownPipe(eBay) - $80

FXT TMIC/BPV(CL) - $30

Headgaskets(Cometic MLS EJ22T 98mm/.08in) - $160

Timing Belt kit(http://www.amazon.com/Gates-TCKWP277A-E ... iming+belt) - $210

Oil Pump(Evergreen OP9002 High Volume Oil Pump Subaru Baja Forester Impreza Legacy Outback SOHC / DOHC EJ18 EJ22 EJ20 EJ25) - $120

Machine Work(C&D) - $195

Turbo lines(Turbo Oil Feed line Kit M10 x 1.5mm Mitsunish TD04 TD05 TD06) - $25

Fluids(Rotella T6/Coolant/Filter) - $80

Sparkplugs(NGK BKR7E-11) - $10

BOV(Synapse Synchronic DV) - $300

------------

Still need to get:
SAFC+Vatozone gauges - $300

EM(AEM F/IC6+AEM TruBoost+AEM UEGO, once I've worked out problems) - $800

Flywheel(P# FF02) - $390~$420

Fuel Pump(PN# GSS342/GSS341/GSS340) - $90

Injectors(STi yellow sidefeeds) - $120~$160

Fuel Filter(Subaru 42072PA010 Fuel Filter) - $30

[Hinyo]

WELCOME!!!! I always like someone doing things differently. and i wish you the best I know its not great to hear but... you wont get the power and longevity you want out of this build if you plan on high boost applications. You may have been better off getting an ej22e from a pick n pull for around the money you spend on the block.... and running it for a while and saving up to get a turbo swap from something BUILT for a turbo... I'm sorry that you've been through so many engines... trust me i know the feels i been through 3 within 100k miles.... HG's oil coolant blown rod bearings you name it.... the EJ25D is just not a reliable building block. but i wish you the best

[86bratman]

I'm glad to see more ej22d builds popping up. Feel free to message me if you run into any problems or have questions along the way with your build. I've got a few of them under my belt so I can help get you going in the right direction. But take this piece of advice seriously please, do a lot of reading about those eBay turbos. I have seen nothing but bad results from them on other forums. A couple guys on legacycentral have tried them just because of the cheap factor and they've lasted anywhere from 11 to 2k miles. But they always fail quickly. You've got everything else going for you in your plans, I'd hate to see you waste money (and potentially the engine) by cutting the corner on a major component like a turbo. You'd be much better off putting that money towards a used vf39.

[BDAlex95]

I'm using a ej22e block with ej25d heads, I'm done with the 2.5 block. Thanks for the welcome though.

Yeah, I considered going for an actual genuine turbo, but all I need the eBay turbo to do is to just start the car and drive it to the tune shop. I was never going to keep the turbo anyway. Thank you for the advice though, I'll definitely contact you for advice.

Here are the heads mocked up with the headers, got my downpipe, and the 22e block.




I apologize for the cellphone quality photos, but you know how it is, once you get to work you can't stop for good pics.

[BDAlex95]

So this project is being put on hold for a few weeks. I got three tickets last week and one of them is a pretty major one, so this will have to wait until all the lawyer fees are paid off.

In other news I did talk to the machine shop and called in to order my headgaskets, maybe I'll go into debt for a little to at least get the block assembled? Priorities haha

[Dead91silvia]

What the hell man?! 3 in a week? If you're street drifting, I'll tell you right now that does not end well. Just look at my screen name.

[BDAlex95]

Yeah haha.....I don't really care about my POS13, it cost me $1700 to get it and another $250 to get it running. I have no problem with killing that car as long as I was doing something I enjoy. I just fought off my exhaust ticket and got a reckless driving at dick's, so still three to go :/

[Dead91silvia]

Well since you dont care about money, how about you give me some!

[86bratman]

I'll sign up for that as well.

[BDAlex95]

Vultures! Haha

I meant as in it's only money compared to what could have happened.

[BDAlex95]

So to make up for the lack of progress I decided to take some better pictures, because who doesn't love pictures of no progress right?

This time I actually took some of the car too, and in day light!








Enjoy!

[BDAlex95]

SO...after what seemed like forever I'm finally starting this back up. I've ordered my headgaskets they should put me around 8.5:1 compression, the guy at Cometic was very helpful, I definitely recommend them if you're in need of custom gaskets.

My compression is as follows:
Cylinder Bore: 97mm
Piston Stroke: 75mm
HG Diameter: 98mm
HG Thickness: 2.032mm
Combustion Chamber Vol: 46.6cc
Piston Dish: -12mm
Deck Clearance: -.0012
Final CR: 8.4979

Got myself the MLS Ej22T headgasket in .08in thickness, in case someone needs this later.

[meepers]

Looking good. Make sure you do the oil separator plate in the back with the steel or preferably aluminum bit. Also, this is a great time to replace the crush washers on all the galley plugs. Dont ask me how I know this.. I went a little further then you as I found a good ej255 block for 250.00 and bought a complete 255 gasket set from subaru at straight pound me in the @ss pricing. But other then me having a little bit of compression on you (roughly 8.8ish) on my build and .3L of displacement, we are pretty similar in our builds. The emanage is a great piece. Good call on buying a new one. I picked mine up second hand and had to replace a few cooked resistors.

You will also need the Emanage injector adapter #1 for to get rid of the low injector voltage cels.

Also, if you want to go under manifold turbo inlet, check out my build, otherwise take the easy route and run a 90 off the turbo.

[Hinyo]

Thanks for the information I'm sure someone will be able to use it in the future. Keep us posted. Any plans to clean up the block before putting it together? simple green and a pressure washer sort of deal?

[BDAlex95]

Looking good. Make sure you do the oil separator plate in the back with the steel or preferably aluminum bit. Also, this is a great time to replace the crush washers on all the galley plugs. Dont ask me how I know this.. I went a little further then you as I found a good ej255 block for 250.00 and bought a complete 255 gasket set from subaru at straight pound me in the @ss pricing. But other then me having a little bit of compression on you (roughly 8.8ish) on my build and .3L of displacement, we are pretty similar in our builds. The emanage is a great piece. Good call on buying a new one. I picked mine up second hand and had to replace a few cooked resistors.

You will also need the Emanage injector adapter #1 for to get rid of the low injector voltage cels.

Also, if you want to go under manifold turbo inlet, check out my build, otherwise take the easy route and run a 90 off the turbo.

Thanks! I already have the oil separator plate on my EJ25D that's in the car, so I'll just take it from there as it only has like 200 miles on it. Just wondering how much was the whole gasket kit? I might just do that for peace of mind. I still haven't gotten to the E-manage yet, I was thinking of just going straight to a standalone while I mess with the car on 5 psi of boost, it shouldn't be that long. My main goal is to just get the car running, even if it means I don't have the turbo stuff on there yet. Thanks for the tip, I'll start looking into the injector adapter if I do go with the E-manage. But yeah, I was going to run a 90 off the turbo for now, when I get intake spacers I'll reroute the turbo under. This is great info, thanks for the help!

Thanks for the information I'm sure someone will be able to use it in the future. Keep us posted. Any plans to clean up the block before putting it together? simple green and a pressure washer sort of deal?

Actually yes, I've been wondering how to clean the block, obviously not putting as much effort into it as I'd like haha. How would you suggest I clean the block? Could I clean the deck with simple green, or is that not a good idea? I just don't want anything getting into the coolant passages as I'm cleaning it. I've seen a lot of people doing this build and I thought if it's so popular why not show people what it actually takes to build one, plus a lot of people have been telling me that this combo doesn't work....it's going to be so satisfying proving those people wrong!

[BDAlex95]

Just ordered my Oil Pump and Timing Kit! All in all it was about $350. Very excited to put all of this together!

[meepers]

Going off memory, I want to say that I paid something like 400ish for the complete OEM EJ255 Gasket kit. But it had damn near everything in it. And for whatever reason, included 4 rear main seals lol. But it had all the orings for in the block, all the copper crush washers for the turbo and misc parts, fuel injector Orings, all the timing belt cover gaskets, water pump gasket, intercooler gaskets, exhaust manifold gaskets and a bunch of other stuff. It however did NOT include the Up pipe gasket, or either of the turbo exhaust gaskets. just FYI. Oh, and get yourself some FUJI Bond.

[BDAlex95]

Well, since my family doesn't celebrate Thanks Giving I decided it would be a good day to do everything I can to make the subie run. Got the heads back from the machine shop(C&D), very quick and cheap, and the owner gave me a ton of advice on whatever I asked him; would definitely recommend if you're in the Seattle area.

So the plan today is to take out my old engine, assemble the new one as far as possible, clean it, modify the cross member, and modify the valve cover. All in all a busy day. Happy Thanks Giving everyone!

Oh. Also I was thinking of switching from the E-Manage to the AEM FI/C-6, I called AEM and told them that I need a piggyback that is able to control timing and most of the shops in my area lean towards AEM based tuning. So I decided why not? It's cheaper, I'd have to wire it in myself either way. Anyone have experience with the FI/C-6?

[meepers]

Sounds like one busy day! Hope you got the bulk of it complete. I had an AEM standalone for my civic. It was actually a pretty good unit. Very configurable and really easy to use any sensor you wanted. Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to help ya out!

[Dead91silvia]

The tune shop I deal with, UP Garage, love the Vi-Pec system. I think they were working with an Apexi system on an S14 and they hated it.

[BDAlex95]

Well that day had it's good news and bad news. I took out the old engine and was preparing to start assembling the new one, when I look on the side and it has a big crack on it.....So now I gotta wait until I get another short block. So feeling really disappointed I test fitted all the turbo crap onto my old broken engine, looks pretty awesome. No other progress to report

[meepers]

Wow.. that really sucks. I know exactly how you feel. My build has been the same way. 2 steps forward. one step back. . or 5 steps back. lol I have however become extremely proficient in removal and installation of my motor. Dont let it get ya down. Better you found it now then after you had the heads assembled and used all your new gaskets.

[BDAlex95]

Updates! So I've assembled everything, I got a new shortblock with around 170k miles on it for $100 and went ahead and put everything together. I decided that I would run/break in this motor as N/A, just because I've never built a motor and I expect some gaskets to go out or something will happen; knowing that adding boost to an already broken motor is just going to make it more frustrating I decided to wait a little until I have enough money to purchase everything else and tune up and fix whatever problems the motor will have in N/A form.

Now, I've dropped the motor in and tried to start it. It cranks fine, perfectly actually, but will not catch. I have spark, air, and fuel, so I'm a little confused on what's happening. 8.5:1 CR should be enough to ignite 89OCT gas, so I don't see why a pretty much stock motor wouldn't start. I'm thinking that I should try different fuel, as this one has been sitting in the car for a year; I know you're supposed to take the gas out, but I started the car every month just to make sure that everything works and it did. Regardless I think one year old fuel is bad anyway, so I'll report back after. If anyone has any suggestions that are helpful, I'd appreciate the input.

Also the reason I'm going with AEM is ease of tuning and compatibility. I'll be going to Iishi Motors in Bellevue, 3 miles away from my house, along with my friend with a MK3 Supra to get our cars tuned. I'm planning to use AEM TruBoost and AEM UEGO AFR guages, they really make the car easy to tune and it works out that the PiggyBack I'm getting, AEM F/IC6, is perfectly compatible with them.

[BDAlex95]

Swapped out gas and the same thing happened, not very surprised. So I thought back and realized that I snapped some tabs off of the crank sprocket when I was putting it back in, and I'm thinking that's probably why the car doesn't want to run; it has no crank position signal. Weird thing is that I never got any CELs for CPS. Also I messed up my intake gaskets when I was trying to start the car, so that'll be getting replaced soon too. Hopefully I can get the sprocket replaced and the gaskets on soon and that's all that'll be needed for the motor to crank over and run. I'll update as soon as all of that's done.

[86bratman]

Interested in the install and tuning on the aem fic6, mine will be here in a day or two. I haven't found a whole lot of info out there specifically pertaining to subarus with that piggyback.

[BDAlex95]

So, exciting news. Finally got the motor started, it was exactly what I thought. The sprocket and the gaskets were off, so after replacing both of those it started right up! I think my timing is a little off, so that'll have to get taken care of next and after a little bit over a year of waiting I can finally take it out for a spin. My plan after that is to start moving my car into a garage and continuing the turbo build, all I fricking need is a turbo crossmember, a few gauges and and my FIC and I'll be done! So hyped

I've never installed an ECU, so I'll show you how it goes when I get around to it. There's a few wiring diagrams for them out there, so I imagine it won't be too hard; also I'm buying new, so all connectors and everything will already be there and fully functional. The tuning will have to be done by a shop in my city, I have no idea how to tune, but once I get a base map and an actual tune I'll probably start messing around with it a bit more.

[peugoby]

Congrats on getting it up and running!

[BDAlex95]

Found out that it's not my timing that's causing the rough idle.....70psi on one cylinder and 160psi on all the others. It's most likely rings, headgasket doesn't leak and the valves aren't bent/making noise; I'll do a leakdown test sometime later this week. If it's rings I'm thinking of either getting a new short block from Subaru, or sell all my turbo stuff to find a nice EJ25D that I can put in and sell the car. I'll update as I progress further. :'(

[BDAlex95]

I'm not sure if anyone even cares, but I decided to keep going with the build; I'm talking to SoA about finding a new 96 shortblock. Apparently Subaru stops supporting vehicles after 20 years of their release, and it just so happens that they stopped making them. If I can't get a 96 I'll go for a 97, but those have a different piston shape, so my compression ratio is going to go up; which I don't want at all. If I can't find any of those or if this motor fails again I'll be selling everything I have into this car and will start over with an is300. I'll update more if anything changes.