Alphius's 1999 Legacy GT, WRX swapped - 7/16 STI 6-speed swap

[Alphius]

Current Mod List:
Exterior:
SUS grille
JDM Headlights w/5k HIDs and LHD pattern conversion (FX-R retrofit soon?)
JDM fogs
4" eBay shorty antenna to replace broken power antenna
20% window tint

Interior:
'02 WRX steering wheel
'02 WRX pedals
Color-matched Outback Limited heated mirrors with OEM heated mirror switch
Impreza/Forester compass pack
Pioneer stereo
'99 Outback Limited woodgrain
Two OEM subs, one under each seat
OEM tweeters
Firstgen Legacy trunk organizer

Drivetrain:
EJ22E/EJ205 8.5:1 CR hybrid swap done @ 224k
TD04 @ 18psi tapering to 12psi
565cc Injectors, TGV deletes, DW200 fuel pump
JDM Twin-Turbo intercooler splitter
GrimmSpeed turbo heatshield
GrimmSpeed 3-port EBCS
WRX harness merge and '02 WRX ECU
'04 STI 6-speed DCCD transmission w/3.90 VLSD rear diff
MapDCCD controller
TiC Holy Shift bushing kit
'06 STI turboback exhaust
CarBerry Group-N ROM
Road tuned with Romraider/ECUFlash by me!

Suspension/Brakes:
Prodrive P7 17x7 et53 gold wheels
'04 WRX wagon struts and springs
'94 Legacy Turbo 18mm front swaybar
'98 Outback 18mm rear swaybar
Perrin rear swaybar endlinks
WRX front/H6 rear brakes with braided lines and Hawk HPS pads



The Story:

Back in spring of 2014 I needed a new daily driver. I have always wanted a BD LGT, I've owned many Legacys over the past few years, 1st through 4th gen and the second gen cars have always been my favorite. I had never owned a sedan one though. My goal with this car is a nice, clean, OEM+ looking Legacy GT with all sorts of subtle goodies.

I started with this one-owner Legacy GT. Headgaskets replaced once at 156k and went bad again at 214k at which point I purchased it.
I'll give you a short rundown on the progress so far:

Getting a tow home:


I pulled the engine and replaced the clutch, flywheel, resealed the entire engine, replaced all the timing components and drove it for a couple weeks to feel the car out.


Next, I started slow and put on a set of 2.5RS six-spokes.


I put in a Pioneer bluetooth stereo and Impreza/Forester compass pack.


The mods start rolling in. Coilovers and JDM headlights:


Followed quickly by JDM fogs:




Staying with the subtle mods, a WRX steering wheel and some non-visible interior goodies:


Finally, my favorite mod so far. A set of immaculate Prodrive P7 wheels in gold.

[98legwag]

Thats a good start. Its a good looking car.

[Zangado1]

Realy nice...The Gold wheels just take our Subies to another level..

[Alphius]

Got the windows tinted last weekend, it looks good.
I also live on a gravel road, so my car gets super dirty very quickly.





I didn't expect to do this anytime soon but somehow I found myself towing home another junker...
I picked up a salvage title '02 WRX with an EJ257 hybrid in it to do a swap on my GT.

[foohfooh]

Nice work dude. Impreza is a development, but i love the legacy more. The car is very clean and i like its subtlety. A true drivers car. So crazy its that immaculate with that many miles on it.

[Dead91silvia]

Looking forward to seeing the outcome to this project.

[peugoby]

I like the green/gold combo. It will be a total sleeper with that 257 inside! I hope I see it around sometime.

[Alphius]

So crazy its that immaculate with that many miles on it.

I just rolled over 222,222 miles day before yesterday.

I like the green/gold combo.

Honestly, the color has grown on me. When I was looking for a BD I was really wanting to get a Rio Red one. I've always disliked the Subaru green. Seeing this car shine in the sunlight with a coat of wax on it has really changed my mind! I also like how understated and low-key it is; the car really doesn't attract much attention.



We'll see what happens with the WRX swap, the EJ257 shortblock may be in poor shape, there's metal in the oil. I'll tear it down and see what's up but I don't want to spend a bunch of money on what's ultimately a glorified daily driver. I'm investigating doing the EJ22e block instead with the WRX top end. Apparently quite a few people have good luck with that combo, like this guy: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1845766

My plan at this time would be to keep the engine nearly stock and get a reliable engine swap done. I miss having boost. I am leaning towards keeping the GT's 5-speed for the better gear ratios and replacing it with a 6MT if it ever breaks. The WRX trans in my donor has been beat on (just look at the rest of the car!) and it would suck to swap it in only to have bad synchros or something; my original 222k mile 5MT shifts flawlessly.

Whatever happens, this car won't ever be a monster, just a fun daily driver. I have my '84 Camaro with an LS1/6-speed swap when I want to drive fast.

[KNaph]

Man I really like the clean OEM look. Wheel fitment and ride height is almost exactly what I'm looking for on my wagon, just need to adjust my rear coilovers down a bit. I'm looking into doing an EJ22e turbo build also, I have the block but still doing some research to see what it's gonna take to build it like I want.

Interested to see what you're gonna do with your Legacy.

[Alphius]

Here's a better picture of my donor car.
Yesterday I pulled the engine out and got the dash out so I can start extricating the harness and ECU.


I also managed to find another complete EJ205 with exhaust, ECU, turbo, intercooler, accessories, etc. for $300 so I picked that up as well.
Here's my two engines:


Left:
'02 EJ205 with '07 EJ257 shortblock.
70-80k on block, 154k on heads/intake.
Seems to run OK but has bad blowby and metal in the oil. No knocking.

Right:
'04 EJ205 with 120k
120k on engine
Was removed for a V8 STI swap.

I also have two intercoolers, two ECUs, four TD04 turbos in various condition, an Innovate wideband, Prosport Evo boost and EGT gauges, two full sets of WRX alt, A/C and PS along with tons of other parts.

The plan at this time is to tear down my two engines and use all the best parts in combination with a known good early 90's EJ22 shortblock to build an EJ205/EJ22e hybrid engine and sell all the rest of the spare parts. Once that is done I'll be tearing my Legacy apart to start the swap.

[Alphius]

I picked up a low-mileage EJ22 for my build yesterday. I think I have everything I need to put together the hybrid engine now except for gaskets. My current high-mileage third-set-of-headgaskets EJ25D continues to perform admirably in the meantime. This weekend I'll be pulling the rest of the harness out of my donor WRX and hopefully getting it's shell ready to sell or scrap.

Here's where I'm at so far with harness removal:


Also, thanks to Dead91Silvia I have the 99 Limited woodgrain in my car now!
The only question remaining is whether I should put in my woodgrain L.L Bean steering wheel as well?

[Alphius]

Washed all the cars on a beautiful PNW day!
The Legacy is back on stock suspension for now. Excuse the poor cell phone camera shot, one of these days I'm going to buff and wax the car and do a full detail and shoot some pictures with my nice DSLR.


Getting down to work, I disassembled a bunch of engines last weekend.
My EJ257 hybrid was in poor shape. First of all, it only held 8% pressure in #4 using my calibrated leakdown tool.
When I drained the oil, it didn't look all too hot.


I got to work and popped off the heads. Yep, broken ringland on #4, gouged cylinder wall, scored cam journals and cams, and undoubtedly bottom end bearing damage as well.




Got a huge parts order in including Tactrix cable, '06 WRX Exedy clutch, Gates timing belt kit, Company 23 WRX cam tool, misc. wear items, etc.


After I tore apart all of my engines I made an order with Subaru for headgaskets, engine parts, etc. along with an '06 WRX clutch fork, pivot pin and retaining spring.

After my order from Subaru comes in I'll be assembling my EJ22e/EJ205 hybrid. After that, tear the car apart and do a harness merge. Finally, drop the new engine in and tune it. I'm gonna take my time, so I'm hoping to be done sometime around the end of March. I really only get occasional weekends to work on the car so it'll be a slow process.

The plan with the clutch is to keep my stock 4.11 Legacy GT transmission and convert to an '06 WRX clutch. The parts to do this in my case are as follows:

'06 WRX flywheel (stepped)
'06 WRX complete clutch kit
'06 WRX fork (and maybe pivot pin, I'm not sure so I bought it anyway!)
'99 Legacy stock 5MT and stock hydraulics

According to what I've found, this setup should work fine. If you want to risk breaking your original clutch fork you can use the stock 5MT fork and throwout bearing, but for the marginal cost I'd rather upgrade to the beefier WRX fork.

[r3v_v3ng3]

The plan with the clutch is to keep my stock 4.11 Legacy GT transmission and convert to an '06 WRX clutch. The parts to do this in my case are as follows:

'06 WRX flywheel (stepped)
'06 WRX complete clutch kit
'06 WRX fork (and maybe pivot pin, I'm not sure so I bought it anyway!)
'99 Legacy stock 5MT and stock hydraulics

According to what I've found, this setup should work fine. If you want to risk breaking your original clutch fork you can use the stock 5MT fork and throwout bearing, but for the marginal cost I'd rather upgrade to the beefier WRX fork.

I never knew you can turn the push type trans into a pull type

[Alphius]

The '06-up WRX is push type. You cannot turn a push into a pull, all I'm doing is upgrading to the stronger '06+ push type turbo clutch.

[Alphius]

Well, I started my car today to go to work and the EJ25D had a rod knocking and no oil pressure. It's always had a slight cold start tick that I assumed was piston slap, but today it full-on knocked for 10-15 seconds with 0 oil pressure. After that, oil pressure started to come up and the knock faded away but I can still hear it lightly when I rev the engine.
Farewell, EJ25. These truly are the worst Subaru engine. This one has had three sets of headgaskets and now a bad bearing after only 225k miles. I'm only the second owner, both myself and the previous owner followed all recommended maintenance and changed the oil regularly.

I guess it's a good thing I'm ready to swap it

Block stripped down and ready to build:




With the magic of forum posts it's done already!


End result will be:
'91 Legacy EJ22 shortblock
'04 WRX shimless bucket heads
'02 WRX intake manifold/TB/etc
'02 WRX harness and ECU merged into '99 Legacy body wiring
'04 WRX TD04 with '04 WRX intercooler
'07 STI turbo-back exhaust modified to fit my chassis
Stock '99 Legacy 4.11 trans
'06 WRX clutch setup

I'll be road tuning the combo myself after it is swapped.
Hopefully I'll be done with the harness merge/engine swap and be driving again by the end of the month.

[r3v_v3ng3]

The '06-up WRX is push type. You cannot turn a push into a pull, all I'm doing is upgrading to the stronger '06+ push type turbo clutch.

Gotcha.. This is actually a pretty good/cheap alternative for the non turbo setup then. I think I payed almost $600 just for the ACT clutch kit. Probably can get a decent setup clutch kit/flywheel/forks for half the price.

[nepbug]

You've got quite a few lumps of metal sitting along side the garage. I totally understand how that happens though, can't pass up a good deal when it comes.

[KNaph]

Looking really good! I'm pretty interested in how you go about this swap since this is pretty much what I've been researching and have been wanting to do. Rochester is probably a good hour south from Tacoma I think, there's quite a few WA guys on this forum.

[Alphius]

Gotcha.. This is actually a pretty good/cheap alternative for the non turbo setup then. I think I payed almost $600 just for the ACT clutch kit. Probably can get a decent setup clutch kit/flywheel/forks for half the price.

Yes, I bought a good condition slightly used flywheel for $40, a brand new WRX Exedy clutch for $270 and the fork setup was about $30. For less than $350 it should hold up to a decent amount of power.

You've got quite a few lumps of metal sitting along side the garage. I totally understand how that happens though, can't pass up a good deal when it comes.

All my cars? I've had the Camaro since high school and done all the work on it myself including wiring, paint, suspension, etc. The truck has been in the family for over 10 years, and I always have a daily driver Subaru to go along with the collection. My wife has an '02 Outback Limited 5MT as well that I scored a couple years back with a hole through the block for $1500. I always have my eyes peeled for a good deal, whether it's on cars or parts.

Looking really good! I'm pretty interested in how you go about this swap since this is pretty much what I've been researching and have been wanting to do. Rochester is probably a good hour south from Tacoma I think, there's quite a few WA guys on this forum.

Yeah, I've noticed there's a lot of guys in the PNW on here. I used to have a couple first generation Legacy turbo sedans and spent a lot of time on the LegacyCentral forum, they have meets every once in a while that I've attended before and probably will again. Maybe if there's a PNW SLI meet sometime we can get together and check out each other's cars.

[lord flashheart]

Dang dawg! This thing is sick!
Your Lego is so clean I love it. I'm super jealous. My legacy would give a lot of people a run for their money in two categories.. Fastest.. And (unfortunately) probably the ugliest.

[Alphius]

Thanks! You'll be faster still but I'll be stylin'.

If anyone wants to see my wiring merge worksheet check this link out:
https://docs.google.com/a/thecornman...it?usp=sharing
That should be all the engine/ECU wires that require merging, the rest of the wires are self-contained in the engine harness of the WRX. Also have to merge the wires for the coolant temp gauge and oil pressure warning light, but that's only two and they didn't go into my spreadsheet easily. I'll get them taken care of when I merge the harness.

I'm going to be taking my Legacy apart soon and getting the merge done, after that all that's left will be to bolt it all in and hope everything works!

[lord flashheart]

Its good to see someone wanting to do a swap who knows what they are doing. Its good that you took the time to make that. Very nice I'm stoked to see this.

[Hinyo]

THIS IS ALL HAPPENING MUCH TO FAST YOU ARE MAKING US ALL LOOK BAD!!!! HOLD YOUR HORESES!!! my brain is slowly sizzling with delight(but please PLEASE do continue!!!!) cant wait to see the outcome =) hoping to build mine "soon" lol

[lord flashheart]

In the cool people thread we were just talking about noobs showing up and being so productive it makes the rest of us look like lazy assholes

[Alphius]

I may be a noob on SL-i but I'm not a noob to Subarus or wrenching. I had a MegaSquirt ECU and self-built engine harness on my Camaro for a few years, then did a complete wiring harness and ECU to swap the LS1 in. I've built MegaSquirts and harnesses for a couple friends with crazy engine swaps in other cars. I have done so much work on my Camaro and truck that I bet I've turned every bolt on them. I painted my Camaro myself and have done some bodywork on other cars as well as they need it.

As far as Subarus go, they've always been just daily drivers to me until this car. Most I've done is basic engine/trans builds and swaps until now.
Started with a $400 '87 GL-10 turbo and did HGs, intercooler, 5-speed DR swap and a few other things to it. Since then I've had 15 different Subarus: 4 turbo BC/BJs, 5 BD/BKs, a random assortment of others including a Baja last year. Usually I jump on good deals, tow them home, fix and sell.

I like the BD most out of any Subaru, I've owned first gen sedans and wagons, second gen sedans and wagons, third gen Baja and wagons, fourth gen wagons and a GD Impreza. I just like the BDs most out of all of them so I decided to build the BD Subaru never gave us and keep this one for a while. I can't bear to have a project in my garage and not work on it so I move fast. Today I'm breaking the GD WRX body harness down into just what I need and hopefully by the end of the weekend my Legacy will be stripped down and the harness merging will be started.

[Alphius]

Throwing away:


Keeping:

[lord flashheart]

Yea you move quick. I like that. I also love seeing someone who knows exactly what they are doing. At this rate you will have the swap done in no time. I'm pretty stoked on your build. I've subscribed to it.

[Alphius]

Well, we'll see how fast this process goes. I don't like having my car out of order for longer than I have to. I got the WRX harness torn down and pulled my EJ25D today and then ran out of motivation so I haven't started pulling my interior apart yet.

[Alphius]

I made a video to help people remove the gauge cluster in a 95-99 Legacy without tearing up the dash and without removing the steering wheel. It's surprisingly easier than you would think, I don't know why I've never seen anybody figure this out before:

I've got the dash pulled in order to remove the body harness, but I have a few hours of family stuff to do so I might not get as far as I wanted to today.

[lord flashheart]