My 98 Legacy GT-B Limited

[GShep]

Figured it's time to get a little more active on here and show off my 98 Twin Turbo wagon.

I wanted GT-B limited since I first got to know about these cars almost 7 years ago or so.
When I decided to reitre my MKIII Golf GTI in 2013, I grabbed the closes possible thing to it you could get here for cheap: a blue Legacy 2.2 GX.

In 2014 then a 98 Legacy GT-B Limited popped up for cheap on the German automarket mobile.de while I did a random search.
The price was 1000Euro, engine was running but broken, but therefor it was a direct import from Japan, german reg and only 124000Km on the clock.
Since it was located just an hour from where I live, I drove there, had a look at it, slept over it for a day, drove back and bought the thing.

This is how it looked when I arrived at home.





I expected it to be a quick and cheap fix, but nope.
Turned out it not only had a broken piston ring, but also a melted piston and it was in dire need for new main and big end bearings.
To make things more complicated, the previous owner already had a major engine failure (valve ripped off) on the original EJ20R and the shop that replaced it had no idea what they were doing, replacing the engine with an early EJ20H lump.
So not the best base to start with when this is your first Subaru engine and first engine build overall.
I just should've bought a replacement engine, even if they are rather rare...but I wanted a challenge and went for a complete rebuilt.

I'm now running a complete bastard engine:
- Early EJ20H Legacy GT block & heads
- EJ208 pistons
- EJ20R Turbos, intake etc. etc.

Had to fix a lot of mess the shop made when they replaced the engine but now everything's fine and the engine is running great and strong for almost 3000Km now
Many of the engine rebuild pics you can find over here in my rebuild thread: https://sl-i.net/FORUM/showthread.ph...build&p=282180







While I had the dash taken apart, I also replaced all these stupid bulbs.


One of the driveshafts needed new boots so I could pass the TÜV inspection and also to keep the joints from spilling my new engine with grease.



Boot on the steering rack was also shot, luckily on the same side...


All back together


The fog light wasn't working either, thanks to a dodgy install from the shop that imported the Legacy to Germany.
First I gave the cables on the switch some proper markings since it kinda sucks when everything is just black.


...and here's why the fog light didn't wanna work. Very professional install.
For now I wrapped some electrical tape around the cable as I'll relocate the fog light anyway...



With all problems sorted out, the Legacy was ready for the TÜV inspection.
Since I had some time on my hands, I decided I would remove all the stupid stickers the previous owner put everywhere






A day later I passed the TÜV inspection without any failures and went for a drive while my temporary license plates still were valid and did my 'obligatory new car photoshoot'
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gshep/...57664087400543



Installed some Audio... old Sony MiniDisc headunit with a CD-Changer emulator to enable the Cinch input.
I always wanted a Minidisc player when I was little and it kinda fits the age of the Legacy... and since a aux-input for my phone is all I need, it's what I went with.



Deleted the rear wiper since I never use these and they're just ugly, imho.



Painted the grill frame matt black, as well as parts of the front bumper.



I also gave it a 3-Step 3M machine polish that took me a day but made the paint look like new, removed all little scratches and the grey layer it gained over the years...
So that's how the Legacy looks for now, but I got more stuff in the works for it, guess the next big upgrade will be coilovers and a different set of wheels.

[Strykr]

Looks really good! Good job on the rebuild!

[Dead91silvia]

Very clean! I like it!

[Reuben]

Nice! Welcome to the GT-B limited club, that's a tidy example! take good care of her eh.

[foohfooh]

Me likey. White is a great color for these cars

[GShep]

Thanks guys, really happy with it so far.

...a little update on the Limited.
After ~2500Km it was time forthe first oil change.
No bits and pieces and no nothing in the 'old' oil!
However... the oil pressure gauge recently started showing too much oil pressure (way above 5bar), might be the gauge sensor fucking up, or the pressure valve in the pump.
Will change the sensor soon, if that doesn't help, I guess it's new oil pump time.



I swapped my Sony MiniDisc headunit for a better one... the 6400R had some broken buttons and I only did get one radio station.
Fortunately I got part of my money back from the seller and managed to get a cheap MD8900R which is in a perfect condition and has even more functions.
I also installed two switches in the storage pocket... one will be to manually control the exhaust flap and the other one was intended to control the motor antenna. My Sony headunit has a seperate remote out for a powered antenna though, so I don't need the switch atm.



...and finally, the biggest update... I got myself a nice set of rims!
Enkei Kojin in 18x9,5J ET45.
They fit perfectly up front, but on the rear I had to use 10mm spacers atm to get some clearance to the damper.
...with the right coilovers, adjustable top mounts front and back and 225/35 tyres, I should make them fit nice and flush with just minor mods to the wheel arches.
I wanted those wheels in matt black, but I would have to order them in the US as I couldn't find a reseller here in Europe... luckily though this set showed up on ebay classified ads for a really good price.
Don't want to keep them silver though, so they'll get resprayed before I put them on.

[glo2228]

nice wheels . cant wait to see them mounted

[GShep]

Only done some minor mods lately as I'm still waiting for some cash to pile up so that I can get to work on the suspension and wheels.
First off I made the exhaust flap switchable, so I can go from silent to (almost) stright piped with the push of a button.
The 'flap control' is pretty simple, it has a connector with 5 cables on it: 2 for 12V +/-, 2 for the motor +/- and one Signal Input from the ECU, which is the yellow/blue coloured one.
Connect the signal cable to ground and the flap will open.
On the ECU the cable is located at plug C, pin 7.



Wired the Switch up on my DIN-pocket and added a 2pin AMP-Superseal connector for easy radio removal.
Wired it so that I can switch between open flap and ecu controlled mode.


While I was at it, I also used some flock foil to keep things in the pocket from rattling, same as I did on my black GT-B.
...and since I couldn't wire the switches up as I intended to first and since I had that second spare switch, I used the second switch to control the illumination on both switches.


I also gave delimiting the ECU another try, using the MPH-Speedo-Converter I got with my black Legacy. In hopes that the speedo hands over the same signal to the ecu as which it receives, I just wired the MPH converter in between the speedo and ecu.
And it works pretty well, pushed it to 240kph on the Autobahn, but didn't want to push it any further as my oil temp quickly reached 130-140°C.




The days after I was at the Nordschleife with some friends to hang out and chill during the Nordschleife Driving Days.
However, I couldn't resist to drive the ring in a proper car again after pausing for almost three years since I decided to part out my MKIII GTI.


It was pretty damn amazing, even if my brakes were gone after the first thrid of the track and even if my oil was cooking at 130-140°C. The legacy did hold up really well.
...another thing you can see on the NS shots is that I added some black foil to my fog lights to tone them down a little without removing them.









...at the end of the video you can see some smoke coming from under the bonnet... well guess it was the first time since the rebuild that the secondary turbo saw some heat, so the paint and heat wrap were cooking.


Sure will have to add an oil cooler and do a 4/2pot upgrade with EBC discs and pads before I can do some serious laps though.

[duncanm]

Awesome video.

Must be fairly hair-raising with some of the idiots that do themselves in on that amazing track.

Came across this - you're here at 1:36

[Dead91silvia]

Thats pretty cool dude. What I wouldnt give to run my GTIR on that track.

I remember, before my last motor gave up, I did a high speed run with a Volvo V70R. Both of us hit the governor, but we still had fun. Dont think he thought a Subaru Legacy could out run him.

[Reuben]

Nice! I won't lie, I'm rather jealous!!!

If you are concerned with handling, but don't want to just slap coil overs in, and ruin your ride, there are ways to get these wagons to turn a corner pretty well. I did not do a heck of a lot to Beast, but I sure as hell got it turning in, and rotating like a sedan.

Up front: cusco K-brace, and alloy control arms.
In the rear: STi pink lateral and trailing arms (as seen on the S201)(there's two kits available, the full kit, and just the lateral arm kit, you want the full kit)
All around: Ver.8 inverted KYB's, cusco 22mm sway bars
And of course, Bridgestone potenza's

The ride is only slightly harsher than a stock GTB, yet the car will out handle a Ver.6 STi without breaking a sweat, all while doing a grocery run or hauling your camping gear. Can't ask for much more!

[Zangado1]

Awesome post....Love the GT-B

[Go Mifune]

Funny, I've driven the Nordschleife hundreds of times on Gran Turismo and never overheated the brakes.:smt077
Thanks so much for the video! I've dreamed about driving that course for years but probably will never get to enjoy that experience.

[GShep]

Awesome video.

Must be fairly hair-raising with some of the idiots that do themselves in on that amazing track.

Came across this - you're here at 1:36

Thanks! First clip from that day that I'm on

Nice! I won't lie, I'm rather jealous!!!

If you are concerned with handling, but don't want to just slap coil overs in, and ruin your ride, there are ways to get these wagons to turn a corner pretty well. I did not do a heck of a lot to Beast, but I sure as hell got it turning in, and rotating like a sedan.

Up front: cusco K-brace, and alloy control arms.
In the rear: STi pink lateral and trailing arms (as seen on the S201)(there's two kits available, the full kit, and just the lateral arm kit, you want the full kit)
All around: Ver.8 inverted KYB's, cusco 22mm sway bars
And of course, Bridgestone potenza's

The ride is only slightly harsher than a stock GTB, yet the car will out handle a Ver.6 STi without breaking a sweat, all while doing a grocery run or hauling your camping gear. Can't ask for much more!

Well, I'm more of a looks first guy... I don't do enough laps on the Ring to go full performance, so I rather aim for a nice wheel fitment and look, just like on my old GTI.
So far I plan on a set of shortened BC Racing RM coils with shorter and harder springs and uniball top mounts front/back. The next thing on my to do list then is the brake and oil cooling issues.
...but I already had the alloy control arms on my list, as well as stiffer bushings front/back, but the rear control arm kit does sound like it needs to go on my list too now.

[Reuben]

The rear arms helped with rotation, the alloy arms and k brace helped with turn in. The combo made for a very satisfying improvement in handling for sure. The sway bars helped with high speed grip and stability, which might also be of benefit in Germany!

Maybe handling isn't on your list now, but if you try those simple mods, you won't regret it.

[GShep]

@ Reuben
I'll keep that in mind for sure!

@ Topic
Haven't done much lately, most been busy getting our new Zippo lift working and made a trip to Birmingham and London with a friend to hang out with some other friends.

Though I managed to finish fixing the broken wind deflector...the previous owner had it 'fixed' with some quick glue and gaffa tape, so while doing 180 on the autobahn the broken part ripped off and luckily landed in my lap as I had the window open.


Removed the deflector completely, removed the old tape and polished the paint underneath it up again.


Glued the broken pieces together with some extra strong 2k glue and put the whole deflector back on with extra strong 3M double sided foam tape.


Sanded the glue down, starting with 180 grit sandpaper till it was smooth, then stepped the grit up to 2500 in a couple of steps... in the end I gave it a quick 3-step polish to get the plastic all smooth and shiny again.
Since the glue was brighter than the plastic, I painted the glued areas black.
It sure didn't turn out perfect (especially the paint on the upper crack, gotta redo this at some point), but unless you look close, you won't notice the fixed areaas.
It also holds up to 250Km/h with no problem, so I guess it's good enough till I can get my hands on a not broken deflector.


Another thing I did was swapping the JDM Km/h scale for an EDM one, so I finally can see how fast I'm going on the Autobahn...




On our way back home from London my friend grabbed his camera and snapped some pretty nice pics, figured they're worth posting.
First long trip with the Legacy went without any problems! Overall I'm getting close to 10000Km on the new engine now.

[Dead91silvia]

Nice! I like the repair on the rain guard. Looks solid.

How common are those 240km speedo's over there? If they are affordable, I'd be interested in one for my BD... =)
I do have to say, I'm super jealous of being able to go that fast... legally. haha

[subieadam]

I like those dash gauges!

[GShep]

Didn't do much on the Limited lately, as I bought another 98 EDM Legacy GX 2.5 for spares to fix up a rust free 97 Legacy GX 2.5 that has been parked at my garage for almost a year now.
With the GX up and running though, I finally had some time to spend on the Limited again.

Started off with a small mod at the back.
While I love the sound of my modified stock exhaust, I never liked how lost the tailpipe looked in that big bumper opening. I'm also not a fan of everything chrome/silver, so clearly that tip had to got.
On Aliexpress I found some cheap knockoff Akrapovic exhaust tips that looked pretty nice.
So once they arrived from knockoff motherland China, the Limited went up our new (used) Zippo lift for the first time.
While at it, I also fixed the melted bumper up a little and positioned the fog light a little higher, so when it's folded up now, it's hiding completely behind the bumper.



things got a little more complicated when I discovered that the tip's inlet diameter was a little too tight for the original tailpipe that was under the chrome tip.
I simply cut the old tailpipe off and welded a fitting piece of pipe to it, then put the new tip on.
It's only a small mod, but imho it does look a lot better than the original tip.



Last weekend then I finally had the time to install the HEL 19 row oilcooler set that I bought.
Fitted the cooler right onto the bumper bar.


A little bit of the cooler is covered by the bumper, but it still sticks out enough (you can barely see it behind the number plate).



...of course I had to give the bracket a little personal touch (especially as they sent me silver brackets instead of black ones ).


The 60° fittings just point out between the manifold and the belt cover with the hoses not touching anything and having enough space to wriggle around freely.
This never would've fit if I hadn't installed the sandwich plate for the pressure and temp sensor in the first place anyway.


Finding a way for the hoses to the front then was easier than I thought, so the whole install didn't take too long.


Finally I covered some sharp metal edges of with some old rubber hose to prevent the oil cooler hoses from rubbing through.




I'm quite happy with the outcome, didn't have to modify anything but the bumper bar and oiltemps now dropped from ~115°C to 100°C during normal driving and from ~145°C to ~118°C when you're pushing it.
Only problem I had was that the DASH fittings they delivered with the set wouldn't fit for the sandwich plate...the 90° ones always had contact with the exhaust manifold or the belt cover and with the straight ones the hose would've bent to much and would've been squeezed up against the radiator fans.
I got myself some 60° DASH fittings then who now do the job perfectly, fittings and hose do have enough space in every direction. Only thing I might change in the future is going for a bigger cooler as 1/3 of it is covered by the bumper.
Thanks to the sandwich plate with the 90°C thermostat going for a bigger cooler shouldn't be a problem really.
The engine has been running flawlessly for over 12000Km now, just did the first regular oil change a week before I installed the oil cooler and the oild oil came out just like you want it... black but no shiny bits in it.

With the oilcooler crossed off my list now, I hope the next thing to come will finally be some coilovers so that I can fit the my new wheels. Fingers crossed.

[GShep]

It was fun, but guess I'm not allowed more than 5 months of fun.

[Michelle]

You say that as if that's not repairable.

[Dead91silvia]

Oh man! That sucks! Should be fixable for sure though. What is your plan?

[GShep]

@Michelle
Of course it's repairable, but the frame is bent, right rear door sticks out by 2mm now. Sidewalls are pushed out too, so the trunk cover barely stays in place... the whole rear got pretty bent even if it looks okay at first sight.
@Dead91silvia
Had my expert witness look at it and take pictures of the damages yesterday, so that he can estimate the repair costs and worth of the car.
Thanks to the new engine and overall perfect condition he roughly puts the value at 10-11000Euro, but as the frame is bent behind the rear seats it's still gonna be a financial total loss.
I already contacted a shop that is specialized on importing JDM Legacys and Imprezas to see if I can get pretty much the same car in the same condition from Japan again.

...other than that, I still might try fixing mine up. Still got a parts Legacy sitting in the garage. Will be a lot of drilling, pulling and welding, but might get it fixed up again... will see.
Other option would be full race mode for Trackdays at the Nordschleife.

[Dead91silvia]

Well, from looking into it myself, they are really affordable in Japan for sure. So I say get a new one and keep this other one for a track car. Cant have too many Legacy's!

And yeah, with a hit like that I would have expected a bent rail. I have 2 bent rails on my BD, but they were lighter hits for sure and no one can really tell anyway.

[Muse]

Well, from looking into it myself, they are really affordable in Japan for sure. So I say get a new one and keep this other one for a track car. Cant have too many Legacy's!

I agree fully.

[GShep]

Well, I found a JDM trunk door not far from where I live, and since I already had a new bumper in the garage, the Limited's getting all fixed up.
Our local paint and body shop quoted me about 2000-2500Euro for getting the frame pulled straight, rear metal replaced and getting all parts painted.

Currently cutting all the needed metal out of the parts car I got sitting in the garage and as soon as I got all the parts together, I'll drop everything off at the paint shop.


...but of course the crash damage wasn't enough of shit happening to the Limited...
Right when I was stuck in rush hour traffic in Brussels, Belgium, the steering rack and pump decided to die...and when I finally had a chance to stop and check, I noticed that the coolant reservoir started leaking too.
Already got a used rack sitting in the garage, just ordered a used power steering pump in England and a brand new reservoir plus other parts in Japan.

[GShep]

Well, just a little update to keep this thread alive.
I'll keep the Limited and already am working on sourcing and getting all the parts ready to fix the accident damage.
...but I also bought a "new" Limited in Japan, when I was in hospital because of health stuff at the beginning of this year.
Two or three weeks ago the new one arrived from Japan and was made ready for reg... I'll make a new thread about it when I have a bit more time to spend.


So back to the summer car!
On my least drive I drove through the rush hour and Brussel, not only the steering broke then, but a quick look under the hood showed that the reservoir was leaking now too.
Looked all the needed parts up when i was back home and of course the reservoir was a Twin-Turbo special item that was only available in Japan...
Long story shortm that's what 120Euro will get you:


Painted it black, got the old coolant out with a syring and installed the new reservoir, no more leaking!



My front brakes made noises, so I decided to replace the pads with some new ATE ones till I install coils, wheels and the new 4-pot WRX brakes with a 330mm disc mod.
I think the strong uneven wear was caused since the guides didn't move freely enough.
Found no other cause or reason, so I sanded them down a little. They move more freely now, so hopefully this will fix it.



The main problem (except for the accident) was my broken steering though.
As I was driving through the rushhour in Brussels it suddenly got very firm, you just could steer with two hands, even though the engine was running.
On the way back home the pulley completely ripped off the pump.
So I hoped that just the pump seized and a new one would fix it, but as I replaced the pump the steering still was too firm.
Lifting the car off the ground already made it very easy to steer, even with the old pump, so only the steering rack was left as a cause.
Luckily I had ordered a replacement rack on ebay, so out with the old:


...and in with the 'new'! ...of course I gave it some new rubber boots and whiteline ends, as I was at it.


Quickly installed the new rack and it works all fine now, only thing I have to do is set the steering wheel straight again, as the first try didn't seem to have worked so well.
Fortunately it doesn't pull to any side really
Next thing I'll probably do is getting some WRX wishbones to install the Whiteline ball joints too, probably with some more strong bushes if they are available.
My first downpipe is leaking a little too at the gasket, I got a flexpipe to weld into the downpipe so this doesn't happen again.
...and of course I have to get that accident fixed.



...but of course things never go as planned.
I only wanted to fill the A/C since temperatures here were +38C, but sitting around for so long with open connectors, the compressor locked up right away.
Since I was on a lucky streak, like the reservoir it was a Twin-Turbo and JDM exclusive part.
Luckily I found a good used one from a BH5 on ebay in Japan then, plugged connectors, so hopefully in a good shape.
It looked pretty good when it arrived...


...but of course I had to clean and paint it first.


All done, A/C filled and working perfectly.



Well, hopefully the next thing is fixing the accident damage now.

[slamdspec]

What gauge pod is this?

[Thor294]

why didn't the US get this car. so beautiful. the 2nd gens really are the best looking! nice buy

[Somac]

Wow, I just read through all of this. Great work! I love the black and gold theme you have in the engine bay. It's great to see this thing being tossed around the 'Ring!