AussieDan

Legacy, Meet EJ20

Today was the day for the EJ20 to finally take its place in the engine bay, a big day for any swap project.

I had prepped the motor over the weekend by bolting up the exhaust manifolds, uppipe and turbo so all that needed to be done was to lift it off the engine stand, install the flywheel & clutch and mate it to the transmission.

Everything went pretty smoothly, and it’s now safely in its new home!

I would have had this done earlier, but I ran into a small (but time-consuming) snag with the steering column. The design of the ‘combination switch’ (wiper and headlight/indicator stalks) is different enough between the legacy and impreza that I can’t use the WRX switch gear or roll connector, so I’m working my way through mating the WRX harness with the Legacy switches.

I do have the dash almost fully assembled and ready to drop in as soon as I get the wiring finished up. The passenger side is looking pretty good at this point and mostly just needs to be loomed up, but there is still a fair bit of work to do on the driver’s side.

I haven’t forgotten about the steering linkage howto, and will be posting that up over the weekend.

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Steering & Aircon

I made a little progress last night and today, no pics tonight but I will have some up tomorrow.

As part of the upgrade I swapped the Legacy steering rack for a faster-ratio 2004 STi rack.  The new rack should make it easier to muscle the car around the autox course and improve steering feel over the 11 year old stocker!  However, the STi rack has a different spline count on the input shaft meaning that it won’t mate to the Legacy column without modifications.

Initially I considered swapping the column out, but the differences between the WRX and Legacy columns are great enough that it wasn’t really a viable proposition.  It’s also not legal for the Street Modified Autox class, so that option was out.

The other option was to modify the linkage between the column and rack to make a linkage with the correct splines on each end (Legacy column & WRX/STi rack).

I had heard that this linkage is not able to be disassembled and that the only way to make the adapter was to cut the ends off a WRX and a Legacy linkage then weld them together.  While this works, it isn’t the neatest solution.   The heat from welding will also cook the grease out of the joints and greatly shorten their life.

So, I took a closer look at the joints to see if I might be able to disassemble them.  After a little head-scratching I figured it out, and was able to swap the ends and create the linkage I needed.  Once I upload the photos I will make a more detailed post on how to perform the swap.

The other big project has been the HVAC wiring, as this is one of the major Legacy systems which I am retaining.  I was able to simplify and reconfigure the original harness from the Legacy and got down to 5 connections which needed to be spliced into the WRX harness.  The donor car had automatic climate control so there are several wires which I’m not using (hvac control unit power, temp & sunload sensor, etc), but hopefully I can put that part of the wiring behind me now.

With a little luck I’ll be able to put in a full day tomorrow, I’m planning to get the exhaust manifolds, up-pipe, flywheel & clutch bolted up and drop the long-block into the car…

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Long time no update

Despite not finding time to update the blog I have actually been making progress on the car.

The new sound deadening is in, I put a single layer of Raammat on the floor and transmission tunnel, which is about the same weight as the oem tar I took out and should be much quieter.

Most of my time has been taken up with wiring…in typical fashion I decided to do things the hard way and use the entire WRX body harness.  My reasoning for this was that I get the WRX cluster, cruise control, keyless entry & ABS.  This also means that instead of merging the engine-related sections of the WRX harness into my original harness, I’m adapting the WRX body harness to the Legacy lights, doors, radiator fans, wiper motor, mirrors, sunroof, etc, etc.

I am keeping the Legacy HVAC, so that wiring will need to be merged into the WRX harness, but otherwise it’s more-or-less a matter of cutting the plugs off the WRX harness and grafting on the Legacy equivalent.  Of course it’s not always that simple but that’s the rough idea.

So far I’ve completed the power windows, the door locks are wired but I’m not sure if the polarity is right (the wiring diagrams don’t show the polarity of the lock actuators, so they’re hooked up but not soldered yet).  The door switches, rear defrost, rear lights, headlights, radiator fans & airbag harness connector are all done.

Next up are the power mirrors, sunroof, fog, cruise and hazard switches, then the HVAC.

In the meantime I’ve also been doing some work on the motor.  I’m porting out the TGVs, which are mostly done and just need some cleaning up and to have the holes filled…not sure yet if I want to put in plugs or invest in the equipment I need to weld aluminium (100% argon tank, teflon liner, al wire) and weld them up, I’m leaning towards the latter.

I also have to gasket match the intake manifold and exhaust manifolds.  I picked up some headers but I don’t think I’ll be using them due to some interference issues.  This wouldn’t be such an issue with the TD04, but I came across a good deal on a ported vf29 & 565cc injectors, so I want to make sure that the exhaust system is up to the task.

I haven’t done anything about plumbing the new ABS actuator yet, I still need to track down the correct ‘05 bracket and rubber dampers to get it mounted and see how much work is going to be needed to get it working.

Phew, I think that’s it for now.

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Resuming Operations

Between moving house and changing jobs (again) the Legacy had been sadly neglected lately.

Now that we’re all moved into the new house I had a little time to get the garage in order and start moving all my ‘car junk’.

The first order of business was to epoxy the garage floor, as I knew that once I put anything in there it would never get done.  I used 2 Quikrete Epoxy Garage Floor Coating kits and so far I’m happy with how it turned out.  The color isn’t 100% consistent but it has held up to me dragging stuff around on it and seems to have bonded well to the concrete.

Once that was done I built some shelves along the west wall of the garage and put up 2 shop lights, I think I’ll be adding another 4 shop lights soon to get enough light in there.

Mike was kind enough to lend me his car trailer, so I loaded up the Legacy and brought it over.  It’s a bit of a squeeze in the garage but I think I’ll have enough room to work.

Next up is moving all the parts that have yet to be installed, I was going to start on that today but the weather isn’t cooperating.

Tomorrow is Autox again, and once more I’ll be running Amanda’s Impreza, hopefully I’ll be able to get the camera up and running for some in-car video.

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New House

After 6 months living with the in-laws we finally have a new place of our own.  It’s an old farmhouse which was gutted and completely renovated, on an acre of land.  Sadly it only has a small 2-car detached garage, but I have a few ideas of how to get around that!

This also means that I have to move the Legacy, so I spent this weekend getting the last of the group-n bushings installed, rear subframe and diff bolted up, and the suspension, axles & hubs installed.

All that’s left to do before it goes onto a trailer is to throw in the driveshaft and steering column and put the wheels on.  Oh yeah, I also have to finish cleaning out the new garage and epoxy the floor…haven’t done that before so it should be interesting.

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Fun with a 20-ton press

“If I buy a press, I can do the bushings myself…”

After a quick trip to those purveyors of highest quality chinese tools Harbor Freight I was the proud owner of a more-or-less serviceable 20-ton press:

Things I have learned:

• Group-N bushings aren’t quite as terrible as people say
• Use plenty of silicon grease
• Preparation is key

After the old bushings are removed (burning them out is fun!), grind/sand away all of the rust from the surfaces where the bushing will contact so that they are smooth and shiny. Next is the important bit, make a smooth curve around the edge of the hole, so that the bushing can slide in smoothly without catching on the lip and tearing.

Pressing the new bushing in is a 3-step process. First, apply silicon grease (I used the Sil-glyde brand from NAPA) liberally to the bushing, then press it in until it bottoms out (about 3/4 of the way in). At this point concentrate on getting everything lined up properly and it should slide right in. Next, you’ll need to find something just big enough for the bushing to slide into, I used the big socket in the photo above.

Stack the link on top of the receiver, then put something with roughly the same diameter as the metal tube in the center of the bushing on top, like the smaller socket above. Now you can press the bushing all the way into the link and part-way out the other side to allow the lip to ‘pop’ out.

Flip the link over and press the bushing back through until it is centered and you’re done. Rinse and repeat 7 more times for the lateral links, and you’ll end up with something like this.

I also tackled the rear crossmember, which received a set of SuperPro SPF2664 polyurethane rear diff mount bushings and 4 Group-N crossmember mount bushings. Prep for these was roughly the same as above, but I was able to pull the SuperPros in with a c-clamp and a couple of small pieces of wood, and the Group-N crossmember bushings pulled through with a large bolt, yet another socket and a few big washers. Plenty of anti-seize on these should help to ward off rust.

Aside from that little adventure I’ve managed to get the fuel tank and WRX fuel filler neck installed along with the new charcoal canister. I may need to take the tank out again to adjust the fuel line setup though, as the WRX has a quick-disconnect fitting on the main fuel supply line which the Legacy doesn’t have.

Finally, I wanted to show off the latest addition to my toolkit, a gift from my wonderful wife:

They’re super-cool Facom 40R – Fast Action Combination Wrenches (click for a demo of how they work).

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