silverton

Just makes my Legacy 3.6 value go up, i'm not complaining!

According to GCBC; more Outbacks were sold in 2023 alone than Legacy's over the last five years combined... basically 6-7:1 every year. There is a market for large sedans, but it's very small.  Hopefully this means an introduction of the Levorg or similar.  Legacy sales are very closely matched with WRX sales, so people who want a large'ish sedan will just move to the WRX.

Changing the battery should not have affected your TPMS at all, I think it's just a happy coincidence.  You don't necessarily have to go to the dealer, any shop with an Autel or equiv can reprogram your sensors.

Just because it's new, doesn't mean it's good, and if it wasn't installed correctly it will leak.  Doing sep plate reseal and piston pin access is basically the same as doing the rear main seal.  the piston pin access cover uses a small o-ring, the sep plate is glued on.  being an old engine you likely also have the old plastic sep plate, there is an updated part WITH bolts, be sure to get the new bolts too.

The underside of your car is well lubricated buddy.

With these pictures it's impossible to say what's leaking. If it's not the head gaskets, valve covers or the steering rack itself, there are three potential leak points on the back side of the engine; rear main seal, the separator plate, and piston pin access cover.

You can either remove the transmission, or pull the engine again.  If you pull the engine I recommend cleaning up all that mess so the next time something leaks it's easier to identify.

I'd be suspect of the brake master cylinder.

There's privileged information not yet available to the public.  I can confirm, as the Legacy is only offered in the North American market anyway, and is out sold by the Outback 5:1, it's getting cut. 2025MY will be the last.

The only thing I can find that's even remotely related is a list of codes for 83-88MY, and 47 is listed as just 'fuel injector'.

Downside to those older cars is that it may not even be a fuel injector fault, it could be oxygen sensors, air flow sensor, older cars had such a fuzzy logic that two other things might be out of spec and it'll set a code for something unrelated.

It being a '90, it could be worth a try getting them (injectors) professionally cleaned, outside of the car with a machine, or even just using a higher quality or octane of fuel.  Here is the US I refuse to use ARCO gas, may as well just put water in the tank. I only ever filled up at an Arco once, in 2005. My car at the time ran like absolute hammered dog shit on that tank.

I would add the Legacy back to the lineup for the 2026MY.

To do it the right way you would want to bake it apart and reseal it, but you could try a bead on the outside... I've sealed up some rear cam plug leaks this way

On 4/10/2024 at 9:13 PM, ElijahHooper said:

Hello everyone, I own a 1998 Legacy GT Limited Sedan which I love. However, it has the stock US EJ25 with its sad 4 spd transmission. It has 157,000 miles.

The car still runs pretty well  and looks amazing with little flaws as the previous owner garage kept it as a commuter. But you all can guess it’s SLOW, very SLOW (and the auto transmission is trash and on its way out anyway).

With all that said, I am a mechanic at a Subaru dealership (though I’m 18 and not extremely knowledgeable) and want to engine swap to the twin turbo ej20r.

I know that the ej20r came out of the GTB from Japan (I think?) of the same year so would that engine work best ? I know I could technically do like a ej257 wrx swap or something like that, but the EJ20R sounds cooler, is twin turbo, and I’ve heard is pretty strong (does it have forged internals?). I also know that a lot of sensors and everything would mate right up from my engine, although that might be the case with most EJ engines. 

What manual tranny mates up well for my car and for one of these engines? Would the manual off the GTB be the best option or maybe just the usdm 5 spd? Or is there any 6spd transmissions that would work?

I appreciate any help I can get I’m really excited of this being a possibility I just want to choose the best option for my car.

Any tips and tricks also would help, like what I need to know about using the Usdm computer and the usdm intake so that it’s still tunable and works fine with all the Egr and weird “eco-friendly” us requirements the original engine has. Thanks!

To get back on topic and from someone who's also done a thing to be different with their Subaru (GC-RS+t)....  do you own another car? If this is your only form of transportation I highly recommend NOT turbocharging your car.  My RS spent more time on jack stands than it did its own rubber... tires did last a long time though. The best thing you can do for this car is locate a used EJ25D, completely refresh it, and put a manual transmission behind it.  From there start doing tire and suspension mods. Absolutely do not cheap out on anything.  Do it right, or do it twice...or thrice.  That doesn't mean you have to buy top of the line everything, what it means is to do your research make sure the stuff works and dont buy anything knock off from ebay/amazon.

The best advice I can give anyone wanting to turbocharge their Subaru is this, buy a factory turbo Subaru.  Those twin turbo legacy's are getting to the point we can import them now if you really want to play with one, but as others have said... they really aren't all that exciting.  They have one tiny turbo to help in the lower rpm range, and one medium turbo to help in the upper range and from what I've read the transition is not smooth while out bending the twisties and makes for a not good driving experience.

15 hours ago, algol said:

Thanks for that idea. The dealer replaced the valve body 5 years ago. So, I kind of doubt anything new is out. But I need to go to the dealer to get a part anyway, so I'll inquire. 

Most wouldn't think to look for a TCM update unless it was a line item on the RO. It's a long shot since the car is getting up there in age but worth a try.

47 minutes ago, boxkita said:

Ferry? are you on the pennisula? or the islands?

I can attest to @Febreze Mee driving his "turbo look" non turbo wagon like it was meant to be driven. After a couple days hooning the backroads I started looking for a replacement for my wagon that I sold.

I'm in north seattle, they were driving around the peninsula iirc but were starting in tacoma so I was going to meet up somewhere in the middle

I'm sorry, what?  $1300 to perform that TSB? What in the world is their labor rate?? .7 for the backlash adjustment, 1.3 if they also need to replace the tension spring. Max two hours if they're feeling sheisty enough to charge it that way. The spring kit is $20 MSRP. so 1280 in labor is like a wild $600+ an hour.  Even the $3500 quote to replace the rack seems high, by my math is just a bit over $500/hr for labor after part cost is accounted for.

But as their foreman said, it's kind of a CYA thing, at the end of the day you likely just need to replace the whole unit.

6 hours ago, algol said:

Yea, manual mode works much better and is quite fun. Shifts are very firm and quick if you don't count the computer being slow to start the shift. But I know that some people don't have these issues with automatic mode, even though they are running more power. 

You may want to pop into a dealer and see if your TCM has any updates available. When I got my 3.6R i thought it was very boring, but an ECM/VDC update woke it up and it's a blast to drive now.

Oh yeah, I know you've invited me a ton of times and i just haven't been able to make it due to whatever.  I believe we've even exchanged numbers. I know that one time I was on my way to join you but I was way too late and the ferry was very backed up so I just went home, lmao.  I'll definitely try harder to meet up with yall in the coming weeks if you extend the invite.

I put GR-2's and H&R sport springs on my 2001, absolutely love the ride and the look.

AFAIK, the TCM is not flashable.  You may want to look into an upgraded valve body if available it may help.  Your tuned ECM is giving the untuned TCM inputs it's not expecting and is doing its best to make it work. An unfortunate byproduct of tuning and upgrading an automatic, if you google you'll find it's not just you.  If you put your car back on a stock tune does the transmission behave normally? If it still acts up then it's not the tune and you have another issue.

I turbocharged my 2001 GC-RS with an auto. If I wanted to drive it spiritedly I had to shift manually, otherwise it was already in third/"fourth" gear by the time we were across a normal sized intersection, acted like a CVT.

Way back before my GC was turbocharged I went out and played in the twisties with someone who had a GC with an ez30 swap.  My car was auto, his manual, and he claimed he had a difficult time keeping up with me in some sections, even having more power.

Knowing how to drive and to use your car efficiently has a lot to do with it. It's a shame you can't go out and play like this anymore, way too many people.

If you wanna go fast you need more cylinders

Monroe makes quick struts, rockauto specifies they're for the L model but that will only MAYBE be a slight change in dampening or spring rate.  At anyrate, they will be tons better than your assumed 250k originals.

Resetting the TCM puts it back to default values.  It's receiving inputs from the ECM it's not expecting so it starts to adjust for those funny inputs and now here we are.

Are you tuned?

Without someone being able to reflash the TCM you're kinda stuck with what you have. It may even be an adjustment the driver must make for the car, instead of WOT... try like... 90%.

Remove the center console and follow those wires!

On 4/5/2024 at 11:24 AM, Max Capacity said:

You know, I can say, I don't think we've ever gone to WOT in the 3.6R Outback. The car is just so pleasant to drive. I have given it a quick stab of the throttle at times to move out into traffic, but never needed WOT.

 

Oh, yeah, the sales person called today, out 24 Outback XT is in. 

I hear you there buddy, I get to about 50% throttle with mine and I'm like "oh shit we're gonna need to slow down" lmao.  That being said the car is rarely over 2500 rpm, it just doesn't need to be. Last night I was in a hurry to get somewhere and I may have experienced the 'hunt' OP is talking about.  The car 'shifted' three times in a short period of time with the same throttle input, i just thought... 'why??'