pleiadesfella

took some better pictures of my front left brakes today. after seeing the rust, I decided to get new rotors anyway as it would be better in the long run, instead of having to send the car back to the mechanic again in the future for new rotors. I followed max's advice and checked my local canadian tire, and they somehow had lgt brembo ceramic pads + blank rotors in stock for a good price, so I got them instead of ordering off rockauto. I asked about how their core returns worked and they made it sound simple enough, so I'm also going to be ordering centric remanned calipers from canadian tire too as I get a better price that way compared to rockauto. I'm glad to hear they're working well for being remans since that's the route I'm going now. I live in salt hell but I store my spec b over the winters so thankfully that's not a worry for me. really sucks to hear they started salting the roads though, hope you get a thorough undercoat and rustproof the doors on your lgt before winter. I've rotted one lgt out due to salt and my ignorance when it came to rust, would hate for the same to happen to anyone else

update: both legacies are home safe and sound the drive back from storage was quite nerve wracking as I had a tire shop in amherst try to unstick the bad caliper just enough that it would survive to drive back to moncton (around a 60km freeway drive home), and they didn't instill much confidence in me for the drive home. they said that the caliper would still be sticking though the tech got the stuck piston to move just a little bit. I was extremely nervous the whole way through and mistook a few creases in the road as the car pulling to one side due to the caliper, and as such I didn't go much faster than 100kmh the whole drive which sucked. but at the end I got home safe, and there was no heat from the front left this time, despite the much longer drive. tire guy must have done a good job, I don't know why they were so hesitant about it. yeah, I definitely did want the brembos for the bling factor too, but considering my current budget its definitely not worth it just for the bling. at this point I'm considering getting the usual lgt setup for the front and calling it a day. probably gonna go for the akebono ceramic pads I mentioned, I know they're a quality company and I've read good things about their pads both in terms of performance and drivability. the current rotors on the car are actually slotted and drilled all around lol, last owner put them on. I didn't take a picture of the brakes today as I was tired after the whole ordeal, but I have a picture from last year clearly showing the front right brake condition. you can see the rust on both the rotor and caliper, though its much worse on the left side where the caliper is completely brown. I'll take a better pic tomorrow or the day after. the tire shop in amherst said that one piston on the front left caliper was seized and didn't like to move, so I'm sure it's more than just a slide pin at this point. I'm just thankful they freed it enough to get home without overheating and compromising my brakes. I'll take a look at the brakes forum, thanks. the fluid was somewhat recently flushed with DOT4 fluid before the car went into storage, so I think its fine on that front unless the sticking caliper boiled it bad, which I doubt since the car was braking fine today. I'll check my local napa and canadian tire stores to see if they have anything, but I think I'll only find pads and maybe rotors from them. I think I'll just have to order the calipers from rockauto regardless. and they have good prices (even factoring in shipping + customs from the us), so I may as well just order everything from them is what I was thinking. it seems you went with what I originally wanted to do except you had the cash to do it . sounds like a great setup, though 3k is an insane price for me right now as I only have $1.5k cad set aside for my brake repairs lol. would there be a big difference in getting a reman caliper vs. a claimed "new" caliper from rockauto? I was thinking of going new simply because I've read some stories about remans prematurely seizing, which is something I don't want to deal with again. I don't think I can justify the premium for the hawk pads right now as I won't be immediately autocrossing the car, but I'll consider them down the line. would also prefer some quieter brakes for now, especially after hearing what my stuck caliper sounded like when I was driving down to the tire shop thanks for all your input guys, I'm also going to discuss with my mechanic to see what they think about the rotors needing a replacement and I'll order new parts from there.

hey fellas, long time no see after taking a long overseas vacation, I've found myself yet again stuck back in eastern canada. before I went overseas, I put both of my legacies in storage, but my spec b had developed some sticking in the front left caliper right before it was put into storage - after a 15 min freeway drive to the storage warehouse, the front left fender felt like it was on fire and there was lots of heat radiating from the rotor, alongside a nasty burnt smell from the pads. it comes out of storage tomorrow, and I've been weighing my options on what to do for the front brakes. both front calipers are quite rusty, and the front rotors also have lots of rust on the center/hub part as well as some rust on the outer edges. at first I was going to go the sti brembo route that everyone seems to do, however I'm getting cold feet from that idea as there are no good used brembos for sale in my area. I was going to order a full powerstop caliper + rotor + pad kit for an 04 sti off rockauto, but after doing some research it seems the powerstop calipers are their own castings and not remanned oem brembos as claimed. they still seem fine, but in my research I also came to the conclusion that I likely don't need brembos and that oem calipers with some upgraded pads + rotors would be fine. so now I'm thinking of ordering new (not reman) lgt calipers off rockauto alongside new rotors and pads. rockauto lists some ultra power (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=13714493&cc=1440457&pt=1704) and dynamic friction (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=11729445&cc=1440457&pt=1704) brand calipers as brand new, I don't know which one would be better. it says the ultra power ones are a popular choice, so I'm leaning more towards that. as for rotors and pads, I've come to the conclusion that akebono proact pads + centric blank rotors are the best in terms of bang for buck with daily drivability and performance. but I don't know for sure, which is why I'm asking here. I'm also not fully sure if I do need to replace my rotors because other than the unsightly rust, they seemed fine though I don't know yet if the caliper sticking would have negatively affected the front left rotor to the point where it would need a replacement. what would the best route for me be? spend the extra $400 cad on the powerstop "brembo" full kit or get a combination of rotors/pads with new lgt calipers? and what would the best rotors/pads be? I do intend to autocross (and maybe track, if I'm lucky enough) the car eventually, but as it currently stands it's my summer daily that I'll occasionally hit backroads with. I look forward to what you guys have to say.

since I'm going out of the country for a while, I put my spec b in storage today - and found out that my front left caliper is sticking a bit once we got there, after my dad pointed out a strong burning smell and a very hot front left fender lol. but this is a good thing since it finally gives me a reason to upgrade to brembos when I return

update on this: the car actually kept overheating later on. every time I'd drive to work the temp gauge would keep rising past regular operating range, though my workplace is close so it never hit the red. I took it to one shop in town and they said it was likely the thermostat sticking, but they also said they didn't work on subarus due to them being boxers, so they referred me to another shop in town which gave me an appointment for today. after all the wait, the new thermostat was installed today alongside a fill of fresh coolant and now it's back to working like a charm. hopefully it stays that way lol. I still do plan to get a new rad cap, but for some reason they're impossible to get at a good price in canada? they're usually listed for $30 which is great, but then the shipping is $40 for such a small part and I can't justify it. will probably get it ordered in from the dealer at some point, I imagine they would have at least a few on hand.

yeah I noticed the different pressure ratings between both the caps, I'll be sure to get the round OEM cap rated for 137kpa. I did some more searching and found a thread on the outback forums where someone had a sloshing sound coming from their dash, and their car ended up overheating in a very similar way to mine one day. my spec b also sloshed like crazy on some cold startups, but I always assumed this was the ac system being weird in some way since that's what a local mechanic told me when I brought the car in for it. a bad rad cap causing sloshing and issues with the coolant overflow tank and subsequently overheating makes so much sense now though. I'm about to put an order in for a new oem cap, and will get an appointment for a full coolant flush asap. thanks guys

just checked my coolant level, rad cap and dipstick the other day. oil wasn't milky on the dipstick, so I don't think any coolant mixed with oil. but my coolant level was dangerously low and I hadn't realized this before, I'm pretty sure it was fine months ago so there must have been a slow leak. rad cap looks fine to me, but I think y'all would be more knowledgeable about it. pics below

you make a good point on the coolant. I'd need to check receipts to see when it was last changed, because it was not done under my ownership. though I never had any doubts about the coolant until now because I found the cooling in my spec b to be better than in my gt. I'm probably going to get a flush, a new rad cap and new thermostat like you said. not going to invest $80 in the testing kit - not that I don't want to, rather I can't justify the cost currently since we're in the middle of a move and I'm probably not going to see my spec b for a while as it's going to storage in september. would rather just throw the money at the car to get it fixed outright for now. as for the issue itself, I'd love to give more details but it was just very strange. I just drove the car home and back again (and pushed it on both trips) and it was fine once again. AP tells me the turbo is still healthy and boosting to 20psi consistently. I don't see any smoke or leaks coming from anywhere on the car either. didn't have the chance to check the oil yet, but something tells me it's probably going to be fine too. so from what I gather it could be the thermostat and/or rad cap going bad possibly coupled with old coolant since the car seems mechanically healthy. thanks guys, I'll get these done soon. I was just really worried that my spec b was going to be completely out of commission since my gt also developed a bad misfire last weekend and left me stranded, so if my spec b also went I'd be carless in the middle of moving out of here. can't afford to have a catastrophic failure now of all times, so I'm glad the problem and solution both seem simple now

hey fellas, I started my spec b this morning then had to run to the house to grab something and when I came back I noticed the car was spewing some white smoke. normally this doesn't concern me as my car is catless and I live in an extremely humid area so there's always some condensation vapor when I'm warming up the car every morning, but it looked a bit thicker this morning. I needed to get to my workplace to grab a few cables then drive out on a job, so I didn't really have time to think about it. didn't have my accessport plugged in either. I get to my workplace and right as I'm parking the car, I notice my temp gauge has nearly hit the red. I didn't notice anything while driving and I didn't really get on it (3500rpm at most), and I also started slowly driving it when it wasn't fully up to temp (just under the second thick line but blue light was off). I've actually had this exact situation happen to me before in my gt, but that was due to a burst radiator clamp dumping coolant. today there was no coolant trail and no smoke coming from the rad, so that's not the issue this time. with it being a subaru, I immediately thought it could be a bad ringland but the smoke wasn't bluish. next obvious culprit is the headgaskets and I thought those were toast, but... I let the car cool down while parked at work then had to drive out on the job. the place I had to drive to is actually right next to my house, so it's the same distance driven. I plugged my AP in and kept an eye on both the AP and temp gauge. DAM was a solid 1.000 the whole time and knock values were also normal (FKL was dead 0 and FBK only went up to -2.80 due to a rough shift into third). I went up to 3500rpm while getting on the throttle and there was nothing abnormal. here's the kicker: the car did NOT overheat by the time I got to my destination. for the whole drive, the temp gauge was sitting where it's supposed to be at the middle. once I was done there, I drove back to work and once again everything was normal. I got out the car and checked to see if it was spewing any smoke and there was nothing. I did have some odd cylinder 1 roughness readings while parked at work, but that wasn't present while driving. it's not the warmest day today (especially not in the mornings here) so I'm really lost as to why the car would have overheated like that only once but not again after another identical drive. bad hg would be the easy answer but then it should have kept overheating. the thicker white smoke on first start up was strange too, though I can just chalk that up to higher than usual condensation as we've had very warm and very rainy days recently. I want to say its either a rad fan engagement failure (the fans have been clicky recently) or blown turbo seal or at least something related, but what I'm reading on other forums doesn't line up to what just happened to me. I'll definitely check my oil later today when the engine is cold. I'm just hoping someone here has a better idea of what might have happened lol. thanks.

damn, this whole time I thought the chirp on fob lock/unlock was a facelift specific thing as my 07 doesn't chirp but my 08 does. I never questioned it, and never even thought that it was something you could actually toggle. thanks for the info

could it just be tread noise from your winters? my blizzaks are loud as hell and they make a very distinct and loud woodpecker kind of sound from under the car at freeway speeds.

new tomei type-s shift knob to replace the old and worn stock knob my spec b. ordered on the 5th and just arrived today, lol. short review: I was a bit afraid that it might be too tall compared to the stock knob that I had gotten used to, but its height was very exaggerated in the pictures online as it was only 1 maybe 2 cm taller than the stock knob at most. if anything, it's the smaller diameter I found a bit weird feeling, but being able to fully grip the knob from the side makes shifting to 1st or 2nd so much more comfortable. rowing thru the gears feels great as this is a lighter knob, so you can feel gear engagement much more directly. the duracon material also feels great to the touch, not to mention it looks great and matches the rest of the interior and the dgm exterior. one other thing I'll have to get used to is the different feeling when pulling on the reverse lockout with my palm on the knob as this is a taller knob, so my fingers have to extend a bit further down, but this is a very minor nitpick. the reverse lockout also makes a click sound since the lockout ring touches it when pulling it up fully to engage reverse as this knob reaches further down than the stock one, but this doesn't bother me at all. overall I'm quite happy with it, and I look forward to doing more driving with it (note: my phone's camera makes the little top section look almost chrome like for some reason, but it's nowhere near that reflective in real life. second picture captures it a bit better. the knob is also a bit of a dust magnet as you can see, but so is the rest of my interior )

that is very plausible since the mufflers and y-pipe are still OEM (despite the car having a catless downpipe from previous owner), they might be the original ones the car came with back in '08. but hearing this does comfort me, so I'll assume for the meantime that it's not a huge issue and keep driving the car. I'll be taking it to the mechanic soon, and it's a shop that specializes in exhaust work so if this is the case, it should be easy for them to sort it out.

hey fellas, it was finally warm enough to warrant having my windows rolled down today, so I got the chance to hear what my spec b sounds like a bit better. while the exhaust tone with the little pops on each shift are great, I noticed a sound almost like a belt going bad and squealing/chirping on deceleration. its not audible at all with the windows up, which is why I noticed it today. its more noticeable on deceleration in gear but that's only because the engine loses speed slower while in gear. when revving the car in neutral while stopped, I can still hear the same chirping as the revs are dropping but for a very short time. it's not present at all when accelerating or idling. all values on my accessport are reading normal, and I don't feel a loss of power either. I've seen people on other forums with similar noise issues mention that the chirping is most noticeable when the sound reverberates from walls or parked cars. this is exactly my case too, I could hear the chirping reverberate very loudly while driving by parked cars in a parking lot. I first noticed it while driving on a street with buildings on both sides, and it didn't seem as loud when there weren't buildings or cars around. a quick google search on the issue leads me to believe that its one of these things: -belt on the engine -clutch master/slave cylinder (I did make a thread about crunchy shifts before and it was suggested that I get the master cylinder changed, but the mechanic I took the car to didn't say anything about it, not to mention the noise also happens in neutral with my foot off the clutch) -clutch throwout bearing -something exhaust related (maybe downpipe, wastegate or even exhaust hangers apparently) with how many things it could be, I'm unsure if its safe to keep driving it as is. I will take definitely take the car to a mechanic, but it might be a week or two before it can be looked at - which is why I'm here. I want to be sure that its not going to cause something catastrophic with the engine before I continue driving it. I know its very paranoid behavior to be afraid of a little chirp possibly causing a massive engine issue, but it is a turbo subaru so I don't want to take any risks I'd appreciate any input on what this noise possibly could be, and if it would be okay to keep driving the car with this noise present. thanks!

got out today and took some better pics of the car in preparation for the sale listing. also got pics of the most major body flaws too. I'll post some of the pics here in case anyone is curious about the condition of the car.

oh... 2.5i... I COMPLETELY missed that part. I just assumed someone asking for a clutch recommendation would have a gt they're trying to get more power out of . this is what I get for trying to read 2 things at the same time... op, just invest in suspension/chassis components and maybe get a catback if you want to hear your shifts and harass your neighbors. an uprated clutch in your case would be useless, regardless of the clutch feel. I mean if you have the money and really want it, go for it, but it would be wasteful just for clutch feel.

be careful what you wish for. I bought my spec b with a bully stage 2 clutch and for the first 3 months of ownership I was dead set on ripping it out and putting an oem spec exedy back in. a new clutch will have a break in period, and depending on the material of the clutch you may have to deal with very shitty engagement for a long time until it breaks in. last owner did not break the clutch in fully, so I had to finish the job while learning to drive stick at the same time and it was awful. the bite point was at the absolute top of the pedal and had absolutely no range, not to mention that it was extremely stiff. it was an on/off switch where I had to take my foot almost off the pedal to get the car moving. this is because its some half kevlar half organic clutch, with the kevlar part causing the long break in and shitty engagement during the break in period. it acts much more like a normal clutch after it was broken in, but even to this day I will have a very juddery go from a stop every once in a while due its engagement characteristics. just had one today at a 4-way stop. I'm still not completely happy with it and its making me want to test drive a stock sti to see if the stop/go and shifting experience would be any better. maybe an aftermarket clutch would work better with your driving style, but you'd really have to do your research on all the different clutch materials and their characteristics. same with the brands of the clutches - some brands will have stiffer pressure plates than others. for your case I want to recommend a stage 1 full organic aftermarket clutch, but I don't want to give any firm suggestions as I have not tried any for myself. good luck with your search

yeah the transmission issues are the real kicker for me. wish they just weren't a thing at all and that I could sell the car at the price I want with a clean conscience, but I would fully disclose the issues to any potential buyers. the transmission has lasted 2 years longer than I expected it to, so it might not be a major issue at all but it sure is annoying when trying to get up to freeway speeds. I could never get a proper diagnosis either, every mechanic I've taken it to with complaints about slipping said it was fine somehow. drives me crazy because I know its very real. I guess my intention would be to sell the car to someone who would be able to utilize the engine and any other parts off it to the fullest, or someone who just wants an okay beater to get around in. I'll list it at $6500 cad including the set of ts9s and see how it goes from there. worst case scenario, I'll have to figure something out with symmetrical and see if they can at least sell the engine for me since they have many strong connections with the local subaru community here.

if you mean fixing the rust and sending it back to me, sure! on a more serious note, I thought that I could probably make a combo deal with the car and the old enkei ts9s I took off my spec b and am also trying to sell. would $6500-7000 canadian ($5000-$5300 usd) be a fair deal for this car with its built motor and the sets of ts9s and stock wheels on good winter tires?

I'm definitely looking to have a great time out west if I do end up getting a job there . I know for sure it's gonna be better than living in the middle of nowhere, new brunswick. and if I don't get a job now, I'll store the spec b and figure something out after my vacation. me and my father were actually going to do a roadtrip with both the cars and a uhaul trailer if I did get a job in alberta, but at this rate bc is looking more likely and my dad's starting to doubt his ability to pull through due to his age. for now I'd just want to get there safe and sound and as quick as possible, but I would love to do a crosscountry roadtrip later. once again, thanks for your generous offer and advice, glad to know there are still good people in this world

that sounds like a great time and I really appreciate the offer, but I unfortunately can't afford to have a second vehicle. my plan is to either move out west (not much use for an obxt there ) or vacation out of the country for a year, and in both cases the second car is illogical to keep . I got a quote today from MVS canada to see how much it would cost to ship both cars by rail from moncton to vancouver, and it was 5 grand. I would much rather sell the auto and use that money to ship only my spec b out west, it just makes more sense to me. and if I can't find work and end up vacationing instead, I also don't want to pay $1100 to store it while I'm gone. the question of "why don't you swap your built motor into your spec b?" might come up, and the truth is that was the whole plan when I first bought my spec b last year. however, the stock engine in the spec b is holding up really well and seems to be well maintained, and after driving it for a while I realized how much I loathed the piston slap in my forged engine and how long I would have to warm it up on cold mornings so it wouldn't sound like the engine was killing itself while driving. I know slap is normal with forged pistons, and it might sound like I'm exaggerating with how bad it is, but it's REALLY loud on my car for some reason. much louder than most examples on youtube, and the slap doesn't fully subside even when warm (though it does quiet down by alot). I'd also have to swap some mods over from the spec b motor to my forged engine since the spec b is tuned. and if it does end up blowing, I'll replace it with an RA shortblock this time .

trust me, I've been scouring canada wide kijiji ads for legacies for a while now. I think I know what you mean by the prefacelift wagon example, the silver 05 automatic wagon for $5500 in london right? honestly I wish I could buy that to swap my motor into that instead lol. I just haven't seen a single ad where the car is a poor condition automatic but the engine is a low mileage forged build, so I don't have much to work off of. as much as parting out and junking the body is a good idea, I unfortunately don't have the means to do a proper partout since I live in an apartment with no garage and no tools . I wonder if I could ask symmetrical to part it out for me. hell, even if they just sell the engine for 3-4k and give that money to me, I would let them keep the rest of the car lol.

hey all, I swear there was a "what is my car worth" thread somewhere, but couldn't find it. moderators feel free to move the thread to a different category if I'm in the wrong place. tl;dr: I want to sell my automatic 2007 gt in relatively poor condition with fading paint, peeling clearcoat, underbody rust and bad rust on rear arches but the engine was rebuilt in 2019 with forged pistons and new internals - only ~15k kilometers on rebuild. how do I price the damn thing? so I'm looking to sell my 2007 5eat gt limited as I will be moving (or vacationing far away) from this hellhole soon, and I won't be in the position to hold onto both cars. the problem is, I have no clue on how to price it because its backstory and current condition are a little... odd. this was my first ever car, and I bought it for 4000 canadian dollars back in early 2019. as you could probably tell from the price, it already wasn't in stellar condition when I first bought it but it was in better shape than it is today. the thing is, this being my first car and me being a clueless idiot back then, I didn't know how temperamental these engines were and ended up spinning good old rod bearing #3 while trying to double the freeway limit after finally getting my summer tires on (told ya I was a clueless idiot back then ). so after being unable to offload the car as a shell over the summer, I decided to get it rebuilt at a reputable subaru tuner in my region - that being symmetrical autoworks. I knew it would cost me, but at the time I had no other choice and needed to get back to having a car soon since winter was coming. after some back and forth, I ended up getting the engine rebuilt with 100mm wiseco forged pistons, oem sti forged rods, 2019+ sti nitride treated crankshaft and king race rod bearings. fyi I didn't end up paying extra for the wiseco pistons over oem pistons as they misquoted the price of the piston rings as the price of the pistons when I was first inquiring about build pricing. now this obviously means that the block was split into halves and rebored at a machine shop. heads were also machined at the same shop. they also installed a new vf40 (not the oem vf46) since the stock turbo had shaft play and probably had metal in it. parts that could be reused were reused (old intake manifold, intercooler, etc) and everything else was replaced with new original oem parts. this rebuild ended up costing me $8000 canadian (front brakes also had to be replaced since calipers were sticking due to the car sitting for so long). as much as I am grateful for symmetrical's work on the car, the engine has very audible piston slap on a cold start, and while it does quiet down after being properly warmed up and driven, it never really subsides. I thought I could deal with it, but at this point I do regret going with the rebore and forged pistons. however, this has caused 0 issues in the last 4 years and the car has always remained drivable and reliable. the car is still running the stock tune, and is completely stock with exception of the engine internals. by late 2019, I had spent a grand total of $12k canadian on this car, most of it being the rebuild and brake repair costs. at this point I kind of resented the car and didn't have much money left over while paying off the repair debt, so I never bothered to get it undercoated. this caused the already existing rust to build up badly over the last 4 winters I've been through with it. don't get me wrong, the rust isn't bad enough to cause any structural issues with the car. since it keeps passing inspection, I assume there are no holes in the floor and rockers. however, there is a bad rust hole in the passenger side rear arch which my father closed up with jb weld since we needed a quick fix at the time. the rust on the driver side doors is also getting very bad on the bottoms of the doors. the underbody also doesn't look flattering - the control arms and sway bars have a nice coat of rust on them as well. the paint is also bad. the whole front end of the car and a small front section of the roof have faded paint. the clearcoat is peeling badly on the rear bumper. I think the grille has been plastidipped black by the last owner and its been chipping away. I am also unsure if this is an accident car or not since the hood seems to be slightly misaligned. there are several scratches, dents and dings all over the car, with the most noticeable being some dents with scratches on the rear driver's side door and a brown stained dent on the right side of the rear bumper caused by hitting a dumpster. I also think the transmission has been going bad for the last 2 years or so, as it shift shocks somewhat often and seems to slip at low rpms. I cannot get up to freeway speeds without full throttling and letting it drop gears to reach 4500 rpm. unsure if this is all a TCU problem (doubt it because I had it reset in 2020) or an actual mechanical problem with the transmission. the mileage is ~227k kilometers. interior is in okay condition, just needs a good cleaning. so, with all of these considered, how do I price the car? I don't want to give it away for cheap considering the engine build, but at the same time I fully understand that I can't get even close to what I spent back since the car is a rusty automatic. I've been thinking of starting it at $6000 canadian (so around $4500 usd) and maybe taking offers from there, but I'm really unsure. I will try to get up to date pics of the car later, but for now I will post older pics of it and its flaws. it does look worse now than it did back then, but that's mostly due to the rear arch rust and door rust. congrats if you read this all the way through

took some nice-ish photos of my admittedly dirty spec b today. wish it was clean, but ah well unfortunately only had my phone on me as I went for a spontaneous backroad drive after work since the weather was nice for once, so the pics look a bit blurry. maybe after I get the car detailed, I'll come back with my camera to this spot.

give your car a good lookover and see if its even worth spending thousands to fix. I made this mistake with my rustbucket gt I bought for $4k and paid $8k to get rebuilt, and I've lowkey regretted it since. your car is auto, and if its rusty and high mileage, I'd say junk it or part it out. sounds harsh I know, but I wish someone would have told me this years ago when I blew my motor. I could've gotten something in much better shape with the grand total of $12k I had to spend. maybe it would be worth fixing up if it's a wagon since they're harder to find, or if its a sedan in exceptional condition. I think at this point someone needs to make a flowchart on what condition lgt would be worth repairing lol. I know you're going to be doing the work yourself, but you also have to consider the time you have to spend fixing the engine properly and if it really will be worth it for an auto lgt in the end. what you're going to end up paying for parts will also likely be higher than $2500 - that'll get you an RA shortblock and maybe turbo at most. in any case, best of luck