Jacobpockros

I drove that car with a notchy 1st gear for 60k miles. Just held the clutch in for an extra second before going into 1st gear and it never had issues. You bought a clean body car non-running for $1700 so of course it has issues, and you got $650 back for the wheels I left on there. The trans on your green car stopped working at 190k so I’m pretty sure it’s normal this trans isn’t perfect anymore. It should be able to make it to 200k if you’re gentle with 1st which is easy to do. Reverse gear complains sometimes and is straight cut so I actually think that’s where your shavings are from but hard to say. I changed the trans fluid 45k miles ago with the rear diff fluid.

You can see I had that seal 100% flat too. Perfectly flush with the back of the engine. If I did it again the same way it could last 100k miles or 20k, just no way to tell. It all fairness it wasn’t a horrible leak since there were never drops of oil pooling underneath or anything like that but clearly oil in front of the trans, even more so with the trans exposed as xrayspec showcases….

What a great thread, thanks for sharing your build.

 

What makes it pointless? I'm facing a main seal replacement...I think.

 

Factory-installed rear main seals on those engines hardly leak, ever. 1 out of 200 maybe? If not smaller odds than that. I put the new one in literally perfectly flush, like a textbook installation…. and it started showing wetness less than 10k miles later. My friend that did engine work at Subaru for 4 years replaced the one on his own car and it started to leak lol. The factory-installed one on my car had over 150k miles on it and wasn’t leaking before I took it out. Rear main seals are only worth replacing on engines that are known to have rear main leaks because seal replacement is sometimes a roll of the dice. I would check your car from the highest point to its lowest point to verify its not leaking from another point, unless your seal has been replaced in the past.

The cat that’s on there is tough as nails like I mentioned. Has made it past the ref several times even with UEL’s and the cams that were in it.

If the car still has a squeak going over bumps I would grease those front sway bar bushings and see if the noise temporarily goes away. If it does I would replace those front sway bar bushings since they’re poly and 7-8 years old now. You should probably reseal the rear diff since that’s where your leak is coming from.

So after a huge ordeal finally found a replacement for my old car. I briefly bought a 2-owner 2016 WRX that clearly had some work done to it in the past and was quickly put back to stock to be traded in. I did not feel comfortable with this purchase and after 2 months decided to try to locate a new off-the-lot car. This process proved to be somewhat difficult as you cannot order 2015-2021 bodystyle WRX’s anymore. Most 2021 WRX’s that are still new are cars that customers have ordered months ago and backed out on after they arrived at dealerships. Additionally, right now is a bad time to buy a new car since there are inventory shortages and dealer markups. Despite this, managed to find a new 21’ White/black Limited 6spd at a Subaru dealership in Irvine and made the drive over to trade my 2016 in. It was not a convenient purchase, but as a die-hard car enthusiast it needed to be right. Lo and behold the new story of a Legacy:

 

 

 

So far my plans are to take it easy on this car and drive it like an old lady. I will be keeping it on stock tune for some time since I have no erge to race my car. No stage 1 or 2 or any of that…. I do have a few small reversible modifications planned for it but will be keeping every receipt on parts that are ordered so this car has an easy-going documented life. I will highlight all my upkeep and “car treats” in this thread (as well as Nasioc).

My pump works fine. It’ll probably still squeal though from air in the system. When I last had that problem found it was drawing air in through the washer on this bolt:

 

Replace the washer on the bolt. I have a new one in the bag of hardware you have. Torque it to spec and then go a little tighter on it after that. It ended up fixing it. Then bleed the PS system really well and drive it. May have to drive it a little with the cap off if it still whines. I might have had P0107 before and I think it ended up going away once the car was being driven. Since it’s a stored code I would drive the car for a while and see if it goes away. If the P1507 is a pending code which it looks like it is, it can be from an exhaust leak or out of adjustment valves if it’s not the actual switch itself. If the switch doesn’t fix it hook it up to a smoke machine. This has fixed that problem on this car in the past.

[ame=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p51H95eSnVU]South Park - Darth Chef - YouTube[/ame]

Thanks for the offer but for the price that youve pm'd me for the carpet I can buy other parts that I have planned out for the car. I was a bit let down that you didnt have everything ready to go when I took a monday off work to rent a truck and came down and get the car, thats the last i'll say on it.

 

Totally didn’t mean to let you down, just disorganized on my part. We got most of it right? I sold it to you for less than what I had other offers for because I knew you’d make the car amazing. Those extra parts are not going to anyone else and I promise I’ll find the rest of the stuff and post pics of it in here. Can bring it over too.

I know when you fire it up it will sound great with the headers + 2.25” exhaust. Really sounds like a real Subaru.

I went through all the parts you gave me when I got the car home, the actual delivered parts are a bit shorter than the parts list discussed and from what you keep telling me was in the boxes you gave. I have miss matched oem springs, shocks, fasteners, oem sway bars, oem cat back and other random interior bits, but no filters. I personally dont trust K&N filters long run, they are too thin and i dont want to dust the engine, I usually go with the single use WIX filters as for the money to filter density is pretty high.

 

I can do some more digging. I still have oem carpet that I should bring you. I can bring other stuff all at once.

You have a new oem filter in that box of parts and also a K&n filter in the air box that’s just been cleaned.

It’s looking happier already

183k miles and the engine is making noise, possibly a bearing. It was a good run. Will try to sell it to a friend so it can live on.

I have done damn near everything you can think of trying to improve my gas mileage. Pcv, air filter, fuel filter, checked for carbon build-up, tire pressure, removing junk, etc.

 

The only two things I’ve been able to see a difference in mpg with have been changing my spark plugs and having the roof rack off. I’m going to get a new front O2 sensor soon and see if that helps as well. Do the spark plugs if it’s been a couple years. I got 4 oem’s and didn’t spend more than $15.

Does anyone have 00-01’ Oem injectors laying around? I need a detailed picture of the way the large seal sits on the injector when the injector is removed from the car (I think my injector cap is sticking out too far).

Look at the differential bushings and see if they’re torn.

Sold delete

Quick power wash on my almost maxed out NA:

 

Well, not much of an Update but after 7 years of searching I finally found a company that sells White strut bars for the na BE chassis. Behold:

 

 

Starting to make progress on a patch harness I’ve been wanting to build to run my tune.... and i’m 50% along the way on finding some high quality headlights to rejuvenate. Other than that, car seems mechanically healthy aside from needing to fix a bad cam seal leak. Gas mileage has been very 2020 this season, might throw a new O2 on this spoiled bitch and see if anything changes.

Going to bump this thread. I’ve since put delta 1500 cams in and have dropped 1mpg(18mpg city/highway instead of 19). Going to pull my injectors and give them a thorough cleaning, I already bought the seals and they’ve never been cleaned in 175k miles. Thinking that might bring me back up. At least my car sounds awesome now.

Update!

 

Been very busy since I got a new job as a Technician at Ford/Hyundai. I guess this stuff is becoming more commonplace!

 

My car started to slip into the phase of “too many problems” and I did not want to lose her. Waterpump gasket blew at 173,000 miles and I had no history if the headgaskets had ever been replaced so I decided to “bulletproof” the motor so I can venture into the 200k mile club.

 

Pulled the heads so I could do new gaskets everywhere. I believe leaving the engine in the car is not a bad way to do it and I don’t want to see the engine out of my baby if I don’t have to (even though I do heavy line for a living at the dealership).

 

 

 

 

All parts oem from Subaru.

 

Oem Headgaskets

Oem head bolts (just because)

Oem crank seal

Oem waterpump with gasket/o-ring

Oem Tensioner bracket gaskets (because)

Oem Tensioners/idlers

Oem Timing belt

Oem Water pipe gaskets

Oem Intake manifold gaskets

Oem Throttle body gasket (just because)

Oem Valve cover gaskets

Oem Oil pan

Oem Three-bond sealant

Oem Upper/lower radiator hoses

Oem Heater inlet/outlet hoses

Oem serpentine belts

 

 

Even spent $200 to get all the non-essential foam/rubber pieces that go on the plastic pieces behind the timing belt cover (which I’ve ALSO replaced):

 

 

I’ve spent $2,000 in OEM parts for this job. Does not include the rebuilt heads.

 

 

Also got a second set of cams to put in and sent them to Delta for a 1500 regrind. Should have more mid range power now:

 

 

Had the heads rebuilt at the machine shop with the carbon cleaned out and new oem valve stem seals. Everything else was reusable:

 

 

 

Tires were also shot. The best dry-handling tire I could find (besides Michelin) was the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500. Needless to say I don’t regret my decision, and $110 per tire sounded appealing:

 

 

Here she is back together.... 7.5 months later (a job that would normally take days if I was at work lol):

 

 

 

 

I’m lucky to have a Subaru master tech as a friend who stepped in a few times to make sure it was done the “right” way and to take the wheel on a few steps I wanted done only by someone that lives and breaths these engines (which is not me).

I plan on keeping this car tucked away somewhere after I phase it out one day so that’s why I wanted to do the motor so much justice. I want to keep this car for a long time. As of right now everything has been addressed and brought back to life, and it pulls so much better with cams. Now being completely maintained I have confidence to daily it again. I did push my cam seals in too far, so I have one problem that I need to go back and readdress in a few months. Other than that she lives on.

 

Current mod list:

 

- Delta 1500 Cams

- DNA Motoring UEL's

- Magnaflow 14832 Catback

- Ganzflow and K&N Drop-in

- Perrin Lightweight Crank Pulley

- Tein S-Tech Springs

- KYB Struts

- 1" Rear Tophat Spacers

- Whiteline Front & Rear Sway Bars

- eBay Strut Bar

- DR-31 Wheels

- Outback LL Bean Steering Wheel

- Yakima Roof Rack

- eBay 3000K Yellow Fog Bulbs

 

I’m also slowly working on a patch harness so I can put my piggyback tune on. Once’s that’s on I’m hoping to make 200hp crank awd.

Check my build thread

You want to look into JDM springs and not USDM springs (you are on a usdm forum). Reason I say this is because the shocks you have have different valving and different heights on the perches in the rear than the USDM cars. The best springs for a wagon that are usdm are H&R springs and they will probably be okay for your wagon but try to find jdm springs for a wagon first because they will fit better. I’m probably tried more lowering springs on this chassis than most members.

:spin:

 

 

 

Yes. Pull the damn engine. You're going to have a lot of trouble properly torquing the head bolts with the block still in the car... and that means you're just going to have to redo this job in 6 months.

 

That’s not true just follow the torque sequence and then rotate each bolt approximately 180 degrees in the procedure that’s asked for. If he follows the procedure torquing heads in car is 100% fine. Dealership heavy line techs have done it that way before. You’re speaking to one.

 

The sand paper to head surface is what he needs to worry about. Goes without saying heads need machining or else it’s not going to last. Wd40 with razer blade and scotchbrite pads will be fine for the block side....

I put my oil pan and valve covers in the dish washer and it 100% works like magic.

 

What happened to the first motor on the 00’ outback?