KZJonny

I said all of the people I know with gauges are better drivers than those who have their cell phone sticking up withing view while driving. The implication there, is that they are car people, and understand driving a little. The people I am thinking of do not have a COBB or BTSS unit within site + a dozen readout on it at all times. Indeed many have gauges installed in the upper cubby on the dash, which is generally closed during driving. I owned motorcycles for years before I owned a car. Did plenty of stupid things on them that make me shudder to think about now. Only had a tach, speedo and my ears to tell me what was going on with the bike. I often wished I had more information available realtime than: an oil seal blowing while riding, puking your oil, and locking the engine. With my Norton, this wasn't an unreal thing, since there are soft exterior oil lines that run to an external oil filter. Pick up some road junk you don't know about or don't and you won't get much warning about oil pressure before your rear wheel locks up.... Trying to tune with a wideband meant installing a gauge, putting paint/tape marks on the throttle and trying to look at your hands to tell how much the throttle was opened relative to AFR while riding. Not at lot of fun. I'd have killed to have something as simple as a gauge in my line of site.... Happy to agree to disagree about the usefulness of gauges. I think a quick scan of gauges every few minutes, or hour while cruising isn't putting anyone in more danger than changing the station on the radio.

I would definitely not spend $550 + tax and shipping for the Defi gauge cluster either, but I think there are is a good case for having some diagnostic info readily available. Putting aside the cost of Defi gauges... - it's cheap. My boost + oil press gauges were like $80/each from Autometer, So $160. That gives me some bare bones information wherever I go. VS. Having to buy/borrrow a laptop + a tactrix cable ~$1200-1400 for both. Money I do not have right now, and really would be a waste since I have no other use for a laptop aside from maybe logging my car. (Probably a good reason to stick with COBB, for me) - maybe I'm wrong here, but I am under the impression that by the time the dash oil pressure light comes up, you're already boned. Seems to me that if you see a gradual decrease in realtime, it would hopefully lead you to address the problem before you hit the ?50? psi that triggers the idiot light. I don't think you should be spending time while driving with your eyes off the road, at all. But I think given the choice of travelling alongside another car with - all sorts of cameras displays turning on and off + infotainment touchscreen + computer lane departure babysitting some idiot driver who is using their cellphone to watch porn on their way to Walmart VS. -a person with a couple of gauges to monitor engine health etc.... (therefore, likely a car person and probably a better driver than the idiots who are cruising past me at 130-140 in their minivans every morning) I would far rather share the road with the latter. Everyone I know with a couple of gauges in their car is a better driver than everyone I know who has a cell phone holder in their air vent. Full stop.

MIght as well throw in a vote. I would go for black personally, but happy to go along with the crowd. I'd also say matte over gloss. Given a litte time in the weather, gloss begins to look pretty matte eventually anyway, so save yourself the dissapointment.

Parts No 5 & 6. They're just held in with a couple of spot welds, which I will definietly have to sand/grind out to remove the rusted old parts anyway. I figured since the frame is in good shape, and my welding skills are only about a 4/10 , it would be just as good to use some 6mm nutserts where the spot welds were originally. Some red locktite on the outside of the nutsert when inserted and a little dab of blue on the inside SS bolts holding them in place should be as good as new when it's done. Sort of the same idea as people who cut out the centre section of part no. 1 and make bolt in braces so the front of the car can be completely opened up if doing some kind of engine swap. I reckon these parts don't have any meaningful contribution to structural rigidity, since they are about the thinnest stamped metal things you're going to find on the car. I also found a used Cusco front frame brace that connects the two front frame members to the lower attachment point (at the bottom of part no 4.) which should shore things up nicely in case I am wrong. A little scuff sanding and a coat of black paint, and you should never even know it's there....

Ah! Yes, sorry. Essentially just checking I’m not missing something critical. I know there are fewer na engines being discussed here, but surely someone has done this before. A friend of mine is in the same boat, so there may be two days of HG replacement in the near future. Don’t want to make a common mistake twice.

Appreciate the info. If those are the prices that a place like Barn Built is charging, then I think I'd probably be in a spending catagory somewhere less than that. I know good machine work won't be dirt cheap, and I don't want to go there, but Barn Built is known to me (I do not know the other two, never having spent any meaningful amount of time in the GTA), and the kinds of engines they build are levels above where I aspire to! I just need a thing to hold 17 psi and not burn too much oil while it's at it! Lol! But yes, in the event I decide to re-use what I've got, it would need a thorough inspection, mains bearing, probably head studs, etc... So, when/if the time comes, I'd be sharpening up the pencil and totalling some columns for all that. In the mean time, I think I'll take the used motor I have apart, and store it somewhere safe in case it is needed. I may also have a 3rd set of B25 heads being added to the parts bin, so I'll probably sell off a set to try and balance the books against all the other spending going on these days.

I picked up the Autoline one, which was actually really well made. Worked a treat, and I've loaned it around some to others who were in need, so it's getting used, and I think, worth the money. (It was a fair bit cheaper last year than now...) It does not do more than 1 psi through it's own regulator, which is fine for most applications and safe for general use. However, another GT owner in the area made up a 3d printed plus which fits into the intake tube, and has a barbed port to attach for smoke as well as a Schrader valve glued into it. Works great, and could easily be replicated with a paint can lid or whatever you have. Just fill the system entirely with smoke, and swap the compressor line over to the Schrader valve and fill to desired pressure. Takes secods to do the swap, and I guess that way you can check at whatever psi you want to look at. I would think as long as you pre-set the regulator to the desired pressure you'd be good, and if you forgot you'd blow some hoses off! (Just thinking my compressor runs to 120psi and I have it throttled down to like....90psi at the reg/filter...) Never though of this. Smaht.

My Uncle owned one of the (only) 5 1971 Datsun 240z's to arrive in Ontario. My dad bought it from him and drove it across the country and back. That was pre-kids. In many of the photos of my folks I remember from growing up, there was a dark blue Zed in the background. I would love a '72, but would NOT turn down a '71... When I started University, there was a '72 for sale just outside of town from me. Pretty solid, original engine, manual, etc... on some kind of vintage wheels. Running and insurable. $2500 CAD. I still kick myself for not buying it, but that was a looong time ago and I would've had to sell it along the way in any case. Tuition was $4k/year at the time, and I doubt my gig working at the parts department at Canadian Tire brought in much more than double that.... I never got in the habit of asking my parents if I could do a thing, Haha! I bought a $400 motorcycle instead and rode that around for a while. Waited too long. 240z's are out of my price range now. So, I bought the second best thing to it a couple of years ago, my '71 510 wagon. Beat all to hell and it looks like a bottle of mustard got sick and puked all over it, but it's got an L20B a Weber 32/36 and a 5 speed. Good enough for a 2000lb car.

Got frustrated this weekend trying to install more nutserts to attach things using the homemade method with a star washer, long bolt, etc. etc.... Picked up an Astro Pneumatic (manual) nutsert tool that just does 5mm, 6mm and 8mm nutserts. Jeeeebus. I wish I'd done this a long time ago, for the reasonably small dollars it cost. Some tools are a little "meh" in terms of buying the legit thing vs. the DIY method of doing a job. This one is night and day. Seeing the results on some of the smallish trim parts I am fixing and attaching with some SS nutserts has me stoked to do the lower rad support replacement and I am pretty sure I will go the route of attaching it with nutserts. It's just some thin sheet metal that holds up the rad, and is only held in with a handful of spot welds. Given that it is disintegrating while I watch it, any replacement will be a massive improvement. So, while I've been doing some other fettling with the car in the meantime, this weekend might be time to check of one of important jobs. Fingers crossed. I would really love to find out I can do this without draining and pulling the rad, but we shall see.... I'll put up some pics of the rust belt rad support. It's pretty awful.

I'll do some asking around. I've had some work done locally by a machinist and have come to know another guy in Niagara Falls who does lots of engines rebuilding, so there are a couple of local options. I have to confess I'm a little surprised that a bore job would be ~$500 per cylinder. Always happy to pay someone for their time and skills, so I'm probably just underestimating the amount of time it takes to do a job like this. Since this is mostly a theoretical thing right now, I'm not going to bother anyone too much over it, but a couple of phone calls to get an idea on pricing can't hurt. I'm only ~@155k kms on my engine right now, the power mods and limited, and I've done as many 'longevity promoters' as I am aware of. (Probably move to a GS intercooler as soon as I can afford one for the best cooling of intake charge possible in TMIC location...) Everything I've read suggests the COBB Stg. 2 tune is pretty conservative, so I'm not really expecting too many problems in the near future. I just tend to hoard parts, and always like having spares for common problems right at hand. Having a 'spare engine' is maybe a little extreme, but when I can afford it, I will do it. This way if something does seem to be going wrong with the current longblock, I can take it out of service and diagnose/rebuild and not have the car down for months or however long it take to rebuild a spare. I've been seeing some fairly low km EJ257's out of smashed Sti's in the area selling for ~$5-6k, which for a 40-50k km engine is pretty low. I know there are some differences, but at that price for a a complete engine w/accessories just for the longblock, you could make a bunch back selling the plumbing turbo, etc.... Part of this has been questions I had as the availability of junkyard 4th Gens isn't terrible right now, but I suspect that it won't be too long before that start to dry up, or possibly the aftermarket discontinues manufacturing of LGT specific parts. So hoarding now and planning ahead. I guess the money cannon solution of complete Sti engine + engine management is always an option as well, but once your getting into that price range, I would begin to consider other candidates for a vehicle. I could probably myself into my dream car '71-72 Datsun 240z for that kind of money.

This. Great price. Yeah, it’s more turbo than stock, so it may be worth asking if it will be fine to replace a normal VF40, but since you’re going to have to tune the car anyway… (i assume you’ll have to adjust the tune to compensate for the EJ20!) Easy enough to adjust wastegate duty cycled if you want ‘stock’ power levels, or whatever magic the tuner wants to do keep the power down. Also, I can hardly believe I wrote that last sentence.

I know this is being looked into, but I am going to second this… For whatever reason, I also can’t find a ‘Site Announcements’ sub header. And I seem to recall one from before. Maybe pre-facelift, so to speak? No idea why, and an issue for the mods, but maybe some kind of access tiering for members being applied without knowing it. Or help me out with where I need to be looking to find it…

Fwiw, the ones I get at Mazda are the legit made in Japan Tokyo Rokis. Just ask for a filter for a 2008-10? RX-8. Correct bypass pressure etc….. They even just fit snug into the oil filter heat shield blanket meant for the Subaru filters, and clear a Killer B manifold. Easier than importing good ‘black’ Subaru filters from Japan. I would not use a repainted Fram, personally.

I get mine for like $11 CAD at the Mazda dealer…. Just saying. $14 USD is a dinner out up here!!

NP Dude. I've got a JMP Customized VF40, and I love it. He does both regular rebuilds with better parts, and also does a "secret sauce" version with an inconel shaft and billet wheel. Of course I had to go full beans and get the upgraded version. No regrets, and still less money than buying a new VF40 by a fair margin.

Not nice enough out to tear into any big projects, so in the interest of clearing off the ‘needs to be installed shelf’ Did the OE FPR delete for the Sti unit. Chucked in an inline filter and pressure gauge while I was in there. Solid 32-33 psi at idle, with 9-10lbs of vacuum. Jumps to 42-43 without manifold vacuum. No leaks after idling for a few minutes, but I’ll be keeping a fire extinguisher nearby for a while, just in case…

That’s wild dude. My car also came with a Cobb ‘CAI’. It idled like garbage, and the old owner said he ‘couldn’t figure it out’. Thankfully he had kept the OE intake. Slapped that on, and like your results the thing immediately behaved better. I hate to think what the fuel correction would have been on my drive home with it!! Glad you got that all sorted. I wonder what the kid I sold that thing to is doing with it. Probably driving it untuned, like the catless DP he had installed, and hadn’t tuned for….

I’ll do that on my desktop. I have to admit I have not idea how to do that on a phone tho…. So let me mess around a bit. Turn wrenches? Yes. Use a smart phone? Not so much. Hah! Shortly after…. Cache, history and temp data cleared. Still no dice??

Long story short, only a small gaurd on the crank pulley is different between the engines. The secondary air pump/smog/emissions heads on the later cars is what will trip you up. Using the site specific ’insert search term here’ site:legacygt.com in Google or your browser works really well to narrow down results on this site.

Reach out to @JmP6889928. He is the LGT turbo rebuilding guru. I can’t speak for him having any fancy extra parts for a VF38, but he does rebuild services for all sorts of other IHI turbos. Could be he either has, or can get any of the parts you need, if the turbo is hurts. If not, it may just need a general servicing and inspection.

For a while there I though I had one of the lucky ones that wasn't going to need new headgaskets. I was wrong, again, which shouldn't be any suprise. I know this topic had been discussed ad infinitum in a bunch of forums, but in this case, I just want to make sure I've gathered enough information and aren't missing anything critical. So, in for doing the headgaskets as soon as the weather warms up a little. I do not appear to have any oil in the coolant, and definitely do not have any coolant in the oil, so I think I should be alright doing just the normal DD routine with it for a while and keeping a sharp eye on fluid level, cooland temp etc... Aside from paying a shop to do it ASAP, I don't have much other choice at the moment, and I think it's hard ot justify the $4K to have it done on a car this old. I would guess it's been leaking externally for a while since my oil top ups have been a little more frequent over the past oil change or two. I would say that over the last 2-3 oil changes I top up the remaining litre in a 5L container over 5-6k kms, where a couple years ago I migh add half of that. Replacement parts look to come up to a few hundo, and I planned on doing the following: -MLS head gaskets -intake/exhaust gaskets -^^^ Or perhaps just get an entire Mahle/FelPro kits with MLS gaskets and replace anything that is easier to get at while the engine is out... -replace timing belt (AISIN kit was installed 70k kms ago, so I have some confidence the idlers and water pump are still good for another 100k or so...) -new rad cap -fluids etc.... Clean, inspect and possibly touch up head flatness if needed, remove as much carbon buildup as possible and adjust valve lash while I'm in there. I'd like to avoid taking the heads apart unless I see something that is really amiss. The car has 240k kms on it, so certainly the gaskets held longer than many, and I generally take pretty good care of it. It's the winter beater, so it does see all the temp extremes, and occassional short trip drives in the winter. In short, it doesn't behave like it's hurt. I just finally had a warm(ish) day to spend under the car, and found a mess of oil all over the rack. Hard to tell exactly where it's from, given it's oily and dirty all over, but it does not appear to be the valve cover gaskets, and they are newish in any case, so considering it's on original OE graphite/failure type gaskets... it seems HG is the problem. I think the above work is doing a "good" job and covering the important stuff, and not just firing the money cannon at an old, low performance car that I don't ask too much of.

Oil Change on the 2.5i. Been having to top up oil a lot more lately, so took a peek around. Some dry coolant on the bottom of the head gasket, and the rack is covered in engine oil. Hooray for head gasket replacement time!! At least I don't have oil in the coolant, or vice versa, so it seems like it's just an exterior leak at the moment. Of course, it's March and it's a combination of rain and snow right now, so I guess I'll pile up all the parts and get ready to pull the engine as soon as the weather turns a little. Just can't catch a break sometimes.

Same. Which is very weird, since I’ve definitely already posted in that theas a little!

Broken on the inside, or something about the design where there is a part that is loose without some oil pressure to keep it in place? Since you you haven't tried to remove those bolts, what could have broken anything on the inside?

Pretty sure that is it. I am far from an expert of all things Subaru, but I don't think there were many choices in which 2.0L quad cam engine came in the 2004 4th Gen. That should be the beast you're looking for!