ZMAN24250 Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 Haven't made an update in awhile but i haven't been up too a whole lot with the legacy as Ive been sinking my money in an engine rebuild for my '74 Duster. Recently had to replace the alternator on the legacy and i ended up replacing it with higher output one from an '05 outback. I now have a 110 amp alternator instead of a 85 amp unit. It required a new connector to be wired in but so far everything seems to be working well. I wanted to upgrade my alternator since i had to replace it anyway. This will make sure i have more than enough juice for my stereo i plan to install, my normal accessories, or any lights i plan to install. I wanted to be sure to document this could be done as in my searching I couldn't find anyone that confirmed this could be done. I also plan on attaching the wire diagrams to do this that the guys from oreillys fortunately helped out with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublechaz Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 Did you have to upgrade the main wire from alternator back to battery to carry the extra charging load? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted November 17, 2019 Author Share Posted November 17, 2019 Not yet. I dont have anything on the car pulling any crazy current yet; everything else electrical is still stock. When i go to put the subwoofer in and require more load out of the system, Ill upgrade the wiring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted January 8, 2020 Author Share Posted January 8, 2020 As promised Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted March 23, 2020 Author Share Posted March 23, 2020 Alright, after my trip to CO and renting a forester XT, im convinced I need to turbo swap my legacy. Anyone know any good threads on a turbo swap with a legacy? Additionally, im undecided if i should go with a ej205 or a ej255. I plan on getting a whole doner vehicle so I can get everything I need. I'm thinking i should go with a ej205 just because I'm thinking the older doner (closer to a '99) will be easier on the wiring. However, a ej255 has more potential for upgrades in the future. Anyone have thoughts on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 2, 2020 Author Share Posted April 2, 2020 (edited) Well.. I took the leap to a turbo swap... I just bought a wrecked '05 wrx. Also, DONT use ridesafely.com for auction buying. They are just a 3rd party auction house and they hit you with their fees on top of the original auction house fees. So I got ripped off of $350... Anywho... It looks like its a ej205. Going to pick it up tomorrow so ill find out more. Stay tuned everyone, this is about to be a big project... Edit: So it looks like ridesafely has a place in this world. They can take cars in auctions that are for dealer sale only and sell them to general public. In my particular case, I didnt need it anyhow so I still got ripped off $350+ Edited April 5, 2020 by ZMAN24250 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 5, 2020 Author Share Posted April 5, 2020 Well, heres the donor... 99% sure its a EJ205 someone swapped into a RS at some point. It runs and drives and seems to be running well. So begins the process of documenting wires and disassembling everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senseless1 Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 Well, heres the donor... 99% sure its a EJ205 someone swapped into a RS at some point. It runs and drives and seems to be running well. So begins the process of documenting wires and disassembling everything. Hell yeah Congrats! I'm hoping to pick up a Forester XT next week to do a swap in my wagon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 11, 2020 Author Share Posted April 11, 2020 Started gutting the WRX harness today. https://www.rs25.com/threads/brydon-teaches-you-to-merge-a-harness.141937/ ^^ Fantastic tutorial. Turns out you only need very little out of a whole doner harness. By the time I was done, this is all you need. And this is what is left over. Next step is to gut the legacy and get the wiring out. Then splice in the wrx wiring. Once that is done swap in the engine... or swap the engine at the same time... Just need to find a wiring diagram of my legacy now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLW-SVT Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 I'm about to do a turbo swap as well but will be having iwire do the harness merge. Props to you for doing it yourself! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senseless1 Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Started gutting the WRX harness today. https://www.rs25.com/threads/brydon-teaches-you-to-merge-a-harness.141937/ ^^ Fantastic tutorial. Turns out you only need very little out of a whole doner harness. By the time I was done, this is all you need. And this is what is left over. Next step is to gut the legacy and get the wiring out. Then splice in the wrx wiring. Once that is done swap in the engine... or swap the engine at the same time... Just need to find a wiring diagram of my legacy now... Nice job! We're you able to locate that diagram you needed? I've been able to find some if you need the link. Sure wish I had my work somputet with the prodemand diagrams, but the factory stuff is ok. Just wastes too much time not being interactive like the Mitchell prodemand diagrams. Also I'm about to rip up this Forester interior and dash. How far back do I need to go to get the fuel pump controller wiring? Am I full gutting this poor Forester? Thank God it isn't a euro car... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 Nice job! We're you able to locate that diagram you needed? I've been able to find some if you need the link. Sure wish I had my work somputet with the prodemand diagrams, but the factory stuff is ok. Just wastes too much time not being interactive like the Mitchell prodemand diagrams. Also I'm about to rip up this Forester interior and dash. How far back do I need to go to get the fuel pump controller wiring? Am I full gutting this poor Forester? Thank God it isn't a euro car... I think I found a diagram to work, its not very easy to work with but its getting the job done. If you have something that is more user friendly I would love to get a copy! so i have the wiring from the fuel pump control wiring all the way till about where the B pillar was on the doner. If you follow the 2.5rs guide, he'll show you how to strip the donor for what you actually need. That might give you an idea what all you need to take out of the donor... everything haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senseless1 Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Yep I ended up pulling the entire body harness and bulkhead harness. I left the front harness for when I want to pull the engine. All in all it was that bad. I think the merge is much more difficult than getting the harness out so far. I'm pretty much stuck using PDFs and searching around to build my spreadsheet. All the swap threads have completely different harnesses from my FXT. The Auto TCU adds a ton of bulk too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senseless1 Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 I don't have that grey smj plug is the current holdup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 21, 2020 Author Share Posted April 21, 2020 Big oof on not having a SMJ plug. Having that seems to keep everything straight in my head. And that annoying about the auto. Im happy everything I have is manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 21, 2020 Author Share Posted April 21, 2020 Well, this weekend I gutted the Legacy. Also took the chance to power wash the engine bay well. It'll be nice working on something and not getting covered in grease! Also got the interior gutted and wire harness extracted. Legacy Harness Also swapped in they hydraulic Clutch pedal set and master cylinder from the donor car. Almost ready for JDM ej205 power! Also, has anyone heard of making the hill hold work with a hydraulic clutch? I would like to keep it if I can. It looks like I am going to have to make some custom clutch fork if I do... still thinking about this one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 22, 2020 Author Share Posted April 22, 2020 Things are trickling in the mail. Just got my Flea-bay exhaust... not sure how I feel about it yet.. I dont think there is any fiberglass matting in it so it may be louder than I want it to be... plus I feel like it should stick out another inch or two... Either way it was stupid cheap ($160 for a wrx cat-back) so I wont feel too bad about having to cut it up to make it fit. And if it's too loud I can always open it up and put some fiberglass in it Let me know your thoughts on how it looks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublechaz Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 I'm running a straight through muffler I made out of some bits. It has some scraps of header wrap for batting. It isn't all that loud. That's with stock diameter and both cats in place. Hard to imagine ebay junk being much worse except maybe in the wall thickness department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 23, 2020 Author Share Posted April 23, 2020 (edited) Im really looking for something that is kind of subtle. Did some looking around last night and I think I would love to get a invidia Q300. Also from the measurements, one for a civic SI will stick out just the right about from under the car. Of course I'll have to hack the piping to get it to work but that's just the cost of doing all this. Unfortunately a cat back kit is like $500. Edited April 24, 2020 by ZMAN24250 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 24, 2020 Author Share Posted April 24, 2020 (edited) F*ck that Flea-bay exhaust. Its JUNK. I found a video of someone cutting it apart ( ) and its just hollow... and sounds trash. So I returned it. I ended up picking up a use Invidia Q300 for a steal... This one is for a civic SI. The thing I like about this one is that the tailpipe sticks out longer than one for a wrx so when you install it it sticks out about the perfect amount. I had to cut the pipe right before the muffler inlet and will have to fab the rest but I think it will work perfect and end up sounding mint! Also, in my quest to keep the hill assist with the hydraulic clutch, I cut up my cable clutch fork and grafted the portion that deals with the hill hold on to the top of the hydraulic clutch fork. Id say, if you didn't know any better, that's how the clutch fork is supposed to look... AHh.. just like one of my favorite mottos go.. "Grinder and paint, make me the welder I 'aint" The rest of my plan is to make a new pulley on the lathe that is the right effective diameter for the cable. This is because this new distance of the cable to the fulcrum of the clutch fork will make the "hill assist actuator" not rotate enough so Ill have to make a smaller one. Additionally, Ill have to get stand-offs for where the clutch cable mounts on the transmission. This is because where the clutch cable mounts and where the slave cylinder mounts are in the same location. So Ill just have one live above the other. If people are interested, I can do a post that has a write up on this. Edited April 24, 2020 by ZMAN24250 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senseless1 Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 I meant to ask you are you keeping your legacy one and test wiring or using the donor harness circuits? I haven't been able to make my way to finding both diagrams at the same time yet. Curious if I can just keep the donor circuits since my legacy plug mount is broken anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted April 26, 2020 Author Share Posted April 26, 2020 Like I said earlier, this is the thread Im using: https://www.rs25.com/threads/brydon-teaches-you-to-merge-a-harness.141937/ It basically will end up leaving the legacy harness and replacing anything engine related with the wrx (donor) harness. I had to do some google-fu to find the harnesses but I think I got them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted May 4, 2020 Author Share Posted May 4, 2020 Wagon Update! Motor/trans is in the car! Everything bolted right up. Got a cobb 3" catted downpipe that bolts on. Unfortunately were going to have to fabricate new mounts for the vacuum pump for the cruise control but other than that it fits right in there. I'm using the stock radiator with the jdm motor. Reason is the water neck comes out at an angle and needs a outlet of the radiator on the top corner (USDM comes out strait and has an inlet at the center of the rad). My other option was to get a USDM coolant passage but I didn't want to take off the intake and all that jazz. maybe once everything is working but not at the moment. Going to have to fabricate the power steering reservoir bracket too. Shouldn't be too hard, ill show results when finished. And last I have to finish fabricating the exhaust. Oh ya.. and theres wiring... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senseless1 Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 Nice progress man! I can't wait for my last round of parts to be delivered Wednesday so I can finish prepping my donor engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMAN24250 Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 Stumbled across this video the other day from TurboYoda (mighty car mods) and thought I'd share to any turbo swappers. He goes through the generic process of stripping a wrx harness and splicing it into the project harness. It finally gave me motivation to try and decipher the wrx harness I stripped. I really dont think it will be as bad as I thought it would. Spent a few hours with a wire diagram crossing off all the pins on the ecu and I only have one pin/wire not accounted for. I'll still have to get a AVCS wire kit from iWire and splice that in too but they will give you instructions how to do that. New Walbro 255 lph fuel pump has been ordered. I think that will about do it for parts then... just fabrication and wiring will be left. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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