1997 5M Legacy Gt Sedan WRX swap help

[dadslgt]

Hey y'all! Long time lurker first time poster! So I will try to keep this short and to the point. I have done some research into what it takes to swap a WRX into these cars and I'm really just looking for some advice on planning this project. This is a more sentimental thing for me as I had one of these in white as my first car and i always wanted a turbo model like in japan. Well now that I'm older have the time and money to buy and rebuild one i would like to. I know this project is going to take time and money which is fine by me. From what I understand any WRX that is drive by cable will work. So I'm looking for a donor WRX from 05 and older. I want to swap the rear break drums for the WRX disc breaks as well.  Here are some details about the car. 

 

1997 legacy Sedan 5mt

288k miles, no rust, some dings and dents. 2 Larger dents, failing head gaskets, interior needs to be replaced. 

 

What I'm trying to avoid is doing doubled up work like for example I know the wiring harness needs to be merged but does that mean i need to gut all the wiring harness's in the car or just the one under the hood? So does that mean i should wait to restore the interior until I'm ready to pull those out since The interior will already be gutted and i don't have to pull it all out twice. Things like that. So what order should i do these things in. 

 

Also if I'm swapping over the WRX do I NEED to have pods for boost/oil because the stock WRX doesn't have those. Honestly I'm not going to be tracking this car or anything so I'm not sure if monitoring those things will be needed if I'm running an AP. 

 

Body damage dings and dents

Interior 

suspension

engine / trans

 

Any information y'all can provide would be helpful.

IMG_1947.HEIC IMG_1948.HEIC IMG_1949.HEIC

[m sprank]

Pretty much the same as an RS swap, but you need a longer exhaust.  I have only done the RS swap personally.

You need a turbo car engine cross-member (any 1st gen turbo legacy cross-member will fit) or notch yours for downpipe clearance. You also need an exhaust.  You could use an 02 wrx turbo back exhaust but you will need to lengthen it to fit.

You will need to merge the wrx engine and dash harness to your Legacy harness. iWire will do it, price starts at $1k.  They may offer a complete new harness, you would need to contact them. 

Then you basically swap everything over.

Edited May 9, 2023 by m sprank

[dadslgt]

Hey man Thank you so much for this advice! I did find this as a tutorial so this is extremely helpful! 

https://www.rs25.com/threads/how-to-swap-a-subaru-wrx-into-a-subaru-rs.252418/

[m sprank]

Good luck and welcome to the forum.