Dan's $600 dollar 2002 Legacy GT Limited Sedan

[2point5GT_Dan]

Did an oil change on the wagon and it looked okay. First change since I threw the replacement shortblock in.

 

Skidplate modified to clear the borla headers and installed.

 

Modified the harbor freight aftermarket lights in the grill by grinding off a layer of plastic so I can point them down. They're not as good as hellas, but they're better than high beams. Still need to be aimed more but whatever they're helpful now.

 

 

Also installed some raamat + ensolate crap on the two front doors. Holy. Shit. So I had a GT sedan previously and the wagon is an L Special Edition package (sunroof). So it's a shitbox with no sound deadening and smaller brakes, but has the sunroof I wanted. The sound deadening install totally made the car feel like my GT and is even better. I will probably end up buying more to do the rest of the car to quiet it down.

 

Also figured out where the grinding sound is coming from. The exhaust is hitting the trans mount for whatever reason. I need to crank down one of the hanger bolts still, but it isn't the trans making noise after the center diff swap so I don't care. Exhaust also sounds louder and popped a p0420 code. I really don't care because when I have the heat on and not on recirc I don't smell fumes anymore so WHATEVER. I'll deal with it later. Right now we are a go for vermont winter challenge.

 

[2point5GT_Dan]

Should probably update this....

 

Last month we did Vermont Winter and finished. It was amazing. So much snow.

 

Here's our in car video:

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d0Dr1lfPkI]SIF Motorsports Vermont Winter Challenge 2014 - YouTube[/ame]

[2point5GT_Dan]

On the way to VT

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7446/12596283824_a3df1c6b10_o.jpg

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7378/12595879095_d0f9bd0737_o.jpg

 

 

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3812/12595882205_864c46bda2_o.jpg

 

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5509/12595959453_d10d67a752_o.jpg

 

The next morning:

 

http://i.imgur.com/fVT2fot.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/kkyS0iv.jpg

[2point5GT_Dan]

 

 

Scored heated black leather seats.

 

The rears and passenger are in. The drivers isn't in yet because its power and the switch only works one way so I need to take it apart and figure out why + strip down the harness to get the heaters working.

 

I also went up north and got a free parts wrx:

 

 

Started stripping the wrx.

 

Motor has the knocks, I'm going to clean the heads and re-shortblock it after NEFR this summer. Car was essentially free. I'm just using the engine management, turbo, turbo support crap, and heads.

 

Aftermarket header yo:

 

 

 

 

[Sneezeman101]

Dude....

 

I just went through this thread. It is freaking awesome how many cars you've saved. Thanks for sharing, man. How do you like the wagon? I bought my BH GT a couple months ago and really like it.

[2point5GT_Dan]

Dude....

 

I just went through this thread. It is freaking awesome how many cars you've saved. Thanks for sharing, man. How do you like the wagon? I bought my BH GT a couple months ago and really like it.

 

Thanks. I've saved the 3 cars I liked. The rest get parted out and crushed. I'm stuck right now working out of my parents garage until I rent shop space or buy a house. Then the insanity will really begin.

 

As for the wagon. It's good. I've brought it up to GT trim so its great for a DD. It handles terrible. Like really really bad. Especially worse after the lift and losing camber. I do love being able to stomp over everything though.

 

I'll probably go back to stock height once the snow melts but keep the outback springs in the rear. That plus new tires and my super secret spicy alignment mods will help wake it up and make it serviceable.

 

Right now I'm just not happy with how it handles when I push it. I'm asking a lot out of the chassis though since it weighs nearly 1000 lbs more than my rally car and is a mile longer...... for DD and parts hauling its amazing.

[Sneezeman101]

That's what's up, man. For me, the BH is a step up in handling. I was driving a 2000 Toyota Camry previously so the Subaru is much better.

 

I am pretty disappointed with the selection of aftermarket parts for the BH though. I was looking to step up the power to a reasonable level (250hp @ the wheels) but it doesn't appear to be an option unless you swap the engine which seems like it would cost a fortune.

[2point5GT_Dan]

That's what's up, man. For me, the BH is a step up in handling. I was driving a 2000 Toyota Camry previously so the Subaru is much better.

 

I am pretty disappointed with the selection of aftermarket parts for the BH though. I was looking to step up the power to a reasonable level (250hp @ the wheels) but it doesn't appear to be an option unless you swap the engine which seems like it would cost a fortune.

 

I've been trying to think of how to reply to this for two days now.

 

When I got my RS, the first thing I asked on RS25.com was "can I turbo it".

 

Ten years later I realize why that that is a silly question. 120whp is plenty enough to go fast.

 

A pair of sticky tires and some driver education, and I was chasing down wrx's on mountain roads. Sure they'd pull on the straight sections, but in a corner I was always on their bumper.

 

There was an RS this summer in open light that crushed a few turbo Subarus on the rally roads as well.

 

The big question you need to ask yourself is what do I want out of my car. If you want to just smash the pedal in straight lines and get sucked into your seat. Sell it and get something faster.

 

Even if you got an RS, there still wouldn't be an "aftermarket" to get 250 wheel. The aftermarket for third gen chassis is fine, there are plenty of options both good (a ton of bushings, tokico hts, H&R springs, kws) and bad (shit coilovers, tein stechs, etc). There aren't a lot of options for the NA EJ25 motor because it isn't worth trying to make fast unless you split the block and change the internals. At that point just ej257 block it.

 

Tighten the nut behind the steering wheel first.

 

Some sticky tires + a few autocrosses and a hill climb are going to make you faster than an extra 100hp

[fishslayer99]

Dam man your good at bringing the dead back to life .in like to buy a used car and and do some of the things you do .great work..

[Sneezeman101]

I see where you're coming from but I'll never rally with it. The car is too heavy and there are no races near me.

 

My goal for the car is to make it a reliably quicker daily driver. Nothing crazy fast or something that attracts too much attention. I'll probably do as you said and change the block internals.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[2point5GT_Dan]

Dam man your good at bringing the dead back to life .in like to buy a used car and and do some of the things you do .great work..

 

Thanks, more in this post.

 

I see where you're coming from but I'll never rally with it. The car is too heavy and there are no races near me.

 

My goal for the car is to make it a reliably quicker daily driver. Nothing crazy fast or something that attracts too much attention. I'll probably do as you said and change the block internals.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I wasn't talking about just rally, I started out on pavement. But hey if you want to build a motor and then come up and beat me at an autocross doing no suspension work or tires be my guest

 

 

In other news:

 

Took on some side jobs to raise some racing money.

 

I did cherokee rockers for a friend.

 

Today on "this old cherokee"

 

 

 

 

 

And somehow you make rocker panels.

 

 

 

Returned parts to owner:

 

Stripped the WRX and sent it to the crusher:

 

Stripped the wrx

 

 

 

 

???

 

This weekend was stupid.

 

Worked on getting parts off the blown wrx motor while waiting for the forester to show up.

 

You need a ujoint to get a socket on the rear AC bracket bolt. I tried to get it off without one and lost two 14mm sockets in the cluster a few weekends ago:

 

 

Header and up pipe off and for sale:

 

 

Babbys first turbo. No shaft play and looks really clean!

 

 

Forester shows up.

 

 

Immediately realize the clutch is fine and the pedal is stuck to the floor. We throw a new master at it and **** with it and it works and drives again. We actually tested by rolling the car forwards and back in gear by dad manually actuating the clutch fork with a prybar.

 

On to the next thing was dads DD mustang. We played with it some Saturday. Symptoms were perfect idle but falls on its face at around 3k rpms. No power. NO DTCs. Hissing from the exhaust. We thought cats, dad got the Y pipe undone during the week and said it still ran like shit. We sit in the car frigging with some PC based scanner thing that lets you do graphs and read all the sensors etc.

 

 

We initially thought it was a fuel pump, but with one bank showing different numbers than the other, that lead me to believe the pump was fine. + full pressure at rail

 

Drop the Y pipe. Run the car down the road with open headers. Car has power again!

 

Next chain of thought. Put y pipe back on with no O2 sensors plugged in. If power than O2s else y pipe. Put y pipe back on, car has no power. Y pipe is issue.

 

Go to remove y pipe to get O2 sensors out to transfer to a new y pipe. Remove band clamp on rear of y pipe and a ton of pressure is released with white smoke. uhhhhh that's not supposed to happen.

 

Start car up with no midpipe/muffler connected. Car has power. wut.

 

Muffler is issue. Remove muffler and inspect.

 

 

 

Bolt it back together and enjoy power.

 

 

Probably going to order a new Y pipe soon. I'm sure the cat will come apart more and if we broomstick mod it, it will piss off the ECU.

 

And that rounds up this weekends car shenanigans. Not as exciting as excepted. At least I didn't have to pull a forester motor.

Now that all that is done I can afford racing suspension + some other goodies.

 

Looking for a new wagon hatch this weekend + some other fun stuff showing up in the mail soon.

[Sneezeman101]

Oh, don't get me wrong. Suspension, wheels, and some other basic work are the first things I'm going to do. I'm currently driving a land yacht and the understeer is pretty bad.

 

At this point, an engine build is a pipe dream.

 

I may take you up on your offer though. I'm currently going to school In Putney. However, the timing belt is 20,000 miles overdue... Eeeeek

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[2point5GT_Dan]

Went to the junkyard.

 

Got all this shit for the wagon for 40 bucks.

 

New non-leaky non dented hatch. Leather door-cards. Rear D pillar tweeter kit that's hidden in the hatch. Air tank is for a future on-board air project, its a portapower brand. Needs all the fittings and I need a compressor.

 

 

I went to replace the HVAC bulbs with red LEDs today. They look great until you turn the headlights on then they shut off. I got them from superbrightleds and they were the recommended ones from SLI.net. Irritating. The center dash plastic with the cup holder fits, but the cup holder wont eject when it's installed all the way. Also irritating.

 

Then I fired up the harbor freight tire mounter to strip bald tires off my future summer rims.

 

 

 

 

Then some other shit happened.

 

 

 

[yaya20]

Nice score. Curious about those tweeters.

[2point5GT_Dan]

Mustang gauge cluster fixed:

 

 

Drove the RS. Needs a full brake refresh plus the suspension is fucked.

 

Legacy stuffs.

 

 

All the heated seats are in. Had to take apart the power driver switch, but after spray bombing it with electric cleaner it now works with out issue. We built a harness to run the heater circuit. Heat works great! Also got the leather door cards in. The car is pretty damn close to being complete GT trim.

 

 

[2point5GT_Dan]

 

 

Picked up some things for the race car:

 

 

And blew the trans in the wagon. Input shaft bearings were noisey. Swap time.

 

6pm friday:

 

 

8pm friday:

 

 

9am saturday:

 

 

11am saturday:

 

 

noon saturday:

 

 

Building proper axles to have ABS and fit the female type trans sunday morning:

 

 

All done sunday afternoon.

 

 

Issues:

 

*No speedo. This is okay, I don't have the VSS-Pro installed, will do later

*Weird driveline vibration... Remember that hole saw spot for the trans member that is through bolted? Yeah I forgot to tighten that.

*left axle seal in the trans leaks

 

Whatever it's done and drives great. 08 2.5i box with 50k miles on it for cheap.

[2point5GT_Dan]

Fixed everything today.

 

Tightened up the crossmember and bent the exhaust hanger so no more leaking exhaust and vibrating crossmember.

 

 

Blurry taring the car apart to get to the ECU:

 

 

 

Drove on the straight away near the folks:

 

 

Speedo works!

 

Wagon done for the day:

 

 

Took apart a free WRX motor with rod knock:

 

 

Tried to use a hex bit but the bit just broke.

 

LETS DO THIS:

 

 

 

 

 

Done.

 

Heads put away

 

 

And on the way home someone changed lanes into me:

 

 

Popped it out with the lady foot pry bar:

 

 

Don't care really. No one got hurt. I'll spray bomb it eventually.

[2point5GT_Dan]

 

 

 

 

[2point5GT_Dan]

Guess I'll update this:

 

New hatch:

 

 

Different badge:

 

 

JDM roof rails painted to match:

 

 

Polished the paint:

 

 

Cabin Air filter:

 

 

Front struts:

 

 

Replaced leaking control arm mounts with whiteline ALK:

 

 

Endlinks:

 

 

Tint:

 

 

Ricer posing:

 

 

Going to work with 5 gravels and 5 wheels:

 

 

Recce, because this car actually gets driven and beaten on:

 

 

 

 

Bumper replacement and new free trailer hitch:

 

[2point5GT_Dan]

Trailer hitch lets me tow this:

 

 

Hauling a shortblock under the junkyard cargo cover:

 

 

Outback headlights to get rid of the shit chrome:

 

 

 

Hauling shit around:

 

 

Picked up new wheels for winter:

 

 

Rear brake job:

 

 

Rear brake lines rotted out:

 

 

Replaced:

 

 

Drove to charlottesville to visit my sister:

 

 

And another friend in Richmond:

 

 

Total trip without issue, not bad for a 1000 dollar car:

 

http://i.imgur.com/I4dZFkl.png

 

I've got some more stuff I need to do to finish out the car, but for the most part I've got it how I wanted.

 

Not pictured is red interior lights for the passenger side, two OEM under seat subs, freshened up misc maintenance shit. Interior cleanings. etc etc.

[JohnnyT]

Great work. Keep it coming.

[LegacyGt207]

Awesome work man! all the racing looks like a ton of fun! Im outta Maine to but more north, like bangor. I got an 01 Legacy GT with the 2.5 automatic and 268,000 ill probably have to do head gaskets. but awesome work you do man, keep it up!

[lockmedic]

Every time I check in on here to see the amount of work Dan puts into keeping these old rustbuckets on the road, this comes to mind. . .

 

http://i.imgur.com/LQFkS4V.jpg

[987687]

^^^^^ You know your car is so bad when it doesn't pass inspection because structural rust.... so you register it antique

The good news is, my car is probably 100lbs lighter without all that unimportant metal

 

 

Awesome work man! all the racing looks like a ton of fun! Im outta Maine to but more north, like bangor. I got an 01 Legacy GT with the 2.5 automatic and 268,000 ill probably have to do head gaskets. but awesome work you do man, keep it up!

 

You should come to the northern maine subaru club meets! We go out for dinner sometimes, drive around on logging roads and have fun with cars.

[LegacyGt207]

That sounds like a blast actually. Im 15 minutes north of bangor. I got the Stud Mill Rd on the next road over from where i live. So I got endless miles of logging roads to hit. Im thinking bout putting 215's on my Legacy to get it to sit taller. Its got 205's on it now. Like to put forester struts in so i can give it some of a lift. but all these things cost money and thats one thing i dont have. but yea when ever its planned out and stuff. let me know, love to go!