32 replies to this topic

[crjohnson]

Hey guys,

Bought a newer wagon over the weekend and hoping to get his project under way asap. 

 

Looks like its been well maintained but potentially has a headgasket issue. Long hills sees the temp gauge start rising, on the flats or anything else and it seems ok. Lots of oil and crap behind the passenger side head so I'm guessing that could be it. The drivers head is far cleaner, no oil. 

 

 

Current Specs: 184,000km auto spec B, stock everything. 

 

Plans:

 

• Get it roadworthy'd and mobile.
• 6 speed manual conversion using everything from the spec.b sedan I picked up a while ago. Yes the rear cross member will need to be lengthened, easy job for me but will just cost a little to get engineered. Planning on doing the whole, ecu+BIU+cluster+key barrel swap too. The sedan cluster is at 175k km so pretty close
• Send the centre diff for a checkup and rebuild by corgiewerxs
• Shifter bush kit
• Some lightreading re. manual swaps: https://legacygt.com...hlight=5eat 6mt
• Potential full engine swap from the sedan too, that motor looks A1 and drove perfect, so might swap that straight in when the gearbox happens. Then start rebuilding the original motor. 
• Turbo! More specifically, gt35 from an xr6, supergramps style manifolds, internal gate, plus whatever injectors I need to safely run, possibly go down the E85 route. 
• Hoping to lower the compression, arp studs etc. will be the goal pending funds. 
• STI rear mufflers - pending suitability with  making say 220+rwkw? 
• STI Pink springs and (provided the rear bilsteins are ok), I'll rebuild/put new bushes in the struts and install.
• Outback radiator
• Fix the front bar, pull some slight dents out of panels. 

 

Once this thing is underway and on the road, I'll look at selling my outback or parting it out. Theres a few bits on it that will hopefully fund turbo stuff! 

 

Manifold specs: 32NB stainless pipe (36mm ID, head exhaust ports measure 35), supergramps style design merge into 50mm tube, will have v-bands and into a 2" (maybe larger) up pipe. I'm not expecting this to go 300+rwkw like actual supergramps, hence the smaller pipes etc. 

 

 

 

 

[Barbbachello]

Neato. Personally i wouldnt bother getting the mount engineered. Paint it back and pretend you dont know anything about it

[allpaw4]

Pretty sure you're going to have bigger dramas with the turbo than the mount. Looks tops though.

Looking forward to see where this goes!

Cheers,
Ben

[crjohnson]

As long as I don't make the same mistake as I did with the turbo ej251 then I should be right. Unless you're talking cops/vicroads? 

[allpaw4]

Yea, mr policey-man probably will probably spot the turbo well before he spots the mount.

[crjohnson]

Well it would have been roadworthy'd if it wasnt for bloody covid! I had a mate's brother have a look over it at his work. Finally recevied some bushes in after being stuffed around by 2 fairly big name suppliers, now the workshop can't do light vehicle rwc's.. Looks like I'll have to wait it out or go somewhere and pay far more and risk having little shlt picked on.. 

 

Replace the front control arm rear bushes with a whiteline caster kit, superpro front bushes that I already had in the shed, front sway bar links, machined discs and new pads all round, replaced missing bumper clips. 

 

Ordered some whiteline rear diff and trailing arm front bush kits, looks like I'll use the covid time to replace them. 

 

Been keeping an eye out for some STI quad tip mufflers, for anyones reference in future, hears the difference in tip length from sedan to wagon. I'm pretty certain the STI mufflers with have the same difference? 

 

 

[crjohnson]

Well rear trailing arm and diff bushes turned into the whole rear end coming out. 

 

Hopefully this choice of whiteline and OEM bushes goes alright:

- whiteline trailing arm front bushes, rear diff and diff carrier

- oem everything else

- new bilstein bushes for the rear shocks

 

Next on the list will be to rebuild the front struts (bushes and seals arrived yesterday), seem to have a funny noise when reversing out of the drive way at a slight incline. 

 

Has anyone here noticed a difference when running alloy rear suspension arms? I almost thought of ordering some but don't really want to wait 3-5 more weeks! 

 

[crjohnson]

Almost ready for the roadworthy check! 

 

All the rear end bushes replaces including the lower shock bushes, but not the sway bars. Hoping to get a bigger sway bar when possible. 

 

Kept picturing barb's clean powdercoated parts in my mind every time I looked at this. Hopefully it stays this clean for longer than 10min! Barbachello how does yours look after a few drives? 

 

 

[El_Freddo]

Looks good mate. I’d love to have a press! And also Barb’s money bags and patience to powder coat everything!!

All the best with the roadie!

Cheers

Bennie

[bobbyjimmy]

Has anyone here noticed a difference when running alloy rear suspension arms? I almost thought of ordering some but don't really want to wait 3-5 more weeks! 

 

I had them in my Outback (was a Gen 3, but swapped all the Gen 4 stuff in - except the ABS...), zero difference to anything except *maybe* 2kg's of weight.

[Barbbachello]

 

Almost ready for the roadworthy check! 

 

All the rear end bushes replaces including the lower shock bushes, but not the sway bars. Hoping to get a bigger sway bar when possible. 

 

Kept picturing barb's clean powdercoated parts in my mind every time I looked at this. Hopefully it stays this clean for longer than 10min! Barbachello how does yours look after a few drives? 

 

All still looks good. Little bit dusty comes off with a wipe instead of a scrub etc

[crjohnson]

Yea the press is the best thing I ever made! Cost less than $100 (now and then you see them for sale around that!), and luckily the subframe actually fit in it. 

 

RWC then 6 speed swap.. 

[crjohnson]

Intruducing: The BJ Mobile! 

 

 

Whilst at vicroads I asked about auto to manual conversions, barely 0.5sec after I mentioned the subject the lady said "engineers certificate!".  Even when I said if the all the parts are factory option for that model as per VSI #8 (she doesn't know about the cross member...) same reply.. Maybe I picked the wrong person? 

[allpaw4]

Doesn't need engineers cert for auto/manual. Did it with mine. Lady behind the desk looked at me funny, I just explained that while putting the engine back in, I stuffed the auto trans, so put the manual in place of it. It was changed no dramas. Mind you, the only reason she picked it was the previous rego stated auto, but the new roadworthy cert said manual.

 

Be aware you need more than just the box, pedals and diff. Manuals run a different ABS module as well as a few other slight differences. There are wiring differences as well.

 

Cheers,

Ben

[Barbbachello]

I registered my auto shell with the manual. Dont even mention it and they wont ask.

[crjohnson]

THanks allpaw4, luckily I have a whole 6spd sedan for parts. I'm hoping I can do it without swapping the dash wiring loom, yet to confirm that though.

[allpaw4]

You can do it without swapping the dash loom, but you'll just need to change a couple of things. There is a single pin that tells the ECU that its a manual, and then you'll need to sort out removing the TCU, and then sort out a few other components, like cruise control, which normally talks to the TCU and there are several other small changes. This is without even considering the canbus situation. If it was me, I'd swap the lot.

I had a mess of wiring around the gearbox because I had to raid some of the wiring from the auto box and re-purpose some cores to connect the respective sensors on the manual box into the cabin wiring. Lots of joins and general mess. Was tidied up again once I swapped the looms over with the engine swap that I did. If I was in your position, I'd do it right the first time with the correct loom being you have it.

[Barbbachello]

Gen 4 is a whoooooooooooole other kettle of fish. Loom swap for sure. Id be hesitant about using a sedan loom in a wagon but. Will be differences in the rear harness and the stalks

[allpaw4]

Check the FSM for sure for small changes. Its a big job, and you dont want to get to the end of it and find that half of it needs to come out again to make a small change to make something work properly. I had it easy as I swapped my full loom, but mine was sedan to sedan, I didn't have to deal with sedan to wagon, of which there are differences.

Sure, its doable, but there is a shit tonne of prep work and trawling through wiring diagrams beforehand to make sure everything is going to work.

[crjohnson]

Cheers for the info guys. 
 
Differences in the stalks is something I surely didn't see coming? I know theres different rear looms for sedan to wagon, fronts didn't look very different at all so far. 
 
I've already printed entire wiring diagrams from the manuals I have and highlighted anything auto or manual gearbox related. I'll start checking those diagrams to whats actually in the sedan or wagon before doing much.
 
The dashpad in the wagon also has a few cracks in it so maybe I'll swap the sedans dash in and possibly the loom while I'm at it.  
 
The only real difference in the front looms will be the sat nav. The sedan has sat nav, the wagon does not.
 
EDIT: I guess the auto has the paddleshifters and rear window wiper so that will be the wiring differences there..