keltik Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Well after chasing my friend who bought himself a 90' Legacy non-turbo, i found some small problems with my 89' Legacy entry level econo-box. 1. The brakes caught fire whilst pursuing someone down a windy country road, this immediately puts rear disk brake conversion on the cards. 2. The engine took an immense caning and behaved beautifully. I love the EJ18 with its simple one injector fuel squirtation system but more power would be good. So an EJ22 swap is on the back burner which im slowly accumulating parts for. 3. The car rolled like hell, closer inspection revealed the lack of a rear sway bar so after a few nights playing at the wreckers i pulled one and have brought all the necessary bits home to try and bolt one on. 4. My rear shocks were stuffed causing lots of oversteer and fun times. Nice new KYB GR2's have been fitted and they make me very happy. Tonights job is doing the sway bar, im attempting to fit the bar from a 92' turbo 4WD model onto my 89' non-turbo 2WD. It should be interesting... This thread is partly so i can document my work and maybe help others but also to ask this question: Anyone know if the wagon and sedan sway bars are different? Some people will say i should have just bought an RS in the first place - but wheres the fun in that?! Also wheres your 34mpg in an RS? P.S have checked with legacy central and although the stuff there is good i couldnt get that question answered. Also im playing with filthy JDM stuff so who knows whats gonna happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setright Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 I can't see the sway bar itself being different. Hubs are different on 2WD and 4WD, so you might run into problems. Might. Have you considered buying a set of "used" Impreza/Legacy Turbo springs? So many Turbos have been lowered and that makes stock springs cheap and plentiful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 1. The brakes caught fire whilst pursuing someone down a windy country road, this immediately puts rear disk brake conversion on the cards. I know the brakes are pretty small, but you probably only need good pads/shoes and fluid. I have only cooked my brakes once, and that was after a pretty good session of unsafe driving to catch up in a road rally with generic pads. Now I have hawk hps pads and will soon be flushing my lines with RBF 600. Although I'll probably bump up to wrx or rs brakes once they wear out since I have most of the parts sitting in boxes. Really you should probably slow it down on public roads and go to an auto/khana/rally cross. You did just stuff a TT Legacy in a ditch, and at 17 you're not as good of a driver as you think. As for the other stuff, only Legacy rear swaybars will fit because of the spare tire well. Also the lateral links will be a pain to remove. I know because I've done pretty much the same swap. While you're at it you may want to look into solid endlinks and urethane swaybar bushings. Whiteline comes to mind as as a supplier. They also make springs for your car. As far as stock used springs, 04+ Impreza stuff will work and lower the car about an inch. I wouldn't recommend Impreza aftermarket springs because that would be way too low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 Thanks for the reminder 'bout my wagon, believe me every time i get behind the wheel i remember that. Theres a lot of winding nasty roads here and i can assure you my driving habits have changed since my crash. As much as i can agree with you on driving responsibly - modifying my car is my hobby, not a way of getting to work faster. Im also signed up for track days to get my craving for speed, public roads are not the place to do it. So now i hope that ive avoided a debate on my driving... Regarding the spring sugestions - i'll look into that, sounds like a good cheap idea. I bolted the sway bar mounting brackets up tonight and it all fitted reasonably well, other than scraping a bit of underseal off there wasnt any drama. Next week ill consider swapping out the suspension arms and actually fitting the bar. I want to buy some new bushings for the lot first. Edit: Wanted to add all the bolts i needed to remove came undone easily - cars here dont seem to rust up like in the USA so i didnt even need to crack out the PB blaster once. Anyone know more on swapping disk brakes onto 2WD models? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 Sway bar fitted perfectly, this conclusively proves you CAN fit a bar from a 92 turbo wagon onto a 89' 2WD sedan. But we all knew that right? Only tricky part was getting this mounting bracket bolt on as its right under the fuel filler. The new exhaust didnt age as well as id hoped, its only seen 8000miles and 2 months and already looks like this. The forward half of pipe is the new stuff, the rear half is proper aftermarket pipe that came with the muffler. As you can see theres a massive difference in quality. I know its only surface rust but still....thats kinda poor... Now all i need is a wheel alignment and i can go drive this thing to see if it was worth the $50. Modding makes me happy :-p especially when its this easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnuman Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I'm also signed up for track days to get my craving for speed, public roads are not the place to do it. So now i hope that ive avoided a debate on my driving... Probably not, but we can hope. . . As for your cravign for speed, the track is a good idea. You may also want to consider taking an advanced driving course, so you are better prepared when you, or someone else, do something stupid. Trust me, I see stupid all the time here. You have already done the first thing in protecting yourself from them, you bought a Subaru. That gives you more options for getting out of thier way. Edit: reading your begining post, it seems that all of your mods are reasonable ones. The EJ22 is a bit more powerful, but you will loose some of that MPG. THe springs I don't know enough about to say. GR2s are a very good choice, and make the handling even better. This will also make it easier to maintain control. I did the sway bar mod myself, on Emily, and for quite some time the car was constantly telling me to go around corners faster (I thought she handled like she was bolted to the road before. . .), and finally brakes. You have drums in the back? go with the disk upgrade in that case as a matter of course. The disk brakes are simply better brakes, and easier to maintain. Is your "new" Legacy (Liberty?) a manual or an auto transmission? If it is a manual, you may consider a lightened flywheel as a performance option. One warning, however, they tend to come supplied with footmagnets. . . (You will notice a tendancy for your right foot to gravitate towards the firewall when on the accelerator. . . ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 Sway bar was worth it! Pressed in some new bushes on the rear link arms to get the correct cammed bolt installed, now everything is worn in nicely. Body roll is greatly reduced and the car corners flatter and much nicer. My brake pads on the one side are almost down to metal and i found its almost as cheap to buy new turbo spec rotors and pads than to buy the replacement non-turbo ones. Therefore im going to pick up the turbo gear and try to procure some Legacy RS calipers to bolt on up front. How hard is it to get the new calipers to fit? Will i need to change the backing plate? Still impressed with this motor - its taken one hell of a beating and just keeps on turning (tough terrain and hauling heavy loads responsible for beating - not speedy driving). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 The only calipers that don't bolt up directly are rear Subaru and Brembo 2-pots, which use a different backing plate. Of course, you'll need a new one anyway with the rear drums. I don't know exactly what is involved in doing the swap, but I'm thinking you'll need to find parts from a car that had 2wd and rear discs. I think 1st gen legacies might be the only cars with that combination. So yeah, any front brakes will bolt right up. The brackets attach directly to the spindle unlike in the rear. I ended up removing most of that filler tube to get my mounts on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted March 3, 2007 Author Share Posted March 3, 2007 Lets hear it for parts cars!! Got me a 1989 VZ Legacy on the way. Will update with pics and bananas when its here. Looking to steal new brakes all round, front struts, ecu and motor for reseal and transplant, climate control thingy, electric windows. Only thing wrong with it as far as i know is a grenaded 4EAT. For those who arent familier with the VZ spec, it should have 4 wheel disk brakes, 4wd, electric mirrors/windows/heater controls and should have a quad cam EJ20 in it. Updated with pics: Found it in the corner of a field with other "projects" The cars in a pretty decent shape, only problem is the motor needs a water pump and the timing belt/tensioner and stuff put back together. Hehehe i now have a new engine for my legacy and something to do on weekends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted March 26, 2007 Author Share Posted March 26, 2007 Update: So far ive got the front brakes swapped over and the difference is phenominal! Now im working on doing the back brakes as well and i had a "what the hell" moment. It didnt occur to me until i took the rotors off my donor car that Subaru uses a drum brake for the e-brake and disks for the service brake. So this swap is proving to be a bit more difficult than id first hoped. It also doesnt help me that the hubs on parts car are stuck on there, im sure its nothing a blow torch and sledge hammer cant fix. The new motor is in my garage now, the front of it was full of this odd rusty crud so i have to replace all timing belt idlers and the front seals. Im looking forward to getting this thing in so i can enjoy an extra 40 ponies in my Legacy. On the side im also wrestling with wiring as the MPFI and SPFI cars have different wiring looms would you believe, so instead of taking the dash out and swapping the harness over im stripping out all the engine related wires i need and im just going to add them into my car. Im praying to god at the end of this i'll just plug in the motor and VROOOOM it will go but we all know life isnt that great. Anyone out there who has a wiring diagram for the SPFI EJ engine - im begging you!!! Send it to me!! And make a man and his multimeter much happier. Finally how many people out there have butchered up their own wiring harnesses for the EJ? Did it work and what kinda problems did you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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