Tlag

There were some blue ones on a car I bought last year. Trouble was, the anodising was flaking which made them look really nasty. I have no idea how long they had been on the car though, or if they were the same make.

First thing to do is not accept the first offer they make. On the second offer, they normally explain that it's there final offer. Next, at that point, ask how much it would cost to but the car back from them. I've never known them say no unless it's a bad accident. The other thing is, you shouldn't lose the excess for the insurance. The other party has admitted to it, so technically, the claim is through that persons insurance, not yours.

At risk of starting an argument, the Legacy is more civilised and aimed more at the luxury side, not to mention having a much larger boot area for your dogs. The WRX is obviously more sporty, although the interior is less inspiring. The Legacy won't let you down on performance, compared to many other estate cars on the road, but compared to the WRX, it will be lacking. All depends what you want from the car really.

Great stuff. :)

I have one of those tools which are great but you have to use needle nose pliers to put the collets in place. Problem is, after about the third use, the pliers suddenly become magnetic and won't let go of the collet. Then you have to use a small screwdriver to hold the collet in place as you withdraw the pliers. At this point you need 3 hands But only have room in the work area for 3 fingers. It's THAT type of job :)

Had chance to do a bit today, after sorting out the garden fence from last nights winds. Today was about the heads, well, 1 of the heads anyway :) Time put them back together. First up, new valve stem seals and sorting the valves out. . Then, once the valves had all been cleaned up with a wire brush, it was time to lap them in and reseat them All 8 valves in Then the bit I dread most, fitting the collets to hold the valve springs in. It's such a fiddly time consuming task. Done :) Well, that's one head done anyway. One more to do, maybe tomorrow

Hi and welcome along. Any particular reason your avatar is upside down? :)

Well, there the first job needing doing. Winds blew down the garden fence last night :(

I now have two whole weeks off from work. Mmmmm wonder what to do with the time :)

Thats a shame. :( Good luck with the sale.

So, today engine building started First, all the con rods were cleaned and checked over. Then the new bearings fitted with a good dose of paste Next, each Conroe was fitted to the crankshaft, ensuring they are the correct way around The bolts were the. Tightened to the specified torque. Once all 4 are bolted up and feel good, attention turns to the crank case. Already thoroughly cleaned, it just needs a blast of compressed air to blow out any dust That's collected. Then the bearings are fitted and paste applied New o rings are fitted along with the crank assembly Then the bearings and paste are fitted to the other half. A very thin layer of sealant is applied to the flat surfaces and the two halves put together. Then it's time to put the bolts in. This is all the bolts just for the crankcase That took most of the day. It dosnt seem a lot of work, but everything is dry fitted and measured several times before actually fitting.

So it's not very much above what a 5 door family estate car could do. The theory makes sense

The problem with the vac system is that it is controlled by the ecu. It's only recently that it's been a. Possibility to map the ecu, and only then with the addition of a daughterboard. I suspect that in time, altering the vac system may be a possibility but with the cars getting increasingly older and the twin turbo evolving to a twin scroll turbo, I suspect the R&D costs would outweigh the number of people who would take it up.

Post didn't arrive until after 4 so no build fun today. I did collect me heads though and I'm very impressed with the work. Hers a before and after shot: Before: After: And a close up of the work: In the parcel, along with seals and minor stuff was this too :) I am however, in a position to commence the build tomorrow morning :)

That would be the holy grail to be honest. The twin turbo system was designed by Porsche, for Subaru. We know that they didn't want a 5 dr family estate car to be quicker than the 911 of its day. For that reason, we think it was probably a deliberate attempt to inhibit the turbos. I don't know what the performance figures were of the 911 of the early 90's but a twin turbo Legacy, according to the literature would get to 60 in just over 5 seconds and go on to 172 mph. The turbo control system is stupidly complicated with over 9 metres of vac hose.

It's a bit more complicated than that. The Turbo oil feeds on one head need blocking off, the entire vacuum system needs ripping out and an Impreza one fitted, the entire exhaust system is different, the wiring loom needs modifying as the legacy ecu won't work with only one turbo. Is it worth it? Good question. A standard classic type turbo Impreza has what from the factory? 220-240bhp? A standard twin turbo Legacy has 280bhp although they are Jap import only. With a lot of work, the maximum you can get from a Legacy will be 330-340 bhp. Whereas as an Impreza can be made to push out double that. The other BIG downside with the legacy is the VOD (valley of death). The primary turbo comes in quite early at about 1500rpm and runs out of steam at about 3800-4000rpm. The secondary turbo, comes on line at about 4300rpm. That gap of 300-500rpm is known as the VOD. It's fine when pushing on through the gears. You just feel it as a 'pause for breath' and it's no problem. The big issue is when you drop down a cog to overtake. If you are relatively new to the VOD, it comes as a bit of a wake up call, when you have indicated to pull out, moved over the white line, dropped the gear, and .......... No power. You have just dropped into that rev range that offers no boost. You learn to live with it and drive around it. It can also be mapped out to certain extent which rings us on to another problem with the twin turbo set up. In standard form, the ecu cannot be mapped. In fact, it's only in the last 2yrs that a solution has been found for this. A company will adapt the ecu to allow it to be mapped. So, is it worth it? If you want a standard, 280bhp car the it's probably a cheaper to buy option than an Impreza. If you want to get more performance, converting to single will cost a lot but the gains are potentially great. The cheaper option to performance is buy an Impreza and upgrade parts accordingly. For me, I'm lucky at the moment in that I have a mildly tuned twin turbo legacy and I have a project on the go (see the projects section) which will be single turbo. Best of both worlds. :)

Being a UK car, it should be opitomised for 95 octane regular petrol. Using 97 BP stuff maybe of benefit and shouldn't harm the car. Maybe worth a tankful every 5th one for instance, just to keep the system cleaned through. I wouldn't bother with vpower or tesco 99. It costs more with little benefit over the 97. JDM cars should only be ran on 99. In Japan, the cheap nasty fuel is 102 octane and that's what they are designed to run on. 99 is our nearest, unless you live near a race track :)

Originally I wanted an Impreza turbo. However, as a family man, I knew I would have to get a wagon version, which I have never found too appealing, so I looked at what else was out there. At that point I came across the Legacy range and settled on a 2.0L normally aspirated estate. Loved it to bits and joined a forum to figure out how it worked. (My first foray into flat fours). Ended up going to an organised meet in Wales. Mine was the only normally aspirated there. (At that time, I didn't even know about the turbo versions). At that point the search started for a suitable twin turbo Legacy. I figured if an Impreza has a single turbo, a twin turbo Legacy must be better. Despite needing an estate, I ended up changing the wife's car to an estate family car so I could get a twin turbo legacy saloon. Not looked back since. Had the twin turbos ever since. I just think they are more of a sleeper than an Impreza, plus, from the factory they have more power but are less tuneable. Hence my current project :)

It's been a quiet day today on the build :(. I have, however found my stash of parts that I put away over a year ago :) Mainly gaskets and seals and stuff so not very exciting to photograph. I did get a couple of phone calls today that were very welcome. One from a supplier to tell me that my order will be with me tomorrow. The second from my machine shop to say I can collect the heads in the morning. That means, depending on the postal delivery time, the build can start tomorrow afternoon :) pics of that will follow.

All information gratefully accepted. :) I hadnt considered using a gasket on the sump, so thats a good one to know. Likewise the info on the valves stem seals. It may be quiet for a few days now until bits arrive, I need to spend time searching the workshop for some build bits that I put safe a long time ago. So safe, I no longer know where they are

Some actual work done today, plus parts ordered and money spent. Today I stripped the short motor in order to clean it all throughout and fit new bearings. It started on the engine stand, loosening bolts and a general inspection. Next, it was transferred to the strip down bench and pistone removed. Then the block halves were split. Unusually, they almost fell apart. They dont normally like being split. :) The crank was then removed and examined. The con rods were removed from the crank and examined. Everything looks spot on, although for peace of mind, I was always going to change the bearings anyway. I dropped the crankcase halves off to have a very light skim and to be totally cleaned up. I can collect those tomorrow. I then dropped in to my suppliers and picked these up. I have also ordered an oil pump, (10mm modified should be fine), a RCM sump baffle plate, a set of valve stem seals and a rear cranck oil seal. :) Yesterday, I also bought this. I think I may need to clean that blood off before I use it though.

Jay, there's less room under a Legacy bonnet than an Impreza, so there's less room for heat dissipation. The later Imprezas don't have the two smaller vents, so I suspect they are purely aesthetic.

The main scoop is generally thought to only be effective for cooling up to around 60mph if i remember correctly. However, I think you may run into overheating issues if you go for a scoopless bonnet. The cooler the air into the engine from the intercooler the better. As soon as you start pushing warm air around, you will get reduced boost and potentially running issues. The way to get around it is to fit a front mount intercooler. Not exactly subtle but if you painted it black, you may get away with it. The air vent over the turbo will help with turbo temps. The Legacy twin turbo dosnt have those vents so I cant see it making that much difference.

Thanks for the offer Savage, I may be in touch re the 3 port. I may be able to get a rad locally and I'm going FMIC anyway.

It appears that in the UK, we will not get the saloon legacy anymore! only the wagon version.