Tlag

Well, this dosnt really fit the bill of a car show or a regional meet. This is more of a 2 week holiday for petrolheads. We organised a 10 day trip around Europe in 2011 and ended up with 9 cars and 16 people. Friends for life were made and we all had the best time ever. That was 9 subaru Legacies. This time, the trip is open to whatever car people want to take. It's in September for 2 weeks, will cover about 2100 miles on mainland Europe, take in some of the best driving roads Europe has to offer and will simply be awesome. Anyway, so far we have about 6 cars booked and deposits paid. This is happening. Up til now it's only been mentioned on the UKL legacy forum but I'm now bringing it to here. Any questions, please fire away. Here is the link to the thread which explains everything with video clips from the first run and everything you need. http://www.uklegacy.com/forums/index.php/topic/132077-bob-otherwise-known-as-epic-2/

Hi and welcome. You may recognise my username from UK Legacy too. This place is just as friendly. Any thing you have questions about on engine builds, just shout up. I've done a good few Subaru engines. In fact one day soon, I may even get back on with my project. :)

Simplist way is to put the coils from cal 1 and 2 on 3 and 4 and see if the problem occurs on 3 and 4

Most important is the check for fault codes. If that's not done, it's all guess work. I'm willing to bet on either the MAF or the lambda sensor but don't spend money on anything without checking the codes. It's free to do, easy and only takes 5 minutes max.

Purely due to the damage you mention, although it sounds about normal for the age, I would guess at between £2700 and £3000. As you say, not many around to get a good feel for the price.

If you can get the leather treatment that you have to heat up first, it cleans and feeds the leather. I got mine from an independant old school shoe repair place.

I used to use flush on cars until about 10 yrs ago. At that time, it was pointed out to me that modern oils don't leave any sludge behind like the older oils did. Even if they modern oils did, it's generally not in my engine long enough to do so. Plus, I really don't trust anything in a Subaru engine except high quality oil, for any length of time.

The main reason for the mot failure was emissions. The fuelling was horrendous. The drive home from the mot garage also showed up an oil leak. The fuelling was down to the injectors. I had used what I believed to be newly refurbed 660 injectors. It turns out the ones in the packet were actually waiting to be sent to the refurb place. As I was given them for nothing in the first place, I can't really complain. Anyway, I now have a new set of 660,s. The near side pair went in easily. The offside rear was easy but the offside front just will not seal. I've got brand new o rings, seals and everything. It just will not seal. That's ongoing but I've had a lot of other stuff to deal with recently too, which is why it's been neglected for a while. The oil leak turned out to be the oil cooler pipes. It's leaking from where the pipe actually goes into the fitting. They came from the manufacturer already made up so I need to see if they can be tightened. If not, replaced. The project is still ongoing but life is getting in the way at the moment. :)

I have to say, I've been around Legacies (mainly JDM twin turbo ones) for almost 10 yrs and I've never heard about any gearbox problems on normal use. If you are doing something special with it like track work or towing a heavy load, it's worth having a separate gearbox oil cooler, but other than that, they are ok. They do have gearbox oil cooler built in to the rad but it's not the biggest. Fine for normal use though.

The GTB will be as reliable as an Impreza, being JDM it will need to be ran on 99 octane fuel. The auto does seem slower than the manuals although it's actually about the same, it's just more refined and dosnt make as much fuss about getting there. The best advice I can give is take it for a drive and see what you think. The one I had for sale sold pretty quick but wasn't as new as that one

If you have use of an air compressor, put the pistons that are lose, back in. Put a block of wood between the pistons and fire air through the caliper. Make sure the wood is big enough to stop pistons flying out but small enough to allow the pistons to budge. If you have blocks of wood, it's 10 seconds work at a garage.

Have you got a link to the sale advert?

WOW!! That looks a great car. They are indeed very rare and it wouldn't surprise me that it's the only one on the road. I had not heard of any classic Subaru either and I guess the best place to market it would be a classic car forum rather than a Subaru forum.

Certainly one of the best trips I've ever done. We stayed in a lodge at the Canyon and opened the curtains in the morning to find a family of Elk grazing about 2-3 yds away. Amazing. I think it was even better for the fact we didn't take a package holiday off the shelf. I decided exactly what flights we wanted, hotels we wanted etc. I then went to the travel agents and asked them to book it. I could have booked it all myself but travel agents get discount on certain things that I can't and I also get the ABTA insurances built in. If anyone's interested, I've moved on to sorting out a trip for September 2015. We will be driving through about 10 European countries over 14 days and covering about 2000 miles. It will include the Stelvio Pass and the Col de Turini. It won't involve any track time at any point. We learnt from the original Epic Run in 2011. We are trying to keep driving time to mornings only so people can explore the new town/city in the afternoon and evening. 2 of the places we will stay at will be for 2 nights so as to get a full day to explore. If anyone's interested, I can add more detail as we go. The original Epic was 9 cars, 16 people. All were Legacies. This time, it is open to any car.

It's probably in the wrong place but I'm sure someone will move it if it is.:) Well, we made it to the end of Route 66 and what a drive! It wasn't in Subarus as we deliberately went out of our way to try an American motor. To that end we hired these bad boys. We flew in to Dallas so couldn't pass up the chance of visiting the gas monkey bar and garage. (Fast and loud show on TV). A good night at the bar with live music. Then we did Amarillo, Cadillac Ranch, Albuquerque, loads of Route 66 specific things. Once we got to Williams: We gave the cars a rest and went by train to the Grand Canyon. Back at the cars the following day, we ate at the famous roadkill cafe. Thankfully they have stopped grilling actual roadkill these days:). Then on to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas. That's a bit of an eye opener. We rejoined the 66 at Barstow and made it to the end which is the pier at Santa Monica. We even dipped our toes in the Pacific. We then drove along the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco and spent 3 days and managed to take in a baseball game (looked like rounders to me :)). We dropped the cars off in San Francisco once we had driven over the Golden Gate Bridge and driven down the zig zag road that is Lombard Street. After the 3 days we flew to New York for 24 hours. We managed to see Times Square by night and day, go to the top of the Empire State Building and visit Ground Zero. From there, we came home. A totally amazing action packed holiday. I need a holiday now to get over it. Oh, and the cars? V6 3.6L Camaros. They don't rent out the V8 versions for one way hire. :(

Big end taping nise should come from the centre line of the engine, not one side. Before you dive in to a rebuild, get a second opinion. Failing that, drop the oil into a container. Check the oil for glittery flakes or sludge. Engine rebuild will cost from £2000 and up. You will find places offering it for a lot cheaper but beware. The cost of the new parts alone will be almost £1000 and there is a lot of labour time in a rebuild.

The 2.5L engine is the same power unit in all of the cars you mention. The early 2.5 engine does have a habit of eating head gaskets but was sorted in cars from about 1999/2000 on. The 2.0l is the same power unit across the range too but dosnt suffer from head gasket issues generally. The Legacy and the Outback of the age you are looking at are basically the same car with suspension and bodywook differences. Of the three you mention, I would be looking at the Outback in 2.0l or 3.0l form. The boot is bigger than a forester and slightly more room inside generally. The 3.0l is a thirsty car and I've only ever seen them in auto so it should be easy to find one. Look for one with as much service history as possible. The 2.0l and 3.0l are very reliable. At the age of car you are looking at they won awards every year for reliability which is always nice to know. Good luck and test drive as many as you can find. Spec levels vary a lot.

Get a sniff test done first. It will confirm the head gasket diagnosis. To start with though, top the coolant up as normal. Drive the car until normal temperature is reached. Then pull over, lift the bonnet and pull the yellow lid off the expansion tank bottle( the one fixed to the rad). What you should see, is the coolant at the 'hot' level (marker on outside of bottle) and a small amount of bubbles. If the level of coolant is significantly higher and bubbling lots/frothy, the head gaskets have gone.

Doing only one side is false economy. I would think £800-£900 for the entire job. The engine has to come out, be stripped, all parts cleaned, heads will need to be measured prior to skimming to enable you to get the correct thickness head gaskets to maintain the compression ratio.

Well, we failed the mot :( Only on emissions though which was expected. I've done some diagnostic work and discovered a bit of a schoolboy error. I have to confess to something. When I fitted each component, I thoroughly cleaned them all before fitting. I guess when I reassembled the idle control valve, I forgot to fit the 'O' ring in the top. This has led to a massive air leak which I found this morning. That's sorted now and we are leak free. As I am off on holiday on Thursday, the mapper has very kindly offered to take the car to his and have it up and running properly whilst I'm away. I'm not sure yet if he can get it mot'ed as well but in my book, the offer alone is above and beyond. It does mean that he will be able to talk to ESL direct whilst the laptop is plugged in and get the best possible outcome. It will save him having to do a 60 mile round trip each time I call him too. It will also mean I have something exciting to look forward to when I get back :)

Looking super clean now. I know the feeling. Once you start cleaning a small area, hours just flash by. :)

Can't see why that would happen unless it chose that particular moment to split a coolant pipe. The emissions test usually means they rev the car up to 2500 to 3000 rpm but that's all.

Could be a number of things but usually just running rough. Sensor usually cracks and the crack opens when warm and closes when cold so until it's up to temp, everything can sometimes appear normal. Even when hot, the gap can close and give periods of normal running.

It goes just under the pale green dot:

Its bolted to the deck of the short motor. Gambit is thinking of the right area. It's almost directly under the idle control valve. You may see the wire/plug easier than the actual sensor. It's usually a single black wire with a white plug. You will definitely need to take the top mount off to change it.