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KuNomn's highs and woes of a well loved BD


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My story starts in late 2003 when I got my first car. I needed it to get to my college classes during my senior year of high school (my mother got her green BG that day as well :)).Man did I feel cool driving around in that bad mammajamma. Pretty sure I got one of my girlfriends just because of it.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/wu11.jpg

Naturally I smacked it into a few things because lets face it. . . when you're 18 and male you're pretty stupid when it comes to driving. Thankfully none of it was ever serious (little more than paint) and has all been fixed. As I got older I began doing more of my own maintenance, though the blown headgasket job had to go to the mechanic. To my dismay is 2006 my bottom end blew (cruising around 100 with another car on my way home on I-84). I never did bother figuring out exactly what happened to my block but it was definitely shot. I refused to give up my beloved LGT and went the next 3 and a half years driving other crap (1984 GL, 1991 prelude, 1995 jetta). During this time I began researching and getting into what started as a JDM engine swap.

 

TL;DR? my block blew and I'm trying to swap a JDM engine in.

 

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/avatar.jpg

 

I bought a JDM EJ25 longblock for about 800$ after shipping. I pulled my stock USDM EJ25D out but then ran into an issue. As we all know mechanically subarus are like legos but the wiring can be a nightmare. the wiring and plugs were COMPLETELY different from the US to the JDM engine in addition to obviously not having EGR. My solution was to take both engines apart and frankenstein them together. I took my USDM heads to the machine shop to have them completely rebuilt and port polished (I regret not using the much beefier JDM cams for this). My JDM block compression tested perfectly so huzah, no work needed there. By using my USDM heads with the JDM block I bypassed both my wiring issue and my EGR issue.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/DSC00692.jpg

When you consider that changing pads/rotors was one of the biggest projects I had ever gotten into before this, I was in way over my head to say the least. Three and a half years, hundreds of hours of migraine inducing research, and many fights with naysayers I had my engine back together, in the car, and running. Sitting so long outside I had to replace some brake parts and I had some torque binding (which I never completely eliminated).

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/DSC00695-1.jpg

The end result was an EJ25D with JDM block and port polish USDM heads. AC delete (everything but the stuff behind the firewall). Rear seat delete. Several other small things to lighten the car. Was the car faster? eh, not really noticeable. It definitely handled better though. Aesthetically I cleared and painted the inside of my headlights (as well as removed some of the worst oxidation I've ever seen), I sanded and painted my badge, added a mesh behind the grille, painted the center caps for my wheels and added touches of WR pearl blue in a few other places.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/wu12-1.jpg

Now that I had my car I was able to move for college. It felt awesome driving my LGT around again. At my new apartment complex I quickly became known as the "subaru guy" because of the hours I would spend every week cleaning the three years of neglect off of my LGT. The only problems I had to deal with was a very crappy 4EAT and a missing lug stud.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/wu.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/wu2.jpg

Everything was perfect in my life until I came back to new york to visit. On the way back to virginia (once again on I-84) my transmission finally gave up on me. So here I am once again with my beloved BD up on jack stands trying to figure out a new project. I bought a parts car (1998 BG6) with front end damage but a perfectly good engine and 5 speed transmission.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/wu3.jpg

I've taken my 4EAT out along with the 4.444 differential (and the other necessary parts underneath the car) and most everything is ready to drop out of the donor wagon. My front yard looks like a subaru graveyard.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/wu8.jpg

Now I'm at the point in my project that I've dreaded the most. I have to figure out the electrical portion of this mess. Last time I was able to get around doing any wiring but it doesn't look like I'll be so lucky this time (short of simply swapping complete harnesses, which is not happening).

 

If anyone has questions about their own 2nd gen engine project, or any advice/help they can offer regarding an AT/MT swap please do not hesitate to contact me :D. Not to mention I have lots of subaru parts for sale including a USDM EJ25D with 163,222 miles so if you're in the tristate area HMU.

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This thread shows truly that there are a few problems we have with these second gens yet we keep them because we end up getting so attached! White and black are my favorite colors for these Subaru's!

 

How many miles did you buy the car with originally?

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Here it goes...

It sounds like you have mechanical part under control. The rest is wiring and let me tell you it is not hard at all.

 

-On your ECU plug, you need to ground pin 81, it tells the ecu whether the car is a MT or AT. I can take pictures of mine if you need them, it is pretty easy though.

-On the AT tranny plug, the one that is 4x4 you need pins 9-12. On mine 9-10 are for reverse lights and 11-12 are for neutral safety switch on the clutch petal. I wanted a clean look on mine so I cut the AT tranny side plug and then on the MT car I cut the car side reverse lights plug. Then I made a connector and hard wired my NSS because i had no wire for that.

-On the auto shifter you need to connect the two wires on the AT lock switch thing, its a little black piece on the side of the shifter mechanism, this lets your key out.

-ABS and Cruise can be jury rigged to work, but it is way easier to swap out the parts car cruise control and components and same with the ABS.

-You will want an ECU for a 96-97 MT EJ25 car or your idle will never be perfect, but it will run on the auto ECU. It took me a long time to find one myself.

 

Other Notes

-The outback drive shaft and your AT LGT drive shaft wont work. You will need to source a sedan MT driver shaft.

-To install petals you need to pull just about everything you can from under the dash to make it a million times easier.

-You need the starter from the parts car.

-If you can use the radiator from the parts car, otherwise you will just have the tranny cooling lines coming out.

 

Good luck with the swap. If you have any question just ask.

 

Here is a good swap thread I referred to a few times. The OP is on nasioc a lot if you have any questions for him.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/05wrx-5-spd-98-legacy-gt-wgn-auto-5spd-conversion-136840.html

 

And here is a link to a .zip file for the FSM. I highly recommend reading through the wiring part, it makes it way easy.

 

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/subaru_manual_scans/1997_Legacy_FSM/

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How many miles did you buy the car with originally?

 

Don't remember exactly, somewhere around 80-90k? It now has 138,321 with 3,114 on the new build.

 

and subikid90, THANK YOU.

I've been trying to figure out what pin was the AT/MT identifier. I've been able to find it for every other generation but 2nd. As far as all the other info goes, you've basically just given me a shortcut to figuring out all the insanity and for that you're my new best friend.

I haven't compared the 2 prop shafts but why exactly won't either of mine work?

my MT starter is good, it just sucks that I paid $100+ 4 months ago for a lifetime warrantee AT starter

I actually have 2 MT radiators :D

 

expect me to be bothering you plenty :p

 

just one thing that always confuses me, when identifying the pins is it looking at the plug from the wire side or the "front"?

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Don't remember exactly, somewhere around 80-90k? It now has 138,321 with 3,114 on the new build.

 

and subikid90, THANK YOU.

I've been trying to figure out what pin was the AT/MT identifier. I've been able to find it for every other generation but 2nd. As far as all the other info goes, you've basically just given me a shortcut to figuring out all the insanity and for that you're my new best friend.

I haven't compared the 2 prop shafts but why exactly won't either of mine work?

my MT starter is good, it just sucks that I paid $100+ 4 months ago for a lifetime warrantee AT starter

I actually have 2 MT radiators :D

 

expect me to be bothering you plenty :p

 

just one thing that always confuses me, when identifying the pins is it looking at the plug from the wire side or the "front"?

 

You look at the front, the side without the wires. Your drive shafts are both the wrong length, I have heard of people having them extended or shortened but it cant be cheap. If you cant find one though it is still a possibility.

 

I like to have new friends lol:wub:

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-The outback drive shaft and your AT LGT drive shaft wont work. You will need to source a sedan MT driver shaft.

 

so there are actually 4 different drive shafts? AT sedan, MT sedan, AT wagon, MT wagon? I expected there to be a difference in lenth between the wagon and sedan but I didn't think they'd actually make 4 different lenth drive shafts

 

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/DSC00738.jpg

the crappy looking one on the bottom is from my donor wagon. It is slightly longer than my AT sedan drive shaft and the center bearing bracket is larger. Other than this both prop shafts appear to be exactly the same.

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Oh the joys never end for me. Hustling to get this project done so I can be back in virginia before classes start and my lamp dies, limiting the time I have each day to work on it. Looks like I may need to leave everything on hold until spring break or summer :(. Though lamp or no lamp, I haven't gotten any calls back about a proper length driveshaft from a MT sedan.
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I now have a the driveshaft I need supposedly. I called a salvage yard and told them I needed a driveshaft for a 1997 legacy GT sedan 5MT. They typed it into their sorcery box and told me they had one. 3 hours of driving through the snow in a saturn L series wagon and I get there. They bring out a BK with a 5 speed which worried me since I've heard that my driveshaft needs to come from a sedan. I go back in the office to consult the guys who work their witchcraft and show me the results on the monitor of aforementioned sorcery box and supposedly BDs and BKs share the same driveshafts (though still different for AT and MT). According to them only the outback driveshafts would NOT work.

TL;DR? BDs and BKs share driveshafts but BGs are different (according to the computer at my salvage yard)

 

The 4EAT and 5MT are out (and the EJ25D from my donor is ready to be lifted out for sale). I know its not the best idea but I'm strapped for cash so I'll be reusing the clutch (it only has about 10k on it)

 

Swapped my 16mm GT rear sway bar for the 18mm from the outback. Never would have thought to do this if it weren't for the awesome swaybar FAQ by Zues Marine http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/swaybar-faq-134646.html

 

Now for a question:

For swapping pedal assemblies the FSM says that I need to remove the steering assembly. Is this really necessary?

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No its not, just pull everything you can out from under the dash and you will have room

 

Ok good. I wasn't sure if you were including the steering when you told me this before. I'm much happier just removing wires and whatnot.

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Just the lower panel. Yeah I've always hated it down there... like the awkward back wrenching positions you have to put your body through weren't bad enough they have to fill it with 9 million wires that have very little freeplay/slack
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Well this one was fun, that clevis pin of all things was pissing me off for a while.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/th_DSC00748-1.jpg

This one looks to be even more fun

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p237/kunomn/Legacy/th_DSC00751.jpg

 

I've been wanting to take the front seats out for room but I'm really starting to run out of storage space. Both cars are filling up inside, my tiny "garage" is packed to the brim, you can't even walk in it once I put the engine lift away. parts are spilling into my mothers art studio and my living room.

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