Legacy Rallycross

This past fall I acquired a 97 2.2L Legacy L . It was ready for the bone yard, but I knew it could be brought back to life for little money. It did need a clutch and head gaskets, but the car was a free donation. It was also missing door trim, had some broken interior, steel wheels, etc. So I bought a 99 Legacy Outback for parts at a great price.

I started by first removing everything that I wanted from the Outback, except the drivetrain. Headlights, grill, front bumper, outer door trim pieces, 15' alloys, heated mirrors, interior pieces, front brake calipers/brackets and so on. The hood stayed on the Outback having too much rust at the front and being a different colour. The sway bars were for the 2001 Impreza I have.

I first got the front bumper, grill and lights on the sedan. The headlights were wired up, but for the fogs I would have to run all the wiring. I expected the same for the heated mirrors. It's already more aggressive looking.

Terrible phone pics is what I got...

cool story? idk what you question is.

I think he is posting it as a sort of WIP project, which is perfectly fine.

The first post had to cleared by moderator... I will post the rest later tonight

Looking forward to the rest of what is to come, off on a good foot so far. Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the welcome. I didn't realize the first post in this thread would need to be verified, hence the oddness. Anyways you can see in that first pic the L on the left, Outback in the center and the Impreza on the right.
With the front bumper and lights changed over, it was time to start some body work. The bigger spots were holes for trim that rust opened up. I got rid of the rust and filled the holes with fiberglass, sanded it down for bondo. Gave that a sanding and some primer. It still needed some spots filled in, another sanding and some paint by rattle can. Most of it would be under the trim. Wasn't too worried how it would look and I wasn't going to spend a lot of time on it.





The front door panels came off in no time and revealed there was no wiring for the heated mirrors. A previous owner saved me a lot of time here and had a second set of speaker wires coming into the door. Running wiring through a door jam can be really time consuming in some cases. The wiring was just cut-off and there were no speakers in the car at all. I took the kick panel off and found the same wiring coming through, so I soldered the factory connector at the mirror end that had I cut off from the Outback and plugged it in. Down at the kick panels at both sides of the car I extended what was left of the speaker wire over to a relay that I have the factory switch I got from the Outback control. The wiring was at the back of the switch for the heated mirrors which made it easy to wire in and the mirror directional switch still has all functions. Realized after looking at a diagram there is no relay in the factory wired circuit lol They work great, only on for a couple minutes and they are over double the temperature in the shop.





While the door panels were still off, the front speakers from the Outback went in. The factory connector were still there and the speakers plugged right in. I removed the rear shelf and put in some old 6x9's I had laying around, the wiring that was there hooked right up. The head unit that was in the car however wouldn't output anything until the volume was about halfway. It was an older panasonic and with a quick swap with a newer JVC from the Outback, and the stereo works great. Both head units had been wired with Subaru conversion kits, so again I only had to plug the newer one in, what a time saver.

Only a little more attention was given to the doors and they were sprayed. I just don't like doing bodywork and I don't do a good job of it usually, but because this car won't be as driven as much it doesn't matter. The trim was beaded with urethane and the tires did a great job of holding the pieces on the doors.



Wired up the fog lights as the factory would have, only difference is the switch has power with the key in the on position. This way the fogs can be on in any headlamp switch position. Installed the map light/storage compartment from the Outback and wired the lamps. I cut the headliner open a bit a found a piece of metal before the roof panel to screw into.

Without buying a replacement rear trunk reflector, I hacked one together using the one from the Outback. It is by no means a pretty job, and I really didn't spend a lot of time on it. Using a cut-off wheel, I just trimmed out the broken piece of one and trimmed out the good piece to size. They are very close in shape and size but not perfect, one being a sedan and the other a wagon. Need to clean it up and trim the urethane. It will do for now, maybe I will find a good sedan replacement later on, or a decent trunk lid in the spring.



The finished product... From a distance it's hard to notice that the piece in the center isn't original. I also re-badged the trunk with the gold Outback emblems.

I pulled back the tires and pulled the tape off of the doors the following day. They turned out pretty decent. The trim really breaks up the paint and the difference in colour is not that noticeable.




When I bought the Outback parts wagon, the guy selling it had left a bottle of headlamp restorer. I have seen many products work great and had never seen this "Blue Magic" product. It ended up doing quite a job and took the majority of yellowing/haze out. The right headlamp is after three consecutive applications.

Mechanically the car was in good shape, yearly safety inspections are required here. So it was time to yank the motor out and do the head gaskets. While the heads were off, I opened up the exhaust ports on the heads. The intake ports were almost gasket matched already, so I left them alone. I ported the intake manifold while it was off.

The clutch disc was done. I knew it would need a clutch, all the signs were there. I had previously planned to use the clutch from my Impreza, as I had just built a 2.2/2.5 frankenmotor for it with a new clutch. The used clutch was still in great shape with lots of mileage left, so I sat it aside for the Legacy.

The engine was assembled with new head gaskets and intake/exhaust gaskets. A set of new spark plugs. The injectors were swapped for the 2.5L injectors. The car already had a K&N drop in that was cleaned and re-oiled. Intake/throttle/PCV all cleaned well. The used clutch/pressure plate went on, I used a new pilot bearing here as the old one had come apart.


Not many photos were taken of this one. Back in the car, the old EJ22 runs great. No overheating, no burning oil, great heat inside, nice smooth idle. Hitting the gas, it really turns on for what it is.

i have a spare rear center garnish from my old sedan. lmk

I decided to attempt modifying the stock manifold/header into a UEL style header, much like the the one for dual port heads. I do know that this design is not intended for power gains, but should give a nice boxer tone.
So I cut the right side pipe off at the collector. With some trimming and a 180 degree turn it was tacked back in place. The pipe I used was the same 1 5/8, it was more time consuming than I thought it would be. By eye-balling all of my cuts and tacking everything in place, I dropped it down and finished the sloppy welding. Welded the strip on there for much needed integrity IMO. I didn't have all the pieces that I really needed, but I made it work and it turned out decent.







Now the second cat would come out. I used 2" pipe cut to size and welded an O2 sensor bung onto it. Unfortunately, the rear O2 sensor threads were ruined removing it from the cat, even though I used as much care possible. I just used a bad O2 with good threads that was lying in scrap to plug the hole for now. The pipe was then welded onto the exhaust to complete it again.


I moved onto the tail end of the exhaust and welded a small straight through that was in the shop. With everything together I fired the car up and all I could here was boxer rumble. It sounded good, but a bit too loud. I knew that there was a double resonator from a newer Legacy in the scrap metal bin. Pulled it out of there, cut to size and welded it in place of the tiny useless one that was on there.



Spending about $40, it sounds like a thousand bucks.

Originally Posted by Swagon_Wagon

i have a spare rear center garnish from my old sedan. lmk

Thanks, I think that it will stay on there for the time being. Most of my funds going into the Impreza right now.

so are you scaping one of the legacys? if so i would love to have the radiator support bar. mine is still mangled from my deer.

At this point the car was licensed and insured, and ready for its first rallycross. I decided to do the ball joints as one had slight play. The inner tie rods were replaced as well. A four wheel brake service to lube all contacts and sliders, keep those wheels spinning freely. Some cheapo mudflaps were cut to size and bolted in place. If they get torn off, the fender or bumper may go with them.

The winter wheels from my Impreza were swapped over. Finally, (although I'm probably forgetting some things) The DRL's were disabled and some AWD decals for the back windows.