98 L Wagon White Whale build

Hi guys,

 

This is my first Subaru, and it made me fall in love with the 2nd gen WAGONS for sure.

 

To start, I found my wagon, which I called the White Whale, but my gf named it Scuttle.

 

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/parody/images/7/79/Scuttle.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140810230559

 

on craigslist in October of 2015. Picked him up for $600. He was pretty beat up, but what is the fun in a build thread if it needs no work?

 

Here is when I first got it:

http://i.imgur.com/KXrApI7.jpg

 

180K miles. Autotragic (thanks again, girlfriend). No real options besides P/S and A/C i guess?

 

Issues:

Hubcaps ruined, 3 bent wheels, 1 out of round tire, right rear caliper doesn't work, A/C doesn't work, seats ripping, rubber trim peeling off under windows, hooted dented and rusted, front brakes scraping, harmonic balancer wobbling, key barely worked in all doors, front bumper was resprayed with overspray on the headlights, blinkers, and 2 bolt holes on the right side of the bumper, headlights pointing straight at the ground, HORRIBLE torque binding when turning the wheel, grille missing. So bad I had to put the car in FWD mode to get home. That is all I can remember when I first got it.

 

bumper damage:

http://i.imgur.com/pNl0KZZl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WO4iuS9l.jpg

 

My first steps were to fix the torque binding, replace all 4 wheels/tires, and do brakes all around.

 

I flushed the trans twice, and torque binding is 90% gone. Replaced 4 wheels and tires with 15" wheels from another outback, and put outback 2pot brakes on the front, new RR caliper, pads/rotors all around. This was taken right after grill was replaced, and I also got an outback hood, why not?

 

Here it is with the 15" wheels and hood:

 

http://i.imgur.com/UgTTVY9.jpg

 

I had to redrill the headlight mounting holes, and get some headlights from the junkyard because they were all BROKEN. I think each side had 1 bolt holding them in! The A/C had dye in it, so I easily found the leak on the driver's side A/C line. The O ring was shot, replaced that, A/C now works after a re-charge.

 

My GF's bro was driving it, and he said "hey, I just lost power steering". I thought no big deal, probably pump. I get to my GF's parents house and see...

 

http://i.imgur.com/WjcMp3el.jpg

 

Oops. Looks like person before me who did Tbelt forgot to torque something to spec.

 

Crank was OK thank god. Replaced balancer and belts. Back to normal.

 

I had to flip a 95 wagon I found to sell to my GF's boss. It needed 4 tires. I figured screw these 15" wheels, I'll put them on the other wagon and get some nice wheels and tires for my own wagon

 

http://i.imgur.com/OYmQaqml.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/INdu436l.jpg

 

I went around and replaced all the window trim. I decided that since the speakers suck, ill upgrade them.

 

Before

http://i.imgur.com/EpcEfUal.jpg

 

After

http://i.imgur.com/iAaxIfbl.jpg

 

These are rear ones. In the front I put ones with separate tweeters. Sorry, forgot a picture. Thanks to a phenryiv1 on legacyGT for the brackets!

 

Also installed an Alpine Type-R 15" sub in the trunk. So much for wagon trunk space, but I made it easy to remove. (this done early 2016)

 

Upgraded to outback leather seats, fake wood trim in the interior from a limited, leather door inserts.

 

JDM tails with my 16" snow tires/wheels I got from a saabaru guy. (winter 2016)

http://i.imgur.com/seSRYlEl.jpg

 

Also pictured is a 2005 honda pilot rear wiper blade. mine was rusted and spring was shot. Found out these fit perfectly.

 

I managed to get a bumper for $30, had my friend repaint it. Got a JDM grille and had him paint it black as well. Retrofitted morimoto H1s into new depo headlights. (5/25/2017)

http://i.imgur.com/WTCd7oIl.png

 

Few weeks ago (06/02/2017),

 

Car smelled like gas during start up. Didn't run 100% while cruising. I did plugs/wires/MSD coil when I got the car (Maybe early 2016), so I figured it's either a bad injector, or bad compression.

 

Easiest thing to test is compression.

 

Cylinders 2, 3, 4:

http://i.imgur.com/AT1nyDAl.jpg

 

Great!

 

Cylinder 1:

http://i.imgur.com/YsPlcUQl.jpg

 

****.

 

I drop a little bit of oil in the cylinder

http://i.imgur.com/OLyer7ol.jpg

 

my reaction:

 

 

So I said **** it. What is the worse that can happen at this point?

 

I ran Motor Medic through the car twice, and put a drop in the cylinder.

 

I didn't take a picture, but now its squeezing ~174psi!!!!!! Car runs much better now. It has been going strong for 3 weeks. will check compression again soon just to see.

 

Performed a snorkulectomy? recently. Car has a good engine note now when punching it. Gotta let everyone know I am TRYING to accelerate

 

Still waiting to go in:

JDM trunk spoiler

Coilovers

 

On the to get list:

outback sway bars (20mm front 18mm rear)

possibly swap out the motor for a refreshed 2.2 with a delta cam regrind.

maybe another trans, or convince the gf to let me 5 speed swap it.

Edited June 27, 2017 by Thor294

why does it sound like your girlfriend runs your life?

why does it sound like your girlfriend runs your life?

 

when shes a hispanic attorney there is no winning arguments

oh jesus dude. run.

http://i.imgur.com/6IWiwR2l.jpg

 

scored outlook sway bars at the junkyard. Making my own "white"line bars. Not bad for $20.

 

Going to head back saturday to grab the hood/trunk off the same car. I went solo, and my luck, i'll ruin them both trying to carry them back to the truck lol.

 

Coil overs, sways, and new rotors/HPS pads on the front brakes should be going on this weekend.

 

http://i.imgur.com/fXgLLWol.jpg

Edited June 28, 2017 by Thor294

Performed a snorkulectomy? recently. Car has a good engine note now when punching it. Gotta let everyone know I am TRYING to accelerate

 

You're killing your torque and fuel economy by removing anything forward of the MAF sensor. With MAF based cars, the snorkus balances the resonance that occurs from the chatter of the intake valvetrain so that it doesn't adversely affect the readings of the MAF sensor.

 

This link does a very in depth research case study on the effects of the snorkus removal and the usage of other intake tubes.

 

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1471819

 

The results in the graph show it all. The snorkus provides a true purpose and thus should not be removed nor modified on MAF based cars.

 

 

If you want people to know you're accelerating, throw on a set of UEL headers and remove your axle back muffler section. It'll be louder than most Harleys when accelerating, but has a nice sound at idle.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Setnev

You're killing your torque and fuel economy by removing anything forward of the MAF sensor. With MAF based cars, the snorkus balances the resonance that occurs from the chatter of the intake valvetrain so that it doesn't adversely affect the readings of the MAF sensor.

 

This link does a very in depth research case study on the effects of the snorkus removal and the usage of other intake tubes.

 

The results in the graph show it all. The snorkus provides a true purpose and thus should not be removed nor modified on MAF based cars.

 

If you want people to know you're accelerating, throw on a set of UEL headers and remove your axle back muffler section. It'll be louder than most Harleys when accelerating, but has a nice sound at idle.

 

Well damn, guess I didn't do enough research lol.

 

That's why I kept everything regarding the snorkus. Nice find thank you!

Well damn, guess I didn't do enough research lol.

 

That's why I kept everything regarding the snorkus. Nice find thank you!

 

No problem. I didn't do a complete snorkus delete on my car, I only removed the air intake that mounts to the rad support. After reading this article and seeing the results, I tested my car and the results were similar to a delete, though not as aggressive. Attached the air intake again and re-tested and I got normal readings again.

No problem. I didn't do a complete snorkus delete on my car, I only removed the air intake that mounts to the rad support. After reading this article and seeing the results, I tested my car and the results were similar to a delete, though not as aggressive. Attached the air intake again and re-tested and I got normal readings again.

 

I kinda noticed it wasn't running as great too. It's all back to stock now

It took like 100 screens of posts to talk this out on nasioc and it still seems like a lot of people don't understand. Those graphs above do a good job of explaining how screwed things are if you do the wrong thing. Thanks for posting those setnev.

It took like 100 screens of posts to talk this out on nasioc and it still seems like a lot of people don't understand. Those graphs above do a good job of explaining how screwed things are if you do the wrong thing. Thanks for posting those setnev.

 

yeah I just read the how to and people saying it sounds better. I didn't find said graph post till he posted it.

 

Back to stock!

got new hood/trunk from boneyard.

 

Dipped the scoop, kept old scoop from old hood so I can paint that for reals and install later.

 

http://i.imgur.com/LKAWRGul.jpg

Okay so looking at those graphs, what is your MAF voltage supposed to jump up to when given throttle? I have the snorkus in and everything but the gas mileage is horrible. We did the voltage test and it bumps up to 2.9 volts with almost full throttle

The graph shouldn't have jumps in it at all. The stock blue line is hidden under the green. Starts low and climbs steadily up. MAF v is the raw data for measuring air flow. MAF v is fed into a calibrated table in the ECU that converts it to g/s air flow. Then from there the ECU can determine how much fuel to shoot. If your MAF v jumps, then your fuel shot will also jump and you'll be very rich to the point of stumbling. From there the ECU will read the O2 sensor and see the rich and think, "Oh, when I get x g/s air flow my tables are wrong, way rich, so I have to put in massive negative fuel trim." Then as soon as you get past the MAF v spike the engine goes super lean because of the trim and stumbles and the ECU thinks, "Oh, my fuel tables are way wrong, at y g/s I need to put in a big positive fuel trim.

 

If the problem was only at WOT low RPM we could just say try not to do that, but because it borks the fuel trim tables, if you do it *ever* there will be a period of time after that where the ECU is struggling to make sense of things. Sure it will balance out after a bit, but do you really want that big lean spike at WOT?

 

All that said, if you are logging and you get a MAF v spike *because* you stab the throttle, then that is probably normal as your g/s will be throttled way back to some low value because of the closed throttle. What you are looking for is the shape of the MAF v across RPMs while *at* WOT. You'll want to ignore the throttle change part of the graph kinda like how dyno graphs don't go down to 800 RPM, they trim that part off.

Edited July 14, 2017 by doublechaz

I guess it would be hard to tell without seeing it on a graph in that case. I'm not completely sure what WOT stands for to be honest lol. But yeah we just placed a volt meter on the correct plugs and slowly increased the rpms. We didn't snap the throttle or anything but just continued the increase in throttle position with the throttle cable until the car sounded like it was about 4 k rpms. At around that mark the volt meter was picking up 2.9 volts so I was just wondering if there was a way to tell if that's good or bad

wide open throttle =WOT

 

and i think he was saying his rises to 2.9v, using jump as a synonym for rises/climbs/goes to. unless youre seeing the voltage spiking up and dropping very quickly at the beginning of the pedal stomp i dont think there is much to worry about. as for how far should it jump? i dont have the range scales and couldnt find them, sorry.

Sorry, WOT=Wide Open Throttle. Just in case, and for others...

MAF v=Mass Air Flow sensor voltage.

ECU=Engine Control Unit (computer)

O2=Oxygen sensor.

g/s=Grams per Second of air flow into the engine.

 

Without load on the engine you can't get all the info you want with that method. The RPMs are way up, but the throttle is still mostly closed. (If you are describing doing this while parked...)

 

Sounds like you are describing the voltage that it slowly climbs to as you rev it. I'm pretty sure all of our cars that use a MAF go up to 5 volts. The housing shape and size is matched to the MAF scaling table in the ECU per each model and engine size. A WRX ECU would probably think something like 300 g/s for 5v where my Legacy would think something like 150 g/s for 5v. But that would only show up at WOT max RPM. Then it would range all the way down close to 0v for idle. It's meant to be a straight line in between, but in reality it isn't, so the MAF scaling table has to be a table instead of a single number to describe how steep the line is.

Sometimes I type too slow.

Damn okay so this is more in depth with the ecu than I thought. I just did that cuz it's so hard to justify such a bit portion or money to a single sensor but it legit controls everything (mine's from a junkyard and I'm running rich) done everything else so I wanted to test it before buying it to see if this one is even bad

Tracing persistent rich or lean can really suck. I do some of my diags with one of those bluetooth OBD II things talking to the Torque App on Android. It's super cheap, and you can learn a lot. Using one you could go out and do a WOT pull from maybe 1800 to redline with logging on and see what your MAF is reading. I don't know if yours will show MAF v, but mine won't. But it does show the g/s that the computer thinks is going in. From there we could compare to other people to see if your sensor seems to be tracking true.

I guess it would be hard to tell without seeing it on a graph in that case. I'm not completely sure what WOT stands for to be honest lol. But yeah we just placed a volt meter on the correct plugs and slowly increased the rpms. We didn't snap the throttle or anything but just continued the increase in throttle position with the throttle cable until the car sounded like it was about 4 k rpms. At around that mark the volt meter was picking up 2.9 volts so I was just wondering if there was a way to tell if that's good or bad

 

A voltmeter at idle is going to tell you nothing about what your MAF sensor is doing or where your fuel trim is. All the voltmeter is going to tell you is what the sensor sees. There are other sensors at idle that affect what the engine is doing in relation to the voltage from the MAF.

 

In order to fully test it, you need to have a logging OBD reader. I use a cheap bluetooth reader that supports logging and use the Torque Pro app on my phone to read the data and log it from the sensors. If you don't have Torque Pro, buy it. It is seriously the best $5 that you will ever spend on an app and continuing support for it is second to none. Pickup a cheap ELM327 scanner on Amazon or eBay. I bought this one (http://amzn.to/2vpjUbR) and it works great. The test sensor parameters and procedure are on the link I posted about the article, so I won't copy/paste them again.

We actually do have an OBD reader and the torque app but I've never thought of trying to log the data. The OBD thing we have is this cheap little thing and it doesn't always "talk" to the car very well. Connections seem fidgety or just kinda not there. I'll have to do a pull and see what kind of g/s I'm getting though because I know that is an option on that thing

Started stainless brake line install. Only got 1 brake done because I forgot my line wrenches at parents house. Ran out of daylight.

 

http://i.imgur.com/kn2CG9yl.jpg

 

Hopefully get more done today, and possibly do SPT muffler/sway bars.

Car unfortunately has been sitting for a while as this winter sucked.

 

Decided to finally get ball rolling on the motor swap. Got a 2.2L from a 95 Impreza with a transmission. Numbers match so should swap right in.

 

Removed cams from the donor motor and just sent them out to deltacams.

 

I have a grocery list of stuff to install on this car. The parts pile is getting big in the garage.

 

Stainless lines, hawk pads, rotors, rear strut bar, outback sway bars, 04 sti struts with rce yellows, gt spoiler, inferno fab header/jpipe, brz wheels.... Lol

Edited March 9, 2018 by Thor294

What does Delta actually do to the cams and how much power or torque does it make? Thanks.