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Brightons 3rd Gen Build Thread


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I now own a 3rd gen, woo! I've only been on the 2nd gen section but I just picked this up the other day.

 

This is the car in question, I saved it from being scraped, it runs but has air pockets in the cooling system, so it overheats quickly. The story is, it was owned by an old man who just dumped $3k into it, he had most of the cooling system replaced as well as all of the parts to the front brakes. But the shop didn't properly bleed the cooling system so the son of the now deceased owner gave up on it after it kept overheating and was going to scrap it. It's an 2000 Legacy GT wagon.

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/New%204_zpslvccnzhf.jpg

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/New%202_zpsjmxhf9x7.jpg

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/New%203_zpszfyk95xw.jpg

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/New%208_zpsx1wp6918.jpg

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Great find, good looking vehicle.

I am also in the market for a 3rd gen wagon, but w/ 5mt.

Have fun.

 

O.

 

Thanks! I have an 5mt in the garage but the plan is to put it into the 2nd gen and daily the 3rd gen, I don't really want to drive stick in stop and go traffic everyday haha.

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Short Update

The car hasn't been able to leave the neighborhood where I bought it, I'm storing at my old house and I've been going over there every couple days to burp the cooling system. I've done it 4 times so far and it's still bubbling and it takes 2-10oz of coolant each time. Also, the rad fan isn't engaging so I think I'm gonna have to turn the AC on to drive it home so the AUX fan runs. I've already checked all fuses and relays and I swapped them with working ones from other accessories like the fogs, so I'm pretty sure the temp sensor is bad or the fan motor is bad. It'll get up to temp and stay there a while and then after a short drive it'll overheat, so I'm thinking I'm going to try and burp it a few more times and then if I can't even get out of the neighborhood then I'll tow it home. I only have to go 5 or so miles to my home so either I have to plan out places to pull over and cool down or I just call AAA and see if I can persuade them to tow it home.

I also already started ordering new parts for it, got a master cylinder, and a bunch of tune up parts.

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I always pour coolant into the upper hose until the block is full. Then do the usual.

Leaving the front end elevated while it sits with the cap off will help.

I'd invest in the kit to check for exhaust gases in the coolant to rule out the HG.

 

O.

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I always pour coolant into the upper hose until the block is full. Then do the usual.

Leaving the front end elevated while it sits with the cap off will help.

I'd invest in the kit to check for exhaust gases in the coolant to rule out the HG.

 

O.

 

Thanks for the input, I do know that the lifting the front or putting it on a incline helps, I haven't been able to do that yet and I would have back filled the motor had I been the one to do the service. I am also like 60% sure it's got HG failure, but I just need to limp it home.

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The car finally made it home without overheating! Just kidding, I gave up and had it towed. The tow truck guy was a subaru guy too, and he tried to buy it off me haha. I'll get a bunch of pictures of it shortly once I can get it into the garage.
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I washed both cars today, and I decided that the 3rd gen will now be called the crustabu, since it is really nasty. I didn't even bother using a microfiber on the paint, given how dry the paint is and how much dirt is embedded in the paint. I'll have to do a full restoration on the paint at some point.

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/Crustaru%204_zpsgjxznm0u.jpg

 

I also degreased and pressure washed the engine bay. This is before

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/Crustaru%203_zpsyd3id3hx.jpg

 

and after two passes with the pressure washer

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/Crustaru%208_zpsfgiky5jr.jpg

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Short Update

 

I did an inspection of the car now that it's moderately clean, it's got a completely blown CV axle (as in, there are no internal components left of it), there's a decent oil leak and the one outer tie rod is blown out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Short update

I had a few hours of free time to spend on the car, I swapped the fuel filter and I initially wanted to replace the spark plugs, but I pulled all of them out, the previous owner told me he just had them replaced (which is BS)

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/GT%20Sube%204_zps53msvmsv.jpg

 

On top of the fact that the plugs look pretty horrible, they all also had oil in the spark plug tubes, and better yet, you can see that the oil seals are blown inward, which confirms that the HGs are blown and exhaust gas is pressurizing the cooling and oiling system. So I just cleaned up the old plugs, put some antiseize on the threads and put them back in.

 

On a better note, I went to the junkyard and got some small things I needed but I also found a set of UELs! They have some small cracks along the welds but nothing that can't be fixed, especially for the $15 I paid for them.

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/GT%20Sube%203_zpsrrgiisvy.jpg

 

I also robbed the intake off an 2nd gen legacy because I like the design a whole lot more then the ugly and massively bulky 3rd gen one. This is just a mock up, since I have to remove the 2nd gen MAF but you get the gist.

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/GT%20Sube%206_zpsqwiyeg9u.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

The older style intake is finally done and installed. It's been rainy and crappy here so I haven't messed with the car much. I've just been ordering parts for it and coming up with a game plan. But I finally got the air filter in the mail (Part number R88116 or 88116) so I installed the 95-99 impreza style filter assembly and got all the hoses run.

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/Intake%202_zpsznfu0uuz.jpg

 

The intake has 3 ports since it also came off a subaru, so plumbing up the 2 valve cover vents and the pvc vent was really easy. You only need 6ft of 1/2 hose and 2 inches of 3/4 hose since one of the intake ports was larger then the rest. I had to do a step down sort of thing and I sealed it with a little bit of black silicone as well.

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/Intake%204_zpsmh9brjry.jpg

 

It's a direct bolt in, the holes for it are already in the frame rail, so the install was easy and it uses a standard 2.2L filter. Also I just gutted the MAF and sealed it with black silicone to keep it from letting in air/water/dirt

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/Intake%205_zpsmmspodkk.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Small update

 

Just for giggles, I posted the car for sale as is just to see if I can sell it without fixing it because I don't really know if I want to invest any time or money in the car after all, so today I did an engine oil flush and then put in some new cheap sacrificial oil and a cheap filter in the off chance that the motor gets rebuilt, the oil can be reused for the initial break in. I also wiped down the interior and it really needed it (I need to shower now) and the car is actually idling smoothly even though it's blowing dry grey/black smoke out of the exhaust.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
05+ legacys and most subarus use blue coolant. if you flush it clean with distilled water you can run the blue stuff on your older subaru. it's a better coolant. better for head gaskets.

 

 

Oh I had no idea they switched to that, I honestly probably wouldn't bother with putting in the correct coolant and instead just put the generic green stuff in because I know whoever I sell it to will not bother to go to the dealer to get coolant for it and will just put green stuff in and mix it. So I'd rather use green just for the sake of not mixing chemicals.

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Update

The weekend was productive but pretty boring since I spent the whole time just cleaning everything.

I also borrowed a buddies rug doctor to shampoo the entire interior of the car, since after 200k, you can imagine what it'd look like. This was the trunk before and after.

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/day%203%207_zpsoqaczg50.jpg

 

 

http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t637/96Brighton/day%203%209_zpssvtdcxp9.jpg

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I am also on the fence about installing UEL headers I got. I personally would think that makes it resell better (since sounding cool is all that matters) but I don't know if a normal person cares about that kind of stuff.
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