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2005 Legacy GT Back to Life Thread


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Alright everyone, a little update on the rebuild/swap thread. The ej20 is in the car and all hooked up! I finally was able to get a bellmouth made for the vf38 flange that I bought from kingugawa turbo. My current plan is to cut off the bellmouth from a dp that I bought meant for the vf40 and merge the 2 pieces into each other. Vband with a short flex joint added to vband on the other end since the angles between the two are different.

 

Currently with the bellmouth hooked up the car idles rough under 1000 rpm and will kill itself when not up to temp, but over 1000rpm it idles very smooth. I'm assuming the ecu is just dumping fuel because it still thinks that the car has tgvs, vf40 and the half liter more displacement. I'm hoping this will be fixed once the jdm ecu is swapped over.

 

My car is an 05 manual, and I wanted to confirm part numbers for the jdm ecu that I should be looking to buy (If I can find one....)

 

Part number# 22611AK221

 

I've been looking all over eBay and jdm importers and can't seem to find an ecu that is manual trans specific. There are auto ecu everywhere. I'd assume that if I did buy an auto trans one it could be reflashed for manual software?

 

Anyone have any reccomendations on where to find a manual ecu??

 

I also wanted to mention the shop I went to in Fargo, Madfab Manifolds did very nice work and I spoke with them about the possibility of a group buy because there isn't really any aftermarket downpipe options for the vf38 currently that are reasonably priced. They said if 12 or more people are interested they would be willing to make something work for a group buy. They created a vf38 flanged bellmouth to a 3 inch diameter exhaust with a v band for the rest of the downpipe. The cost for the bellmouth was 200$ plus the vf38 flange for 25$ from kingugawa turbo.

 

Once I have a jdm ecu for the wiring I'm thinking about the possibility of utilizing the existing wiring from the tgvs to connect the exhaust avcs together. Since the tgv wiring is already connected to the ecu it seems pretty simple to swap the pins into the correct place onto the jdm ecu. Then adding the wires from the avcs to the tgv plugs and repin the plugs. I need to check the wiring diagrams again to confirm but it does seem feasible to do and save the headache of running the wires through either the Brown or bulkhead connectors. Will be back with more info on this once I find an ecu.

 

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It's been way too long since I've posted any updates with the car. Life got in the way the last year and a half (in a good way). To start out the jdm ej20 swap is overall completed (running the jdm ecu) other then finishing the exhaust side avcs wiring.

 

I have been daily driving the car now for a few months and it runs and drives really well considering the exhaust side avcs isn't connected yet. The car really doesn't have much power until 3500-4k then it really pulls nice!

 

For running the JDM ecu I had a family friend that is good at soldering remove the eeprom chip from the USDM ecu and resolder it onto the jdm ecu. The chip is located (see attached photos) on the lower right corner of the board. The chip will have L56R stamped on it. Although this process is somewhat tedious it can be done! The chip has 8 "legs" that attach it to the board. I highly recommend using flux on the soldering iron when desoldering the legs as it slows the time of cooling on the soder on the pads on the ecu. This greatly helped with desoldering the legs off of the board. Be very careful when lifting the chip off of the board as the pads on the board are VERY small and can attach themselves to the soldering iron (know this from experience).

 

****DISCLAIMER**** DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ECU WITH THE JDM ECU TO MAKE SURE THE CHIP NUMBERS MATCH!!!

 

JDM ECU Number for a manual transmission 22611AK221

 

I was very surprised that the two ecus have the same numbers stamped on the boards (112231-6810) So maybe there is a workaround here that I don't know about with flashing a jdm map onto the usdm ecu and running the additional wires. I know this has been up for debate that the two ecus don't have the same hardware but to me they looked identical. Maybe someone more knowledgeable could chime in.

 

Fast forward to early March and I was cruising to work and I heard a pop and then the turbo (vf38) stated to make a compressor surging sound. The car drove just fine. Well that was the beginning of the end for the turbo. I did some investigating and didn't find any boost leaks as the sound would come and go. I drove it the next couple of days and the sound was gone and a day later it was back. So, more investigation. I took off the downpipe and "OPE", oil coming out of the turbine side and the turbo as a lot of shaft play. Time for a new turbo I guess...

 

This is where it got sort of complicated. I wanted to keep the twinscroll setup for the responsiveness, but finding a vf38 to most likely have the same issue again didn't seem reasonable. And since the vf38 is ball bearing they can't be rebuilt. After some research I found MambaTek Turbo and read a lot of great reviews so I ordered a TD04HL-20T as a replacement to the vf38. Shipping was very quick, less then a week. The turbo is great build quality and came with braided oil and coolant lines and all of the necessary hardware.

 

 

Link to turbo:

https://shop.mambatek.com/GTX-Turbo-SUBARU-BP5-BL5-Legacy-Liberty-TD04HL-20T-9-Blade-001-0371.htm?categoryId=-1

 

Currently as of 4/4/2020 I am in the middle of the turbo swap, waiting for a new turbo inlet to arrive early next week. I will report back when I get the car up and running again.

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Edited by maxspeed3
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What are the other two bolt holes for on that tab on the up pipe flange ?

 

Have you thought about bolting the turbo to the up pipe as I do ? I find it much easier to line up the inlet tube, up pipe and oil return hose at the same time.

305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD).  CHECK your oil, these cars use it.

 

Engine Build - Click Here

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What are the other two bolt holes for on that tab on the up pipe flange ?

 

Have you thought about bolting the turbo to the up pipe as I do ? I find it much easier to line up the inlet tube, up pipe and oil return hose at the same time.

 

I'm not entirely sure what you are asking. The uppipe on the twinscroll setup uses 6 studs on the uppipe flange to mount the turbo to it.

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Very nice thread, a lot of work! Did you ever get a new turbo installed and working ok?

 

Engine overhauling gets expensive quick! I can understand why you went with a JDM motor; they usually have very low mileage and are in such great condition.

 

I myself am in a similar boat considering whether to overhaul my 212K mile motor vs getting a JDM ej20X for what seems a very good price they go for, until I saw this recent video posted on the Flatironstuning website:

 

https://www.flatironstuning.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-ej20x-ej20y-engine

 

There seems to be much confusion on how to get them to run properly here in the U.S., since they have dual AVCS and in Japan they run with 100 Octane gas due to the ej20X having much higher compression.

 

Would really like to know how your progress is going.

Edited by RumblyXT
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