Stingrae's Legacy GT

[Stingrae]

Cleaned up the heads over the weekend, really strange rust patterns. EX valves are coated in rust and crap, one IN valve will be rusty, and the other will look perfect on most cylinders. Looking at all new OEM valves, and may keep whatever valves are salvageable as spares.

Have been having a terrible time finding valves though. I only have a steel rule on hand, but as far as I can tell
IN - 36mm face, 94mm tall, 6mm stem
EX - 32mm face, 94mm tall, 6mm stem
I can't tell by how much, but the EX is marginally taller

These are the only products I can find that are similar, and they don't look very promising or have great photos. The EJ20H isn't listed as compatible either, but they might be the same as the ones on the EJ206/8, which are listed.
https://www.precisionintl.com/products/ ... 5094409411
https://www.precisionintl.com/products/ ... kW3LjoqJ7W

Intake valves is stamped 1251, can't make out anything on the exhaust. JDM hydraulic valves seem to be very difficult to find now. Haven't even found a parts manual yet.

Cylinder heads are coming along slowly, look to be flat but I don't have much on hand to test. Despite pitting on the back of some valves, all the valve seats are fine, I'm thinking that lapping new valves should be enough to clean up anything else.

Absolutely agree on the shampoo. I've got to rip it all out and clear all the bugs first. Now with the engine and trans out it's time to take the fenders off and clean it all. I've seen many restorations that have a fortune spent in the paint and then all the inside looks like every other 30 year old car.

There isn't much wrong with it. Cracked windscreen, worn dash, window seals, leather steering wheel has shrunk, bent bonnet and damaged front bumper. It came with a replacement bumper and bonnet but the bonnet has the same crease. Shouldn't be too hard to find replacements from gen2 liberties.

[El_Freddo]

If you’re chasing OEM valves partsouq.com would be your best bet. I use them all the time and would use them more if I had more money and time for projects.

Valves being OEM isn’t so important - no one will know unless you tell them, and even then, who cares?

Going for another set of heads might be the best option here - or hand them over to a machine shop to do all the work for you. Less headache for you in the long run.

I can imagine having all the bits of a vehicle restored at the same time being a big undertaking and a slap to the old wallet too. Paint is huge and to do it properly everything needs to come off the body. Interior can effectively be pulled at any time for resto work. But I get what you’re saying, I’d be in that bucket if I could get my cars resprayed!

Cheers

Bennie

[Stingrae]

I know nothing about the aftermarket companies for EJs, but most seem to be expensive and performance focused. I figure that OEM is my best bet for quality at an affordable price. As far as I know, valves are not a point of failure and can handle much more then the 7k redline - not that I'll be pushing it there very often. The hydraulic setup is self adjusting, and I would like as little maintenance as possible, although, if there is a decent block + heads for sale I would not be opposed to throwing the turbo cams in there and running regular valve rockers.

If these heads are good enough to keep, they will be sent off and resurfaced. I've been cleaning them up a bit to see if they're worth the effort. So far, they look flat enough to be resurfaced, and the seats look good enough that they don't need to be replaced. But it can wait for now.

I've moved on from engine work to the rest of the car. There's much work to be done, here's where I got up to this weekend



Would've got further but the weather has been miserable for the last few weeks. In addition to cockroaches, ants, wasps and spiders, the car is home to some geckos. Hopefully they'll get most of the bugs I can't see.

Will be stripping everything from the engine bay and giving it a good wash. Lots of dirt, but only a little rust in the door sills so far.

[Bumpty]

Oh my...
Props to you for saving this Legacy!

[El_Freddo]

Getting into it! Going all out for an engine bay respray while you’ve got the main gear out? Lots of work if you do but now is the time to do it…

Cheers

Bennie

[Stingrae]

Doesn't look like it needs a respray. Can't wash it out properly because of all the masking tape labelling but here's how it looks after a clean with a rag


Here's the rust so far. Don't want to jump to conclusions but I reckon this should be the worst of it.



Currently trying my best to wait it out for a good block to save myself time and money in the long run. We'll see how long I can hold off for.

With the spiders and dirt gone it's time to move onto the interior. God knows what's hiding in there.

[Stingrae]

Got stuck into the interior recently, lots of sand. Has definitely seen the beach. A little rough and stained all over, but it was a family car.

Noticed this one on the drivers door card.

I'll be on the hunt for some of the interior parts. Easier said then done.

Was about to clean up the throttle body and intake manifold and found this

NFI how this happens. Intercooler is spotless but everything on the manifold side is filthy. However it happened, it would explain why both sides are equally rusty, on the bright side I'm glad it didn't get to the intercooler and turbos.

The more I look into this turbo nonsense the less I like the modifications, would rather it be stock. I believe only the primary was 'upgraded' (larger) supposedly to spec of a later model (H gen2, R, 208) which would make 280 instead of 250. The gen2 EJ20H had upgraded injectors, that this definitely doesn't have (too much boost running lean?). I'll have a good look over the weekend, but there is no guarantee that the secondary turbo wasn't smaller, or that the handover (from primary to primary and secondary) wasn't gentler. This is all controlled by vacuums, so I'll have a hell of time getting concrete results without them all laid out in front of me.

I'm dead set on buying a good block rather than a cheap one and paying in machining. There is an EJ20X short block (Allegedly JDM under 90,000km) and an EJ20G closed deck near me that would be solid. The EJ20X would need low comp pistons and could quickly get out of my price range and skills. The EJ20G wouldn't save it from running lean, but would be more then strong enough, and has similar comp ratio/pistons. Asking price of the closed deck is $1000, I've heard that's a bit pricey, but it could just be the market now.

[El_Freddo]

Import monster could be your friend for the interior parts if they’re a different colour to the base model GX and LX models. New Zealand could be another good source since they got many special JDM vehicles over the years.

As for the block, the closed deck block is overkill for what you want. The NA block can be used too. You would need to swap the pistons (with new rings) for the turbo units, then slap you heads on. Bit of fiddling around but same end result for less money.
NA blocks and bottom ends are the same as boosted short blocks, possibly with the exception of some STi units.

I don’t know what the EJ20X block is, I’ve not heard of it before.

You know what you’re capable of or what you’re willing to learn along the way. I’m only sharing some options with engine blocks.

I don’t quite know what those throttle body pics are. It could be worth filling the coolant lines on the intake manifold (one end plugged) to see if there’s any leaking into the intake manifold from those. It would take a lot of water to fill up an engine block the way you found yours. Who knows how they managed that. Lucky the intercooler is higher than the throttle body in that regard.

Best of luck sorting out the factory turbos. I have no idea on the twins other than there’s two of them…

Cheers

Bennie

[Stingrae]

Will check out import monster.

There hasn't been much around Brisbane while I've been looking. Knocked some sense into myself and remembered that most 20Gs have been flogged and some have softening problems either with or without headgasket issues, but I'm always drawn to choosing the overkill options. The 20X is phase 2 despite its letter designation. It came on auto 2000s liberties. It looks like this

No oil cooler on it (or the H) because it's auto, but it's in great condition. The marks can't be felt and will take little work to clean up. Also got the twinscroll sump off him as well.

The bloke I bought it off happens to mad about liberties, he had 3 in front of the house and more in the shed. Had a good chat with him about these engines and he has some gen3 20G heads if I happen to need them. Here's a couple pics of the rockerless valve setup, apparently they're different to his housemates 95 ej20h


Would explain why replacement valves are so difficult to get a hold of. Looks like they weren't used after this.

This has been my introduction to EJs, turbos, and engine building (except for little go karts). Learning something new every time but don't want to go ripping it apart and end up out my depth. I was very keen to buy the first thing I saw but am happy to have waited for this. I have been told that there are phase 1 MLS headgaskets, will be checking those out.

Also had a look around for injectors, can't verify but the original injectors are 380cc and rated for 276hp, the later upgrade was 440cc and went to about 320hp (at 3 bar). In my entirely unprofessional opinion, that sounds close enough to be able to handle 280. There is still much to do, I'll worry about the 2nd turbo once it's together, it is entirely possible to drive around on only the primary.

[El_Freddo]

Nice one. The phase 2 blocks will run the phase 1 heads no worries. Bocks are basically the same - water pumps, coolant crossover pipe, cam belt idler gears and tensioner all interchange.

I’ve not heard of a phase 1 and phase 2 headgasket thing. So long as you’ve got the coolant ports matched to the head you’re all good. This shouldn’t change much between the two.

The phase 2 heads won’t work with your factory engine management and the phase 1 intake manifold that matches the factory heads. Between phase 1 and 2 they changed the bolt patter and the distance between intake ports left to right. So you can’t bolt phase 1 gen2 factory engine management and its intake manifold to the phase 2 heads.

Your engine and heads in the gen2 GT shouldn’t have rocker arms, they should have some form of bucket on valve arrangement. It could be hydraulic buckets, shim under bucket or solid buckets. I think it would most likely be the hydraulic buckets in your factory heads. AFAIK solids were and STi thing.

You choice of injector seems about right. I get a bit out of my depth when ppl start talking bigger turbos, injector sizes and tuning. I understand what’s required, I just don’t know the formulas that ppl talk about as if it’s a second language.

I’ve heard the secondary turbo kicks in very high in the rev range - and you need to be pushing hard for it to do anything, otherwise the primary is the heavy lifter between the two.

Much to look at and into!

Cheers

Bennie

[Subyroo]

Intake valves is stamped 1251, can't make out anything on the exhaust. JDM hydraulic valves seem to be very difficult to find now. Haven't even found a parts manual yet.

Stingrae, have a look at the first 2 links in this link... https://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=30531 the manuals are the same in both links just the top saves the posters bandwidth on the 2nd one.

Note: The site below is American, so parts will be expensive, but the part numbers maybe of some help to you.
This site maybe of some help to you... https://estore.subarupartswarehouse.com ... -2l-h4-gas

along with this one... [url]file:///C:/Users/supar/AppData/Local/Temp/Rar$EXa14984.31218.rartemp/Autozone%201985-1996%20Subaru%20Manuals/index.html[/url]