92wagon's Logbooked 91 Rally Car build

[92wagon]

I bought this car as a nasa logbooked rolling chassis back in 2020. It's been quite the undertaking to get it back to its former glory but were almost there......SIX years later...

Its a 1991 Legacy Turbo shell that was caged and raced in Florida then ended up being sold as a rolling chassis to a rally driver in North Carolina where its sat under a tree for two and a half years untouched until I bought it on FB marketplace for $2,500 and had it shipped to Maine.

For Sale ad and pictures of the car how it arrived to me.














When it arrived in my driveway!






The Next Morning I set to work cleaning it out and figuring out what was actually there.



More to come soon!

[Legacy777]

Wow, that looks like a lot of work.....a labor of love.

[92wagon]

Wow, that looks like a lot of work.....a labor of love.

it sure has been. A lot more updates to come!

[92wagon]

Once cleaned up and sorted through I had a box with what was left of a wiring harness an ej22t ecu a dashboard to remove and a "chicken pillow"(which still hangs in my garage!!)



At this point I could really see what I was working with. I set to work taking out what was left of the existing wiring harness, dashboard and steering column as well as moving the gas lines from between the cage and the door to inside the cage so there would be no lines compromised in case of impact(this is also in line with ARA competition rules). While the car was empty I re painted the entire floor.







As you can see in this photo the gas lines have been re routed to the inside of the cage



With those tasks completed I shifted my sights to taking apart the parts car to do a complete wiring harness transfer.



Next up we'll look at harness transfer, mass parts buying and more!

[92wagon]

Ah yes.... the forbidden spaghetti. I took the entire wiring harness out of a 91 Legacy L wagon and transferred it into the rally car with no real problems. There were a couple weird things with the rear lights but I was able to get those sorted with a friends help.











I also took the pedal assembly from the 91 donor wagon as well.



I started to make a list of what parts i needed to order and decided that I would rebuild a ej22 I had laying around. At the time the engine had roughly 170K on it. That was a replacement engine in my Ti Outdoor wagon! I ordered a ton of new Misc bolts, a gasket kit, timing belt kit, water pump and oil pump when it all arrived I set to work.












More to come soon!!!!

[92wagon]

Now that the engine is built I went on a shopping spree! I ordered a clutch brakes and a couple axles. I ended up ordering brakes for a 98 impreza RS for a small upgrade over stock. Not really sure it made a difference or not. The biggest difference was ordering Porterfield race brake pads(R4-S AP721 fronts and R4-S AP471 rears) all in all I really tried to keep the build very user friendly. I.e. No unobtainium parts for ease of finding parts and fixing at an event as needed.





Now that the clutch was in house I set to work on the transmission install. After a little parts R&R I had a friend help with the install and it went into the car with no real fuss! (also if you don't have a sled to take your transmission on a walk while it's out of the car... What are you even doing?)





















As always! More to come soon! Thanks for looking!

[92wagon]

With the Transmission installed, the engine built and the clutch installed it was time to put the motor in the car! With my wife and co driver we got the engine installed no problem. It also helped that the previous owner of the car cut the top rad support for easy access of getting a six cylinder in and out.







Now that the engine was in it was all about getting everything connected, plumbed up and filled with fluids to give it an initial start up.

Heres a video of the first start up. With my buddy Evan and my Wife! Don't mind the dorkiness. I was super excited!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJfaLNV3OgY
IT RUNSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since the first start up went well... although super valve ticky....I did a little research and found that If I let it run for 30 minutes to an hour the valves should co operate. So that's what I did and Viola! They quieted right down!.... But I had another issue. After letting it run I parked it in the garage. The next morning I set to work on the car again but I noticed a small bit of oil on the floor.... I took a look around at the bottom side of the engine and saw the oil was coming from somewhere inside the timing cover. Time to take the timing cover off and investigate.



I found the culprit. The seal on the oil pump got a little messed up on install. I was actually able to fix the seal and get it all back together!





With the seal fixed and the oil pump reinstalled it was time to reset the timing and put everything back together!





As per usual! More to come soon!!

[92wagon]

With everything re installed and put back together I moved on to getting the dashboard in place.. Any other car no big deal. Rally car. Headache City. I spent an entire day cutting and fitting and cutting and fitting and cutting and you get the point. Trimming everything around the windshield bar was something Id rather not do again After all was said and done I was able to get it installed! No room for heater core or AC since the windshield bar was in the way of the mounting areas.



As you can see here the windshield bar is right where the speedometer cable meets the back of the dash cluster. That's a story for another day as well.




I used the stock wheel as a place holder until I got the quick release and wheel in the mail.





Also as you can see the transmission isn't installed in these photos. I'm putting this build journal up a couple years after the build. So timeline of build events is a little fuzzy. I'm remembering all the huge points in the build though. This dashboard was a p.i.t.a.

[92wagon]

SEATS! Ordered Seats from Ireland. One OMP RS PT2 and one Sparco Circuit 2. Also ordred 2 RRS Harnesses and 2 planted bases. once all came in it was time for install!











As I found out installing racing seats in a caged car is also a giant pain in the ass
It too quite a bit to get everything correct and fitted but after a while of installing and uninstalling to move things around it finally worked out!

Not a huge update but a huge undertaking! More to come soon!

[Legacy777]

Thanks again for sharing all this.

[92wagon]

Thanks again for sharing all this.

You're more than welcome! Thank you for Keeping this place up! I'll be posting more updates soon!

[92wagon]

SUSPENSION TIME!
When the car arrived it was just a roller on some crappy old forester suspension. I was lucky enough to find some Bilstein Universal Motorsport struts with Eibach springs and EXE-TC camber washers. TIG welded brackets and Nickel Plated finish. on FB marketplace! I purchased Group N top hats as well. Finished off with 98 RS brake rotors/calipers and goodridge braided brake lines. I also had to hub swap the rears from drums to disc.







Moving on to tires. I bought 8 MRF ZDM3 Medium compounds. Mounted them on repainted phone dials. Used Grimspeed gold for the color.