Well this morning I flew down to Jacksonville FL, test drove, bought and then drove back home with a 1991 Subaru Legacy Turbo Sport Sedan. The trip was mostly uneventful except for the drivers side front corner marker light deciding to spontaneously go awol at highway speeds, and the 20 mins of rain I had to drive through before Macon on tires that are at the wear marks. The car has "character" but it looks like it will be a reliable daily driver for starters. The cool thing about the car is that it comes with an EJ22T closed deck engine block, and the 1991 Legacy also came with an external oil cooler and rear limited slip differential. The car is also a 5-speed manual, and the clutch and gearbox at least "feel" good at this point. The car also came with a set of 1998 RS heads that the former owner was ponering using with the EJ22T. I'm still crawling forums for information about this. From the street it would be easy for someone to assume it was an older generation late 1980's Corrolla, except for the burbling exhaust which I think is louder than my STI. I'll be browsing the bbs.legacycentral.org (1991 to 1994 Legacy ) website digging for technical information and parts the car. I plan on doing a drain and fill of the fluids, polishing the headlights, replace the corner markers and getting new tires on the vehicle soon. I'm also going to look at getting a catted downpipe for the car along the lines of a Helix.
It's a white one. The body needs some prep and painting, she's no beauty queen but seems to run well, shift well, and pull strong.
I drove the car around town Sunday and so far nothing else has fallen off the car!!! :sx: My replacement corner marker lights are on order, which is a good thing, but I will need to polish and seal or completely replace the headlights, which are pitted yellow and cloudy. The light output is dim to the point of looking like ambient or mood lighting. I'm also looking for a cheap replacement power antenna and I think I found a pull-off from a Saab that will work. Today I plan going to the Troncoli parts department to get any stuff I may need like Subaru oil-filters, Air filter, Subaru engine coolant+conditioner and filters, crush washers for the transmission and oil pan, and ordering some Amsoil full-syntetic for it. The has been Mobile-1 in it as delivered, but I'm more of a fan of the Amsoil. I am going to wait a while on the 5MT fluid change. The shifting with the Uncle Scotty's mix is great on a transmission with 186K on it. Regarding recatting the exhaust; I've read that wrx downpipes will bolt right up!!
Tonight I was rummaging around on bbs.legacycentral.org and it looks like there were only 58 Legacy turbo sedans with the 5MT produced for the U.S. for 1991. Wow!! Link: http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=31219&highlight=letter+imported Message Text: PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 5:04 pm Post subject: Reply with quote Yea I know how rare she is but I did not know the stock engines were that good, and I had no idea this website was here otherwise I could have easily fixed her. Here is a letterSmile Subaru of America, Inc. (SOAMail@sun.subaru1.com) +Add contact To: menarf@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Product Information (E-mail #697981) Dear Mr. Hankins:Thank you for your recent e-mail to Subaru of America, Inc. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us. There were 58 Legacy Turbo Sedan 5-speed produced for the 1991 model year. I have updated our records and you are now listed as the owner of this vehicle. In addition, there is an open recall on your vehicle. I have printed a copy of the letter that was sent out to Subaru owners and will mail it to you. You can expect to receive this within the next couple of days. If you have any further questions, or should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Best wishes, Gina HolwellSubaru of America, Inc.Customer/Dealer Services Department-----------------------------------------------------------YOUR ORIGINAL MAIL: I would like to know exactally how many manual 1991 AWD turbo Legacy's like mine were imported to the US?Thanks, MichaelFirst name: MichaelLast name: Hankins That was what I got from Subaru of AmericaSmile Either way I do not know now I want to keep her and fix her up because of this sightSmile I will post some pics later.
Yeah, she's "in the rough" alright ..hehe.. I mean the car has character. I'll be working on: 1) replacing the welded-on single piece catless exhaust with a more normal catted one so I can smog and register the car. 2) halting some minor body rust 3) possibly replacing a power steering rack 4) getting wheels and tires serviceable ( the car hydroplanes in the rain) 5) replacing the cracked or awol front corner side markers 6) yellow cloudy headlights --some wet sanding with 2000 grit sandpaper with followup with some mystery polishing compound helped a lot. I probably need to remoce the lamps and repeat the process a couple of times. 7) see if the power antenna mast or mast and motor needs replacing. 8) replacing sun visors 9) painting the rear spoiler 10) I might want to do a stock wrx or sti strut/spring swap. I'm still researching this. 11) the rear window tint's bubbled up.. I need to remove it myself and have it replaced. 12) the interior meeds cleaning and at least a new driver's seat. But I have to say this car is comfortable and fun to drive.
What I've doen so far: Well the beater Lecacy is turning into my daily driver, and it's a very comfortable car. My action was to re-shoe the car with Fuzion ZRi's on 2004 WRX 16" rims. These rims look a lot better than they did on a WRX with stock RE92's. To maintain the stock legacy outer tire diameter 50 series tires were needed, and this makes the rims stand out more. Right after that I replaced the right and left front corner marker lights, and spent money on the longer endurance silverstar low beam 9004 bulbs. I also spent time wet-anding and polishing the cloudy yellowed headlights. They look a lot better now. but I'm going to make another round on these and polish and seal the lights. A week ago I purchased some takeoff STI v4/v5 struts with Prodrive springs and group N top mounts. (They're in-route.) Last weekend I finished the duct tape mod on the sunroof window, and it doesn't look too bad. It's a real plus not worrying about getting soaked during a downpour. I also think I found a place that will do good quality ceramic window tent installation ( including removal) for a decent price, so I may get the bubbling blue tint replaced soon too. Yesterday I installed used sun visors. I actually bought the car with no sun visors. Today I got my radar detector hard wired, checked to see that the antenna motor still worked, and test fitted STi floormats to the vehicle. I went ahead and ordered a real set STi of floormats, and I'm going to check on a replacement power antenna mast this week.
What I've doen so far: I also have a quote which seems reasonable for window tint removal and reinstall with ceramic tint from "The Pit Crew" in Marietta. The tint on the rear window is so bad I can barely see out of it so it's time to get it redone. I keep looking at the old-school subaru rubber ribbed shift boot, and I'm going to look into somehow swapping it with a leather one.
91 Legacy: STi v4/v5 struts, SPT springs Group N mounts installed I just got a set of used STi v4/v5 struts which came with matching SPT springs and group N topmounts installed in my 1991 Legacy SS today, and everything bolted up nicely, and it aligned fine. I took it for a spin on some of the back-roads around here and the ride quality and handling are greatly improved. I'm kind of WOW'd that a car that looks so much like a Corolla can handle so well with matched suspension bits!!!! The rear heaght didn't drop that much but I think the front was dropped by about 1.5 inches or more.
You need an updated picture, it looks sooooooo much better w/the "W" wheels and the more aqggressive stance
Driving home was great! The car feels much more solid and sure footed on the twisty roads, but the car could use some sways. We checked to see if the front swaybar that liquidforce offered up for a test fit would work but it doesn't , so I'll need to return it to him and scrounge for something else.