Project WRX

[Maengelito]

nice, I'm rockin' those exact same wheels for my snow tires.

[flintster55]

Now that im part of the 100k club, me and a buddy (luckily an ASE technichian, woo!) are planning to attack replacing the timing belt, water pump, a few seals and other goodies tomorrow night. This is the first major thing I've had to do to the car since owning it but I'm kinda looking forward to it. I'm going to try to snap some pics of the process if I can.

Also, I new powerslot front and rear rotors will be going on with Axxis Ultimate pads later this week hopefully. Anybody have any good bed in tips?

[WRXtranceformed]

Anybody have any good bed in tips?

Yep, follow the instructions to a T. Find a neighborhood somewhere close to where you are that you can do the proper speed ups and slow downs without disturbing traffic. Good luck!

[JohnC]

Now that im part of the 100k club, me and a buddy (luckily an ASE technichian, woo!) are planning to attack replacing the timing belt, water pump, a few seals and other goodies tomorrow night. This is the first major thing I've had to do to the car since owning it but I'm kinda looking forward to it. I'm going to try to snap some pics of the process if I can.

Me, Maeng, and another friend did the timing belt on my WRX a few months ago. It took a few hours, and we were going pretty slow - I've only got a few tips:

1) A long (4' or more) piece of pipe will "motivate" the crank bolt... I tried with a shorter breaker bar but ended up just slipping the flywheel against the clutch. More leverage let us apply mo' force mo' quickly.

2) Pay close attention to the timing marks on the belt and cams. Use a mirror on a stick to make sure the ones on the passenger side are lined up correctly.

3) If the cam/crank seals aren't leaking and look ok, don't worry about replacing them. Mine looked brand new, even at 105k miles.

[flintster55]

So the timing belt project wasn't nearly as bad as we assumed it was going to be. It only took us 3 hrs to replace the belt, cam seals, water pump, t stat, hydraulic tensioner, and a few pullies as well as flush the cooling system. We went ahead and did everything as preventative maintenance while we had everything apart. Come to find out the hydraulic tensioner was leaking which couldve lead to a big time failure down the road. The t stat was leaking slightly too. The actual timing belt was a little chewed up on the smooth side which made me really thankful I took care of this before going back to school and that I didn't put this project off at all (I was actually only at 102k not the scheduled 105k.)

A few pics

Woo parts everywhere


New hydraulic tensioner


Buttoning things back up


Chewed up belt


All in all, a cool learning experience. Hopefully she'll be good for another 100k

[WRXtranceformed]

Makes you wonder why so many automakers still use belts instead of chains huh? I understand the belts are quieter, but it would be nice to not have to change them at all.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Oh I hate you and easy timing belt changes...

[flintster55]

Makes you wonder why so many automakers still use belts instead of chains huh? I understand the belts are quieter, but it would be nice to not have to change them at all.

Yea seriously. Especially on an interference engine where if it breaks it cause serious and expensive problems.

[ScottyB]

nice job, i don't know if i'd have the balls to attempt a t-belt yet...

[flintster55]

At last a cure for my "glass tranny" :twisted:

[WRXtranceformed]

Nice what did you go with?

[DavidL]

Cant wait to see how you like it!!! LGT 5 speed right?

[flintster55]

Nice what did you go with?

Yep it's a 5 sp out of an '05 LGT. It has a bad case from the throwout bearing tearing it up so I got it for really cheap. I wasn't planning on using the case anyway because it requires different axles. 1/2 and 3/4 are a direct swap into my case so that's what I'll be doing. The gears are slightly taller (especially 1st) so I should be able to actually see more boost in the lower gears. They're also quite a bit stronger. Some guys run these trannys with 400 hp with no problem at all where as my 02 WRX box starts to have problems around 250 hp. All the LGT also comes with triple cone syncros also so I'll actually be able to get into first gear without being completely stopped too which I'm looking very forward to.

[ScottyB]

wow awesome find, let us know how it goes!

[flintster55]

Tore down the LGT tranny last night and everything looks great. Syncros and shift forks almost look brand new. A new clutch is also sitting here waiting to go in. I'm planning on pulling the tranny and swapping the gearset over and doing the clutch all tomorrow night. Then get the flywheel turned Sat. morning and button everything back up.

Many pics to follow!

Also, do new clutches have to be broken in? This is an OE clutch made and it is made by Exedy if that helps.

[ScottyB]

Also, do new clutches have to be broken in? This is an OE clutch made and it is made by Exedy if that helps.

i've heard some do. its mostly just not launching right away or slipping excessively until the clutch material beds in.

[Dave]

an OE/organic should theoretically not need any form of break-in (remember, this is the compound marketed toward the general masses) but I would still go easy on it for at least a few hundred miles. Keep the revs low for the first several heat cycles, no heavy launching for a while, etc.
Just go out for a ride and abuse your car for a little bit to get it out of your system before you do the upgrade/new clutch :-).

[Mike]

meh, no break-in necessary IMO.

[xvxax]

I went easy on my organic for 300 miles, not over 3500rpm etc.

[flintster55]

Alrighty, I've been really lazy and not updating til now but we got everything finished up friday night. We started at around 4:30 and finished up around around 1:30. That includes an hour for dinner break and about an hour going to the machine shop and turning the flywheel. So total wrench time was around 7 hours or so.

The LGT trans had a bad case from where the throwout bearing tore it up. And according to the Subaru Tech I bought it from it had around 40k on it and was actually driven by a middle aged lady. But in short we swapped over the guts of the LGT trans into my 02 WRX trans. The LGT input shaft was a direct fit into my box so we just swapped that over. For the output shaft, we had to take it apart and swap the gear cluster over to my output shaft because my WRX has a 3.9 front diff as opposed to the 4.11 in the LGT. We also had to swap the 3/4 shift fork and rail from the LGT to match the spacing of the gears. We also used the center diff from the LGT because it had 40k on it versus my 107k. We also replaced the clutch, pressure plate, TOB, pilot bearing, rear main seal, input/output seals, and axles seals.

Onto the pictures- Sorry some are blurry andthe lighting wasn't exactly ideal.

Tearing down the Legacy GT box


LGT box exposed


Input and output shafts, and front diff removed


Old clutch and pressure plate


Flywheel- Yay for hotspots from 5200 rpm launches :lol:


Freshly turned flywheel


My WRX trans ready to go under the knife on the makeshift work bench


My empty case and parts everywhere


Dropping the shafts in and testing for any binding


Fully assembled ready to seal back up


We somehow found places for those 50 loose screws and ended up with a finished product


All in all a great success. No real snags along the way either. The syncros of the LGT gears are amazing and require hardly any effort to shift even with my short shifter. I can go to first now at pretty much anything under 25 mph versus previously grinding unless I was completely stopped before. I also babied the clutch for about 200 miles but finally did some spirited driving last night and everything held well. 8)