Leones 83 subaru 1800

[Leone]

Got this as daily hack. have fixed a fair bit of cancer. Ideal plan is to tidy up as much as possible without a full ground up build....maybe a set of custom rims.. dont have a lot of photos as such but here is one I took before I bought it.

The previous owner lived it so I'm continuing the legacy

 

 

 

Discussion thread

 

[Leone]

Geezzz.... its been a while since I updated this, continuing to fix rust in a 6 monthly cycle, the visor got stolen off the car sitting in my front yard in CHC so have replaced that, found some wheels off an old rally car with flipped centres, had them repaired and painted, got some lowering springs and wound down the tortion bars, managed to make the cover pic of a FB haha -  based on the pic below - must have been talking about wrecks  . The motor has been pretty tired for some time and i have been ummming and ahhhing about a rebuild vs some kind of late model replacement as conversion is pretty straight forward, I would love to diesel convert it but no real options that will work...easily.

 

Wish i had cleaned the wheels.....

 

 

 

[Leone]

Randomly going thru the box of reciepts i found an original owner's manual which had intials and a last name, bit of sleuthing later i made contact with the original owners. Both in thier 80's and still living in Dunedin, after a bit of a chat I asked if they had any photos or history of the car, they asked for my address, and i forgot all about it - fast forward a few months and my kids ring me exited to say that an eldery couple showed up to look at my car (and they showed them, in the shed...full rust repair mode with windscreen out, covered in newspaper and dust etc etc) they then left these photos and said it was a great car, all thier children learned to drive in it andused it for camping adventures

For some reason i can't add the photos to this post( but could to the one above) so will update it once i figure out the issue.

 

 

 

 

 

[Leone]

After the luck i had finding owner number one, i thought I'd try reach out to other owners using details from old invoices and once again success. 

I text the number and after a bit of exchange, they thought it was a bit scammy getting a text out of the blue from a random number talking about a vehicle that was some time ago.... anyways got some history and pics of the car to add here...

 

Which leaves I think two owners which I havn't managed to get ahold of, but it would be interesting to try and track them down... just to complete the story... this owner sold to the Americans and i got it from them, the owner was being deported from overstaying and the rust was extreme when I first got it but they were not even worried about it as it was nothing compared to what was on the road where they live in the states.

Might add pics here... the rust is extreme lol

 

 

History so far, pretty sure this is a NZ New built in Waitara, and shipped to DN, I know one of the people who was working at Subaru Dunedin doing prepurchase inspections/modifications like towballs as a pretrade or apprentice type work - he has a contact for me to reach out to see if any more history/stories of the old days selling subies, whcih could be quite interesting.

 

Original Owners >Sheehan Family possibly Wanaka based > Unknown woman in Glendhu Bay > this chap > Americans >Me.

[Leone]

quick restart of the laptop and suddendly pics are good to go.

[Leone]

Bit of an update to whats been happening here, reached out to one of the old owners and he has replied, hoping he will send thru some pics/yarns about the car, on mesanger and may not be a regular FB user so might take some time, patience is a virtue.

 

Also started dummying up an ej setup to a spare shell i have, am missing some parts if anyone has any junk lying around that was destined for the scrap bin, casually looking for the following in any condition:

pair of EJ twin cam heads/head bolts/cam covers - can be incomplete/cracked etc

pair of EJ engine mounts

Gearbox shifter/linkage and the rear mount piece it slots into

Gearbox mount

 

 

or if anyone has a wrecked (more likely blown up) quad cam Subaru they want to offload for scrap, please shout out.

 

 

[Leone]

Found a cheap ej22 to go with the gearbox, now the fun and games begin

[Leone]

Oops…. I slipped while surfing trademe. Now I’m prolly in trouble with the finance manager.

[Leone]

Thanks to a quick loan of @azzurros engine crane today to lift the motor over the rad support, engine is on the mounts.

Thought I took a pic of it sitting in the bay… appears not so here is one of it on the way in lol!

Looks like the jack mount has to go to fit the supercharger, but ran out of cutting discs so tomorrow mish now

 

[Leone]

a thread of misfortune.... its not great news... hopefully this can be saved... but i'm not holding much hope. gunna talk to the guy about a refund :Sigh:

 

Edit: engine turns over freely until it doesn't (gets to this point)

 

[Leone]

Bit of an update since its been a while...

 

I have cleaned all that rust out of the bore and have it turning over, my engine builder has advised it needs to be rebuilt so i have kind of just parked this engine until i find another suitable... otherwise i will get engine built but it will be the last thing that happens.

So engine sits in the hole but my mate gave me an almost complete turbo setup for super cheap so changing direction and will likely ditch the supercharger due to turbo being easier and likely better long term, but this does mean, engine + cross member out again to modify the crossmember for the uppipe - again a slight issue with no engine crane but will get that sorted another day....

Work has advised i have too much leave, so plan is to have a massive crack at this over the xmas break...and i really need to get this other shell out of the carport as its "an eyesore" LOL

 

The list of things to do - edit the more i write the more the list is growing - and I'm sure i have forgotten somethings

Buy/Source - if you know any mates who have these lying around id much rather test fit 2nd hand and then buy once i know its going to work...

- Exhaust manifold -Passenger side cast manifold from an early EJ20T

- EJ water pump from a factory turbo model - the outlet is different, I'm not sure what one i need - am hoping someone has an old stuffed on i can test fit before i buy new.

- EJ gearbox mount - the rubber piece that mounts between the steel mount and the gearbox.

- EJ clutch cable

- Find a solution to the speedo - current speedo is 10-17 ish KMs out so would love to get this super accurate + cert issue no doubt.

- Fuel system - mount pump and run lines - I'm not doing this twice so will have to wait until it transferred into the other car.

- Link + wiring - again this is really the last part and I'll just pay someone to do that, i have a stripped-down EJ loom so hopefully a pretty straightforward job.

- CV issue - i know there is a mish mash of parts that will work using factory parts so just need to find the ones that take the EJ CV on the EA axle - Thanks @keltik i see you have sent me some clues there to follow up on.

Modify/Produce

- Cut + weld a piece from the crossmember to allow the up pipe to fit, 

- Lengthen the Driveshaft, think its 250mm - will double check it.

- Manufacture a gearbox mount

- modify how the gearbox linkages sit/mount

- Send the power steering hoses to someone to get the fittings changed - what is the best option here? any recommendations?

- Exhaust from bottom of the dump pipe back

- Water temp and oil pressure sensors - someone electrically minded might be able to tell me what i need to do to run the EJ sensors, otherwise i will adapt the EA sensors to the EJ block via brass fittings... id rather keep it as tidy as possible.

- Driveshaft loop/s

- Intercooler mounts and routing of pipes etc. 

- Turbo oil lines - in and out - including a modified sump.

 

 

Alright have already wasted an hour of works time writing this up.... trying to remember what i do and don't need and what i need to do... HAHA, back to work i go... Will likely update this as i remember more things no doubt.