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Hold_Fast's ESP/SM/AutoX/Track build. Because race car.

63K views 404 replies 23 participants last post by  A265 
#1 · (Edited)
Hold_Fast's ESP/SM/AutoX/Track build. Procastination racing.

I figured it's time to finally get a build thread going to keep track of my progress and keep myself motivated to get work done to the car. It is officially no longer my DD, so I've decided to start driving it like it's meant to be. With a few autox events under my belt, I'm going to start getting more prepared for next season in ESP and to start doing some HPDE's.

Now with more F Prepared goodness.

2004 WRX wagon - Gutted and lightened

Sponsors: Me

POWER
EJ255 w/ intake AVCS disabled
Borg Warner EFR6758 w/ 46mm restrictor
Tons of Heat Wrap

Driveline
Trans built by Rallispec, all the diffs, all the bushings

Brakes
Big light ones

Wheels
2 sets of 18x9.5" with 275/35/18 Hoosier A6's



 
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#2 ·
In my efforts to knock my first item off my winter list, I placed the following order from TiC:

MSI wagon lateral links w/ TiC bushings
MSI/TiC Groupbuy Deposit
TiC Trailing arm bushing bundle
WL Steering rack bushings
TiC Tranny Crossmember Bushings

The group buy deposit is for the MSI DSS. Check out the group by and save some money!

MSI & TIC love child group buy!!! - NASIOC
 
#5 ·
Yeah, the ST Coilovers are next on my list. I can get high spring rates straight from the factory too, so I'll probably be shooting for a 8k front/7k rear set up. Then see how mow sway bar I need after that.
 
#6 ·
Box of goodies from Turn in Concepts.



Now if only my landlord would clear out my garage space...
 
#7 ·
With the beautiful weather this weekend, I attempted to swap out my rear trailing arm bushings and do some rust repair to the arms this weekend. Despite a 24 hr soak of PB Blaster, I couldn't get enough torque on the bolts to get them loose. It might be time for a new high-lift jack. But I'll be back another weekend for you...



But I did finally get around to removing that under-hood-insulation thing.



If anyone stumbles upon a good deal on coilovers or has any suggestions, let me know!
 
#9 ·
They are somewhere on my list. I should swap them out when doing the lateral links, but that would make too much sense.
 
#10 ·
You should stick with a good spring/strut combo. Any $1000 coilover isn't worth the metal it's made of.

How did you get the '04 STi Brembos to mount up? Do you have some sort of adapter?

And what's up with the end of the thread title "Because race car." ???
 
#11 ·
I was contemplating a spring/strut combo, but I can't really find anything that will allow me to use higher spring rates (seems like people have found more spring, less sway bar to work well for autox). I've looked into the kits offered by Ground Control as well, but they seem to get mixed reviews.

That's why I figured I would give the ST Coilovers (rebranded German KW Varient 1's) with nice high spring rates and camber plates a shot. This package comes out to roughly $1700, and I will at least have a nice set of GT Worx camber plates once I can upgrade to something more aggressive/$$$.

Thoughts?

Also, the 04' front brembo's bolted right up. Just need to use the caliper bolts that came off the STi, get some 04' rotors, do some slight heat shield modification, and you're done. Pretty easy actually. I'm running the 07' wrx rear 2 pots for now, till I decide if a BBK is in my future.

"Because race car" is just a joke going around NASIOC that I found amusing. :rotfl:
 
#12 ·
I don't understand what you mean that you can't find anything that will "allow" you to use higher spring rates. Just get shorter and stiffer springs and sport/HD struts to match...
 
#13 ·
The stiffest springs for a spring/strut combo that I can seem to find is the RCE Yellow springs (~380lb Front/~325lb Rear). While these would probably be OK, if I went with a coilover setup, I can basically pick whatever rates I want to fine tune the suspension more if I wanted to. Is there another vendor or setup that I'm missing?
 
#14 ·
Going to bump this for the MSI/TiC group buy going on right now for an autocross legal front control arm bushings & aluminum housing.

OMG an affordable MSI part!!!! - NASIOC

If the group buy hits 50 people, MSI will raffle off one of their subframes (worth almost $2k!)!!!!
 
#15 ·
Pre-Christmas bump.

Just got a great deal on some very lightly used carbotech brake pads, so those will be going on once summer hits. Pretty excited to try these out. But I missed out on a deal to get a full set of used ground control coilovers, so I'll still be browsing the classifieds.

I'm also looking at some cheap rental garages so I can hopefully *fingers crossed* get some work done this winter.
 
#16 ·
Just got a great deal on a Eibach 22mm rear sway bar and end links,so now I just need to figure out what I want to do for the front. Why can't I find a sway bar bigger than 22mm for the front of a wagon? If someone else knows of a company that makes one, let me know.

Also going to drop off a rental application for a cheap rental garage, so I can hopefully start getting these parts on. It's a huge place, so if anyone in the area ever needs to work on their car indoors, let me know! :)
 
#19 ·
#27 ·
I'll look into the Perrin's. The Kartboy's are cheaper, and I won't have to modify them for the wagon control arms. But, my local shop (JSC Speed) carries them, so I know I can get them locally.

I added a new goal for this winter. Weight reduction. After reading through a couple threads on NASIOC about all the crap people pull off of their cars to shed some serious pounds, I figured it's another good thing to put some time into. So as I start going through the engine bay this weekend and pulling apart the interior, all useless brackets, sound deadening, and other nonsense will be removed. I'll try to document the total amount I removed as I go.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Just saw the first Philly auto-x is March 18th. Time to get my ass in gear. :)

I've had my little work shop leased for about a week now. I'm hoping to get the intake manifold & TGV's pulled this weekend, and get them up to Ryan at Area1320 to do some P&P on the manifold and delete the TGV's. From there, I'll have a thermal coating applied to both from Liquid Powder Coats.

Then, to focus on suspension....
 
#29 ·
Builds coming along =). Good luck!

I helped my friend replace a bent rear trailing arm a few weeks ago. Removing that ~10" long bolt from both of them required 2x cast iron vices (one broke), a saw zaw, a torch, half a can of pb blaster I swear, a few various sized hammers, and a crap ton of patience. In the end, it appeared that the bolt had seized to the metal sleeve within the bushing on the trailing arm we weren't replacing. Ended up pressing out the other bushing with two sockets and pushing it into the end we needed. The bushings are slightly different, but its better than what it was.
 
#30 ·
Mother of god. How many miles did he have on that thing?

I'm hoping that a multi-day soak in PB blaster will help loosen things up. I also just got a 3' steel cheater bar for my breaker bar :)cool:), and if that doesn't work, I'll take a torch to that SOB. But I'm praying it is easier than your experience.
 
#32 ·
Thanks, I'm sure I'll be posting about my experience regardless...

But any friend who is willing to buy me parts (regardless of the ball busting involved) is a good friend by my standards. :rotfl:
 
#34 ·
^Consider it done!

Just ordered some gaskets and things for my manifold/TGV work. New:

- TB Gasket
- TGV>Manifold Gasket
- Manifold>Head Gasket
- 3mm Phenolic Manifold Spacers

I'm looking forward to seeing how well the spacers perform. If they can keep the manifold cooler during events this summer, an 8mm set may be in my future.
 
#35 · (Edited)
I'm looking forward to seeing how well the spacers perform. If they can keep the manifold cooler during events this summer, an 8mm set may be in my future.
I chickened out when I went to install the spacers that I was going to use last summer. The pins that align the intake manifold would have been rendered useless with the spacers. I was also concerned with clearance with the PW TMIC. That is a tall IC.

The TGV deletes have had no effect on cold morning starts. Got down to 11 recently - the WRX ran fine.
 
#36 ·
I had problems with the spacers as well, but came up with an ingenious solution.

I took a coat hangar, and trimmed it into 8 straight 10mm-ish pieces. I put each of the pieces of coat hangar into the pins that are there to hold the gaskets in place. Then I put the gasket, the phenolic, then the gasket with the pins going through the alignment holes. This lined up the bolt holes perfectly, and allowed me to get the intake manifold/TGV combination bolted to the heads. The coat hangars are still there as far as I know, but they're not noticeable, and they took a 4hr headache, and turned it into a 15 minute job.
 
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