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pete25r's bugeye progress

48K views 211 replies 21 participants last post by  pete25r 
#1 · (Edited)
pete25r's bugeye progress

Short story:
2002 WRX Sedan
Mods:
3in TBE exhaust – cat welded in downpipe, Borla muffler
silicone inlet
silicone afta MAF
VF-39 with billet compressor and lightly PNPed
Grimmspeed up pipe, wrapped
AEM UEGO Wideband
Deatchswerks fuel pump - DW200 / 255LPH
Kartboy Short Shifter
Perrin? shifter bushings
tint
kenwood headunit with pioneer speakers
12" sub with amp
aluminum radiator
Kartboy Front and Rear Endlinks
Whiteline Adjustable Swaybars - 24 front on softer and 22 Rear on middle
Konis and RCE Black(7-23-13)
Group N tophats
Grimmspeed splitter
Grimmspeed TMIC
Grimmspeed IC Hose
OEM JDM Bugeye hood scoop
JDM Pinks
STI transmission mount
Group N motor mounts
Kartboy Rear Diff bushings
opensource tuned by your's truly

Stock:
everything esle

Long Story:

I'm a Subaru fanboy. I've had 3 80's models, loved each one. I wanted to get a turboed car so heck, I'll go find myself a WRX. Here's what I found (Feb 2011) License plate is photoshopped, dealer tag was there and ugly.




Underhood - TurboXS atmos. BOV, COBB SF with beatup, dirty filter, exhaust leakS



yeh, filter was supposed to be blue...


So you wanna see some wierdness? Someone welded a largish cat on the 3" downpipe. You might not be able to see in these pics but man-o-man them welds ain't pretty. The welds are structurally sound looking but more of the "bigger the blob, better the job" category.



From the downpipe back its 3" and looks like Borla, resonator in midpipe and dual tipped Borla embossed muffler. Sounds good, not to loud but sounds like it has a pair.

Paint looked good, somewhat fresh. Interior was ok, carpet was beat up, wholes under floormats. It was missing the clock, had a stock 6disc/tape radio, stock speakers, no guages, stock fog lights, wholes drilled in most of the "blanks" by the cruise switch. There was also an off brand remote start unit in it, still wired up just no fuse in the 12v+ line. There were also some other various rat's nests wired in under the dash. When I took it on a test drive I noticed there was a Cobb AP USB dongle-thing on the OBD-II port, no AP though.

I didn't know this until I went to a meet but it's got a short throw shifter with a kartboy sticker on it under the boot. And the boot trim has an STI on it and doesn't quite fit right, it's always falling down off the part that's supposed to hold it up.
 
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#150 ·
Did an oil change last weekend. Oil filter had black crap on it near wear it attaches to the oil cooler. I thought I might have an exhaust leak. Now I'm certain. Black crap and it ticks under load a little.

Thank God for the long weekend, plenty of time to play.
 
#151 ·
So I was able to pull my headers off yesterday to verify and locate where my exhaust leak is happening. Couldn't see any definite leakage sites but could see soot outside the gasket's ring. It looked like if it was leaking it was taking the long way to exit, it snaked around a little.

Last time I put new head to header gaskets on, two of the passenger side studs came out. The holes weren't stripped or nothing, just some rust or something torqued to the nut more than the stud to the block. Got those out and fixed them too. It's crazy how good some stock bolts clean up with a little wire brush action.

Since I had my headers off I did a quick and lame job of polishing the first few inches of the collectors and up-pipe joint. Didn't have gaskets for the crossover pipe or I would have done it up all the way.


Well the exhaust leak tick was gone the first test run around the neighborhood. After I'd been on the highway for a little while it creeped back, not as loud but there.
On that test run my car felt good and responsive again. It was feeling kinda off like it was a more serious exhaust leak.

And today I found out that my order from Grimmspeed that was supposed to come in on the 12th showed up yesterday afternoon while I was working on my car. The arrive sooner than anticipated part is awesome, just wish the wife told me they came in... they were in a cardboard mailer thing so I don't blame her.

PS. Got some rhino ramps from the Kmarts. they had them on sale($45?)
 
#154 ·
oh, ya know, just wondering what I was thinking when I slapped my last map top together. Timing tables are all fugly. I'm fixing it by tweaking the stock map's timing tables so I can have a "flat" KCA table. I was running too little timing or somecrap. getting a little bit of knock for no apparent reason.
 
#155 ·
yep

What the wife got me for Christmas.



It's a low clearance floor jack that goes up to like 18". It's gunna fun playing with it!


I had and exhaust tick so I decided to use my ramps to pull the headers off and fixorz the gaskets. That worked out pretty good but I found this while I was down there. The other side was worse, worse than it was a month or so ago.

Since it was looking crazy I cleaned it. Before:


After degreasing, cussing, and scrubbing:


Oh and on the way home from getting a haircut, I rolled into the 100k range. She rolled into 100k just like a good wrx should.. in 5th

 
#157 ·
Wow, that's a lot of oil on there...
Definitely more than I wanted to see. I checked the dipstick after I got it all put back together. It was on the L. I put a whole quart in there and it went above full. Don't know what's up with that. Maybe the oil was still trickling down when I first measured. Didn't think a quart would be the difference between L and just above full.

Planning/saving for a headgasket job. Not the funnest part of a build but it looks like I'll need it sooner rather than later. I think most soobs need a headgasket freshing around 150k. That's my luck though...
 
#158 ·
So what do you guys think about my oil leakage? Head gasket replacement time?

IAG quoted me a ballpark of 2500, which is doable and worth it. I would do it myself but it looks like a painful job. IAG also does the timing belt when doing head gaskets. I did mine at just over 75k because I heard whining noise coming from that area. The noise was my AC tensioner dying but I feel better being safer than sorriest.
 
#160 ·
I did just check yours out. You've been working at it a little harder than me.

I don't know why I didn't think of the valve covers being the source of the leak. (me=noob) There is a little bit of oil on where the head meets the block. Haven't checked it after the cleaning to see how bad it is. Didn't really clean the head to block oily-age either.
 
#161 ·
I saw that and I don't think soo I think we have both done alot��
Yes it does seem to be more like valve covers it could be dripping onto the head and working its way to below the headgaskets before dripping down so I wouldn't worry to much about headgaskets yet you still have low mileage
 
#164 ·
Got them gaskets on. It was a pain because of how tight it is down there.

I had to use a wrench on some of the bottom/back bolts, then contort my arm and hands so I could spin the bolt. Getting them out and then back in wasn't too bad. Just had to be real careful with the gasket goo.

Took me about 4 hours a side. I'm slow and I cleaned as I went. Did it over two days.

Hopefully it'll stop the leakage. Been through a few heat cycles and no noticed seepage yet.
 
#166 ·
wreckingball... <sarcastic font> should have crossed them fingers harder bruh..

driver's side is seeping a little from where the spark plug goes in. I did put a little RTV there but not enough or I scraped it off getting it on. There was none on there from the factory job so I didn't think I needed to gloop it on, just a thin coat to make some stickness happen. I'm going to try it re-do it soon. It's not leaking much but every drop counts and it ain't fun cleaning that crap.

Also gotta Grimmspeed up pipe inbound. I can't find what seems to be an exhaust leak and I'm tired of looking/working with the questionable up pipe(ebay?) that was on the car when I bought it. The current up pipe doesn't fit so good and has a flex joint that's really stiff. I guess they are supposed to be stiff but it has to be man-handled a little to get the bolt holes on the headers to line up to the up pipe.
 
#167 ·
Well yesterday I was able to get under my hood and pull off some hardware so I could have a looksy at my leakage. Well it appears not only leaving the valve cover's breather hose disconnect for a short run not only let it run funky (air leak) but also it dripped some oil down to the front sparkplug's recessed area. There were no signs of leaks, no oil-slug trails, no oil oozing from the spark plug opening.

UPS man is holding my uppipe for ransom. He hasn't send me a list of demands yet though.

Also been tinkering with my tune. I so forgot were I was on my tune. I need to takes notes as I go.

I need to get some pictures up.
 
#171 ·
been playing with tune. still having fun learning how to massage it. Also go a newer tuning laptop, went from netbook with 10" screen to 14" with a proper processor. Performance is good battery life sucks though. With the netbook and extended battery it said it had 7hrs of battery time. was more like 4hrs but hey... this laptop is like one. It was not expensive and is a bit of an upgrade.

need to get uppipe installed. got it wrapped and ready. just need to clean things up a bit under the hood...

need to redo my valve cover gaskets and/or the rubber grommets. something is leaking slowly. Maybe I didn't clean it good enough. arg...
 
#172 ·
Still playing with tune. Been taking my sweet time. I'll tinker on it a little one weekend and leave it alone for a while. Making progress though.

I've still got an oil leak I think. I've replaced the valve cover gaskets, found a loose bolt on my TD04's oil drain pipe. I need to get my lazy butt out there and dig around the engine bay for other stuff I can tighten up.

After that is fixed I've got a new uppipe to put on and some diff bushings that I couldn't get in because I ran out of time.

Still haven't blown my share of the tax return. hmm...
 
#174 ·
About a month ago I did the H6 brake upgrade thing. It's nice, stops a little more controlled and quicker.

I swapped out my seats with some less abused seats from an 05. The owner of the 05 seats had them as leftovers from a 818? build. 818 - that subaru powertrain based kit car.

I picked up a stock air box too. Had to find a hose to go from turbo inlet to box. That was a bunch of on, off, and trimming tell it fit. Still doesn't fit all that well but its good, no leakage.

I'm prepping to swap in some injectors I bought a while back. Got turbo plans.

I don't know what I wanna do first. I plan to go ELH and 16G. Both the oil pan and current turbo are leaking oil. The pan has been "seaping" for a while, it's old. On the turbo it's just the drain tube clamps have slid down. Them things are a pain to get on where they are supposed to be.

I got an uppipe I need to put on as well. Probably do that during turbo swap.

So what do y'all think ELH or 16G first? I haven't bought either yet.
 
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