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tirerob's MBP WagonX build up ball of thread.

12K views 73 replies 8 participants last post by  tirerob 
#1 · (Edited)
Well here we go, I finaly get around to building a build thread. would have started a bit sooner but i got the mod n fix bug worse than my old camaro(which was a second day job keeping it together as a daily driver) I just had to dig in, felt kinda outta place to stare at a car in my garage and not do Something with it.
Thankfully my little wagon came with a host of suprises right from the dealership. loose radiator hose after timing belt and water pump install. leaky fuel lines. baldish tires. Oh my:eek:

But damm if that wasnt just the start of it. ive done a few mods, fixed a few problems. changed a few things around just enough to call it 'my car'. and its great. future plans now are for getting out of the hard parts and into electronic tuning(with much help from the club) but those tools are still in the wish list. heck, at this point, my wish list needs its own build thread. oh wait...i can do that!

the list of things to come:

first and most important; Tatrix cable and a small capable laptop for tuning. and for books on tuning. my dinosaur laptop is capable but has issues. want something a little newer and more reliable for tuning. maybe by the time ive got a cable....my phone will be able to tune remotely.:whoa:

2. Grimmspeed Exaust. pnp factory iron headers to matching grimm cross pipe(got the up pipe already in) the new downpipe and finish with deleting the resonator.
3. Borla Hush. finish up 2 with some shiny class. had borla mufflers on cars for the last 20 years. most, i can still shine to mirrors with a bit of cleaner. others...i sold with the cars lol.
4. guage finish. have a boost gauge in, but if i am going to be tuning i need more than a code reader. so that leaves a need for WB02 and a pyrometer, plus probably a fuel pressure gauge. maybe more but the wb02 and pyro for sure.
5. new head unit. the factory 6disk is nice i suppose but i want digital storage or device controll. that, and outputs for loud...ive got a locker of stereo to install and no real way to get a clean signal to it. low on the priorities list but its days are numbered!
6. probably should be number 2 after Tatrix. clutch! i love the way mine feels, its a heavy foot(possibly aftermarket) and grabs like hell, but it studders like crazy and gets worse after city driving for more than half a hour. youz gotz to go to!
7. new drivers seat cover. got the usually expected wear and tear from being a rental car. (who rents out a turbo car anyway??:unhappy:) so replace drivers side seat cover and good. the rest of my interior isnt to bad at all suprisingly.
8. fab or pod for the new guages. unsure at this point.
9. paint! body repairs and paint! minor dent under the fuel door and hella bad rock chipping on the nose and hood. add a splitter up front and a difuzer in the rear plus a waist spoiler. why, dunno. i like the look of the mid wing?
10. maybe some moar low. id like to set the nose down about .75" or so to match fender highth with the rears and give the stance a bit of a rake. that or a shallow drop kit that levels the car the same way. probably keeping struts for the roads around here, i already like the way they ride.
11. hid. eithor morette's or jdm. kill deer in the road with laser beams if i can. need more bright!
12. bump for race engine.
13. bump for first scca solo event. i was sure id get one in this year with my friends over on the west side of the state but probably not. sokay, gives me the winter to get prepared for solo2 nest year. might take that long to figure out the rulebook on class specs, even with scca veteran friends.

well, thats the long list. now for some pics. most are past pics but ill get em sorted out eventually!



the day i picked it up, keeping good company

 
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#2 · (Edited)
hmmmm come on picasa. work for me.



hmm again. alas, i shall rest and try again on the morrow. this, or skewer the machine with a lance! ....or something

 
#3 ·
pics arent working for me

id like some pics of the hush and maybe an exhaust clip, outside car and inside cabin if you have time :)

check out the koji headlight mod, very easy to do, very inexpensive and looks awesome as an end result until u want to get jdm headlights, since youre on the waiting list for morettes lol.
 
#4 · (Edited)
yup, picasa fail, switching to flikrrrrrrrr. i love the koji mod lights! and whats this about the waiting list....boooooo lol. as far as the exaust goes, im still bone stock with polish.

oh, on a happy note. 3 of 4 mechanics at my shop drive subies. two 2000ish legacy ob and my wrx. the other guy? nuffin. borrowing the boss's buick while he looks for a subie :)
 
#5 ·
alrighty, got the pic thing straightened out. had to call in a ringer(thanks B!!!) woo pics!



my drive home today. and my pull road as well...provided its not blocked with slow tractors lol.
 
#8 ·
some of my first work on the WagonX

new plugs.


day three. now this is also with really leaking fuel lines and loose radiator hoses. thats about the time i stopped Google-lurking the club and signed up.




this was a hellova trip. four hour trip for Onstar FMV install. twenty minutes out i get two rock chips right next to the mirror mount, passing truck. get to the shop and the tech says...cant do it. the mirror is to heavy. (what???? four hour trip gone to heck?) oh wait...the jiffy lube across the parking lot fixes chips. get em patched and we'll stay late. COOL! so that done i head back and they do a great rush install job. meantime, im in the parking lot changing kTwn's sparkplugs to kill time. pity i only killed 45 minutes.
 
#9 ·
then, Christmas bonus check came.



yay box of first mods! heavily researched vs-wallet. turned out good. also, in tearing out the plastic turbo intake i fixed the last of the leaky fuel lines


even cleaned up the intercooler for reinstall.
 
#10 ·
oh yes. the snow. the day me and the wife drove the two day trip that should have been a seven hour drive to get my car, then the not as bad packed ice on the way back lead me to buy my first set of tires. slightly oversized from stock at 225-50-16 and left unstudded these got me around fine all winter. even facing some staggering snow drifts later at the house.



what i got with the car vs my new firestone winterforce. had a set on my camaro and even unstudded i rarely had trouble with snow. ice....well that car had a bent differential tube so it never drove great winter. but still, these are inexpensive enough and do a great job. glad i have them for the hole season this year.

because snowmobil
 
#11 ·
good by to bad design. hello spool!


so now i have this lol



i am glad i kept everything though. almost all the parts i replaced have been re purposed into other cars. my intercooler y-pipe went to kTwn, factory sub and hollowed out factory up pipe went to my friend in bozeman for finding my car for me.
 
#12 ·


had a small fitment error mounting my old front speakers in the doors.






a little bit of time with a drumel and a razor blade and tada. custom brackets to mount nearly 7" 6.5" cadence speakers. and i say barely on the back(window clearence) front(door panel) and sides(panel again.) lotsa trimming but wort it for the bigger sound.

the rear doors got the same panel plating of dynomat and a little pair of poineer 4's until i make the head unit and system upgrade. but even just this made a difference. little steps lol
 
#13 ·
i couldnt handle looking at this anymore



and i think this was at about two months ownership. i needed badges, so i chose the hawkeye set. problem was, they were set up backwards on the alignment panel they came on(very nice btw, got them from subie)



better. first exterior mod. just had to align them by eye....


not nearly as crocked as the picture looks.
 
#15 ·
Thanks! ....speaking of better running. here's where the warnings of small work places, hardened vacuum lines, ans sharp edges begin to take a price on the hands lol. i have had a returning cel that i couldnt hammer down. neithor could the dealer that sold me the car. evep leak, small. so they replaced the gas cap and cleared. for a while anyway. in fact, so did i. then, while replacing the turbo inlet, cut up like so which enabled removal without intake...


i run into this while removing the alternator.



oh lookie. a empty vacuum fitting! ...Oh my! a broken vacuum hose! right behind the alt. hmmm, where does this go?



oh? call in help from a subie dealer? sure! hey, parts gal, wassis? "A evaporitive fuel vapor duty valve. Do you have the vacuum hose routing diagram?"
"no ma'am sure dont."
"k ill send you a pic. phone or email?"
SWEET! thank you subaru of bozeman. great parts service. service......well kinda meh. parts likes racecar. service hates racecar. mixed reviews.?.? anyway




fixed and holding. that permatex plastic repair stuff is better than superglue. not pictured is the plastic prep.

the fuel lines, the turbo inlet, the reason i was there in the first place?




it got so late fixing stuff i passed on the intake this night and came back to it in the morning. without a cel or leaking fuel!!!
 
#16 ·
alrighty. turbo inlet(godspeed) and timc hoses. great combo job for a bug eye. great help from the club and nasioc on the inlet. finished trimming the tips of the vacuum hoses and pulled the inlet free with some twisting, swearing and soda. totally do-able without intake removal. unless you have a hard intake or one of the internal reinforced ones(perrin or samco maybe, cant remember) but my godspeed went right in.



one of the complaints about the godspeed. the jog at the turbo isnt enough/correct. maybe so, it wasnt a direct lego fit sure.


this was solved by a cleverly bent coat hanger in a loop. then just tug, pull, push, break for beverage, resume. success!


since intake is going in, so are the mishimoto timc hoses because factory-gory hoses haz to leave and the timc is off anyway.

oh yea, the timc is off...paint n polish!



recheck all clamps. recheck all new hoses arnt folded or messed up at the fitting end causing a boost leak. check the duty solenoid repair against the picture again. reassemble timc and snap pictures, all done

 
#17 ·
by the way, the 't' style timc hose calmps that came with the mishimoto hoses are extra-gynourmus. almost too big and boy can you crank on them. the odd one on my turbo to inlet fitting? well...thats a local find. got it from a pump supply store nest to the shop(hey, its all i could find within walking distance lol. the factory one sure in the *&^% wasnt going back in!) its rated to hold 200psi of water pressure. works lol, and still there. so far, no problems with boost leak. but! to my suprise i devoloped a non-cel cough in the motor under mid throttle and up! usually just one good sputter(off throttle) and fine, resume go petal.
the other godspeed problem? TI colapse? Noooeeess! wait. what was the gap for a 02 bug eye 2.0 again? .330? crap. not TI colapse! mis gapped plugs at the 'correctly gapped(for a n/a impressa) .550 inch plug snuffing was the culprit. cudoes to the club again, otherwise i had been concidering finding another intlet! regapped and win, no problems so far. course after each mod, ecu reset.

gotta luv the 40$ front strut tower brace. works great!
 
#18 ·


the picture of the vacuum hose routing for the duty solenoid sent to me from the parts gal.



the part that saved me. i could not for the life of me find this on the internet or the factory manual.
 
#19 ·
ok lots of reading. lots of research. i read the big bov thread in a day. the Hole damn thing lol. read about the up pipe. started plotting my next mods. saved a bit of money. purchased a Grimmspeed up pipe and a dollar worth of 2.2k ohm resistors at radio shack. oddly, my amazing new up pipe came with two turbo gaskets and my downpipe gasket. oops, slight delay. contacted grimmspeed and after one really short phonecall, fixed.

then, on to the install!



oh yea, shiny!



this was my route. removed the downpipe and exhaust as a hole.






thank god the cat is intact! but your outta there anyway. regrettably i didnt take any pics of removing the up pipe its self but, i had a Opps...wtf did i do here moment. got a little carried away removing the heat shield from the passenger manifold and tore thru the upstream O2 sensor(the one i just replaces a few days ago)


and fixed up really well. never tripped a code till the heater circuit failed. then, replace. yay spooling is now at the 2200-2300 rpm range and the car is waking up!
 
#20 ·
ok lots of reading. lots of research. i read the big bov thread in a day. the Hole damn thing lol.
:rotfl:

got a little carried away removing the heat shield from the passenger manifold and tore thru the upstream O2 sensor(the one i just replaces a few days ago)
dontcha just hate when that happens!?
 
#21 ·
now ever since i bought the car it has had a slight whine just after start and warm up. sounded like a idler pully gone or going bad. so more than a few times i hear this noise and get directly under hood. .... gone.ok what the heck. so i put the car to its first semi long road trip to bismark, nd. for a tournament. the whine happens as expected that morning. once on the road there. once back, then nothing again for a hole week and i am thinking something major is going bad. wasnt to far from the truth. thought i blew the motor comming home one night just second gear cruzing at 20mph. sounded like the motor came apart. rattles, crunching, knocking squealing metal on metal noise. well, 100 ft from the garage it got worse so i said f-&% and drove it in. posted. started it hood up, hear noise, shut down. pull the front cover off the left head. what the??


the heck, this is a brand new belt! like 5000 miles new! so i post again, something like, 'can a broken timing belt pully sound like a busted rod' and surprisingly got more than a few yes it cans. so i pull a few favors, order a gates pully/idler/belt combo(ouch!) and after meeting a family member halfway from the part's origional location in our trailblazer i bust it home. that rather chilly night spent removing the timing covers. well, lookie here.


one blown out timing belt pully, right next to the water pump. now i fixed this knowing that the water pump had Just been replaced so i didnt stress there. but, no anti freeze was spilled doing this job. at all. front cover removed, belts and pullys replaced, reassemble+double checking everything. and before start up, double checking SD's instructions. i like his Way better than the little sheet that came with the kit. turn the key and just for a second, ...nothing. then it fires up just like nothing had happened. fact, it spooled along better with tight timing than ever. and i didnt have to crack any coolant open in a twenty degree garage. YAY i dont have a drop pan yet!
 
#24 · (Edited)
On the garage floor when I pulled that cover. Never been so happy to loose a pulley even though I came ^ that close to loosing my engine. Was like...'whew, just a pulley. #$%# I had better look up a pulley/belt kit!'


Not a rod sticking through the block. Next time I might pull the radiator. That was a bear to change without pulling anything but the Front cover assembly. Tiny snap on socket set or no!

 
#26 ·


first parking lot meet. hawkeye in black! this is where i got the idea in my head i needed rear badges. chatted with the owner over starbucks instead of getting on the road back home. this was the morning after i had OnStar fmv installed.
 
#27 ·
still need one of these. mine was and still is busted. map sensor pig tail lol. fell in pieces when i took my timc off for the first time. *bump* oops!
 
#28 ·
then came the blarg mod day. tipped my timc for a few nickles worth of washers. continued to read and bumped into a diy turbo blanket thread. And since i had some similar stuff laying around wth right? its not preety and i still need a shield but this is working for now. plus...ive had this stuff just hanging around for a year. i bought it thinking wrap, but it is a stick on shield not designed for direct apply to exhaust pipes or heat.

so i laminated! with a little trick for keeping it on in the middle. exhaust shield sammich !


 
#29 ·
and then... insert long pieces of mechanics wire here.





wrap the hot side up like a present. the wires just twist under the turbo. ive seen real blankets so im not sure how much mine helps but the point n shoot thermometer says almost 50 degrees cooler on top as underneath. ill take it.

 
#30 ·
This thread is sweet! Bringing this car back to life! :thumbup:


tirerob said:
so i post again, something like, 'can a broken timing belt pully sound like a busted rod' and surprisingly got more than a few yes it cans.
I had the same thing happen, but at 70mph. Previous owners replaced the belt but not the pulleys. Luckily the pulley didn't break, just seized briefly and then unseized. Tore a good hole in the belt but not enough to make it snap. I was told that not only is it not terribly common to replace them, but that a lot of mechanics don't even mention or recommend it because it drives up the overall cost of the timing belt change and the pulleys are good to 150k or so vs 100k for the belt.
 
#34 ·
This thread is sweet! Bringing this car back to life! :thumbup:




I had the same thing happen, but at 70mph. Previous owners replaced the belt but not the pulleys. Luckily the pulley didn't break, just seized briefly and then unseized. Tore a good hole in the belt but not enough to make it snap. I was told that not only is it not terribly common to replace them, but that a lot of mechanics don't even mention or recommend it because it drives up the overall cost of the timing belt change and the pulleys are good to 150k or so vs 100k for the belt.
AAGH!! gods ya i must have been right there too. the squeeking i was hearing had to have been that pulley begging to me replaced. when the bearing let go the belt slapped the upper guides and dug that grove. all three(belt, pulley, and guides) managed to stay operating till i crawled into the garage. so close to mashing a piston. whew
 
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