Teh Cone Dodgin' STX Wagon

[wrx wagone]

Where to start... who knows?

I guess first I really need to thank my sponsor JSC Speed especially Chris & Justin, for all of their help. Always helpful, thanks guys!

I will be starting my third season in SCCA Solo racing. My goal for last season was to be the STX champion in Philly Region and I did so with this setup:

2007 Power:
Gutted stock uppipe
Invidia catted downpipe
Borla Hush catback
OTS Cobb STX tune

2007 Suspension:
JDM STi Pink springs
Koni Sport Inserts
RCE lowering camber plates
GroupN rear mounts
Whiteline 27/29mm front swaybar
Whiteline 24mm adj. rear swaybar
Poltec endlinks

None of this is an overly amazing suspension setup, but I did find the car to be balanced and capable. I also found that my springs quickly became the limiting factor. They were simply too soft for a truely competitive car. This simple fact led to this year's suspension setup listed below.

2008 Power:
Perrin AftaMAF hose
Samco turbo inlet hose
Invidia uppipe
Invidia catted downpipe
Invidia N1 Regular catback
OTS Cobb STX tune (in need of a custom tune)

2008 Suspension:
Tein MonoFlex coilovers - non-OTS spring rates
Hotchkis street swaybar set (Note: Front now a Perrin 25mm)
Poltec endlinks (box mount rear)
Whiteline KCA375 offset traverse link bushings
Cusco lower mount bar
Aluminum rear lateral links
ALL GroupN rear suspension bushings

Obligatory bling shots:




Let the surgery begin...
(Struts & springs are ready to come out)




To install the front offset bushings and GroupN engine mounts the subframe and crossmember had to come out
Dropping the front subframe & crossmember...




Next we removed the front control arms. This is when the zip tie holding the front brake caliper broke and the caliper fell about a foot, nailing me in the forehead. Control arms off...




Next we removed the OE traverse bushings, they are surprisingly liquid filled, and pressed in the Whiteline offset bushings. Ah, nice yellow bushings...




Now to finish up the rest of the front end, swaybar installed and lower mount installed...




With the evening getting VERY late, we installed the coilovers, made some adjustments and called it good for the night. Front coilovers...


Rear coilovers...



That ended up being a very lengthy evening as I mentioned. The install of the motor mounts and the front offset traverse bushings added a good couple hours to the job.

[wrx wagone]

This last weekend I had the time to finish pulling apart the rear suspension and press in the GroupN bushings. As I was doing this I added aluminum rear lateral links to add strength and reduce weight. To make this swap work I also added Poltec hub mounted box endlinks. clicky

I am currently having an issue with the endlinks being to short and causing contact issues at full droop with my rear lateral links.

Some pics of the setup and the issue...




I'm hoping to have everything finished by next weekend. A few friends that I race with have decided to purchase our own alignment tools and scales to do our own alignments and corner weighting. We all agreed that if we're going to spend about $300/person to get this done we might as well buy the tools to do it and just do it ourselves.

[mbs627]

Very nice.

[wrx wagone]

Thanks guys!

Big Sky asked me to add some info on how I pressed in the Whiteline KCA375 Traverse bushings, so here we go...

Adam, a buddy of mine that also races in Philly Region, has at his disposal a 12 ton hydraulic press. We first tried to simply press the old bushing, which has a metal interference fit sleeve on it, out with the press. No dice. Adam then devised a plan of brilliance.

1. Drill out the center metal pivot sleeve of the bushing by drilling into the rubber area of the bushing. At this point both of us were very shocked to discover that the stock traverse link bushing is filled basically with grease. Yup that's right, this bushing is liquid filled. I'm very glad that crap is out of my car.

2. With the center metal pivot sleeve removed, we then used a Sawzall to cut into the outer metal sleeve on the bushing ONLY. DO NOT cut into the metal of bushing mount itself, you will need this part.

3. At this point with a cut into the outer metal sleeve, you can simply pull out the remaining carnage of the OE bushing.

4. Using Adam's hydraulic press, we pressed in the new bushings into the mount in the orientation instructed by Whiteline, and reinstalled the control arms with my nice new bushings.

[wrx wagone]

Also to update, I had a very nice discussion with Poltec about my issues with my rear endlinks. I'm going to get them measurements over the weekend, and they will get me the length endlink I require. So far, I've been very pleased with their service.

[Pzary3233]

JR, is that brace legal?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

So how was dropping the sub frame? I'm not looking forward to it...

[wrx wagone]

JR, is that brace legal?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Mike and I both think so. He runs a similar bar.

Section 14.8 M.

Strut bars are permitted with all types of suspension. Strut bars may be mounted only transversely across the car from upper right to upper left suspension mounting point and from lower right to lower left suspension mounting point. No other configuration is permitted. Additional holes may be drilled for mounting bolts. Only bolt-on attachment is permitted. Interior trim panels may be modified to allow installation of strut bars. Holes or slots may be no larger than necessary and may serve no other purpose. This does not permit any modifications to the frame or unibody beyond the allowed mounting holes.

The bolt that the brace attaches to goes into the crossmember that the control arm attaches to. So, this brace attaches from the lower right to lower left suspension mounting point.

So how was dropping the sub frame? I'm not looking forward to it...

It actually wasn't that bad. If you're only replacing the traverse links you may not need to completely remove the subframe. There are holes to get at the bolts that attach the traverse links to the car. Mine ended up being slightly obscured.

[timber]

Nice write up JR! Thank you

I hope your caliper survived the run in with your fore-head..

[Sasquatch]

Wow.

How does it feel now?

[rtstone]

What up JR?

Looks like you have been spending all that hard earned money....

Aren't those offset bushings basically an ALK? I thought that they were considered to alter the suspension mounting points making them ST* illegal?

Otherwise it looks like you should have a very nice setup. I'm jealous...

[wrx wagone]

Wow.

How does it feel now?

That's a very personal question.

I won't really know until I can start tuning things at events. I do expect great things from this setup.

Aren't those offset bushings basically an ALK? I thought that they were considered to alter the suspension mounting points making them ST* illegal?

Hey Tyler! Hopefully I'll get to see you out at some events this year?

These bushings are legal as they are an offset bushing that uses the OE mount.

Section 14.8 B.
Suspension bushings may be replaced with bushings of any materials (except metal) as long as they fit in the original location. Offset bushings may be used.

[Sasquatch]

Your initial thoughts.

Or intimate thoughts ...

[wrx wagone]

My initial thoughts...

Well, I'm currently having some issues with my revalved rear coilovers and I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that my problems stem from two fundamental problems:

1. I'm a damper tuning n00b.
2. Tein's shock dyno is teh b0rked.

I'm basically trying to tune my dampers with no baseline and zero data points. It's simply not going to work that way. I'm also coming to conclusion that I'll be lucky if I manage to get the dampers correct sometime this season. Likely I will, but I will need a steep learning curve.

In regard to the other parts, I don't have a decent alignment on the car yet as I'm waiting for my coilovers to come back, but everything else feels quite good. The GroupN suspension bushings made a noticeable improvement.

Overall, I must withhold final judgement until I get my coilovers back in and adjusted, my race tires on, and the alignment and corner weighting finished. I still have much work to do.

[Sasquatch]

... but are you having fun ... as a n00b damper tuner?

I suppose you are doing OK with it as a DD?

[wrx wagone]

I hope your caliper survived the run in with your fore-head..

I should've taken a picture, the brake caliper has made a "T" shaped indentation in my forehead.

... but are you having fun ... as a n00b damper tuner?

I suppose you are doing OK with it as a DD?

n00b tuner is educational for sure, it just makes me feel quite dumb.

I don't have the coilovers on as I'm still screwing with the rear dampers. They are currently in Cali @ Tein getting worked on.

My Koni's with STi springs are nice for DD duty.