Whelp. I'm screwed... Sorta.

[Sarra]

So, I got a 2002 WRX. If you read the description on my drive video from the exhaust sound thread, you'll see that I blew out the water pump on that drive (ironically it let go just up the street from my house).

So, now I've got to figure out what to do. The prevailing idea is to fix it. It's got 180,000 miles on it, it needs... Well. The engine and gearbox are both pretty much done. The gearbox has a little life left in it, it's just making some pretty awesome noises.

I bought the car with 80k on it, and I knew it had a problem with #4. I tested it, and got pretty low numbers on the compression test for #4, and a leakdown failed, with it blowing straight into the crank case. Sadly, Subaru was fairly bad with the engine's design. The valve lash is set with shim under bucket design, and guess what? It goes way out of spec, typically around 150,000 miles. So, it's been backfiring up through the intake an awful lot lately, so I'm pretty sure I'm burning up my valves.

So, that's both the bottom and top that need rebuilding.

Right now, I'm working a part time job, and while the pay is good, my hours were dependent on a pair of levies that were on our last ballot here. Both failed. I lost about half my hours. So, I've been scouring the local businesses looking for either another part time job, a weekend part time job, or a full time job I could work along with my current part time job.

The plan is, if I can get more income, to start from scratch, and build a new motor. I'm thinking about a 2 liter block, 79mm throw crank (the current crank in my engine is 75mm), forged rods and pistons, and... Hell if I know where I'm going to get head castings. The 2 liter in the US is awful for cracking heads, though it doesn't effect the actual function of the engines. The casting cracks around the spark plug holes. I can't find any 2 liter castings, and complete 2 liter heads are... Not going to happen (not only do I NOT want the put crap shim under bucket junk back in, but I can't even find them to begin with). If I can find some 2 liter heads, I'm planning on doing some good oval springs with titanium retainers, and convert over to the Japanese market shimless buckets. Toss in some lumpy as hell cams, huge injectors (440cc is what I have, 950 to 1,200cc is what I'm looking at), a new computer, a larger turbo, a dyno tune, and voila, I now have a 2.1 stroker motor.

The alternative to buy a front clip, with a closed deck 2 liter (US gets an open deck), that has AVCS (iVTEC but... Fully variable cam control for both intake and exhaust), a twinscroll turbo, and an 8,000 RPM rev limit (US gets 6,800 RPM, mine is currently set to 7,200). Bonus from this route is it would include a 6 speed (currently running a 5 speed), R180 rear diff (R160 is what we got here... R180 has a bigger ring and pinion), axles, and 4/2pot Brembo disc brakes (currently running 2/1pot. Brembos are 12.7", US WRX uses 11.6", I CURRENTLY have 10.6" rotors front and rear on it...) So the JDM front clip would have... Pretty much everything. New engine, transmission, rear diff, axles, hubs brakes. The down side is the wheels. I have the stock 16" wheels on right now with my summer tires, and a set of 15" 1993 Legacy SS wheels with skinny snow tires on them, I'd have to sell my snow tires/wheels, and get either a different set of 16" wheels (I don't like how they look), or spend $1400 on a set of STi wheels (WRX has a 5x100 bolt patter, 52mm backspacing; 2004 STi was 5X100, 52mm backspacing, STi 2005+ is 5x114 with 53mm backspacing).

An alternative would be to build a 6 cylinder. It's expensive, the ECU is a total bitch, but... They have an extra head bolt per cylinder compared to the 4 cylinders, they sound badass, and the Subaru 6 cylinder engines love to rev (9k rev limit with a turbo the size of my head). Perrin built a 2006 STi for SEMA with a 6 cylinder 3.0 turbo, and at 14 PSI of boost, it was putting 450 AWHP down. That turbo isn't even in it's efficiency range until it's around 30 PSI, they just never put injectors in large enough to handle it. The downside would be the cost. Building an H6 3.0 turbo motor costs about what the front clip costs. Plus, the 5 speed the WRX came with cannot handle that much power. In fact, it can barely handle the original stock power output of 227CHP/215CTQ. 300 at the crank is the upper limit, even with a tiny anemic turbo, I'd be passing that mark easily with a 6 cylinder...

And the last option is to buy a beater until I can get the WRX running in all of it's glory again. There was a ford pickup on CL that I really wish I had jumped on. Had a 351 and a 4 speed in it, $670. Clean title, tags (grandfather laws FTW), but it was only RWD. It had a pretty ugly body on it, but it was just the paint that was ugly, it had very few bumps and dings.

Sadly, it's gone, and everything currently up on CL here either has a salvage title, no title, or the seller wants way more than it's worth. >_<

Oh well. I guess I gotta just keep working and keep my eyes out for jobs...

 

[Sarra]

Well... Headgasket is blown, which is why the water pump seal blew.

I'm now booking a MSF class, and I'll be probably picking up a Ninja 250 and some leathers...

 

[Bananaclip]

Ninja 2?? :mrgreen:

 

[chino63]

Ninja 2?? :mrgreen:

Better than a moped. "thumbsup"

 

[Elmo]

Build it intto a Super Gramps with a turbo H6 and a complete stand alone setup from Haltech. Marty's Legacy (from Mighty Car Mods) is awesome and would be really cool in an Impreza shell. If you want to do the fab work, that would be an awesome way to go. The JDM half-cut is a great option if you can get it shipped for a reasonable price and you may even be able to get the STi wheels from the same car. I've helped a guy in the car club I belonged to swap his WRX 5 speed for a 6 and it took some time but was fairly straight forward. Would have been easier to swap in an EJ25 and 6 speed at the same time but the 25 needed a rebuild so we did them separately.

 

[Sarra]

Well... I don't REALLY have the money for a half clip or front clip. I also cannot find any good ones... The WRX clips come with the EJ205, which is what I've got, but they are like $8k. I could get a Spec C front clip for $10k. Spec C comes with an EJ207, twinscroll manifold, UP, VF37, downpipe, 6MT, axles, driveshaft, rear diff (R180), wiring harness, ECU, axles, brembos, and hubs. most of the WRX clips don't have axles, hubs, brakes, or driveshaft. Driveshaft is important for a 5mt to 6mt swap, but it's just as easy to get an automatic driveshaft... 6MT and 4EAT are exactly the same length, and use exactly the same driveshaft.

I've found a few straight up engines for $2k, but it's unknown if they are AVCS or not. If it's not AVCS, great, direct drop in. If it is AVCS, then I have to retune, and get an AVCS controller, wire it up, tune it, etc., and right now, I kinda need a daily NOW. D:<

The other issue with dropping a 'fresh' motor in is injectors. I'm still running a TD04 with 440cc injectors. IIRC, the JDM EJ205 had 550's, or 530's, which would require me to retune. I could swap injectors, but... Why?

I'd do an EZ30R AVCS turbo build, but... I can't find a good starting engine, and I'd absolutely need to do a 6 speed swap, which is also expensive. An H6 Turbo/6MT swap would cost me around $12k, plus tuning...

So, I'm looking at bikes. Since I like to go up in the mountains, I'm actually leaning towards a 600cc sport bike, more than a 250 or 300. I want something that I can ride to work, which is really just a 7 minute shot down some country roads, 6 minutes down the freeway, then 3 blocks into town to where the yard is located. I also want something I can blast around the hills on. The WRX was great, there's a super twisty road I know of that is steep, but it goes from paved, heavy chip-seal, to gravel, and a sport bike isn't really meant to go fast on hairpin gravel roads, with 200-1,000 ft drops off the edges.

As a comparison...

2.17l Stroker motor: $5-6k
EJ205 JDM swap: $3kish plus AVCS...
EJ207/6mt clip: $10k
EZ30R turbo build/6MT: $12k
MSF, leathers, helmet, and a bike: $3k

I'm looking at maybe doing a wrecked STi swap, but it's fairly hard because a wrecked car is a huge unknown, and here, it's fairly hard to even find a way to get one, without going out of state.

 

[Elmo]

Have you looked at a supermoto or a dual sport? Either style would handle the different road conditions well and the SM bike are a hoot to throw around corners and dice through traffic with. Is this your first bike? Its good that you are looking at the MSF course.
I never realized that JDM half cuts were that expensive. When I was looking at RB25/6mt/awd r33's years ago for a build I could get all the parts I needed on pallets and shipped to the US for under $3k. Of course that was 15 years ago too so obviously tims have changed significantly. Good luck with the Suby and the bike hunt!

 

[binaryterror]

Just get a rebuilt engine. Deal with stage 2 power and be happy. You can find tons of uncracked 2 liter heads online (NASIOC) and junk yards all over.

I used to be a Subaru owner, all modified. Subarus might be cheap cars, but to modify them look to pay BMW prices and get less than BMW results.

JDM 2 liters are fun, but then you gotta re-wire some stuff, make sure you have a tuner who can and does understand the JDM changes needed to take advantage of the difference.

 

[Sarra]

I have a fairly bad taste in my mouth from NASIOC. I got points for posting in the wrong forum, and the mod was a total dick to me. I told him to permaban my account, I'd never try logging back in, and he basically gave me the finger.

I rented a block tester and bought a little bottle of test fluid, and I've checked the coolant for exhaust gases twice now, and both times, it's come up negative. So, right now, I'm looking at just doing the water pump, coolant flush, timing belt, and go from there. Oh, yeah, AC diagnostic/repair, I want AC this summer. It's only gonna be like 110 for 5 or 6 weeks...

 

[Elmo]

Good luck getting it back in shape. A/C is gonna be a necessity this year, it was 96 here today in southern WV.

 

[Sarra]

Good luck getting it back in shape. A/C is gonna be a necessity this year, it was 96 here today in southern WV.

The last summer I lived here, we hit 122 at least 4 days during the summer. >_> This summer is gonna be hotter, I think, so yeah. I need AC. D:<

 

[Sarra]

Well... I got the car back from the shop. AC doesn't work, but the condenser is busted (hole in it). The Timing belt and Water pump were changed. I drove it home, drove it to work the next day, and poof. Upper radiator hose was split, pissing everywhere. Grabbed a new hose on the way home, changed it this morning. Burped it, and went for a drive. Wow... My car drives better than it has for the past 5 years. Smooth, boost is steady, and almost no backfires. So... I'm going to assume the old belt was either off a tooth on one of the cams for the past 5 years, or something got fixed while the timing belt was out that fixed that issue. I still am getting smoke after long periods of engine braking, but... It's reduced compared to before. Oh well. Still gotta plan for a new bottom end and valve train in the future...