Happy Birthday!: My 2002 WRX

[Ri22o]

I have all the parts I ordered and should be able to get some of them on the car tomorrow. I got the Lisle CV boot clamp crimping tool and crimped those the other day. It was much easier than I thought it was going to be. I also got a new fuel pump relay/solenoid since I had to rob the one off of the car for the aux battery on my truck. I did score a deal on them at $7 each instead of $35ish. I also got a new EGT probe and the Motul LSD oil for the rear.

I should note that I have started to include requests in the "comments" section when I place orders. These requests typically include asking them to draw something on the box or packing slip. When I placed my order for the Motul from TurnInConcepts I asked them to "include a hand-drawn picture of Alf riding a Pegasus flying over their choice of either a rainbow, waterfall or pyramid of cheerleaders." (BTW, I asked the same of Rallispec, but apparently they're dicks with no sense of humor.)

I received my package today and found this on this outside of the box. According to Kent, Clint did the best job he could (even though it looked like a 5 year old drew it in the dark).

Kent tried to make up for it by drawing this on the other side of the box.

 

[Ri22o]

I got a couple more small things crossed off of my list while I wait to get my transmission back from Joe.

New fuel pump solenoid/relay is in.
r180/r160 SuberDave hybrid axles are in.
Moved the coolant reservoir down.
Adjusted the hood latch.
Painted the front camera mount.

There were a couple other things I wanted to get done (EGT probe, adjust front brake line, etc) but it's a little difficult to get under there with the back of the car up on jack stands awaiting the r180 from Tom.

I don't have a whole lot left to do though. The biggest item is getting the transmission back and installed. As for the rear end, I'm ready to get the 3.9 r180 installed, but am waiting for Tom to get the time to get it out of his car. After those items, everything else is just small, piddly stuff.


Here are some pictures though, because everyone likes pictures.


LED under hood lighting. These are ran off of an OEM fog light switch so it looks stock inside. They're not OMG shop lighting bright, but at night when you need some extra light they work wonderfully.

This one is a little misleading as some of the light is coming in through the garage door window behind me.

Front bumper/license plate delete GoPro mount. It's nothing special, but gets the job done at mounting a GoPro in the bumper opening. I also added a tether as I don't trust the 3m adhesive they use to attach their mounts. There is soft velcro on the backside of the mount to keep it from rubbing the paint on the bumper.

 

[Ri22o]

I swapped r180s with another local guy tonight. We pulled the 3.9 out of his car and put a 3.54 in. I debated putting it in the car tonight or waiting until Sunday. I decided to give it a good scrubbing and put it in tonight so it's one less thing to worry about.

It's looking like the transmission might be done in the next couple of days too.

 

[Ri22o]

I did some manly shit today and worked on the car. I got the new plugs gapped and installed, as well as changing over to the new coil packs. The new EGT probe is installed and the muffler and what not in the rear is back on. I also fabbed up a bracket to hold up and help support the intake tube/filter. The Kartboy/TiC stuff was also installed on to the shifter, and it's ready to go on the trans.

It's getting to the point where all I really have left to do is wait on the transmission

 

[Ri22o]

I got up at the ass crack of dawn today to head up to Joe's in Fort Wayne and pick up my transmission. The goal was to get up there early enough so I could get back home with enough time to get it in the car. Aside from it being a heavy bastard, it went into the car without much hassle or any problems. I did have an issue with the routing of my fuel lines and they had to be unclamped and pulled down. I am going to need to reroute them around the transmission, which shouldn't be too much of a hassle. I knew this might be an issue when I was considering the 6mt, but wouldn't know for sure how big of an issue it was until the trans was in.

Another problem I ran into is the shifter linkage. It came with my transmission, but it came off of the JDM 6 speed of the guy who I bought the transmission from. I knew the shifter itself was bent (I had planned on running a Kartboy, so this didn't concern me), but apparently the linkage is bent as well. I'm not sure where it is bent, but it puts the shifter at a severe angle towards the driver's side. I tried twisting/tweaking it back to where it needed to be, but it wasn't cooperating.

There are some small items that still need to be tended to, but the major part is done. Next is to get by the driveline shop and have them make my driveshaft for me. Once I have that I will be able to finish putting the exhaust on, add fluids, and that should be about it.

Here it is before a friend and I got started on keeping it real.

Here is my Tilton hydraulic throw out bearing. I've had some people ask about my clutch and they didn't quite understand what I was talking about when I mentioned this. It's essentially a combination of the slave cylinder and the throw out bearing. Press the clutch pedal and it drives the master. The master then drives the piston on the throw out bearing and pushes on the clutch, releasing it.

 

[Ri22o]

It's been a marathon this last couple of weeks trying to get everything ordered, making sure I had everything listed that needed to be done, getting parts where they needed to be, and getting everything wrapped up.

I finally started the car and moved it under its own power today, for the first time in about a year.

I had an issue with the shift linkage being bent and I thought I had gotten it back to where it needed to be, but it will not stay in second gear. I'm hoping it's just an issue with the shift linkage and not an issue with anything internally as I would rather not drop the transmission, especially since I put so much effort into getting it all back together.

I'm not really feeling the position and height of the shifter, but it could partially have to do with a 5mt boot and shift knob on the 6mt shifter.

I also decided to have a steel driveshaft made. Since I was robbing the ends off of my OE unit, I decided to cut the ring off of the carrier bearing and turn it into a driveshaft loop.

I am happy it runs, but also a little pissed that I am having issues with a basically brand new transmission. I'm hoping a different, non-bent shift linkage will solve the problem. If not, the transmission will need to come out to figure out what in the hell is wrong with it.

I'm already putting together my winter to-do list and like the feeling of going into the off-season with a car that runs. It feels like I will have more motivation to knock items off of the list.

 

[Khaos]

Glad to see it moving around! I'd drive the shit out of this thing

 

[Ri22o]

I haven't done anything to fix it yet, but it still doesn't like to stay in second gear. I wanted to drive it though, so with Joe's permission, I took it out and drove it for a bit tonight just doing a 1 to 3 shift. I never realized how loud the old PAR gears were and actually sort of miss the straight-cut gear whine.

There were a couple times on the interstate where I forgot I had put a 6 speed in it and was cruising in fifth, haha.


Hello, sunshine. It's been a while.

 

[Ri22o]

A bit of bad and good news to report.

I left my house this morning to head down to Cincinatti for the Grand Opening/Open House for a new shop down there, All Speed Innovations. While I was on the interstate I heard a pop, some other noises, and then the car died. I coasted over to the shoulder, tried to restart it, and nothing. I got out and didn't see any fluids under the car, looked over the engine, and didn't find anything amiss.

While I was waiting for a friend to show up with a truck and trailer I got to thinking about what could be the cause. I had time to kill so I started looking over the engine and pulled one of the timing covers off. It was what I had hoped it wasn't. I could see the timing belt laying underneath the passenger exhaust pulley. I got back in the car out of the rain and sat there pissed off for a while until my friend showed up.

We got the car back to my house and I didn't want to go out to the garage and find out what fate my car had dealt me this morning, but I finally decided I had to go out there sometime.

I took the timing covers off to find the passenger's side exhaust cam gear had broken. I was a little relieved to see that the timing belt was still wrapped around the other three gears and that the timing marks still appeared to all line up. I then counted the teeth on the timing belt and they all held time and were exactly where they should be and not even a tooth off. I then did a leak down test and, other than some blow-by into the crank case, the valves seem to be sealing.

I think all I'll need are a new timing belt, timing covers, and cam gear. I already have the covers and gear, so I will just need to order a belt. I may have dodged a bullet on this one, I will just need to see how/if it runs once I get it back together.

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Picked my rear timing covers up from Tom Wood Subaru earlier today and got to work swapping them out when I got home. I also stopped by Lowe's and picked up a pipe wrench to facilitate removing the broken gear, and it worked like a charm.

Someone at Subaru, at some point, thought building gears like this was a good idea.

This is the cover that was behind the broken gear. You can see where the belt had slipped under the end of the cam snout and rode along the cover.

Removing and replacing the rear timing covers will probably be the most tedious part of getting it back together. In order the get the covers off you need to remove all of the cam gears, and the only reasonable way to get them off is to wrap them with an old timing belt, clamp it with a set of locking pliers, and hope you get it tight enough not to spin on your first attempt at breaking the bolt loose.

This is where I left it for the evening. The new rear covers are on, upper AVCS gears are back on, and everything is just waiting for the new metal, lower gears and timing belt to show up tomorrow. Once those are in I can finish putting the front of the motor back together, and then it's just waiting to get the transmission back so it can go back in.

 

[Ri22o]

I got the Tomei cam gears and Gates T328 belt installed the other night. It's a shame these gears are just going to get covered up and hidden away behind the timing covers. If they made a one piece, non-adjustable gear I would have preferred those, but I set them neutral (no retard/advance) since it's almost impossible to get to them and mess with their r/a will tuning.

In anticipation of taking the car to the dyno in a couple weeks, I needed to work on getting the rear tie down points figured out and back on the car. I had originally removed the rear, passenger hoop because it interfered with my fuel pump and lines. I looked at it the other day, and after not having it on there for all this time, it only required minimal re-working to get it to fit.

As for the driver side tie-down, there wasn't anything wrong with it, but it was just so far up under the car that it was almost impossible to use without the strap hitting the muffler. I decided I didn't really have anything else to do, so I went ahead and made a new one that hangs down about 3.5" lower. Now you can definitely hook a strap to this one without the muffler interfering.

The main reason for getting these done was to have a place to strap to while on the dyno, but having the tie down back on the other corner, and this one lower, will make it much easier to strap it down on the trailer.