June 2009 update: Terry at Vorshlag here. a good friend of mine from college, and a local autocrosser and Vorshlag tester, currently has a 2008 Subaru STI running in the STU class, and also tracks it in NASA TTB:



This car is well setup on AST 4200s, Vorshlag camber plates, custom swaybars, 18x9.5" wheels and sticky ST rubber (and R88s for track use). Racing seat, COBB bits and pieces, even a custom after-cat exhaust I built. Anyway, Paul has decided to build a serious autox/track car using an inexpensive Subaru chassis that is "disposable" cheap, so he's not running a $35K daily driven street car around a road course with a bunch of other people at the same time. You can only get away with racing around a road course in your daily driver for so long.


[I]The "gem" of a Subaru he bought, with the parts piling up[/I]

So after hours of looking at other Subaru track and autocross build-ups he decided on a class to build around: SCCA Street Modified. This allows him to do all of the update/backdate swapping necessary to run the latest/greatest Subaru drivetrain (2.5L turbo and 6-spd) in the cheapest/lightest Impreza chassis. He picked up a 1993 Impreza L "stripper" with manual windows, sweet teal green paint, FWD and automatic drivetrain from local hot shoe autocrosser/drag racer/Bonneville top speed addict Brianne Corn. This car is a real "diamond in the rough", and here's what it looked like starting this weekend:


[I]Starting weight of 2440 pounds is pretty good! The STI starts closer to 3200 in stock form[/I]

He had also bought the transaxle, rear subframe/axle, fuel tank, brake/fuel lines, dash, interior and pretty much everything from a 2007 STI from another local racer who had totaled their street car. He still needs to source the motor but he has a hot lead on a 2004 STI motor and turbo. The entire STI drivetrain is going into the old FWD Impreza chassis with an '04 STI harness that allows for full DCCD diff control, just like the late model cars have. Its going to have the late model dash as well, which should look pretty slick.


[I]The 6-spd transaxle and various other parts from a donor 2007 STI[/I]

Anyway, the car has sat for a few weeks (with parts piling up on the roof)! so I dragged the Vorshlag scales by Paul's to force him to remove the 100+ pounds of TRASH from the interior, get a "starting weight" on the car, and hopefully kick-off his build project. We were both pleasantly surprised at the starting number.


[I]Somehow I got drafted into re-wiring his garage!? More lights, plus 220V and 110V outlets were added[/I]

While I was there I noticed that his giant air compressor he bought almost a year ago is still sitting unpowered, since he had no 220V outlet in his garage, and he also had almost no lighting or 110V outlets... he can't get any work done in there like that. One thing leads to another and we ended up spending the entire weekend adding outlets and lights to his 3 car garage, moving all sorts of junk out of there, re-arranging the car, and more. It was hotter than hell outside (101°F) and even hotter in his attic, but at least now he can run his compressor, plug in some power tools, and have enough light to work (3 x 8' fluorescent lights).

Paul's Project buildup picture gallery is located here: [url]http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/gallery/8728308_BULQh[/url]

September 2009 Update: I went by Paul's one weekend in September to get some furniture we bought from him and saw the Impreza L. Paul's been busy and has all of the old interior, drivetrain, suspension and crossmembers pulled out. The added garage lighting and compressed air did indeed kick off this project as I had expected. ;) The "L" is now stripped down almost to the bare shell - which is how all real race cars should be started. He has acquired a 2.5L STi motor (thanks, Henry Lin!) and all sorts of other bits and pieces for that. Still looking for a stock STI turbo and intercooler...

We've been both pouring over the rules for SCCA Solo Street Prepared and Street Modified, looking for changes and areas to maximize. Paul noticed that SP (and SM by default) now allows for full weld-in 8-point roll cages, which is a big change from before (it all had to be bolt-in style, before) and now he and I are both contemplating real cages for some project auto-x/track cars. This will let us both run the cars in NASA Time Trials safely and still maintain SCCA Solo class legality.

While I was there Paul mocked up a wheel and tire on the L (no rear subframe or suspension in the way):



This is a TR Racing 18x9" wheel with 245/40/18 tire. Its almost touching the inner fender sheet metal and is pretty much touching the outer section as well. So it would likely need some baseball bat rolling to fit this tire initially, which I think is the route he's going to go. I keep telling him - get it together with the major parts initially, and worry about the tires/wheels last. This way he can get it running and driving and sorted using his HUGE selection of used ST tires and wheels, before blowing $3500+ on the custom wheels & tires needed for full SMOD competitiveness. When its time for 18x10's its going to need big flares, too.

As for the other upcoming body mods, he's going with some sort of GC8 2.5 RS or STI front end:



Personally I think the stock, 2 door GC8 STi look (shown above) is pretty damn sharp. I think we can custom make steel flares that look very similar to the profile in that picture, but just make them wider to clear the 285/30/18 tires.

Next up Paul is going to finish pulling the dash and wiring harness. After that he is installing the stock '07 STI fuel tank, subframes and suspension, then plumbing new brake lines for the ABS.

More soon!

November 2009 Update: As I said in my quick September update, Paul was busy for a while there and got the stock drivetrain, front suspension/brakes/subframe, and the entire rear suspension out. I finally got a chance to snap some pics. Here's how the car looked Nov. 22 when I went by to help him on the car for about 4 hours...


[I]The stock '93 Impreza drivetrain and suspension were all removed in September[/I]

Unfortunately the project had stalled out for the past 6 weeks, so he needed a "jump start" (literally!) to get going again. His old truck hadn't been started in 2 months and it was dead as a doornail. I dropped by with the jump box, we got it fired up, then headed to Henry's house to pick up the 2004 STI longblock that he had sold Paul. This will be dropped off soon at COBB Plano, along with the new pistons, cams, ARP bolts and other assorted bits for reassembly.


[I]Motor parts ready to go to COBB for assembly[/I]

Paul's garage was a [I]bit [/I]cluttered and hard to work in, so we started out by doing some cleanup. We also hung a new "white board" and made some "to do lists" for this project as well as 2 vehicles he's about to sell. The old front seats went in the truck to take to the dump, then we disassembled the rear subframe and suspension and it all went in the recycle bin (the steel).



Next we pulled the stock fuel tank, which was a 2 man job since it still had 8+ gallons of fuel inside. We managed to get it out and only cut one line, and didn't spill a drop. Once it was out we pulled the fuel pump/pickup/sender assembly and drained the contents into a 5 gallon bucket, then poured that into two 5 gallon fuel jugs using a cardboard funnel (reminder - go buy some funnels, Paul). Then the tank was allowed to air out; later it will get recycled, too.


[I]Left: the used 07 STI rear subframe was bent. Right: New replacement subframe from Subaru will bolt-in[/I]

The other big step planned for today that needed 2 people was the dash and main harness removal. The stock 93 Impreza dash was coming out and a '07 STI dash is going back in its place. A wiring harness from a 2004 STI is going to power the car and dash, or so the plan goes. :p We removed dozens and dozens of screws, bolts and removed the old dash in pieces. The main support beam came out next, then the HVAC components came out in 3 separate sections - blower motor, evep coil and heater core.



Next we discombobulated both the main dash/HVAC/circuit breaker harness and the engine harness, which ran from the dash area to the engine compartment in two separate runs. The 07 STI dash was then mocked up and its a really good fit. After some minor trimming it should "look factory" and will improve the layout and interior considerably, not to mention it will house all of the diff control switches and other differences between the 93 Impreza and a 07 STI.


[I]Left: both wiring harnesses removed. Right: '07 dash mocked up[/I]

Lastly I showed Paul how to clean up a section of the underhood area, using my top secret techniques. "We made a clean spot" so now he has to finish the rest. By day's end, a good chunk of work was knocked out and Paul is back on track, with plenty of sub-projects planned for the Holiday break.

[B][U]Update for Jan 20, 2010:[/U][/B] Paul and I did some engine bay painting last night, using a POR-15 brand product. It was recommended to use a spacific multi-step cleaning process (that sucked) and foam brush the product on in 2 coats (the brushes sucked, too). This was a huge mess, and the cleaning supplies they sold Paul really didn't cut it. Brake Cleaner to the rescue!



After a partial first coat was showing massive fish-eyes from oil still on the surface, it was removed via brake cleaner. Next, all of the engine bay sheet metal was [I]really [/I]de-greased with brake cleaner. Then we applied a coat of this white paint, waited 2 hours, and applied the other. Looks pretty good, for a brushed on finish (some drips & runs), but its not as nice as it should have been for all the work that went into prepping this engine bay.



In hindsight... probably should have gone the extra effort and sprayed the engine bay with a proper 2-part urethane automotive paint finish. I won't be recommending this brush-on POR-15 crap to anyone, personally. Short cutting the proper process always ends up with compromises.



Next up: painting the front inner fender structures. Paul has spent some quality time with "The Crudbuster", a whirling dervish of a power tool with nasty metal brushes, and removed 20 years of crud" from the underside of the front fender shee tmetal. Let's vote for "spraying" on some product this time. And the AST shocks are finally about to be ordered. I cannot wait to see this thing back on 4 wheels!

[U][B]Update for Jan 26, 2010:[/B][/U] Went by to work on Paul's car after earlier taking some measurement's on McCall's Z3 LS1 project. Paul didn't have many parts to install onto the '93 that night, so I took the chance to document a little of the work he'd done earlier that week. The engine bay brake lines, ABS hydraulic unit, and some other bits from the '07 STi bolted right into the '93... gotta love a long lived chassis with tons of carryover! There's a couple of holes to drill, and a few broken plastic retainer clips he needs to replace, but for the most part everything bolted right up. Even the '07 brake booster is going to fit. The pedal assembly? Not so much. More on that in another installment.



We also mocked up the '07 HVAC under-dash modules. The center section contains the heater core and evap core, so we removed the evap core (this car won't have air con, but it will have a heater and defroster), which came out cleanly. A small block-off plate from sheet aluminum will cover the hole in the HVAC box that the evap core's intake/exhaust lines left behind. We then realized we needed to drill new holes in the firewall for the 2 heater lines, so Paul was tasked with rounding up some hole saws and unibits, which he has since acquired.

Later this same week Paul started to reinstall the engine bay harness (the '93 cbody harness and the '07 engine harness). He also had a windshield guy come by and remove the front windshield, cleanly and intact (he could have re-installed the old, uncracked stock windshield, but a new one will only be a few bucks more, and new windshields always look clearer than 18 year old stock units). Having that out of the car gives us ample access to be able to fit the '07 STi dash into the '93 unImpreza. The '07 unit is longer and has to be trimmed ever so slightly at the lower edge of the windshield to line up. He's also sourcing some Imprexza RS door panels, which better line up to the '07 dash contours.

Fitting the newer STi dash bar, HVAC modules, wiring harness/ECM, dash/gauges and making the new and old interior bits fit together is the trickiest part of this swap, but it will look factory when finished - if done right. The drivetrain and brake system swaps are themselves fairly straightforward and mostly "bolt-in" affairs. There's probably 25-30+ dash mock-ups/mod steps in our future. Entire companies exist to create these types of new-into-old Subaru drivetrain, wiring and interior swaps.

More soon...

Just a few updates...

Paul has been rounding up parts in a bit of a February Frenzy. Here's what he has nabbed in the past 2 weeks:



[LIST]
[*]JDM market aluminum GC chassis hood. 22.4 pounds (see above)
[*]Some used stock '06 STi struts for temporary use - so we can get the car rolling before the custom AST4200RRs arrive.
[*]Used, complete gauge cluster/body/engine/fuel tank wiring harness from an '05 STi. The '04 harness he got previously was hacked up beyond use
[*]Used '05 STi pedal box
[*]Used '05 STi dash bar brackets
[*]Used '05 STi Brembo brake calipers/brackets for front and rear
[/LIST]

We also dropped off the longblock and other engine parts at WattsShop - a local engine builder experienced with complete Subaru engine builds.

Once the wiring arrives we can start to put that in, then the HVAC, dash, and interior. Then the fuel tank, rear subframe, and all of the (temporary/stock) suspension can go back in. Then brakes, wheels/tires, and it should roll. After it rolls it heads to COBB for wiring/splicing magic, engine install, and tuning work.

At least that's "The Plan". [:)]

More soon,

[U][B]Update for Feb 17, 2010:[/B][/U] Went to work on Paul's car last night. Somehow he had convinced Calvin from COBB to stop by and help. Glad he was there, as he knows Subarus better than Paul or I ever will. The first thing I noticed when I showed up was the JDM market STi front bumper cover and support were installed. the car is a lot better looking already!



The biggest accomplishment of the night was the fuel tank. The '93 tank didn't have provisions for the rear wheel drive axle, so the '07 tank was to be used. But the '93 had several missing or different items that the tank would connect to. Paul, Calvin and I spent most of the evening re-routing, modifying, and tweaking these differences. Pounds of dried mud fell into my face, hair and eyes - brotha needs to do some [I]cleaning [/I]under this car!

We found and/or made hoses for all of the different ports on the '07 and made it all work (well... we'll know for sure when its fired up). Mounted the tank, fuel filler lines, fuel feed/return/vent lines, and most importantly - installed the rear wiring harness above the tank from the '04 harness. This had to be routed above the tank, so the tank had been waiting to go in for weeks until the new harness was sourced. The tank is all buttoned up and awaiting the rear subframe install next...



The Mishimoto aluminum radiator was in place, and fit beautifully. The new '07 STi rear subframe shown below was to be installed next, followed by a bunch of other rear suspension parts, but Paul somehow lost the subframe mounting bolts... both sets. The ones from the '93 and the ones from the '07 were both missing. We spent a good 30 minutes tearing apart his garage looking for those 4 bolts, to no avail.



Oh well, until next time. :)

[U][B]Update for April 8, 2010:[/B][/U] Paul is in Japan all week on vacation, but we did some work on his car 2 weeks ago and I am finally getting around to the update.



We spent some time here at the shop using the press to push out the old rubber bushings from the front and rear control arms and spindles, then pressing in new Whiteline poly bushings and ball joints. This was a chore - we spent a good 90 minutes on these, at least. Some of the rubber bushings had to be drilled/cut out, because they were stuck in the arms/steel sleeves.



Of course I had to take his crusty old control arms and clean them up. They shine like new now.



Once the arms were done we went back to his garage and tinkered with the dash some more. McCall joined us and we redrilled the flanges for the '07 dash bar, made some templates for some other dash brackets we need, etc. The steering column now fits, the harness is in, and its close to being wrapped up inside. Paul even found some nice black "2.5 RS" door panels to swap in, which look and fit better with the '07 dash in place (the doors won't close right now with the '93 door panels in place - there's a raised area on those door panels where the new dash now sits).



After a lot of pushing and pulling we managed to get the '04 STi main harness to fit through the various firewall openings in the '93 L. It looks almost factory, even though the firewall openings are totally different between the early '90s and late '00s Imprezas. Out back, right now there's a halfshaft that's stuck inside the R180 rear differential (the 07 STI it came from side-swiped a curb, so that halfshaft is fubar) so that needs some attention at COBB to remove.



The interior work is crucial to making all of this fit and function and look right, its just not very glamorous work to look at here (sorry). Oh well, the project is progressing along nicely - very close to drivetrain installaiton time. The motor (rebuilt at WattsShop) is supposedly done, so that's going to go in soon. And the AST 4200RRs are due to arrive in the next month or so. Paul has some bolt-on flares he has found that we can use (temporarily) to cover the 275/35/18 tires and 18x9.5" wheels.

More soon,

[U][B]Update for June 21, 2010:[/B][/U] Paul has been hacking away at little bits on the Impreza and I went by last Saturday morning to help him get the R180 rear axle re-installed. He has some other new parts on hand and I snapped some pics:


[I]AST 4200 RR shocks and Vorshlag camber plates (front and rear) were delivered. These go on soon![/I]


[I]Built 2.5L (Wattshop assembled) motor is back. The crazy Moroso oilpan should help with lubrication[/I]


[I]Steering column is in and looks good[/I]


[I]L: Paul found a good deal on used STi Brembo calipers. R: The UltraShield+sliding bracket is ready to bolt in[/I]


[I]The axle was removed and the damaged halfshaft was pulled @ COBB. R: Its in its new home now![/I]

There was one rear diff to subframe stud that was buggered up but we fixed it at my shop later that day and Paul installed it and buttoned up the rear axle mounting that afternoon.

More soon!

[U][B]Update for June 28, 2010:[/B][/U] I went by Paul's last Wednesday night to help him with some fuel line questions and he and local AST/Vorshlag tester and SCCA racer Henry Lin were about to install the transmission, so I stuck around to help for a bit.





We got the trans in with Henry and me bench pressing it up into position while Paul started the bolts. Then we looked at the fuel lines, trying to get the car's factory lines ('95 Impreza) to line up with the ones on the motor ('04 STi) and the fuel tank ('07 STi). Come to find out Paul managed to get the '04 chassis hard lines to fit the '95 chassis the next day, and all is well.





Paul also stuck a front fender on there, as shown in the first row of pics. Since then he's installed some suspension bits, and even some wheels and tires!



Paul [I](finally!) [/I]has a bee in his bonnet to finish the Franken-Impreza car in time for the 2010 SCCA Solo Nationals, and there's even an informal [B]challenge between Paul and McCall [/B]to see who can finish their project car enough to "make it around the block under its own power with no parts falling off"... [B][I]its on now![/I][/B]

More soon,

[U][B]Update for July 16, 2010:[/B][/U] I went by Paul's on Wednesday night to help him do some more assembly on the '95 L, and was joined by local STi racer Henry Lin and Calvin from COBB Tuning. We worked on various stuff for a few hours and got some more work knocked out.


[I]The big wheels went from the '08 to the '95, and they almost fit under the stock fenders[/I]

More importantly, Paul actually worked on the project on his own, since we last met. Amazing! He had installed much of the suspension and brakes, and mocked-up his 17x9.5" wheels... that used to be on his '08 STI. Seeing that car on the itty-bitty stock wheels was kinda funny. :D


[I]Ignore the caption in the picture... that's actually a 275/35/18 Dunlop on an 18x9.5" wheel![/I]

Maybe he really means to sell the '08 after all? I'll believe it when he removes the AST 4200s and puts the stock suspension back on - he can't stand to drive on marshmallow suspension very long. If anyone has a clean GC8 Outback Sport or another affordable, clean Subaru commuter, speak up! He doesn't need a $35K daily driver (that's all too tempting to take and thrash on a road course) with all of his other race cars and trucks. :p



The fuel line problems noted in my last update were solved by swapping all the "in-cabin" hard fuel lines to the ones from the wrecked '07 STi donor... with a little wiggling they fit the '95 chassis fine, and now all of the '08 flex lines snap into place with ease - the entire fuel system is now '07 STi, from tank to engine. Oh, and Paul installed the AST 4200-RR shocks, too! The Brembo calipers are awaiting installaiton when the new rear rotors arrive.



While Calvin and Henry helped Paul assemble all of the myriad stock parts to the fully built 2.5L long block, I stayed under the car and installed the driveshaft, rear diff cover, and the shifter (mostly).



Paul had already installed the '07 dash, steering column, and had a new windshield put in earlier that week. His UltraShield Rally Pro seat and slider (formerly in his '08 STi) bolted in place in the '95 with zero effort. The '95 Impreza door panels don't match the '07 dash, so the side doors haven't been closed in a while. So at the end of the evening we all took the time to install one of the 2.5 RS door cards, and they fit beautifully - and allow the doors to close, finally!



We need to address the fenders soon, as they won't clear the 275mm tires without some serious persuasion... of the plasma and hammer variety. So a lot of items have been checked off of Paul's Project Whiteboard. McCall better catch up (there's a bet to see who can finish their project car first) as Paul is quickly catching and passing in his project's progress! :D

[U][B]Update for August 25, 2010:[/B][/U] Stopped by Paul's last Sunday to grab some fire sleeve from him for the E30 project and took a few pics of the latest progress on his '07 STi drivetrain swap into his '95 FWD 2-door Impreza. One of these days the motor might go in and the rest of the suspension and brakes might go on!

First off, the rear brake rotors are on. Well, one corner. Paul bought "the cheapest rotors money could buy" for the back, just to get the damn thing rolling and to help move things forward. Sure, there's probably some super secret JDM rotor that is .02 pounds lighter, or made from Unobtanium, but "why slow down to get every silly whiz-bang part?" I keep asking him? "Get it running and fine tune this little stuff later!" I remind him weekly. :)



Paul found some longer ARP wheel studs and replaced the stock length wheel studs, along with Vorshlag M12-1.25 lug nuts. Of course he had to re-machine the studs a bit to allow for installaiton in the rear without removing the rear wheel bearings. There's a wheel speed sensor hole in the rear brake backing plate that is just a hair too small, but with a .015" removed from the OD of the head of the stud, it slides thru. He machined 10 of them using our lathe in about an hour. Removing a sensor ring from the drive flange allows the old studs to be pushed (hammered) out and the new, long ARP studs to go in. The front didn't take this amount of work, luckily, but he hadn't gotten to that yet.



The shifter was still half-installed from last month, so Paul could hunt down some "missing" parts. That he purchased, and when he went to go put them on they were attached... to the shifter. :D The fancy competition type transmission mount assembly he bought from Japan was sitting on the workbench, so I snapped a pic of that. The stock type Subaru trans and motor mounts are a HIDEOUS JOKE, with large amounts of foamy rubber that has the stiffness of a Stay Puff Marshmallow, so these are a huge step up. It's made me look more closely at making Subaru driveline mounts - the choices are extremely limited (with "harder rubber" versions being the commonly used but [I]still terrible [/I]option).



Those are... uhhh... Subaru motor pictures. Paul has been chasing down some hard to find doo-dads for weeks and months, some of which are epically expensive aftermarket parts that are now out of production, which will replace some poorly designed factory piece here or there. Most of it, to me, looks like simple fabricated tubing or whatnot. But apparently these rare JDM parts are the hotness, and help the 2.5L boosted engines make more power.



Above are more of the same... at left is the US Market "turbulence generators" or flux capacitors or whatever its called. Its not individual throttle bodies, its a way to add turbulence/swirl to the intake port (facepalm!) that supposedly helps with exhaust emissions. Oh gawd... those old tricks rarely work, and always cost power. At right are some "JDM" Subaru parts without the throttle blades, which are hard to get and add power. Looks like the same parts with the throttles/shafts removed to me, but what do I know?

All I know is that finding these rare gems and JDM pieces is slowing down this build immensely. But with our E30 V8 swap creeping into week 40+, and with the pace never slowing down much below 4 nights a week, I can't throw stones from my glass house. :D

[I]JDM, YO![/I]

Keep at it, Paul.