Hello gents! figured I start a little build log for the Subaru.
I drove up to PA in Jan of 2016 with a friend and picked up a mint 2002 WRX wagon with leather interior and 182,xxx miles on it. Drove it 600 miles back down to NC and we had our first snow storm so I drove it around for 3 days while that cleared up and parked it in the garage. I had a Miata at the time and there was no way I was about to drive that on ice/snow.
Once in the garage I pulled everything off to replace the timing belt, water pump, fuel filter, spark plugs, every vacuum hose that I touched. I purchased a new intake boot, and replaced the rear engine (pitch) mount bolt as it was missing.
Following a timing belt replacement video on YouTube and everything went smoothly. She fired right up with no issues, minus the power steering line I forgot to connect back... whoops...
At the beginning of November I picked up a new daily. A 2006 Volvo V70R, pretty much my shop car to help promote the business. I bought this from Matt, a friend of mine who came to me so I could make a custom downpipe for the car as no one sells one for less then $900. More on that later.
In November I placed a decent size order with Amazon, eBay, and some other companies.
List of parts I bought...
700cc injectors. I had to email the company I bought them from as the 2 on the passenger side were pouring fuel all over the exhaust and that's a cause for fire that I rather not have. They emailed me back the next day and sent out a new set of O-rings. I let a friend of mine install them while I was installing the fuel pump. Turns out there was a bunch of dirt in the TGV's (lower intake manifold) and the O-rings wouldn't seal correctly causing the leak.
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255LPH fuel pump kit. No issues here, which is what you expect from Walbro.
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Top mount intercooler with all new hoses and charge pipes. I decided to stick with the top mount setup as it's good to about 350whp and the charge pipes account for maybe 12" of piping total. Plus, I hate front mounts on these cars. No picture of it, I'll have one soon.
I bought a cheap ($90) downpipe for the car off eBay, because why not? What's the worst that could happen? Figured it was worth a shot and I didn't feel like making the bellmouth section of the pipe near the turbo. Pulled the oem downpipe with its 2 cats off and what do you know, hits everything... Doesn't sit flush on the turbo, hitting the subframe, and is pushing the AC drip hose over, nothing better then a burnt rubber hose and a wet downpipe every time the AC is on.. So I decided to cut it up and use its parts for a proper downpipe, by parts I mean bellmouth section and the flange for the turbo and the 2 bends at the end that they actually got right. The flange on the catback side was also the wrong piece. I'm going with a v-band connection there so no harm no foul also added a flex after the trans mount bracket. I'm in the middle of building the downpipe currently. I'm using pie cuts as this is no easy task and there's not much room down there.
This is all I can use from the downpipe. Rest will be pie cuts and straight sections.
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I also ordered a spin-tech 3" in and out muffler. This is a company Ken told me about. He used to have one of these mufflers on a older Jetta. I built his exhaust for his 1998 Volvo v70 and I love the way it sounds.
No resonator on my car. Just the muffler. To limit drone I'm going to be building a antidrone pipe right before the muffler. V8 guys love them and it should cut down on highway noise, especially this being a wagon. I ordered 2 tips, 1 dual and 1 a very large oval. Going to decide on which one I like better.
Muffler and tips are on the way.
Ordered 2 catch cans so I can run a dual setup. They came with a crappy mounting system and I wanted them to sit next to each other in the engine bay. So l made JD favorite things in the world... br&ckets!! Ended up making 1 in 16 gauge and it was too thin. Stepped up to 1/8", much better.
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Yet another headache and custom piece I had to build was the intake. I ordered one off of eBay as it was $42 shipped and came with everything... so I thought. Go to install it and nothing lines up. The pipe in the fender is 3" and then it reduces to 2-3/4". My turbo intake boot is 3" and I rather not have a bottle neck in my intake. Emailed the guy he says that the stock MAF is 2-3/4" and going larger in side can mess up the readings of the MAF. I agree but .20" isn't going to make a huge difference. So I placed yet another order with my supplier and got to welding, this time on aluminum. Learning a lot with this trash. I had to cut out the MAF adapter and weld it to the 3" elbow that I ordered. The MAF adapter was so dirty, just crappy aluminum. It was quite the challenge to weld. I also extended the pipe in the fender as it didn't stick out far enough to clamp the boot on. I decided to use a 45* silicone elbow to help make things easier for me. I watched idk how many videos on YouTube and asked a bunch of questions on my Instagram. I'm getting there. Still lots to improve. Aluminum is a different beast. You think it's clean, clean some more, tack and clean again before final welding.
Before
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After
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I couldn't find a gauge pod that I liked. Well more so one that wasn't $$$. I ordered 2 dual pillar setups, a LHD one and a RHD one, and cut them both down. It isn't perfect but once it's in the car it's hard to tell. Working with ABS plastic is always fun but it sure does make a big mess. Almost like fiberglass minus the itch. I used a scotch bright pad on my air grinder to get the big portions. It's still a work in progress. Hopefully it will look good once it's painted. I need to find a paint that will match my interior, or come close.
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On the right is the wideband, on the left is the boost. Works out perfect and doesn't block any of the gauge cluster.
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I need to send back the wideband as it isn't compatible with my engine management solftwate.
For engine management I went with open source (standalone). A company called Tactrix builds the OBD port, they also send a cable a that plugs into the OBD port. I then can change everything with a software called Rom-Raider and upload the changes with a software called EcuFlash. Also ordered a boost controller solenoid. The software is free and I know a great tuner.
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