Saturday and Sunday my friends and I completed the installation of a full V7 STi driveline into my 04 WRX wagon. Well, almost a full STi driveline. Details to follow…

First off, I want to thank everyone: Kingpin Performance, who set me up with the drivetrain, Wales Garage in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Ben, Kyle, Gabe, Jose, Glenn, Orlando, Andrew and everyone else involved.

Second, if you will host the pictures for this adventure, I’ll put them up AND be eternally grateful.

On to our story…

Two pallets (one regular, one double-sized) of goodies arrived at Wales Garage in Fort Lauderdale, FL on Thursday. On these pallets lived an STi 6-speed (with clutch-type center diff and suretrac mechanical front diff, R180 mechanical rear LSD, 4 axles, 4 hubs, 4 STi gold Brembos, 6MT shifter, STi prop shaft, and all of the other goodies.

As an aside, Wales is a great facility. It’s huge, one of the largest shops I’ve been in, and has top-notch tools, Hunter DSP400 alignment rack, many chassis lifts – basically everything. Compared to working in MY garage, there is no comparison. Wales Garage doesn’t typically rent out the facility, but Ben Levy (Batscubie) runs the place, is a friend and a good man, and he cut me a pretty good deal for the rental.

FedEx freight had KILLED the pallets. Remarkably, the only thing with any damage at all was the shifter – the reverse-lockout ring has a chip out of it. Everything else was fine. Seeing the pallets, you would not have believed it. I didn’t.

We started off Saturday morning around 8:00. The car was on the lift, wheels off.

I pulled off the exhaust behind the downpipe as one piece and set it aside (3 bolts).

We pulled the brakes, and tied the calipers to the strut to save us a fluid mess (4 bolts each total (caliper to caliper body and caliper body to hub). The rotors slipped off with just a few taps of the mallet.

We pulled the rear ABS sensors from the hubs and hung them out of the way (1 bolt each).

We dismantled the e-brakes to release the e-brake cables. If you don’t want to do that, you can go inside the car and tear out the carpet to pull the stock e-brake cables and run the attached STi e-brake cables to the clip point, but that’s not how I chose to do it.

We pulled the propshaft cover (6 bolts).

We drained the fluid from the 5MT, and pulled the propshaft. (4 nuts on studs, it slides right out of the tranny.

We unbolted the hubs from my Tein coilovers (2 bolts each).

We put the tranny jack under the diff, then unbolted the rear subframe (4 bolts), unbolted the nuts from the rear diff support bolts (4), unbolted the trailing arm brackets (3 bolts each), disconnected the fuel tank heatshield (2 screws), and dropped the whole rear clip out of the car – hubs, axles, trailing arms, lateral links, R160 diff, subframe, everything. It comes out as a unit pretty easily.

We carried the STi rear end over to the WRX rear and started trading parts. Because I have a wagon, I can’t use the longer STi lateral links. The STi links are welded from tubular steel, unlike the puny WRX links which are made from stamped sheet metal. We pulled the toe eccentric bolts from each side, and the rest of the sub-frame to suspension bolts from both rear ends. We then put the WRX Wagon links onto the STi subframe. We only hand-tightened the rear suspension, to prevent damage to the bushings – you don’t want to crank them down until you have the weight back on the car – the bushings can tear or bind, and kill your alignment.

As an aside, some of the STi parts are considerably more massive than the stock WRX stuff. The axles are awesome looking, the R180 diff is beefier, the tranny is huge and tough-looking. All in all, it’s impressive gear.

Once the STi rear was assembled, we loaded it on the tranny jack, and dragged it over to the car. We had from 4 to 6 people holding that thing in place while we tried to get the 4 hanging diff bolts through the holes in the diff. We finally got them in and nutted them into place. We bolted the sub-frame back on, and re-attached the hubs to the coilovers.

Voila, a completed rear end, and it was only 10:25AM. I was seriously thinking we would be done by 3PM.

About now, Jose started re-surfacing the brake rotors – they were covered with shipping rust, and we discovered that they had some deposits in them. They came out perfect after taking off around 6/1000”.

I re-connected the ABS sensors and e-brake cables (dismantling the STi e-brakes to remove the old cables and connect the new).

I pulled the downpipe now (3 nuts, 2 bolts and nuts – my heatshield has 3 bolts as well), disconnecting my WbO2.

We moved slowly for a little while, and ate the pizzas I’d ordered. The rotors finished up.

I moved to the front hubs, and got ready to pull them and the axles so we could yank the 5MT (and put in the STi front axles and hubs). I pulled the cotter pin off the steering tie-rod ball-joint castle nut on each side, and removed the castle nut. Damn, that bolt is ON THERE.

Around this time, one of the many, many participants was pulling the STi axles off of the 6MT on the pallet. One of the spring pins popped out immediately. The other? Not so immediately. Nope, not at all. I guess it had frozen in there in transit and Kingpin had removed the tranny and axles as a unit, because that thing just mushroomed right up.

First little issue, and I’m sure I caused it with that flip comment about being finished at 3:00. Anyway, it took us FOUR HOURS to get the pin out. During this time, we broke 6 tool-steel hammer punches and made some futile efforts with drills.

I took my turns with the hammer and the drill, and hammer and drill we did. Eventually, that damn thing popped out, but at a huge time-cost. Time waster #1.

Around this time, Gabe and his brother finished working on his Evolution RS. One member of our party took it for a test drive and managed to spend some time in the company of drunks and druggies in a metal room. The Evo got impounded. This, obviously took a little more time.

During this, I also bought the right puller for the tie-rod bolt – a shop that big and we just didn’t have the right puller for that thing. We pulled the strut from the knuckle (2 bolts), and pulled the strut off of the ball joint (pull the clamp bolt on each hub). I then popped the axle pins from the transmission and pulled out the front axles, still attached to the hubs.

We brought the car down and removed the starter and disconnected the sensors. We pulled the shift-fork retainer cap with a 10mm allen key, inserted a 6mm bolt into the hole, screwed it into the shift-fork retainer, and worked that out. Wiggling the shift-fork helped. We removed the bolts from the top of the 5MT.

We pulled rest of the 5MT bolts, disconnected the ground, and pulled the clutch-slave cylinder from the 5MT, and lowered out the transmission. This isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, but by throwing (literally) Gabe up into the engine compartment with a prybar, we got it moving with style.

We got the 6MT onto the transmission jack. A word about 6MTs: they don’t fit onto tranny jacks very well! If you are not careful, the jack will hook the mount, and you will not have a chance in hell of getting the damn thing into the car. They are also BIG, compared to the 5MT. There is not much clearance around the case in the tunnel.

It took us almost 2 hours to get that 6MT into the compartment, onto the lower studs, onto the dowel pins and onto the input shaft. Gabe (I think he might still be in my engine compartment…) was up there again, working his prybar to get the shaft lined up and getting everything set while I pushed and used three different jacks to lift the front of the motor and the back and front of the transmission. We secured the bolts, stuck the starter and clutch back on, put in the shifter, and called it a transmission.

Oops, we forgot the shift fork retainer. Ah, well, out with the starter and I had that thing back on in 15 minutes. Gabe had to take off after dinner (thoughtfully picked up by Kyle’s girlfriend and Ben). Ben, Drew and I kept working.

I popped in the STi front axles and hubs, and secured them with pins, the tie-rod castle bolt and the strut bolts. I left it off of the control arm ball-joint for now. We attached the prop shaft, and tried to turn it to attach the other two bolts. But we could not. Not at all. We thought that we might have e-brake issues, and I tried to pull the back rotors. Nope – not going to happen. They had gone on with finger pressure and now could not be removed. As I began to “tap” them with a hammer, Ben wisely suggested that we call it a night and start again the next morning, as we were just too tired. Reluctantly, I agreed.

End of day one, at 12:30AM.

Start of day two, 7:30AM.

Ben and I started to work. I wisely jumped up on the car and released the F$%&ing e-brake, freeing the rotor like nothing. We mounted the other two prop-shaft studs and nuts.

I bolted on the downpipe. Orlando, who works at Wales, came by for the alignment. He’s a wrenching wizard. We did the four Brembos and the front hubs in no time flat, bled the brakes, and bolted the back wheels on. I then tried to bolt on one of the front wheels.

Nope. Not by a mile. My OZ Superleggeras don’t come CLOSE to clearing the calipers. It’s really not even spacer-able. And it’s a Sunday. Orlando was there to do the alignment, so he took off since the car wasn’t rolling.

Ben and I wasted 3 hours looking for wheel places that would have anything worthwhile to fit an STi on a Sunday, but such creature simply is not to be found. He and I drove back to my house and picked up my stock rotors (I sold my front Carbotech Bobcat pads and front and rear Carbotech Panther slotted rotors on Saturday, to w0rXer). We drove to TWO places to find brake pads, and got the wrong ones anyway. Not to be denied, I used the grinder to MAKE them fit. I bolted them on, and the baby was back on wheels! Well, she would be soon. First, I had to put the exhaust back on, the turbo heatshield, the fuel tank heatshield and a few other parts.

We filled the transmission and the diff with Redline, and brought her down. Ben cranked her up and pulled her off the lift and onto the Hunter rack.

We took a little break for me to fire up the laptop to tune Ben’s car (an APS DR500 somehow found itself onto Ben’s car, who knew?), and aside from some compressor surge, it runs pretty well.

Orlando showed up again and around 10, and set to work. He aligned it, and tightened all the rear suspension bushings. The alignment came out ALMOST perfect, though I could use a little more adjustment range on a couple of things. At 11, I took the car for a drive around the block, getting the prop-shaft seated, and more importantly, the car warm.

We lifted it back up, tightened the prop-shaft nuts and bolted the prop-shaft protector back on. WooHoo! Finished!

Now that my 374hp at the wheel monster has a drivetrain that won’t break, I decided that I wanted to see just what an STi style 4 wheel burnout would feel like with an extra 140whp. I let it run and warm a little more, and when I left, I backed away a little bit to give Ben and Orlando a show.

I revved to 6K and feathered the throttle. On the upswing, I popped the clutch and flattened the gas. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH! 40 feet of four-tire stripe. Let me just say, I know exactly how STi’s lay down such amazing 60-foot times.

Driving Impressions:

Well, I’ve got around 50 miles on the setup so far. The shifter action is flawless. It’s as short as anything I’ve ever felt, always positive, and you can select the gear you want when you want without bothering to double-clutch. Try that with an 5MT!

Revs are definitely higher with this setup. In 6th, my car does 75mph at 3500rpm. With the 5MT, it did 75 at around 3100 in 5th. But the benefits make it worth it! When 6th is at 3500, 5th is at 4500, and 4th is at 5500. That’s just indescribably beautiful, especially with a big turbo (like my GT30R-11). You ALWAYS have a gear in the powerband, but with plenty of revs to go.

I love it. Stay tuned for the story of the engine swap (the RA Spec-C is on the way!!!!!).

Again, if someone has the space and the time to host the pictures, I’ll gladly post them!

Thanks for staying with me,

-Sean

Daym. Can't wait to take a ride!

i would give you 10 bucks or a pizza for a ride....

Drew

Nice Write up by the way, very accurate about Gabe jumpin around.

me i was jumping!! nahh i didn`t even get a ride YET!:o


i see how things are... use me abuse me and "NO RIDE":huh:

and .....AND!!!! i only got one slice of pizza....:furious:

lol guys my car sounds like a jet bike..... on drugs.!:devil:

Around this time, one of the many, many participants was pulling the STi axles off of the 6MT on the pallet. One of the spring pins popped out immediately. The other? Not so immediately. Nope, not at all. I guess it had frozen in there in transit and Kingpin had removed the tranny and axles as a unit, because that thing just mushroomed right up.

First little issue, and I’m sure I caused it with that flip comment about being finished at 3:00. Anyway, it took us FOUR HOURS to get the pin out. During this time, we broke 6 tool-steel hammer punches and made some futile efforts with drills.

I took my turns with the hammer and the drill, and hammer and drill we did. Eventually, that damn thing popped out, but at a huge time-cost. Time waster #1.





:D do you see that... i did that.. i made it happend!!! i got it out!:disco:

you also managed to break two punches....but we wont mention that.
SHE BANGS, SHE BANGS
Drew

....:banana:and she moves she moves... :banana:

Originally posted by gabewrx
:D do you see that... i did that.. i made it happend!!! i got it out!:disco:

:disco: back atcha. No doubt, Gabe was the man. Gabe pounded and pounded on that damn pin until it popped, finally, out.

Gabe, you get a ride anytime. We're thinking of taking a little trip up to Moroso Wednesday for a TnT. Should be fun.

-Sean

Glad you got it done Sean. Sounds like you had some good help and a nice garage.

Clark

Hey Sean,

Gald to hear it is going well. Happy to host the pics if you like. Shoot them over to me. Thanks agian.

M

Thanks man, it was fun but hard work. Lots of distractions and a few problems, but she's worked out now.

Now I just need my new engine!

-S

Thanks Mike, I'll get on that tonight (after I pull them off my camera...).

-Sean

Pics...

Pallet shots - killed courtesy of Fedex Freight!

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2244/pallet1.jpg
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/82/pallet2.jpg
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/7615/pallet3.jpg

#1 Helper: The Destroyer...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3121/TheDestroyer.jpg

Just pulling in...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8241/starting.jpg

Coming apart...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1900/coming-apart.jpg

No more e-brake, brakes or ABS...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6005/rear-suspension.jpg

How will I ever get these back together?
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3153/e-brakes-dismantled.jpg

About to pull this trailing link...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/7722/trailing-link.jpg

WRX rear versus STi rear...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6369/rears-side-by-side.jpg

She looks naked to me...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5043/no-rear-clip.jpg

Pre-resurfacing...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1238/pre-resurfacing.jpg

Resurfacing!
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3264/post-resurfacing.jpg

STi rear bolts right in...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/434/R180-in.jpg

The 10-second pin and the 4-hour pin...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2258/good-pin-and-bad-pin.jpg

Shift-fork rod:
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5153/shift-fork-rod.jpg

Gabe likes to be on top...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8201/gabe-the-hood-man.jpg

6MT and STi axles are IN!
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2329/6MT-STiAxles-on.jpg

6MT shifter...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9760/6MT-short-shift.jpg

Rear brakes good...
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/443/brake-rear-good.jpg

...Front brakes BAD!
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8297/brake-front-bad.jpg

Creative exhaust bolting:
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/834/creative-exhaust-bolting.jpg

Lonely Front Brembos...
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4166/lonely-front-Brembos.jpg

On the Hunter DSP400 - we be finished!
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1168/on-the-hunter.jpg

Thanks,

Sean

those rear brakes look awesome, can't wait for the matching fronts to be installed on the new wheels. Keep us posted

Drew

Drew - PM'd you...

I would avoid driving the car as much as possible with the current brake setup. The bias is so off that if you have to do any sort of agressive braking you will lock up the rears and crash the car. Please DO NOT drive your car like this unless it's an emergency.

Other than that the swap looks awsome :cool:

Z

It's not really as bad as that. I've actually bedded the pads a little with a few HARD 60-5 brakings, just before ABS pickup. Hard enough to send a bottle of Motul sitting in the wagon bed into the front seat, in fact, with no negative effects. The proprotioning valve will keep TOO much power from hitting the rears, it will just put that much more heat stress on the fronts. Also, I'm still on my 04 ECU, and it has EBD which may well help with the bias problem.

Anyway, I'm driving it, because not going to work would be an emergency. I'm staying off the speed though, and avoiding high-liability situations more than I perhaps usually would.

Thanks,

Sean

is moroso a high-liability situation?

Drew

Not unless someone is coming down the strip the wrong way. Who uses brakes on a dragstrip?

-Sean

I USE BRAKES ON THE DRAGSTRIP:banana:

I no longer have much clutch FROM the dragstrip :banana:

-Sean

One little wheel-swap later and we have:

Front BREMBOS!!!!!

(the wheels are 17x8 Rota Torque in Steel Grey)

http://img38.exs.cx/img38/5629/car-post-wheels.jpg

http://img38.exs.cx/img38/189/front-brembo.jpg

im so excited i cant sleep and we start the motor swap in the mornin.........it is the morning im going to watch the sunrise.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. It's 7:45 and I have to go to the bathroom but I have to post that I'm excited to get this thing going!!!!!!

BRB.....

Jose

Ok, I'll admit that it was me that messed up the "4-hour" roll pin....:o
I did, however, do a great job on the rotors.:banana:

Oh, btw...I get to ride in this beast before some of you:lol: :lol:

See you there

The swap started today ...

More later...

Thanks to Jose, Glenn and Ben. They all rock.

Thanks,

Sean

DAMN, you win on the turbo front, but I won on the tranny and motor front. All in all you are ahead now :(


Soon I will be right there with ya man :)

Jarrad,

I'm getting an odd clunk from below my car. It will happen one of two ways:

1. clutch disengaged, put car in gear while rolling, engage clutch without matching revs.

2. hitting a sharp bump, EXECPT when the clutch is engaged and the car is under positive accellerative load.

When the clunk happens, it seems to be something hitting something under the car, and I can usually feel it through the floor.

Initially, we thought this was the pitch-stop, and that was part of it - the person who was supposed to connect it did not. However, it still happens. It may still be something easy, like an unbolted "something". My question: did this happen to you?

I have the STi tranny mount (it came wiith the STi 6MT). I had the stock engine and pitch-stop mounts, though that will change with the new engine.

About the new engine - I'll start a new thread soon.

-Sean

wait...
374AWHP on the stock block??? whoa

Originally posted by big_adventure
Jarrad,
My question: did this happen to you?
-Sean

My car has no such noise. Actually my car makes NO noises out of the ordinary. My guess is you missed something. Make sure you got all the bolts on the tranny cradle, and the two bolts on the drive shaft support. The fact that it doesn't happen when the car is pulling indicates a more direct link to the drive train. Although once you have the car on a lift you might as well check the rear diff carrier bolts. There are 4 of them that bolt right to the frame. Those are the most likely canadates.
Do you get it with on/off throttle transitions?

Its very possible its your downpipe.. I have to push mine over a bit and then tighten the lower mount.. Even then it hits on startup and shut down sometimes.. Check that..

C

sean on the clunk...

make sure the dog bone type engine mount is in place and tight!!;) trust me on this one!

Originally posted by roffle
wait...
374AWHP on the stock block??? whoa

Yep, she's strong. And that was on 98 octane, WITH a cat in the system...

Everyone else - thanks for the hints. I'll check everything soon...

Here's why it won't be now...

Monday we started the engine swap. I'm going from a stock engine to a v7 RA Spec C beast.

First, there was some damage to the RA motor in shipping. The front and back driver's side timing belt covers were cracked. Fortunately it was the driver's side pieces, as they are the exact same size as stock. If it was the other side, I'd have been somewhat screwed. The exhaust cam gear was a little cracked too, but this is also the same as stock. Mike at Kingpin is going to send me some new parts.

The STi 6MT clutch was also shot, so I ordered an Exedy Twin-Plate, after discussing options with a lot of people. There are no organic street discs out there that can hold the power, and I don't want to have to replace a clutch in 5000 miles if I can avoid it. Pulling that tranny is not fun at all. Three-puck or six-puck cerametallic clutches are harsh as he77 and streetable only by a loose definition. Plus, they eat flywheels. Since this is twin-plate, it will be closer to streetable than any of the ultra-strong single disc clutches. I thought about the Tilton organic twin plate, but I didn't want to a) spend $1600 or b) wait over a week while the vendor assembled the parts. Plus, since this clutch uses its own flywheel, I'll have a lovely STi 6MT flywheel to sell. It was a little scarred, but a machine shop surfaced it yesterday and it came out perfectly.

Anyway, on Monday, we pulled the motor. We disconnected all of the connectors, drained coolant and oil, removed the shift-fork locking rod, evac'd the A/C (no, we didn't strictly have to, but Ben, the shop owner, decided that it would be a good idea - the EPA frowns on refrigerant venting), unbolted and put the power-steering and A/C compressor assemblies to the side, pulled the starter and transmission bolts, pulled the engine mount nuts and lifted out the engine.

We pulled the RA motor's front timing cover, timing belt and driver's side cam gears to pull the rear timing cover assembly. We did the same on the stock motor. We then put the stock rear timing cover on the RA motor, put the RA cam gears back on, removed the driver's side valve cover, set TDC, held the cams with tools, and replaced the timing belt in correct timing. Yes, all of the notches line up. Having Jose along really helped, as he did this two weeks ago with Speedy GP's engine (which I tuned for him - it's awsome!)

We replaced the rest of the timing cover, and scammed some threebond from the subie dealer to reattach the valve cover.

We started unbolting components from the stock motor and bolting them to the RA motor.

Yesterday, I went back for a few hours and did some more work. First, I swapped over my entire exhaust manifold system and uppipe. No worries there. I used mine because my O2 sensor is effectively un-removable (SOA much have used a gorilla or a team of rhinos to torque it in), and I've drilled my #4 for an EGT probe.

I discovered some things about RA motors that make them "fun". There are a second set of breather lines that don't exist on the stock motor. These lines are just to balance pressure between the heads and the crankcase. There is a soft line from each head, right behind the first set that is in the same location as stock. These connect to a hardpipe that is bolted in under the manifold and vents to the crankcase. Unfortunately, this hardline is DIRECTLY in the way of my Perrin inlet pipe's recirc port, and makes it impossible to get the turbo on. Yay. We used an airsaw to cut one of the seven brackets on this hardpipe. I then managed to bend the pipe by shoving in a 3/8 entension and yanking the snot out of it. I got that done and Ben and I got the inlet pipe over my turbo compressor inlet. Thanks to not having TGV's on these risers, this was much easier than on the stock motor. It still wasn't THAT easy, though, as that Turbonetics T04 compressor housing is still huge.

I also removed the RA motor's GBODs and pulled the injectors on one side. A little fuel slopped out, which sucks, because I needed to solder on some new injector clips for the RC750 injectors I'm going to use. I left the fuel-rails attached on the other side. I cut off the stock clips, stripped back the wires, and crimped the 4 new clips on. I hope the wiring is correct, because the wiring on the RCs is black and black. On the stock clips, they are red and green or red and blue. For consistency, I connected the red wire to the same side on the new clips as the old clips, however, since there are only two wires, it really shouldn't matter. On the side of the motor without fuel, I soldered the new clips on and shrank on some heatshrink. I still need to solder and wrap the other side.

I test-fitted one of the RC injectors, and I don't think it will work with the o-rin that RC sent. Once the injector was in, there was no obvious seal, so I took off the STi o-ring and used that. It's a tight fit into the o-ring land, but it feel seated. The RC injectors are much, much larger than stock, so you have to shim the fuel rails. No worries - RC sent the spacers. We'll see how this goes once I've got the motor in the car.

Tomorrow, we are slated to finish the swap. Glenn has an extra rear main seal, so we're going to pop that in. We're going to pop in the new clutch. I'll solder and shrink the last two injector wires, and tape up the wiring harnesses. I'll wire up AVCS (if I can somehow find shielded wiring, of course, no luck so far).

Then, in goes the new beast. I'll add the coolant, oil and water wetter and away I should go.

I'll let you all know.

-Sean

Gabe,

Yeah, we had forgotten to bolt up the pitch-stop when we did the tranny swap. However, tightening that up did not fix the clunk. I'll keep looking once the car is up in the air again.

-Sean

This may be a dumb question, but what kind of power are you expecting to put put in the end? ET times?

By my estimates you had almost 500hp at the crank before the new block... jeez... want to trade cars? :)

Btw - if you've got your stock powertrain for sale, I might be interested....................................:ban ana:

I've got a for-sale thread.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=584674

Sean,

About your clunk I have the same problem. Its partly to do with the downpipe like Clark said, except mine is the bend in the axle back part of my exhaust. It hits the rear subframe where the trailing arms connect. It rattles on start up and shut down and I was able to fix it with pushing the downpipe over a bit and also using two small worm clamps on the exhaust hangers to hold the muffler over slightly. The noise would do the same thing yours is doing when the trans was unloaded, or when I hit awkward bumps. But never under accelleration. Take your hand/ or foot if the exhaust is hot and move your muffler back and forth and you should be able to recreate the noise.

Chris

Thanks Chris, I'll check that today after doing the motor swap.

-Sean

the swap is goin on today?
how late you guys gonna be there till?

Drew

I wanna see some pictures of the engine swap when you guys are done

AWD burnouts :banana:

Drew

Probably pretty late, Drew. I'm hoping to get there by 4 or a little earlier. Jose and Glenn might arrive by 6-6:30.

Before they arrive, I'll:

Solder on the last two injector clips
Install the injectors
Wire the AVCS solenoids
(hopefully) wire the AVCS cam sensors (shielded wire is my bane...)
Assemble the new clutch
Replace one coolant hose that I don't like.

They will arrive, and then we'll install the new rear main seal and clutch. Then we'll drop in the engine, mount the PS and AC, install the belts, connect the connectors, put in the ECU, add coolant and oil, and see what's what.

No AWD burnouts tonight, though, I have to break in the new clutch.

-Sean


Originally posted by WRX8XB
the swap is goin on today?
how late you guys gonna be there till?

Drew

Good Luck man, Let me know how it all turns out. Im Jealous.

C-Lo

Originally posted by big_adventure
Probably pretty late, Drew. I'm hoping to get there by 4 or a little earlier. Jose and Glenn might arrive by 6-6:30.

Before they arrive, I'll:

Solder on the last two injector clips
Install the injectors
Wire the AVCS solenoids
(hopefully) wire the AVCS cam sensors (shielded wire is my bane...)
Assemble the new clutch
Replace one coolant hose that I don't like.

They will arrive, and then we'll install the new rear main seal and clutch. Then we'll drop in the engine, mount the PS and AC, install the belts, connect the connectors, put in the ECU, add coolant and oil, and see what's what.

No AWD burnouts tonight, though, I have to break in the new clutch.

-Sean


Not to pry into finicial matters, but what would you say a ballpark for JUSDT THE PARTS would be. You can itemize if you would like to respond, but I am very interested.

I am already considering a swap as I am looking to make the WRX my 'track' car, and step up to a USDM STi as a daily driver.

Let me know. I would LOVE to see how it all turns out, and what engine management you are going to go with (the RA ECU come with this? You going to mix your own gas so it wont knock?)

Good luck man, and are you ever going to street this thing again? :) Sleeper daily driver :)

- dow

MOTOR IS IN. When I got there I saw Sean a little unhappy due to the fact that the RC injectors hadn't been machined to fit the subaru intakes. So, he has to wait until today when the new "machined" injectors arrive. Other than that I installed a new rear main seal, courtesy of Glenn. I wanted to install the new seal because I saw some remnants of oil in the bell-housing. Plus, the engine was out and easy to swap in the new seal. After, I installed the exedy twin disc clutch. What a beauty of engineering. Suprisingly, Sean says that the pedal is almost normal.
We proceeded with installing the motor. Pretty much went in smooth. With one exception.....Sean's huge turbo getting in the way;) . Not to worry though, one lift of the motor here, a shove from Glenn over there. One more lift on the tranny and in she went. By this time, it was somewhere around 9p.m. and we had to get going. We installed the a/c compressor and power steering pump and left it at that for the night.

Jose (Pacobeagle1) was an invaluable help yesterday. He just threw a new engine in Glenn's car last month, so the information is fresh in mind.

About the injectors, they have a lip around the tip. This lip is usually machined when RC sends out a set for a Subie, but it looks as if mine were not machined. That lip makes contact with the bottom of the injector port. Basically, if you've never looked down there, the port is the size of the injector body. then it narrows down at the tip. The tips of the stock or STi injectors fit through this port, and the o-ring seals it. The tips of the RC's do NOT fit. Ouch.

I called RC and spoke with Carol and others there. We figured out what must have happened, and they are taking care of me. They have excellent customer support, I highly recommend dealing with them from that perspective alone.

Basically, it's like Jose said - the engine is in the car. There are just a few steps left to go -

1. Get the new set of injectors - please let FedEx do the job here.
2. Pop them into the car - please let them FIT!
3. Find and attach the last power-steering pump bolt. Ben wanted to get out of there, so we were hurrying. Jose had this bolt in hand, and it walked away somehow from one moment to the next. Jose and I looked for it for 10 minutes, and we decided to call it a night.
4. Install the belts and tension them.
5. Install the radiator.
6. Install the coolant hoses, coolant tank.
7. Install the catchcan lines.
8. Make sure that everything is capped appropriately.
9. Rewire for the AVCS solenoids.
10. Add wires for the AVCS cam sensors. To get the right wiring down here, I had to buy two shielded ignition wire kits from MSD - $25 EACH. $%^&&^$^%$^$*(**^#%$%%#%#!!!!!!!!!
11. Connect all of the wiring.
12. Add coolant (Prestone, Water Wetter, water) and oil (M1).
13. Install the RA ECU (AH970).
14. Rough-tune the UTEC for the new injectors.

After that, we crank her up. Here's me crossing fingers. this should happen today!

-Sean

I forgot to mention something - my poor stock clutch. It had been sitting on the car, still bolted in. We pulled it because the Exedy Twin-Plate does not come with a pilot bearing for the included flywheel. Anyway, I wish I had a picture. It was the saddest clutch I've seen that hadn't exploded. The material had been displaced around the disc, filling most of the grooves and many of the rivet holes. There were visable fibers on the surface, and fibers hanging out the edges. I'll try to remember to get a picture and post it tonight - it's must see TV.

-Sean

:lol:

Thanks for the great pics - it'll be a big help when I start my swap... someday!

A little bit more news -

The engine is ALMOST ready to rock. RC sent out a newly machined set of injectors yesterday. I called them and got the tracking number. When I punched it into Google to get to UPS, I got some bad, bad news. They were accidentally shipped 3-day, not next day. No!

A quick phone call to RC took care of things as well as possible, and they machined another set and have shipped them next-day, for Saturday delivery. That's all good, as long as they arrive.

I went back to the shop today for a little more tech-work. I put on the PS pump (we were missing a bolt), the alternator and the tensioner, and got the belts back on. Then I re-installed the radiator and the coolant hoses. I put on the downpipe and the catless midpipe from TXS, and wired up the rear O2 and my wideband. I, after 2 hours and fashinoning a tool with a die grinder, managed to move the ECU pins and then the driver's side harness pins to support AVCS. I still have to wire in the shielded wiring to support the AVCS cam sensors, and for that I need some Honda or Subaru harness pins. Once I have them, that's set. When the injectors arrive, I'll install them, reattach the coolant tank and fuel system, plug my FMIC pipes back in and dial in a base tune on the UTEC. A little coolant and oil, and that should be, as they say, that! Hopefully tomorrow evening I'll be writing a success story.

Ah, one other thing - the bolts that run through the spring connector at the donut gasket between the midpipe and the catback are pretty heat-fried. So much so that one broke while I was tightening it today. I hope I can find a decent bolt in the shop...

-Sean

Well, all, I can't officially announce success yet, but I expect to tonight.

Saturday, I went back into the shop to "finish". There wasn't much to do, and I expected to knock it out in no time. Ben and I went to a salvage yard to clip a harness connector from a Civic to get some harness pins. I had already scored some ECU pins off of a Nissan throw-away harness. With these connectors, some solder, some heat-shrink and some work, I made my shielded AVCS cam sensor harnesses. Wiring them in was a snap, after figuring out the ECU and underhood pin workings the day before.

The RC injectors arrived at my place, so Ben and I took a non-boosted, rental Focus powered trip up to my place to pick them up.

These injectors were VERY different in machining than the last set. I have a picture that I will post later. I slid STi O-rings AND the RC O-rings onto the pintle, because I was a little worried that it wouldn't seal well. It didn't feel all that "positive" when I placed it in the port, because the injector body contacts the top of the port when the injector is all the way inserted. It contacts it very evenly, though. The RC injectors are much larger, so you a) need a lot more clearance on the rails and b) need to use spacers on the rail bolts. RC includes the spacers, so that's no problem. To get the clearance, you have to take off the two main fuel-rail bolts, and the pipe-support bolt on the side of the risers. On the passenger side, this is almost impossible. The oil-pipe for AVCS runs directly in front of the side bolt, while the fuel-rail runs directly over the banjo-bolt that secures the oil-pipe onto the engine. After some massive struggles, I got the banjo-bolt out and then the rail side bolt out. The rail side bolts are not reused with the RC injectors, as they no longer fit. I installed the injectors, cranked the rails down into place, connected the injector clips that I soldered on earlier, and we were good to go.

I connected all of the remaining tubes and hoses and connected all of the clips. Well, almost all, more on that in a minute.

We filled the car with oil (Mobil 1 and Marvel Mystery Oil), poured in some coolant, water and Water Wetter and discovered the first mis - there was a coolant leak thanks to a missed hose, but we got that sealed right up, and filled it as well as possible while cold.

Then, we gave it another too-quick once-over and I switched to the RA Spec-C ECU. I first turned it on without starting it up to tune the UTEC - I wanted a blank fuel map, wastegate boost only and to change the OLF settings to reflect the new injectors.

I then cranked the car to life. Well, it ran. It also had a CEL, ran like CRAP and clearly had some problems. It actually idled. Rougly, but it did. You'll see why that impresses soon...

First, the vacuum leak. The fitting for the brake-booster is replaced with the APS DR500 I/C, and this fitting was under the post-turbo charge pipe. When we pulled the motor, somebody in there must have tucked the hose out of the way, and I couldn't easily see either the host or the fitting, and I missed it. We could hear it clearly, we found it, connected it and restarted the car.

It again cranked right up, but it again ran like garbage. It managed to correct itself at idle, but it was horribly rough. We ran it for a while like this and warmed it up, just waiting to see what was up and also wanting to bleed in some coolant. We then started looking for a problem. We couldn't hear a vac leak, and couldn't find one. this makes sense, because the problem was much, much simpler. When I was installing the injectors, I had disconnected the coil-pack wires to #2 and #4 to get some harness clearance to work. So the car was sitting there, managing a rough idle with TWO DEAD CYLINDERS AND a MASSIVE VAC LEAK. Ben was a bit freaked out by this - it shouldn't have been possible, so we plugged in the harness and left the building.

On Sunday, I went back in and we again cranked the little blue car. Again, it ran like crap, clearly in limp-mode. We finally pulled the CEL, and got a P0031, Heater Circuit CEL. Damn, that meant front O2 sensor. I had been playing with pins and wiring, and it's POSSIBLE that the 04 harness is different enough to make it impossible to work with the 02 RA Spec C ECU. I had the FSM handy and printed out, and reviewed the wiring diagram. Nope, I didn't mess with that ECU connector at all. Just to be sure, I did a continuity test on all of the appripriate wires, from ECU pin to harness end in then compartment. Everything was good. We then lifted the car and noticed that two of the wires on my front AF sensor were cut! An easy solution, but a disheartening one - it was Sunday, and Subie parts departments aren't open on Sunday. There is no aftermarket A/F sensor for these cars, so we were stuck. I tried to find a local with an extra A/F, but had no luck at all.

Today is Monday. Ben is picking up the new front A/F today, and tonight I'll install it. Then, she rides...

-Sean

:banana:

She is a MONSTER.

I put in the new O2 sensor and everything is perfect. I see -480mmHg of vacuum at idle. The motor is smoother and quieter than my stock motor, despite the more agressive heads and cams. I'm a bit rich right now, around 10.5:1 at WOT, and my timing is still the timing I used on my stock motor, so there's a lot more in her, but I had it out for a while tonight, and hit 22-23psi on 93 octane gas with NO DET AT ALL! This engine is awsome.

About that boost - I have a Garett GT30R-11 turbo, and it's a custom job. The wastegate is only an 8psi gate, so I put a big, fat helper spring on it to build and hold boost better. On my stock motor, with the high-flow cat from TXS in place, that gave me 17.5-18psi as my wastegate pressure. With the new motor, and no cat, it's a massive difference - 22-23psi wastegate (my CLB settings are 1. Everywhere). Getting rid of that backpressure made my turbo even more alive than before!

I'm also breaking in (and getting used to) my new Exedy twin-plate clutch.

The good things:

- It'll hold 600+ lb/ft of torque. My last clutch looked like salt-water taffee.

- The pedal effort is not much harder than stock, very positive.

- The entire clutch, flywheel, mid-plate and pressure plate combination weighs only ~30lbs - can you say "fast revving"?

The bad things:

- Sure, it only has 35 miles on it, but there is definite, pronounced, loud chatter when the clutch is disengaged.

- If you want a smooth, slipping launch, you have to pull into it at over 2K revs and balance the throttle perfectly.

Ah, well, it's a race part, so there are sacrifices. It's totally drivable, it just took me 10 minutes to get used to it. It's kind of like driving a sport-bike for the first time - you don't want to smoke the tires every time out, so you take it easy. Then you stall it at a light. Woops. No stalls so far here, but there have been a couple of stiff launches.

But it'll hold the power. If I never have to change the clutch on the car, it'll be a little too soon for me. I've seen her in pieces too much lately.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to tuning her and hitting it hard soon, but I need to wait a couple of weeks to break in that clutch. More when it happens!

There is one, expected caveat - I'm using the Rev6 US UTEC with the JDM ECU, so I do get the 4 "harmless" injector OBDII codes, P0261, P0264, P0267 and P0270. These are expected, and cause no issues at all that anyone can see.

There is one, unexpected caveat that I still haven't completely resolved - I get a clunk somewhere from the exhaust hitting the tranny or the frame. It only happens when I do something harsh with the transmission or hit an awkward bump when I'm in gear but off the throttle. The exhaust hangers helped some, but I'm going to need to find a solution. I think it is caused by the transmission's exhaust bracket on the STi 6MT being MUCH longer and thus MUCH more flexible than on the 5MT - where I never got this. I think I'll reinforce that bracket with some metal plate. We'll see.

Current mod list:

2004 WRX wagon
V7 STi RA Spec C engine and ECU
V7 STi 6MT transmission
STi gold Brembos
STi axles
R180 rear diff
STi trailing arms
Tein coilovers
Rota Torque 17x8 wheels, steel grey
UTEC
TXS TBE (non-RFL) with race pipe
Garett GT30R-11 turbo (Ported AVO 320 turbine housing .63 A/R, Turbonetics T04 comp cover)
APS DR500 FMIC
APS BOV
RC Engineering 750cc Injectors
Perrin catch can
Kartboy exhaust hangers
Exedy twin-plate clutch
GReddy electronic boost and EGT gauges
TXS Tuner (Da Tuna!) WbO2

You will see more from this soon!

-Sean

Glad to hear that everything is in order. NOW TAKE ME FOR A RIDE!!!!!! I put in enough time for a 4WD burnout. No seriously, break her in, tune the car and then come see me.

Cheers to a sick wagon in Fl. that one day I'll own.:lol:

jose

Thanks Jose, you still have dibs if/when I sell her. BTW, AVCS worked first try. I logged it with DD this morning and saw it laying in up to 16 degrees of advance on the intake cams.

-Sean

so...how much are you charging for rides? are kids under 4 half off if they bring their own recaro baby seat? :banana:

Drew

(congrats on the install (do we get a full write up?))

Really cheap until the clutch finishes breaking in...

As far as full write up, I'll post some pics to complement this stuff, but I'm not sure how much more I really need to type!

Originally posted by WRX8XB
so...how much are you charging for rides? are kids under 4 half off if they bring their own recaro baby seat? :banana:

Drew

(congrats on the install (do we get a full write up?))

wanna trade?

Originally posted by roffle
wanna trade?

Let me think about it



:confused:






:confused:





:confused:



Nope, don't think so! :D

-Sean

is the exedy twin plate unit broken in yet?:D

Drew

Up to 290 miles so far. Over 5-600, she'll be ready to go.

I'm thinking of putting her on the dyno next weekend - though I haven't called Twilight just yet.

-Sean

well keep us posted on that!! I assume you're gonna use "Da Tuna"

Drew

Of course, I use it every day...

I have to finish breaking in the clutch before I tune the beast on the street. Once I've done that, we're dyno-bound.

-Sean

Well, I'm up to 600 miles on the clutch, and it took a hard pull to 8200 this morning at 1.6bar on pump gas. This engine is amazing - we already knew that about my turbo. It's a very, very good match. I'll do some road tuning this week - there are some fairly mild hesitation issues where the crossovers happen - it's a big jump from the agressive RA timing.

-Sean

morosso test and tune?

Drew

Not quite yet, plus, I have to work late on Wednesday.

-Sean

ok, ok. I had to ask. I guess it makes sense to tame the beast before you let her out of her cage.

Drew

Yeah, and like I said, I have to do something about overboosting. Which simply means switching out to a softer spring on my gate, I guess, and then maybe going for an MBC or something.

-Sean

so 1.6 bar is more then you want to run? :D What is your target boost?

Drew

bump!!!

Love this thread!!

Yea sean we love this thread and we want updates!!

do you have any pics of it all installed? hood open of course :disco:

Drew

sigh... who knew one could be so jealous of metal...

not just about hot girlfriends anymore....

sigh... who knew one could be so jealous of metal...

not just about hot girlfriends anymore....

Fortunately I have one of those too, and she still tolerates me! Barely...

I was JUST going to type "don't tell me you have one of those you have too"

Congrats, Sean!

Let us know when you will be making the next appearance at Moroso. I would love to be there to see the beast in action. :)

I was JUST going to type "don't tell me you have one of those you have too"

HOK,
I think between the two, it used up all of my luck. I keep losing at dice.

Winston,
I'll post before the next Moroso journey. Let's see what she's made of!

I know it's a lot to ask with so much involved, but my brother is currently looking at doing nearly the same thing, and is having some problems adding up to get a nice ballpark figure. So, if possible, what is the $ figure for parts only on basically the same setup? Maybe give or take a little money on the extra parts like FMIC and clutch, etc., that the person picks themselves.

Thanks in advance. :)

i do believe sean got the setup from kingpin, he (kingpin) might be able to give you a ballpark figure.

Drew

I know it's a lot to ask with so much involved, but my brother is currently looking at doing nearly the same thing, and is having some problems adding up to get a nice ballpark figure. So, if possible, what is the $ figure for parts only on basically the same setup? Maybe give or take a little money on the extra parts like FMIC and clutch, etc., that the person picks themselves.

Thanks in advance. :)
Firgure $4 to $5k for the long block harness and ecu, $1k in parts to install, $1k in parts that you forgot or broke along the way, $500 to $1k+ for ecu. $5k for a 6 speed more if you wan the rear diff and gold shiny brakes. Adding aftermarket parts like a front mount new turbo and such might add up to $30-$40k when all is said and done.

Toto is pretty accurate there:

$4500-5K for complete engine and ECU
$1500 - $2000+ for an acceptable turbo
$800-1000 for a TBE
$600-1000 for EM
$3500-4K for rear clip (R180, propshaft, axles, Brembos, hubs, subframe, trailing and lateral links, etc.)
$3500-4K for the 6MT
$1600-2K or so for the front brakes, hubs and axles
$1000-1500 for a suitable clutch (you could go with an Exedy 3-puck race for $500, but you'll eat it pretty fast)
$1400-1500 for an FMIC
$500-1000 for parts and wierd tools to install everything and parts that break
$500-1000 for other stuff (catch can, fuel pump, BOV, etc.)
$1500-$3000 for wheels and tires
$1000-2500 for suspension upgrades

= $21900 - $29500 in mods, before you count the car or the installation time or the tune.

Someone will probably help you out with a bit of a package deal for throwing all of the parts together.

Good luck. Call a good importer/builder to get them to line this stuff up for you.

-Sean

If you want to stay current, move over to the Engine Management and Tuning thread that is ongoing!

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=598710

Thanks,

Sean

More Pictures!!!

Just got it in...
http://img56.exs.cx/img56/1582/Installed.jpg

RC injectors vs STi. The RC on the left is from the first batch that didn't fit. The one on the right is from the batch that did - a shocking difference in machining! The poor STi looks so sad...
http://img56.exs.cx/img56/9503/inj-comp.jpg

Here is what the RC looks like installed - notice that the screw from the side of the rail does not line up anymore. The RCs come with big, fat spacers for the rails (at the main two screws) to make them fit, and they fit leak-free on try #1...
http://img56.exs.cx/img56/3661/inj-inst.jpg

Here are the shielded pairs of wiring connected to the E1 connector in the engine bay. I got pins from a Honda harness in a salvage yard. The wiring pairs came from MSD, makers of ignition components. I could not find shielded wiring anywhere, so I wound up buying these pre-terminated kits, and breaking off the MSD terminals to get down to wire only. They are beautiful, but the cost $25 EACH, and I needed 2. Agh!
http://img56.exs.cx/img56/3766/shield-E1.jpg

Here is the ECU side of the deal. Notice the 2 shield ground wires terminated into one pin and then connected. The ECU pins came from a Nissan harness. I wired them into the chassis harness, and then plugged them right into the UTEC. Fortunately, the UTEC includes all pins at rev6 and up, even those it does not use.
http://img56.exs.cx/img56/9010/shield-ecu.jpg

Here we are getting a lot closer. We just had to put on the hood and troubleshoot at this stage.
http://img56.exs.cx/img56/897/installed2.jpg

-Sean

That front mount looks right at home in there, do you think you have enough turbo to fill up all those pipes? :lol:
so when are you going to do water injection?

Drew

Toto is pretty accurate there:

$4500-5K for complete engine and ECU
$1500 - $2000+ for an acceptable turbo
$800-1000 for a TBE
$600-1000 for EM
$3500-4K for rear clip (R180, propshaft, axles, Brembos, hubs, subframe, trailing and lateral links, etc.)
$3500-4K for the 6MT
$1600-2K or so for the front brakes, hubs and axles
$1000-1500 for a suitable clutch (you could go with an Exedy 3-puck race for $500, but you'll eat it pretty fast)
$1400-1500 for an FMIC
$500-1000 for parts and wierd tools to install everything and parts that break
$500-1000 for other stuff (catch can, fuel pump, BOV, etc.)
$1500-$3000 for wheels and tires
$1000-2500 for suspension upgrades

= $21900 - $29500 in mods, before you count the car or the installation time or the tune.

Someone will probably help you out with a bit of a package deal for throwing all of the parts together.

Good luck. Call a good importer/builder to get them to line this stuff up for you.

-Sean
Best Sleeper on the road.... priceless.

Best Sleeper on the road.... priceless.

There is that :D

-Sean

Sean didn't I tell you that I had some extra wire? I have shipped it out to severeal people, and I still have enough for 2-3 more people. I have been shipping it out for $15 to anyone who has asked me about it.

You joke? AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

;)

I wasted three hours calling electronic supply places. I wasted at least 2 hours going to places. Finally, I went by a local speed shop and got lucky - they had these packs of single-pair shielded wire by MSD. Really nice stuff. It took me 10 minutes with a hammer to get off the terminals.

-Sean

oh, in that case I was just joking!


On a totally unrelated note, I do happen to have some more of the wire needed to do this install for anyone else who wants it. Also it is 4 element + sheild, so you only need to run one strand.

I heard that the 4-element wiring would give you issues, as the shield is on the outside of all four wires. I suppose you've NOT had issues? That would be easier if only because it saves you the step of splicing and soldering the two grounds together before soldering on the pin.

I wish I'd know you had this stuff before! In any event, it wasn't bad to get it working, once I found the proper pins and devised a pin-release tool by grinding down a jewler's screwdriver on a die-grinder. I'm a tool-fabricating man - I'm not sure I've ever done an install on my car without having to fabricate some kind of tool.

-Sean

-Sean

I have had no issues. I looked at the remanents from the harness that came hacked on the motor and I believe it had all 4 together so I went with it. As I said I sent it out to several people and none of them have complained, and mine worked from the first time.

Good to know. Thanks! I wish I'd known you had this before! That, or I could have hunted up an old piece of token-ring STP. Now THAT's shielded wire.

-Sean

sooooo awesome....and i'm jealous. Great write up and pics. Congrats man the wagon looks AWESome

Sean,
Do you have any pics of the damage a boost tube can do to the fender of an 04 wagon when it blows off at 1.9 bar?
Just Curious

Drew

I'll have to borrow Béa's camera and snap a shot of it. I don't like to think about it.

-Sean

couple of questions for you:

- does your 6MT have the DCCD? if so is it functional?
- are you using the STi ABS computer and modulator or do you have ABS disabled?

I ask because I have a friend here in SLC that purchased a complete rear-end wrecked MY04 USDM STi and swapped *EVERYTHING* over onto his GC (engine, transmission, rear end, brakes, dash, steering wheel, seats, etc...), and he couldn't get the ABS to operate correctly, and therefore the DCCD didn't work either so he just unhooked it and left it alone.

-T

couple of questions for you:

- does your 6MT have the DCCD? if so is it functional?
- are you using the STi ABS computer and modulator or do you have ABS disabled?

I ask because I have a friend here in SLC that purchased a complete rear-end wrecked MY04 USDM STi and swapped *EVERYTHING* over onto his GC (engine, transmission, rear end, brakes, dash, steering wheel, seats, etc...), and he couldn't get the ABS to operate correctly, and therefore the DCCD didn't work either so he just unhooked it and left it alone.

-T

His tranny doesnt have dccd..

I am running an STI rear just like Sean's setup and the abs just plugs right in.. I know on the older GC's the plugs are different, we went through this with my friends car. He left ABS disabled which was not the best idea..

Cant you just cut off the plug on the RS and then rewire a new age one on?

we went through this with my friends car. He left ABS disabled which was not the best idea..

Cant you just cut off the plug on the RS and then rewire a new age one on?

:o won't forget that day. :(

Yea all i had to do was cut off the connector and splice the new one on. Both 2 wires. Best part is i had my back seats out for the longest time, could've done it in 20 seconds. Oh well.

I have two extra ABS sensors that fit GD's, if you want to check my FS thread...

Cronic knows the what's what with my car.

Did you check out that map, Dave?

-Sean

I have two extra ABS sensors that fit GD's, if you want to check my FS thread...

Cronic knows the what's what with my car.

Did you check out that map, Dave?

-Sean

No i was feeling generous and let my fiance' take the car to her aunts for the weekend :lol: She will be back tom sometime then i will try to load it..

Thanks man!
Dave

That WAS generous. That said, my girlfriend is about the only one I trust to drive my car without me in it to supervise, preferrably heavily armed.

-S

When I swapped my rear brakes into a OBS all I did was remove my ABS sensor and plug in the ones that came on the OBS. The physical mounting is exactly the same, and works perfectly.

what about the programming in your stock ABS computer that tells the stock ABS modulator what to do and when to do it? that code is meant for the smaller stock brakes. it doesn't whig out or throw a code? it can't be the safest thing to use brakes from another car along with ABS computer programming for stock brakes, but i guess people that upgrade their brakes using aftermarket rotors and calipers are in the same boat. just a thought...

That WAS generous. That said, my girlfriend is about the only one I trust to drive my car without me in it to supervise, preferrably heavily armed.

-S

:lol: Yea it just sucks because i have the wastegate so tight it wont go under 19.5psi, she knows not to get on it though, and even if she did i doubt she would do long pulls, grrr now i am this has me thinking about my baby, i hope she is ok :lol:

what about the programming in your stock ABS computer that tells the stock ABS modulator what to do and when to do it? that code is meant for the smaller stock brakes. it doesn't whig out or throw a code? it can't be the safest thing to use brakes from another car along with ABS computer programming for stock brakes, but i guess people that upgrade their brakes using aftermarket rotors and calipers are in the same boat. just a thought...

As long as the balance and proportioning are close, it's no big deal. You MIGHT see issues if you had 13" rotors in the back and 11" rotors in the front. Oh, wait, I actually DID have that for a while, and still didn't have any issues. I avoided emergencies.

Anyway, with the Brembos and the grippy-as-he77 pads I have, there almost isn't any need for ABS. I have an 04, though, so I have EBD anyway, making it even better.

-Sean

:lol: Yea it just sucks because i have the wastegate so tight it wont go under 19.5psi, she knows not to get on it though, and even if she did i doubt she would do long pulls, grrr now i am this has me thinking about my baby, i hope she is ok :lol:

Even if she does, man, your car can hold 19.5psi for like an hour before it has a problem. My turbo is blowing something like room temperature at that pressure. :)

-S

Even if she does, man, your car can hold 19.5psi for like an hour before it has a problem. My turbo is blowing something like room temperature at that pressure. :)

-S

Sean, keep rubbing your gt30r inm and one day you will wake up and your precious wagon will be gone and this will be in its place!
http://rs-scooby.com/albums/album19/P7040045.jpg


:lol:

I could trade having the fastest blue wagon down here for the fastest yellow sedan! Those wheels look sweet. Everything under the hood looks pretty familiar. :)

But NNOOOOOOOOOO, NOT the PRECIOUSSSSSSSS! He cants HAVE the PRESCIOUSSSSS.

I gotta get outta here...

-S