Soccer05 Bugeye GTX3071 ej205 Street/Track Build Thread

[soccer05]

Started final reassembly of the rear end of the car. Tighten up all the hand tight bolts to final torque spec. Spherical endlinks all bolted up and torques down.


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[soccer05]

Whiteline Rear Subframe Lockdown dolts installed. Hopefully my rear suspension will be suffeciently rigid for hardcore performance use, if not I will be dropping the subframe and paying a local fabricator to seam weld the rear subframe, just don't have it in the budget at this time. I really wish I could weld, the majority of the chassis would have been seam welded, and especially the front crossmember as well as the rear subframe. Oh well, gives me another project in the future.


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[soccer05]

Cusco trailing arms installed and torqued to spec. Fitment turned out to be a non issue, and my concerns unfounded. The bracket collapses down under the torque and fits the hub perfects. Not sure if it is because of my other adjustable suspension arms being made from either steel or chromoly and not flexing down as far a aluminum or what, but these arms seem to fit perfectly, and knowing their track record in a competitive race environment, seems cusco knows more than me about suspensioh arm construction.


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[soccer05]

Well, finally arranged time with crazy work schedules and got my transmission reinstalled and mated to the engine. Very excited about this, will allow me to start reinstalling components of the front suspension. Was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to mate the transmission back up to the engine. With the pitch stop removed you can get a surprising amount of play, and by jacking the front of the engine you can tilt it downward in the back, giving you much more working room to wiggle the transmission in. With two people, it was very easy to mate the two together. On some makes of cars reinstalling the transmission can be an absolute bear, so kudos Subaru, thanks for making it a relatively easy install.


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[blakkboxer]

this is such an awesome build.

[soccer05]

Kartboy rear shifter bushing and group N tranny mount getting ready to join the kartboy front shifter bushing currently installed on the car. Was pleasantly surprised by the difference in shift feel the forward shifter bushing made in the drivetrain. Of course, I probably should have installed the rear bushing before installing the transmission, but it won't be difficult to install with everything else installed. For those that haven't felt the group n tranny mount bushing already in person, this thing is beastly stiff. I wish I had a before and after comparison isolating this part. I was surprised at the feel of the forward shifter bushing, I can only imagine the effect the difference the tranny mount will do.


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[soccer05]

Can you say my tranny mount was due for replacement


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[soccer05]

Group N Tranny mount successfully installed. Still need to install a couple more parts before this area can be torqued down to proper spec.


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[soccer05]

My newest addition to the parts pile, a brand new, unused Racetech RT4009HR seat. This seat is absolutely amazing. A big thank you to boost junkie for selling me his bnib seat to go in my project. If you haven't tried a racetech seat, I highly suggest you do so if you are looking into upgrading to true racing buckets. A neighbor had one of these as well as the a regular RT4000 bucket seat in his spec bmw and I was blown away at the quality and comfort compared to the sparcos I had sat in. This seat is absolutely top notch, fits me perfectly, holds me very securely but comfortably. I am blown away and very excited to get this into my car. Thing is super light, only weighing approximately 20 pounds, and will allow me to lower my seating position in the car when moutned correctly. As you can tell, I am very excited with this purchase, a part like this truely belongs in projects with goals a lot bigger than my humble aspirations, but you can never make safety too high of a priority. Once again, big thank you to boost junkie for the seat as well as advice on parts selection for this little project.


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[soccer05]

Here's another view of this seat, very proud to be running this in my vehicle.


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[soccer05]

Shot of the backat, and most importantly, the all important FIA certification.


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[dangerousatom]

When do you think you will be getting tuned on the new turbo? Im getting ready to install a EJ207 long block with the AVCS in my wagon and im considering the ATP GTX3071. Id love to see your numbers to get a good idea of what I may put down on it.

[soccer05]

Picture comparing the oem rear shifter bushing to my kartboy rear shifter bushing. The Kartboy bushing is obviously a higher quality, much more robust and rigid. With this my entire driveline will be locked down and flexible rubber removed and replaced with either spherical bearings or polyurethane. A lot of people shrug these little parts off as they can add up in price (especially high quality spherical bearings) but in my experience they are essential to a functional end product. On my 240sx I replaced all bushings to spherical before upgrading to a mid level set of coilovers and was astonished at the capabilities of that car. These bushings are what allows you to gain tenths both on the track and skidpad, and give you the confidence to push the car to the limits of adhesion. The amount of confidence non-compliant bushings give in driver confidence is astounding, once you take the plunge you will be astonished how vague cars without spherical bearings feel.


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[Layvon]

Question about adjustable endlinks. . . How do you know where to adjust them to? does it just avoid the use of spacers so that you are perpendicular by adjusting the length?

Great build mate.
Layvon

[PuffKevinFizzle]

Awesome thread! Excited to see it finished.

[soccer05]

Originally Posted by dangerousatom

When do you think you will be getting tuned on the new turbo? Im getting ready to install a EJ207 long block with the AVCS in my wagon and im considering the ATP GTX3071. Id love to see your numbers to get a good idea of what I may put down on it.

Not exactly sure, its a long process getting everything else completed. I still have quite a bit of work to do, finish reassembling the front suspension, engine bay, wire greddy display unit, remount battery (either in cabin or trunk) and wire, strip out sound deadening and paint interior, redo fuel system in engine bay (aeromotive fuel system-just haven't taken pictures yet) fuel pump, etc. So I still have a while before i will have a dyno sheet. I would like to say hopefully within a month.

Edit: actually the best answer for your question would be
to get in touch with my buddies down at lic motorsports for your answer. Prior to their current time attack 2004 sti they built a gc chassis with a ej207 and an ATP gt3071. This car had a myriad of goodies, active avcs, etc. but they will give you a better recommendation, opinion, and things to look for and anticipate better than I could since they have considerably more experience than I do. Their car can be found at http://www.licmotorsports.com/blog/2...i-conversion-1, and their phone number is on the website. Can't recommend them highly enough like I've said multiple times in this thread extremely knowledgeable shop that will take the time to discuss your project and come up with a solution to get the results you are looking for in the end product. Give them a call you won't be disappointed.

[soccer05]

Originally Posted by Layvon

Question about adjustable endlinks. . . How do you know where to adjust them to? does it just avoid the use of spacers so that you are perpendicular by adjusting the length?

Great build mate.
Layvon

There are a number of different advantages to adjustable endlinks. The main advantage is it allows you to eliminate sway bar preload when you corner balance the car, thus ensuring equal cornering capabilities in both directions. Without adjustable endlinks, it is possible to preload the swaybar and thus hinder the handling capabilities. There are other advantages, but this is the primary reason for the use of adjustable endlinks.

[soccer05]

It's funny how sometimes the simplest tasks can suck up the time. So, I foolishly hadn't looked at where the Kartboy rear shifter bushing was located and assumed it was on the tranny for some reason. So I reinstalled and torqued to spec the driveshaft and driveshaft shield, then saw I had made my life more difficult by partially obstructing the install of the bushing. So, since everybody else can install the bushing without dropping the driveshaft, and I am at least decent with my mechanical skills, I figured I could at least replace two bolts for the bushing since everyone else was able to. No dice, I could not get the bolts to cooperate, got frustrated and tried to force it, and ended up stripping the threaded nut. Grrrrrrr!!!! So, in the end had to drop the driveshaft again, go to the hardware store and get a tap, retap the threads, and then with all this extra room to work, of course the bushing bolted right in. Frustrating, a very simple install took up a chunk of time, but it is correctly bolted in and another project is crossed off the list. Gotta laugh that it took that long for me to replace a part that is literally two bolts.


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[soccer05]

Shot towards the front of the car. Tranny is now solidly mounted and torqued to spec. All bushings are replaced in the drivetrain and suspension with either spherical bearings or hard polyurethane, to limit unwanted and undamped movement. I can not recommend highly enough the improtance and consistency of solidifying your suspension and drivetrain in driver confidence and predictability at the limit.


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[soccer05]

Final shot of rpoperly mounted transmission with all bushings installed to solidify the connection between drivetrain and chassis. Expect significant gains in driver control, predictability, and confidence at the limit. Only other part I am contemplating replacing is the whiteline subframe bushings that I am currently running (although I feel this name is misleading, it is where the subframe mounts to the chassis right in front of the rear wheels, fo a solid metal bushing like the one made by Stance (http://stance-usa.com/sus/products/c...ar-diff-collar). Not totally sure yet, still deciding.


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[soccer05]

Cobb Stainless Steel Rear Brake Lines installed. The front Stoptech BBK will get a set of new braided brake lines by stoptech, but was able to use my Cobb Lines on the rear. Very much like the quality of Cobb's brake lines, has a lining around the stainless braiding to cut down on unnecessary wear on surrounding components. The brake setup on this car will be a Stoptech BBK up front, OEM sliding wrx rear calipers in rear, stainless lines all around, and stoptech street/track pads at all four corners. I will see how these work, if they do not meet my requirements/expectations I will switch to Performanc efriction dual purpose pads for the street.

Rear end of the car is almost completely reassembled, all that is left is reassembling the parking brake assembly, throwing on the rotor, and bolting on the caliper, then bleeding the brakes. Down the road, I will be upgrading to a set of OEM STI rear Brembos, and when I wear out my current rotors will upgrade my front brake mount and 2 piece discs to 355mm brake setup up front.



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[soccer05]

Next project on the to do list, upgrading to brand new STI aluminum control arms and Whiteline Motorsport ALK. Must say, in all my previous research I could not find anyone who made a tubular control arm for the wrx, was looking for one similar to the products SPL makes for the S13. Could not find anyone, anyone, who made a reasonably priced product. After getting these arms, I later found out about MSI. If I hadn't already purchased these arms and the Whiteline ALK, I would have definitely spent a little extra and got MSI's tubular front control arm compatible with the oem ball joint (and subsequently whiteline extended ball joint) and the whiteline motorsport adjustable alk. I feel the quality and performanc eadvantages of these products would more than justify the slight increase in price. This is definitely on my next round of upgrades, I just couldn't justify it at this point in time. For those who are considering this upgrade, you would be remiss to not at least price out the parts from MSI, the further reduction of unsprung weight, rigidity, longevity, and most importantly performance capabilities.


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[soccer05]

Sti aluminum control arms mounted, equipped with Whiteline Motorsport ALK and Robispec forward control arm spherical bearing. These parts should go quite a ways toward the overall handling of the vehicle. Whiteline ALK provides mor static and dynamic caster, which when combined with the Ground Control Camber/Caster Plates, should give me significantly more caster than stock. The spherical bearing and motorsport grade polyurethane will help the dynamic allignment of the car, meaning significantly less deflection of components, which leads to compromised suspension geometry, when the car is pushed hard. I am very excited to feel the overall impacts of this series of modifications to the front suspension. The benefits are multifaceted, more caster, reduces the need for heavy amounts of static negative camber, increased stiffness of the alloy arms, reduced unsprung weight, which will help offset the inscreased weight of the 18x9.5 Rota DPT rims I will be running. I am really looking forward to the spherical bearing in the front control arm, I have preached it multiple times throughout this thread, but until you have driven a car with spherical bearings in anger you have no idea what you are missing. Once you have you will be addicted to the loveable, crisp, immediate fele of non compliant suspension and chassis bushings. Of course I did a sort of middle ground, as some of my bushings are polyurethane instead of spherical, as they were all I was aware was available at the time, but regardless, it is farther than I see the majority of subarus go and feel the benefits are well worth it. Only time and results will tell the true story.

Obviously, still need to attach the longer whiteline outer tie rods, but here is the control arm attached. Excited to feel this effect, as it was significantly harder to reattach the front control arm with the reduced deflection of the ALK and spherical bearing. Ended up having to use a lever (i.e. large screwdriver) between the forward part of the arm and mount to leverage the control arm into position. It is this lack of play theat will produce significant increases in control, predictability, and immediacy of suspension response when driven aggressively.


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[bugeyesubie]

Awesome! I have have similar plans for my bugeye, can't wait to see yours done and see how it performs. I'm going to be running the 30r gtx twin scroll. Be interesting to compare!

[07imprezRS]

Awesome build, should handle like a dream when you finally get it out on the track. I was never a fan of the finish on some of my whiteline products... The sway bars rusted out in two seasons... So switched to jdm STi pink rear sway and cusco front and they still look new. I plan on finishing up the lateral links and bushings this summer on my Bugeye. Keep up the good-work.