500_19B's Bugeye resurrection

[AliBenn]

holy moly
totally went down your rabbit hole B19!
worth it

i thought i was Meticulous
this work might score high at Pebble Beach Concourse. Cereal!

i would have NP at all letting you take all the time you need to do the same to my RSTi.
(0% rust BTW lol)

excellent work and documentation (especially the 'Hulking It' problems that arose)
Grade A work all around

hope your Son is helping somewhat(u never really mentioned except for a couple "We did XXX today.")
steven

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[500_19B]

Originally Posted by AliBenn

holy moly
totally went down your rabbit hole B19!
worth it

i thought i was Meticulous
this work might score high at Pebble Beach Concourse. Cereal!

i would have NP at all letting you take all the time you need to do the same to my RSTi.
(0% rust BTW lol)

excellent work and documentation (especially the 'Hulking It' problems that arose)
Grade A work all around

hope your Son is helping somewhat(u never really mentioned except for a couple "We did XXX today.")
steven

Thank you for the kind comments!

Going down rabbit holes is my normal operating procedure!

My son is helping when he can, he would like to do more, but he is studying engineering at university right now and is also deeply involved in a small rocketry club at the school, which is putting together a rocket for next summer’s Launch Canada competition. They hope to exceed 50 km (30 miles) altitude. That is taking up every Saturday, so between that and studies he can only do a certain amount with me on the car. However, we are constantly talking about every detail and decision, so he is as involved as possible. Being an engineer myself, we often get into interesting and deep conversations about some of the more esoteric technical stuff. All in all, he is overall getting a fair amount of direct experience, which I think is very important as there are many engineers who would be better with practical nous (i.e., know which end of the hammer to pick up!)

I had a little time in two evenings this week to go over the engine wiring harness. Basically, I just thoroughly cleaned everything and then over-wrapped the harness with a heat resistant harness tape. I ended up with a tape sourced from Amazon (link). The reviews were generally good, but some reviewers questioned the tackiness as maybe not being enough, so I was prepared to use zip ties at the ends. However, I found the tape was fantastic. Just the right amount of tack and approximately 53.7 billion times better than electrical tape, which is not so good with heat, shrinks and leaves gooey residue behind. I plan to use this with the other wire harnesses.

When I disassembled the intake, all the connectors came apart cleanly with the exception of two of the injector connectors, for which I broke the housing. In the one case, it was just cosmetic, but in the second case, it resulted in the housing no longer “clicking” in, so it would just easily pull off the injector in the future (not great). I ordered four new housings from iWire (figured I would replace all four). I also ordered their depinning tool kit. Not pictured was a fifth connector, but this one a pig tail which I will use in a little apparatus I am going to set up to clean the injectors.

[500_19B]

In the midst of a grind of cleaning mostly. The engine is getting there, soon I will be putting stuff back on.

The TGVs are ready to go back, with the actuator and position sensors re-attached with the freshly plated hardware.



Another odd job was reassembling the heat shielding on the cross-over pipe. Actually looks pretty decent now. The black nuts are just DEI black silicone sprayed over regular zinc plated nuts.





The other cosmetic thing is the VHT wrinkle coat on the intake manifold. Here it is after 24 hours (the masking is still on). It looks OK, but not amazing, as the degree of "wrinkle" is variable.



I slapped together an apparatus for cleaning the injectors, which I plan to try in the next week and will post pictures of that.

With last-minute Christmas stuff to do, my progress has been, and will be, a little slow.

Plus, it is getting colder!

[500_19B]

Minus frickin 10 for the high the past few days, so I have spent next to no time in the garage.

However, the intake is starting to come together, and all the pre-assembly can be done indoors.

I have most of what I need for the intake, with the exception of the new seals for the injectors, which are on back order. It is easy to slip the injectors in down the road, so that is not such an issue. However, my set-up for cleaning the injectors needed the TGV and fuel rail, and I had to free up the TGV to start putting the intake together. So, the first job was to do the injector cleaning.

I used an inexpensive "pulser" picked up from Amazon, in conjunction with the injector pigtail to drive the injectors.



Here is the apparatus, whipped up from various bits of wood and hose I had lying around.





Once this was set up, I filled the clear hose with carb cleaner and then hooked it up to compressed air at 20 psi, and then started pulsing the injectors to spray the carb cleaner through. I used the first three pulse modes on all the injectors. Not sure which pulse mode is best for cleaning, or if it matters. I used up the whole can of carb cleaner. All four injectors seemed to spray well and very similar volumes. So I think they will be good to go once the new seals arrive (for the cleaning I used the old seals).

Once that was out of the way, I could start bolting stuff together. I cleaned the throttle body and ancillaries thoroughly. Looks a lot nicer than before.

Now:



Before:



Next up the TGVs went onto the intake. Straightforward bolt up, just had to make sure that the gasket mating surfaces were prepped. Used OEM gaskets.



The turbo inlet will be a new OEM unit:



Next was the hard fuel lines and fuel rails. Went with new hoses for all the flexible connecting elements. Everything slipped into place and it is actually looking pretty nice.

[limawhiskeyy]

That gold looks SHARP with the red intake! Where'd you get those lines from?

[500_19B]

Originally Posted by limawhiskeyy

That gold looks SHARP with the red intake! Where'd you get those lines from?

Actually those were the original lines, but after completely disassembling and cleaning them, I took them to a nearby company (M&M Plating in Scarborough) to have them re-plated in yellow zinc dichromate.

After the cold snap, we have now had some days of warmer than normal temperatures, so working in the garage has been much more practical. Plus, I took some days off over the holidays. I spent a lot of time doing a ton of small things.

For the intake, I put the wiring harness back on, but there are still some hoses I want to replace that will be easier to deal with while the manifold is still off, so I have set it aside for the time being.



Most of the rest of the time was spent cleaning endless small items in the engine bay, re-wrapping more harnesses etc. Here is section of harness that comes into the engine bay from the passenger side firewall.



I got the engine as clean as I think I could, for an assembled unit still in the car, and using only "gentle" cleaning methods. To get that really nice brand new aluminum look is probably more realistic only if you have the engine out and have disassembled it for a rebuild. However, I think for the intended goals of this car (clean driver) it is pretty good.



So now I have started putting things back together. first up the coolant cross over and hard lines.



Everything slipped back into place nicely. The only tricky item was the one M6 bolt that secures the hard line on the front face of the engine behind the driver side cam sprocket cover. Obviously meant to be put on before the cover, so doing it with the cover in place was quite fiddly, but we got there.





Myriad items are coming together in the firewall area, but there are still many small items to do, but it is filling in. A couple more examples of the little odd jobs going on:

New battery terminal and cover:



Starter motor checked out perfect, so just cleaned and painted the steel portion:

[archer1.8]

Such as amazing work!

[500_19B]

Thanks!

Like many on here, I have been dragging through this week really feeling the loss of Ken Block. An amazing driver and also by all accounts a really nice guy and family man.

Maybe we will add a #43 decal to the bugeye.

Anyway, had an appointment today which resulted in me being home earlier than normal. I eschewed work and instead did a little job on the car.

The rear view mirrors have been a bit of a journey. Right after the accident I picked up a pair of JDM mirrors and disassembled them to get the mirror bodies isolated for paint. The '02 mirrors are not so easy to refinish as the body color part is the housing, as opposed to a cap, and the way it assembles means either depinning the connector (which I have not figured out or cutting and splicing the wiring, or I suppose de-soldering the connections to the mirror adjustment motors.

What I failed to realize when I picked up the JDM mirrors was that the black base portion was different than the bases for LHD markets, to put the mirrors at a good initial angle relative to the driver. This seems super obvious now, but I totally missed it. So, since the passenger side mirror was destroyed, I ended up finding another replacement mirror on eBay that I could scavenge the base from.



Here is the original mirror, in which every major part was busted.





Another wrinkle was that Canadian cars had a five wire connector for the mirror defrost, but every mirror I could find available was the three wire type. So I had to do some mix and match and cut and splice to get it all together. I spliced in long lengths and after soldering and the heat shrink, I routed the extensions behind the angle adjustment motor housing.



So, finally there is a passenger side mirror again (still have to put in the mirror glass, but other wise done).



The intake is probably 90% done. I have continued to complete details like the various hose support elements, purge regulator etc. Still some hoses not in place yet, as I am waiting on some of the new ones still.







Finally, back when I painted the rad support area I mentioned that I ran low on World Rally Blue base. The part where the battery sits was the most affected and it looked pretty blotchy. Now I had some WRB base, to re-did just that portion and sealed it up with more 2K clear, so it looks better.



Trouble is, the remaining parts of the engine compartment (e.g., firewall) look quite shabby in comparison. However, to do that right EVERYTHING must come out, and that is just too far. This is supposed to be a nice driver, not a show car and if I don't try to suppress my OCD, it will never get done!

[500_19B]

Last night, my son, nephew and I had a "Ken Block watch event". My nephew took care of curating the selections and there was a lot of great stuff that I had not seen before. That guy just did so much, and came across as such a great guy.

Chipped away on some random stuff on the bugeye. I have bunch of items on back order, and Subaru Canada shut down over the holidays, so nothing much showed up this past week, but more should come next week. There are a lot of small items that are keeping certain things from progressing, mainly putting the intake back on the motor.

I did the "transplant" work for the driver-side mirror, similar to the passenger side, so I have both mirrors ready except for putting the glass back on.

While improving the paintwork in the front battery area, I used the 2K clear to also finish a bunch of random parts, including the front ABS sensors, which were in good shape, and one of the rears. The other rear I will have to replace



After the final stage Cosmoline treatment, I put the front sensors back in, and now it is only the fender liners remaining for that part of the car.



Another odd item was to bolt in the cover that goes under the driveshaft near the rear differential.



I also finished up the power steering pump. Basically it was just disassembly, thorough clean up and reassembly with a new OEM seal kit. The freshly plated hardware and painted pulley look pretty good.







In the engine compartment the cruise control unit, DRL resistor with associated brackets etc. went back in. Things are slowly filling up.

[500_19B]

Quite cold in these parts this weekend, so garage work is happening in short bursts.

I am getting close to done with the engine room wire harnesses clean up. I was also able to finish with the new clutch lines and get the pitch stop back in place.



In the meantime, some more of the back ordered hoses came in. Still not everything, but the ones I am still waiting on all look pretty easy to install with the intake mounted, so I went ahead and got that started.

Cleared away the tape etc. and positioned the new intake gaskets (there are two small roll pins on each side that locate the gasket.



The intake manifold just sat on easily and I was able to line up the eight bolts without issue. I have left a lot of items disconnected for now, as I still have to put in injectors etc., and wanted to keep things easy to move.

[osofast1]

https://datebest.net - visit website and win smartphone!

[500_19B]

The weekend is supposed to be not too cold. Also, with luck, a bunch of parts will have arrived at the Subie dealer (going out at lunch to pick up whatever is in). So, I may make some decent progress this weekend.

One item I was waiting on, but not from the dealer, was the fuel injector seals, which I purchased from Touge Tuning. The OEM seals seem to be incredibly expensive, but the DeatschWerks set of seals seem to be solid from all I read, so I swayed from the OEM schtick for this one.



Happily, the seals arrived this week, so I was finally able to throw the injectors back in.

Got the fuel pressure regulator back in (I kept the original, just painted and with a new o-ring and hoses). Also finally started connecting a few things.





While at Touge Tuning I finally stopped hemming and hawing about master cylinder braces and picked up the GrimmSpeed unit:



After considering the options, I went with the GrimmSpeed unit for several reasons: First, it works with the stock fuel filter mounting. Second, it has a hole for a cable clamp or zip tie for the starter-to-battery harness (which is supported in the stock configuration with a steel bracket which is deleted due to space constraints) and, third, I have always found GrimmSpeed quality to be really good.

[500_19B]

So the weekend was not as stellar from a progress-making perspective as I had hoped. I forgot that it was also the Lunar New Year. My wife is of Chinese descent, so it is a bit of a big deal in our household. As a result, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon were written off to family events. But the food was good!

I did manage some stuff. Finished up the power steering pump with the cleaned-up bracket and then mounted it back on top of the engine. Still have a few hoses required in that area.



I have the front-most wiring harness cleaned up and re-wrapped, and started putting it back in place. Just have the clips along the bottom of the rad support to do.





Although the master cylinder was not giving any issues, I decided to rebuild it with the OEM kit, just since I am super-fussy about brakes and everything else in the braking system will have been comprehensively refreshed. Just as a point of reference, here is the master cylinder as it was in the car a few months back:



I did a general clean up to remove the obvious dirt prior to disassembly:



Taking it apart was very easy. The only item that gave me pause was the pin in the body (under the forward reservoir outlet). The service manual says to remove with a pick up magnet while pushing the piston in. My pickup magnet could not get close enough to pull up the pin, so I used my stack of super strong neodymium disc magnets which worked straight away. Here is the unit with the original internals on the left, and the new pieces on the right:



I was super-happy with the condition of the master cylinder bore. It was perfect with no wear step. Looking at everything, I am pretty sure rebuilding this was totally unnecessary, but as many can tell, that is pretty much SOP. After carefully cleaning the body and reservoir, I coated the inner surfaces with new brake fluid and reassembled. The unit looks brand new now, but more importantly, I know it is in perfect functional shape. The cap is new also.



Next I did a bench bleed and popped it back in and at the same time installed the GrimmSpeed master cylinder brace, which fit perfectly (the side plate was even contoured to allow the plastic clip for the windshield washer hose to stay in place). I am keen about this mod, I think it will be effective. Just have to put in a zip tie for the starter harness.

[DrTrae]

Looking amazing! You're getting so close man, really great work.

[KeithS05RS2.5]

Man its been a while since Ive checked back in on the progress .... this is truly and epic restoration. Keep it up!

[500_19B]

Another weekend with not a lot to show. Saturday was written off entirely by family stuff, and part of Sunday was needed to work for a meeting on Monday.

Putzed around on a few odd bits. First, I finally put the fuel door back in. I had to source a replacement as the original was obliterated. Fit up nice and was easy to center:



To complete things a replacement "premium fuel only" decal was put on, I guess in case I forget!



Put the wiper motor and linkage back together, just painted and Cosmolined.



Aside from that, am cleaning up some odds and ends. I am having a big debate with myself on the power steering lines:



New ones are quite expensive, so I am trying to decide if I should clean up and re-use the originals, or if there is something about these lines that makes replacement after 20 years wise.

Have not figured out an answer on that yet.

[tomacGTi]

Common leak points on the rack hoses are the low pressure constant tension clamps.

If you choose to take them apart to restore and not replace the soft lines, just using an embossed style hose clamp will prevent the weep. And do all of them, all the way up to the reservoir.

-Randy

[tomacGTi]

Double post.

[500_19B]

Originally Posted by tomacGTi

Common leak points on the rack hoses are the low pressure constant tension clamps.

If you choose to take them apart to restore and not replace the soft lines, just using an embossed style hose clamp will prevent the weep. And do all of them, all the way up to the reservoir.

-Randy

Thank you very much for that feedback. I think I am going to go the route of re-using the lines. I will replace the clamps as you suggest, and add clamps to the other P/S lines at the reservoir and of course use new o-rings.

I think I will additionally add some heat resistant shroud over the lines too.

Hope that is good enough.

[500_19B]

Managed to scrounge some time yesterday evening.

The duct that goes under the hood scoop is now repainted. It was in pretty decent condition overall, but the paint was scraped away around some of the bolt holes with a smidgen of corrosion showing, so I removed that and then used the usual epoxy primer and 2K topcoats.





To make better use of the mixed paint, I cleaned up the P/S lines and painted them too, along with the brackets. As mentioned above, the hose clamps on the return line will get upgraded and (probably) an additional shroud will be included.



Also picked up the "Getadomtune" cylinder 4 cooling kit from Subie Supply in Brantford, Ontario. This will complete the series of light "reliability upgrades" that I had in mind. At first, I thought I would source my own fittings and hose to save some bucks, but by the time I found the bits and pieces I wanted at a good quality level, it was not going to be that much of a savings since I could not just buy all the pieces from one place. So, i went with the kit.

We are deep into a cold snap right now, but it should moderate on Sunday. If so, I will try and do the coolant upgrade then.

[timpala11]

Is that an OEM "filler neck" (****e I just did a fuel oil project and can't remember the correct name!)? I want to replace mine as it is a bit corroded on the outside. Love the progress!

[500_19B]

Originally Posted by timpala11

Is that an OEM "filler neck" (****e I just did a fuel oil project and can't remember the correct name!)? I want to replace mine as it is a bit corroded on the outside. Love the progress!

Thanks! The trim pieces around the filler and the cap are new OEM. The filler tube itself is the original, but freshened up with epoxy primer.

[500_19B]

Saturday was very cold (-24 in the middle of the day), so whatever little I did was done in the basement. Spent a lot of time cleaning some odds and ends as well as straightening the bent fins on the intercooler. Not too much of that kind of work left, thankfully.

Also polished up the front quarter and side markers lens (they were a little dull). Have some pigtails from iWire that will be used to make the JDM side lights work as additional side flashers.



By mid-day on Sunday, it had warmed up a lot (-2). I ended up replacing the hood release cable, as its end for the outer section was broken (similar to how the trunk cable was). I think in both cases, it may have happened on disassembly, as these parts are old plastic elements that snap into place. Probably the cable would still function, but now's the best time. Now the front hood latch is back in place, even with new white plastic clips.





Next up was the cylinder 4 cooling kit. The Getadom tune kit now has a molded hose with a 90-degree bend instead of a straight section. Also had new OEM heater hoses.



There is a lot of extra hose on both sides of the L. This is how it looked mocked up with everything trimmed.



Took as much off the furthest forward end of the heater hose as was possible, to try and keep the fit of things similar to original. Also had to keep attention on where the 90-degree bend of the hose ended up relative to the steering joint. As it is now, the kit is plumbed in as optimally as I could.



Also had more of the other hoses show up, including the small coolant hoses that attach into the throttle body and the large hose for air bypass. Most of the connections on the top of the motor are done.

[sdryluth]

What color did you use on those calipers? I need to restore and paint the ones I got to put in my car and I can only hope they turn out as nice as yours have.

[500_19B]

Originally Posted by sdryluth

What color did you use on those calipers? I need to restore and paint the ones I got to put in my car and I can only hope they turn out as nice as yours have.

First I used a 2K epoxy primer, then I spayed Porsche Guards Red base (color code is LM3A). A really good source of ready to spray base that works well with 2K clear coats is Robert Paint Care. After the base flashed, I added the decals and then topped with clear. I used the Spraymax 2K high gloss clear.