HELP! 04 Forry EJ25 wont start!

jzk25 · Post by **jzk25** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:39 am

Still waiting for pics of install. Wiring quality is a good clue to overall work ethic and knowledge.
In his defence, the guy did sound like he knew what he was doing when I spoke to him. We are all only human though so mistakes can always be made and simple things missed. Late model wiring is much more complex than old EJ22's wiring.

Plugging in a known working ecu/imm/key combo is the only way to test at this stage.

L-Raiser · Post by **L-Raiser** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 10:26 am

" ITS.......ALIIIIIIIIVVVVVEEEE!!!! "

( wicked evil laugh in the back ground )
In her best Dr Frankenstein impersonation

It worked! Replacing the componants of my 04 loom & ecu with another set from an 03 set she fired up instantly. Which confirmed my current mech's fears that one or more componants were damaged or faulty, which one we will never know without a complete diagnostic.

I am SOOOOO relieved! as is my stressed out mechanic.

This leaves only little things like replacing the diff & g/box oils, coolant, tidy up the wiring and I get to drive her away mid to late next week! WOOOHOOO!!!!!! Its only been 12 MONTHS!

I cant believe it.... I need a stiff drink LOL

THANKS to ALL for your support and very helpful advise....especially AL

L-Raiser

chubby37 · Post by **chubby37** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 10:32 am

wicked.....thats so good to hear..rip up the road

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 10:38 am

good on the guy for sticking with the project and getting the thing running. I bet he will be relieved to see the car drive away

gx_rex · Post by **gx_rex** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:01 pm

Good to hear its up and going...

jzk25 · Post by **jzk25** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:12 pm

Woot!
Good to hear. Now go and enjoy it.

L-Raiser · Post by **L-Raiser** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 9:06 am

chubby37 wrote:wicked.....thats so good to hear..rip up the road

vincentvega wrote:good on the guy for sticking with the project and getting the thing running. I bet he will be relieved to see the car drive away

gx_rex wrote:Good to hear its up and going...

jzk25 wrote:Woot!
Good to hear. Now go and enjoy it.

Thanks guys! OH I intend to give her a great ol run when I get her back and get her real dirty too. I have over 12mths of for-be-doing and camping to catch up on to make up for some serious subi withdrawal symptoms. hehe

I will be posting up more pics of her when I get her back to my place for a birthday wash n clean. Will take me about a full day I recon just to get all the crap out of her that has built up over the last year, old greasy retired L parts, dead parts compliments of my prev mech & spare Forry parts. Wotamess! Mama Mia!

Kaz
L-Raiser

D3V1L · Post by **D3V1L** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 9:32 am

does it have the lift and stuff in it now? i cant remember if u said and i dont have time to read back :P

dave

L-Raiser · Post by **L-Raiser** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:07 am

Yep....she now sits 2" taller with lift kit and an extra 1" taller with the Forry wheels...NIIIICCCEEEE me likes! GRIN

Subafury · Post by **Subafury** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:15 pm

thats looking and sounding better. congrats. your mechanic isnt gonna want to see or hear from you again tho!

need way more pix too.

can you do a rundown of all the forry parts and upgrades now in her- to save scrolling

jzk25 · Post by **jzk25** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:38 am

Pics of engine/box install and wiring for critique please.

L-Raiser · Post by **L-Raiser** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 9:37 am

Subafury wrote:thats looking and sounding better. congrats. your mechanic isnt gonna want to see or hear from you again tho!

need way more pix too.

can you do a rundown of all the forry parts and upgrades now in her- to save scrolling

Hi Matt, cheers.....Yeah when I get her back to my place I'll be taking much more pics and make a list of all updates and modded parts in her now. This pic was just a teaser, it was taken on my mob phone while at the shop the other day. I'll prolly start a new thread in the MY CAR section or the WA folder.

jzk25 wrote:Pics of engine/box install and wiring for critique please.

No probs Al....will do....

Kaz

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:49 pm

Well done Kaz!!!

I bet you're majorly relieved! Let me know how the EJ goes, I'm keen to get mine in - but have to work so will slow things down...

Enjoy!

Cheers

Bennie

L-Raiser · Post by **L-Raiser** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 5:05 pm

El_Freddo wrote:Well done Kaz!!!

I bet you're majorly relieved! Let me know how the EJ goes, I'm keen to get mine in - but have to work so will slow things down...

Enjoy!

Cheers

Bennie

Cheers Bennie! Relieved???? Mate....you....have....no....idea! LOL

I am still pinching myself make sure Im awake! hehe

I sure will let you know how she goes....strangely enough my biggest concern right now is how my Forry Power Steering Rack performs in my L....coz that was one of my favorite things of my L was how small the steering circle was!! But now that I have the Forry one...Im worried it wont steer as tightly round corners as she used to. If im not happy with it I MAY have to get a reconned L power steer put back in..... I know that you were considering a later model p/s in your L from memory....

I hope your EJ project goes smooth for you mate....

Kaz

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:54 pm

Karen any updates? How's she going?

L-Raiser · Post by **L-Raiser** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:25 pm

AndrewT wrote:Karen any updates? How's she going?

Hi Andrew....

....Hit another snag mate....only 2 days before I was due to rock up and drive my completed car away....my mech tells me "Sorry Karen your car's not ready, the front brake lines are not done yet and the L radiator with single thermo is not cooling well enough and I cant do any more for you....sorry" ( rolls eyes ) SIGH!

So now Im left with a car thats 2 hours drive south of me, undrivable and uncompleted ( ie $200+ towtruck fees to be added to the bill ), yet the guy had the ordacity to want to charge me the full amount for both wiring and mech work! I said "Sorry, but I can only pay for COMPLETED work" he promptly SPAT his dummy bigtime and whinged and complained for ages, then finally agreed to take a mere $200 off the total bill! and said "Take your Fj@&$@* car away and I dont want to see or hear from you again!!!"

Im still left with a cooling system to revamp, a Speedo & Temp Guage not connected at all, front L brakelines to source ( coz my last mech 'lost them?' )then install & front driveshafts to source & install. All he did for my front current Forry drive shafts was to cut then reweld them because he couldnt source any the correct length. I half expect them to wobble n shake over 40kms/hr.

I am hiring a trailer this Saturday to collect my car from this guy, then taking it to a THIRD mechanic to finish hopefully. He sounds very good from our conversations over the phone and word of mouth from friends. This third mech built from scratch an STI 04 Forry from a full import unit and a damaged Ozy spec car for a good friend of 'GX_REXs' and was a mech and tech for a sube rally team for a number of years and has done quite a few highly modded subes aparently.

Kaz

gx_rex · Post by **gx_rex** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:47 pm

Ahhh going to see the guys at Auto Evolution are ya?

They are great at what they do, I found out about them through Jim Hall. I took my car in to suss out a noise in the back end. They offered to look at it for free. I left it there and they found that when I did my conversion I had left out a couple of plates that secure the rear subframe and used a few wrong bolts etc. They fixed it all up and only charged me $100.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:55 pm

Radiator - you can either get your existing L series radiator upgraded to dual core and EJ inlet/outlets OR get an EJ radiator.
The custom L radiator option was costing me about $500 but works great. Unfortunately the place I was getting them done at no longer exists so you'd have to canvas other radiator places to see who's interested in doing custom work.
To fit an EJ radiator you need to get the radiator support panel custom cut and welded as the EJ radiator is a fair bit taller, but you can get them to fit.
With either option you need to buy two very thin 12" thermo fans - the Davies Craig DC-12 is the best option but fairly expensive, I think about $160 each.

Driveshafts, jeesus cutting and shutting them isn't the best thing to do. I've heard of it done before quite sucessfully but in your case it should NOT be necessary. Crossbred kit allows the use of totally standard front EJ driveshafts. I'm really not sure why your Forester one's were too long. Try using Gen1 Liberty ones, they work.
Have a chat to Jeff at Crossbred in any case - he will know exactly what to do here.

You should be able to use standard Lib brake lines but if you want to get nice new ones just contact a brake place and get them to make some up for you. ABR brakes in Osborne park will do that, but that's just one place.

Speedo *should* be fairly simple thing to fix. Your Forester gearbox likely has an electronic sensor but if it's similar to my Outback gearbox you can just unscrew that, chuck it away, and screw your standard mechanical L series speedo cable in and it works fine.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:04 pm

Hey Karen, spewing!!!

For the radiator job - I got a 3 core copper/brass radiator for my L and I love it. It was from Aussie Desert Coolers at a cost of $450. If you're really stuck for someone try them out, they freight anywhere as far as I know.

I'm very happy with my radiator, in winter over here I have to put a piece of card in front of half the radiator to keep the heater working well

I had to hammer an area behind the front right headlight to make it fit as the end tanks are not shaped like the plastic items. Even so, very happy!

Hope its all sorted soon!

Bennie

Subyroo · Post by **Subyroo** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:22 pm

L-Raiser wrote:All he did for my front current Forry drive shafts was to cut then reweld them because he couldnt source any the correct length. I half expect them to wobble n shake over 40kms/hr.

I'd be a little bit hesitant to drive anywhere with cut & welded drive shafts, and that guy needs shafting with one of those shafts whilst it's still hot from his welding.