Building a car

LUXO_8 · Post by **LUXO_8** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:46 am

this is pretty sweet, good work.

so the engine was a basic bolt in job? nice

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:03 pm

Bolt in well kindof, I did have to do a few bolts up here and there

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:17 pm

Well did abit of work yesterday, she will drive now but haven't tried yet.
Okay well I admit I have driven her - but about 20mm

Finished the clutch pedal mods. It now has a custom bracket bolted to the side which actuates the hydraulic clutch master cylinder. The friction point is pretty close to the floor but there is plenty of adjustment left on the pedal so shouldn't be an issue. With the car idling and in 1st gear I let the clutch out slightly and it crept forwards slightly - woohoo first baby steps!
There were too many wires around my feet, and no radiator fans etc, and tools all over the car so couldn't proper test drive just yet.

Cut and shortened the engine stay rod, welded it back together, thats all fitted now.

Cut the old EA82 turbo dump pipe off and welded the Lib dump pipe to the rest of the exhaust - VERY temporary job but it works

Sounds quite nice...surprisingly quiet considering there are no resonators or intermediate mufflers. Just a big long pipe leading to the rear muffler.

Massive thanks again to Subarino who came over and finished connecting up the dashboard lights and gauges, fuel pump etc. Now I just have the task of cable tieing it all up out of the way, man there are so many wires!

I've re-fitted the front guards, grill and front bumper again. Face-lift to late model grill and colour coded bumper looks great!

Fitted two 12" Davies Craig thermo fans. Wow there is SO much room around them when you don't have a lift kit!

Slight set-back...I noticed a slight coolant leak coming from one of the turbo coolant lines right where it connects to the RS Legacy plastic radiator header tank (you all know the ones....brittle as all hell). I slightly jiggled the rubber pipe but the inlet pipe just snapped off and spurted hot coolant into my face

(No burns luckily). It was bound to happen at some point, these plastic tanks are all so old now. I will be picking up a nice durable metal header tank from an early WRX shortly to replace it.

She's very close to driving now. Couple more evenings and I will be test driving properly. Couple days after that and we'll see how she fares at the police roadworthy inspections!

BrennyV · Post by **BrennyV** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:28 pm

congrats man! you have done well! and fast!!!!!!!

BlackMale · Post by **BlackMale** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:43 pm

Andrew, sounds like she is really coming together - good stuff. Just a few questions re the zort…
1) How big (in inches) is the dump pipe?
2) How much of the dump is there from the 82t after you hacked it off?
3) Are you willing to part with it (if its not already taken)?

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:45 pm

The old EA dump pipe looks like its about 2.25" or so - seems to be a fairly custom one. I will take some photos for you tonight and measure the size.
There's plenty of it left, it continues under the car abit and even has an intact flexi joint still there.

*edit
Oh yes definitely I will happily part with it.
btw it also has the O2 sensor still in it.

Subafury · Post by **Subafury** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:04 pm

well done andrew. she's almost ready to rock n roll

BrennyV · Post by **BrennyV** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:16 pm

AndrewT wrote:The old EA dump pipe looks like its about 2.25" or so - seems to be a fairly custom one. I will take some photos for you tonight and measure the size.
There's plenty of it left, it continues under the car abit and even has an intact flexi joint still there.

*edit
Oh yes definitely I will happily part with it.
btw it also has the O2 sensor still in it.

im fairly sure it was a custom bell mouthed one

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:52 pm

Just picked up the early WRX metal radiator tank from JWS so all good to chuck that in tonight...

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:01 pm

those plastic tanks are a bastard hey

Willie · Post by **Willie** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:54 pm

Andrew, I've been watching this thread ever since you started. I am very impressed with your work and commitment. Your tight timeframe was considered impossible by a few of us at the start, however you have stuck at it and proved us wrong. This car is awesome.

(Let me know if you're ever going to sell it!)

Well done, mate.

Cheers,

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:43 am

Thanks Willie. Pity it hasn't ended up as extreme as my idea was at the start of the thread but the rest can always come later. Only so much you can do in 5 and a bit weeks after work some nights.

Thanks to Subafury, Alextacy and Devil Dave for the last minute preps for the test run tonight! And thanks to Matatak for his late night gearbox oil supply service

She drives pretty well.

Lots of smoke coming from the engine bay but it's just from copious amounts of oily degreaser burning off the exhaust headers.

She is suffering from the classic Liberty RS problem of one coil cutting out under hard acceleration after warming up - I will have to go for the Bosche coil conversion straight away I think.

Lots of smoke coming out the exhaust under boost (according to the guys following) but this isn't from the motor....when I cut the exhaust in half yesterday I discovered it was full of black soot from the old EA turbo motor which shat itself horribly a few years ago in the hands of the previous owner. The soot is now all getting forced out by a fire breathing EJ now

The exhaust note is quite subtle. It has the boxer rumble but is quietened heaps by the very long exhaust tip (as all Leone's and RX's have due to the muffler being mounted quite far forward in the car). Exhaust seems to breath quite well.

She seems to drive nice and smooth, almost no harshness or shudders etc.
No strange bumps or noises at all coming from the driveline. I was half expecting at least something to touch something else and need realignment (such as shifter linkage being about 3mm from the tailshaft, gearbox being very close to the EA front gearbox crossmember....but nothing). Although there is a very slight clunk from the rear end but I suspect I just need to double check the diff mounting bolts.

The gearbox shifts very well into all gears, the STI short shifter is fantastic!

The clutch friction point is very close to the floor but there is heaps of adjustment left on the pedal - had no time to adjust this before setting out - Tomorrow job. The clutch is holding on very nicely...I took a risk not buying a brand new one because my wallet was hurting too much. The frontcut one looked good enough on inspection and turns out it's fine. Hope I get a good life out of it.

Engine temp is staying nice and cool with the thermo fans coming on and off nicely as the ECU tells them to.

Alex and Dave will probably post some mobile phone photos and videos tomorrow some time.

From here;

Clean her up heaps. She needs a very aggressive cut/polish, finish removing the old tint, paint over the rust repairs, weld up a few rust holes in the thin outer layer under the car, pin up the roof lining.
Tidy and hide the wiring loom under the dash properly.
Figure out and resolve weird electrical problems in cabin (indicators intermittently working etc - suspect minor earthing problem).
Figure out why the windscreen wipers stopped working after we pulled the dashboard cluster out and put back in again
Trace which wire activates the reverse lights and hook that up.
Redo fuel pump mount to try and reduce noise (damn VL commodore pumps are not very quiet!)
Buy and mount a wanky new sports steering wheel
Buy and install a wanky new gearstick boot
Get a few more kms under her belt and change the engine and gearbox oil again
Get a set of matching tyres
Get the exhaust welded up properly with a flange joint
Glue the RX rear boot spoiler to the boot lid so it doesn't blow away in the wind!
Take her in to the Police inspection place hopefully in a few days and hopefully pass then get some number plates

D3V1L · Post by **D3V1L** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:58 am

oooo yeh does she go:P

going over her for the first time (COPIOUS amounts of smoke around..hence the veruy light smokey photo

)

Subafury · Post by **Subafury** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:41 am

oo yeh she goes and sounds awesome - especially just for a first run!
Wanky Workshop sure is putting out some quality conversions.

she dumps a cloud of black smoke from the sooty zorst every time andrew nails it. oh and she is very quick- like twice as fast as my rx wagon.

she needs new tyres too andrew- maybe someone can shout some 13" tread.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:51 am

Those tyres are all legal I'm pretty sure, but I will certainly organize a good matching set to take to the pit inspections.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:48 pm

Here are the videos thanks to Alex's mobile phone;

Shot from inside SubaFury's flutterslut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtPwPvO7b2k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSxHrOJ069E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5WUwswLQro (whoa Matt 80km/h!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns0MKHt0pc0

In-car view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvtN7Dijy2A

Subafury · Post by **Subafury** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:19 pm

we'll have to take some proper video. and when i dont have a boost leak too hahah. also it was 90k's coz of my big tyres

adamb · Post by **adamb** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:53 pm

woah, nice job andrew, that thing boots! when you find out why ur windscreen wipers aren't working give us a shout, ive got the exact same problem and have no idea why.

cheers,
adam

SuBaRiNo · Post by **SuBaRiNo** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:31 pm

Did they work before we did anything Andrew??

Dave

Matatak · Post by **Matatak** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:34 am

she definetely does drive VERY nicely. i love the shortshift.

and the wipers....well that was just dodgy connection on the plug into the motor...which Devil Dave seemed to think there was no feed going to it

:p