ZX-TT

Nice job mate, coming together nicely

Ste333

iTrader: (3)

your recent experience sounds a lot like mine! I was driving home recently and steam started pouring out the front of my bonnet. I found that the std radiator had cracked in the black plastic at the top. So in very similar fashion to you, I replaced the radiator, fitted some new blue silicone hoses and a blitz cap to finish it off The silicone hoses give me much more peace of mind over the tired oem ones, and look good too. I like your red ones....

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Thanks chaps.

Yeah I was in two minds whether to go for red or blue as I have the Prodrive blue Y pipe, but decided on red to go with the red header tank and glad I did as think it looks the dogs!

Where did you get your rad from Ste?

nardoblue

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the heads up on the 26mm core on the rad, my wagon let me down on the M40 on the way to work yesterday, luckily had 5 litres of water in the boot so made it back home and then whipped the rad out. Used your link so new one on its way ;-)

modrich

iTrader: (2)

You're welcome! Some of the ones I looked at looked identical but were more expensive and only had 15mm core so over 30% less efficient. Noticed when I fitted the new rad and was running the car up to temp the fan took forever to kick-in, just shows the difference in cooling efficiency between the new rad and the old, clocked-up original.

modrich

iTrader: (2)

So I'd been getting a slight burning oil smell in the cabin after the 15-20min drive to work and a bit of research suggested it would most likely be the drivers side rocker cover gasket leaking onto the exhaust manifold. While I was under the car doing the radiator I noticed very slight oil residue on the underside of the passenger side rocker cover so assumed it must be the same or worse on the drivers side.

Ordered all genuine gaskets from Import Car Parts, the do a complete set for each side for about £45 inc. the spark plug hole seals, breather gasket and bolt washer seals.

So out with the airbox...


and off with the cover


underside of cover shows signs of the leak


degreased the cover, breather cover and all bolts and dried the cover in the oven at 70deg C for 10mins just to make sure it was bone dry.




cover squeaky clean!




Cleaned the plugs whilst they were easy to get at, look in good condition, they were only changed by the dealer I bought the car off a year ago.


Genuine gasket set


Loctite High Temp black sealant used sparingly before fitting new gaskets to cover. Also smeared sealant on the front face of the gaskets just to make sure!


1/4" torque ratchet, ratchet spanner and mini ratchet are all you need and make reaching all the bolts a doddle. Cover bolts tightened to 7Nm.


cover refitted looking like new!


Checked the Pro-R filter and filter box and just needed a quick hoover before refitting


Thought this job might have been a pain with a couple of bolts being close to the chassis but turned out to be very straight forward and really enjoyed doing it, only took a couple of hours taking my time and having plenty of cuppas! I checked the half moons and they were both solid so didn't attempt to remove/reseal them which seems to be the general consensus on here.

I did manage get some oil on the exhaust manifold though as I didn't have enough rags positioned towards the rear of the head which is where most of the oil runs out and for about a month after (only do 40-50miles a week) I've had a burning oil smell which is the oil on the manifold heat shields burning off. Burning smell has now gone thankfully, but was surprised at how long it took!

I did the passenger side rocker cover the following week and I needed to add about 750ml of oil to make up for what drains out of the heads. Will put pics up when I get a chance.

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Pics of the left hand rocker cover gasket replacement

battery & washer bottled removed to access cover


bits for degreasing; including battery cover & oil filler neck. Didn't bother cleaning the old gaskets...obviously


underside of block cleaned


bits degreased


cam cover



new genuine gaskets


all refitted




another job crossed off the list!

ZX-TT

Looking good mate

cant wait to get mine back now

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Cheer mate, can't wait to see it!

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Over the winter I noticed that the first few gear changes from 1st to 2nd on a cold morning were noticeably notchy/awkward. My gearbox had 1 year old Castrol 80w90 gear oil in (done by selling dealer) and so wanted to try the highly recommended Motul Gear 300 75w90 before the warm weather kicked to see if it made any difference...

T70 Torx bit for gearbox


4litres of Motul Gear 300 75w90 for gearbox


Gearbox drain plug accessible without removing any under trays


old oil out. After removing the plug and draining, removed the jack stands and sat the car on it's wheels to get any residual oil out. The gearbox took about 3.2 to 3.3 litres using a hand pump down the filler neck in the engine bay.


also did the diff oil with gear 300 as well, takes about 1litre


A 1/2" socket adapter did the trick on the plug


old oil out, again after removing the plug and draining, sat the car on it's wheels to get any residual oil out.


I would highly recommend doing this as straight away I could tell that the drive train feels so much smoother, almost silky smooth. Before this I had felt that something felt quite harsh on hard acceleration and put it down to the engine but it was obviously the gearbox, everything feels so much better now. Gear changes on cold mornings are massively better now and I no longer skip 2nd gear and go to 3rd on the first few changes.

Ste333

iTrader: (3)

good progress I noticed a nice difference when I changed my gearbox and diff oils too. Smoother, and (not sure if its psychological) considerably more quiet.

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Cheers buddy

ScottyPPP

Nice work, I need to get around to doing my rear diff oil. I put Redline shockproof in my gearbox which seems to work quite well.

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Thanks Scotty, the 'to do' list is getting shorter, I might end up having to add 'build forged engine' to it...

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Thought I would update this thread with the re-trimmed bug WRX seats I fitted back in January on my thread here:
https://www.scoobynet.com/projects-4...l#post11573923

They were in perfect condition


Had them trimmed with ribs in the side/shoulder bolsters, the same design as the bug STi seats (which are otherwise identical BTW)


Loving the quality of the stitching


Had heating elements fitted as well and connected to the OEM switches


The seats are superb, they really hug you and are also very comfy which is a total contrast to the seats in my last 2 cars, an E46 M3; not very tight fitting and gave me back ache in the lumber regions on long journeys and the B7 RS4 buckets that were very tight fitting (a bit too tight) and weren't very comfy either on long journeys and were a pain to get in/out off due to the excessively high side bolsters. The bug WRX seats have to be one the best seats I've sat in, along with the seats in my old Renault 19 16v (if my memory serves me correctly!).

ZX-TT

Seats look stunning mate!!

ScottyPPP

Ste333

iTrader: (3)

Good call mate. I went blue for that very reason - I too have the blue prodrive Y-pipe. I ordered my rad from scoobyworld....but they sent me the wrong one

So in the end Mark at TDRacing found one for me whilst my car was there, not sure where he got it from though, and I sent the scoobyworld one back for a refund.

Ste333

iTrader: (3)

and ooooooo nice seats are the bug WRX ones a bit more sculpted than blob WRX ones? I hate my blob WRX seats, they're so open and don't really hold you in place at all.

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Cheers steve

From what I've read the blob seats are wider, haven't actually sat in them as the SL leather seats are different again, maybe even wider. The bug seats really hug ya!

modrich

iTrader: (2)

So the last few times I've washed the wagon I've spent a little extra time hosing out the wheel arches to make sure any salt build-up from the winter has gone, but couldn't help noticing that the underseal in the front arches is starting to peel away leaving bare body coloured metal. Tackled the same issue on the rear arches when doing the brakes last year (see post here: https://www.scoobynet.com/1004847-fo...l#post11490203)

So managed to spend a morning sorting this with fresh underseal. Removed both arch liners only to reveal this nice build-up of wet mud (and a leaf or 2!) hiding away behind it...common on newages it seems from other posts on here


A surprising amount removed...


Scrubbed and cleaned with APC and hosed down to show the extent of the underseal peel, but no rust pleasingly....



Thankfully only very light surface rust evident to the inside of the bottom of the front wings (steel on wagons not alloy) which I cleaned off and treated with Kurust


There were a couple of light patches of rust around the liner fixing holes so dremelled these clean and treated.


Seen as I had removed the side skirts I thought I would check and clean the sills which looked very good for a 10yr old car


Painted any bare treated metal with etch primer, none of which would be visible after the trim is re-fitted BTW


And started spraying on the fresh underseal




...and along the sill seams for protection. Why these aren't protected like this from the factory I'll never know...


Emptied the can of underseal in the area where the mud builds up behind each liner (will be cleaning this out every year from now on)


Gave the etch primer a quick dusting with Crystal Grey and fitted fresh stainless self tapper clips


Arch liner/trim/side skirts re-fitted with fresh black self tapers


As good as new...


The off side arch was pretty much the same and did this at the same time. Glad I tackled this when I did as I think I've managed stop some future rust issues and extend the life of the front wings/inner arches/sills for a few more years!

ScottyPPP

Hmmm, might have a look at mine!

modrich

iTrader: (2)

So, time to focus my attention on the steering rack bushes and power steering fluid change.

Whiteline SPF2648K bush kit for revised 2005> blob/hawk steering rack, make sure this comes with the removal tool as a lot of the early batches don't.


First time out for my new DeWalt impact wrench


Chassis brace to be removed


Awkward backing nuts on top of the brace held with flexi ratchet spanner


Once the brace is removed this is the 1st bracket/bush to be removed


Then onto the awkward ones using the supplied removal tool. You need to pull the rack down enough to slide a nut above each bush then screw the tool into it through the centre of the bush, then turn the nut sitting under the washer until the bush is pulled out of the rack and into the cylinder.


1st bush removed


All OEM bushes out, they do feel quite soft compared to the Whiteline ones so hoping for a bit for feel from the steering after this



New bushes installed


And brackets bolted in place ready to re-fit the chassis brace.


Next up was the power steering fluid change using ATF Dexron III, this is the basic process

-Disconnect rubber hose from steel male PS pump return pipe to fluid bottle

-connect drain hose (10mm x1m) and run bottle/bucket

-plug disconnected hose with bolt and hose clip

-remove number 11 fuse (ignition) to stop engine firing-up

-crank engine for 10-15secs at a time (to stop starter motor over heating) until old fluid level is at base of bottle and top up with new fluid

-crank engine for 10-15secs at a time until all old fluid is removed from the system and fresh fluid starts to flow into drain bottle making sure to keep the fluid bottle topped-up with fresh fluid.

Return hose to bottle disconnected and plugged with bolt


Funnel ready for topping-up fluid


Drain hose


Dirty old fluid...


As well as doing the power steering fluid I also checked the aux belt for the power steering pump and found it to be quite slack so tightened. I had replaced this belt along with the AC belt when doing the radiator/coolant change and it appears to have slackened off slightly and was causing the power steering to feel quite 'gloopy/viscous' (if you know what I mean!) and this seems to have cured that. The steering also feels noticeably more direct/'feelsome' after changing the bushes, so another job worth doing.

casasteve

What fluid did you use for your power steering? ATF Dexron III? Using this method, was 1L enough?

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Yep, ATF Dexron III, and yes 1ltr will be fine, that's a 2ltr bottle I drained the old fluid into so was just over 1ltr in there and I did over kill the drain as I had 5ltrs sat in a tub not being used.

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Wanted to de-tango the side repeaters but blobs have the sealed units so can't replace the bulbs. Manged to get a new pair of bugeye versions that have the removable bulb holders.

Silvertec bulbs fitted


And 2 coats of Hycote smoke lense paint


Didn't want them too dark so does the job nicely.


Decided to do the same on the clear parts of the rear lights, masked off the red section and 2 coats of Hycote


Again, not too dark for a subtle improvement


Lenses before tinting


Quite impressed with the Hycote tint as you can build-up the tint with more coats. Tried some E-Tech lense tint and it was a very dark purple tint with

just one coat, not to my taste.

ZX-TT

Nice mate, did you de-Fog this as well then?

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Yep, with the Euro spec unit and a red LED

ZX-TT

That's one of my plans next if i can find a set of lights, I will mod my rear bumper to fit them. I was going to get a set in from the US

modrich

iTrader: (2)

Was lucky and found a batch of euro spec units on ebay UK cheaper than a new UK units!