3barboost

Hi All

Here is a project being undertaken by a few friends and me, this car is one of 3 2 door Classic Stis imported to South Africa officially, the other one is black and the 3rd 2 door is the only 22B in South Africa.

This car has had a few owners from new and as always each had there slant on how it should go and look.

The car was bought about 6 months ago as a non runner, after it caught fire (not badly) at a "ultimate street car event" here in Johannesburg.
The known faults were - fire damage - blown head gasket, the car has a load of extras like a 2.5 conversion / defi gauges / apexi SAFc / KW coil overs etc.

I also think this is the first "South African project on scoobynet" hope no one minds
From reading / watching on scoobynet/22b and other bbs etc, we here in South Africa dont have the rust and corrosion and filthy engine problems you have in the UK ! how you lot cope with rusted up bolts and corrosion everywhere is beyond us ! I am sure you are well versed in stud removal and the swear box gets used up in seconds, for us to encounter a rusted up and seized bolt is rare !

We aim to a) get it running and b) get it running well....
its a magical mystery tour unravelling the previous owners bits and bobs and also the differing advice and modificiations undertaken, but the pictures will give you a clue and we hope to get it nicely restored and running well !
on to the pictures !

3barboost

the car

The suspension

The interior

3barboost

The JUN headers

The cause of the leaking head gasket
standard head gaskets split in the middle and put on either side of a lazer cut "spacer / decompression plate"







I think the idea behind this is sound, to reduce the compression of the engine, but with a high powered 2.5 the tendency for the cyl sleeves to move ever so slightly will make the 1/2 a gasket leak badly and quickly, perhaps two full gaskets would help ? one on each side ? nonetheless we wont be doing this again, we are also in luck that the bores in the cyl are absolutely perfect and the honing marks are still visible, the engine only did a few hundred km from rebuild to event to being off the road



A little too much silicone sealant, we also found vast qties suspended in the oil and blocking the oil pickup as well.

3barboost

To go from this !


to something nice and yummy
the considerations at present are:
1) Rotated turbo - GT3035/7 etc
2) Rotated inlet manifold to match turbo
3) Big pukka FMIC

or restore to std but with a 2.5 and turbo to match

the bets are on the rotated turbo and FMIC ! I would appreciate any insight from fellow Type Rs

cheers for now and watch this space

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

On the gasket front you would do best with an open deck/semi closed deck 2.5 to keep the boost levels down, don't run more than 1.5 bar through the mid range and tail it off at higher revs (over 6000rpm). Use either stock EJ257 (2.5 turbo USDM Sti or MY06 euro model Sti/type UK) gaskets or a set of Cometic gaskets for the 257.

Another good idea (tm) is to open out the combustion chambers to match the larger bore and reduce squish area, even just putting a radius on the edge of the combustion chamber of 2 litre turbo heads can help reduce cylinder pressure and localised hot spot issues (the main cause beleived to result in blown gaskets on 2.5s)

As for the turbo and front mount have a word with Mark@lateralperformance.co.uk He has some rather nice options on that front

My gallery here might give you some ideas, all the parts pretty much came from Mark for my car

3barboost

Hi and thanks !

will look into the cyl head side of things as well, I will drop mark a line and also checking out the gallery !

Cheers

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

Forgot to mention that my car is fitted with an EJ257 short engine and modified Sti4 heads using stock EJ257 turbo head gaskets

3barboost

Hi
Thanks !
The engine is an EJ257 block, I presume the heads are the orig Type R heads, cant turn em over at the moment, as the cams have been removed and I dont want to disturb the lifters, how do I tell which head is which ?
are type r heads marked differently ?

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

Nope, the castings used on phase 1.5 engined Sti's, WRX's and Turbo models (Sti 3 and 4 basically) are all the same, the difference between the Sti and other models is in Cam profile, valve types, valve spring rates, underbucket (Sti 3 and 4) verses overbucket shims (Turbo and WRX) and the followers.

There is no difference between the Sti Type R and and regular Sti engines

If the lifters/followers fitted on your heads don't have large diameter thick shims on top of them (sitting between cam and follower) then they are more than likely Sti heads with overbucket shims (the shim is between the follower and the valve in other words)

If it hasn't been done already change the pistons in the 257 block for a set of forged alloy ones, the stock Hypereutectic pistons are not very good and are prone to cracking between the ring lands at relatively modest power levels

The stock 257 rods certainly seem to be standing up on cars running around 450lbft of torque, more than that and it's a bit of an unknown quantity

911

3Bar: please forgive the intrusion!
Tim, did you change the rack 'uj' assembly to accommodate the Lateral D/P twisted?
Secondly, where did you position the cat and was it a 100 cell sports cat?

3Bar, please detail the engine build as much as you can (for selfish reasons)

Graham.

3barboost

no intrusion 911, your thread is a legend ! I am also keen to know, it looks like 2 UJ back to back to change input angle, but I see another rack involved, I would dearly like to know whats what there !

The engine build will be a photographic wonderland !
we have already learnt about the problems of too much piston to bore clearance and intend to use this engine as a proper way of doing it

Daniel-S

Good thread mate,nice car.

Good Luck

911

Not sure about a legend, but certainly a long long story!
Only from what I've read, but a piston change is essential, and so easy at this stage of the engine re-build.
No body has ever mentioned tweeking the rack uj shaft when fitting a twisted turbo, but there is very little data from the Big Guys who have installed them.
Lots of pics speak a million words
Graham.

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

Graham, 3 Bar, if you look at my project thread on 22b, The new era, there's a bit more about the rack, basically I've fitted a quick rack from a JDM new age Sti (2.2 turns lock to lock) which entailed having to modify the UJ as the splines on the new rack input shaft are different to the splines on the original rack. My modifed UJ is actually closer to the Lateral up-pipe than the original UJ was because the rack end is in a slightly different position...oops

So, to answer your concerns graham, the Lateral rotated mount Garrett up-pipe bolts straight on to most of the existing exhaust manifolds (HKS in my case) and the downpipe is also designed to mate up with any of the standard location 3 inch bore exhaust systems, ie Scoobysport, Revolution, H&S, HKS, Blitz etc

911

Tim, that answers the next question i had, 'did you do a thread?'

Off there now before the wife complains
Graham

911

!
What a great thread, must be great to move up to that level. Next year for me I hope.
Excellent, and so professionally executed.
A quick release d/pipe must be a god send...
A quick release gearbox must be worth a fortune!!

So much food for thought.
Thanks,
Graham.

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

LOL, professional? Erm...ok...the car has been off the road since May...2003 so many things have changed, been removed, replaced, re-fitted, modified, changed etc

Unfortunately I don't have a quick release down pipe, it was a thought for the future, but tbh would require a turbo change or at least an exhaust housing change to one designed for a V band and then a downpipe for the same purpose. If the engine has to come out, which it will for a piston change at the very least as I still have the stock EJ257 pistons (I've had the 257 for 2 years, so when the engine was assembled the piston problem wasn't really known about), I'll modify a few parts to make changes quicker (ie quick release turbo)

As you can probably imagine gearbox access is much better with the reversed inlet, but the turbo does have to come out still...I'll probably find that out when I have to change the clutch for a twin plate because the torque is overcoming the paddle

Mind you getting the car running first would be a good idea, I've wasted today cleaning the bay, which will please a few people Still trying to work out where/how to fit the combined Powersteering Resovoir/Water Header Tank

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

Oh, and the CAT will be going after the down pipe flange in the centre section, I'll be able to get it warm enough for a test quite easily with ALS

AlanG

Just to add i didn't need to mod the steering UJ with the RCM twisted up-pipe kit either.
This is a pic when i had the Lateral up-pipe in the car. It cleared no problem.

3barboost

thats a very very tight fit !

is there any knocking when turning and accelarating ? as the engine rocks on its mounts ?

AlanG

I only had the Lateral Up-pipe and downpipe for a very short while before i changed to RCM's kit, but didn't experience any knocking anywhere.
Having said that it was only on while running the engine in and so didn't get put to any hard use.

David_Wallis

911...

You having a laugh.... Do a search for my threads in projects and enjoy looking at 100's and 100's of pics of me building my car!.. even pics of the inside of my engine are up for all to see!

P20SPD

iTrader: (1)

No knocking at all on the lateral ones, under hard use. The design has also been slightly altered since, which also gives more clearance.

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

Does the UJ get very hot and dry out with that arrangement?

F

911

Never realised David that you had done that.
I've only been on Snet 2 to 3 years (sure feels a lot longer..)

Will take a look.

Graham

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

There are even more manic techie project threads on 22b Graham

911

Yes, read all those.
I keep off the 22b as it is full of techie stuff and i feel out of my depth at times compared to some of you lot.
Good reads though.
Graham.

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

Graham, you are by no means going to be out of your depth on 22b, we all started somewhere

911

It is more my inability to find the time and $$$ to follow in the shaddows of you heavyweights.
Must be you are all youngsters without all the mortgage type stuff.

Maybe in 2007 I can move up a notch

Anyway, WHERE is the South African?

Graham

3barboost

Right here !!!!

Just waiting for the weekend to do more work and for a few people to come back to me with prices etc.

Theres not much of a breakers here in South Africa for Sti V4 parts and even less knowledge for what is about to be unleashed on the roads.

Heres a stat for you there are more Ferraris in South Africa than classic shape Imprezas ! ! ! !