Project Slow Evolution
17 December 2005, 06:25 PM
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Project Slow Evolution
Not a Mitsy but my experiences with my impreza so far, a bit of background before the next step.
This project started for me in 2003 when I bought my standard MY99 Uk turbo I had been after an Impreza for a while but this was the first time the insurance companies had actually talked to me rather than just laugh down the telephone!
It was a very nice clean example with only 14.5K miles in three years, owned by one accountant (not always the most mechanically sympathetic profession 
) who chopped it in for a new sti.
It actually stayed standard for about a year due to high insurance premiums
and it still being under warranty, but with the constant reading of scoobynet and 22B I soon succumbed to the modding bug and a second hand Scoobysports back box from ‘Gene the roofer’ was in my boot ready to fit, which I did the very same day in my lunch hour in the works carpark! Mod number one, it now sounded better and had a slightly better throttle response making toe and heeling a bit easier.
After some more advice was gleaned from some of the more knowledgeable types online I was scouring the for sale forums for some more exhaust parts and had soon bagged a Scoobysports open neck down pipe from ‘Top Dog’ a Magnex straight through centre section ‘new’, a dawes device ‘new’, a knocklink from ‘Andy Tang’ and a autometer ultralite boost gauge ‘new’.
With all this fitted and the down pipe wrapped with some rally design exhaust wrap and with the turbo now running a healthy 1.1bar I headed off to the pod with a friend of mine that has a Celica GT4 with a few mods. It was a very cold day with ambient temps of not much more than 6C and a stiff wind, we both came home very happy after five runs having produced almost identical times of 13.7 seconds flat at 95ish miles an hour.
Stage two happened about six months later, I decided to get an Ecutek remap from BRD spurred on by a group buy. But to make the most of it in the mean time I added a few extras to the mods list (feature creep is great isn’t it!)
Some more for sale forum action turned up an Sti5 TMIC from Stevebt and a set of Gruppe-s tubular exhaust manifolds and a helix flexi up pipe from Simon Horton which were duly wrapped and sprayed ready to go on the car. A set of Samco boost hoses was ordered from Rally Design and a Sti Panel filter from another group buy.
With all this ready to go it then took another five months before Bob and I could find a mutual date we were both free! That’s what you get for working a lot of weekends.
My first mapping session was quite an experience, learnt a lot from picking Bob’s brains as we went along and boy did she shift at the end of it. But by the time I got home she had started to stall on the coast down to a halt and there was a bit more knocklink noise than I would have liked up at higher revs so a quick call back to Bob and we arranged to have another look the next day, a couple of frustrating hours later where Bob was looking more and more aggravated with his laptop we had diagnosed a bug in the latest version of mapping software! Once we had found that it was a fairly simple job to cure my issues. (the car’s issues that is, mine would take more than Bob’s laptop to sort!
)
The butt dyno said yes because of the great torque hit but the numbers never really stacked up on the strip a few more drag days saw almost no improvement on my 13.7 with my best now being a 13.6 second quarter. It later turned out that the MAF had popped after the first mapping session and we had most likely mapped to a failing MAF sensor the second time round, it ran quite happily like this for about ten months, just not producing what it should have done.
All this extra go needed some extra stopping so a set of Pagid Black pads and 8 groove disks were added with goodridge braided hoses all round and Motul Brake fluid.
Just as I was planning the next stage of mods some other more major modifications were made to the car by a couple of Third parties which put my plans back by a good six months. First of all a complete monkey reversed a 7.5ton truck into the front of the car in the paddock at donnington causing this
Fortunately the damage was only minor but took a long time to get his insurance company to sort it out and pay up, all the usual hassles about not using the approved repairer network etc . Whilst she was in I got the door handles, wing mirrors and rear bumper extensions colour coded to get rid of some of the nasty black bits.
Took about three months in total to get that fixed, then only two weeks after I had it back straight again another monkey decides to park a Range Rover in the boot at a round about, he hit me whilst I was stationary at about 25mph causing all this damage.
Me and the missus were ok, no sore necks or anything and I’m not the type to be making up a fictitious whiplash claim, because that’s most of the reason why all our insurance premiums are so ridiculously high from people claiming fraudulently
. It still amazes me how many companies there are out there that thrive on the compensation culture and positively encourage you to claim for the most stupid little things, but that’s another thread all together!
All the mods were stripped off the car just incase it was written off as I would never get back what they were worth even though they were covered, the insurance assessor reckoned it was repairable so off it went to the clinic to get sorted out last chistmas.
Kev and the lads did a great job straightening out the car and it came back straighter than when it came out of the factory. The addition of a new (to me) set of wheels and tyres from Keigo and the reinstating of all the mods left her looking like this.
However now all the mods were back on she had started stalling on the run down to a halt again.
I was on the sensor failure hunt but there were no fault codes coming up on the SECS unit, but after some fiddling around she seemed to run better with the lambda disconnected, so off to the local dealer for a new lambda and MAF sensor just to be sure.
This cured the stalling and a small amount of det I had on the knocklink when it was really hot had disappeared as well, but now she was running really rich, loads of black unburnt fuel on the exhaust tip. Yes even more than normal! This is when the penny dropped about what must have happened with the MAF sensor.
So roll on the next stage, whilst the car had been in being straightened over Christmas 04 I had acquired Tim Whiteside’s old MD304 through a third party, a Walbro 255lph in tank fuel pump and performed the snorkelectomy on the car, installed a 911 style drinks bottle catch tank gave her a fresh drink of Motul and a new set of PFR7B’s and took another visit to see Bob.
The results this time were much better, I have lost the real torque kick for now to keep the standard gearbox intact but she now pulls strongly all the way to the red line where the old tdo4 would run out of puff about 5krpm.
The long put off visit to Powerstaion for alignment and bumpsteer mod was performed next, plus before I went I added whiteline solid drop links all the way round, whiteline 22mm adjustable rear ARB and the antilift kit. The proper alignment that Curtis did transformed the cars handling for the better, which gave me the confidence to push on a bit more in the corners.
All that effort culminated in a couple of recent rolling road days one at powersation, and another at scoobyclinic.
Next installment to follow shortly:
Dan.
This project started for me in 2003 when I bought my standard MY99 Uk turbo I had been after an Impreza for a while but this was the first time the insurance companies had actually talked to me rather than just laugh down the telephone!
It was a very nice clean example with only 14.5K miles in three years, owned by one accountant (not always the most mechanically sympathetic profession ) who chopped it in for a new sti. It actually stayed standard for about a year due to high insurance premiums
and it still being under warranty, but with the constant reading of scoobynet and 22B I soon succumbed to the modding bug and a second hand Scoobysports back box from ‘Gene the roofer’ was in my boot ready to fit, which I did the very same day in my lunch hour in the works carpark! Mod number one, it now sounded better and had a slightly better throttle response making toe and heeling a bit easier.After some more advice was gleaned from some of the more knowledgeable types online I was scouring the for sale forums for some more exhaust parts and had soon bagged a Scoobysports open neck down pipe from ‘Top Dog’ a Magnex straight through centre section ‘new’, a dawes device ‘new’, a knocklink from ‘Andy Tang’ and a autometer ultralite boost gauge ‘new’.
With all this fitted and the down pipe wrapped with some rally design exhaust wrap and with the turbo now running a healthy 1.1bar I headed off to the pod with a friend of mine that has a Celica GT4 with a few mods. It was a very cold day with ambient temps of not much more than 6C and a stiff wind, we both came home very happy after five runs having produced almost identical times of 13.7 seconds flat at 95ish miles an hour.
Stage two happened about six months later, I decided to get an Ecutek remap from BRD spurred on by a group buy. But to make the most of it in the mean time I added a few extras to the mods list (feature creep is great isn’t it!)
Some more for sale forum action turned up an Sti5 TMIC from Stevebt and a set of Gruppe-s tubular exhaust manifolds and a helix flexi up pipe from Simon Horton which were duly wrapped and sprayed ready to go on the car. A set of Samco boost hoses was ordered from Rally Design and a Sti Panel filter from another group buy.
With all this ready to go it then took another five months before Bob and I could find a mutual date we were both free! That’s what you get for working a lot of weekends.
My first mapping session was quite an experience, learnt a lot from picking Bob’s brains as we went along and boy did she shift at the end of it. But by the time I got home she had started to stall on the coast down to a halt and there was a bit more knocklink noise than I would have liked up at higher revs so a quick call back to Bob and we arranged to have another look the next day, a couple of frustrating hours later where Bob was looking more and more aggravated with his laptop we had diagnosed a bug in the latest version of mapping software! Once we had found that it was a fairly simple job to cure my issues. (the car’s issues that is, mine would take more than Bob’s laptop to sort!
)The butt dyno said yes because of the great torque hit but the numbers never really stacked up on the strip a few more drag days saw almost no improvement on my 13.7 with my best now being a 13.6 second quarter. It later turned out that the MAF had popped after the first mapping session and we had most likely mapped to a failing MAF sensor the second time round, it ran quite happily like this for about ten months, just not producing what it should have done.
All this extra go needed some extra stopping so a set of Pagid Black pads and 8 groove disks were added with goodridge braided hoses all round and Motul Brake fluid.
Just as I was planning the next stage of mods some other more major modifications were made to the car by a couple of Third parties which put my plans back by a good six months. First of all a complete monkey reversed a 7.5ton truck into the front of the car in the paddock at donnington causing this
Fortunately the damage was only minor but took a long time to get his insurance company to sort it out and pay up, all the usual hassles about not using the approved repairer network etc
. Whilst she was in I got the door handles, wing mirrors and rear bumper extensions colour coded to get rid of some of the nasty black bits. Took about three months in total to get that fixed, then only two weeks after I had it back straight again another monkey decides to park a Range Rover in the boot at a round about, he hit me whilst I was stationary at about 25mph causing all this damage.
Me and the missus were ok, no sore necks or anything and I’m not the type to be making up a fictitious whiplash claim, because that’s most of the reason why all our insurance premiums are so ridiculously high from people claiming fraudulently
. It still amazes me how many companies there are out there that thrive on the compensation culture and positively encourage you to claim for the most stupid little things, but that’s another thread all together! All the mods were stripped off the car just incase it was written off as I would never get back what they were worth even though they were covered, the insurance assessor reckoned it was repairable so off it went to the clinic to get sorted out last chistmas.
Kev and the lads did a great job straightening out the car and it came back straighter than when it came out of the factory. The addition of a new (to me) set of wheels and tyres from Keigo and the reinstating of all the mods left her looking like this.
However now all the mods were back on she had started stalling on the run down to a halt again.
I was on the sensor failure hunt but there were no fault codes coming up on the SECS unit, but after some fiddling around she seemed to run better with the lambda disconnected, so off to the local dealer for a new lambda and MAF sensor just to be sure.
This cured the stalling and a small amount of det I had on the knocklink when it was really hot had disappeared as well, but now she was running really rich, loads of black unburnt fuel on the exhaust tip. Yes even more than normal!
This is when the penny dropped about what must have happened with the MAF sensor.So roll on the next stage, whilst the car had been in being straightened over Christmas 04 I had acquired Tim Whiteside’s old MD304 through a third party, a Walbro 255lph in tank fuel pump and performed the snorkelectomy on the car, installed a 911 style drinks bottle catch tank gave her a fresh drink of Motul and a new set of PFR7B’s and took another visit to see Bob.
The results this time were much better, I have lost the real torque kick for now to keep the standard gearbox intact but she now pulls strongly all the way to the red line where the old tdo4 would run out of puff about 5krpm.
The long put off visit to Powerstaion for alignment and bumpsteer mod was performed next, plus before I went I added whiteline solid drop links all the way round, whiteline 22mm adjustable rear ARB and the antilift kit. The proper alignment that Curtis did transformed the cars handling for the better, which gave me the confidence to push on a bit more in the corners.
All that effort culminated in a couple of recent rolling road days one at powersation, and another at scoobyclinic.
Next installment to follow shortly:
Dan.
17 December 2005, 07:57 PM
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The day at Powerstation was the first rolling road day I have ever been to, im always a bit crap with just walking up to people I don’t know and having a chat but i did speak to a few people that day.
The runs seemed really long on PS’s rollers compared to what I had seen in video clips before but the cooling set up looked really good including the dedicated TMIC fan.
I have been monitoring inlet temps and charge temps for a while with a RS dual channel thermocouple meter and the charge temps on my run built up to a max of 74C where as I only see a max of 45-50C with a full bore blast through the gears on the road. However the car made full road boost of 20psi peak and 19held producing a very pleasing figure of
322 bhp, but only 234 ftlb of torque? http://www.uaproductions.com/Dan/LPS%20300023.pdf
I had been thinking for a few weeks that I might have a hole in the exhaust manifold as the boost was getting more sluggish to build, and now you could really hear it blowing on the rollers. It was not till I took the exhaust manifold off and removed the wrap from the helix up pipe you could see the black soot on the outside of the flexi section and on the back of the exhaust wrap, so this was promptly replaced with a H&S two inch slip jointed up pipe, wrapped again. This produced a new problem of the collector to up pipe joint not sealing properly now the up pipe had no flexi section, this is a problem that has set back many people with the early gruppe-s exhaust manifolds. At the moment I have two standard Subaru gaskets in there to seal the joint which seems to be holding.
At a later date I intend to get the collector flange machined to get it properly flat.
Now I had the leak fixed, I signed up for another RR day at scoobyclinic that MAFFA organised, http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=464107 had a good day up there and saw Mikee’s car run and Allan Bell’s new Sti with P20SPD’s old engine in it. All were producing good power.
I came in 6th place producing 305 bhp and 265 lbft of torque, 30 lbft up on an up pipe with a hole in it then it’s still a bit low on torque but I did ask Bob to go easy on it to ensure the gearbox held together
. Also she only peaked at 18psi of boost and that did not hold all the way to the red line like it normally does on the road, it tailed off by 1-1.5psi by the top of the rev range. The charge temps also shot right up straight away, up to the same max of 74C but they got there a lot quicker than on the PS rollers, even though the run was much quicker on the SC rollers.
A recent blast at the pod saw my personal best quarter mile time reduced to 13.1 so im going somewhere in the right direction.
Next stage is sorting the gearbox and then more mapping, I have most of the parts already so will hopefully be able to post pics just after xmas.
Dan.
The runs seemed really long on PS’s rollers compared to what I had seen in video clips before but the cooling set up looked really good including the dedicated TMIC fan.
I have been monitoring inlet temps and charge temps for a while with a RS dual channel thermocouple meter and the charge temps on my run built up to a max of 74C where as I only see a max of 45-50C with a full bore blast through the gears on the road. However the car made full road boost of 20psi peak and 19held producing a very pleasing figure of
322 bhp, but only 234 ftlb of torque? http://www.uaproductions.com/Dan/LPS%20300023.pdf
I had been thinking for a few weeks that I might have a hole in the exhaust manifold as the boost was getting more sluggish to build, and now you could really hear it blowing on the rollers. It was not till I took the exhaust manifold off and removed the wrap from the helix up pipe you could see the black soot on the outside of the flexi section and on the back of the exhaust wrap, so this was promptly replaced with a H&S two inch slip jointed up pipe, wrapped again. This produced a new problem of the collector to up pipe joint not sealing properly now the up pipe had no flexi section, this is a problem that has set back many people with the early gruppe-s exhaust manifolds. At the moment I have two standard Subaru gaskets in there to seal the joint which seems to be holding.
At a later date I intend to get the collector flange machined to get it properly flat.
Now I had the leak fixed, I signed up for another RR day at scoobyclinic that MAFFA organised, http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=464107 had a good day up there and saw Mikee’s car run and Allan Bell’s new Sti with P20SPD’s old engine in it. All were producing good power.
I came in 6th place producing 305 bhp and 265 lbft of torque, 30 lbft up on an up pipe with a hole in it then
it’s still a bit low on torque but I did ask Bob to go easy on it to ensure the gearbox held together . Also she only peaked at 18psi of boost and that did not hold all the way to the red line like it normally does on the road, it tailed off by 1-1.5psi by the top of the rev range. The charge temps also shot right up straight away, up to the same max of 74C but they got there a lot quicker than on the PS rollers, even though the run was much quicker on the SC rollers.A recent blast at the pod saw my personal best quarter mile time reduced to 13.1 so im going somewhere in the right direction.
Next stage is sorting the gearbox and then more mapping, I have most of the parts already so will hopefully be able to post pics just after xmas.
Dan.
Last edited by Danny Boy; 23 December 2005 at 04:05 PM.
17 December 2005, 08:57 PM
#3
Excellent!
I will be interested to see you pull the torque up to 300 x 300 say.
I have a Helix up pipe coping with a TD05 20g @ 1.4 bar max and the flex joint after a hard year of driving is in perfect condition.
Keep it coming!
Graham.
I will be interested to see you pull the torque up to 300 x 300 say.
I have a Helix up pipe coping with a TD05 20g @ 1.4 bar max and the flex joint after a hard year of driving is in perfect condition.
Keep it coming!
Graham.
17 December 2005, 09:10 PM
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Thanks Graham, just working on some of the next bit now
Still have some photos to take though.
Hopefully this turbo should be capable of mid 300's but i think the intercooler might have to be upgraded to lower the charge temps before i will get there.
Dan.
Still have some photos to take though.
Hopefully this turbo should be capable of mid 300's but i think the intercooler might have to be upgraded to lower the charge temps before i will get there.
Dan.
Last edited by Danny Boy; 17 December 2005 at 09:14 PM.
17 December 2005, 09:42 PM
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Dan
an interesting read indeed!
Give us a list of your current mods please as I've lost count in the text above.
I've also got a '99 UK Scoob with the following mods:
Link ECU
Straight through exhaust
Gruppe-S (II) headers
Samco hoses
BRD dump valve
Car pushes out 280bhp / 305 lbft measured at Power Engineering.
an interesting read indeed!
Give us a list of your current mods please as I've lost count in the text above.
I've also got a '99 UK Scoob with the following mods:
Link ECU
Straight through exhaust
Gruppe-S (II) headers
Samco hoses
BRD dump valve
Car pushes out 280bhp / 305 lbft measured at Power Engineering.
17 December 2005, 09:49 PM
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Sonu current mods list goes like this
are you ready?
Base car MY99 UK turbo 2000
Engine Mods:
Scoobysports backbox (H&S type)
Magnex straight thru centre 2.5 inch
Scoobysports downpipe 3 inch - 2.5inch wrapped and painted (H&S type)
Gruppe-s small bore stainless exhaust manifold, wrapped
H&S 2 inch slipjointed up-pipe
Prototype MD304 turbo
STi5 TMIC
Samco boost hoses
STI panel filter
Inlet resonator removed and cold air feed from bumper installed
Crank case breather routed to catch can
EcuTek Custom remap of stock ECU (BRD)
3 port boost control solenoid
Motul motorsport 300v 15w-50 Oil
Gearbox:
Standard Uk99
Castrol Syntrax 75w-90 Oil
Wheels & Tyres:
17 inch OZ superleggera in anthracite
Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 215/40/17
Suspension:
Whiteline 22mm adjustable rear anti roll bar
Whiteline soild rear arb links
Whiteline solid front arb links
Whiteline Anti lift Kit
Bumpsteer mod (Powerstation)
Full Suspension geometry set up (Powerstation)
Brakes:
Pagid 8 groove front discs
Pagid Blue RS42 front pads
Goodridge Braided Brake Lines All round
standard rear brakes
Motul Dot 5.1 Brake Fluid
Guages:
PSI3 secs 1003 with external oil temp and pressure senders
Autometer 30psi boost guage 52mm
RS 52 temp meter with 2* Ktype thermocouples (intake temp and throttle body temp)
Link electrosystems KnockLink with custom remote led's
Lights:
PIAA R80 Driving lights (RB5)
Pheww
Dan.
are you ready?
Base car MY99 UK turbo 2000
Engine Mods:
Scoobysports backbox (H&S type)
Magnex straight thru centre 2.5 inch
Scoobysports downpipe 3 inch - 2.5inch wrapped and painted (H&S type)
Gruppe-s small bore stainless exhaust manifold, wrapped
H&S 2 inch slipjointed up-pipe
Prototype MD304 turbo
STi5 TMIC
Samco boost hoses
STI panel filter
Inlet resonator removed and cold air feed from bumper installed
Crank case breather routed to catch can
EcuTek Custom remap of stock ECU (BRD)
3 port boost control solenoid
Motul motorsport 300v 15w-50 Oil
Gearbox:
Standard Uk99
Castrol Syntrax 75w-90 Oil
Wheels & Tyres:
17 inch OZ superleggera in anthracite
Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 215/40/17
Suspension:
Whiteline 22mm adjustable rear anti roll bar
Whiteline soild rear arb links
Whiteline solid front arb links
Whiteline Anti lift Kit
Bumpsteer mod (Powerstation)
Full Suspension geometry set up (Powerstation)
Brakes:
Pagid 8 groove front discs
Pagid Blue RS42 front pads
Goodridge Braided Brake Lines All round
standard rear brakes
Motul Dot 5.1 Brake Fluid
Guages:
PSI3 secs 1003 with external oil temp and pressure senders
Autometer 30psi boost guage 52mm
RS 52 temp meter with 2* Ktype thermocouples (intake temp and throttle body temp)
Link electrosystems KnockLink with custom remote led's
Lights:
PIAA R80 Driving lights (RB5)
Pheww
Dan.
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17 December 2005, 09:52 PM
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Graham i know what FMIC i want, i just dont want to pay that much money for it
I'm tempted by one of the cheap hybrid ones at the moment but i dont really want to chop the bumper up either.
I'm tempted by one of the cheap hybrid ones at the moment but i dont really want to chop the bumper up either.
17 December 2005, 10:02 PM
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I decided a while back that I did not want to risk having my gearbox go bang and that I would rather curtail my goal for a bit until I could afford to replace it with something better, this would give me the added advantage that I can actually sell on the working box and keep the cost down a bit.
I had looked at the six speeder option but the extra weight and size put me off and it’s popularity as an upgrade path had sent the prices for them sky rocketing close to the 5 speed gear kit territory.
To be honest I really quite like the gear ratios in the UK 5MT so that left me with a few choices of gear kit available. Some people had problems with the earlier PAR kits so I decided to avoid them and after some research finally decided on the PPG route, as the gear ratios are almost the same. I ordered a 1st-4th semi helically cut gear kit with syncro engagement and the billet 1st-2nd and 3rd-4th shifter forks.
It just so happened that my job took me through Australia this year so getting the gears home would be nice and easy.
So once I had decided that I would be sticking with the 5MT it was time to start looking for an already broken box to build up for my new gear kit.
I found a box on ‘findit.co.uk’ that had apparently been removed for 5th gear issues and was currently in pieces in someone’s loft. When I went and got it, it was in compete kit form and had a bust centre diff as well as a very long story involving a well known southern tuning company now under new ownership.
The biggest part of the box of bits:
The rest of it:
After hearing this story I checked through the box and there are a couple of small parts missing, but nothing too serious. Stuff like the retaining pin for the reverse idler shaft etc. All the other things like the diff ratios and drop gear ratios etc checked out so it was looking good. Whilst checking the box out for other damage I’m pretty sure I found the 5th gear issue, as the syncro hub was cracked on all it’s three arms and the outer ring had jammed solid on it. Could this have been from a loose retaining nut?
Broken 5th gear syncro Hub 1:
Broken 5th Gear Syncro Hub 2:
The bust centre diff issue was sorted out by obtaining another one from Fuzz from his broken uk 5MT but I’m still after a replacement 5th gear syncro as he had thrown his in the bin only a few days earlier whilst trying to get to a bearing for AndyF.
Anyone have one of these floating in a broken gearbox anywhere?
I had looked at the six speeder option but the extra weight and size put me off and it’s popularity as an upgrade path had sent the prices for them sky rocketing close to the 5 speed gear kit territory.
To be honest I really quite like the gear ratios in the UK 5MT so that left me with a few choices of gear kit available. Some people had problems with the earlier PAR kits so I decided to avoid them and after some research finally decided on the PPG route, as the gear ratios are almost the same. I ordered a 1st-4th semi helically cut gear kit with syncro engagement and the billet 1st-2nd and 3rd-4th shifter forks.
It just so happened that my job took me through Australia this year so getting the gears home would be nice and easy.
So once I had decided that I would be sticking with the 5MT it was time to start looking for an already broken box to build up for my new gear kit.
I found a box on ‘findit.co.uk’ that had apparently been removed for 5th gear issues and was currently in pieces in someone’s loft. When I went and got it, it was in compete kit form and had a bust centre diff as well as a very long story involving a well known southern tuning company now under new ownership.
The biggest part of the box of bits:
The rest of it:
After hearing this story I checked through the box and there are a couple of small parts missing, but nothing too serious. Stuff like the retaining pin for the reverse idler shaft etc. All the other things like the diff ratios and drop gear ratios etc checked out so it was looking good. Whilst checking the box out for other damage I’m pretty sure I found the 5th gear issue, as the syncro hub was cracked on all it’s three arms and the outer ring had jammed solid on it. Could this have been from a loose retaining nut?
Broken 5th gear syncro Hub 1:
Broken 5th Gear Syncro Hub 2:
The bust centre diff issue was sorted out by obtaining another one from Fuzz from his broken uk 5MT but I’m still after a replacement 5th gear syncro as he had thrown his in the bin only a few days earlier whilst trying to get to a bearing for AndyF.
Anyone have one of these floating in a broken gearbox anywhere?
Last edited by Danny Boy; 17 December 2005 at 10:48 PM.
17 December 2005, 10:14 PM
#10
Bet David at www.apiengines.com has one!
Will be interested to see how you fare with the box on the road.
Graham.
Will be interested to see how you fare with the box on the road.
Graham.
17 December 2005, 10:46 PM
#12
Danny, your (MY) turbo should be good for at least 35 brake and 320lb/ft of torque possibly more depending upon the supporting mods.
In my case I was running around 310lbft through my stock 98 UK gearbox for 40k miles, with the only failure in that time being a snapped selector rod, which was more than likely enduced by an earlier failed syncro (a common 98 problem, fixed under warranty while the car was relatively stock) and my somewhat rapid gear changing
In my case I was running around 310lbft through my stock 98 UK gearbox for 40k miles, with the only failure in that time being a snapped selector rod, which was more than likely enduced by an earlier failed syncro (a common 98 problem, fixed under warranty while the car was relatively stock) and my somewhat rapid gear changing
17 December 2005, 11:07 PM
#13
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Steven Fortunatley i seemed to have stumbled across one of the more sedate of your profession.
Tim, you really have never let go of this turbo have you, like i said it might be a while until you get it back due to my snail like work pace on the car.
Due mostly to having to work at the drop of a hats notice, every time i have something planned work scuppers it.
But you know ill give you first refusal when i have the lust for more power
Dan.
Fortunatley i seemed to have stumbled across one of the more sedate of your profession.Tim, you really have never let go of this turbo have you, like i said it might be a while until you get it back due to my snail like work pace on the car.
Due mostly to having to work at the drop of a hats notice, every time i have something planned work scuppers it.
But you know ill give you first refusal when i have the lust for more power
Dan.
17 December 2005, 11:16 PM
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Some pics of the box being stripped down and cleaned up, pus a bit of tarty paint for the outside, only grey primer and laquer but it looks a darn site better than dirty stained aluminium alloy. I did actually look into trying to get the parts finished in some way ie: power coating or anodizing but none of the companies I spoke to would touch them because they were automotive parts and not brand new. Ho hum paint it is then.
End of the transfer case:
Transfer casing centre diff side:
Transfer Casing gearbox side:
Prepping for paint 1:
Prepping for paint 2:
Drying on my makshift heater:
End of the transfer case:
Transfer casing centre diff side:
Transfer Casing gearbox side:
Prepping for paint 1:
Prepping for paint 2:
Drying on my makshift heater:
17 December 2005, 11:32 PM
#15
Danny, if I'd stuck with that turbo my car would probably still be running...or have blown up
I'm only thinking ahead for when my other half comes back to the Subaru fold, hopefully in an Sti 5, in which case at some point in the future she'll want more power...and I know exactly how to do it
I'm only thinking ahead for when my other half comes back to the Subaru fold, hopefully in an Sti 5, in which case at some point in the future she'll want more power...and I know exactly how to do it
18 December 2005, 03:50 PM
#18
29 December 2005, 11:50 AM
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Andy97
The straight cut kit should be a bit stronger but alot noiseyer. I went for the semi helically cut kit so i would not drive myself barmy with the noise for now as the car is still a daily driver at the moment.
Mark A, nice to meet you too, get thet car finished so we can all see it go! and if graham can wait about 2 months i hope to have it in and done.
Pics to follow soon of expensive cogs.
Dan.
The straight cut kit should be a bit stronger but alot noiseyer. I went for the semi helically cut kit so i would not drive myself barmy with the noise for now as the car is still a daily driver at the moment.
Mark A, nice to meet you too, get thet car finished so we can all see it go!
and if graham can wait about 2 months i hope to have it in and done. Pics to follow soon of expensive cogs.
Dan.
29 December 2005, 12:18 PM
#22
29 December 2005, 07:37 PM
#26
\m/ ^_^ \m/
best of luck with it Danny, i was there at the RR day at clinic with Mikee 
post as much detail as possible with the gearbox write up, was over 3 years since i had the one on my Legacy apart, i need a refresher course
post as much detail as possible with the gearbox write up, was over 3 years since i had the one on my Legacy apart, i need a refresher course
29 December 2005, 10:31 PM
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Kev
It will be going to someone who knows what they are doing to do the press work, im sure i could do it if someone showed me how and i had access to the relevant tooling, but to be honest when its this ammount of dosh concerend i dont really mind paying a little more to get it put together right first time.
Maybe in the future i will buy a press and have a go myself.
I do have the subaru exploded diagram of the 5MT so should be able to put the rest together no problem, then it's on to the fun and games of actually fitting the thing!
Hopefully a friendly local mechanic who dosent mind renting out his ramps will come into play there
Dan.
It will be going to someone who knows what they are doing to do the press work, im sure i could do it if someone showed me how and i had access to the relevant tooling, but to be honest when its this ammount of dosh concerend i dont really mind paying a little more to get it put together right first time.
Maybe in the future i will buy a press and have a go myself.
I do have the subaru exploded diagram of the 5MT so should be able to put the rest together no problem, then it's on to the fun and games of actually fitting the thing!
Hopefully a friendly local mechanic who dosent mind renting out his ramps will come into play there
Dan.
02 January 2006, 05:16 PM
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Today i have been building up the transfer case and drop gear housing
Transfer box now with new UK Centre diff from Fuzz, as the other one was bust into a million little pieces.
As the centre diff is different from the original in this box, i needed to check the clearances between the diff and the driven gear in the extension case pictured below. Turns out that the current spacer (1.5mm) is wrong with this diff, needs to be 1.6mm to be within subaru tollerances.
Transfer Case Dry assembled
Everything rotates nice and smoothly even though the Diff spacer is out of tolerance at the moment.
Comparison of Standard Open front Diff on the left with STi Helical Front Diff on the right.
Just need to go and get a set of bearing pullers now so i can transfer the bearings from the original front diff to the new one. Then the next task is transfering the Crown wheel to the new diff. Starting to feel like some progress now
Dan.
Transfer box now with new UK Centre diff from Fuzz, as the other one was bust into a million little pieces.
As the centre diff is different from the original in this box, i needed to check the clearances between the diff and the driven gear in the extension case pictured below. Turns out that the current spacer (1.5mm) is wrong with this diff, needs to be 1.6mm to be within subaru tollerances.
Transfer Case Dry assembled
Everything rotates nice and smoothly even though the Diff spacer is out of tolerance at the moment.
Comparison of Standard Open front Diff on the left with STi Helical Front Diff on the right.
Just need to go and get a set of bearing pullers now so i can transfer the bearings from the original front diff to the new one. Then the next task is transfering the Crown wheel to the new diff. Starting to feel like some progress now
Dan.
