Introducing Colin - a Mini-ature WRX

Bought a set of headers for $75

*bandsaw noises*

Bought a collection of coolant pipe sized mandrel bends for $75

And the wiring pass through for the fuel pump.  (not pictured)

Powering through cold-like symptoms (body does not deal well with temperature swings), finished this bit up

This involved $60 worth of timing covers that would have been 2-3x as much for used junk from eBay

and a really crappy timing belt that did not have the printed marks on it like EVERY OTHER SUBARU TIMING BELT EVER and was packaged like this:

"Do not bend more than smallest pulley" indeed.

Would have been nice to have this yesterday.

Will check that out later, right now must take advantage of warm weather

I protest! If those red arrows on the right are supposed to show direction of rotation, I'm going with "that's impossible"

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

I protest! If those red arrows on the right are supposed to show direction of rotation, I'm going with "that's impossible"

I was not even paying attention to those, BUT.

Subarus, as I like to point out, are cars designed by engineers who were allowed to nerd out and do things their way.  They have a lot of neat ideas as a result.

The cam belt alignment marks, for instance, are done at 90 degrees from DC, not at TDC #1 like most engines(*).  The pistons are all a little more than halfway down the cylinders, there is no way to crash a valve while putting the engine together.  (The arrows on the pulleys all point up when the engine is at TDC)

The right bank ends up that both cams are in the dead space between valve events.  The left bank is not, and the cams will fight you.  The arrows point in the direction you have to apply pressure to the cams to get the marks to line up.

* Volvo whiteblock fives are timed 15 degrees off of TDC #1, I forget which direction

Aaaand I got seam sealer all over my nice new $260 heated jacket.

But the tunnel is sealed, anyway.

At least you didn't get it on your hootus. Nice work so far.

Salvage yard that I'd been to a lot showed a Neon just arrived in inventory and four wheels available.  Went last weekend, wheels were still on the car, they'd pull them and set aside for next weekend (today)

Went to go pick them up this morning and they scrapped two of them because they were "bad".  Drove an hour home empty-handed.

Found another salvage yard a few hours away that has a set.  And I can get the set for $230 not $300.  We shall see next weekend.

Well, they DID all rust out like fifteen years ago around here, and the ones that didn't rust died because Chrysler did a very good job of meeting their 80k lifespan target.

You know what is even funnier? Trying to find Celica 14" wheels...

Getting cross-eyed from wiring, I heat wrapped the left exhaust manifold and crossover pipe, then went to permanently mount the turbo.

IHI turbos use a different oil feed line than the Mitsubishi turbos.  At least, I had to comprehensively tweak it to fit, and mount the support bracket upside down and backwards to work.

Speaking of which.  Mystery bracket, where does it go?  I had been figuring it attached to the trans so I ignored it, but realized that if it attached to the trans, it would be with the trans stuff not the engine stuff.

It mounted to the head, block, and the top of the downpipe, and required that I pull the downpipe and turbo back off to install because of the location of the block fastener.

Buuuut... that much is done.  More wiring thinning and I can do something realistically unimportant but looks impressive.

Nobody stocks exhaust tubing anymore, have some on order.  Summit does have some in stock for like $60 a stick, that and driving an hour with three feet of exhaust hanging out the trunk is a hard nope...

Picked up two Walker 49003s.  Per the Walker catalog, they are 10 foot long 18 gauge 1 5/8" pipes.  Not great, but it'll work.  When I went to pick them up (at cost, because shop account multipass) discovered that they are actually 16 gauge.  Sweet! 

The headers that I cut up were 1.75 tubing.  The 1 5/8 is a slip fit into those, and the 1.5" ends that I need for the radiator hoses to attach to will be a slip fit into the 1 5/8.  Butt welding thin pipe to be watertight sucks, so being able to do it with slip fits is huge.  Oh and it makes fabrication a hell of a lot easier!

Also, I was able to put the 10' long pipes into my S60R and close the trunk.  I was not expecting that at all.

So, I found myself carefully singling out the old fuel pump wiring so I could re-use it and just send a signal to the already-existing relay and fuse in the fusebox.

Then I realized that I was using a mongo fuel pump.  Looked at the wiring... kinda small.  Looked up the fuse... 20a.  That is pushing it if the pump may draw 17-18 amps.  Probably the internal circuitry in the fusebox is insufficient, too.

Well maybe I could use this wiring to power up a beefier relay...

Stop right there, cheapskate!  If you are going to do that, control it straight from the computer that is going to be mounted a foot away from the pump, and bypass the stock fusebox altogether. You big dummy.

I could still probably use it for the intercooler pump and fan, maybe.

#amidoingitright

Neon wheels acquired from a salvage yard in Warren MI that actually had what they said they had

Silver wheels?

Not in this house!

Also, while I was at Summit taking pictures of trucks, thanks to a employment anniversary gift card from work, acquired a steering U joint. And some heat shielding. And a battery and charger for the lone Milwaukee tool I own.

So, steering.

The Subaru steering coupler had a bad U joint, of course the bottom one, which is the one I need.  The column is the same as Mazda, but the pinion is some weird size.  It is 36 spline but I could not figure out what it is and I could not justify spending $90 for a weirdball sized U joint on a guess.  And that is still cheaper than a new coupler.

Plus, there are some serious geometry issues pending due to the placement of the Mini steering column.

And so:

Subaru pinion is tall, and is a 17mm shaft diameter.

I don't know what this came from, but the lower joint is a 17DD.  It measures a skosh over 14mm across the flats.

A little figuring where I want it to be when steering is centered, a little finger sander work...

A notch for the pinch bolt...

And boom. Steering rack adapted to mystery part, that puts the U joint a lot lower and further to the center of the car, reducing its operating angle as much as practical.

New problem... okay, two new problems.  First new problem is that the pinion shaft is actually two piece, and the outer section can slide freely up and down.  Will need to break out the welder to deal with that, although I may disassemble the thing first to make sure it goes together in the right spot.

Problem number two.

Need to trim the dash frame for U joint clearance. 

Now, if I had bought a name brand quickener like I did for the RX-7, this would be no issue as the shafts are on center.  THIS quickener, from Speedway, is not on center, and of course it goes "up".  I could try rotating it down, which will require a ton of work because the bolt pattern is asymmetrical.  I could see if my quickener mounting bracket can be flipped over... 

...yeah, not happening.

Must have a think.

edit:  Had a think, realized that light metal is brittle, was able to clearance for the U joint by breaking off small chunks with Vise-Grips until I had enough room with the steering column all the way down (which pushes the joint up), which worked disturbingly well.  Will need to put a corresponding notch in the bracket welded to the firewall, but that is not daunting.

It looks like it just needs to be pushed all the way down and it's done.

Hooray for not taking another project detour

E36 M3.  I think I accidentally removed the wire for the CHMSL.

I also have an idea.... the wiring for the LDP goes right about to where the fuel tank wiring will be.  Three wires to the LDP.  Will need two wires to the fuel gauge and one wire to the fuel pump relay, I think. May as well reuse them, they are run already.

THAT is a bad habit to get into, can end up spending more time trying to work out which wires can be repurposed for what, but in this case I'll make an exception.

Wheels

Meet tires

These tires won a national championship... um... eight and a half years ago

They are still soft, aren't shiny, and the best part is they were already there.  Unless someone has a cheap set of 4x100 Revolutions, then they may go back to Miata duty

An amazing number of wires go through X6011. The round twist-lock connector near the airbox.

Apparently. 

I say "apparently" because the connector is not in the Alldata diagrams, not in the all but useless BMW diagrams, and a connector view is just a picture of the end of the connector.

Grr.

The black/red LDP wire I wanted to use must go through that to the engine harness to the DME's x6000 connector, which is probably sitting on the engine under a bench in Columbus.  I assume that the reverse light switch also goes through it because manual trans.  I think those are the only two I care about, but I have been wrong before.

Wiring plans, which would no doubt make certain communities cringe, are to use the new engine computer's fuel pump relay ground to ground the DME relay and use its output for the fuel injectors and ignition coils, so all the powers stay underhood.  Of course most of those went through a multipin connector that is Sir Not Present Anymore, but there is a big fat white/red wire also coming from the DME relay that is still underhood and will be useful for this purpose.

Sorry guys, not going to power everything directly off of the battery.  Not that we legally CAN, anyway, the rules explicitly say all power must go through a battery disconnect switch.  Schroedinger' Switch, apparently, since it must both be accessible by the driver AND be mounted to the right side base of the windshield, or two other places outside the car.  

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Sorry guys, not going to power everything directly off of the battery.  Not that we legally CAN, anyway, the rules explicitly say all power must go through a battery disconnect switch.  Schroedinger' Switch, apparently, since it must both be accessible by the driver AND be mounted to the right side base of the windshield, or two other places outside the car.  

I am not sure if this is legal for SCCA Rallycross, but I am pretty sure I have seen cars set up this way to meet this type of requirement.  The kill switch is mounted in one location.  The end of the switch lever is drilled, and a cable (like a bicycle brake cable) run through it and then run to the other location, secured so it can loosely stay where it belongs, the end is looped (maybe even wrapped in hi-vis tape or fabric), and pulling the cable will shut off power.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Yup, that is the plan.

Also, forgot to mention, the Neon wheels clear the Subaru 2.2l Impreza front brakes with a millimeter to spare, maybe two.  Perfect 

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

For future reference, I'd be curious if EJ25D cam seals are the same as your 205

In reply to bumpsteer :

Is that the one year only DOHC?  Maybe.  If it is it is probably the same part number.

Going screaming cross-eyed at wiring.  Going to sit down and write a matrix of what I require so I can pin THAT down and stop thinking might need this, might need that.

Also, WTF is the two terminal connector near the left taillight, black/yellow and brown/yellow? It smells like courtesy lamp but it is not in the diagrams as that.

May have a handbrake solution.  The trick is that the lever wants to be in the same place as the shift lever and unlike my wide RX-7 there will not be room to shove the master between the tunnel and passenger seat. The exhaust goes there.

...you're going to make me take the booster out, aren't you

This box is jammed tight.

On the home stretch.

Also the headlight levelers will not work anymore. Not that I saw the module in the car or anything

Black yellow, brown yellow: fuel door lock

Probably should eliminate that one.

Another bit of trivia.

The rear washer fluid pump is in the right side washer fluid reservoir, because of course this car has two washer fluid reservoirs.  The hose is built into the wiring loom and goes from there, up behind the ABS pump, through the firewall, along the base of the windshield to the left side of the car, down to the floor, towards the back of the car, up to the roof, along to the tailgate passthrough, through in to the top of the tailgate, and then around the right side of the glass to the wiper at the bottom.

The hose is easily 50% longer than the car itself.