Senseless1

Make it run again, turbo subframe, 04sti aluminum control arms and sway bar links. (I have a 16mm wagon non turbo sway bar and a 94 legacy ss turbo sway bar that I think is 14mm. Not sure what fits yet) for more track width up front. Strut tower bar, cheap coils for now. Enkei rpf 1 17x9 +35 light weight wheels. I have 255 square on it now, but I'm going to go back to a 235 for more sidewall stiffness. Eventually going with the white line drop kit with a more aggressive ball joint and tie rod end link design since I'm slammed w/ rolled fenders for now. Doing molded widebody this year using 240sx rear fenders flipped for the front and a set of 99 imprezza widebody rears I'll have to basically rebuild entirely. Going with a good scoop and probably a not broken grill. Rear strut bar coming soon. With all the suspension work I'll be rebuilding the leaky power steering pump and replacing the rack. Then doing an alignment with camber bolts at each corner to hopefully bring the huge 17x9 inch wheels back to a normal alignment. I'd sure love to get some darton sleeves in my ej22t factory closed deck block this year too. After having a short block I'd like to get some better cams for my ported ej20k heads and finally take the time to measure out everything for a shimless bucket conversion. My billet 18g could really use the sti yellows I need to have sent out and cleaned and flow tested. Having 8 total I though about decapping them to run e85 full time and get a microsquirt or speeduino ecu. The 5 speed won't live tobmax out the turbo so a 6 speed swap eventually, then zo6 brakes up front and compound turbo setup utilizing the 18gtx as the small turbo. I've been playing with the idea of a 3 turbo compound system that utilizes a really small turbo just for initial spool from 2krpms until whenever the 18gtx hits target boost redirect the spool turbos upipe into the largest of the compound turbos to optimize spool. I haven't counted the I/o requirements for a multi stage compound setup that would require a series of wastegates and boost controllers to direct airflow to maximize spool. Ideally I'd like to be making at least 250whp from 2000 rpms with as much top end as drivetrain will allow. Sure would be nice to start over and port and build up some ej20k dual avcs heads for all this effort though.

Thanks for the tip! I'm only taking the combustion chambers to 400 grit, and leaving the gasket mating surface for the machine shop to resurface. I just recently found out about this gasket sealing issue though, so thanks for sharing.

Nice progress! So tell me more about the cams in the "ej20d" heads you have? Are any of the internals of the ej20k heads upgrades that can be used in ej25d heads besides the cams? Not sure where I got the karma from, but today I snagged a set of ej20k heads shipped from AUS for $225!!!

stock vs rough cut gasket match ej25d intake manifold http://i.imgur.com/MCD7hCV.jpg bottom is oem ej22e intake manifold top is ported ej25d intake manifold. I also gasket matched and removed the step from the opening where the throttle body connects: http://i.imgur.com/xUMTqEs.jpg DOHC heads getting torn down: http://i.imgur.com/zGxNKnk.jpg Valves polished and the bottom picture is polished combustion chamber. Top is scrubbed with plastic bristle brush + brake cleaner and rag + brake cleaner. This is only taken down to 400 grit. I also have a polishing kit to go all the way to mirror finish. http://i.imgur.com/oYIQV85.jpg And did I mention that I bought a set of EJ20k cylinder heads today?!?!?!?! From our very own DOHCEJ22E1: "EJ25D Cam Specs: Intake opens 6° BDTC. Intake closes 50° ABDC. Exhaust opens 54°/30° BBDC. Exhaust closes 10°/10° ATDC. Overlap 16°. EJ20G Cam Specs: Intake opens 8° BDTC. Intake closes 52° ABDC. Exhaust opens 52° BBDC. Exhaust closes 8° ATDC. Overlap 16°. EJ20K STi Cam Specs: Intake opens 10° BDTC Intake closes 56° ABDC Exhaust opens 56° BBDC Exhaust closes 12° ATDC Overlap 22° Just in case you needed specs. The EJ20G cams are more like the EJ25D cams while the EJ20K cams are their own animal.":dm::dm::dm:

I decided to just stick with the used pistons I have from the ej22t and use the money saved from buying forged pistons to pay for machine shop labor and run water meth. I may also send the pistons out to be WPC treated. Between the extra power boost from the ej20k cams being shipped from AUS tomorrow, along with the anti detonation measures of water meth, wpc treatment, and polishing the combustion chambers I should be able to easily make 300 whp with the setup and not have to buy forged pistons and pay for boring out the cylinders. I think I'm going to go ahead and assemble the engine myself, but send the heads out for a valve job and have them checked to see if they're in spec with the different cams and have the short block blueprinted to see what bearings sizes I need and make sure the STI rods, stock crankshaft, ej22t pistons all stay in spec with a cylinder hone. I'm thinking I may be in danger of having too large of a piston to wall clearance, but having the pistons treated should help a little. I'm currently porting and polishing the ej25d heads. All the valves are cleaned up and I got started with polishing the combustion chambers. Starting to get really excited with all of this progress. Bonus: I found a set of ej20k heads for 225$ shipped from AUS! Such a windfall at a time when I'm starting to get dizzy from all this grinding and polishing...

http://i.imgur.com/boymUzm.jpg http://i.imgur.com/vxq8eEX.jpg http://i.imgur.com/rf6vQGn.jpg http://i.imgur.com/FQrcMfW.jpg http://i.imgur.com/a4ctNJT.jpg http://i.imgur.com/jtDICaZ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4Xr0PwT.jpg Pic of the finished turbo from Socal Porting: http://i.imgur.com/nakTiyh.jpg

Well I did it lol after watching several too many YouTube videos of porting cylinder heads and watching the company 23 YouTube videos I ordered the Subaru valve spring compressor tool... Looks like I will be doing some very mild port and polish on the cylinder heads now that I can completely disassemble them and get the valves out of the way. Still plan on sending them to the machine shop to be cleaned, inspected, and milled. I'm definitely going to resist the temptation to have the cams reground. I'm blocking that thought from memory

Weekend update: VF39 has been rebuilt and shipped off to Socal Porting. Reuben informed me of something I had already discovered when upgrading to the billet 18g compressor wheel: the compressor cover aaand backing plate need to be machined...So not sure what the total bill is going to be to have Ruben work his magic ($50.00 including return shipping) with machining and balancing, but no turning back now. I successfully ported the VF39 exhaust housing and wastegate. Pulled and stripped the ej25d intake manifold and test fitted the ej22t IACV. I set this aside until I can get the aluminum carbide bit set I ordered, then I'll be gasket matching the IM, knife edging the throttle body, and plugging the holes from the EGR delete. I plan to tap one of the holes and just run a bolt in it, cut a flat aluminum block off plate, and capping any unused vacuum ports. I'll then be finding a bolt to plug both holes from the EGR tube that connects the EGR valve to the cylinder head and taking a sharpie to the CEL light on the dash, lol I had no brake cleaner so everything is disgusting right now. I might shave the IM, but I'm going to at least clean and paint it with some paint I have sitting in boxes. I then pulled timing covers, crank pulley, and timing belt off the lower mileage ej25d donor engine. My company23 camshaft tool was not delivered on Saturday as expected, so I stopped there and turned my attention to the second set of DOHC heads I have. I used my nut extractor sockets to remove the exhaust manifold bolts or what was left of them and began disassembling the heads to see if I can get them stripped down enough to do a little mild polish/gasket match on the exhaust/intake ports and maybe get into the heads to clean up casting marks. It's really taking a lot of restraint to not spend my wedding payment money on sending the cams off to Delta for a regrind, when I'm literally holding them in hand Oh well. I stopped there to pick up some supplies to be better about cleaning parts as I disassemble. I am working slow, filming, being cautious, referencing the FSM, labeling and organizing parts and hardware. I'm not sure if the porting will do any more than a couple horsepower, but I want to do as much as I can afford to make sure I hit the 300whp # with the STI yellow side feed injectors and upgraded VF39 turbo. I do have two sets of cylinder see heads so I'm going to port the older set and send them to the machine shop for cleaning, decking and refreshing. Then continue the ej25d teardown to remove the cylinder heads to be set aside for later. Then I'll start teardown on the ej222, and should be past the first wedding payment to see if I can sell parts and squeeze some forged piston money to move forward. Still a little hesitant to start the emanage ultimate wiring job. I really wish Iwire would've just taken my money and sent me a spreadsheet with wiring instructions, but I'll just have to make it work. More progress when I get the camshaft sprocket tool and aluminum carbide bit in the mail next week.

Pretty Sure Brighton96 has the only way to prevent a CEL. You could probably rig it up by just adding in a T to one of the IACV vacuum lines and hacksawing (and deburring with a small round file) the EGR tube to allow a hose to slide over the tube. Just going off memory here because I actually have yet to receive an emissions inspection notice in the mail since buying the roller. I am currently running a non egr motor in an egr chassis so the light's already there on mine LOL I'll be registering this guy with historic tags 1/1/18 if they won't let me use the build month/year (Sooner) to register my car historic, so I won't need to pass emissions. Worst case I take the car off the road for a couple months or paying the $15/month late fee, but I plan on the car being down more often then not this year as soon as the weather warms up. I have so many to-do's for this car I have separate lists for certain things so I don't freak out and get overwhelmed...again... lol [edit] I also ended up cheating on day one of the turbo rebuild lol I haven't built a real work bench yet, and my flimsy sheet metal HF work bench won't handle a vice, so I had to take the turbo over to Andrewtech down the street to have them separate the exhaust housing from the CHRA I might need to go ahead and buy some carpentry tools and just build the bench. Idk I could really use that time for the project though because time kind of got away from me over winter.

Finally got the garage set up to start moving again. I began disassembling the vf39 to port/rebuild/upgrade it and could not get the turbine housing to separate LOL i need a real work bench with a vice. I'll drop it off at Andrewtech tomorrow to have them fuss with it. http://i.imgur.com/V46yUG1.jpg I then took the opportunity to pull the intake manifold off the 2.5 liter engine I have. Looks like the egr is getting deleted due to the nut securing the egr tube at the cylinder head being all but destroyed...That's fine though. Hopefully I can get a good system down for filming and working in the small space I have without too many procedural interruptions to give me more time to learn and address issues as they come up.

:lol::lol:my good friend discovered his car's computer will not let him do burnouts...or so he says... it was painful to watch so I had to put together a goof video on him.

Love or hate the Mustang you'll probably enjoy this one! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isX1Wh9En7k]2015 Ford Mustang V6 EPIC burnout! - YouTube[/ame]

Here is Part 1 from the autocross: https://youtu.be/_B23aKDmZkI Really had a blast running the car and getting a pre-turbo baseline.

I finished editing part 2 of my Sunday autocross. Unfortunately I only got one decent run in before disaster struck lol check it out if your bored. Warning strong language though: https://youtu.be/dyi7Aa9mDEI

Thanks for the tip! I have been scheming for a way to get forged pistons recently, and remembered I have a BNIB carbon fiber rear diffuser cover for my BRZ compliments of getting rear ended. I got the diffuser cover on sale for $650 and forged pistons are about $600... not sure if I can find a buyer right away, but it would sure be nice to save that money and have the forged pistons. The deeper I get into this car world the less I care about spending gobs of money and being fearful of driving the car just to have perfect paint. Tax time would be the best bet for making the sale though. I'm going to withhold making a decision and come back to it later.

Alright guys. I had a blast at Summit Point Motorsports Park for the autocross last Sunday. I ended up changing the oil+filter, transmission fluid, and rear diff fluid (Yes had to break out the propane torch again for the diff). Everything seemed to be going really well save for a lack of fender clearance on long sweepers and breaking my Ralco RZ Short shifter towards the end... Luckily I was able to zip tie it back together and make it home. Check out the youtube link for videos of the first half of the day: https://youtu.be/_B23aKDmZkI I'm going to work on my PM runs tomorrow. Now to see if I can JB weld the shifter back together and just anticipate upgrading to the newer style linkage when I upgrade the transmission and get back to work building the car! [Edit] Check the video description for a link to the posted results. Yes the Turdwagon beat an M3, 911 carrerra S, Fiat 500 Abarth, M4, miata's, a mazdaspeed 3, and a 2.2l rally imprezza (lighter chassis same engine, spanked!!!) Please also note that I lost to a 2014ish Mustang GT 5.0 by .001 seconds!

Side note: I'll be running this autocross on super bowl sunday at summit pointe raceway in WV if anybody else would like to join me and my friend Paolo. http://myautoevents.com/pls/mae/frmEventDetail.Show?psevent_id=16101

Well I have another update for you guys. I stopped by Andrewtech Automotive and picked up some pistons today. The guy tried to tell me they were from a jdm engine afterwards, but they sure look like plain old usdm ej22t pistons to me: http://i.imgur.com/OmnlKkT.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Q1Cn0bm.jpg http://i.imgur.com/afC3kBS.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Q1Cn0bm.jpg I understand this will give me a super low compression, but I think it's better than the alternative of having almost 10:1 compression ratio. I am going to go ahead and diy port a little bit here and there including the turbo and intake + exhaust manifolds and am currently waiting on a price quote to have some ej20g exhaust camshafts shipped over from AUS. I think the delta regrind would only be $500 or 800+ shipping on the camshafts I have already though. I'm debating using the money for cams or spending that to have an engine builder assemble the short block vs DIY as well. in any case I think enough parts are here that I can start working on getting things ready. I am currently begging Iwire to sell me a cheat sheet for wiring in my emanage ultimate so I can't screw that up. Waiting on a reply from them.

Can you elaborate more on which year the 12.5cc pistons came in?

WTB EJ22t pistons. I'm in MD let me know!

I'm wondering if I can just have the cylinders honed and drop in some ej22t pistons with new rings. CR would drop a lot, but having the vf39/18g turbo would flow enough to be okay. This would still get me close to 300 whp "reliably" and allow me to move the timeline up significantly.

I'm not sure which bracket you'r referring to as I have not begun disassembly of the 98 imprezza ej25d I picked up, but this is the kit I purchased. I also purchased the timing belt guide that comes on the automatics that is supposed to help keep the belt from jumping. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NAK9PGM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I originally wanted the gates belt, but kept seeing reviews that the blue belts disintegrate and cause idlers to fail prematurely. Something about blue dust killing them. Seemed like a goo enough excuse to save some money and go with a regular belt for now. Not sure if it is actually true though.

So quick update: Picked up the used AEM wideband+boost gauge, ordered vibrant resonator and had that welded in place of the OEM Sti resonator and a rusted section of pipe replaced by Andrewtech Automotive Monday. Car sounds much better now, but still gets loud under heavy throttle. I registered for an all day autocross at Summit point Raceway in WV for February 5th I think. Going to just get some seat time and have some fun with my friend who has an old 5 series BMW drift car. I just ordered the 98 ej25d timing belt kit (pretty sure I have one set of 97 dohc heads and a complete 98 dohc ej25d with lower miles) noteworthy because of the different tensioner style. Also ordered the 2007 legacy GT water pump, and cylinder head gasket kit with ej25d head bolts. This leaves me with the full exhaust to buy, assuming the wrx oil pump teardown and inspection goes well, and likely some type of clutch upgrade (someone mentioned throwing an OEM WRX clutch disk and pressure plate on not sure if this is possible with the old style cable clutch trans). I still need to buy a die grinder, carbide tip(s), and abrasive cartridge kit to port the turbo and whatever else I'm feeling froggy with. I'll also likely have more custom exhaust expenses to mate the downpipe up and probably swap out the muffler to a straight through design. All of these expenses and effort really having me question whether I should just wait and go for forged pistons, bore+hone, use STI rods, balance rotating assembly, and reassemble myself with new std size rod and main bearings. Not blueprinting would save me cash, and I likely wouldn't want to pay to have the crank run down for oversized bearings. I assume the medium mileage engine parts I have coupled with new rings and forged pistons would be a much better setup than just leaving the bottom end alone and risking the ej222 pistons. This way I can maybe get away with spending 1000 or less at the machine shop and be confident that the short block will be much more robust with the upgraded zero mile bearings, STi rods, forged pistons, balanced rotating assembly machine shop spec piston ring gaps, and WRX oil pump. This might mean waiting another 8-12 months for finances unless a miracle happens and one of our families decides to chip in on our wedding, but I just don't think that it's worth it cutting this last corner and trusting the ej222 pistons not to mess up my better short block, or cutting corners by using the super high mileage ej221 with stronger pistons, but worse oiling, worse thrust bearing position, and super high mileage. I've been agonizing over this for the past couple of weeks, trying to justify just slapping it together and making do, but I think in two years or maybe just the day I decide to throw a manual boost controller and having it not blow up Is worth waiting the extra time. Really wasn't expecting it to take 3 years to build this sucker, but I am thankful for the opportunity and availability of knowledge to try something like this.

Thanks for the info guys! In spite of this supposedly being my vacation week I haven't been able to get out there and check things out. With this being the 5th position thrust crank I've been wishing for and having a set of sti rods on hand, I might do some calling around to machine shops to see what I'm looking at for cost to just go after forged pistons and rebuild the bottom end with new bearings and have the rotating assembly balanced with using the wiseco pistons and sti rods. This would mean more work because I would need to pull the 2.2L out without having an engine ready to take it's place in order to save the lower mileage ej222 and lower mileage ej25d (98 Imprezza RS) heads for the forged piston build. Using parts laying around the garage I would then be able to build a high compression hybrid using the 96 ej22e sohc heads and a 97 ej25d legacy block as a spare while I save up money for the machine shop labor and pistons. That would give me a solid 5-10 year motor plan, but would result in the trans upgrade competing for money with the forged motor build. I guess it would be as risky as any other option, but set me up for the best parts combination for a stout forged motor build that would likely hold 350whp without being over stressed. Just thinking out loud here, but maybe just get the old high mileage (260k+) ej22e shortblock hybrid in and keep boost at wastegate or lower to maximize the transmission's life, baby it until I can get the stronger JDM turbo car trans in, then go for the forged motor build. I could have a fun 220 -250 whp legacy with the vf39/18g hybrid turbo on wastegate pressure with rich tuning and just be more patient to end up with a better long term solution. This build schedule would leave me with an ej222 with ~90k and an ej25d with 130k sealed and waiting for sti rods, bearings, and lower compression forged pistons. I already have the headgaskets for the high compression hyrbid and the ej22e in the car now only has maybe 5k miles since the timing kit/water pump, headgasket job was done with heads refreshed, so I could likely just throwing it together re-using all the parts I'f I can get the head gasket mating surface clean enough. Just for an emergency backup motor to buy me time to decide the best way forward financially should I blow up the high mileage dohc hybrid. Decisions decisions... I would definitely be lost without this great resource and your advice guys so thank you again! Oh yes I almost forgot! I finally found an AFR/Boost gauge for sale used locally for a good price, so I am going to pick it up tomorrow morning. I would like to try and get as many parts installed before the turbo engine goes in so i can just toss the engine in bolt up the intake and exhaust and start tuning immediately. This unfortunately does mean i can't put off the emanage ultimate wiring any longer... This part has me the most intimidated of all even with the available DIYs

It looks like the ej222 cylinder see heads are different and maybe the intake manifold as well. I also have seen another reference that the 96 and earlier ej22e pistons are stronger than the newer style pistons. I am still considering my options of how to move forward. I believe the fastest way forward is to just have the set of DOHC heads on the shelf sent off to the machine shop and installed on the new low mileage short block with the OEM ej22t headgaskets, IACV, WRX oil pump, and my turbo parts. Then use the 96 ej22e in the car now to build a spare DOHC hybrid. When the first motor fails, assuming the block and crank are okay rebuild the lower mileage motor with the STi rods I have and a set of wiseco forged pistons. This plan gives me time to save money for a JDM trans from a stock turbo car before investing in a clutch capable of handling higher boost. I have an eye on a couple JDM transmissions with 4.11 FD but will likely need this setup to make it through next fall after my wedding before I can spend anymore money on fortifying the build.