Ab's '09 OBXT Build Thread

[Abductee]

20th task- The tuning experiments

I played conservatively with ATR and wound up with a pretty decent running vehicle. Boost peaked at 18.5 psi (VF46) and tapered to 16.5 with clean pulls and decent mileage. Then the knock came back. Slowly it crept back. Never at WOT, but regular easy part throttle driving. Logs looked fine and nothing seemed amiss. A quandary.

[Abductee]

21st task- Oil control solenoid valves

Still trying to figure out why I had that stupid knock back, I pulled the oil control valves and cleaned them. They didn't look too bad. Though left and right were running in sync, I was hoping to find something there to say Aha! Nope. 12v got them snapping back and forth after a thorough cleaning. Reinstalled and found no real change. Again, nothing was terrible or obvious other than my anal nature about having things just right.

[Abductee]

22nd task- Going big(ger)

I had been doing research about different setups for replacement turbos for a while. I had learned that in trying to save a few dollars while doing maintenance I inadvertently positioned myself nicely for a decent bump in power. I knew I wasn't going to replace the turbo with another IHI and have the same issues most seem to have, but I still wanted to keep it daily friendly. I wound up deciding on the BNR 16g 8cm. VF52ish with no taper necessary if you have the fuel and it was not an IHI. I looked into having my injectors cleaned and rebuilt, but for what that cost I would be 75% of the way to new injectors. I picked ID720"s. I should be able to run 20psi at 6500rpm at 88-90% duty cycle based on different calculators and the like. I made a plan and a list and started looking for deals and getting things ordered. Like everything else, I figured while I am in there I may as well get a bigger tmic, tgv delete, air pump delete, replace vacuum lines, replace pcv, ebcs, aos- you know the usual stuff. My wife and daughter were going on their annual girls trip, so I took the week off and took my time. I had contacted Stephen at IA Tuning and had a startup tune waiting for me when I finished.

It was a good thing I had decided to do this when I did, as I wound up cleaning gooey overheated oil sludge out of my intake manifold and throttle body. I didn't even attempt to clean out the intercooler since I had a new one. I had found the cause of my knock. The seal was pretty gone on my turbo cartridge and I was sending oil into my intake. The impeller was a little wiggly as well. I also pulled the plugs and checked/cleaned them. Major catastrophic problem avoided. I also verified that all of my avcs screens were removed. I did find one and removed it even though it was clean. I plumbed the turbo oil feed straight from the front oil galley through a filter and removed the idiot light pressure switch. Oil pressure sending unit is still tied in there as well. Once everything was finished and I started it up, I immediately saw a reduction in oil pressure on startup. It was only 65psi and once warm was 20psi, same as before. Cruise was about 60psi, again right around where it was before. I think the old turbo was restricting oil flow pretty badly. The excessive pressure I am sure didn't help the seals.

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[Abductee]

23rd task- Going down

The tune was taking quite a while with a few hiccups, but plans were continuing. I have always been of the mind that 4 wheel drives go up, 2 wheel drives go down, but now I have an all wheel drive. So that means owners option! I chose down. I picked up some BC racing coilovers for legacy F-04 from itsdaniel in the classifieds as well as legacy upper control arms, bump stops, and Whiteline KTA124's from various other sources. I had also already gotten front ball joints, inner and outer tie rods as well as Moog front and rear end links. I took a weekend and installed everything again taking my time and cleaning everything around where I am working. I gave it a tape measure and angle finder alignment which turned out really well. It drove very nicely to the alignment shop. Once aligned, it was like the sun coming out for the first time after months of rain. Refined, sporty, compliant and accurate. Though I wound up lower than I wanted, the ride was superb. I had set the coilovers to max height and still wound up tucking the rear wheel and lower than I wanted all around. It grew on me though. I still had way more ground clearance than my c10. I contacted BC Racing tech support and they helped me decipher part numbers on replacement dampers.

 

I wound up getting the rear dampers for the outback extreme low (220125AR114M12) which should bring my rear up 1.2" and leave me with a slight rake. Whenever I get around to installing them that is.

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[Abductee]

24th task- Skidplate swaybar and braces

A few weeks after lowering my car, I was loving it more and more. While the tune was still not complete (even after 2 months) it was freaking running so well. It pulled hard to redline with a peak of 21.5psi. 2nd gear was close to bonkers and it rode so sweetly. I did not, however, like my oil pan hanging out there in harms way without anything protecting it. I ordered a Primitive Racing skidplate 3/16" with the oil holes as well as a Whiteline rear sway bar. I installed those on Sunday 09/27/20.

[Abductee]

25th task- Ugh

Driving to work on Tuesday 09/30/20 at 5:50am I wound up in a multi vehicle accident on the interstate where there was already another accident in progress. [insert many many expletives here]. Luckily no one was injured. Because I had lowered my car, all of the damage to the front end was above the frame horns so my airbags didn't go off and the frame was untouched. Nothing touched the motor and everything looks ok except bodystuff and the radiator/ac condenser coil. When the dust settled, I had made friends with the tow truck guy and he hooked me up with getting me and the car back to my house.

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[Abductee]

26th task- Not losing

The insurance company wanted to total the car and cut me a ridiculously small check, to which I told them to go right tight themselves. I will fix it myself. The suggestion was made by xt2005bonbon to source a JDM front clip to use for replacement parts, which in hindsight was a fantastic idea. Mostly everything I need is there for a lot cheaper than USDM parts new or used. I found a SWP front end in Brooklyn from JDMEngineworld on ebay. I called and talked to Jack and worked out a deal to purchase it without the hood as it was from a non-turbo model. I found a hood in Oregon from 541Motorsports. I got those heading my way and started picking up all the other small parts necessary to get it back in shape. Radiator, STI fans will be replaced with the same part numbers as that combo worked very well.

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[xt2005bonbon]

Wow. Nice write-up so far. You have not posted much on the forum but you have done a lot of work on your car already. Good job man. I can't wait to see the finished product with the JDM front end. I think you will love it. The JDM 'nose' is shorter than USDM.

[Abductee]

26th task cntd-

Once I had replaced the twisted radiator support panels and got everything lined up, I found I had to modify the hood catch. The release on the 09 USDM catch is much taller than the JDM. I hadn’t thought about the fact that the JDM would have the cable pull from the opposite side, so I bent mine back into shape and trimmed the release down.

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I heated the headlights in the oven at 200°f for 10min and pried them open. The original lenses were fairly yellowed so I wet sanded them with progressively finer grit sandpaper starting at 600, 1000, then 1500, then 2000 till they looked new when wet. I guess the humidity was too high or my clear coat was going bad, but it wound up orange peeling. Usually they turn out very nicely. I am not a paint or body guy, but I do ok with small rattle can projects. I decided to leave the headlight lenses till I get the car repainted and let a pro do it. I may change my mind and redo them myself when the humidity in Florida drops for those 3 or 4 days in January.

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I started working on the rest of the headlights and getting the grille painted.

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[Abductee]

26th task cntd-

I rewired the headlights using the JDM to USDM harness kit from AW4BYT in the classifieds. A great kit and super-fast shipping. I ordered the JDM to USDM headlight and level switch harness on Thursday and got it from Hawaii by Monday. I had already ordered a level switch from Japanparts.com before I knew that AW4BYT offered them as an option with the harness.

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[xt2005bonbon]

How did you change the radiator support?

[Abductee]

Drilled out the spot welds on the old and new stuff and welded the new back in.

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[xt2005bonbon]

That's what I thought. So you have a welder then and knows how to use it.

I still have my radiator support from the jdm front end and want to swap mine with it. My car was in a wreck before I bought it. And they did a poor job with the radiator support.

[Abductee]

26th task cntd-

My kid was sick (just a cold) so I took the day off today and let the dog and my kid roam around the yard while I worked on the car. I replaced the AC line that runs from condensing coils to the expansion valve and I replaced the expansion valve as well. The system was only open for maybe 8 hours before I checked to see if it still had a charge, but I would hate to go to charge it and find that the expansion valve was bad and then have recover what I had just charged and then replace the valve. The line was bent and sort of kinked in the accident so that was going to get changed anyways. Since my brain was in ‘not at work’ mode, my laziness wound up causing more work as I didn’t want to remove all the vacuum, aos/pcv hoses on the LF frame rail to simply drop in the new line. Once I had started down the lazy path I had no other choice than to persevere as stopping then would be a waste of time. 4 hours later it was in.

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The expansion valve dropped in no sweat so I had that going for me.

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Also I received a delivery of some new wheels as well as my replacement door today. I was still irritated about the way things went down with the 2011 wrx wheels I attempted to purchase (read as seller was a complete waste of skin) and I have been looking for quite a while to replace the stock wheels which I have never liked even a little bit so I bought some very reasonably priced Rota Titan in 17x8 45. These happen to be flat black which I may run as they are (most likely) or I may paint them burnt bronze as I have always like that color on white vehicles.

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I had the idea of wrapping the car in flat white and leaving the flat black wheels. The headlights and grille are blacked already. Stormtroopers can’t hit anything, so if I stormtrooper the car then I will never have to do this again right?