grassroots motorsports $2000 challenge turbo baja build

[dusterbd13]

I picked this car up a few weeks ago for $400. The seller is moving out of country, and was given an extensive fix it list by a local shop when she was going to give it to her niece. Hence the “fire sale” pricing. On the list was rear brake lines being rusty to unsafe, rear crossmember being rotted, exhaust rotted, trans leaking, oil leaks, coolant leaks, timing belt due, mice in car. Car is from the rust belt to boot. Supposedly had the pistons swapped for more boost by the second owner(I’m 4^th or 5^th) but nothing past that was ever done. No records of maintenance or modification available.

I knew this list going in, but for $400 for a clean title turbo Subaru that ran and drove that still has catalytic converters, I figured I couldn’t lose!! So I bought it based upon the following pictures. Sight unseen, sent PayPal and scheduled a week later to go get it.

 

So, my brother Dallas and I went to pick it up. I planned to drive it home, but he talked me into taking the trailer. I feel kinda like I wussed out, but with sketchy rust reported, he was the voice of reason. Seller was an AWESOME person, and the car was actually way better than advertised. Hope she enjoys her new chapter in life.

We cleaned it out, and got it up on the lift to see what the rust situation really was. The brake lines make my southern self squeamish, the exhaust can easily be removed via boot, crossmember isn’t all THAT bad (tongue in cheek), everything is hosed in fluids. Trans mount shot, rear seal leaking profusely, valve covers leaking, hoses all need done, rear sway bar bushings shot, its filthy, ac needs charged, seat heaters inoperable, drivers seat only occasionally moves via switch, stereo needs either speakers or head unit, cats are rattling, has hesitation like vacuum leak, it smells pretty bad inside, and its silver. Not a bad list, all things considered!

 

So, we have a list, a car, and a toolbox. Now’s probably the time I admit that I’ve only ever owned one other Subaru to speak of, a 2002 legacy 2.5gt wagon when my daughter was in a rear facing car seat (she’s in drivers ed this week) and never anything with forced induction. I was a nitrous junky in high school and college with my 70 duster, but never had anything cramming more air in. I’m generally a domestic guy, generally a v8 rwd guy. No stranger to weird shit though (rotisserie restore an ACR neon? Yup. 3400 v6 swap a Miata? Done it. Winston cup chassis 71 duster? Different build thread, but its coming along) so I figure I can figure this out with some help. I decided that the end goal of this is the GRM challenge in 2025. I’ve done a few challenge cars that have hit top 10, but I’m going caveman this time. back to the roots of the challenge. $2000 all in. no exemptions, recoup, trades, etc. also, it’ll be my daily (I have a company work truck. I generally only do about 100miles a week in my own stuff, so I could pretty much daily anything. And frequently do!)

I have a method I work to: safe. Reliable. Cool. In that order. Dad taught me that at 14, and its served me well since. Sometimes those lines blend these days, as it doesn’t make sense to redo some things later, or buy parts twice, but it’s a general plan to live by.

First order of business was to sell the tonneau for 100 bucks. That made me happy! Then, I put about 500 miles on it before the first real failure. Enough time to get a feel for the car, its needs, my wants, etc. I really, really like it. And you’ve seen the list of needs already if you’re not just looking at my crappy pictures.

The first failure to address was the trans leak and mount that became significant quickly. Right onto the catalytic converter. I had read the FSM section that stated that you have to drop the exhaust, so I first sourced a new exhaust due to the rotten pipe and flanges. In reading around in the internet, it seems that the baja turbo uses the forester XT engine and downpipe, and an oversize bh legacy catback. No stock parts seem to be available anymore for a price im willing to pay. In further reading, it seems that he whole forester xt exhaust can be used with a little work to the hangers, and some possible extension to the midpipe. Soa search of my favorite parts vendors (facebook marketplace, ebay, amazon, craigslist) turned up a 3 inch exhaust, catless downpipe, catless uppipe, and unequal length header for a forester xt in used condition down in Fayetteville. I messaged the seller, and got to talking as all car guys do. In the end, I bought the whole exhaust, a maxflow intercooler, and he threw in a supposed bolt on intake manifold upgrade for $250.

I haven’t installed any of it yet. I was fortunately able to install the seal and trans mount without dropping the exhaust. This is doubly fortunate, as the rear seal failed entirely at the outskirts of town, and I wound up doing the job entirely on my quickjack. This is actually where I decided that I’m going full caveman on this build. Sheer roots of the GRM challenge. No fancy fab equipment outside a welder and portaband and 4-inch grinder, no real lift, no CNC, etc. I want to show what is actually possible with a strict 2k budget by a redneck in his garage with a rabbit’s foot and no fear of failure. I hope to encourage others to try the challenge as well, as lately I have heard way too much of folks saying that they can’t compete, it’s not real, etc.

Anyway, here’s my caveman shop. On my quickjack. And a picture of the failed trans mount, but no picture of the failed trans seal. Sea was 3.99, 6 quarts of ATF was 38, mount 35.35, filter 5.79

Car drives way better now. Seems to be faster, shifts better, no more nasty noises under acceleration, no more billowing clouds of smoke….

 

While I had it inside, I decided to tackle the stereo issues. I figured first that it was probably the head unit, and since I had one in my stash, id use it. Its an old kenwood hd headunit with Bluetooth that’s been in a few cars. For 25 I scored the silver cubby from an earlier baja, and 9 I got the adapter bracket.

Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that the front door speakers are also utter crap. I have a few options in my stash, so well see what happens there.

To round out this initial drivel, well talk about the rust situation other than exhaust. The rear crossmember hasn’t failed, nor does it seem to be at imminent risk of doing so. however, its heavily corroded, and definitely thinner in places than it should be. Additionally, all the fasteners are seized due to rust, and the brake lines make me twitchy. Up front, it looks like a southern car that got parked in the grass every day and driven to the beach way too often. Nothing to worry about. In my research, it seems the baja used legacy parts, and outback spacers to lift the chassis some more. Soin theory, I can use a legacy rear crossmember and suspension, pull the spacers, and be in business with rust free parts and an inch lower ride height. The different parts appear to be the hardware, spacers vs washers, steering column and coupler, subframe braces, front control arm bushings, driveshaft spacer, and apparently exhaust hangers. At least from research. So, I went down to the junkyard and go the parts of a legacy L to lower to normal height (no subframe spacers). It will still be higher than the legacy L due to the outback struts and springs however. Again, this is all in theory, so take with a shaker of salt. I also got a b9tribeca 25mm front sway bar and trans tunnel heat shield while there. It wasn’t a fun pair of junkyard runs, but I got it done. I got the bonus of spare rear calipers and rotors, however, and a TON of free hardware, a seat switch, clips, body plugs, etc. all the piddly stuff they didn’t charge for.

So lets end with a real world challenge budge summary

Car: 400

Trans mount: 35.35

Trans filter: 5.79

Rear trans seal: 3.99

Trans fluid: 38

Exhaust/intercooler/intake: 250

Stereo harness: 6

Storage cubby: 25

Crossmember/suspension/column/grille:234.61

Swaybar/control arm bushings/ heat shield: 55.30

Total: 1053.93 (minus the cores I turned in for swaybar and steering column)

 

Next up is a huge rock auto order for timing belt, hoses, bushings, etc, lowering, etc.

Please, yall. Impart knowledge and wisdom here. I’m learning these things as I go, and would love to not grenade this thing by being cheap or dumb or ignorant.

 

[AWDFTW]

None of your pics work.

[dusterbd13]

Why?? The flikr image link works on all the other forums.  What am i missing here?

[Infosecdad]

I fixed a few of them for you. 

This forum software doesn't like the img link, if you edit and choose "media from URL" from the bottom, you can paste the actual URL image link and that should work.

 

Nice snag for a Baja, especially for the price.

[dusterbd13]

Thanks!

Ill have to go back and fix when i get a minute.  

And in this day and time  any running/driving/presentable car for $400 is a nice snag! I have to say the baja, though less useful than my old el camino, is way more comfortable and efficient. I hadn't planned on a turbo subaru, or a baja at this point in my life but I'm glad it found me. 

[KZJonny]

On 10/11/2023 at 7:54 AM, dusterbd13 said:

Please, yall. Impart knowledge and wisdom here. I’m learning these things as I go, and would love to not grenade this thing by being cheap or dumb or ignorant.

Not terribly up on Baja Turbo/ Forester XT engine setups. Did they also get the same turbo and OCV supply lines filter screens as the LGT? If they do/did, most delete them as a precaution. That's a can of worms you can get into on the should I/should I not debate, but it's something to consider.

If you are on a tight budget, I would read up on the "bolt on intake upgrade". Unless you do your own tuning, and if the Baja has a similar style OE intake as the LGT/OBXT, I would leave well enough alone, and sell that on if you can use that against the money spent. The intake is almost certainly going to require tuning to either (at best) idle properly and do nothing for you on a stock engine or (at worst) not cause you headaches with a crap idle and possible lean conditions under hard use. Ignore if you do your own tuning and that won't affect the $2K limit.

Edited October 12, 2023 by KZJonny

[dusterbd13]

Kzjohnny: i honestly dont know about the similarities/differences between the baja ej255 and the lgt/sti/fxt stuff. Information seems to be quite thin on the ground. A lot of what im doing is guesswork and leads off old forum posts. 

That being said, it does seem to have the banjo bolt filters from what ive read. Ill need to actually find them and clean them or delete them when i do the timing belt. Theres a lot of research to be done prior to that, as you said. Thats assuming a previous owner didn't already do something about them. 

As far as the "bolt on intake manifold upgrade " i hadn't planned on using it. That seems like a can of worms i dont need to open. It has a much larger plenum. And the plenum on the factory intake i have matches the pictures of the sti ones ive seen. If the guy hadn't thrown it in for free, i wouldn't have it. I'll probably sell it on, or give it to someone. 

As far as turning goes, im going to have to be my own tuner. With the challenge budget being what it is, i dont have room for a 500 tune. But i can find a used tactrix cable and hopefully have someone walk me through it, or buy someone linch or something to give me a hand. Ive tuned obd1 gm tbi trucks, and a LITTLE with megasquirt, but am by no means competent. 

[dusterbd13]

And whoever fixed my pictures yesterday while i was working a double: thank you!!!!

[KZJonny]

On 10/11/2023 at 7:54 AM, dusterbd13 said:

Please, yall. Impart knowledge and wisdom here. I’m learning these things as I go, and would love to not grenade this thing by being cheap or dumb or ignorant.

All good dude. You 100% seem like you know what you're about, those are just more Subaru specific things that I figured I would mention, since you asked, and it sounded like you haven't done much turbo EJ work before.

 

I also just have to say that while I do not doubt there are some rusty brake lines and all, now that the photos are up, my jaw dropped a little when I saw that car. I don't know how much time that thing spent in the "rust belt" but it looks like not more than a few days. Around here, we'd call that thing a 9/10 for overall condition and lack of rustgiven it's age! Very nice find. I'm sure something like that, even pissing fluids, would be worth a couple grand in my market.

[dusterbd13]

So, believe it or not, this is my firt turbo car and secojd ej. So, im open to any and all advice! I truly appreciate it. 

Car was northern west Virginia,  so southern rust belt.

Pretty sure the shop the woman took it to was trying to make a boat payment off her. 

[KZJonny]

I'm sure you'll have figured all of this out already, but the Baja is pretty much a Forester XT on a sort-of Legacy/Outback body... Aside from body parts and the exhaust midpipe, you should be able to lego together something from other cars easily enough.

People here will 100% help out, but you might get better technical advice on the engine from a Fozzy specific website. I don't think there are too many people here with a lot of expertise in TD04 turbos, etc... All I know about them is that they are meant to be mules, so at least you shouldn't have to fear it blowing up quite as much as you might with a (LGT) IHI VF40 of that age.

Not sure which year you have vs. which years had them, but if the turbo up pipe has a catalytic in it, it might be prudent to remove it, if you're on budget, plenty of folks have just bashed them out with a metal rod, but it also sounds like you've got the tools to cut it out and weld in a blank section or whatever. They have been noted to begin to fall apart, and donate some metal to the turbine..... which ends badly.

[dusterbd13]

 

Previous total:

Car: 400

Trans mount: 35.35

Trans filter: 5.79

Rear trans seal: 3.99

Trans fluid: 23

Exhaust: 100

Intercooler: 100

Intake: 50

Stereo harness: 6

Storage cubby: 25

Crossmember/suspension/column/grille:234.61

Swaybar/control arm bushings/ heat shield: 55.30

 

 

This update:

I returned all the pullapart parts, so remove all that from the budget except 25.51 swaybar

Removed intake and intercooler from budget for now, as no intent to use

Roni sent me a free trans mount with an insert in it, so remove the trans mount cost. I also got one with the parts car!

My half of the Parts car: 225

Rock auto order (minus stuff that wont be in the car at the challenge, listed in the actual update): 304.90

Nicopp: 29.99

Brake Unions:5.00

Exhaust gaskets: 31.59

Gauges and pillar pod (had) 20 fmv

Silicone Hose kit: 42.31

Rustoleum: 9.98

New total: 1258.06

So, when we left off I thought I had the trans leak fixed, and the car was soldiering on as a rolling project. That was a couple months ago. It got pressed into daily driver duty for the wife while I had her van down, covering about 3k before it popped a brake line. At that point, I pulled it offline for proper repairs. Looking at it, it seemed that to do the brake lines right involved dropping the crossmember, so I anticipated doing both jobs at one time.

And then my friend brett called me with a 2001 legacy 2.5gt parts car deal that he found. 450 for the whole car. He needed the drivetrain for his legacy (building an earlier legacy with a Frankenstein 2.5 swap for the challenge) and I could return ALL my pullapart parts and replace them for 225, thereby saving money while investing more effort. Well, all except the b9 tribeca front sway bar.

As Deadpool has taught us since I was a lad reading his comics, its all about maximum effort.

So we went to Fayetteville, paid our money, and took our chances.

 

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Got it home, and gutted it for all its worth. I kept all the suspension, interior, brakes, front lights, hood, etc. all the stuff that I could MAYBE use on the baja, including cv axles, while brett got all the wiring, computers, engine trans, etc. we then traded the leftovers to my scrap guy for used tires. A set of nearly new 205/55/16 for the gt snowflakes, a set of well loved 275/40/17 for my sawblades, and a set of 215/50/17 for the srt4 wheels. We’ll get to the wheel whoring in a while, so keep that thought.

Anyway, stripping went like this…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkPnVD][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkPnVD]20231128_170220[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkPnTK][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkPnTK]20231128_170157[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkRBoa][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkRBoa]20231128_170501[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkRBFV][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkRBFV]20231203_072709[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkQXM2][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkQXM2]20231206_072002[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkJEoj][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkJEoj]20231208_120456[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkPoqB][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkPoqB]20231208_122259[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

 

Not shown is that I saved all the hardware, all the interior, the front and rear impact beams, all the bulbs, etc. everything I could think of for reuse in my car for challenge budget savings. This thing even had a newish radiator in the trunk, an underseat sub, decent headlights up front, and good heater hoses! Like I said, I saved EVERYTHING I thought I could use, and now its clogging up my shop and storage.

 

With the parts car gone, I readied the baja for surgery. I dropped the spare, and limped it to the local coin op car wash where I pressure washed the underside the best I could with castrol superclean while it was on jack stands. Tried to limit the amount of dirt and rust and crap that will be falling in my eyes and on my floor.

Got it home, on the quick jacks, and started soaking the subframe hardware in penetrating oil. The rust looked way less bad after cleaning. I hit it all with some rustoleum rust converter, just to slow it down.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkJEtE][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pkJEtE]20231209_113418[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

Pulled the crossmember and rear suspension. Most of it came apart easy. One bolt didn’t, on the drivers front cossmember mount. Snapped flush with the frame.

Which I then proceeded to make worse on myself by breaking a drill bit off in the broken bolt.

[[/img]

Tried the trick of using a carbide tipped masonry bit on a hammer drill, tried welding a nut to the chunk of bolt, tried drilling beside it, etc. finally grabbed the plasma cutter and cut the whole mount apart.

Made a new spacer/mount nut from an old cv nut and an extra m14 nut welded together, then welded to a chunk of 16 gauge that was welded and hammerformed to the frame rail. Its not pretty, but it’ll outlive me or the rest of the car. For alignment purposes, I bolted the patch to the crossmember, then bolted the crossmember to the car. Welded the patch to the car where it landed, dropped the crossmember and finished welding.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pnAfw9][[/img]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pnAfxr][img][/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pnAfxr]20231219_171941[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pnCvpv][img][/img][/ur

Then top coated everything to prevent future rust back there

[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pnBajq]20231219_180838[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

I’ve ordered a thread chaser for the m14 hardware, as I don’t have one and I want to clean all the threads in the body prior to reassembly. I’m also going to use never seize on all of them. Being nice to the next guy that has to service this thing.

In doing the rear subframe, I’m deleting the factory body lift ang going to standard legacy GT height. The changes in this swap include, but aren’t limited to: diff mount, remove spacers and add locators, different driveshaft, different LCA supports, different sway bar supports, different trans mount, different heat shields, different bolts, different springs and struts, different steering column and coupler, different inner fender mounts, different front lower control arm bushings different rear upper control arms, different rear bump stops. All these were retained from the parts car. If I’m doing it, I’m doing it RIGHT. Half measures availed us nothing. I went ahead and swapped the front struts already to get them out from underfoot, as well as to make sure that the baja sized tires would clear the legacy get struts. They do. Need to turn the car around after finishing the rear to do the rest of the front suspension work. The parts car had fresh-ish ball joints, steering rack and tie rods as well as one new cv joint. So ill be swapping that stuff over too when the time comes

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2poaJpN][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53415759796_9afb460840_4k.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2poaJpN]20231222_184605[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

On the baja, to remove the rear shock you have to disassemble a lot of the rear seat. This is also need to access a good place to splice the leaking rear brake lines, and I’m swapping to the non-crunchy emergency brake cables while I’m in here. This means that essentially the whole interior is coming out, which is good for cleaning and replacing broken clips and using the best parts from both cars. Id also like to delete the DRLs, change the fog lights to independent operation, and rewire the seat heaters that just the back comes on on low (no tutorial for that, so no idea where to start yet). Probably put the good stereo stuff in while I’m here, etc.

So were halfway through with all that. Most of the interior is torn down, first round of carpet cleaning is done. I debated using the carpet from the parts car, but after sitting them side by side the baja carpet was in better shape. Its still bleached in a few spots, and I haven’t figured out what color dye is the necessary color for this.

While here, I pulled the cabin air filters out to inspect. They were reasonably clean, so I knocked the leaves out and looked at the evaporator. Then cleaned it the best I could. I debated running some coil cleaner through all the fins, but don’t know if the condensate drain is plugged, and decided it wasn’t time to worry about it yet. Vacuum is good enough for now.

[

While under the drivers side of the dash, I pulled the malfunctioning remote start. That made me happy.

One of the side projects I’ve been working on is a pillar pod for a boost gauge and an oil pressure gauge. Using leftover gauges and a universal pillar pod to start. The pod doesn’t fit the a pillar for crap, so I used my heat gun to reshape it, Dremel to grind clearance in it, and woodworking bandsaw to trim it to size.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2phs6xs][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53351053700_e4b76199a2_4k.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2phs6xs]20231120_181946[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

 

Well finish off this update that’s wholly unsatisfying due to nothing being actually finished by discussing my addiction.

 

I’m a wheel whore.

 

Currently there’s close to 30 sets on my property NOT bolted to anything. 6 sets for the baja alone in total…

 

I don’t like the factory wheels. They do nothing for me, but have newish tires. Brett claimed the gt snowflakes when im done with them. Regardless, I had to do something for wheels. So I bought a few sets….

 

From left to right: $100 set of 17x9.5 corvette sawblades, $80 17x7 srt4 wheels, $125 16x9.5 z51 salad shooters. Only the srt4 wheels will bolt up. So I grabbed a single 5x100-5x4.75 adapter in 1 inch thick based on my best guess.

The salad shooters just aren’t gonna work. Look neat though!

The sawblades on the other hand, are perfect. May not fit in the challenge budget, but they look amazing (to me). Picture makes it look like they poke more than they actually do. Pardon my craptastic photo abilities.

 

Merry Christmas yall!

Edited December 23, 2023 by dusterbd13
Fixing images

[dusterbd13]

still working on figurung out just what part of the flikr link needs to go into the url box so yall can see my pictures

[Infosecdad]

4 minutes ago, dusterbd13 said:

still working on figurung out just what part of the flikr link needs to go into the url box so yall can see my pictures

Just need to paste the direct link to the .jpg like "https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53389593640_37555d4133_4k.jpg"

[dusterbd13]

working on it now! thanks for the assisst! i couldnt get to that format no matter how hard i tried. i appreciate the help!

[dusterbd13]

currently waiting for many vacuum hoses and timing belt tools. 

 

yall can see pictures now, right?

[dusterbd13]

 

Previous total: 1243.06

Car: 400

Trans mount: 35.35

Trans filter: 5.79

Rear trans seal: 3.99

Trans fluid: 23

Exhaust: 100

Stereo harness: 6

Storage cubby: 25

25.51 swaybar

My half of the Parts car: 225

Rock auto order: 304.90

Nicopp: 15

Brake Unions:5.00

Exhaust gaskets: 31.59

Gauges and pillar pod (had) 20 fmv

Silicone Hose kit: 42.31

Rustoleum: 9.98

New stuff:

Throttle body gasket: 6.99

11.46 30.25 45.99 25.29 28.90 31.63 for various PCV and breather hoses (173.52 total)

Valve cover gasket 16.30

Pcv valve 34.99

2005 Wrx intercooler, airbox, and reusable air filter: 20

Misc shop supplies line item (zip ties, push pins, rtv, grease, hose clamps, etc that I have floating around and just grab without thinking about it) :20

CURRENT TOTAL: 1514.86

 

Last update, a month ago, saw the rear subframe out, frame rail repaired, rear unibody painted, and ready for reassembly. I really don’t feel like I’ve made all that much progress since then, but it appears that I actually have despite only getting 15 minutes to an hour at a shot to work on this thing. I’m way too busy for my own good in this season of my life.

First, I had to replace the popped rear brake line that started this whole cascade of Subaru rebuild. The lines had rotted at the little block under the passenger’s rear floorboard. I used about half a roll of nicopp to run new lines the whole way from the caliper to the rear seat area, and then used some double IFF unions for the junction

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53437845502_6f32b2f780_4k.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53438771451_b6a1d9dac5_4k.jpg

A trick angrycorvair gave me to limit the amount of bleeding needed after repair was to compress the pedal and hold in an inch or three into travel. This prevents gravity from draining the master cylinder dry, and slows gravity draining the lines. I cut up a scrap of 1x4 on the bandsaw to make a dead leg to do that with, and it worked beautifully! Thank god for friends that are engineers and smarter than me.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53437845177_ac5985643a_4k.jpg

So, my wife daughter and I slid the subframe under the car, and lowered the car down on the quickjacks to meet the rear suspension. This was after multiple failed attempts to raise the assembly to meet the car and a thumb I thought I broke; my wife is wiser than me sometimes. The rear subframe was installed with all the legacy GT hardware, deleting the spacers and longer bolts to remove the body lift and lower the car about 2 inches. I also retained the legacy GT rear diff as its supposedly the same ratio and limited slip. If someone has different information, please let me know ASAP!!

Also, you may note my mistake already.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53439087899_5d901dcb83_4k.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53438771631_cfb4630393_4k.jpg

Sitting on the ground, I figured out I hit it hard with the lowering stick.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53438904983_df60363e0d_4k.jpg

The mistake I made (and have yet to correct) is that I used the LGT sedan struts and springs at all 4 corners in untouched states. The back rubs HARD, and the front is an inch and a half higher than the rear. Plan is to put the Baja springs on the LGT struts. However, I’m looking for a set of maxpeedingrods adjustable damping coil overs for this for way less than new price. $300 is more than the challenge budget can stand, but the performance will be much appreciated. And I have experience with that brand and series of coil over in other platforms, and quite like them.

Anyway, I assembled the interior next to get rid of the massive pile of parts that used to be a Subaru. Working with all the parts from the parts car, and the parts from the Baja, I picked the best of them. Then to clean, I used chemical guys cleaner and the blue scrub pads intended for Teflon pans. Then, another spray with the cleaner to float the filth scrubbed off, and wiped with microfiber. Its kind of amazing how much filth comes off, and how nice the interior cleaned up. Take a look of the untouched left side vs the cleaned right side of the wheel. Also, not pictured, is that my daughter steam cleaned the carpets a few times to make them the best they could be, which turned out to be pretty damn nice! It’s a really nice interior now!

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So, I turned it around at that point, and had planned to find the vacuum leak and remove the front spacers. Shouldn’t be too bad, right?

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The smoke test went way worse than I expected. My regulator was set for 3psi, and it was unable to build that pressure due to the amount of leaks. Every hose, the intercooler end tank, throttle body mounting gasket, silicone turbo inlet tube, pipe between maf and turbo inlet, the list goes on. Pretty much every rubber component in the engine bay was baked and leaking vacuum pr boost. The intercooler caught me off guard though. Regardless, it was time to fix it. I hunted down all the PCV and breather molded hoses and ordered them as there’s no way to make those out of cut to fit hose. I also ordered the throttle body gasket instead of making one because I’m not THAT cheap. The rest of the hoses were made from my box of belts and hoses, which is all leftover remnants from other jobs and part outs collected over the years and included in the misc shop supply line item. I also added hose clamps or zip ties on every single hose, as most hoses didn’t have anything on them, including the intake tract and turbo inlet. I also went ahead and cleaned the electronic boost control solenoid, as it wasn’t making any noise when triggered or flowing any solvent through it. After working with it, it now flows. I also replaced the PCV valve assembly because I’m already there, and it’s the right thing to do.

To replace the intercooler, I pulled the hyperflow out of storage. I swear it got bigger while I wasn’t looking.

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unfortunately, its not going to fit the engine bay easily, and I’m not willing to do the work to force it to fit. So its going back in storage.

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I sourced a $20 wrx intercooler that I will get put in instead of the cracked baja piece. Id have rather found the STI stuff, as Id ultimately like to upgrade the intercooler for better charge cooling, but ill take what I can get at my budget. Hopefully the afe air filter fits the baja box!

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While waiting on hoses and intercooler and other stuff, I decided now was the time to pull the front subframe spacers, fix the leaking valve cover gasket, change the plugs, do the timeing belt, and change the coolant hoses. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Pulling the font subframe spacers was pretty simple, but I have to pull the column back out as I forgot the firewall seal when I put it back in. otherwise, drama free. I have the LGT fender apron extensions to put back in yet as well as the front sway bar. While I was in there, I swapped the spindles from the LGT with the LCAs, as the baja LCAs had some significant pitting, and one spindle had the head of the balljoint pinch bolt missing. Additionally, I swapped the bad CV shaft for the new one that came with the car. Had my 14-year-old helping me by handing tools and running jack and camera. These were the two pictures she took that didn’t involve my butt crack or her fingers blocking the camera. Damn kids…. (on the bright side, its evident that the 20lbs I’ve lost is making a difference in my pants being looser!)

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Next I did plugs. They were definitely due to be changed.

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And the leaking passenger’s valve cover. I was pleased by how clean the inside of this engine is!

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On to the timing belt job (which is still in process by the way. Were up to real-time, as I’m writing this in a dealership service department waiting on my work truck to be fixed). I pulled the radiator, condenser, and front bumper to make it easier. This job scares me with the 4 cams, vvt, flat motor, etc. so I’m giving myself the best chances I can. And the best access to see timing marks, etc. upon disassembly, I found the front impact beam fairly crusty, but the inner fenders flawless.

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The timing belt itself wasn’t visually too bad, but some of the idlers were surprisingly rough. Also, the hoses going to the water pump were at risk of eminent failure. Seriously rotten. I had purchased an eBay STI silicone coolant hose kit a while back, and I’m finding that the hoses in as delivered form aren’t a match to many hoses in the Baja like I believed they would be. But, cut up they are enough to redo the cooling system!

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Hopefully this week ill finish the timing belt job, and start on the rest of the long list of tasks to finish so I can drive this pile again.

Say your prayers and hug your families.

[tysparks81]

Great job so far.

[dusterbd13]

1 hour ago, tysparks81 said:

Great job so far.

Thanks!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this thing drives when it's running correctly and lowered down to a reasonable ride height with good struts and an okay alignment

[dusterbd13]

 

Previous total: 1514.86

Car: 400

Trans mount: 35.35

Trans filter: 5.79

Rear trans seal: 3.99

Trans fluid: 23

Exhaust: 100

Stereo harness: 6

Storage cubby: 25

25.51 swaybar

My half of the Parts car: 225

Rock auto order: 304.90

Nicopp: 15

Brake Unions:5.00

Exhaust gaskets: 31.59

Gauges and pillar pod (had) 20 fmv

Silicone Hose kit: 42.31

Rustoleum: 9.98

Throttle body gasket: 6.99

11.46 30.25 45.99 25.29 28.90 31.63 for various PCV and breather hoses (173.52 total)

Valve cover gasket 16.30

Pcv valve 34.99

2005 Wrx intercooler, airbox, and reusable air filter: 20

Misc shop supplies line item (zip ties, push pins, rtv, grease, hose clamps, etc that I have floating around and just grab without thinking about it) :20

THIS UPDATE

Remove b9 swaybar -25.51

Remove trans mount: 35.35

Sold catback portion of exhaust for 100

Whiteline diff inserts: 39.88

3 inch turndown: 10.99

Half of 3 inch mandrel exhaust kit: 54

Used 3 inch thrush muffler from swap meet 15

Coil plug 3.50

C4 corvette 17x9.5 wheels 100

5x100 to 5x4.75 adapters: 82.50

Mount and balance the tires steve gave me for the parts car carcass: 40

Paint silver on vette wheels: 20

New total: 1719.87

 

Everything takes time, or money. Or time and money. Its a proportional thing. The more time you have to spend on something, the less money you’ll generally need to invest and vice versa.

Anyway, when we left off, I had the timing belt off and wqs on to reassembly and a million other tasks. I got the new belt on and all the marks lined up right on the first shot, thanks to having everything out of the way. Glad I did that, as I’m not sure I could have done it properly otherwise.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pwFfMN][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53512052208_42868b513e_4k.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2pwFfMN]20240123_180932[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/150940429@N02/]Michael Crawford[/url], on Flickr

I went ahead and got the nicopp oil pressure gauge line run, as well as the boost gauge tube. Then, rolled it outside and sprayed it down with aluminum brightener and scrubbed it the best i could to remove oxidation, staining, and grime. It worked adequately at best. But, looks better than it did. Not sure if a few more applications and some more effort would have made it better or not, but…

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Next, I fixed the tube between the MAF and the turbo tube. It was previously repaired with a fernco fitting when I bought the car. I cleaned it all up, cut a piece of 2.5 aluminum tubing from a scrap CAI tube, then softened the rubber tube in the microwave for abut 30 seconds to make it stretch enough to fit over the aluminum. Slathered everything in rtv, then the outside of the seam between the two halves (no picture). Fixed!

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I proceeded to button up the engine bay, and then spend a solid week diagnosing a no crank. I tore it all down a couple of times trying to figure out what went wrong. Ultimately diagnosed to the common ground for the injectors pulling out of the connector behind the battery. That was a stressful time. I thought I screwed up the belt and fragged the engine.

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In the process of diagnosing the no start, I broke an ignition coil connector. Cheapest way to fix was to order a four pack on amazon, de-pin the replacement and reuse the plastics on the broken one in the car. Fixed.

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Regardless, it ran! Leak free, and really good. Passed smoke test with flying colors, none to be found anywhere. No good reason for the lean code it now has that I can find, but I keep looking. It also has amazing oil pressure.

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I went on to reassemble the front end. When pulling it apart, all the fog light mounting bolts broke off in the bumper beam. I had planned to use hella 500s in there, but they don’t fit. So I drilled out the broken bolts, and put nutserts in their place.

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Cleaned up the core support and bumper beam from where they had a munch pf surface rust, hit with rust reformer and top coated with satin black. did the wheel wells too. Looks good enough for me!

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I then moved onto suspension. I replaced the legacy GT springs with the baja springs, as the rear end was sitting on the tires. According to the internet, the bja springs are significantly stiffer anyway, so other than sitting higher than I wanted it’s a win. The rears still rub over big transitions, so the height thing isn’t too horrible. I also put the b9 tribeca front sway bar in, but it bound up on the lower control arms, broke a sway bar end link, and generally caused more problems for me. So I pulled it off.

The corvette 17x9.5 wheels fit ok. They’re adapted using a 1 inch spacer, and sitting on nearly dead 275/40/17 kumhos that I traded the gt carcass for. They are flush with the outside of the body, which means they rub under a lot of compression. 8.5s would honestly be a better choice I think. But my god, they look good. I took the wheels to work, and sandblasted the peeling and damaged original paint off of them before having my buddy art shoot them in silver base clear for $20. He was already spraying a car for a car lot, so the silver was already in the gun. No idea what silver he used. I sanded the lips to 800 grit, and hit them with some aluminum polish. Good enough.

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I took it on the shakedown run, which wound up to be a 200 mile day and cemented why this little thing is great for my daily. In the bed of this is 3 mopar a body fenders, 2 exterior doors, a pair of duster door guts, and a bunch of other parts. It swallowed it all with ease and comfort.

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After the test drive, I did a nut and bolt check, alignment, and added whiteline diff insert bushings to repair the completely destroyed diff bushings that I discovered on the test drive.

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This weekend, I took it to zmax for a shakedown autocross. I ran it in XB, as that’s the magnets I had. Locally, that’s a catchall class for us. To put it bluntly, this car is a HOOT. Its also way easier to drive than the miata or neon were. I’m already more competitive in it than I ever was in those cars, and its been over a year since I’ve been on track. I’m chuffed. It was a big course, and most of the fast guys in all cases were in the low 50s to high 40s, but I’m obviously not one of them.

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On the way home from the autocross, the exhaust failed at the rotted flanges. I knew it was coming, so I had been amassing parts. The MRB exhaust for a forester I had bought went to a forester xt buddy of mine. I bought a 3 inch mandrel and tube kit, a 15 used swap meet flowmaster knockoff, and a turndown. Ill just make my own. Its not rocket surgery!

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Until next time my friends

[dusterbd13]

So, the big show is this weekend. The 2024 GRM challenge at Gainesville Florida dragstrip.

Yall should come on out. Theres a cars and coffee style thing Sunday morning during the concourse part of the event, and it’d be awesome to see some of your stuff out there too!

https://2000challenge.com/

 

So, this is my final all in the envelope budget.

 

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Let’s roll the clocks back a bit and well finish up prep for the event that brings us to today.

 

First is finished exhaust pictures as promised. Its not super pretty, but it doesn’t rattle, leak, etc. sounds good too! unfortunately/fortunately, with the deleting of the second cat at the end of the downpipe, it now builds more boost than it’s tuned for. I’ve seen 17 on the gauge once, and 15 many times. Pump gas is 93 here, and ill throw some more octane in it at the track as cheap insurance against going boom. I have to get it tuned after the challenge, no way around it. Ill finish bolting on all the speed parts first, then find someone around here that can do it. It also has a bit of drone, so ill be adding a resonator as well while I’m doing the work.

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First order of challenge prep was changing belts back out and a thorough nut and bolt check. I found during the check that my PS return hose was leaking slightly, my heat shield was rubbing the driveshaft, and  one of the braces on the rear subframe was hitting the rear sway bar causing the rattle that’s been driving me nuts. I am glad to say that everything remained torqued to spec though, and there were no real ugly Suprises.

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My nephew and I then reinstalled the inner fenders, as I still hadn’t done that and it seemed like a good thing to do with a kindergartener that wanted to help. He also insisted on tightening every lug nut all the way down by hand. I let him. He’s way cooler than my brother (his dad).

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Next up was alignment. The rear was good, the front wasn’t. all I can really correct in challenge budget and time was the camber and toe. Using factory eccentrics got me a max negative camber of ONE DEGREE POSITIVE. Don’t know what’s going on there, but no bueno. So, a pair of smaller diameter bolts allowed me to get one degree of negative camber in both fronts. The rear bushings are shot, and the tires rub the blown out legacy gt struts with any more negative camber. Ill fix these issues after the challenge before I put new tires on. I set toe to zero. It drives WAY better, but still has some nasty pull and bump steer from the shot bushings. Plans are whiteline .5 caster adding bushings, and crash bolts with fresh kyb struts for an outback and some spring cutting for ride height. Again, after the challenge.

I went ahead and went after detailing the car next. You see, the last third of the event is the concourse. Which will be tough for a mostly stock Baja, but I have a plan. We’ll see how I do, but I’m not holding my breath on scoring much higher than the base “give me” 12 points. But I can’t, in good conscience take the handout points. Higher or lower points, I’ll take what I earn square on the chin.

First, challenge team logo

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Then, swap out the rusty fuel filler parts for the non-rusty stuff scavenged from the legacy

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Then the hard work. Polishing the turd. This started with a 3m eraser wheel taking off the bug shield mount residue, then the sunroof vent visor residue, then the pinstriping. Cleaned the leftover schmutz off with lacquer thinner and paper towels. After that, the whole car was washed with a mixture of chemical guys clean slate car wash, Dawn dish soap, purple Power and water. All the rubber and black plastic trim had special attention paid to it with the blue kitchen scrubby pads for the Teflon pans and concrete scrub brushes to get the oxidized rubber off. This also got a lot of the contamination off of the black plastics but still left them Gray and scruffy looking. This mixture in a great job of removing baked in and ground in paint contaminants in the nooks and crannies and seams as well. Car was then clay bared with a mothers synthetic 2.0 clay bar and mequires quick detailer as lubricant, followed by buffing with 3m compound in the purple bottle and a white foam pad on a porter cable da. It then received two coats of C.Quartz 3.0 ceramicoat. The Plastics and rubbers were treated with a generous helping of Chemical Guys vrp applied with a microfiber applicator and worked into the surfaces until they would accept no more. Paint was then top coated with two coats of Maguire's Gold Class Carnauba wax. The interior was treated to another round of chemical guys nonsense invisible cleaner and scrubbing, followed by Maguire’s natural shine protectant. Windows cleaned, carped vacuumed.

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My 15-year-old daughter and I are all but finished loading up, and are ready to roll out at pre-dawn Friday morning for the drive to Florida. I hope to see you all there, and will give a report post challenge. Safe travels to you all, and God bless.