[JRach]

I'm pretty new on here, mostly just on Nasioc. I've been working on a project the last couple weeks that some of you might be interested in, so i'll go ahead and post my progress here. Feel free to comment away...

Here's the copy n' pasted progress posts from Nasioc


2 winters ago I did a full 03' wrx conversion in my 96' impreza wagon.

Winter project... (delayed one year) - NASIOC

Last winter I swapped a 06' wrx into a 02' TS wagon. (284whp/325 lbs. tq. on kito's dyno)

Swap #2 Tuned at Kito today!!! - NASIOC

So Friday I picked up this...

and my search for a donor car is complete.

Stay tuned for 98' forester w/ full 04' sti swap

Got some work done today.

Got the car towed to the shop Saturday, today I pulled the exhaust, axles hubs, control arms, drained all fluids, pulled the tranny and motor!

Fluids draining

Tranny out

Engine out

Went in today and spent a good 3 or 4 hours on it.

I was going to focus on pulling the subframe/diff, and front crossmember, but decided to strip the interior first

First I pulled the carpet. Then the dash and dash beam...

Then got cracking on the wiring harness from headlight to taillight along with the heater core/blower, pedal assembly and everything else inside the car.

EMPTY! (before i pulled the pedals )

More progress today! Got there at about noon, and worked until about 8pm... with an hour break for lunch

First I pulled the crossmember out of the STI, along with the brake master cylinder/booster and clutch master/slave cylinder. Then dropped the Rear subframe/diff/hubs/lateral links out of the STI

Once that was out the STI was pretty much totally bare!
So I pulled the forester in, and threw it up on the lift to start draining the fluids.

Pulled the front drive axles, exhaust, driveshaft, heat shields, stipped out the interior, pulled the seats and carpet, then dropped the rear subframe/diff/axles/lateral links/swaybars and hubs

Then dropped the gastank and emissions crap

And finally got the R180 diff, sti subframe, lateral links, axles, trailing arms, hubs and gas tank into it's home (in the forester!)

Shot of the hubs... proof it made it's way home Just need brembos now!

Dont worry, the stock suspension is going away for some KYB AGX's w/ jdm pink wagon springs tomorrow... until I decide which route to go

Didn't get much done yesterday... had to work last night (and again tonight), and had to work on a customers car yesterday and today.

Got the tranny out of the forester today, along with prepping the engine in the forester for removal. Gonna go back tonight after work to pull the motor and with any luck put the 6 speed in its new home!
For sale

Got about 3 hours of work in on it today.

First I pulled the motor out of the forester...

Then started pulling a few random things from the engine bay. I picked up some WRX 4/2pot front and rear brakes to keep my wheel options open, so i threw the fronts on. (still have to put the KYB struts/jdm pink wagon springs on)

Then I got the 6speed tranny and driveshaft put into place.

Now I just need to clean the engine bay up a bit, finish stripping out the dash on the forester, and then do all the wiring and drop the motor in

 

[JRach]

Got a couple hours in today. Doesn't seem like much happened (worked on a customers car for 4 hours), but i pulled the fenders, got all the wiring out of the forester engine bay, and got the dash out of the forester. Tomorrow i'll finish pulling the remaining wiring harness back to the taillights out of the forester, and pull the heater core/dash bar and start puting the STI stuff in.

Got a bunch done today.

First I pulled the heater core and blower motor out, along with the dash bar. Tomorrow or Sunday i'll get the rest of the wiring out of the car and start splicing

Then I put in the Kartboy front and rear shifter mount bushings, installed the driveshaft, front drive axles, steering rack castle nuts and exhaust heat shields along with the kartboy exhaust hangers
(can kinda see the shifter bushing up there)

Next I threw together the stock tophats with the jdm pink wagon springs and the kyb AGX's...

Then I got bored and wanted to see what my REALLY inexpensive winter wheels would look like on the car... hard to get a feel for it with it off the ground and with the fenders off.
ALT 17x8 wheels with Blizzak LM25 tires in 245/40-17. Should make for a somewhat grippy winter tire when I'm not heading to the mountains to ski

Can't wait to see what this thing will look like once it's on the ground and all together!

Unfortunately I won't have a very productive weekend, as I'm BBQing for lunch tomorrow, followed by a round of golf at bellevue muni, followed by a bachelor party, and then I have to be up Sunday morning to do a clutch and timing belt for a guy... Maybe i'll have time sunday night to get some more done

 

[GarageXTi]

this is going to be nice! Good luck with it all!

 

[ther1guy]

Wow man, looks like your having fun. Its going to be awesome.

 

[good dog]

Excellent

 

[Relewis]

Hey looks really good, hope to see pics as soon as its finished. Good luck!!!

 

[joe r]

You are way far ahead of my build! Congrats...


joe r

 

[Vinnyd]

looks great. One thing confuses me though...full sti swap and you went with wrx 4/2 pot brakes...?

 

[sleeperxt]

Now thats what I call a garage! I wish I had that kind of facility at my disposal, and all the free time to use it. The swap is coming along nicely.

All of my project cars would be finished by now

 

[Duderotomy]

Awesome build man, I'm subscribed to your thread over on NASIOC already... glad to see you wrote one over here too!

 

[Rob]

I totally missed this on Nasioc, thanks for bringing it over here.

 

[JRach]

Now thats what I call a garage! I wish I had that kind of facility at my disposal, and all the free time to use it. The swap is coming along nicely.

All of my project cars would be finished by now

:icon_biggrin: I must admit, the last two swaps I did were in my garage at home, laying on my back with the car up on jackstands. This makes things go quite a bit quicker.

looks great. One thing confuses me though...full sti swap and you went with wrx 4/2 pot brakes...?

Before I purchased the donor STI, the guy was trying to part it out. He sold off the seats, brakes, ecu, gauge cluster and intercooler.

I've since picked up a ecu, undecided on if I want to use JDM STI seats or not, and am still looking for a gauge cluster. I'm going with a stealthy black FMIC (no hood scoop) as well.

I had a couple reasons for the 4/2pots...
I want to keep the car as subtle as possible. Big brakes require big wheels, and i'd rather have the best brakes I can get that will still fit under 15" wheels if I choose. Also, I got them for a great price and couldn't pass them up.
However, a few of my plans have since changed. I've come across some 5x114 knuckles/hubs and when i swap those in place of the 5x100 i'll also be throwing on the STI brakes and some nice 17x9 wheelse with 255/40-17 summer only tires.

As much as I like keeping the car somewhat subtle looking, i'm planning on going with a rotated turbo set up and shooting for 400 whp on pump gas, and a bit more with meth. :biggrin: So wide grippy tires, and 'better' brakes are in order.

 

[toddlamp]

Sweet! Definitely a project I wish I could do myself, but for now I will just live vicariously through you.

 

[Vinnyd]

As much as I like keeping the car somewhat subtle looking, i'm planning on going with a rotated turbo set up and shooting for 400 whp on pump gas, and a bit more with meth. :biggrin: So wide grippy tires, and 'better' brakes are in order.

you can keep the car subtle looking with over 400hp, check out my journal. I have a built engine, 6 speed, 35r and close to 500hp on c16(430 on 93) and my car isn't THAT flashy. the fmic and hood scoop delete really help the stealth factor.

wide wheels are great looking too!!!!

keep up the amazing work

 

[ther1guy]

Man, now i want a scoop delete and fmic. it never stops does it.. :starwars:

 

[Engine3emt]

That is sexay!

 

[-RC-]

Nice project

 

[JRach]

After a couple rough days filled with pre/post friends wedding shennanighans, I got some work done today.

Mostly took the time to modify the pedal assembly so the STI pedals would bolt into the forester, I also modded the dash bar and mounts so the Dash would fit properly.

Now that the hard part is over (and my ecu arrived in the mail!) I can start splicing the wiring and get serioius about finishing everything up. Also need a gauge cluster and cheap FMIC as well, but need to sell a few more parts first to afford it.

STI dash in a forester w/ STI pedals!

 

[Vinnyd]

things are really starting to come together nicely

 

[JRach]

Ok,

Got some work done this week.

Had to do a bit more modding to the dash bar, firewall and a few other odds n' ends to make it all fit nice. Overall, I like the way this is piecing together more than my 03' wrx swap did.

Got all the wiring in the interior behind the dash pretty much in place, along with the heater core, floor heater vents, blower box, and dash bar. I'd have thrown the dash in for the pic, but still have to splice a couple more wires and tidy up a bit.

Also, ran all the wiring through the firewall and throughout the engine bay. Installed a Brake Master cylinder brace while I was at it. I also swapped in an 05' STI crossmember and steering rack, as I like the 05STI/06+wrx style steering rack/crossmember a bit more.

Next step is going to take awhile... have to wire all the accessories and stuff for the rear of the car, as well as headlights, fogs, turn signals and everything else. Then I just have to drop the motor in, buy a FMIC, and go!