288 replies to this topic

[allpaw4]

Evening all.
 
Haven't been here much of late (read: 12 months), but I had one of the extended family who owns a repair shop locally send me some photos last week of a gen 3 liberty that needed a fair bit of work, but was going to cost bugger all. I said yep, I'm not putting this up for scrapping, I want it.
 



 
So - Specs:
06/2003 Gen 3 RX Lib.
Approx 200 thousand km, I think its 208xxx
Interior is typical RX, full cloth etc. Nothing special.
Exterior is fairly untidy. Has damage to the rear bar, and also just below the fuel flap. Has gouged and bent the quarter panel, but a little paint will hide it reasonably well.
Looks like most of the removable trim panels for the front bar are missing, but I'm not overly worried about that.
Rear wing needs new paint and is suffering the usual for gen 3 sedan wings - cracking around the mounts.
 
Now, the really bad part.
Has had a brand new radiator fitted after the top entry literally blew out into the power steering pump, requiring a new rad, hoses and second hand power steering pump. These have been put in, and it would appear the head gaskets are gone. Bubbles everywhere.
Old owner basically said the mechanic could have the car, so I got it for the price of the hoses and radiator.
 
Have another rear bar in the right colour in my shed, as well as a replacement wing, leather interior, bigger rims and also a few other nice bits that will find their way into this thing.
 
Ordered a timing belt kit, water pump as well as MLS head gaskets and a set of head bolts to fix this old girl up. Service history stopped about 35k km ago, so I'm assuming that the timing belt is due.
 
Also had a bit of a look at Import monster and found some HID lights, as I just recently sold my old set from the B4 to Tim.

 
So, some good times. If someone has a rear bilstien that isn't leaking, I would like to purchase it if I can. I have a full set with pink springs sitting in the shed, but one has started leaking fairly heavily...
 
All up, I suspect I'll be able to get away with a freshly serviced car for about 1600 registered, with major issues fixed.
 
Anyways, I'll keep this updated reasonably often.
 
Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

Awesome steal mate! I love a good fix me up bargain!

Looking forward to updates as they come!

Cheers

Bennie

[Barbbachello]

sick. Looks like a ripper daily. 

[duncanm]

needs a spec-C 207

[allpaw4]

Ok, so... update already. Forgot to bring my tools home from work yesterday, so was expecting to get bugger all done today. Oh how wrong I was...

3 hours later the engine is sitting on the engine crane. Left hand head gasket is gone. As we pulled the exhaust off, a fair bit of water spilled out of the LHS manifold. But the engine is out, waiting for the parts to come from supercrap. Use of a hoist made the job so much easier than it would have been in a driveway.

Doesn't look like it'll take too much to roadworthy it either. Not many leaks considering its age, all the suspension looks in ok nick, and it should all clean up really well.

No pics yet, but I'll get some in time.

Cheers guys. She'll be an awesome run around once its all together again. 207 is for the track car. Too hard to get it legal here. SA was easy as they didnt check things unless you did something stupid. If I had lots of money it may have seen one, but more than likely not. This will be just a nice daily shitter.

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

Gotta ask Ben, whats with the pics of the red L series in your photo collection? Got a dirty little EA chassis build going on that youre not telling us about??

Cheers

Bennie

[zahmad]

Brings back memories of my old Heritage...

Keep up the good work!

[allpaw4]

I've got a for sale thread going of all the old parts/cars that the guy I got this thing off has lying around his workshop. Its too hard to upload to places like photobucket these days as they all want money. Check it out, I figured if someone would want leone bits it may be you. Theres a brand new bonnet for one there as well.

Glad to see things are bringing up good memories zahmad.

Cheers,
Ben

[Barbbachello]

Imgur is still free and super user friendly

[allpaw4]

Well, time for yet another update...

 

 

Parts arrived on Tuesday.

 

Spent another 6 hours on her on Sunday. Heads removed, Gaskets changed, new water pump fitted and new timing belt installed. Engine was put back together and is just sitting waiting to be put back into the car.

 

Once the engine is back in the car I'll give the engine bay a bit of a clean up with the pressure washer. Have to clean up old oil leaks and things like that for the roady. Will be wiping down things while the engine is out, but would rather clean the top of the engine etc once everything is back together, less chance of getting water in places that shouldn't have it.

 

I didn't think I did too badly to have all that done in 6 hours. I can see how with a little more practice, it could be done much faster.

 

Cheers,

Ben

[Barbbachello]

I didnt see the EJ25 at first and thought you were talking about that LS lel

[allpaw4]

Hahahaha! not quite - that one is going into a Silvia track car.

[allpaw4]

Well, its been a while since I've posted on this, and those who have been paying attention on club lib or subyclub facebook will know that that on re-installing the engine I made the rookie mistake of not rotating the crank as it slid onto the box, leaving a gap of about 5 to 7mm between the box and block. Knowing how much of a pain it was to separate initially, I decided tighten it up on the bellhousing bolts. Not a good idea, and once everything was nicely seated, there was a very loud crack, and a full quarter of the bellhousing broke off the engine...

So. Not only had I proper broken the engine, I was fully expecting to have a broken gearbox as a result of forcing the box onto the motor, smashing the oil pump.

Heres where the advantage of the stripped B4 comes in. Got another short motor off Chris, and proceeded to put my heads and associated bits onto it. Gearbox and LS diff from the B4 has found its way into this. Had a few curves to get round like cutting down the auto brake pedal and installing my old clutch assembly. Then of course the wiring headf@#% of making everything work with the manual box.

But. Everything works, and I've just got a couple of little bits left for roadworthy.

I'll post up some pics when I get to it.

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

Holy crap! I didn’t know that could happen! I dare say you had a few more expletives than “holy crap”. Sounds like you got a better setup in the end anyway! I love my sister’s Gen3 RX, the EJ251 goes ace for a NA setup!

All the best with the roadie!

Cheers

Bennie

[Niko]

Hey Ben, what did you end up doing with that Gen2 from Melbourne?

Just asking cos we are selling a turbo Gen2 if you were keen, it's the silver MY98 on the Subyclub facebook. Special deal for Subyclub OG. Could possibly get it driven to Melb in Oct. Engine and box are 100%.

[allpaw4]

Alright, so roady went off without a hitch. Passed first go, which was a pleasant surprise. Now registered and driving it as my new daily.

Couple of little things yet to be fixed, like cruise control no longer works as a result of the conversion. Need to go through my manual and figure out how to make that work again.
Big mark on the rear needs to be sorted also, just some touch up paint and make it not so obvious, and fit the old rear bar from the B4, as its in much better knick than this one.
Rear wing needs to be swapped with the one I have in the shed, as this one is starting to suffer the typical broken mounts of the Gen 3 sedan wings.
Also need to change the last spring on the rear bilstiens, and put them in as a set of 4. Changed one over, but got busy on the head gaskets before I finished changing them both...

Fixed the broken climate control by changing out the unit with the old B4 one. This one seemed to have a busted off and auto button, so it would not select auto, and you couldn't turn it off. B4 one works fine, so I'm guessing its a problem with the unit itself.
Legacy garnish and tails have been put onto this also, just looks nicer.
Also fitted the jap spec headlights I bought just after buying the car. Look so much nicer, only issue is the parkers are dual orange LED units, so I need to change them for whites. Indicators need a resistor put in as well, as the fronts are LED also, which makes them flash a lot faster.

Niko, the gen 2 is currently sitting in the shed awaiting me to get the time to slot in all the good stuff like brembos and v8 STi spec C motor from the B4. Havent had a chance to even look at it in the last 2 or 3 years to be honest. Life gets in the way. Although now this is on the road I'll be looking to tinker with that soon. No need for another one, even if the hard work is already done. Cheers for the thought though!

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

So some bad news on the car front. It got stupid hot a couple of weeks ago on the way to work, suspect the thermostat decided to close. And now as a result, it looks like its either warped the heads or cracked one. Get stupid amounts of bubbles in the coolant, but not small ones. It'll be fine for 5 to 10 seconds then a huge wooshka of air bubbles up. Spits coolant everywhere. So net result is motor is cooked. Still drives and runs, but have to top up the coolant every 2 days, and watch the temp gauge like a hawk. So its time to get another car. I cant be forked pulling the engine out to do another shitton of work to it. Once I get the new car, this one will be paddock bashed.

[El_Freddo]

Bugger! I hope you catch a break sooner rather than later!

I would’ve thought an engine swap would be way easier on a registered vehicle rather than getting whole new vehicle to jump through RWC hoops with!

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

I'm over the headgasket issues! Thinking I have warped a head or some other such bullsh*t. The new gaskets lasted about 2 months in. So after much thought on what to do given that bit of info, I've decided (and likely going to regret), putting all my goodies from the old B4 into this thing....

Stage one, I need to either put a front mount in, or acquire a turbo bonnet.
Option 1: FMIC is worth about 140ish for the cooler, and another 180ish for pipe, joiners and clamps. Plus the nightmare that is running pipe through places that pipe was not designed to go, in an already cramped engine bay.
Option 2: Turbo bonnet. Can be gotten locally for about 400 bucks, plus post and of course plus paint, because I cant find a blue one. Local seems to think 3 to 600 for paint and blend.
Option 3: Turbo bonnet from Japan. Didn't realise they still want drug money for these over there... most are going for between 150 and 300 australian, plus import monster's dues (ending up at around 500 landed for the cheaper versions).

Mulled this over for a while and almost pulled the trigger on the FMIC. Thought, F it, I'll check the magical search of S401 and see what comes up.

Bingo! One genuine 401 bonnet (excluding inlet bits of course) for the poultry coin of 277 bucks landed.

Decision made. Is on it's way to me as we speak.

As I have the K2 gear scoop still in the shed, that will go on, and I will need to make a new inner splitter for the TMIC, but that's fairly simple, as I reckon I might still have the last one I made for the old car. Will book some time off when I figure out when it lands and then get stuck into swapping everything out.

Hells yes!

Cheers,
Ben

[Beckers]

Haha, nice m8.

Good to see you back on the gen3 scene.