163 replies to this topic

[allpaw4]

Last night was a good run on this jalopy. Got it into the shed ready to be hoisted in preparation for when Seb finally went down for the night.

The Ganador Ti front strut brace was swapped a night or two ago with the track car, as the Ganador one didn't clear the massive STi TMIC. Looks pretty understated in this engine bay.


Pulled the front wheels off so I could start the process to replace the lower control arms. Had a quick look at the struts to see if there were any leaks, as the passenger side wheel well and everything in there was covered in oily dirt. Nothing fresh though (assume it was from my auto trans cooler lines leak ages ago). While I was having a look, found the reason why my ABS hasn't worked from about 2 weeks after the conversion.

That'll do it! Cleaned the bolt thread out and gave the sensor a birthday (surprisingly, the sensor does not look damaged, but was caked in crap), grabbed a new bolt and stuck it back in and away we go!

Also pulled the rear wheel off and fixed a stud that was rooted. First two threads were stuffed, so I needed to use a rattle gun to put a wheel nut on. Been like it since the conversion, but ran a die down the thread and hey presto, all fixed! Nut spins freely on the thread again.


Put a pair of really good condition headlights on as well. Got another pair out of Japan a while ago when I started having issues with one of the ballasts a while back. Figured I'd buy a pair rather than just a single ballast, so I could refurb the current blitzen pair. Prices weren't that much more for the pair.
Swapped the adapted dust covers that I have the Aussie 3 pin plug on over to the new lights and swapped all the LED globes over. Hopefully I get a bit better light output given how faded and shit looking the blitzen ones are.



Unwrapped the new rear bar as well, that's going to need some light repairs before painting as well. Did not realise how damaged it was, yahoo photos didn't show this many marks and crap on it. Slightly different silver too, so can't even just stick it on. Mocked up my stainless L7 panel and found once again, doesn't fit nicely. Went out to Chris' outback, tore off the old plastic panel and sat the stainless one in its place. Yep. Figures. Despite coming off a rev D GTB in Japan, it's designed for the outback style of rear bar. Fits ok on the legacy bar, but not great.
Still not sure what I'm gonna do there. Might try and sell it, recoup my costs on it. Undecided.

Until the update for today's happenings comes through, enjoy!

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

A bit more happened on this today. Found out the front LCAs I bought months and months ago are bloody impretzel ones, so do not fit the liberty subframe without replacing bushes. What I was hoping to be a straight swap, turned out to be a no-go.
After much swearing and cursing at the people who sold them to me, I figured it probably doesn't matter that much at this stage. I'll still use them, albeit on the track car, but for the moment, I've put the old arm back in. Thankfully I only attempted one side. Also rooted a ball joint while pulling it out, so bought a new one from repco and all good. Figured while it was up on the hoist I'd have a bit more of a tinker as well...

Holes are all in for the side skirts to be fitted tomorrow, and the S401 front bar got put on as well. While I'm not enamored by the quality of the clear coat, it's not going to matter a whole lot, as being fiberglass, it's going to chip regardless of the clear coat thickness.


Anyways. As usual, photos coming. I'm headed for a shower and a snooze before Seb wakes me up in 6 hours.

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Pics uploaded, need to get a few more that I didn't realise that I didn't take.

[El_Freddo]

Pics are looking good mate! They really add to your story. Keep up the good work!

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

Skirts are on! And once all the clips and such are in, they sit perfectly! Happy as Larry here!


Changed it's life blood tonight as well, but other than that, nothing much. Be good once I get the arms sorted out, but that's gonna have to wait a week or 2 now. Tyres will be coming soon after the arms are done, cos they need doing. They're currently legal, but I might only get another 1 to 2 thousand km out of them if I'm lucky. Probably a mm worth of legal tread left.

Anyways. Time for bed! Not quite as late tonight thankfully, but wake up has still been ~6am due to Seb, so sleep has been lacking of late...

Slight update as of Sunday night. Won a pair of power fold mirrors for this sucker as well. Slow boat over once again however...

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Fitted the new steering wheel last night. No connections for the buttons as yet, as I would prefer to have cruise at this point in time, but that's just a replacement clock spring away to get everything working, which is about 20 bucks through yahoo, so that'll be sorted soonish as well.

Found out today after a drive to work and back that I need to take the airbag off and roll the wheel one spline to the left. It doesn't sit right on the road at the moment. Thought I had it correct last night, but not to be. That'll be sorted out in the coming days, only cos it annoys the crap out of me...



Also got some LED strip lighting to install in the cargo area, as the rear most interior light, despite having an LED installed, is woeful. Black background strip, and will attach under the lip of the plastic lower trims, so you shouldn't see it at all... But I'll dummy it up and might end up removing the trims to get it nice.

Other than that, not much is happening on this front.

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Ok, after finally getting the track car off the hoist (it's been a bit of a hoist hog of late 😂), this managed to get some work done to it.

I don't have any photos, as I was too busy trying to get shit done at stupid o'clock am.

List of things done:
Steering wheel spline location corrected so its in the right spot driving straight.
Front alloy arms installed and the second ball joint, so both sides are now new.
Changed the side indicators over from orange ones to clear ones. Small things, but overall looks great.
Front sway bar replaced with the one from my RX (21mm vs 19mm)
Rear sway bar replaced with a whiteline one from Chris' old outback (20mm vs 14mm)
Also found one of the power steering lines on the rack wasn't done up tight, so that got nipped up.
Passenger rear brake lines got re-routed, as I didn't like how they were running. The caliper line was rubbing on the sway bar, and the front line on the trailing arm was twisted 60 degrees.

Also looks like I'm gonna be due some bushes in the rear arms sometime soon as well. They're all looking very average back there.

Now its time to organise some new tyres and a wheel alignment.

Next maintenance thing for this after thats done is to refresh the brakes. Due for pads and rotors, the current rotors are definitely glazed, and the pads don't have good initial bite.
This is a little while off but, maybe a couple months until I can get the funds together.

A 4 day weekend well spent, especially as I've been limited to a few hours each night. Haven't bothered with the LED strip lights yet, but I'll get there eventually...

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Well, its been a while since the last update, and a bit has happened. Not all of it good...
Start with the bad I guess, so we finish on a high note!
Black wood grain trims and window switches were lost in transit. On the hunt for another set, but I'm tipping I'll be waiting a while for that.
Front sway bar mount on the H6 is one bolt and the other side is just kinked steel that slides into the corresponding slot in the mount. After the first big suspension lift or compression (not sure which it was), the passenger side snapped the kink clean off. Still wondering how to fix this, but haven't spent a lot of time in the shed, so I'll come up with some sort of fix for it.
Intake Air Temp sensor has given up the ghost. Causing the TCU to put the ECU into torque limit, which one, drops the arse out of power, and two, makes it sound like a bloody truck by retarding the living daylights out of the engine, and three, causing fuel consumption to jump like an absolute mofo.

Now, the good bits...
Have ordered 2 new IAT sensors, one from Amayama, which is 2 months away plus, and another, through of all places, Amazon Japan. Was looking locally for one to get me out of trouble, but no one wants to sell one separately, and while repco have one, its also 150 bucks plus. This way is looking to cost me about half that. Hopefully have the replacement later this week.
Also going to stick the 5spd out of the B4 into this as well. Part the way through removing it out of the track car at the moment.
Blacked out GT30 grille is coming, as are a set of ganador mirrors. Mirrors are already sitting in the shed, just need a lick of 01G paint. These have blue mirrors already fitted which is pretty cool and unique.
Gen4 clockspring has been acquired as well, so there'll be a small update once thats been fitted up. Will try and fit the paddle shifters as well, simply because they're cool and I'll probably give that some other function.

I've got a bunch of photos, but in the usual Ben fashion, I haven't got them uploaded yet hahaha!

In time.

Anyways. Managed to get Covid yesterday, so expect a bigger update later this week with everything uploaded etc.

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Well, covid put me on my arse. Shame, I had big plans that week, of which none of them happened...

The only real update here is that the replacement IAT sensor arrived, and while its fixed 90% of my torque limiting, it hasn't solved it all. Which is a pain in the rear. Suspecting theres some wiring goblins happening somewhere, given the ecu has actually flagged a code, that, and theres only wiring left to check in the circuit.

The old girl gets new tyres on friday, which will be put onto the set of rims that were on it not long after the conversion. Bit of a change, but no point using the track car rims with fresh road tyres.

Alloy arms and bushes from the track car and fresh ball joints seems to have fixed my scrubbing inside edges problem, as expected. Haven't lost any quality turn in either, which is nice. I'm interested to see what the wheel alignment shows, see how aggressive it is. Really dont want to change anything unless its completely screwed up.

I'll get to uploading photos eventually...

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

That’s shit about getting covid Ben! Second bout? There’s lots of it around again unfortunately… it’ll be an interesting Xmas at this rate.

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

Yea, it was pretty crap. Third round for me. First one thats put me on my arse but. Better than some though, so I really shouldn't complain...

Picked up the new tyres today, all piled in the back of the wagon to be fitted over the weekend. Other than that, still stuck in torque limit, which is getting old real quick. Gonna go over all the wiring this weekend to try and find & fix the problem.

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Think I found the issue re torque limit. The safety through bolt in the rear auto trans mount was hitting on the side of the hole in the crossmember, as we only used an impreza crossmember and chalk marked the spot for the hole. This corresponded with the hole being off centre, and the safety bolt on the rubber mount was rubbing on the side of the hole. So moral of the story is, get the right crossmember; as while the overall design is the same between most early models; the number of holes in the crossmembers are not the same. Painful.
But hopefully fixed.

Thats pretty much it for updates. Manual swap has been postponed until after I get the 6spd installed into the track car, as I need to be able to move it around after the manual box gets pulled for this. No good having the car stuck on the hoist after I pull the box.

Cheers,
Ben

[El_Freddo]

So how did this bolt being off centre in the mount cause the torque limit to kick in/happen?

Sounds like a relatively easy fix, fingers crossed!

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

Basically, the bolt is welded to the trans side of the mount and goes through an oversize hole in the crossmember. Because theres zero rubber dampening associated with this bolt, the knock sensors pickup on the steel of the bolt rattling on the steel crossmember and withdrew an absolute buttload of timing. All in all, not a fun time...

[El_Freddo]

I was thinking of a sensor in the gearbox limiting torque due to the noise this may have produced. I didn’t think of the engine knock sensors!! Good to keep in mind with my little project, although everything should be fine.

Cheers

Bennie

[allpaw4]

You should be pretty safe there Bennie, as the manual transmissions don't have these style mounts.
Small update. Melted part of the passenger side cat converter, due to running retarded so long. Got a replacement cat, but it needs to be welded in, so a few other things need to happen first.
Found a steering rack leak, so thats in the middle of being replaced with a low km spare I have. As part of that, also changing the engine crossmember, as this will sort out the sway bar mount issues... Cue engine support bar being purchased.
Cut out the safety bolt on the auto trans mount, as it was bent, and looked to be the cause of the rattling... And essentially the reason for constant knock correction...

Currently up on the hoist, will be back on the road tomorrow after I've finished swapping heaps of shit...

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Sorry for the slow updates gents, but not much has happened yet. The really abusive knock correction is gone, but the back pressure created by one cat being melted internally has made it pretty nasty to drive (not as bad as it was, but still gutless). I don't think it's just the melted cat causing this, I suspect that there are bits of cat rattling around still, which the knock sensors are picking up... And because there are 0 local joints that can do exhaust work, I'm having to wait to be able to get a mate to do it. Yet to be done - needs a bit more time than just an hour after I knock off work.

But realistically, besides that, not much has happened...

Cheers,
Ben

[Barbbachello]

There is another solution

[allpaw4]

Yea, its probably gonna get that solution in the mean time Nick, but its not exactly easy to get to on the passenger side with the H6. 90 degree bend to the head on the front and the rear cat on the back, and I dont want to have permanent codes up for cat converter efficiency by bashing out the rear one as well. Plus deal with whatever that might do ecu wise. Whether that puts it into limp mode, I don't know. Not really feeling like finding out the hard way either...

She'll be right. Been putting up with this bullshit for the last few months, another week's not gonna hurt.

Cheers,
Ben

[allpaw4]

Well, 100cel cat is in, doesnt seem to have thrown the cat efficiency code at me YET. But we'll see there. It seems to be running like a prick constantly again, so it may have thrown it in the last 2 days. To be inspected tomorrow night. Throw the scan tool over it and check. Got a few more little bits for this thing coming. OEM black trims and some other nice bits and bobs. Really should stop spending money on the bucket of bolts. But...

Until the next 3 monthly update, enjoy.

Cheers,
Ben