The original plan was supposed to start about two ago and was to use a 2001 WRX engine from my mates Liberty that got written off. In the end the engine was rooted so the conversion fell through and forgotten about until I saw Dylan’s conversion finally finished. I got a bit jealous and as another mate had just converted his impreza I decided I needed to get in on the boosted action too
As money was tight I thought the easiest way to go was to just do a “simple” Gen 2 1998 RX turbo conversion using a JDM Gen 2 1998 GT halfcut. Did my research regarding prices for cuts etc and felt pretty confident that I could do the whole conversion fairly fast and for a fairly low cost. Mechanical swap was obviously gonna be easy enough and wiring didn’t seem like it was gonna cause any major headaches…plenty of people have done it
I rang around some wreckers and found one that had a decent sounding cut with fairly low km’s so made the trip out to check it out. I had a pocket full of cash and was ready to buy on the spot. I got there, saw the cut, it looked great and was ready to hand over my cash until the guys said he had something else that might interest me. We went out the back were he showed me a 2001 GT-B cut with 66,000 km’s on it. SOLD…
Get the cut delivered and have a good look over it. Everything looks to be in good condition with nothing missing. The wiring seems to have been cut instead of totally removed but didn’t look to bad…
Do the mechanical change over in a couple of days, engine swap, gearbox swap, LSD, drive and tailshafts all in.
Start getting into the wiring but it proves to be an absolute nightmare. Not only could we not locate any of the diagrams we needed but the way wiring was cut when removed just made it a real dogs breakfast. We decide to just scrap the OEM ecu and s**t wiring and replace it with a Haltech engine management system.
A & B have been playing about with ratchet shifters on autos for a little while and have recently installed one in their R33 track car. We were talking about different options for the car and this came up so we decided that since it was an auto lets stick a B&M Pro Racing shifter in it and see how it goes. We got a custom valve body made and up and it’s good to go (for those that don’t know...the auto box has now lost all of it’s “auto” functions except that I don’t need to let of the throttle as I shift up. ALL gear changes must now be shifted up and down manually via the ratchet shift. No auto changes). Also as it was an auto box we were able to add a switch that enables me to change from 2WD (front wheel drive) and 4WD. In hindsight we should have just put in a manual box but it’s in now and that’s that. I can start saving for my 6 speed :suicide:
All of the intercooler piping for the TT set up is done and it’s time to start tuning. On the dyno for the first crack at tuning…FAIL. In our haste the box with vacuum lines for controlling the duel stage turbo set up has been damaged. Stupidly we decide that we should just p¡ss the box off all together and that we can figure out an easier way to make it all work. We couldn’t…
SO it looks like my single turbo conversion is coming sooner than I thought
The turbo we used is a KKR 380. This was mainly because of convenience as there was one in the workshop left over from another project. It uses a garrett flange so I guess I know what I’m upgrading to next time
Little bit laggy but not to bad. Got the new exhaust manifold and dump pipe done and put it all back together again. On the dyno, give it a tune which goes perfectly and done.
Off dyno and out the door
There were literally hundreds of little things that did go wrong during the whole process as anyone who has done a conversion would know but are normally easy enough fixes…
As you can see in the pics the shifter is pretty “ghetto” (thanks Mark!) looking. The shifter housing is actually gonna be covered in a black vinyl to match the dash. I’m going to get a custom centre console made to clean it all up and make it look as factory as I can (not even close I know!)
Subaru Liberty Gen 2 Heritage Turbo Converted:
EJ20 (2001 GTB converter to single turbo)
KKR 380 Turbo Charger
Custom tuned length headers, up pipe, dump pipe and full exhaust with Prodrive muffler
Haltech E11V2 ECU
B&M Racing shifter
Custom valve body for auto box and shifter
Turbo smart boost controller
Gauge POD with Boost, Air/Fuel, Water Temp and Oil Pressure
GC8 WRX seats re-covered in black and white perforated leather
MD (Monster Damper) Coilovers
Rays VOLK SE37 17” x 7.5” matte black rims (alternate Bridgestone JDM forged TE37 replica’s in white 17” x 7’5)
Subaru WRX 4pot front and 2pot rear callipers
Front and rear strut tower braces
Talon rear spoiler
Hippo-Sleek front grill (RFRB alternate grill)
Ganador mirrors
Morette Headlights
Clear side indicators
STI pedals
Pioneer something or other head unit???
?
Whats the go, is it working atm? Soz I couldn't be there to help ya out buddy. I suppose its early days yet so the odd issue or two can be expected. Hopefully it gets fixed up, whatever the problem is nice n' quick.
~ shiv
