wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

Okay.. I am all wrapped up here. I actually had a chance to work on this today and I just... Don't wanna.

Probably going to start the "garage sale" soon but it would be so awesome if someone was interested in grabbing the whole lot. This would require a full size truck and a trailer. Though the car is complete enough to tow if necessary. If interested, drop me a line soon. Motor plus the tranny plus a few other things was around $5k and there is a bunch of extra stuff. If I could get ~$6500 for everything (and I mean everything) that would totally make it worth my while to just let it all go. This includes an AP V2 set up for this motor w/ the STi pinks, VF39, and STi TMIC. Have 2x STi TMIC cores but need a Y-pipe setup. Currently STi up pipe on the car and pinks are installed, 17x8.5 SSR GT2's, V5 STi suspension, etc etc etc.

bkblitzed

iTrader: (5)

are you interested in selling the AP by itself? also what year is it for

wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

No - I will not be parting out things that are needed for the car at this time. If no one is interested in the project as a whole (sadly the most likely scenario) then I will start the process of making a list of items for sale down the road. I really hope someone just wants the whole pile.

wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

I messed with the car a bit today. I wanted to tackle something I thought I could get through, to make me feel a little better about the whole thing, and as if I could actually complete it some day. I grabbed my spare doors and was going to replace my wind-up window door hardware with the power window hardware from the newer doors. After looking around for a while, the parts look similar - the physical part might just work. BUT, there is no plug in my car or on the harness that matches the plug coming out of the new door. So that means that I will have to either re-wire the harness in my car, or find a body-side plug that matches the door and rewire that into my harness.

It's this kind of crap that is killing it for me. I don't have wiring diagrams and I have no idea where I might find the body-side plug for it. Anything I do myself will look half-assed and janky, so I want to use the Subaru pieces, but I don't have any idea how to obtain that stuff. Also, every time I call the dealer for parts now - I have to provide a VIN which makes it tricky. I have VINs for '95, '98, '02, and '04 that I have been using but I am tired of this crap.

My wife asked if I could tear it all down again and sell the parts separately. That is a very practical, sensible idea. I paid $1,500 for the transmission and $2,500 for the engine. But, I don't know anything about the engine other than it supposedly has 14k miles on it, and it was built by a shop, who doesn't seem to remember the engine or what's inside. So, no - not really. I don't want to deal with those conversations, nor do I want to hear about it if someone buys the motor and it's dead for some reason. Even moreso, I don't want to get all done and hear that I need to rebuild the motor. I would like that scenario even less than the one I have now. I have no reason to believe the engine is not in perfect shape, but it's sensible to consider other scenarios.

Hopefully anyone planning to do something like this will think long and hard before taking the steps, and do more research than I did. I really don't know what I have done wrong here though. Seems like the wiring issues combined with not having a remote clue how this car goes together is what is doing it.

Taking it to a shop to have it finished is really not an option at this point. I have spent something like $8k so far to achieve this worthlessness. If I took it to any shop they could tell me it needed X amount of stuff it doesn't need and I would have no idea. If I ended up spending $10k on this car and it still wasn't running/driving, I would want to kill myself.

Anyway, I am not sure what's going to happen with this, but if I have a chance to get rid of it - and - all of it goes at once, I will take that chance. I would totally trade all of this for something like a fairly worn out bugeye.

aboothman

iTrader: (8)

My suggestion would be to forget the windows, etc and get it running. That will answer the engine question. Don't sweat the small ****!! Once you get it to where you can drive it you then go back and tackle the little things.

MonsterGC

iTrader: (6)

Hey! Dont give it up, im sure everyone who has done a swap has gone through something, i have some wiring diagrams and a lot of plugs and pigtails maybe we can figure something out to help you on your way, i havent put my interior together but ive been driving around you are welcome to come by take a look take pics, pm me for my contact info!

wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

That's really good advice, actually. Plus, after thinking about it for a while and even pondering picking up something that is "running" - the thing is, if the money to buy something else would get this running, I would like that better. Hmm.

Either way I think the window/harness/plug thing just reminded me of all the other things where the plugs are totally different - such as, the transmission. I also do not know if the fuel lines are in okay shape. It would suck to have to drop the tank again. Anyway, we'll see what the next week brings. I have no problem physically swapping an engine - shoot we did my buddy's '99 OBS clutch/timing belt/water pump/etc a bit ago with my tools and the cherry picker I was borrowing. Just a little intimidated by the thought of poring over wiring diagrams and testing crap.

MonsterGC

iTrader: (6)

yeah wiring is a bit overwhelming, you should really contact brian keener(responsible for IWIRE services) if you have any doubts, totally awesome guy and a subaru wiring genius!

aboothman

iTrader: (8)

Ya IWIRE rocks. I will be sending everything to him when I finally get around to a swap.

I am somewhat sure that the window wiring is separate from the main wiring harness... and I base that on nothing but knowledge of how a GD is wired

BTW shoot me your e-mail. I have a disk that I scored off of Ebay that has wiring diagrams from 93+ Imprezas. They are not complete, but it may have what you need.

STINGR3

I think if you have the time and funds to finish this project then go for it. I have my fair share of swaps, wire merging, but it's a trial error kinda of deal and it's easier said than done. You have to learn somewhere and this is one way of doing it. You can read all the books in the world but it can't beat hands on experience. I say if it's taking too much time off your hands and it's keeping you away from what's real important in life, scrap the project. There will always be a next time so don't let it get to you.

Regards,

Ron

wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

Forgot to mention.. I was messing with the doors because I need to use the later door cards because my '95 door cards do not fit in the car with the '98 dash. So, to use the '01 door cards with the '95 doors, I needed to swap the guts over to convert the '95 doors to power windows, before I can put the newer door cards on. I guess that's like "not seeing the forest for the trees" because I wouldn't mind driving the car around with no door cards.

Cool, that is the sort of thing I need. It's also much more than just the car that is discouraging me. I have had this car in my garage since March or so and my new car has been outside in the weather. Due to work schedule I have not found the time to wash my new car since about April, and it's black, so it's getting trashed and it bums me out. Plus, we will have a baby in March and if this thing isn't rolling by then, I am done-for!

Sounds like a good idea. I will do that. Maybe I can tell him all the parts I am using together and he can build me something. Hmmm..

Cool - will do. The '95 door plug plugs right into the '98 harness to a plug that hangs down at the right kick-panel area perfectly. There is another plug taped to that plug on the harness side, so I assume both of those comprise the connection to the door items (window, lock, audio). Another part of my quest with the doors was to make sure all my wiring is handled in the car in areas that are difficult to reach once mandatory parts are in place (such as the dash cap). Totally awesome the the diagrams.

So true, hands-on experience is the best. Sometimes I look at the whole project at once and get boggled. I did not have too many problems with the physical side of the swap but the problem is I only get little bursts of time to work on it anymore. It's actually hard to get a solid 3 hours to work on my car and sometimes these are a week or four apart from each other. So naturally a lot of time is spent moving crap around, and figuring out what I need to do to pick up where I left off. I am working on this with lists and now even a MS Project plan to track the project.

We came up with an idea though.. Like I mentioned in my last post, I am going to do everything I can complete and then make a list of what (I believe) needs to be done, and see if I can find someone else to finish it. I feel my money will be better spent paying someone who can do this "RIGHT" since I cannot dedicate enough time to it right now. Also, this will get the car out of the garage so I can clean the garage and then use it for my new car. When I get the Impreza back, I should be able to park it outside. Win-Win-Win!!!

stg2lgcy00

iTrader: (23)

Just dropped off my Borla header today at Accessories Plus. I decided to go with their black coating, will post up with some pics once I get it back / install.

stg2lgcy00

iTrader: (23)

Picked up my header today, I gotta say it looks damn nice. The guys at Accessories Plus really came through.

Plan to install it on Friday or over the weekend.

BTW some wiring for my radiator harness will be ~1.5'' from where the header is. I think I can relocate it a lil further away, just wondering if this coating will hold in enough heat so stuff around it won't melt.

Here is oem compared to the uncoated Borla...


And now with the new coating...

wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

That looks nice, but I don't think it's going to do too much for heat. I had Sanderson do my header and downpipe on my last Celica since I did not have time to send it to Swain, and while it looked really nice, it was nearly as hot as my bare header was. A Swain coated header on the other hand, you can brush across it right after shutting the car down and not get burned. You can also run your wires through some Thermo Sleeve (or whatever that is called - have to find the package again) to protect them. It's like the stuff that comes stock on the turbo's coolant and oil lines from the engine.

I just got a used Gruppe-SEX header that's sort of rusty but should not be a problem for them - only thing is, they have the union in the middle so I am not sure how they will handle handle that.

Got some progress yesterday - pretty stoked. Have to check the list but got the up-pipe gasket in, put the belts on, installed the starter, and some other things. Installed the turbo about 5 times. I think another 3 more times should do it. That oil drain pipe is a PITA!!!

aboothman

iTrader: (8)

Even my Swaitech coated Perrin header has managed to melt my fan shroud...which is why my headers are wrapped now as well.

Wrap anything near your header that you do not want to melt.