Senior Project RS --> WRX Swap (FTW!!)
 

Its time has finally come to get some more power. This isnt very significant compared to lots of other people's swaps, its no v8 sti or anything, but for me, im hella psyched for this power increase plus ive never owned anything this powerful.

I was fortunate enough to be able to do my swap (which i was going to do anyway) as a High school senior project (im 17 right now). Basically, for an entire semester (supposed to be starting in Jan. : D ) I am supposed to working on a project of my choice that fulfills some sort of passion/lifetime interest, plus i get high school credit for doing it. Also, i am lucky enough to have Greg S. (Roo) as my mentor, so things should go by extra well.

quick story; picked up a 2006 WRX tr that had been totalled in a drunk driving accident that had no engine damage of any sort, just a badly damaged shell (driver's rear) for a grand total of 2800 dollars. Perfect for me, an entire parts car to work with. Took a 23 hour drove there and back with a buddy, my f250 and a trailer to retrieve the piece and then went to work. it was a little slow initially, but things have since picked up and i got rid of the shell 1.5 weeks ago, clearing some garage space. I pulled my car in to the garage as N/A for the last time and went to work.

I just pulled the engine about 30 minutes ago, and now i am going to strip the rest of the car. Being that i have everything from the wrx, i am going to pretty much swap everything over, including engine, rear diff and all axels, brakes, dash/center console/steering column, gas tank and all that stuff. I don't have access to a lift and i don't own an engine crane (although i could borrow one :/ ). i saw that another guy in here lowered the engine out, so i have done just that, twice, and it works perfect.

Anyways, enough of the writing, onto the pics!

My car in all its glory (now sans mudflaps, and will be unless i attend a rallyx)
[ATTACH]175059[/ATTACH]

what i had to start with
[ATTACH]175060[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]175061[/ATTACH]

what it looked like 2 weeks ago
[ATTACH]175062[/ATTACH]

its engine, ej255 (needs new timing belt cover, but belt itself hasnt been touched)
[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2379/2026836169_110bfb510e_o.jpg[/img]

now to my car, as of tonight

partially stripped interior
[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2083/2026833257_5326f418ee_o.jpg[/img]

roar wheelie
[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2294/2027632184_e2cc9abb5f_o.jpg[/img]

yay
[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2003/2026830993_28dc7d3b78_o.jpg[/img]

final shot for today
[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2360/2026838689_75acf7f021_o.jpg[/img]

that will be it for today, ill update as i do more work (probably this weekend). If you have any questions let me know.

WOW. Great work! I never thought a person at that age is able to do those kind of things. keep us updated!

lucky... how long do you think its going to take?

That's pretty awesome, and a huge backyard and garage. Luuuuucky!

dude nice work and write up cant wait to see this

Cool project. Let me know if you need a hand for a bit. I'd love to check it out as it's a project I'd like to take on at some point in the distant future with my wife's '00 RS sedan.

-Brian

i cant wait to see this car at some local meets, good luck dude.

[QUOTE=y0ungsubi3;2029762]lucky... how long do you think its going to take?[/QUOTE]


I'm hoping to be done by winter break. It will be hard because i have to manage with school, which means just workign weekends. fortunately, i didnt have any homework today so i just went out to the garage.

The garage is kick ass btw, we finished building the house about 2 or so years ago and we made sure it had everything we wanted. Its pretty big and all, but we worked really hard on this house and went through a lot of **** before we fortunate to find a place up here

yeah way to go man...most 17 year olds get their STi's from Mommy and Daddy and wouldnt even attempt to think about what youre doing.

i dont think i would do all that myself...a flat driveway would be a start :) plus youre doing like $4000+ in labor which was like 2 or 3 years of work for me at that age, construction work for $7.89 an hour blehhhhh...

awesome, i cant wait to see it and rally again!

big ups man. im not much older then you & to me just doing a trans swap made me feel all accomplished!

Nice!!! Hey - that car has aluminum front control arms - did the '06 come with those or did you just get lucky? Nice you got the 4-pots as well...

Looks like an AWESOME project that you will be able to enjoy as long as you want to afterward. Sweet deal.

I can tell this will be a great swap! :)

I am jealous of you lol. Are you going to transplant all the interior dash stuff too or just have the RS dash and merge harnesses?

[QUOTE=maddhatteroo7;2030194]Are you going to transplant all the interior dash stuff too or just have the RS dash and merge harnesses?[/QUOTE]

If you read the first post, it's all there... ;)

[QUOTE=wombatsauce;2030361]If you read the first post, it's all there... ;)[/QUOTE]

haha
reading comprehension > me :lol:

thanks, yea im going to use the whole harness from the wrx and splice for only a couple things, like headlights, tailights, doors, etc