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Posted by: waltonsm Jun 12 2020, 11:53 PM

After seeing some recent posts, I decided it was finally time to thank everybody on this forum for years of encouragement and scope creep on my long term project. As with every real project, this will never be done, and there are certainly many things I would do differently a second time around. But I am 80% of the way there, and I am enjoying driving it as much as I am working on it for the last year or so.

I plan to add more photos of my build process over the next few weeks. You may see some of the advice you gave me realized, and probably some bad or good ideas in metal, fiberglass, and wood.

Hopefully I can help someone else out too.

-Steve


Here are some recent photos:





And a few from about 4 years ago:

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 12 2020, 11:58 PM

some milestones:
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Posted by: waltonsm Jun 13 2020, 12:00 AM

some more:
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Posted by: waltonsm Jun 13 2020, 12:02 AM

some more:
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Posted by: Thunderchief Jun 13 2020, 12:18 AM

Super cool! Very clean and professional looking. Good job.

Posted by: BIGKAT_83 Jun 13 2020, 05:51 AM

Nice !!!
All your parts are top of the line stuff. Great work.

Posted by: Cairo94507 Jun 13 2020, 06:20 AM

Nice work and skills set. Glad you are getting to enjoy driving your car. Keep us posted as the build moves along to completion- or as close as you can ever get to completion on a build.

Posted by: 76-914 Jun 13 2020, 08:54 AM

The best part is the reliability and knowing should you need a part it is most likely available at your friendly local FLAPS.

Posted by: Retroracer Jun 13 2020, 02:19 PM

Very cool build - pls keep the posts & pics flowing! Some really nice details on this, love the vents on the headlight lids!

- Tony

Posted by: PanelBilly Jun 13 2020, 09:44 PM

I want to go for a ride!

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 13 2020, 11:42 PM

I see you are in the area. I commuted to Kent for 11 years, until recently.

Also, I was trying decide in what order to post pictures, but since I already got some questions, now I know.

I am cross-posting some pictures from some questions I got:

Question 1: Currently I have the Coldwater linkage setup and noticed you have the ZeroDecibel setup.....which I am thinking about buying if it will help the shifting. Have you any experience with the ZeroDecibel setup? BTW: This setup looks so clean and awesome.

A: I vaguely remember looking at the coldwater linkage. As far as the zero decibel part goes.. I like it.There are a few items, well more than a few, on the car that I just spent money instead of doing all the fab myself. It mostly happened when I ended up being blocked in several directions and I just needed parts in hand to make a decision to free some other stuff up. The shift linkage was one of those things. I am quite happy with it now. But it took me a long time to get to satisfactory shifting. Replacing all bushings from the MR2 shifter, making sure everything in the assemblies stay tight, torqued, threadlocker, etc., There is a lot of opportunities for play and flex in the MANY bolted joints if not properly torqued. Also I spent a bunch of time changing the shift lever length, welding new eyelets for cables on the MR2 shifter, etc. (I have had three different shift lever lengths in this car, all trying to get the ratios all lined up, hand position, and centering the shifter spring neutral position with the transmission is a pain. But i can say it shifts like a pretty good subaru now. Not like and S2000, but definitiely not like a 901. I built this car around me.

Just right (after new eyelets)



Question 2: It looks like you have installed an in-tank fuel pump. I did this on my brother-in-laws car but he does not have it running yet. I used an In Tanks and put it in the exact same place as you did, to take advantage of the fuel tank baffles. So, I don't know if it will be everything I hoped for. But, I am thinking about doing it on my car. What is the manufacturer of your fuel pump and have you had experience with this pump previously?

The fuel pump is an Hyperfuel n tank assembly. i am using the OEM level sender, but put the pump inside the OEM baffle. I had to fully refurbish the tank, and it required a bunch of weld repair, and I also welded up the outlet and return on the bottom of the tank. Remember to be careful welding tanks.


After all the care I took to make sure the vent/supply/return were routed properly, I still managed to get them messed up one time I took the tank out. This is not a good thing to do. The tank gets pressurized by the return, and you you force fuel out the vent.. There are others out there with better markings and different plumbing configs. but this one has worked great when properly installed..

On that note: when you relocate the pump to this location in the OEM baffle, you need to eliminate the expansion tank. Now you need a new vent solution that doesn't dump gas. I have iterated, and if you look close in the picture, you can see the vent line route from the pump assembly toward the driver side in front of the blower housing, as high as I can go underneath the cowl. This is routed against the liquid level during left hand lateral acceleration. This is then routed through a loop and then to a refillable charcoal canister. (Don't use ABS. I did) When I rebuild mine in new material, I will then be routing the fuel vent to the bottom of the car near the steering rack. I have zero gas smell in my closed garage (which is also my office these days).


I didn't retain the fuel pump controller from the donor car. I would have had I known what I was doing with this, it would have been much simpler than I thought at the time, considering I am running the both the WRX ECU and Chassis computer.
I do have an inertial switch for the fuel pump too. I often will disconnect this when I want to have the ignition on without the pump running.

I have about 5000 miles on this car in the last year, with zero issues with the pump or switch. And I haven't had any fuel fumes with the current vent configuration. I have also had it on the track and run it to <1/8th tank with no issues with the baffles. THe only think i plan to do is put and RC filter on the sender to slow it down a bit to the gauge during cornering...

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 14 2020, 12:09 AM

Thanks Tony!

This was one of the areas i struggled with a lot on the design side. My goals were to make all changes in the direction of improving the performance of the car, and also retain as much of that amazing road trip/race track storage capability as possible. I wanted to vent the air over the hood, but boxing out the entire headlight bucket area was a pain!





Very early i knew this was the plan, but it took until bout 3 months ago for me to finally execute the splitter and the headlight vents, and "fog lights". I have LED projectors in the turn signal housings (super cheap ones) and the foglights (expensive ones).

the radiator vents started as scrap kayak building material
the foglights as toiletbowl brushes (NEW)
the splitter as a fiberglass LE spoiler

Posted by: kroelofsen Jun 14 2020, 02:42 AM

Envy...

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 30 2020, 09:18 PM

Time to add some more photos: Trying to capture mostly what was done (and since modified) for the rear subframe.

Objectives:
-make the subframe a rolling cart with adjustable corners for simple motor drops for engine work (proven, unfortunately)
-use it to box out the rear end of the car
-hang as much off the subframe as possible
-get the engine as high and forward as possible, ground clearance and cg

In the end I mounted the intercooler, oil cooler, muffler, and rear sway bar on the subframe, of course in addition to the engine and trans.

I used Subaru group N engine mounts, I later added the pitch stop off brackets at the rear of trans to manage axial motion to stiffen it a bit. I have enough degrees of freedom to adjust the up-pipe, turbo,downpipe,exhauts tip location.

I did end up making a small cut in the rear trunk to fit the turbo, this was an early design error that I just ended up going with (to keep the turbo in stock location).

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 30 2020, 09:19 PM

And some more subframe photos, including the mods I did during the engine rebuild, including building new ~equal length tri-y headers for more ground clearance, raising the forward motor mount a half inch, adding the axial mount, and installing new oil pan and baffles (root cause for motor build).

Most of this was planned work for when i rebuilt the motor. Just didn't plan to do it over the first 6 wks of covid.

Posted by: Thunderchief Jul 1 2020, 12:57 AM

What kind of heated seats are you running? Do they sit higher than stock?

Posted by: Dion Jul 1 2020, 05:05 AM

Cool build. Looks pretty bad-ass. You’ve put some hard work into that.
Enjoy!

Posted by: ClayPerrine Jul 1 2020, 06:27 AM

This is an absolutely cool build. The workmanship is incredible.

Too bad you didn't get this license plate.




It would be even better if it was 914 WRX.

In fact, if you want the old plate, I will send it to you. It has been replaced here, so it is just sitting in a pile of old license plates.


Clay

Posted by: Chris H. Jul 1 2020, 09:05 AM

Wow REALLY cool build! Thanks for sharing it. Some great new ideas in there. Among many other things, I really like how you did the center tunnel. Might have to borrow that one.

Question...so your ONLY radiator air exit vents are in the former headlight buckets? Curious to hear how that works since no one has done it before. Any cooling issues at all so far?

Posted by: DRPHIL914 Jul 1 2020, 09:31 AM

first comment is : WOW!! nice job! of course I am partial to the color being a L99k owner myself. its not easy to get seats like that in a 914 those look super comfortable!, only thing I would pick at , not my taste is the fenders, but that's just because there is nothing else to pick on.. but really maybe some factory GT fenders at some point to really clean it up but, this may be my favorite suby build yet. Partly the color, but mostly because you really did everything yourself and at such a high level too, I cant imagine how much fun it is to drive a 350hp 914!!! well done sir!

Phil

Posted by: CBee Jul 1 2020, 12:10 PM

Yeah! Super fab skills.
I'll be borrowing some of your ideas on my build as I have floor, firewall, and pedal area issues on my car and will going Subaru on the engine and gearbox too.

Very nice work.

Clark

Posted by: waltonsm Jul 3 2020, 11:53 AM

The seats are leather/alcantara out of a BRZ. I got them for $500 on ebay after selling my 914 seats that had been recovered for a bit more.

So far I have changed the mount points for the seat (although the way they showed up would have probably been better for me in the end), I removed the airbags, and have used some clamps and vicegrips to widen the bolstering frames on the driver seat. I have aftermarket lumbar adjust bags that I haven't installed yet.

4 hr roadtrips are not a problem for us, but seats are pretty personal things.

My wife is pretty happy with the passenger seat width.

Note that I redid the entire rear floor and this enabled me to get the rear mount points basically on the floor skin. In the end he height might be 1/2" or so higher. The biggest impact is the thickness of the seatback. This results in the total legroom being decreased by at least 2-3 inches. This works for us at 5'8"/5'6". My 6'4" friend fits* and enjoys it, but we aren't going anywere with the top on, or for more than an hour or so.

Heated seats are necessary... i drive it down below 50 deg with a little down throw blanket :) Plan to finish the heater core install this summer, along with the planning for the AC core. The tunnel has the fittings for the AC hoses, and I plan to mount the core near the oil cooler on subframe, but I realized I need to have this system such that I can easily remove the AC pump and hoses from the engine when i drop it without the need to recharge the system.

Steve

Posted by: waltonsm Jul 3 2020, 12:38 PM

yes the only radiator vents are through the former headlight buckets. You can see from these pictures how i sealed everything up to duct air out of the headlight buckets. This can be a low pressure zone depending on what is happening right at the bumper. So i went forward knowing I can trip the flow right before the bucket, and open up the bumper and reinforce to get more frontal area on the radiator.





I took it to the track in this config. no headlight buckets, no lower valences, no rocker panels.


I have a thermostat for the oil cooler on the subrame, but the car barely hit 200F on the track in this configuration with 20 min stints at the Ridge. Also, driving 6/10 on first day out (to balance tire pressures, brake bias, sway bars etc. am i in the ballpark.. I was happy with it.

In this configuration, I never even got to 185F on the freeway, mostly around 165. so too cold. and I could continue with plan for headlight vents. and splitter. Glen provided some inspiration for the splitter here when I was trying to figure out how to make an RSR style airdam that would function as a splitter too.





You can see from this configuration that I have lot more area I can open up on the bumper to increase radiator frontal area. I also can seal it better between bumper and chassis if I need to. I also can trip the flow before the headlight buckets vent louvre things if needed.

The subaru fans are set at 185 and 205 I think. Sitting on the freeway in traffic on a hot day, I will hit 205 now and sit there. As soon as I start moving it drops down to 185. On a 50 deg day on the freeway it is below 185 still.

I haven't had it on the track in this configuration, but this is in the ballpark and will work with minor tuning.

Steve

Posted by: waltonsm Jul 3 2020, 12:51 PM

Thanks Phil! It certainly is more than a handful. I may put an M3 standalone traction control system in this winter. But that will require additional brake lines. Not a deal breaker by any means, but annoying for sure.

I went on a hunt for viper green or copper. This is the one I found that I could only put screwdrivers through the floor on.. with a plan to cut.

The fenders... I went back and forth, a LOT! I decided I wanted to do this style because it is so obviously far from stock. I do plan to paint these fenders copper as well, but I have more composite work to do before getting stuff painted. some of it might be a bit controversial too.

It took me an absurd amount of time in glasswork and fairing to get the fender edges right from every angle. And then I wanted to have no fasteners... When you have a sharp edge like that it it is much more difficult than with fairing in a smooth radius. maybe there is a lesson there, steel would have probably been less time honestly.

I have a giant carbon fiber wing I have built (which is the rear bicycle and surfboard rack point. I have made fork mounts that are installed in the factory targa bar points already. I haven't decided on wing mounting, and I wont do it until I am happy with it, but I need/want the downforce and roof rack.

I also have mocked up many different iterations of 904/GT40 style B pillar scoops for the intercooler and intake. I also haven't pulled the trigger on this yet, but probably will have both of these done before winter. So maybe next year the fenders will be L99K.

Steve

Posted by: waltonsm Jul 3 2020, 12:56 PM

Let me know if you specific pictures at any point. I have lots. I am super happy with the tilton 600 dual MC setup. It is isn't cheap, but everything is tunable for this sort of nonsense, so it is easier, and possibly cheaper in the long run to dial it in.

Steve

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 16 2021, 09:33 PM

Nearly a year has passed since my last updates. Turns out I did lot more than work on the car over the winter, but lots of progress was made. I will start dumping photos and descriptions of the process. In summary, due to turbo/manifold/intercooler, tuning, and downforce/wing, it is now a very driveable, 450 hp, 914.

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 16 2021, 09:53 PM

For a long time I had plans to build the wing. I knew I needed the downforce with the planned torque, and also the desire to carry boards, bikes, and maybe our kayaks. I have been custom roof racks or boxes for most of our cars.

I got distracted by making an even larger version of this for our 3.6 VR6 corrado racecar, but planned to use those lessons for improved aesthetics.

My goal was to make a big wing with a modern airfoil, designed around the speeds I want downforce, and I want adjustability, and potential the opportunity for tunable, passive AOA adjustment in the future. It is fixed for now, but have the adjustment if I get really bored in the future.

I had cores hot wire cut, installed a spar, and did a low vacuum operation by throttling a cheap vacuum pump I got to install some heat pumps.



After the wing was build I spent 6 months deciding how I was going to mount it, but mostly, where.

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Posted by: waltonsm Jun 16 2021, 10:07 PM

After a few more months I decided I wanted the wing to float and be as separate from the lines of the 914 as possible. But also match where possible. To keep it light looking, endplates are out, it needs to be black, and the support structure should not be offensive, but shouldn't grab attention.

I decided to follow and approximation of the A pillar to B pillar roofline, and also taper it inward toward the top to follow the progression of the A to B pillar, and also make the tube triangulation tilt forward like the sail panel.

Angle of attack is adjustable from roughly 0-15 degrees, but I use it in the 6-10 region I think, I built the foil with a 1/4 gurney flap mostly to toughen the trailing edge. Its a S1223 RTL foil. Lots of data out there on this one.

I had a wing mount design that avoided fasteners through the rear deck, but it seemed to dicey in the end, especially in any sort of collision. In the end I just added the fasteners and added peace of mind and further fab complication.



And most importantly. It conforms to standard bar height, and passed functional testing.

Posted by: mgarrison Jun 17 2021, 09:18 AM

Amazing Suby build! Incredible fab skills...

Any additional details & pics you can share on radiator plumbing & pump. Any details on the Tilton pedal cluster install would be appreciated too. I'm early in the process of my Suby conversion. Looking to use a WRX engine & trans as well.

Posted by: AZBanks Jun 17 2021, 09:23 AM

Amazing build. I'm curious what metalworking tools you use, brakes, tube benders, etc.

Posted by: ValcoOscar Jun 17 2021, 09:41 AM

O N E
S E X Y
9 1 4



Nice build

Congrats!!!!

O

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 21 2021, 08:06 PM

I don't have many sophisticated tools. I did borrow a friends hydraulic bender for the cage and rear subframe. The bender was a vertical bender than makes it easy to use a digital magnetic angle finder to make very repeatable angles. Other than that, 95% of what I do is plan cuts out of various stock tube shapes I got for scrap prices. I got a bunch of 1-6' sticks of different profiles and wall thicknesses, and then I dig through the pile, find the closest one, mark them out with cardboard templates, and cut it down to size. I almost exclusively use a cutoff wheel and flap disc for the work.

As a note my favorite materials for templates are cardboard beer boxes and cotton resume paper. The resume paper works great because it doesn't stretch much, but does stretch just enough to not tear while you do a rubbing of the surface with dirty fingers. This transfers the pattern really well, especially when you can't easily see where you are working.

For example, the long repair was cut out of 2x6" rectangular tube that had a matching radius on it, I generally cut out the weld on formed and welded tube if I can keep it as open section.



For the turbo dog house (this was a planning mistake, but it would do it again this way now that I have done it) i bought a section of a cut up trunk, and looked at it for a few hours to figure out how to cut it out to make it look as close to oem as I could, then cut some sheets with the cut off wheel and flap disc and cleaned it all up after welding. I also have some harbor freight electric shears I will use to get stuff down to more manageable size, and occasionally use the cuts.



I have a similar process for tubing. I generally spend time mocking it up, buy a pile of mandrel bends, and cut it with a cutoff wheel. I like using wide masking tape to mark straight cuts (and try not to stretch it). The old "downpipe" for the original turbo was a stainless mandrel bend and some flanges welded on, then I had to fill a big spot to make the oval for the oval subaru wastegate configuration.. So I made a cardboard template, cut a piece of tube open along the weld, and smashed around various ipe wood forms until it fit. starting with the cardboard template. When it was close, I worked on clearancing both parts until I had close butt weld.



I used all straight tubes welded together for the tunnel, rear firewall, floor, etc. There might have been one or two bends in the sheet. I do all the bending with a vice, ipe wood tools, a 3 lb sledgehammer, and some knipex parallel jaw adjustable wrenches to help make clean bends in smaller parts. I will hit a foot long piece of ipe into a wide sheet width a sledgehammer to get a clean edge break too.

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 21 2021, 10:07 PM

After deciding to go with a race pedal cluster for tuning and adjustability. After making that decision, I decided the tilton 600 floor mount was the best option for me. I expected to need to repair the floor due to rust, but it ended being only light surface rust. Given that, I needed a way to mount the pedals in the right location, and get the braking pedal force into the floor.

Goal was to be able to get the pedals just about as close to the firewall as the OEM config, but also be able to adjust out to dial the position in for the driver. You can see the corrugated floor reinforcement template I made from the initial cotton paper one to represent the thickness of the plate.





I drilled holes and welded in flange nuts from the back for the pedals to fasten to, coated it in weld thru primer, and stitched it to the floor I made a bolt on close out plate with a gasket and bulkhead tee fitting to go through the existing master cylinder hole to get the brake lines to the front brakes.







I made a bracket to fit the short triple reservoir system in order to mount it roughly where the OEM reservoir was. I have the cylinders sized to be stiff but very comfortable to drive on the street. Want to be able to control a 1st gear launch with a slightly stiffer than oem single disc clutch, and also made the brakes stiff enough to prevent me locking them up too easily.

It has a balance bar for front/rear bias adjustment and an adjustable proportioning valve. I dialed all of this on the track with the current tires, and then biased it a bit for the street.





Currently it looks like this with all the lines and sensors attached.

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 21 2021, 10:39 PM

Radiator plumbing was a pain, and was the primary reason I decided to build the center tunnel, that and to hide a bunch of other stuff.

My solution was enables by some crazy flexible green stripe gates hose. This stuff is nuts.

I used an aftermarket 240sx race radiator, with two fans running of the WRX oem controller and current 185 and 205 (I think set points)



You can see where the upper and lower hoses, and the heater core hose penetrate the fuel tank bulkhead. This is a test fit before I installed the edge protection/grommets to the sheet metal.







I welded in 1.5" steel heater tube bends through the front and rear firewall to attach the hoses on both sides. Worked great, but this is a huge pain to work on. I hope I never have to see this again.



I used 1.5" reinforced silicon in the tunnel, with nice bandclamps (concerned iIwill have to see this again..) I then wrapped all the hot lines with nice armaflex insulation to reduce the heat load into the tunnel. I don't have any pics of this at the moment.





In the front firewall I used 45 deg bends, in the rear firewall I used 90 deg bends. It was a tight fit in the tunnel and I had to do some weird orientation to make it installable. But you don't see any of that on the outside.

You can see the tubes running horizontal and parallel to the firewall. I did this so I could get the degrees of freedom I needed for installation and engine movement using long leg reinforced silicone elbows. These attach to the stock WRX water pump and upper hose location.






Now the real fun part doesn't have any pictures here, but is very important..

I added a highpoint bleed off of the upper coolant line off the block, this bleeds back to an oem style upper reservoir that feeds the post shutdown turbo convection loop per oem config. I also have the expansion tank off the upper reservoir.

I have had zero issues bleeding this system since assembled, and it runs at the nominal setpoints between 185 and 205. I was concerned about it, but found some good resources in the 818 forums.

Posted by: waltonsm Jun 21 2021, 11:10 PM

Will write up the new turbo swap next.

Posted by: mgarrison Jun 22 2021, 09:05 AM

Thanks! Really appreciate all the details and pics!

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 24 2022, 01:58 PM

It is time for an update on what I have been up to with this car. I spent a bunch of time enjoying it over the last few years, and did several road trips and used it as my daily driver for most of the summer.




That includes driving to trailheads on on forest roads to go hiking and camping. I got turned around a couple times, and started getting the itch to put together a more capable offroad set of wheels/tires/suspension. So I could change it up when I feel like it. I started collecting some parts to work on the project over the winter.

Instead I had the opportunity to get started earlier... on the way to the hike below. I had a pretty amazing bang while driving 70mph in 5th gear over Snoqualmie Pass. After the shock and some quick troubleshooting at 50mph, decided it to drive to the ranger station and have my friends pick me up for the hike and deal with the problem later.



I had a great time talking to the driver on the way back to Seattle, brainstorming scenarios of what might have gone wrong.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 24 2022, 02:24 PM

I was pretty certain the issue was with the final drive from the beginning, but wanted to methodically evaluate starting with scoping the intake, exhaust, turbo, cylinders, leak down test, compression test, then move on to transmission assessment.

I spent the entire next day going through the engine.. all looked great.



and then the transmission.. not so great. Open the drain plug to find some nice large teeth.




And further disassembly and inspection shows some fun crack growth to failure. And now I know what the bang was.




In hindsight, there were a couple indicators of a damaged pinion when I bought the used transmission out of a wrecked car... At zero backlash, I could feel a more binding during part of the revolution when setting backlash and checking pinion depth when I installed the torsen lsd. The donor car had a front right collision that could have damaged the pinion, or maybe it was just a manufacturing defect, or maybe I set it up wrong. It lasted about 10000 miles in this configuration after the roughly 50K in the original WRX.

Now I obviously had a new task prior to the offroad conversion. But the COVID impacts on the workforce, logistics, supply chain, stretched this out. It also seems that manufacturers used this as an opportunity to obsolete a lot of spare parts I was interested in, so it took some digging.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 24 2022, 02:52 PM

The good news is that the engine and transmission are pretty straightforward for me to get out, and into the car on my own. The cradle works well, and with some other jacks and ratchet straps I really don't need to lift anything. I can remove it all less than 3 hours, and install it all in about 8 hours, including fluids.



And another photo of trans disassembly/discovery



Since I don't have any of the special tools, I used a lot of different sized sockets, bearing tools, and made several different wood v-blocks out of ipe to assist with disassembly and reassembly of the shafts/gears. There was more time spent there than I want to remember. But, I got it done with the help of a friends 10 ton bottle press.

Assembled shafts and then case below. I ended up using oem/mmp polished gears in older 5spd STI ratios, and changed the final drive. I was working to improve the gear spacing, along with reliability. There were a bunch of considerations for strength/driveability that I was considering, but I am also adding torque/boost by gear into my tuning as part of the plan.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 25 2022, 11:50 PM

While waiting for transmission parts I decided to revisit a backburner project. Now that I will have tires that are capable of below freezing temperatures, I need to actually get a heater core in the car. The heated seats, down blanket, and fur hat work OK, but don't do much for defrosting and keeping the feet warm.

I started this project a couple of years ago, but it stalled several times because I was overthinking it while retaining the option for A/C. Odds are low that will happen, and I will learn from this project anyway.

I set off to find the smallest heater core of the right form factor and outlet configuration that I could buy. So many of the tiny ones have odd plumbing routing to fit in tiny dashboards (e.g. suzuki samurai). I ended up with a mid 90s mazda 626 core.



The airbox fits in a pretty small space, and I was planning on retaining all the original controls for the fan, heat, and flow directions from the dash, along with the drains and existing plumbing. The only thing removed is the original intake lines from the exhaust heat exchangers. I maintained filtering, water trap, and drains with this design and it is serviceable, about as serviceable as the original design once you get the tank out. At least I have a top exit fuel pump now.

I also needed to add a heater control valve inline with the heater core to ensure I can still turn it off when I don't want it.



The whole thing fit together pretty well. I might do it slightly differently a second time. but electric shears, abs sheet, and abs cement worked great for this project.



Then came the wiring... I had forgotten about my prior plan to make this work, but happened to have all of the parts on hand. The 914 switches the resistor grounds in the oem fan airbox using the slider controls on the dash. Most modern stuff switches the resistors on the hot side, if it has resistors at all. The SPAL fan I bought does indeed have resistors, and I needed to switch the hot.

After figure out which pins are what, I bundled up a harness packed with relays to convert the switched ground to switched hot. Maybe someone here will find these numbers and sketch useful. I ended up using my $50 wifi/cellphone borescope to pick out wiring colors under the dash (because I had already cut the harness near the fan)
I did test this harness before bundling everything up, so of course this is the time I got it right on the first try.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 26 2022, 01:44 AM

After the transmission was well under way, I worked on the offroad package when I had spare cycles. I had inspiration from other 911 safari cars, like the keen project, and artwork form glen, but I have my own requirements of being able to go back and forth between road and offroad. Ideally in a day (a long day because corner balancing and alignment is needed too).

I started with a bunch of measurement, and started working on my target ride height, and planned suspension mods to ensure I can align it with basically oem adjustment methods in both configurations. It is threading the needle, and I don't think I quite made it yet, but I think I can get there with another minor change. I also might make some other changes to get simpler, easier adjustment too.

This was near the very beginning of this project, as parts had started showing up. Apparently I got bored during COVID.



These photos for initial measurement/clearances/planning are shown at full droop for the road configuration, but with the offroad wheels and tires. A lot (of very minor stuff) changed to get the alignment correct and much more droop travel over the course of a few months.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 26 2022, 05:14 PM

I decided to make a jig for adding 1.75 deg of camber to the rear swingarms. I had all the parts laying around to do it, and since I don't really plan on doing this many times, I figured I could take a lot of measurements along the way. Good tooling always makes the difference, it ended up being a low stress operation AFTER I made the cut.

I measured the swingarms, knew the car aligned well in the prior configuration, and that I had a reasonable amount of adjustment. So then decided to make the fixture around the existing arms. I calculated the rotation of the pivot end, and then welded the bearing end to the fixture after clamping up the hub.

I made the cut, adjusted the pivot end up and down to effectively only add twist. Setting up the cut plane parallel to the pivot and normal to the wheel axis was the most tedious part, but was straightforward with the levels and laser level.

I then trimmed the plate to be welded in flush to the arms, tacked. then relieved it down below the surface of the swingarm to improve the chances of a nice full penetration weld all around.

The fixture is mirrored, so the top is one side of the car, and the bottom is the other side. If anyone in the Seattle area wants to borrow it, let me know. I don't think I will need very often :).

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 26 2022, 06:07 PM

I also needed to raise the shock mounting points a bit, and also decided to soften my spring rates up slightly. I lowered the rear rates to 125 lbf/in from 140, and also went back to stock front torsion bars. I set the front sway bar to full soft for now, disconnected the rear miata sway bar, and added perches for limit straps to connect to the sway bar tabs if I choose to.




I bought some bar and turned a new upper shock bushing mount that ended up raising the shock to get 3" of droop travel (it is shown as 4" in the pic, but I took another inch off of it.



Along the way I came up with a kinda safe spring compressor configuration, he shock is zip tied to the jack, and I always keep the shock top threads fairly snug as I compress it.




Attached image(s)

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 26 2022, 06:17 PM

I also ended up lowering the front spindles on the 930 front end I ended up with. I used the pretty well documented procedures of milling out the big rosette weld, pressing down the tube, and rewelding. I then fabbed up gussets and added another plate to put the new adjustable rod ends in double shear and added some paint. I replaced the upper strut seals with the bilstein part from the big box online stores and reassembled with my valves inserts.

The last pic is before adjusting for ride height, bump steer, and toe.

Posted by: tygaboy Mar 26 2022, 06:21 PM

Absolutely love it. FABricationULOUS!

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 26 2022, 06:23 PM

And this is where it is right now. I modified and went back to the original valence for approach clearance, of course. I also got the chrome wheels because I planned to vary the colors when I get bored. Here was a first try at the plastidip spray for one wheel that was pretty good, but I peeled off 5 min later to get the car on the road! I'm happy with how it drives right now one the worst pavement I can find :). Looking forward to getting it into the mountains this summer, although I don't have solid inspiration for the wheel color yet.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 26 2022, 06:43 PM

Thank you! Fab is just about my favorite part. Not committed yet, but hoping to make to WCR this summer and meet some of this community in person :)

Posted by: Mayne Mar 27 2022, 07:54 AM

Amazing car and a fantastic build! Thanks for documenting all your creative work.

Posted by: Chris914n6 Apr 2 2022, 10:18 AM

Can you elaborate on the Boxster parts on the trailing arm. I was thinking of doing the same thing

Posted by: waltonsm Apr 9 2022, 02:12 PM

I'm going to just dump a bunch of pictures here at the moment.

Part summary on arm: 951 stub axles (spacer added to prevent bottoming out in hub), boxster hubs, modified boxster bearing retainer to clear the hubs.

e brake hardware on arm: fabbed carrier with sheet and bar. made a bracket out of rectangular tube for the cable at the end. all boxster hardware pieces parts (springs, adjuster, cam, pads, etc. Both brake and shift cables from Custom control cables.

I also used the turning/cam casting from the boxster so I could keep the cables close to the firewall with the center mounted e-brake handle, along with with a 986/996 ebrake handle.





Attached image(s)

Posted by: waltonsm Apr 9 2022, 02:15 PM

Here are the pics of the cable routing and and early sketch of the stub/hub:

Posted by: waltonsm Apr 9 2022, 02:24 PM

I have gotten a few questions about the axles/CVs, so I am posting here:

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=22389 , @http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=5934

Parts I used:

Subaru gears center diff lockout
Quaife torsen transaxle diff
Subaru gears diff stubs
Subaru gears stub/100mm CV adapters
Lindsey Racing 100mm Race CVs (custom center, balls, cage for higher torque in 100mm package, 911 splines)
300M, 911 axles in custom length from pacific customs

I have been happy with all the above parts, but I can't recommend the low profile lindsey racing cv boots. They don't have enough plunge travel or articulation for this application. I now use OEM style 944 boots.

Posted by: East coaster Apr 18 2022, 06:17 AM

What size are the BFGs?

Posted by: waltonsm Apr 18 2022, 02:30 PM

Off-road, KO2 are
Front and Rear 215 65 16


On-road, Comp 2 are
Rear 255 50 16

Front 225 50 16

Posted by: Root_Werks Apr 18 2022, 04:48 PM

What a cool build!

Posted by: waltonsm Apr 22 2022, 08:08 AM

Thanks guys. While ruminating over the fact I will need to switch to a new tuning platform this week because of EPA mandated changes to the Cobb platform, I decided to finish a long planned project.

Posted by: DRPHIL914 Apr 22 2022, 09:12 AM

good idea! stock ski racks are hard to find so this is a great way to go!

Posted by: waltonsm May 4 2022, 12:00 AM

Made notable progress on my replacement tuning solution after Cobb locked me out. The open source Subaru community has made significant improvements over the last 5 years and I have more experience too. So I have committed to that now.

I spent a weekend converting my personally developed Cobb map to an Ecuflash map for the 2011 WRX ecu I am using. I set up ecu flash for tuning and romraider for data logging, along with my personal python scripts for data analysis all on a 250$ 10” windows 10 tablet. (Thanks glen for the gauge matching artwork)

Turns out I am really excited about this integrated solution and am looking forward to continued map development because of it. Although I’m not sure if if I need much... I can probably spend some time further improving cruise fuel economy :)



In parallel to that significant detour, i remounted the passenger seat to improve adjustability, and bought some new trail running shoes.

These re-inspired me to finish my prior wheel plan, but with a waxed matte finish instead of gloss this time around. I will be joining the west coast rally unless I blow something up first!

Posted by: autopro May 4 2022, 12:32 AM

Wow your car is coming out awesome, you really are very talented at fabrication.

Posted by: pbanders May 4 2022, 09:12 AM

Very impressive, will have to take the time to go through this slowly and digest all the work you did.

Posted by: waltonsm May 8 2022, 07:42 PM

Had a chance to get out and put a couple hundred miles on the current configuration this weekend. Perfect day for no top and heat. Seems to be working well so far.

Posted by: waltonsm Dec 21 2022, 08:04 PM

Now that it got cold in Seattle, I decided it was time to continue the suspension work..

When planning the road/safari modes I had planned originally to extend the control arms .5 to 1.5 inches to get the camber where I want it for different applications. This requires new upper strut mounts to make work easily, or fabricating camber boxes. I decided I can get the safari or track camber with stock strut mounts, and road camber with KW adjustable mono balls and track camber with either. I would also need the long turbo tie rods and play with my bump steer adjustment.

Another big part of this was replacing my worn poly bronze bushings. I decided to go back to rubber, 914 rubber. Planning to swap the rears back to rubber after christmas.

Several pics of my process below, but apparently didn’t document any of the bushing swap because it was time sensitive as they are cooling off. I mostly followed Ian Karrs video.

Below is cutting and mock-up to determine to go with 0.75” extension for both road and off-road application. Doesn’t affect scrub radius here really, so mostly just managing clearances and camber.

Posted by: waltonsm Dec 21 2022, 08:10 PM

Continuing with the control arm extension..

Posted by: sb914 Dec 22 2022, 07:01 AM

So bad ass .
Looks perfect in my driveway.

Posted by: ValcoOscar Dec 22 2022, 08:14 AM

For years I've thought about building a Safari 914 but I sold the project to fund my LSV8914.

After seeing this in person at WCR2022, I want one, so I'm converting my Suby ERZ30 914 to a milder version of this car. Expect to have on the road by Spring 2023

Working with Elephant racing on suspension

Oscar

Posted by: tygaboy Dec 22 2022, 09:21 AM

This one is my current favorite 914. I'd love to take a swing at building a Safari but I can't imagine anything better than this one.

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=17561 - you've ticked all the boxes and are clearly inspiring others! Well done, sir!

I have a few acres behind the Red Barn (the water isn't there at this point). How about you road trip down and we set up a track!


Attached image(s)

Posted by: waltonsm Dec 22 2022, 11:59 AM

Awesome :)

I looked a bit at the elephant setup too, but don't remember any discussion of managing camber, so I am curious what their approach is, maybe just not as high either? Do they use custom shocks in the rear? I will consider a different rear shock in the future now that I know what the geometry is.

I still want to be able to go back to road mode in a day, so different shock/spring assemblies would be a better solution for me instead of swapping upper mounts and springs.

Posted by: Root_Werks Dec 22 2022, 12:09 PM

Very smart to add the extra metal. Very unique 914!

Posted by: waltonsm Dec 22 2022, 12:16 PM

I happy to inspire some stalled or new projects and am looking forward to seeing more safari cars around

Hopefully I can capture all the gaps I found in internet documentation while trying to make this work, and provide some of the rationale along the way so it can be improved on.

Just checked out the route to the barn.. that would be quite a detour on my Seattle to Tahoe trip this summer, but if I get enough friends committed for different legs of the journey, I might be able to do it! However, I was planning to be 4 inches off the ground with road tires although I might be convinced otherwise.

Posted by: ValcoOscar Dec 22 2022, 12:41 PM

I happy to inspire some stalled or new projects and am looking forward to seeing more safari cars around


You have....this was my dream 5 years ago


But this is my current EZ30 914 project with a pending mild Safari lift.
Metal flares coming....



I'm naming this project "SUFARI"

Oscar

Posted by: RKramden Dec 22 2022, 10:03 PM

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=17561
So impressive! I couldn’t begin to imagine the things you have already fabricated.
I am working on an outlaw-ish 914-6 and would love to see any pics or materials used in putting a headlight in the turn signal…thinks

Posted by: RKramden Dec 22 2022, 10:05 PM

That would be “thanks”.

Posted by: waltonsm Dec 23 2022, 12:23 AM

Turns out this is one of the least documented areas for me too. I will have to take more pictures when I get back after Christmas. But to get started, I found the smallest LED projectors I could find, below. One is aimed as a high beam, and one as a low beam in each side. I used a small hole saw to cut holes in the back of the turn signal bucket for them to pass through, and then I drilled holes in the sides to mount the stainless brackets I made.

The brackets were made from .030ish laser cut stainless, and then I bent them on the vise and welded some adjuster nuts/jack screws on. The provide the aiming degree of freedom needed.

I have a dozen ideas on how to redo/improve this in the future, but it is low on my list.

As we know, pictures (of the assembly) are worth everything, so you will have to use your imagination for a few days

Posted by: waltonsm Dec 23 2022, 01:07 AM

Turns out I found some photos from when I finally added the high beams.. bought everything initially, but ran out of time the first time around.

This will make more sense now. You can see the jack screws through the nut to hold the assemblies to the car. And the other bolts are for the pivot and lock for aiming up and down.

The fog lights are aimed about with my low beams. The high beams are daytime running lights I think. Bc Subaru body computer.

When low beams are on, I have fog and low beam, when high beams are on I have all three. Plenty of light and throw.

Posted by: RKramden Dec 23 2022, 08:58 AM

Perfect, thank you so much.
One question, it looks like you started with a clear turn signal lens and ended up with glass. I am leaning towards glass. What did you use (thick, tempered, laminated)? I know older headlights probably were nothing more than heat strengthed and they would break, but they were also convex and had some ribbing which might have helped with strength.

Posted by: RKramden Dec 23 2022, 09:14 AM

Sorry, I thought of one other question. I see you have a LED turn signal bulb. Is this visible when the lights are on or do the lights turn off on the side the turn signal is flashing like I have noticed on some new cars?

Posted by: waltonsm Dec 23 2022, 03:59 PM

I started with the clear lens. Attempted polishing it, didn’t work. I sprayed clear on them and that help reduce scattering. The scattering reduced the throw and made everything near field too bright. I currently have 1/4 acrylic on there that I also laser cut I think, but a router template would be more that sufficient to make from
Wood and fair smooth.

I used a round over bit too, but this is all temporary for now, but I will likely leave it as acrylic long term. Optically clear and cheap to work with. You can get scratch resistant acrylic and polycarbonate too.

The turn signal needs the scattering to be easier to see, so in later pictures you may see that I have scuffed a frame/ring around the perimeter using fine sandpaper where the projector doesn’t pass through (they have awesome cutoff too for bright lights that don’t bother oncoming traffic too much). I am going to scuff the bottom similar the two color turn signal lenses soon.

I also like the idea of alternating with the headlight like new cars. I don’t have it wired that way, but it would be pretty simple to add a circuit into the harness to make that happen. Maybe in the future

Posted by: RKramden Dec 23 2022, 08:24 PM

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Happy Holidays…..

Posted by: waltonsm Jan 1 2023, 08:32 PM

I have gotten a few questions about the steering column work, and unfortunately I haven’t found pictures of the final welded assembly, but when I am in there again I will take some new ones.

My goal was to use the Subaru steering wheel and controls (and maybe in the future a traction control systems that uses yaw angle and steering angle inputs…)

To do this I needed to meld the 914 column and wrx column. The below pic has them side by side.





The wrx steering shaft is really long, has a collapsible section instead of some u joints. But is does have splined ends, an ignition lock, and bearing surfaces. So this can work. I cut both shafts, ground to a v groove, welded, and sleeved them together. The joint between the two shafts is about where the red line is. This was to get the steering wheel at the distance I wanted it from the dash. The wheel height is adjustable by shimming the mount down with spacers. More on that later. Clocking is important as there are missing splines that ensure positive clocking with the u joints for most consistent final input/output rates, and this needs to line up pretty closely with the ignition lock if you want the steering wheel to lock near centered.



As far as the bearings and column goes I used the outboard (steering wheel side) bearing still in the wrx column assembly.



Then after cutting the column off ( I used 8 inches or so), I had to find a bearing that was a press fit into the inboard end of the column and also fit the inboard piece of the 914 steering shaft.



Unfortunately at the moment I don’t remember what that bearing was. I bought half a dozen 5-10 dollar bearings, and one of them ended up working well. I may have shrink welded the column to fit tight.

For the final assembly fit, I made a flat plate similar to the 914 column mount, using this as a template. I shimmed it down here I the angle and height I wanted and bolted it in (with the column clamped to it and the linkages all assembled to make sure I hadn’t screwed something up) with everything located I added four heavy tacks to attach my new steering shaft and column to the new mount plate. Note I also moved the steering axis toward the centerline of the car slightly as I moved my seats an inch or two closer to centerline to get more clearance from my door bars. It took me a couple days of head scratching before I figured out the steering column is definitely not parallel to the centerline of the car from the factory.

I left it tacked for a bit while I worked other stuff, but eventually came back and fillet welded the column to the mount plate.

As a side note, because I have an obdii car with immobilizer, I wanted to keep the ignition lock/rfid antenna. This requires the ecu, body computer, and dash/controller. So I also disassembled the dash and the board with all the servos/blinky lights/gauges etc. lives in the center tunnel. I could have easily reused the flat assembly and installed in the location of the factory gauges if I wasn’t already committed to my aftermarket gauge plan.





It’s been a while, and apparently this step was poorly documented by me, but happy to try to answer more questions.

Posted by: waltonsm Feb 19 2023, 04:32 PM

I got a few questions on fender install recently, so I figured I’d add a few photos of my process. I knew the look I wanted, but it took lots of iteration.

I spent a lot of time fairing the fiberglass to uniform thickness, and rebuilt some of the edges of the flares to ensure they would lay flush on the fenders. After fairing for fit, and for the seam line I wanted I painted and prepped for mounting tape. I used permanent mounting tape, 3/4” wide I think, cleaned, etched, then the tape, then install.

There were a few areas that needed some additional pull force/point load though. I knew the fenders would move some after cutting, but they moved again some in my final trim of another inch or so after all the fairing and fitting work.

For the areas I needed to help, I used click bond studs and fender washers.

Posted by: Root_Werks Mar 6 2023, 11:53 AM

Had a chance to meet Steve in person and see his 914 up close. Very impressive build! It's a rare day when not just one, but two 914's were on San Juan Island!

Posted by: Gearup Mar 6 2023, 06:52 PM

Hey Steve. Great project. Was curious where you bought your gas tank inlet and gas cap ?

Thanks. Brett

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 8 2023, 06:31 PM

Hi Brett, took me a bit to remember the right words to search. I got it on Amazon. The flange wasn’t drilled, and it has a sealed cap. No longer available from the source I got it from, but

Non vented flanged Remote mount filler neck are the important words



I have been happy with it. I wet installed it with fuel compatible rtv.

Steve

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 8 2023, 06:36 PM

It was great to meet Dan too and check out his fun projects. Once I walked into the hangar all of the work I have seen on his threads started to come back to me! I am excited to see his car on the road more. I think they will look good side by side.

Looking forward to some fun new drives around the islands.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 25 2023, 12:40 AM

Nice earthy day to come home to the northwest.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 28 2023, 02:05 PM

PSA…

Sheared off a diff stub axle this weekend. The part I purchased is commonly used in applications like this. Calling around, failures like this are common in applications like this. Subaru Case, quaife torsen, stub, flange, CV,

I got about 20k miles on these stubs including some track use. So not terrible, but fortunately it sheared clean accelerating in first gear. Don’t think it did any engine bay damage.

Good news is that it was a beautiful day, and I carry the tools and parts to replace a CV. I was able to get the axle out quick on nice warm dry asphalt and then get my neighbor to help me flat tow 8 miles home.

I am working on a plan to replace in the car, should be doable in 4 hrs or so once I collect parts/tools. Will be welding a stud to the stub and hoping the 10 lb slide hammer will fit at full droop.



After further discussion with some suppliers. The better option for me is an OEM part number, which can be used with older OEM oil seals. I may need to widen the snap ring grooves to fit the round wire snap rings instead of the flat c rings of the older assemblies (read removable without splitting the case). Apparently some of the more recently manufactured stubs fit both rings.

Stubs: 38415AA110 (might need snap ring groove widening)
Wire Snap Rings: 805329010
L and R oil seals: 806730041/42

Note that old stubs are 30mm OD at the oil seal with 30x50x9 oil seals
New stubs to deal with new transmissions that used new CV axles have a raised land for the oil seal, I think to prevent damaging seals with splines on install. These use 35x50x9 oil seals. These stubs are only aftermarket.

I am probably a couple weeks from reassembly as I’ve got other house projects lined up, but will provide update as it comes together.

Posted by: East coaster Mar 29 2023, 04:36 AM

Ouch!

Posted by: jd74914 Mar 29 2023, 06:55 AM

Did that shear at a snap ring groove

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 29 2023, 11:13 AM

The fracture occurred at the the small diameter of the fillet near the outboard side of the oil seal land.



I haven’t had a chance to inspect the fracture surface in detail yet.

The bonus of a tight engine bay.. the inboard CV got trapped between my subframe and the bell housing. You can see some material missing on the case to left of the sheared stub.

Posted by: waltonsm Apr 8 2023, 08:12 PM

Did the work to swap the stubs this morning. Start to finish just under 3 hours. The slowest part was making coffee and refilling the trans oil. It’s a lot easier to work under the car when it is a foot off the ground. I left it on the ground.

Drained fluid. Replaced plug with oem seal. Inspected. It was nearly brand new. So I reused it.

Welded counter sunk fasteners on the end of the stubs so I could get a short slide hammer on securely. Yanked stubs out no problem. Slide hammer to unseat seals then Pried oil seals out with pliers Cleaned, oiled, prepped for reassembly.

Used the short slide hammer/seal removal/install tool to install new seals. Used slide hammer on small wood board to seat stubs. Replaced axles. Torqued my cvs until my wrist clicked at 30 ft lbs. need to finish torque later.

Refilled fluid.

All the part numbers in my prior post worked as intended.

Now to get a beer.

Posted by: Root_Werks Apr 10 2023, 02:51 PM

Nicely done! I was trying to picture the sheer, but the picture says it all. Wow, glad it was a fairly straight forward fix to back on the road.

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 17 2024, 07:55 PM

And back on the ground.. with wider front track. All the math worked out to hit target alignment with minimal part swaps from off-road mode. Turns out old me did current me some favors. Took 2 days with alignment this time. Probably can halve that now that I made a manual

Posted by: DRPHIL914 Mar 18 2024, 06:25 AM

Looking good!!

Posted by: sb914 Mar 18 2024, 06:26 AM

Nice job!
It sure looked good in my driveway although…

Posted by: East coaster Mar 19 2024, 05:21 AM

What goes up must come down…….are you planning to go back up at some point?

Posted by: waltonsm Mar 22 2024, 11:53 PM

Absolutely will lift it again. It was super fun with soft suspension, a foot of ground clearance, and minimal traction

I figure I’ll switch it back and forth every couple years. We will see what happens this coming winter when it is too cold for summer tires.

Posted by: waltonsm Sep 26 2024, 06:14 PM

Had some recent inspiration while cleaning the garage and following these earlier sunsets.. console area lighting.

Rare when all project materials are within line of sight and it actually gets completed in one sitting.

Posted by: Root_Werks Sep 27 2024, 10:23 AM

Getting to a point you can work on some of the smaller projects is fun. Looks cool!